English colonists in North America the French in Canada were the one great present danger, and the conquest of Canada was the one thing needful. Yet we find that, in 1758, the troops, nearly 12,000 in number, which achieved the second capture of Louisbourg were nearly all regulars; that in the force which Abercromby led against Ticonderoga about one-half of the total fighting men were soldiers of the line, and that even Forbes’ little army, which took Fort Duquesne, contained 1,600 regulars out of a total of 6,000 men. In the following year, Wolfe’s army, which took Quebec, was almost entirely composed of Imperial troops. Nor was this all. Although, in 1758, the colonies, or rather the New England colonies, readily answered to Pitt’s call for a levy of 20,000 men, a considerable part of the expense which was thus incurred was recouped from the Imperial exchequer.[29] The conclusion of the whole matter is that to the mother country, rather than to the colonies themselves, was it due that the great danger which had menaced the latter for a century and a half was finally removed. England gave the best of her fighting men, and loaded her people at home with a debt of many millions, in order that her great competitor might be weakened, and that her children on the other side of the Atlantic might be for all time secure on land from foreign foes, while her fleets kept them safe from attack by sea; and, inasmuch as the French in America were numerically insignificant as compared with the English colonists, the only real justification for the colonists requiring aid from the mother country to overcome the difficulty was, that the English colonies were by geography and interest divided from each other and consequently indifferent to each other’s burdens and perils; while Canada, united in aim and organization, received also assistance, though niggardly assistance, from France. [Sidenote: Aid given by the mother country against the Indians.] The French were the main enemies to the English in North America. The native Indians were the only other human beings against whom the colonists had to defend themselves, and here clearly it was their concern alone. The New Englanders took the burden on themselves manfully, so far as related to their own borders, but they were not prepared to fight the battles of the Pennsylvanians and Virginians; and the Pennsylvanians and Virginians were slow to help themselves. The result was, as told in the last chapter, that the brunt of the war with Pontiac and his confederates fell largely on the mother country, her officers, and her troops, and this fact alone was sufficient justification for Grenville’s contention, that a small Imperial force ought to be maintained in, and be in part paid by, the American colonies. [Sidenote: (3) Argument that because the mother country dictated the policy she ought to bear the expense.] [Sidenote: Question of colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament.]