The Father of British Canada | Page 6

dominion in America; secondly, to increase the opportunities
of British seaborne trade; and, thirdly, to enlarge the area available for
British settlement. When Murray was instructed to prepare a report on
Canada he had to keep all this in mind; for the government wished to
satisfy the public both at home and in the colonies. He had to examine
the military strength of the country and the disposition of its population
in case of future wars with France. He had to satisfy the natural
curiosity of men like the London merchants. And he had to show how
and where English-speaking settlers could go in and make Canada not
only a British possession but the fourteenth British colony in North
America. Burton and Gage were also instructed to report about their
own districts of Three Rivers and Montreal. The documents they
prepared were tacked on to Murray's. By June 1762 the work was
completed and sent on to Amherst, who sent it to England in ample
time to be studied there before the opening of the impending
negotiations for peace.
Murray was greatly concerned about the military strength of Quebec,
then, as always, the key of Canada. Like the unfortunate Montcalm he
found the walls of Quebec badly built, badly placed, and falling into
ruins, and he thought they could not be defended by three thousand

men against 'a well conducted Coup-de-main.' He proposed to crown
Cape Diamond with a proper citadel, which would overawe the
disaffected in Quebec itself and defend the place against an outside
enemy long enough to let a British fleet come up to its relief. The rest
of the country was defended by little garrisons at Three Rivers and
Montreal as well as by several small detachments distributed among the
trading-posts where the white men and the red met in the depths of the
western wilderness.
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.
While Murray and his lieutenants had been collecting information for
their reports the home government had been undergoing many changes
for the worse. The master-statesman Pitt had gone out of power and the
back-stairs politician Bute had come in. Pitt's 'bloody and expensive
war'--the