'1 0 BRITISH AMERICAN COLONIEs.

CHAPTER II.

Slow progress of the Settlements and Countries which Great Britain acquired by the Conquest of Louisburg and Quebec—Extraordinary Sufferings endured by the early Settlers—Prosperity of the New England and Southern States—Character of the Inhabitants—Favourable condition in which England placed her Colonies, ensured their Prosperity.

IT was not until after the reduction of Cape Breton and the conquest of Canada, which added nearly the .whole of North America to the British empire, that adventurers, stimulated by the spirit of enterprise, left the mother countries, and established themselves in the newly conquered territories. These were generally persons in trade. . Farmers or others, who expected to derive their subsistence from cultivating the soil, directed their course to that part of America now forming the United States.

The American revolutionary war, it is true, arrest- ed the spirit, of emigration; but no sooner was the in- dependence of the American Republic acknowledged by England, than the majority of those who left Great Britain and Ireland for America, were, as formerly, fascinated into the United States. This arose, in a great measure, from the mighty resources of the

British possessions being nearly altogether unknown in the United Kingdom.