The relations between the British garrison and the French Canadians were so excellent that what Gage reported from Montreal might be taken as equally true of the rest of the country:  ’The Soldiers live peaceably with the Inhabitants and they reciprocally acquire an affection for each other.’  The French Canadians numbered sixty-five thousand altogether, exclusive of the fur traders and coureurs de bois.  Barely fifteen thousand lived in the three little towns of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers; while over fifty thousand lived in the country.  Nearly all the officials had gone back to France.  The three classes of greatest importance were the seigneurs, the clergy, and the habitants.  The lawyers were not of much account; the petty commercial classes of less account still.  The coureurs de bois and other fur traders formed an important link between the savage and the civilized life of the country.

Apart from furs the trade of Canada was contemptibly small in the eyes of men like the London merchants.  But the opportunity of fostering all the fur trade that could be carried down the St Lawrence was very well worth while; and if there was no other existing trade worth capturing there seemed to be some kinds worth creating.  Murray held out well-grounded hopes of the fisheries and forests.  ’A Most immense Cod Fishery can be established in the River and Gulph of St Lawrence.  A rich tract of country on the South Side of the Gulph will be settled and improved, and a port or ports furnished with every material requisite to repair ships.’  He then went on to enumerate the other kinds of fishery, the abundance of whales, seals, and walruses in the Gulf, and of salmon up all the tributary rivers.  Burton recommends immediate attention to the iron mines behind Three Rivers.  All the governors expatiate on the vast amount of forest wealth and remind the home government that under the French regime the king, when making out patents for the seigneurs, reserved the right of taking wood for ship-building and fortifications from any of the seigneuries.  Agriculture was found to be in a very backward state.  The habitants would raise no more than they required for their own use and for a little local trade.  But the fault was attributed to the gambling attractions of the fur trade, to the bad governmental system, and to the frequent interruptions of the corvee, a kind of forced labour which was meant to serve the public interest, but which Bigot and other thievish officials always turned to their own private advantage.  On the whole, the reports were most encouraging in the prospects they held out to honest labour, trade, and government.