A history of Canada, 1763-1812Lucas, Charles Prestwood, Sir
History
A history of Canada, 1763-1812
Lucas, Charles Prestwood, Sir
Canada -- History -- 1763-1867
[28] The above, however, was not Adam Smith’s view. In the chapter
‘Of the Advantages which Europe has derived from the Discovery of
America, &c. &c.’ he writes, ‘The late war was altogether a colony
quarrel, and the whole expense of it, in whatever part of the world
it may have been laid out, whether in Germany or the East Indies,
ought justly to be stated to the account of the colonies.’
[29] It is very difficult to state the case quite fairly as between
the mother country and the colonies. In the first place a broad
distinction must be drawn between the New England colonies and the
more southern colonies. The New Englanders, who had the French on
their borders, made far more sacrifices in men and money than the
southern colonies, some of which, owing to remoteness, took no
part in the war. The efforts of Massachusetts, and the military
expenditure incurred by that colony, are set out by Mr. Parkman in
his _Montcalm and Wolfe_, 1884 ed., vol. ii, chap. xx, pp. 83-6.
In the next place, the regular regiments, though the whole expense
of them was borne by the mother country, were to a considerable
extent recruited in the colonies. The Royal Americans, e.g. were
entirely composed of colonists. At the second siege of Louisbourg
the English force consisted, according to Parkman, of 11,600
men, of whom only 500 were provincial troops, and according to
Kingsford of 12,260, of whom five companies only were Rangers.
The expedition against Ticonderoga, excluding bateau men and
non-combatants, included, according to Kingsford, 6,405 regulars
and 5,960 provincials. Parkman gives 6,367 regulars and 9,034
provincials; this was before the actual advance began, and probably
included bateau men, &c. Forbes’ army contained 1,630 regulars out
of a total of 5,980 (Kingsford). Wolfe’s force at Quebec, in 1759,
numbered 8,535 combatants, out of whom the provincial troops only
amounted to about 700 (Kingsford. See also Parkman’s _Montcalm and
Wolfe_, Appendix H). Amherst, in the same year, in the campaign on
Lakes George and Champlain, commanded 6,537 Imperial troops and
4,839 provincials. [The respective numbers in the different forces
are well summed up in the fifth volume of Kingsford’s _History of
Canada_, pp. 273-4.]
[30] It is interesting to notice that as early as 1652 a proposal
emanated from Barbados that colonial representatives from that
island should sit in the Imperial Parliament.
[31] Grenville carried a resolution in the House of Commons in
favour of the Stamp Act in 1764. The Act received the Royal Assent
in March, 1765, and came into operation on November 1, 1765.
[32] O’Callaghan’s _Documentary History of New York_, vol. ii
(1849), MSS. of Sir William Johnson; this was at a public meeting
of the Six Nations with Sir William Johnson, July 3, 1755.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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