Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The History of Colonization, Vol. 1 of 2: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
When I wish to judge of the spirit and the faults of the administration of Louis XIV, I must go to Canada. Its de formity is there seen as through a microscope. It is the fact, that in the dependency national weakness or strength is most apparent, which gives additional zest to this study; because of it, the subject gains its highest interest; for in the dispo sition of the problems incidental to distant realms the ulti mate destiny of a people may well be said to be presaged. The establishment of new germs of social, civil, and political organization in unexplored regions, and their subsequent growth in importance and in?uence, must ever be reckoned as most potent in results. How much the more significant this record becomes when the effects of these communities upon the citizens and the institutions of the parent state are considered.
Such thoughts, due to a natural interest in the affairs of the day, aroused in the author a desire for detailed knowledge. At that time he was residing in a land where the issue of the utility and propriety of colonial endeavor has been for several years agitating the public mind; so that the Oppor tunity to hear arguments pro and con upon fundamental prin ciples was not lacking. As his examination extended, he found, of course, that a considerable number of volumes rela tive to colonization had been published. European scholars have not neglected this theme, while in the United States distinguished writers have elaborately described the early period of American development. More careful investigation, however, shows that of these treatises almost all are devoted to certain special phases, epochs, or fields of research, are written from the standpoint of some one nation, or are too technical to be available and interesting to the majority of readers. The main object of this book may therefore be stated to be succinctly to supply information of a department of human activity, the progress of which, by reason of its peculiar complexity, it is difficult to trace within a few pages.
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