4. The French began to plant a colony in Canada about the same time as did the English in Virginia, but for the first fifty years it dragged out a miserable existence. A new day dawned upon Canada, when Louis XIV. took the colony in hand (1665), with the resolution that a new France should be added to the old. Soldiers, settlers, horses, sheep, cattle, were all sent out in abundance, and the well-being of the colony became the object of the king's fatherly care. Before winter set in, about two thousand persons had landed at Quebec at Louis's expense. "Thus a sunbeam from the court of France fell for a moment on the rock of Quebec." Indeed the light of the king's favour continued to fall on the colony for some years, but it failed to insure prosperity. 5. The way in which Louis treated the French colonists in Canada is a striking illustration of the difference between the French and English methods of dealing with colonies; it is the difference between liberty and restraint, between leaving the colonists to manage their own affairs under friendly help and guidance, and hampering them by foolish meddling. The French colonists were treated as children and kept in leading-strings. The king acting for some time the part of a fond father, and coddling them most unwisely. Not only were their actual wants relieved by his bounty, but every branch of trade and industry received liberal grants. They were thus trained to dependence on their rulers to whom they were expected to pay unquestioning obedience. 6. "It is God's will," wrote Louis, "that whoever is born a subject should not reason but obey." Every one of his officials seemed to be of the same opinion. "It is of very great consequence," wrote one of them, "that the people should not be left at liberty to speak their own minds." They were not free so much as to go home to France when they pleased; leave had first to be obtained. They were even told at what age to marry, and fines were imposed unless they conformed. The colonists, in fact, were in the position of a papoose, or Indian baby, bound up tight from head to foot and carried on its mother's shoulders like a pack. What was the consequence? 7. All the most active and vigorous spirits in the colony took to the woods and escaped the control of the king's officials. We hear sometimes of farms abandoned, wives and children deserted, and the greater part of the young men of a district turned into bushrangers and forest outlaws. They joined the Indians, trapped the beaver, trafficked with the natives for beaver-skins, and lived the wild life of semi-savages. This was the natural result of their not enjoying reasonable liberty in their own homes.