1758] THE POWER OF BRITAIN. 141 doomed it to destruction at the time of the conquest will still be remembered, if wisdom and honesty govern the public councils in the dominion.* In America the feeling of satisfaction was equally strong. There was great rejoicing in the cities of Boston, New York and Philadelphia. The certain benefit which the destruction of the fortress conferred on New England was known and felt, but by all account it would have been preferred if it had been effected by New England troops, whereas it was entirely an imperial triumph: a debt of safety obtained through the intervention of the mother country. It is not possible to set out of view the fact that at this date there was a strong desire in the American provinces to be independent of all home control: even when their very existence depended on the power which Great Britain would put forth to maintain them. Until the taking of Louisbourg, French encroachments to narrow the colonial territory to the Allagheny had not been a mere visionary dread. It was British power which alone assured the nationality of the American colonist; which stayed the depredation on his commerce on the ocean, imposed a limit on the encroachment of France from the * It was not until the 1st of June, 1760, that the uninterrupted destruction of the works was commenced under captain Muckett, of the company of miners, assisted by working parties from the infantry, of strength varying, according to the work, from 160 to 220 daily. The miners and artificers numbered a little Over 100. The whole work was completed on the 10th of November, 1760, there having been only two days' intermission besides Sundays, one being the king's birthday and the other being midsummer's day. The reason for keeping this latter day is thus mentioned in a MS. diary of the mining operations at Louisbourg, now in the royal artillery office, which belonged to sir John Seymour: "According to tradition among the miners, Midsummer was the first that found out the copper mines in Cornwall, for which occasion they esteem this a holy day and all the miners come from below ground to carouse and drink to the good old man's memory." [History of the royal regiment of artillery, by major Francis Duncan, R.A., pp. 203-4.] The order for the destruction of Louisbourg was sent by Pitt to Amherst on the 9th of February, 1760. It was communicated by Amherst to Whitmore on the 23rd of April, captain Ruvyne being specially sent from New York to superintend the work of demolition. [Can. Arch., A. & W. I., 93. 1, p. 190.] north towards New England, and on the west towards Albany and Philadelphia, both so long and so powerfully threatened. It was the first act in the final drama, in which the British colonist was to become the undisputed master of North America. MADAME DE DRUCOUR. It is generally stated that Mde. de Drucour showed great courage during the siege, frequently visiting the soldiers to encourage them, especially the gunners, and that daily she herself fired off three cannons. I can find no authority for this beyond Pichon, who relates the fact in his "Lettres et Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire naturelle, civile et politique du cap Breton, depuis son établissement jusqu' à la reprise de cette isle par les Anglais en 1758." This book was published in London in 1760, and in Paris in 1761. It is written to convey the idea that the writer was present during the siege. The statement is also repeated by the Abbé Raynal in his "Histoire Philosophique,” first published in 1774 at the Hague. Raynal cannot therefore be accepted as an authority. No weight can be attached to Pichon's statement. He was taken prisoner at the siege of Beauséjour, and remained in Halifax until 1758, when he went to London, to remain in England until the year of his death, 1781. I am especially led to doubt the fact, because it is not mentioned by Wolfe, for in a letter to his mother he relates that he paid a visit to the ladies. "I went into Louisbourg this morning to pay my devoirs to the ladies, but found them all so pale and thin with long confinement in a casemate, that I made my visit very short. The poor women have been heartily frightened, as well they might, but no real harm, either during the siege or after it, has befallen any." [Wright's Wolfe, p. 446.] Could any extraordinary statement have been made regarding Mde. de Drucour, Wolfe would have mentioned it to his mother, for he was fond of giving her news. Pichon makes another statement, [p. 381], which also partakes of the marvellous. He tells us that after the surrender was resolved upon, the evening before the British took possession, the French soldiers without restraint were permitted to plunder the king's stores, and that the whole night the priests were busy marrying the young girls to anyone willing to accept the responsibility of wedlock, the object being to prevent them becoming the wives of the heretic conquerors. The abbé Raynal does not record this statement. |