Few Englishmen will, probably, on reflexion deny, that if
but a third of those sums ingulphed by the ungrateful or slippery powers
on the continent, upon interests certainly more foreign to England than
those of her own colonies, or lavished in a yet more destructive way,
that of corrupting its subjects in elections: if the third, I say, of
those immense sums, had been applied to the benefit of the plantations,
to the fortifying, encouraging, and extending them, there would, by this
time, have hardly been a Frenchman's name to be heard of in
North-America especially.]
But with this good father's leave, he attributes more influence to
religion, though as the priests manage it, it certainly has a very
considerable one, than in fact belongs to it. Were it not for other
concurring circumstances that indispose the savages against the English,
religion alone would not operate, at least so violently, that effect.
Every one knows, that the savages are at best but slightly tinctured
with it, and have little or no attachment to it, but as they find their
advantage in the benefits of presents and protection, it procures to
them from the French government.
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