he Ohio, on
the Mississippi; and the English colonies, with the enemy thus in their
rear, grew ever more restive. In 1753 Virginia warned the French on the
Ohio that they were encroaching on British territory. The next year, in
circumstances curiously like those which were repeated when the French
expedition under Marchand menaced Britain in Egypt by seeking to
establish a post on the Upper Nile, George Washington, a young Virginian
officer, was sent to drive the French from their Fort Duquesne on the
Ohio river, where now stands Pittsburgh. The result was sharp fighting
between English and French in a time of nominal peace. In 1755 the
British took the stern step of deporting the Acadian French from Nova
Scotia. Though this province had been ceded to Great Britain in 1713
many of the Acadians had refused to accept British sovereignty. In 1749
the British founded Halifax, began to colonize Nova Scotia, and, with
war imminent, deemed it prudent to disperse the Acadians, chiefly along
the Atlantic seaboard (see NOVA SCOTIA: _History_). In 1756 the Seven
Years' War definitely began. France had no resources to cope with those
of Britain in America, and the British command of the sea proved
decisive. On the 13th of September 1759 Wolfe won his great victory
before Quebec, which involved the fall of that place, and a year later
at Montreal the French army in Canada surrendered. By the peace of
Paris, 1763, the whole of New France was finally ceded to Great Britain.

English possesion.

With only about 60,000 French in Canada at the time of the conquest it
might have seemed as if this population would soon be absorbed by the
incoming British. Some thought that, under a Protestant sovereign, the
Canadian Catholics would be rapidly converted to Protestantism. But the
French type proved stubbornly persistent and to this day dominates the
older Canada. The first English settlers in the conquered country were
chiefly petty traders, not of a character to lead in social or public
affairs. The result was that the government of the time co-operated
rather with the leaders among the French.

After peace was concluded in 1763, Canada was governed under the
authority of a royal proclamation, but sooner or later a constitution
specially adapted to the needs of the country was inevitable. In 1774
this was provided by the Quebec Act passed by the Imperial parliament.
Under this act the western territory which France had claimed, extend