20 



portion, hr the support oi" government." I find it sffatecl that the 

 amount assessed, in taxes of every kind, was nearly hall' of the payer's 

 income. 



In this rapid notice of the events ^vhich preceded and led to the ex- 

 tinction of French power, I have not exngirerated the importnnce at- 

 tached to the fisheries. Few of the tar-sighted «aw, even in the distant 

 future, as we really see, in New France, and that half-fabulous coun- 

 try, Acadia, the building of ships to pre?!erve and increase the maritime- 

 strength of England, wheat-lands to rival our own, the great lakes 

 united witli the ocean, and upon the St. Lawrence and St. John some of 

 the principal timber-marts of the world. Nay, among the wisest, the 

 Indii'.n was forever to qlide in his canoe on the water s-^iorever to roam 

 the dark, limitless forest. In a word, the vision of mo?t was bounded 

 by the fur trade on the soil, and hj the fish trade on the sea. 



A single remark upon the influence of these events in producing the 

 Revolution, limited as is the plnn of this report, cannot be omitted. In 

 tiie "paper stuff" emitted by Massachusetts to pay off '*Phips's men," 

 we see the germ of the "continental money." In the levying of taxes, 

 in the raising of troops^ and the general independence of the colonial 

 assemblies during periods of war, we find explanation of the wonder- 

 ful ease of tlie transition of these bodies into "provincial congi-esses." 

 In the many armies embodied and fleets fitted at Boston, we learn why 

 the people, fimiliar with military men and measures, almost reck- 

 lessly provoked collision with the troops sent by their own sovereign to 

 overawe and subdue them. 



In truth, the prominent actors in the wars of 1744 and of 1756 were 

 the prominent actors in the struggle of freedom. Thus, with Pc^pper- 

 ell at the siege of Louisbourg were Thornton, who became a signer of 

 the Declaration of Independence ; Bradford, who commanded a conti- 

 nental regiment; and Cridley, who laid out the works on Bunker's 

 Hill. On the frontiers of Vnginia and in the west, in the last-mentioned 

 v/ar was the iUustrious Washington. Engaged in one or both of the 

 French wars were Lewis, Wolcott, Williams, and Livingston, who 

 were signers of the Declaration of Independence; and Prescott, who 

 commanded on the memorable 17th of June. An)ong those who became 

 generals in the Revolution were Montgomery, who fell at Quebec; 

 Gates, the victor at Saratoga; Mercer, who was slain at Princeton, 

 and who, in the estimation of some, was second only to Washington; 

 Morgnn, the hero of the "Cowpens;" Thomas, who commanded in 

 Canada after the fall of Montgomery; James Clinton, the father of De 

 Witt Clinton; Stark, the victor at Bennington; Spencer, Israel and 

 Rufus Putnam, Nixon, St. Clair, Gibson," Bull, Charles Lee, and 

 Durke. There were also Butler, the second in command at Wyo- 

 ming; and Campbell, a distinguished colonel; and Dyer, chief justice 

 o[ Connecticut; Craik, director-general of the American hospital, and 

 the "old and intimate friend" of Washington; Jones, the physician of 

 Franklin; John Morgan, diiector-general and physician-general of the 

 army; ;md Hynde, the medical advls(>r of AVolle, who was with him 

 wlien he fell, and accomj)anied Patrick Henry against Lord DunmoT-e. 



It was in Nova Scotia and Canada, and oh the Ohio, then — at Port 

 Royal, Canseau, Louisbourg, Quebec, and in the wilds of Virginia — 



