THE FRENCH-CANADIANS AND THE EMPIRE
By BENJAMIN SULTE
Remembering that the French-Canadians are the oldest white inhabitants of the country, one naturally asks himself what advantages have they derived from British rule, which they have lived under since the year 1760. History answers this question.
In the first place, the arrival of the British flag among the French relieved them from the burden of continual wars against the native tribes and the English Colonies—wars that had lasted for more than a hundred years, without profit to anyone, and at the cost of many lives.
Then the French of Canada escaped from the autocratic government of the Bourbons. Liberty of trade, hitherto unknown in Canada, opened a new and wide field to their native enterprise. The substitution of a silver coinage for the depreciated colonial paper-money of the French régime was another important consideration. The people were also enabled to cultivate much larger crops of grain, and to export the surplus to other countries, which they had not been permitted to do in the past. The title to their lands remained intact, as well as the laws by which they had been governed. Finally, they became British subjects by the terms of the treaty of cession, with all that that implied. Their language and their religion were respected. None of the humiliations and annoyances which usually accom-
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