It is impossible to study the correspondence which preceded the Proclamation of 1763, without recognizing that those who framed it were anxious to frame a just and liberal policy, but its terms bear witness to the almost insuperable difficulties which attend the acquisition of a great borderland of colonization, difficulties which in a few years’ time were largely responsible for the American War of Independence. How to administer a new domain with equity and sound judgement; how to give to new subjects, acquired by conquest, the privileges enjoyed by the old colonies; how to reconcile the claims of the old colonies, whose inland borders had never been demarcated, with the undoubted rights of native races; how to promote trade and settlement without depriving the Indians of their heritage;--such were the problems which the British Government was called upon to face and if possible to solve. The proclamation was in a few years’ time followed up by the Quebec Act of 1774, in connexion with which more will be said as to these thorny questions. In the meantime, even before the proclamation had been issued, the English had on their hands what was perhaps the most dangerous and widespread native rising which ever threatened their race in the New World. [Sidenote: French policy in North America.] The great French scheme for a North American dominion depended upon securing control of the waterways and control of the natives. Even before the dawn of the eighteenth century, Count Frontenac among governors, La Salle among pioneers, saw clearly the importance of gaining the West and the ways to the West; and they realized that, in order to attain that object, the narrows on the inland waters, and the portages from one lake or river to another, must be commanded; that the Indians who were hostile to France must be subdued, and that the larger number of red men, who liked French ways and French leadership, must be given permanent evidence of the value of French protection and the strength of French statesmanship. [Sidenote: The French posts in the West.]