NUMB. 20. SATURDAY, August 26, 1758.

HERE is no crime more infamous than the

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violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be focial beings no longer than they believe each other. When fpeech is employed only as the vehicle of falfehood, every man muft difunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave, and feek prey only for himself.

Yet the law of truth, thus facred and neceffary, is broken without punishment, without cenfure, in compliance with inveterate prejudice and prevailing paffions. Men are willing to credit what they wish, and encourage rather thofe who gratify them with pleafure, than those that inftruct them with fidelity.

For this reafon every hiftorian difcovers his country, and it is impoffible to read the different accounts of any great event, without a wifh that truth had more power over partiality.

Amidst the joy of my countrymen for the acquifition of Louisbourg, I could not forbear to confider how differently this revolution of American power is not only now mentioned by the contending nations, but will be represented by the writers of another century.

The English hiftorian will imagine himself barely doing iuftice to English virtue, when he relates

the capture of Louisbourg in the following man

ner:

"The English had hitherto feen, with great in"dignation, their attempts baffled and their force "defied by an enemy, whom they confidered them"felves as intitled to conquer by the right of pre"fcription, and whom many ages of hereditary

fuperiority had taught them to defpife. Their

"fleets were more numerous, and their feamen "braver than thofe of France, yet they only floated "ufclefs on the ocean, and the French derided them

from their ports. Misfortunes, as is ufual, pro"duced difcontent, the people murmured at the "minifters, and the minifters cenfured the com"manders.

In the fummer of this year, the English began "to find their fuccefs anfwerable to their caufe. "A fleet and an army were fent to America to "diflolge the enemies from the fettlements which

they had fo perfidiously made, and fo infolently "maintained, and to reprefs that power which was growing more every day by the affociation of the "Indians, with whom thefe degenerate Europeans intermarried, and whom they fecured to their party by prefents and promifes.

"In the beginning of June the fhips of war and "vellels containing the land forces appeared before Leabbourg, a place fo fecure by nature that art was almott fuperfluous, and yet fortified by art "as if nature had left it open. The French boasted that it was impregnable, and fpoke with fcorn of all attempts that could be made against it.

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"The garrifon was numerous, the ftores equal to "the longeft fiege, and their engineers and com"manders high in reputation. The mouth of the

harbour was fo narrow, that three ships within "might eafily defend it against all attacks from << the fea. The French had, with that caution "which cowards borrow from fear and attribute to policy, eluded our fleets, and fent into that port five great fhips and fix fmaller, of which they funk four in the mouth of the paffage, having raifed batteries, and pofted troops, at all "the places where they thought it poffible to make "a defcent. The English, however, had more to "dread from the roughness of the fea, than from "the skill or bravery of the defendants. Some days paffed before the furges, which rife very

high round that ifland, would fuffer them to "land. At last their impatience could be re

ftrained no longer; they got poffeffion of the "fhore with little lofs by the fea, and with lefs by "the enemy. In a few days the artillery was land"ed, the batteries were raifed, and the French had "no other hope than to efcape from one poft to an"other. A fhot from the batteries fired the

powder in one of their largest ships, the flame spread to the two next, and all three were de"ftroyed; the English admiral fent his boats against "the two large fhips yet remaining, took them "without refiftance, and terrified the garrifon to an "immediate capitulation."

Le us now oppofe to this English narrative the relation which will be produced, about the fame time, by the writer of the age of Louis XV.

<< About

About this time the English admitted to the "conduct of affairs, a man who undertook to save "from deftruction that ferocious and turbulent

people, who, from the mean infolence of wealthy "traders, and the lawlefs confidence of fuccefsful robbers, were now funk in defpair and ftupified "with horror. He called in the fhips which had "been difperfed over the ocean to guard their mer

chants, and fent a fleet and an army, in which "almoft the whole ftrength of England was com

prifed, to fecure their poffeffions in America, "which were endangered alike by the French arms. "and the French virtue. We had taken the English "fortreffes by force, and gained the Indian nations.

by humanity. The English, wherever they come, are fure to have the natives for their enemies; for "the only motive of their fettlements is avarice, and the only confequence of their fuccefs is oppreffion. In this war they acted like other barbarians, and, with a degree of outrageous cruelty, which the gentleness of our manners "fcarce fuffers us to conceive, offered rewards "by open proclamation to thofe who fhould bring in the fcalps of Indian women and children. "trader always makes war with the cruelty of a pirate.

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They had long looked with envy and with ter"ror upon the influence which the French exerted

over all the northern regions of America by the "poffeflion of Louisbourg, a place naturally strong, "and new fortified with fome flight outworks. "They hoped to furprize the garrifon unprovided; "but that fluggifhnefs which always defeats their

"malice,

"malice, gave us time to fend fupplies, and to "ftation fhips for the defence of the harbour. "They came before Louisbourg in June, and were "for fome time in doubt whether they should land. "But the commanders, who had lately feen an ad"miral beheaded for not having done what he had "not power to do, durft not leave the place unaf"faulted. An Englishman has no ardour for ho"nour, nor zeal for duty; he neither values glory "nor loves his king; but balances one danger with "another, and will fight rather than be hanged. "They therefore landed, but with great lofs; their "engineers had, in the laft war with the French, "learned fomething of the military fciences, and "made their approaches with fufficient fkill; but

all their efforts had been without effect, had not a "ball unfortunately fallen into the powder of one of "our fhips, which communicated the fire to the rest, " and, by opening the paffage of the harbour, obliged the garrifon to capitulate. Thus was Louifbourg loft, and our troops marched out with "the admiration of their enemies, who durft hardly "think themselves mafters of the place."