They were also aware that when Canada was under the dominion of the French a sixty-gun ship had been constructed of the red pine of that country, which was found very suitable for the purpose. Besides various descriptions of timber well adapted for ship-building purposes, Canada produced the pitch-pine tree, which yields abundance of pitch, tar, resin, and turpentine, so that English shipowners had resources within their own colonies which would render them in a great measure independent of Russia if they were only developed. The great importance of these and other articles of naval stores, and their prodigious abundance in Canada, caused much more attention to be directed to the trade of that country than had hitherto been the case; but it was only after the perseverance of many years in these judicious efforts to develop the agricultural riches of her North American colonies, that English shipowners reaped the benefits of the extensive trade now carried on between them and the mother-country. FOOTNOTES: [238] Abundant evidence on the elasticity of the commerce of England in spite of all the odds against her may be seen in Macpherson, vol. iv. _passim_; in Lord Sheffield’s ‘Observations on the Treaty with America;’ and Chalmers’ ‘Comparative Estimate of the Strength of Great Britain,’ 1794. [239] The sufferings of the French, especially in Paris, in March, 1795, from famine and the severity of the weather, was even greater than any experienced in England (Alison, ii. p. 604). [240] ‘Parliamentary History,’ Dec. 11, 1795. [241] _Vide_ ‘Annual Register,’ 1780, p. 348, where the declarations of Great Britain and the other Powers will be found. Denmark and Sweden replied in July 1780, assenting to Catherine’s doctrines. [242] See further details on this subject, and on the duties of neutrals, together with an examination of the Orders of Council, _infra_ ch. viii. [243] _Vide_ ‘Annual Register,’ 1796, p. 308. [244] _Vide_ the American despatch quoting the French minister’s despatch of the 29th of Sept., 1795. This famine was subsequently noticed by Bonaparte in his speech to Cambacérès on receiving the news of the Peace of Amiens. [245] Alison, iii. p. 28. [246] See various details on these matters in the correspondence between Lord Hawkesbury and Mr. Rufus King, quoted in Mr. Alex. Baring’s pamphlet, pp. 39, 41, 53; and ‘Rights of War as to Neutrals,’ in Wheaton’s ‘Elements of International Law,’ vol. II. ch. iii. pp. 132-260; and in Furneaux, ‘Treaties of Peace since that of Westphalia,’ 8vo, Lond., 1817.