The Origin and Services of the 3rd (Montreal)

"CHAPTER IIORGANIZATION OF THE MONTREAL FIELD BATTERY.^r~S soon as Canada had passed under British rule, within acouple of weeks of the capitulation of Montreal to GeneralAniherst in fact, King George s officers set seriously towork to secure the organization of a militia force inCanada. Under the French regime Canada had hada most comprehensive and useful militia system, a systemwhich had produced a force of gallant and hardy men that haddone not a little to ward off the day of ultimate conquest. Theafter the instimilitary administrators appointed immediatelytution of British rule set themselves assiduously to work toorganize a British Canadian militia upon the ruins and theactual lines of the old French colonial militia. It is a remark-S. able feature of the British colonial policy whether in the FarEast, the Far West or the Far South, that the British administrators have shown enough confidence in themselves and inthe people of foreign blood made fellow subjects by conquest, toplace arms in the hands of the latter and rely upon them doingtheir share towards the protectionof the Union Jack. And this practice hasunquestionably had much to do with the success of Britain s colonial policy.That the British conquerors were willing to return to the officers of the militiatheir arms and their commissions, simply upon their taking the oath of allegianceto their new sovereign, must have been soothing to the pride of a proud peoplelike the French Canadian noblesse, and they were none the slower to appreciatethis mark of confidence in them when they considered the ungracious treatmentthey had received at the hands of the officers of the French regular army and theservants of the old civil administration.The first militia organization under British rule in Canada was, strange asitmay seem at first glance, instituted rather to facilitate the administration ofjustice than to provide an effective militar}* organization for the defence of thenewly acquired colony. Some kind of a judiciary had to be established, andnaturally the army officers had more faith in the military element in the community than in any other. The professional instinct is more keenly developed16