52 The Winning of the West 



The country came into the possession of the Brit- 

 ish not of the colonial English or Americans at 

 the close of Pontiac's war, the aftermath of the 

 struggle which decided against the French the 

 ownership of America. It was held as a new Brit- 

 ish province, not as an extension of any of the old 

 colonies; and finally in 1774, by the famous Quebec 

 Act, it was rendered an appanage of Canada, gov- 

 erned from the latter. It is a curious fact that 

 England immediately adopted toward her own col- 

 onists the policy of the very nationality she had 

 ousted. From the date of the triumphant peace won 

 by Wolfe's victory, the British Government became 

 the most active foe of the spread of the English 

 race in America. This position Britain maintained 

 for many years after the failure of her attempt to 

 bar her colonists out of the Ohio Valley. It was 

 the position she occupied when at Ghent in 1814 

 her commissioners tried to hem in the natural prog- 

 ress of her colonists' children by the erection of a 

 great "neutral belt" of Indian territory, guaran- 

 teed by the British king. It was the role which 

 her statesmen endeavored to make her play when 

 at a later date they strove to keep Oregon a waste 

 rather than see it peopled by Americans. 



In the Northwest she succeeded to the French 

 policy as well as the French position. She wished 



and returned after it was ended. But as all observers seem 

 to unite in stating that the settlements either stood still or 

 went backward during the Revolutionary struggle, it is 

 somewhat difficult to reconcile the figures of Hamilton and 

 Carbonneaux. 



