Benjamin Franklin [+0 
I would not be understood to deny, that even if 
we subdue and take Canada, some few forts may be 
of use to secure the goods of the traders, and protect, 
the commerce, in case of any sudden misunderstand- 
ing with any tribe of Indians; but these forts will 
be best under the care of the colonies interested in 
the Indian trade, and garrisoned by their provincial 
forces, and at their own expense. Their own inter- 
est will then induce the American governments to 
take care of such forts in proportion to their import- 
ance, and see that the officers keep their corps full, 
and mind their duty. But any troops of ours placed 
there, and accountable here, would in such remote 
and obscure places, and at so great a distance from 
the eye and inspection of superiors, soon become of 
little consequence, even though the French were left 
in possession of Canada. If the four independent 
companies, maintained by the crown in New York 
more than forty years, at a great expense, consisted, 
for most part of the time, of faggots chiefly; if their 
officers enjoyed their places as sinecures, and were 
only, as a writer * of that country styles them, a kind 
of military monks; if this was the state of troops 
posted in a populous country, where the imposition 
could not be so well concealed, what may we expect will 
be the case of those that shall be posted two, three, 
or four hundred miles from the inhabitants, in such 
obscure and remote places as Crown Point, Oswego, 
Duquesne, or Niagara? They would scarce be even 
faggots; they would dwindle to mere names upon 
paper, and appear nowhere but upon the muster-rolls, 
I Douglass. 
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