THE EARLY HISTORY OF MILITIA

Canadian of f icers ; tlie martial spirit sipread through tlie rural population ; eveiy man tumed to be a soldier, in the American sensé of the word, for the idifference in this respect was neces'sarily great if compared with the Enropean warfare. The little colony had taken a sort of fancy for distant and perilons enterprises. Fifty or sixty volnnteers would rnn to Jajnes Bay and capture the English forts there; the posts in Newfoundland were oarried by them amidst the winter snow. The whole white population of Lower Canada did not exceed fifteen thousand soûls in 1698 when ail thèse e vents were nearly over. The agricultural deYelopnient was stopped and trade paralyzed, to- the great disadvantage of the country.

A few months elapsed between the cessation of the hostilities and the beginning of another séries of armed conflicts of a similar kind, which lasted to 1760, when it terminated by the conquest of Canada. The same System of attacks and def ence prevailed as in the past ; no régiment was &ent from France, only one or two companies of troops hère and there, thus concentrating upon the militia the onerous duty of iSustaining the war and endorsing it» conséquence.

The borders from Dacotah to Pennsylvania, through New Hampshire to Maine, Acadia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, were defended against the Indians and the English, until the Court of Versailles determined to send regular régiments (1754) in the hope of closing the contest. This happened, as we know, within the six following years — and there was an end to the Canadian militia. (1)

1. Canadian Military Institutc, Annual report for 1896. Sketch delivered on November 16th, 1896.

lOAT^ADIAN MILITIA UNDEE THE FIIEN€H EEGIMB 136

CAXADIAN MILITIA UN:DEE THE FEENCH

EEGIME.

It has been my good fortune on two occasions to speak in the Canadian Military Institute, in 1892 and 1896. On both of thèse occasions I hâve said something on this subject, but something only, Those were good beginnings, but I foresaw even then a* good many difficulties which hâve since appeared. Where is the man who can tell you what kind of troops the French employed to corne into possession of this colony? NoTvadays they are very îew. As a boy, I listened to the talk of the men of the old days, but, in the absence of any documents, of any existing written account, it is difficult to trace a cohérent deta»iled story. There is no doubt that there were, at one time, papers which would hâve helped, but they are disappeared — no one can find a scrap of them, and as it is impossible, by written évidence, to throw any light upon this subject during the earliest time of Canada, I propose to proceed by a» system of induction. Where ver I look, I find something — not mu'ch, it may be, but valuable if we follow it up. A little light was thrown on the subject by a find which explained that the secret of the French in Canada, when Canada was French, was having no Eoyal troops. That was an important point settled. In a speech I made in 1896 (1) I went into the theory of the yery small beginnings of Colonies. Even from the moment