338 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



In 1760 the combined English force laid siege to Montreal; and in Septem- 

 ber the stronghold capitulated. The fall of Montreal practically ended the war, 

 as its surrender carried with it that of all Canada, including the posts and forts 

 within her jurisdiction, and left Louisiana at the mercy of the conqueror. 



The peace of 1763 terminated ingloriously the continental domination of 

 France in North America. Her feeble grasp was relaxed of a domain the most 

 remarkable, the most valuable, and the most extensive any nation ever possessed 

 since the universal empire of all conquering Rome. The Canada that was known, 

 the northern streams and lakes and the lands they watered whose extent had not 

 been measured by discovery, the vast territory beyond the Mississippi to the far- 

 off ocean, the Louisiana that Marquette had given to France and LaSalle explored, 

 of itself a noble heritage for generations unborn, were lost forever. 



The causes of this overwhelming disaster that lie on the surface were : First, 

 the relative position of the contestants; a huge semi-circle would roughly repre- 

 sent the line circumscribing their respective countries — the English inside, the 

 French on the circumference. Next^ disparity of numbers, nearly twenty to one 

 in favor of the British. Third, the energy and activity of the English Govern- 

 ment which sent large reinforcements to the colony and urged on the war with 

 a determination to overthrow their opponente forever, whereas but feeble aid was 

 sent by France. Fourth, the wretched system of government imposed upon 

 Louisiana, and the policy of the mother country in her regard, from the very 

 start, under which it would have been a marvel had she prospered and grown 

 strong, and been in a condition to organize formidable flank movements in time 

 of need, against the western borders of the adjacent colonies. 



Looking at results in the light of more than a century's experience, suggests 

 the thought that possibly it would have been better had France either been com- 

 pletely triumphant and possessed the land exclusively with an abundant, popula- 

 tion, or never attempted to colonize the wilds of the West and South; for some- 

 how the Franco-Canadian population found in the valley when the French dom- 

 ination ceased, and later when the trans Mississippi regions were purchased by 

 the United States, has seemed rather overwhelmed by numbers, than absorbed 

 or assimilated by the dominant race. It has maintained its individuality in man- ■ 

 ners, and customs, and spirit, and to some extent its native tongue ; and its ideas 

 and its life seem to lie outside the Hiberno-Teutonic- Anglo-Saxon population 

 which in this century has spread over the land. 



For the monuments of the ancient population we look in vain. Where, un- 

 dispersed, it still vegetates in a few villages, chiefly along the water-courses, 

 founded long ago, it is as its ancestors were when the Bourbon flag was lowered 

 at the citadel of Fort Chartres — unchanged, impassive, a complete stranger to 

 our nineteenth century ideas. A hundred and twenty years have passed, 

 but it has stood still. It has enriched geography with names, and history with 

 events, but suffered its missionaries and its martyrs, a noble band and its noblest 

 representatives, to lie unhonored in forgotten graves, and the memory of its 

 heroes to slumber uncared for in the chronicles of the past; and even as to these. 



