At the peace, Quebec had 7,000 inhabitants, and the population of all Canada amounted to 25,000, of whom 5,000 were capable of bearing arms. Already the banks of the St. Lawrence below Quebec were laid out in seigniories, and the farms were tolerably well cultivated. Some farmers were in easier circumstances than their seigneurs. The imported nobility had dwindled down to the condition of placemen or traders. The Baron Beçancour held the office of Inspector of Highways, and Count Blumhart made ginger beer. Three Rivers contained 800 inhabitants. A few farmers lived in the neighbourhood of the mouth of the St. Francis. Montreal was rising rapidly into importance, having obtained the fur trade of Three Rivers, in addition to its own, and the island having been carefully cultivated, through the well directed efforts of the Jesuits. Above Montreal there was nothing but forts--Fort Kingston or Cataraqui, Fort Niagara, Fort Detroit, and Fort Machillimakinac.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil having ruled Canada for twenty-one years, died on the 10th of April, 1725. He was succeeded by the Marquis de Beauharnois, under whose judicious management of affairs, the province became prosperous. Cultivation was extended. The Indians were so much conciliated, that intermarriages between the French and Indians were frequent. And there was nothing to excite alarm but the growing importance and grasping disposition of the New Englanders and New Anglo-Hollanders. The Governor of New York had erected a fort and trading post at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, with the view of monopolizing the trade of the Lakes. Beauharnois followed the English Governor's example, by building an opposition fort in the neighbourhood of Niagara. Another fort was erected by the Marquis, at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, and yet another at Ticonderoga. The English very soon had a more reasonable pretext than a monopoly of the fur traffic, for more active demonstrations against the French. War was again declared in 1745, between France and England, by George II.; and Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, without waiting for instructions from England, determined upon attacking Louisbourg, then considered to be the "Gibraltar of America." Louisbourg, on Cape Breton, was fortified by the French, after the peace of Utrecht, at an expense of $5,500,000. The fortifications consisted of a rampart of stone, nearly 36 feet in height, and a ditch eighty feet wide. There were six bastions, and three batteries, with embrasures for 148 cannon and 6 mortars. On an island at the entrance of the harbor was another battery of 30 cannon, carrying 28 pound shot, and at the bottom of the harbour, opposite the entrance, was situated the royal battery of twenty-eight forty-two pounders, and two eighteen pounders. The entrance of the town, on the land side, was at the west, over a draw-bridge, near which was a circular battery, mounting 16 guns of 24 pounds shot. And these works had been 25 years in building. Louisbourg was a place of much importance to the French. It was a convenient retreat to such privateers as always annoyed and sometimes captured the New England fishing vessels. And the manner of this attack upon it is exceedingly interesting. It was determined on in January, 1745. Massachusetts furnished 3,250 men; Connecticut, 510; Rhode Island and New Hampshire, each 300. The naval force consisted of twelve ships, and in two months the army was enlisted, victualled, and equipped for service. On the 23rd of March, an express boat, which had been sent to Commodore Warren, the Naval Commander in Chief in the West Indies, to invite his co-operation, returned to Boston with the information, that without orders from England he could take no share in a purely colonial expedition. Governor Shirley and General Pepperell nevertheless embarked the army, and the colonial fleet sailed the next morning. The expedition arrived at Canso on the 4th of April, where the troops from New Hampshire and Connecticut joined it. Here, Commodore Warren, with his fleet, very unexpectedly joined the expedition. Shortly after his refusal to join, instructions which had been sent off from the British Government, approving of the attack upon Louisbourg, as proposed by Governor Shirley, and which Pepperell had gone to attack, without waiting for Imperial approval, had reached Commodore Warren, and without loss of time he proceeded direct to Canso, whither it was reported the Colonial fleet had gone. His arrival was the cause of great joy among the colonists. After a short consultation with General Pepperell, the Commodore sailed to cruise before Louisbourg, and was soon followed by the colonial fleet and army, which, on the 30th April, arrived in Cap Rouge Bay.