result of a joint expedition in which the naval forces
far exceeded the military. The general effect of this whole Second
Hundred {57} Years' War was to confirm the British command of the sea
for another century.

But the French designs in shipbuilding were generally better than the
English. The French, then and afterwards, were more scientific, the
English more rule-of-thumb. Yet when it came to actual handling under
sail, especially in action, the positions were reversed. The English
seafaring class was far larger in proportion to population and it had
far more practice at sea. Besides, England had more and more at stake
as her oversea trade and empire extended, till at last she had no
choice, as an imperial power, but either to win or die.

The French kingdom rose to its zenith under Louis XIV, whose great
minister, Colbert, did all he could to foster the Navy, the mercantile
marine, and the French colonies in Canada. But the fates were against
him. France was essentially a landsman's country. It had several land
frontiers to attack or defend, and it used its Navy merely as an
adjunct to its Army. Moreover, its people were not naturally so much
inclined to colonize over-sea possessions as the British, and its
despotic colonial system repressed all free development. The result
was that the French dominions in America never reached a population of
one {58} hundred thousand. This was insignificant compared with the
twelve hundred thousand in the British colonies; while the disparity
was greatly increased by the superior British aptness for the sea.

French Canada had all the natural advantages which were afterwards
turned to such good account by the British. It had timber and
population along a magnificently navigable river system that tapped
every available trade route of the land. Had there only been a demand
for ships New France might have also enjoyed the advantage of employing
the scientific French naval architects. But the seafaring habit did
not exist among the people as a whole. A typical illustration is to be
found in the different views the French and British colonists took of
whaling. The British on Nantucket Island first learned from the
Indians, next hired a teacher, in the person of Ichabod Paddock, a
famous whaling master from Cape Cod, and then themselves went after
whale with wonderful success. The French in Canada, like the British
on Nantucket Island, had both whales and whaling ex