Another letter, written to Lord Hillsborough in November, 1768,[61] was in similar terms. It referred to rumours of French intrigues and of a contemplated rising on the part of the Canadian gentry. Carleton discredited the rumours, but added, ‘Notwithstanding this, and their decent and respectful obedience to the King’s Government hitherto, I have not the least doubt of their secret attachment to France, and think this will continue, as long as they are excluded from all employments under the British Government.’ He reflected ‘that France naturally has the affections of all the people: that, to make no mention of fees of office and of the vexations of the law, we have done nothing to gain one man in the province, by making it his private interest to remain the King’s subject’. He went on to point out that ‘the King’s dominion here is maintained but by a few troops, necessarily dispersed, without a place of security for their magazines, for their arms, or for themselves, amidst a numerous military people, the gentlemen all officers of experience, poor, without hopes that they or their descendants will be admitted into the service of their present Sovereign’, and he argued that, were a war with France to coincide with a rising of the British colonies in North America, the danger to the British power would be great. ‘Canada, probably, will then become the principal scene, where the fate of America may be determined.’ On the other hand he urged--‘How greatly Canada might for ever support the British interests on this continent, for it is not united in any common principle, interest, or wish with the other provinces, in opposition to the supreme seat of government, was the King’s dominion over it only strengthened by a citadel, which a few national troops might secure, and the natives attached by making it their interest to remain his subjects.’ [Sidenote: Carleton’s sympathy with the French Canadians.] [Sidenote: The French Canadians were a people of soldiers accustomed to personal rule.]