xvi PREFACE.

the physical strength of the colony will always be under the direction of the gentry and clergy; the latter would, assuredly, owing to the mighty privi- leges, in respect to religion, and the feudal rights which they now enjoy, rather throw themselves under the protection of the French than of a republican

, : government. \Vhat the consequence would be to

Great Britain,if the French banners again waved over the citadel of Cape Diamond, I leave the theorists to unravel. Practical men require no explanation.

The retention of our colonies is, however, an ob- ject of such vital importance to the power and pros- perity—to the trade, manufactures, and safety of the United Kingdom—that the very idea of abandoning them cannot be for one moment defended, either on just or political grounds. ‘Vanting colonies, and, consequently, a commercial navy, the manufactures and military navy of France began to languish from the day that the battle which Wolfe fought on the plains of Abraham, destroyed the power of France in America. Had England wanted her colonies du- ring last war, her importance in the scale of nations would be very different from the magnificent and powerful state which she has maintained amidst all the eventful changes of that period.