mentioned possessions. His Britannic Majesty, on his side, agrees to grant the liberty of the Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Canada: he will consequently give the most effectual orders, that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Roman Church, as far as the laws of Great Britain permit. His Britannic Majesty also agrees, that the French inhabitants, or others, who had been the subjects of the most Christian King in Canada, may retire with all safety and freedom, wherever they shall think proper, and may sell their estates, provided it be to subjects of his Britannic Majesty, and bring away their effects as well as their persons, without being restrained in their emigration, under any pretence whatsoever, except that of debts or of criminal prosecutions; the term limited for this emigration shall be fixed to the space of eighteen months, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty.

Article 5. "Renews 13th Article of the Treaty of Utrecht, relative to liberty of fishing and drying on part of coasts of Newfoundland, except what relates to the coast of Cape Breton, &c. And grants liberty of fishing in the Gulf of St Lawrence, to a distance not nearer than three miles of the coasts of the islands and continent-but not nearer than fifteen leagues from coast of Cape Breton, out of the said Gulf. Fishing on the coast of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, to be regulated by former treaties.

Article 6." Concedes to his most Christian Majesty islands of St Pierre and Miguelon in full right, to serve as shelter to French fishermen, but not to fortify or build on them, and to have a guard of only fifty men for police."

XVIII.-INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH THE
CAPITULATION OF MONTREAL.

[Note.-Although it is certain that the French would have been unable to offer any effectual resistance to General Amherst's forces, yet Montreal was not altogether defenceless. It then had about 3000 inhabitants. Its defences consisted of a surrounding low stone wall, having, at intervals, eleven redoubts instead of bastions. Inside, in a central position, there was a citadel, or fort, from which the artillery could be made to sweep the streets from end to end. The alleged proposal of De Levis to retire with the troops to St Helen's Island, would, if true, show that he considered the place as not tenable against Amherst's army. Nevertheless, the conduct of the French General proves that he believed his troops entitled to better conditions than those granted.]

66

Letter of DE LEVIS to General AMHERST.

"MONTREAL, Sept. 7, 1760. SIR,-I send to your Excellency M. de Lapause, Assistant-QuartermasterGeneral of the Army, on the subject of the too rigorous article which you impose on the troops by the capitulation, and to which it would not be possible for us to subscribe. Be pleased to consider the severity of that article. I flatter myself you will be pleased to give ear to the representations that officer will make to you on my part, and have regard to them.-I have the honour to be, &c.,

To this letter Amherst replied :

"LE CHEVALIER DE LEVIS."

"All I have to say in answer to it is, that I cannot in the least alter the conditions which I have offered to grant to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, and I

expect his definitive answer by the bearer on his return. occasion," &c.

De Levis then joined with his officers in a protest against the affront alleged to be put on the troops by refusing them the "honours of war;" and subsequently, until they left Canada for France, the French General and officers avoided as much as possible occasions of intercourse with the English officers.

From Rochelle, on November 27, 1760, De Levis wrote, in a letter addressed to the French War Minister at Paris :—

"The campaign ended with the signing, by M. de Vaudreuil, of the capitulation made by him, with which all I had to do was to protest against it for the treatment of the regulars, who merited more attention from M. de Vaudreuil and more respect from General Amherst. My sense of duty on this occasion would not permit me to receive General Amherst, nor to manifest towards him personally the polite attentions customary in the intercourse of generals placed in such circumstances. I thought it my duty to mark my resentment, and that I did not like the reasons which this English general has given for his conduct, namely, that it was in revenge for the cruelties committed by the savages with whom our troops had been allied."

Colonel Haldimand was detached by General Amherst to take possion of the place and of the property to be surrendered in virtue of the articles of capitulation. He asked for the French regimental colours, and for English standards that had fallen into the enemy's hands during the war; upon which, according to Captain Knox, they declared they had none to deliver up. Colonel Haldimand, having demanded explanations, they told him that "though each regiment had brought out colours from France, yet in this woody country these had been found cumbrous and of little use, in conseqence of which they had been destroyed." The Commander-in-chief was immediately referred to on the subject, and ordered Haldimand to call on De Vaudreuil and De Levis to certify to the fact of the previous destruction of colours, which they did "by giving their parole d'honneur." Knox commented on the French account of the disappearance of their colours, saying, "It must have been since September 13, 1759, when it is notorious they had their colours displayed on the field of battle, since our officers saw them."

XIX.-AMHERST'S GENERAL ORDERS, AND OFFICIAL DISPATCH.

"CAMP BEFORE MONTREAL, Sept. 9, 1760. Parole, King George and Canada. The General sees with infinite pleasure the success that has crowned the efforts of his Majesty's troops and faithful subjects in America. The Marquis de Vaudreuil has capitulated; the troops of France in Canada have laid down their arms, and are not to serve during the war; the whole country submits to the dominion of Great Britain. The three armies are entitled to the General's thanks on this occasion; and he assures them that he will take the opportunity of acquainting his Majesty

with the zeal and bravery which has always been exerted by the officers and soldiers of the regular and provincial troops, and also by his faithful Indian allies.

The General is confident that when the troops are informed that the country is the King's, they will not disgrace themselves by the least appearance of inhumanity, or by unsoldierlike behaviour, in taking any plunder, more especially as the Canadians become now good subjects, and will feel the good effect of his Majesty's protection. (Signed) AMHERST."

Extract from General AMHERST'S Dispatch announcing the

Capitulation of Montreal.

"I should not do justice to General Murray and Colonel Haviland if I did not assure you they have executed the orders I gave them to the utmost of my wishes. I must also beg leave to say, I am obliged to Brigadier-General Gage for the assistance he has given me, and I have taken the liberty to give, in public orders, my assurances to the three armies, that I would take the first opportunity of acquainting you with the zeal and bravery which has always been exerted by the officers and soldiers of the regular and provincial troops, as also by your Majesty's Indian allies. Sir William Johnson has taken unwearied pains in keeping the Indians within humane bounds; and I have the pleasure to assure you, that not a peasant, woman, or child, has been hurt by them, or a house burnt since I entered the enemy's country."

XX.-WILLIAM PITT (FIRST LORD CHATHAM).

[Note. While national corruption and the mismanagement of the public affairs, both at home and abroad, were chief causes of the ruin of France in America, the reader should not lose sight of the agency of the great English Prime Minister, William Pitt. To his extraordinary ability has been ascribed a large share of the credit due on account of the successes achieved by the British naval and military forces, and the humiliations and sacrifices to which France was subjected in both hemispheres. The following extracts from the writings of the late Lord Brougham make manifest the sources of the vast influences which he (Pitt) exerted on the conduct and fortunes of the war.]

BROUGHAM'S "Statesmen of the Time of George III.," pp. 23-27. "The quickness with which Pitt could ascertain his object, and discover his road to it, was fully commensurate with his perseverance and his boldness in pursuing it. Add to this a mind eminently fertile in resources, a courage which nothing could daunt in the choice of his means, a resolution equally indomitable in their application, a genius, in short, original and daring, which bounded over the petty obstacles raised by ordinary men, and forced its path through the entanglements of this base undergrowth to the worthy object ever in view, the prosperity and renown of his country. Far superior to the paltry objects of a grovelling ambition, and regardless alike of party and of personal considerations, he constantly set before his eyes the highest duty of a public man, to further the interests of his species. He disregarded alike the frowns of power and the gales of popular applause, and exposed himself undaunted to the vengeance of the Court, while he battled against its corruptions...

'Nothing could be more entangled than the foreign policy of this country at the time when he undertook the supreme direction of her affairs. Nothing could be more disastrous than the aspect of her fortunes in every quarter of the globe. With an army of insignificant amount, and commanded by men onlesirous of grasping at the emoluments, without doing the duties or

incurring the risks of their profession; with a navy that could hardly keep the sea, and whose chiefs vied with their comrades on shore in earning the character given them by the new Minister-of being utterly unfit to be trusted in any enterprise of the least apparent danger; with a generally prevailing dislike of both services, which at once repressed all desire of joining either, and damped all public spirit in the country, by extinguishing all hope of success, and even all love of glory-it was hardly possible for a nation to be placed in circumstances more inauspicious to military exertions; and yet war raged in every quarter of the world where our dominion extended, while the territories of our only ally, as well as those of our own sovereign in Germany, were invaded by France, and her forces by sea and land menaced our shores. In the distant possessions of the Crown the same want of enterprise and of spirit prevailed. Armies in the West were paralysed by the inaction of a captain who would hardly take the pains of writing a dispatch to chronicle the nonentity of his operations; and in the East, frightful disasters were brought upon our settlements by barbarian powers. In this forlorn state of affairs, which rendered it as impossible to think of peace, as hopeless to continue the yet inevitable war, the base and sordid views of politicians kept pace with the mean spirit of the military caste; and parties were split or united, not upon any difference or agreement of public principle, but upon mere questions of patronage and of share in the public spoil, while all seemed alike actuated by one only passion the thirst of power and of gain. As soon as Pitt took the helm, the hand that held it was instantly felt in every motion of the vessel. There was no more of wavering counsel, of torpid inaction, of listless expectancy, of abject despondency. His firmness gave confidence, his spirit roused courage, his vigilance secured exertion, in every department under his sway. Each man, from the first Lord of the Admiralty down to the most humble clerk in the victualling office-each soldier, from the commander-in-chief to the most obscure contractor or commissary-now felt assured that he was acting or was indolent under the eye of one who knew his duties and his means as well as his own, and who would very certainly make all defaulters, whether through misfeasance or through nonfeasance, accountable for whatever detriment the commonwealth might sustain at their hands. Over his immediate coadjutors his influence swiftly obtained an ascendant which it ever after retained uninterrupted.

"The effects of this change in the whole management of the public business, and in all the plans of the Government, as well as in their execution, were speedily made manifest to the world. France, attacked on some points, and menaced on others, was compelled to retire from Germany, soon afterwards suffered the most disastrous defeats, and, instead of threatening England and her allies with invasion, had to defend herself against attack. less than sixteen islands, and settlements, and fortresses of importance, were taken from her in America, Asia, and Africa, including all her West Indian colonies (except St Domingo), and the whole important province of Canada was likewise conquered.

No

"But it is a more glorious feature in this unexampled administration which history has to record, when it adds, that all public distress had disappeared; that all discontent in any quarter, both of the colonies and parent state, had ceased; that no oppression was anywhere practised, no abuse suffered to prevail; that no encroachments were made upon the rights of the subject, no malversation tolerated in the possessors of power; and that England, for the first time, presented the astonishing picture of a nation supporting without murmur a widely-extended and costly war, and a people, hitherto torn with conflicting parties, so united in the service of the commonwealth that the voice of faction had ceased in the land. These' (said the son of his first and most formidable adversary, Walpole),-"These are the doings of Mr Pitt, and they are wondrous in our eyes! 529

INDEX.