empire of New France-the richest possession in the New World-had dwindled to two small islands off the coast of Newfoundland-which the parent country was permitted to retain as fishing stations.

France surrendered Canada to England, and with the Mississippi river as a dividing line, yielded to her hated

AMERICA AT THE CLOSE OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

rival all the territory east of that line-excepting the city of New Orleans and its adjacent territory.

For assisting France in this war, Spain received New Orleans and all the territory west of the Mississippi.

Spain, rather than lose Havana to the English, gave England Florida instead.

At the time of the signing of the treaty the news of the capture of the Philippines had not been received in Europe. On learning of the capture, England returned those islands to Spain without consideration.

152. England and the Result.-Thus east of the Mississippi England was supreme. The war of defence had ended in a war of conquest. She had wrested a vast territory from both Spain and France-indeed, had driven the latter from

the New World. England had not been altogether blameless in this war, and through the folly of George III. and his new ministry (Pitt had resigned) was soon to receive her punishment, and from a source whence she least expected it -her own American colonies. It has been said that the complete triumph of England over France in the New World, made the American Revolution not only possible, but inevitable. Vergennes, the great French statesman, saw this at the time of the signing of the treaty in 1763, when he sagely remarked, “In winning Canada England has removed the only check which has served to keep her American colonies in awe.

153. The Colonies and the Result.-The change of hands of a vast domain was the tangible result of the war, but more important were the lessons learned, and the experience gained by the colonists. The French war acted as a training school for the American officers, Washington and many others having gained valuable experience and measured brain and brawn with soldiers of lifelong experience. It also furnished an opportunity for the better acquaintance of the colonists. Boston was farther from New York then than is San Francisco now in point of time. There was little travel in those days, and the traditions of a century clung to each colony. This "drinking from the same canteen" proved a powerful force in drawing the members of different colonies closer together.

154. The Indian and the War.-In the war the Iroquois had assisted the English, while the Algonkin tribes, the Hurons of Canada, and the Indians between the Great Lakes and the Ohio, had assisted the French. During the war, and for many years after, these allies of the French kept the English frontier settlements in a state of terror. Immediately after the close of the war, Pontiac, a powerful Indian chief, prevailed upon a large number of tribes to enter into a conspiracy, the avowed purpose of which was the wholesale massacre of the outlying English posts and settlements.

Though Detroit, in 1762, withstood a siege of five months, still, out of the twelve posts attacked, eight were taken and many English in the Ohio valley murdered. The savages were moving eastward into Pennsylvania, when they were met (1763) at Bushy Run, near Pittsburgh, by an English force from Philadelphia, which routed them after one of the most bloody battles ever fought with the Indians. In 1766 a treaty of peace was negotiated with Pontiac at Oswego, New York. Three years later this powerful Ottawa chief, who hated the English and loved the French, was assassinated by an Indian bribed to commit the deed.

155. George III. and the War.-The Seven Years' War in America had been brought to a successful close during the reign of George II., under the powerful Pitt ministry. Upon the king's death, George III. came into power (1760) and in the following year Pitt, who was out of harmony with the new order of things, resigned. It was unfortunate for the colonies and for England that a ruler of his narrow and obstinate type should have come into power just as the new expansion policy of the island kingdom had made it one of the greatest empires in the world. To formulate a fair and just colonial government for these new possessions and retain the respect of the old colonies, was a problem far beyond his mean abilities. He attempted to interfere with freedom of speech, and curtailed the liberty of the press. By his stupidity and shortsighted policy of administration in the colonies he brought down upon his head the just censure of many of the wisest of England's statesmen. The arbitrary financial policy which he adopted toward the American colonies made him one of the most despised rulers the colonies had ever known. His name was coupled in the colonial mind with the beheaded Charles I., and the banished James II. With Grenville, and later with Lord North as his chief advisers, the king and his ministry soon fulfilled the prediction of the French statesman and precipitated the American Revolution. He was king of England for sixty years, dying

in 1820. His one redeeming characteristic lies in the fact that he was a devoted Christian and was pure and happy in his domestic life.

156. Expansion Calls for New Government and Additional Expenses. The boundaries of the thirteen colonies were in the main, except as to their western limit, fairly well defined; but England now came into possession of a territory which to retain she must prepare to defend against possible attacks from both France and Spain. This called for immediate action. Accordingly, in 1763 a proclamation was issued by the king, by which a small portion of the territory of Florida was annexed to Georgia, and the remainder divided into the two provinces of East and West Florida. As a third province, the king established the boundaries of Quebec, situated on both sides of the St. Lawrence River and extending southward as far as New York. These three provinces established, the proclamation then proceeded to give an exhibition of King George's shortsighted policy. This was in the fixing of “the proclamation line" on the crest of the Alleghany mountains. Starting in East Florida, it extended northward to Lake Champlain, following the headwaters of all the intervening streams, whose waters emptied into the Atlantic Ocean. All the territory extending west of this line to the Mississippi, and from the Great Lakes to the Floridas, was set apart as Indian country, within the boundaries of which the colonists were forbidden to settle. The establishment of this proclamation line justly incensed the colonists. The attempt to shut them out of the very territory for which they had fought, and portions of which many of the colonies claimed by charter, provoked ill feeling at once. But the King George ministry did not stop at this. To garrison the many forts needed to defend this territory required ten thousand soldiers, and it was necessary to raise funds to support them. This it was proposed to do both from Englishmen at home and Englishmen in the colonies. The latter were now to suffer a revival of the hated navigation laws,

which had always been held in such contempt,-particularly in New England, where smuggling had been carried on for years. It was now proposed to punish, without grant of trial by jury, anyone suspected of violation of the navigation laws. This abolishing the right of trial by jury again incensed the colonists.

New England had built up a large trade with the West Indies in sugar and molasses. A tax was therefore levied on

those commodities. This did

not provide enough money,

so a stamp tax was proposed. Thus the King George ministry began that unwise policy which precipitated the Revolution.