The year 1802 was a critical time in Canada, and so it was felt to be by the few who were there to guard it. If Bonaparte had succeeded in his plans on the American continent, and had occupied Louisiana with an army of twenty thousand men, Canada would probably have been immediately the scene of war between Great Britain and France. Another enemy, however, was nearer her borders, although ten years passed before hostilities broke out. When Brock arrived, Sir Robert Shore Milnes, formerly governor of the island of Martinique, was the lieutenant-governor residing at Quebec. He was not of military rank, so in the absence of Sir Robert Prescott, then in England, General Hunter, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, was commander-in-chief of the forces in Canada. The latter was stationed at York (Toronto) which was, therefore, at that time headquarters. The population of Lower Canada in 1801 is given as 160,000. In Haldimand's census of 1784 it was 110,837 of which 108,000 were French Canadians. The towns of Quebec and Montreal were given as containing each about six thousand inhabitants, of which the {46} proportion of French to English was two to one. In country parishes the proportion was forty to one. These were almost exclusively French; for the families of the English soldiers, who after the conquest remained in Canada and married French Canadian wives, had taken the religion and language of the mothers, and were French in all but in name. [Sidenote: The French Canadians]