1759] AFTER WOLFE'S DEATH. 301 families, rather than with the ancient gentry of the land. Merit belongs to no particular order; envy, likewise, is to be met in every condition of life, and no human being is exempt from its malignancy. Men of the highest social, even of exalted rank, are not spared by its remorselessness. The possessors of power will never see it pass from their grasp; and they are ready by innuendo and sneer to detract from merit, wherever it may be found out of their set, often a reproach to them, or what is worse, they feel it to be an interference with their interests. Possibly no one more suffered from this adverse feeling than Wolfe. His genius enabled him to outlive and master it during his life: it is certain that no trace of its existence clings to his memory.* *It is painful to record the treatment which the family of Wolfe received after his death. While Pitt, in the house of commons, declared that "with a handful of men he had added an empire to English rule," and the nation, or as the epitaph strangely relates, "the king and parliament," dedicated a monument to his memory as the "commander-in-chief" on an expedition against Quebec, the conduct of the war office officials was marked by wrong and meanness, which must bring a blush on the face of every man who has a sense of national honour. In February, 1761, Wolfe's mother asked that her son's pay might be estimated, as that of a commander-in-chief. George II. had died on the preceding 25th of October, and the young king, George III., in his twenty-third year, had had but little experience in public life. The application was therefore left in the hands of the secretary of war, Lord Barrington, who opposed the claim with the narrowest of official objections. If the old king had had the determination of the matter, there is little doubt that the answer would have been different to the refusal given. It is not impossible that Barrington's correspondence with the dead general [ante, p. 155] may have crossed his mind. This discreditable want of justice of Barrington, for it was in his power to grant or refuse the demand, and the amount involved was only about £3,000, was subsequently sustained by Charles Townshend, the brother of the general who thought Wolfe's generalship was as bad as his health. In 1764, Mrs. Wolfe memorialized the king on the subject. She received a letter from the secretary of war, Welbore Ellis, written in the perfection of official littleness. "I am to inform you," we read in this document, "that his Majesty commanded me to acquaint you, that when Mr. Townshend was secretary of war, a full state of this demand was laid before him, and his decision thereon taken, which was that his Majesty did not think the General entitled to £10 a day during the expedition, and his Majesty sees no reason to alter that determination." What would the world say, if this document, engraved in brass, was appended to Wolfe's monument in Westminster Abbey? Could any conclusion to Wolfe's immortal services be more painful? That this national disgrace exists, is It is the duty of the modern writer to consider Wolfe as the scientific soldier. The fact of the successful landing of his army in a few hours after midnight, and before dawn, on a dark night in a rapid current, with a height to ascend looked upon as inaccessible, in the face of defenders on the summit, alone furnishes the proof that a great mind can achieve, what to a common nature is looked upon as an impossibility. That he was opposed only by a handful of men was owing to the enemy having been, by the masterly movements of the ships, diverted from the true point of attack both east and west. So that in spite of every difficulty, his small army stood dauntless in line at dawn, of the morning of the 13th of September. I have given the history of the eleven weeks' campaign as simply as I could write it, from the feeling that it needed no extrinsic glamour; it is the narrative of a passage in history which has become a household word in every rank of life. Few know why or for what cause; but for nearly a century and a half the memory of it has been universally preserved, to be mentioned with exultation, untinged by any of those painful episodes which disfigure many a triumph. The success may likewise be attributed to the harmony between the services. The memory of Saunders is entitled to the highest honour. His name must be remembered by the side of that of Wolfe, and there can be no greater praise. It was, however, Wolfe's spirit which animated the humblest men in the ranks. His goodness, chivalry and courage were on the surface in every act of his life; there was never a thought of self. His beacon star was duty; his guide, honour; his principle, self-sacrifice; his hope, the recognition that he had faithfully served his country. The British troops on that memorable day, arrayed under his order, were sustained by the common feeling that they had to act with the manhood of their race, to fulfil the trust attributable to the two ministers, who are answerable for it, Barrington and Charles Townshend. Those who affect to fear the advance of liberal principles, would have difficulty in creating the belief, that such meanness and wrong were possible, with the most democratic government. 1759] OPINION IN ENGLAND. 303 reposed in them; if need be, to die in the ranks in which they stood. "A letter to an honourable Brigadier-General," which appeared as a pamphlet in London in 1760, remains a portion of the literature of that date. It furnishes a strong proof of the dissatisfaction felt with regard to Townshend's pretensions in England: for it is to him the letter was addressed. He is there spoken of as one whom fortune, in one short campaign, made a colonel, a general and a commander-in-chief. The original text read a "soldier," but it was changed in the errata to the position of rank. I cannot resist the impression that the word was in the first instance seriously written. The letter may be accepted as representative of a large section of public opinion. Townshend is called to account for signing the articles of capitulation when Monckton was present, and appointing the staff of the garrison of Quebec. Townshend is twice accused of having formally entered his protest of attacking the place; nevertheless he enjoyed all the honours of the conquest. He was told that he "had prudently quitted a Scene where Danger would have been too busy." He was arraigned for not having written "one civil Compliment to the Memory of General Wolfe" or adding even "one kind Expression of Esteem or Affection with regard to his person." The absence of this sympathy was contrasted with the mention of the memory of Prideaux at Niagara by sir William Johnson. The writer proceeds to say they must have known very little of the Expedition to Quebec, who expected that you would bear Testimony to the conduct of a General whose plan of Operations you had the Honour both in public and private to oppose, and against whose last desperate attempt you protested in form." This letter has been attributed to the duke of Cumberland. "That A refutation was published by some friend of Townshend : his brother Charles has been named as the author. It is but a poor production. The writer argues that Monckton was too ill to act, and that although Townshend did protest against the plan of Wolfe, it was against the policy of attacking the intrenchments. After reading the private letter of Townshend to his wife, we must look with some suspicion on the published extract of a letter to a friend, setting forth his admiration of Wolfe. It is given as a reply, to the complaint of his silence in the despatch regarding the loss, which the nation had experienced. It may, however, have merely been the want of good taste and good feeling which led to the omission of the general's name with proper respectful mention. Townshend was one of those characters whose thoughts are selfishly confined entirely to their own interests; his cold, callous nature rarely looked beyond them. It will be fortunate for his memory if he is only remembered as the signer of the treaty of capitulation with admiral Saunders on the part of the British crown, for there is little else in his career to call for respect. WOLFE'S MONUMENT. The memory of both Wolfe and Montcalm has been honourably perpetuated at Quebec. The first memorial is mentioned by Mr. Isaac Weld in his travels, published in 1799, "A voyage to Canada and the United States." [I., p. 346.] Quebec was visited by him in 1796. He tells us, "The spot where the illustrious hero breathed his last, is marked with a large stone, on which a true meridional [sic] is drawn." The place was also described by Lambert, in his travels, published in 1816. His remarks are important in establishing the identity of the spot. "The spot where Wolfe died I have often visited with a sort of pleasing melancholy. It is the corner of a small redoubt, which is yet visible, and was formerly distinguished by a large rock-stone, upon which, it is said, he was supported after he received the fatal wound. From this stone, strangers were frequently prompted, by their feelings, to break off a small piece, to keep as a memento of the fate of that gallant hero; but the sacrilegious hands of modern upstart innovators have removed that sacred relic, because it came within the inclosure of a certain commissary-general, who had erected what he called a pavilion, and would probably have soon planted potatoes and cabbages in the redoubt, had he not been discharged from his office by the present governor-general, for a trifling deficiency in his accounts." [Vol. I., p. 44.] In 1835 lord Aylmer, then governor-general, erected a monument on the site, with the words: HERE DIED WOLFE The monument became dilapidated, and was attacked by tourists who annually visit Quebec, by whom, the guide books tell us, it was carried away piecemeal. In 1849 it was replaced by a column, at the cost of the officers of the army in Canada, at the instigation of sir Benjamin d'Urban, with the same inscription. Lord Aylmer also, in 1835, erected a slab to the memory of Montcalm in the Ursuline Convent, with the inscription : Honneur à Montcalm le destin en lui dérobant Une Mort Glorieuse In November, 1827, lord Dalhousie laid, in the public garden of Quebec over. looking the river, the foundation stone of the world-famed obelisk to the memory of Wolfe and Montcalm. Both names appear with the inscription: The funds were gathered by a general subscription in the province of Quebec. 1759] ARTICLES OF CAPITULATION. 305 The articles of capitulation, as they appear on this page, are taken verbatim, with the abreviations from the series in the Canadian Archives [A. & W. I., vol. 88, pp. 50-54] The perusal of these same articles as they are given in the journal of de Lévis [p. 215] and as they are placed on record by de Ramesay [Que. His. Soc. Pub., p. 20] will shew the differences between the two. They have also been published in the form of an English translation [N.Y. Doc., X., pp. 1011-13.] It may be looked upon as a matter of certainty that the articles were only drawn up in French; and accordingly reference must be had to the text in that language, when their meaning has to be determined with precision. The text which I have followed is the authenticated copy of the capitulation as given in the imperial archives, and must be regarded as unimpeachable. |