The siege of Quebec and Schuyler’s raid on Laprairie open up a subject of large and vital moment—­the historical antagonism of New France and New England.  Whoever wishes to understand the deeper problems of Canada in the age of Frontenac should read John Fiske’s volumes on the English colonies.  In the rise of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts one sees the certain doom which was impending over New France.  It may be too much to say that Richelieu by conquering Alsace threw away America.  Even had the population of Canada been increased to the extent called for by the obligations of Richelieu’s company in 1627, the English might have nevertheless prevailed.  But the preoccupation of France with the war against Austria prevented her from giving due attention to the colonial question at the critical moment when colonists should have been sent out in large numbers.  And it is certain that by nothing short of a great emigration could France have saved Canada.  As it was, the English were bound to prevail by weight of population.  When the conflict reached its climax in the days of Montcalm and Wolfe, two and a half million English Americans confronted sixty-five thousand French Canadians.  On such terms the result of the contest could not be doubtful.  Even in Frontenac’s time the French were protected chiefly by the intervening wilderness and the need of the English colonists to develop their own immediate resources.  The English were not yet ready for a serious offensive war.  In fact they, too, had their own Indian question.

It is a matter of some interest to observe how the conquest of Canada was postponed by the lack of cohesion among the English colonies.  Selfishness and mutual jealousy prevented them from combining against the common foe.  Save for this disunion and fancied conflict of interest, New France must have succumbed long before the time of Montcalm.  But the vital significance of the conflict between New England and New France lies in the contrast of their spirit and institutions.  The English race has extended itself through the world because it possessed the genius of emigration.  The French colonist did his work magnificently in the new home.  But the conditions in the old home were unfavourable to emigration.  The Huguenots, the one class of the population with a strong motive for emigrating, were excluded from Canada in the interest of orthodoxy.  The dangers of the Atlantic and the hardships of life in a wintry wilderness might well deter the ordinary French peasant; moreover, it by no means rested with him to say whether he would go or stay.  But, whatever their nature, the French race lost a wonderful opportunity through the causes which prevented a healthy, steady exodus to America.