168 GENERAL WOLFE BEFORE QUEBEC. scend the river and join General Wolfe before Quebec. The third division, under General Prideaux, was to reduce Niagara and Montreal, and then proceed to Quebec, the ultimate object of the whole force. General Amherst advanced to Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and found those places abandoned. He then made an unsuccessful attempt to gain possession of the lake; but, after capturing two vessels, was obliged, by storms and the advanced season of the year, to return to Crown Point and go into winter quarters. Prideaux besieged Niagara; and, being killed, the command devolved on Sir William Johnson, who succeeded in reducing the place. Neither of these armies was able to effect a union with General Wolfe. Fortunately he was able to accomplish the grand object, without their co-operation Embarking at Louisbourg, with 8,000 men, and a formidable train of artillery, Wolfe proceeded up the St. Lawrence, and landed his army on the island of Orleans, near Quebec. The difficulties which he had to encounter were sufficiently great to have deterred a less ardent commander; but it was a maxim of Wolfe's that 'a victorious army finds no difficulties.' He first attacked the French entrenchments at the falls of Montmorency; but without success. He then landed his troops in the night, and ascended a steep craggy cliff, to an eminence, called the Heights of Abraham, in rear of the city. Montcalm, the French general in chief, now determined to leave his camp and attack the English army. Accordingly, on the 13th of September, he drew out his forces, and prepared for a pitched battle. The French advanced to the charge with their usual spirit, and the action commenced with great resolution on both sides. The English reserved their fire till the French were within forty yards of them, and then gave it with effect. Wolfe, advancing at the head of the British grenadiers with charged bayonets, received a mortal wound. Monckton, who succeeded in the command, was shot through the body; and the direction of the army devolved on General Townshend. Montcalm, too, received a mortal wound; and General Senezurgus, the second in command, fell. The French were driven from the What was done by General Amherst? | What was done then by Montcalm? By Prideaux and Johnson? What was General Wolfe's force? Where did he meet with a repulse ? When and how did the battle commerce? How did it terminate? What general officers were killed? field; and a reinforcement, brought forward by Bougainville, was also compelled to retire. It appears that, in this decisive action, the numbers on both sides were nearly equal. The English troops, however, were all veterans, while those of the French commander were but half of that description. The French regulars were almost all destroyed; while the English loss was less than 600 in killed and wounded. They had to mourn, however, the loss of their gallant commander; which was regarded as a national calamity in the mother country, as well as in the colonies. He received a ball in his wrist at the commencement of the action; but he wrapped a handkerchief round his arm, and continued to encourage his men. He soon afterwards received a ball in the body, but also concealed this wound, and was advancing at the head of the grenadiers, when a third bullet pierced his breast. In a dying state, he unwillingly suffered himself to be borne to the rear, still evincing the greatest anxiety for the fate of the day. Being informed that the enemy's ranks were breaking, he reclined his head, from extreme faintness, on the arm of an officer. He was soon roused by the cry They fly, they fly.' Who fly?' he exclaimed. The French,' was the reply. Then,' said the dying hero, I depart content,' and almost instantly expired. How many tears have been shed at this simple but affecting recital! How often, by the firesides of the colonists, for years afterwards, has the touching ballad in which his gallantry and his mournful fate are sung, drawn forth the sympathies of the listening circle. Wolfe was the favourite hero of our ancestors; and his name was long held in grateful remembrance. While General Townshend was making preparations for the siege of Quebec, the town capitulated, on condition that the inhabitants should be protected in their religious and civil rights, till a treaty of peace should determine their future condition. General Murray left a garrison of 5,000 men at Quebec, and sailed with the fleet and the remainder of the army, from the St. Lawrence. The campaign of 1760, was directed to the reduction of Montreal, and the remaining posts of the French in Canada. A well concerted union of three divisions of forces, under Amherst, Johnson, and Haviland, secured the capitulation of What was the loss on each side? What city now capitulated? What was accomplished in the next campaign? 170 RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1760. Montreal, in September; and all the other fortresses were soon after surrendered to the English. The French power in Canada was thus entirely overthrown; and it thenceforward became a British province. The British arms were equally successful in other parts of the world. Important conquests were made in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Spain having declared war against England, in 1762, lost the important city of Havanna, while France was compelled to surrender Martinique, Granada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and all the Caribbee islands. A general treaty of peace gave Britain all her conquests in North America, with the river and port of Mobile, and all the French territory on the eastern side of the Mississippi, reserving only the island of New Orleans. The French possessions, in that quarter, were thenceforward bounded by the Mississippi, from its source to the river Iberville, and thence by a line drawn along the middle of that river, and of the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. The Havanna was exchanged with Spain for the Floridas. The British empire, in North America, was thus not only extensively widened, but clearly defined by great natural boundaries, which bade fair to remove all future causes of controversy with other nations respecting their possessions on the continent. One hundred and sixty years had elapsed between the first permanent British settlement in North America, and the conquest of Canada. During a great part of this period, England, France, and Spain, had been contending respecting the boundaries of their several possessions on the continent; and the wars to which these controversies gave rise, were of the most distressing and sanguinary character. Each power was willing to employ the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage, in its aggressions on the others; and all the barbarities of Indian warfare were thus brought home to the firesides of the defenceless settlers. Well might the inhabitants of the country now rejoice that the controversy was terminated; and look forward with hope for a period of undisturbed tranquillity. In what other parts of the world | What remarks are made concerning were the British successful? the late American wars? What possessions were given to the DISPOSITION OF THE COLONISTS TOWARDS ENGLAND. 171 CHAPTER XXIII. THE REVOLUTION. THE attachment of the American colonies to the mother country was never stronger than at the close of the French war, which terminated in the conquest of Canada. To the natural ties of brotherhood were superadded the strongest feelings of mutual regard, arising from a participation in common dangers, and a common victory. The colonists were proud of their descent from British ancestors, and their connection ith one of the most powerful nations of Europe. They were also fully sensible of the value of English liberty, and every colonist believed himself to be equally entitled with his brethren, on the opposite side of the Atlantic, to all the essential rights of a British subject. The habits of the early settlers, and many circumstances in the history of their descendants, had led them to study, with attention and lively interest, the principles of political liberty, and to watch, with the most jealous vigilance, against every encroachment of arbitrary power. The degree of authority which might be legally exercised over the colonies, by the parent state, had never been very clearly defined. The doctrine prevailed in England, that parliament had the power of binding them in all cases whatever. In America this had been repeatedly and publicly denied. In New England, the colonial assemblies were supposed to possess every legislative power not expressly surrendered. This, however, had been modified into an admission that parliament might regulate commerce, but not the internal affairs of the colonies. As early as 1692, the general court of Massachusetts passed an act, denying the right of any other legislature to lay a tax on the colony; and, not long after, the same denial was extended, by the assembly of New York, to all legislation over the colony. These acts were disapproved ; and expressly denied in England, in 1696; and the power of parliament to regulate certain internal affairs of the colonies, had been established by usage. In the middle and What were the dispositions of the American colonies towards the mother country? What was their character as freemen? What was the political doctrine of What had been done by the legisla- 172 SCHEME FOR TAXING THE COLONIES. southern colonies, while the power of general legislation was admitted to belong to parliament, that of direct internal taxation was denied. Schemes for taxing the colonies by authority of parliament had been formed in 1739, and again in 1754, but, from temporary causes, they had been abandoned. The expenses of the recent war had rendered necessary a great addition to the usual taxes of the English nation. Apprehensive of rendering themselves unpopular, by pressing too severely on the resources of the people at home, the ministry directed their attention to the North American colonies; and determined to revive the scheme for raising a revenue from that source. Mr. Grenville, first commissioner of the treasury, (1763,) introduced a resolution, which was passed, without much debate, declaring that it would be proper to impose certain stamp duties on the colonies. The actual imposition of them was deferred till the next year. At the same time, other resolutions were passed, imposing new duties on the trade of the colonies; those on the commerce with the French and Spanish colonies amounted to a prohibition of fair trade, and the regulations for collecting them were calculated to prevent the smuggling which had hitherto been overlooked, or connived at. All the naval officers, on the American station, were converted into revenue officers; and many seizures were made. The forfeitures were ordered to be decided on by courts of vice-admiralty; as if the government distrusted the impartiality of the ordinary tribunals. These acts were received in the colonies with a general feeling of indignation. Treated hitherto with comparative kindness and indulgence, the people could not fail to perceive that such measures were harsh and coercive. They were, in fact, not less impolitic than unkind; for it could not reasonably be expected that those communities, who had been left to grow in the free air of independence in childhood, and had acted as the allies of the parent state in youth, would submit to a system of unbending restraint, when they had attained to the strength and maturity of manhood. Parliament should have understood, that while the colonies were becoming more and more jealous of their rights, they were In the middle and southern states? What made the British ministry desirous of raising a revenue from the colonies? How did they determine to do it? What resolution was passed in parliament ? What new duties were imposed? How were these acts received in the colonies ? Why were they impolitic? |