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Author of 'Parliamentary Procedure and Practice', 'Constitutional
History of Canada,' 'The Story of Canada,' etc
1900
Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Late Professor of
History in the University of Edinburgh.
The aim of this series is to sketch the history of Modern Europe, withthat of its chief colonies and conquests, from about the end of thefifteenth century down to the present time. In one or two cases thestory commences at an earlier date: in the case of the colonies itgenerally begins later. The histories of the different countries aredescribed, as a rule, separately, for it is believed that, except inepochs like that of the French Revolution and Napoleon I, the connectionof events will thus be better understood and the continuity ofhistorical development more clearly displayed.
The series is intended for the use of all persons anxious to understandthe nature of existing political conditions. "The roots of the presentlie deep in the past"; and the real significance of contemporary eventscannot be grasped unless the historical causes which have led to themare known. The plan adopted makes it possible to treat the history ofthe last four centuries in considerable detail, and to embody the mostimportant results of modern research. It is hoped therefore that theseries will be useful not only to beginners but to students who havealready acquired some general knowledge of European History. For thosewho wish to carry their studies further, the bibliography appended toeach volume will act as a guide to original sources of information andworks more detailed and authoritative.
Considerable attention is paid to political geography, and each volumeis furnished with such maps and plans as may be requisite for theillustration of the text.
I devote the first chapter of this short history to a brief review ofthe colonisation of the valley of the St. Lawrence by the French, and oftheir political and social conditions at the Conquest, so that a readermay be able to compare their weak and impoverished state under therepressive dominion of France with the prosperous and influentialposition they eventually attained under the liberal methods of Britishrule. In the succeeding chapters I have dwelt on those important eventswhich have had the largest influence on the political development of theseveral provinces as British possessions.
We have, first, the Quebec Act, which gave permanent guarantees for theestablishment of the Church of Rome and the maintenance of the languageand civil law of France in her old colony. Next, we read of the comingof the United Empire Loyalists, and the consequent establishment ofBritish institutions on a stable basis of loyal devotion to the parentstate. Then ensued the war of 1812, to bind the provinces more closelyto Great Britain, and create that national spirit which is the naturaloutcome of patriotic endeavour and individual self-sacrifice. Thenfollowed for several decades a persistent popular struggle for largerpolitic