NAVIES 181 



always some sort of French naval force built, 

 manned, and managed in New France, though 

 ultimately paid and directed from royal head- 

 quarters in Paris through the minister of 

 Marine and Colonies. It is significant that 

 1 marine ' and ' colonies ' were made a single 

 government department throughout the French 

 regime. The change of rule did not entail 

 the abolition of local forces ; and from 1755, 

 when a British flotilla of six little vessels was 

 launched on Lake Ontario, down to and beyond 

 the peace with the United States sixty years 

 later, there was what soon became a ' Pro- 

 vincial Marine,' which did good service against 

 the Americans in 1776, when it was largely 

 manned from the Royal Navy, and less good 

 service in 1812, when it was a great deal more 

 local in every way. Two vestiges of those days 

 linger on to the present time, the first in the 

 Canadian Militia Act, which provides for a 

 naval as well as a military militia, perman- 

 ent forces included, and the second in one of 

 the governor-general's official titles ' Vice- 

 Admiral ' of Canada. 



The Canadian privateers are even less known 

 than the Provincial Marine. Yet they did a 

 good deal of preying on the enemy at different 

 times, and they amounted altogether to a total 



