Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/232

 and taken prisoners. Arnold remained near Quebec throughout the winter, and then, with his forces terribly reduced by sickness and disease, retreated. Thus ended the fifth and last siege of Quebec. Soon after, the arrival of a strong body of British troops, under General Burgoyne, forced the Americans to leave Canada, which was troubled no more by invaders during the Revolutionary war. This war came to an end in 1783, by England acknowledging the Independence of the United States (as they were now called) in the Treaty of Versailles. By this treaty the boundaries of Canada as far west as the Lake of the Woods were fixed. Canada lost the fertile territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi, and received as her southern boundary the middle of the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence, the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, and the St. Croix River in New Brunswick. The boundary between the present State of Maine and New Brunswick was left very vague, and this gave rise to serious trouble at a later date.

6. United Empire Loyalists—The close of the Revolutionary War brought a large increase of population to Canada. Many of the American colonists remained loyal to England during the struggle for independence, and when the war was over, these people found themselves looked upon with dislike and suspicion by their republican neighbors. So harsh was the treatment they received that the British Parliament took pity upon them, and voted them a large sum of money (over £3,000,000) in consideration of the losses they had borne by remaining loyal to the British Crown. Besides this grant of money they were given large and valuable tracts of land in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and in Western Canada, (now Ontario). It is said that over twenty-five thousand left the United States in 1784, and settled in the British colonies, and of these ten thousand came to Upper Canada, settling chiefly around the Bay of Quinté, along the Niagara River, and the St. Clair. Each U. E. Loyalist received two hundred acres of land free; so did each of his .sons on coming of age, and each daughter when she married, They were given provisions for three years, in addition to clothing, tools, and farming implements. Disabled soldiers and half-pay officers also came to Canada, and received grants of land and aid for a time from the Government.

7. The Constitutional Act of 1791.—All these years the people