THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 89 
Indians, the work of the Jesuits was, after all, the one 
feature of Canadian polity which possessed sufficient 
merit to survive the British conquest. Their policy, 
nevertheless, involved the rigorous exclusion of all 
freedom of thought from the limits of the colony. No 
Huguenot was allowed to enter upon any terms. On 
the other hand, if we consider the Puritans alone, 
and recollect their treatment of the Quakers in Massa- 
chusetts and the Catholics in Maryland, we shall 
regard their conduct as hardly more politic or com- 
mendable than that of the Jesuits. But, if we consider 
the English colonies all together, the variety of opin- 
ion on religious questions was very great; so great 
that when they came to constitute themselves into a 
united nation, the only common ground upon which 
they could possibly meet in ecclesiastical matters was 
one of unqualified toleration. The heretic in whose 
face Canada coldly shut the door might be sure of a 
welcome in one part of English America if not in 
another. 
With all these advantages in their favour, we need 
not be surprised at the solid and rapid increase of the 
English colonies. Yet the increase was surprising 
when compared with anything the world had ever seen 
before. We do not read that the king of England 
ever set bounties on large families, or provided wives 
for the settlers at his own expense. Yet by the year 
1750— less than a century and a half from the settle- 
ment of Jamestown—the white population of the 
thirteen colonies had reached a million and a 
quarter. 
The contrast, therefore, with which we opened this 
chapter was but a superficial one. Great as were the 
