e made prisoners of war.

The financial condition of France was desperate. Her people
were crushed with taxation; her debt grew apace; and her
yearly expenditure was nearly double her revenue. Choiseul
felt the need of immediate peace; and George III. and Bute
were hardly less eager for it, to avert the danger of Pitt's return
to power and give free scope to their schemes for strengthening the
prerogative. Therefore, in September, 1762, negotiations were resumed.
The Duke of Bedford was sent to Paris to settle the preliminaries,
and the Duc de Nivernois came to London on the same errand. The
populace were still for war. Bedford was hissed as he passed through
the streets of London, and a mob hooted at the puny figure of Nivernois
as he landed at Dover.

The great question was, Should Canada be restored? Should
France still be permitted to keep a foothold on the North
American continent? Ever since the capitulation of Montreal
a swarm of pamphlets had discussed the momentous subject.
Some maintained that the acquisition of Canada was not an
original object of the war; that the colony was of little value
and ought to be given back to its old masters; that Guadeloupe
should be kept instead, the sugar trade of that island being worth far
more than the Canadian fur trade; and, lastly, that the British colonists,
if no longer held in check by France, would spread themselves over
the continent, learn to supply all their own wants, grow independent,
and become dangerous. Nor were these views confined to Englishmen.
There were foreign observers who clearly saw that the adhesion
of her colonies to Great Britain would be jeopardized by the extinction
of French power in America. Choiseul warned Stanley that they "would
not fail to shake off their dependence the moment Canada should be
ceded;" while thirteen years before, the Swedish traveller Kalm declared
that the presence of the French in America gave the best assurance to
Great Britain that its own colonies would remain in due subjection.[874]

[Footnote 874: Kalm, _Travels in North America_, I. 207.]

The most noteworthy argument on the other side was that
of Franklin, whose words find a strange commentary in the
events of the next few years. He affirmed that the colonies
were so jealous of each other that they would never unite
against England. "If they could not agree to unite against
the French and Indians, can it reasonably be supposed that
there is any danger of thei