The History of the Thirteen Colonies of North America 1497-1763 Part 14

Dinwiddie, with that same wonderful energy which he had displayed during the whole of this anxious epoch, did his best to mitigate the harm done by the terrible disaster. He realised clearly what Washington pointed out to him, "the consequences that this defeat may have upon our back settlers."[292] He again sent frantic appeals to the Governors of Ma.s.sachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina. The apathy, at this time, of the Middle and Southern colonies was extraordinary; and "while sleek Quakers and garrulous a.s.sembly men prated of peace and local liberties, the outlying settlements were given over to fire and sword."[293] The New England States were, however, more energetic; and on the northern frontier an attempt was being made by Shirley and William Johnson to put into execution the other schemes arranged by the colonial conference. William Johnson was a man who had lived a semi-savage life and who had gained remarkable influence over the Iroquois, particularly the Mohawks. Governor Shirley had recognised this man's gifts, and had appointed him commander of the Ma.s.sachusetts, New England, and New York levies, consisting of about 6000 men. In the early summer of 1755 Johnson rapidly constructed Fort Lyman, and in August moved slowly forward to the southern extremity of Lake George, with the intention of taking Crown Point. The French, hearing of these warlike preparations, despatched Baron Dieskau to Ticonderoga; he marched still farther south and cut off Johnson's communications with his recently constructed fort. At first the French cleverly ambuscaded a party of the English, but in an a.s.sault upon Johnson's camp they were defeated, Dieskau being wounded and taken prisoner. The results of the fight were of some slight importance, as the capture of the leader and the repulse of his men were regarded in England and the colonies as some compensation for the disaster of General Braddock. Johnson was rewarded with a baronetcy and 5000; the little camp was converted into Fort William Henry; and the lake, hitherto known as the Lac du Sacrament, was rechristened, in honour of the King, Lake George. On the other hand, the object of the expedition, Crown Point, remained in the hands of the French, and their possibilities of aggrandis.e.m.e.nt in the West were still as illimitable as they ever had been.

The two other campaigns of 1755 were under the superintendence of Governor Shirley. In June he sent two thousand men of Ma.s.sachusetts to Acadia. Their commander was the much-respected John Winslow; and by his a.s.sistance the English at last defeated the machinations of the French under De Loutre. Governor Laurence, however, was forced to take strong measures to preserve peace, and deported the intriguing and disloyal Acadians to Ma.s.sachusetts, Virginia, South Carolina, and elsewhere. His action has been severely criticised and the story has been depicted in words of horror by the poet Longfellow. The expulsion of these "men whose lives glided on like rivers" was, as a matter of fact, absolutely essential for the welfare of the English nation in Nova Scotia. Winslow, who a.s.sisted in the work of deportation, recognised the necessity although he disliked the action; but he carried out his orders with the greatest humanity that could be shown under exceptionally difficult circ.u.mstances. Meantime, Shirley's second expedition, though commanded by himself, was not so successful. His troops were composed for the most part of colonials paid by the British Government. His object of attack was Fort Niagara, a place of considerable danger to the trading station at Oswego, and one of the main connecting links between Canada and the south-west. The season grew late; the troops were delayed by unexpected obstructions; and towards the end of October, having reinforced Oswego, Shirley found it better to retire.

The campaigns of 1755 had proved most unsatisfactory for the colonists.

The southern confines of Virginia continued to be harried, although Washington and his little band, for the most part composed of Ulster Protestants, did what they could to preserve peace along the border-line. In much the same way the frontiers of New England were open to attack, and French animosity was by no means decreased by the skilled scouting expeditions of Robert Rogers and his bold New England rangers.

The only great achievement was in Acadia, a province of more value to Great Britain than to the settlers of any particular colony. The French had not only succeeded in remaining in the coveted valley of the Ohio, but had also repulsed with enormous loss a general of some repute, which brought with it the much-desired Indian alliance. Along the sh.o.r.es of the Great Lakes no practical advantages had been gained; and Johnson's victory at Lake George brought rewards to the individual rather than to the New Englanders as a community. The Puritan colonists, however, came out of these campaigns with an enhanced reputation; they were distinguished from their southern brethren by a readiness to sacrifice both men and money in a great imperial cause.

In the early spring of 1756, war in Europe had not yet been declared, but border skirmishes still continued unabated in the distant West. The main effect on the colonies of the declaration of the Seven Years' War, on May 11th, was an increase in the number of regular troops sent to America. These were largely supplemented by the colonial militia and by colonial royal regiments in the pay of the Crown. Before the arrival of the regulars, the French again began their raids, and, under De Lery, captured Fort Bull, thus threatening the more important neighbouring station of Oswego. Shirley at once despatched Colonel Brodstreet with supplies and reinforcements to the traders at that fort, and for the moment baulked the Canadians. But by this time, a greater than De Lery had been sent to America, in the person of the Marquis de Montcalm, who immediately undertook the capture of Oswego. For this purpose, in July, he started from Ticonderoga, and by August 10th was in close proximity to the doomed blockhouse. The powerful artillery of the French, together with the cunning tactics of their native allies, forced Oswego to surrender after its commander, Colonel Mercer, had been killed. This success was invaluable to the French, for as Braddock's defeat had given to New France the Ohio valley, so now Montcalm's victory made her undisputed mistress of the Great Lakes.

The man who had done this great work may be regarded as the French hero of the Seven Years' War. The Marquis de Montcalm was by this time forty-four years of age, and had gained his military experience on many European battlefields. He owed his command to his own intrinsic merits and not, like so many French generals, to the influences of Court mistresses. He was a gentleman of France; a man of impetuous spirit, but possessed of many lovable characteristics; he was kind, tolerant, and gentle, and yet one of the sternest of soldiers. Owing to his ability and energy, his chivalrous courage and kindliness of manner, he was a leader who not only had his men under perfect discipline, but was also endeared to them by those very sterling qualities which they fully recognised. He hated corruption, cheating, and lying; he detested the brutality of many of his companions; and although Wolfe said that "Montcalm has changed the very nature of war, and has forced us ... to a deterring and dreadful vengeance,"[294] yet in reality he did his best to lift the war from mere butchery and murder on to the higher plane of civilised methods. Montcalm, Marquis of the Chateau de Candiac, gave his life to an ungrateful country, which repaid him for his sacrifice by cruel and unjust charges.

To oppose so good an officer the English Government selected the unsatisfactory leaders, Colonel Daniel Webb, dilatory in taking action, General Abercromby, in Wolfe's opinion "a heavy man," and the Earl of Loudoun, who lacked tact in his treatment of the settlers, and quickness in his command of troops. To add to the English errors, the home authorities recalled Shirley, who had given up the best of his life to st.u.r.dily resisting French aggrandis.e.m.e.nt. Fortunately the colonial forces were not without their own leaders, in many instances men of merit, such as William Johnson, friend of the Mohawks, John Winslow, famous for his Acadian experiences, Colonel Brodstreet, a good and dashing soldier, and, above all, that daring and clearheaded Prince of Rangers, Robert Rogers of New Hampshire.

The individual settlers were brave and true, but the year 1757 opened with the same petty and local quarrels in the colonial a.s.semblies, chiefly in Pennsylvania and New York, in the former concerning the everlasting squabble about taxing the proprietors' land, in the latter on the question of billeting. The Earl of Loudoun, though his position had given him some weight and authority in the factious a.s.sembly of New York, failed to win the respect or goodwill of the colonial forces. They doubted his capacity, and blamed him in particular for his mismanagement of what ought to have been the crisis of the war. Ever since the restoration of Louisburg by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the settlers had been anxious to again seize that key of the St Lawrence. Loudoun recognised the importance of such an action, and, in conjunction with Admiral Holborne, in August and September endeavoured either to take the fortification, or at least to tempt the French fleet into a pitched battle. That Loudoun was unsuccessful in both schemes was partly due to those delays that have left deep stains upon colonial history, and partly because the elements warred against the British, and Admiral Holborne's fleet being shattered by storms, the expedition had necessarily to be abandoned.

Meantime Montcalm had again displayed his activity; and while Loudoun was engaged in his abortive attempts on Louisburg, the colonies received a severe blow by the loss of Fort William Henry. Towards the end of 1756, the French had made an attack upon this fort, but had been repulsed. Throughout the following July, Montcalm ma.s.sed his troops at Ticonderoga, and with Levis, his second in command, and La Corne, a noted Canadian irregular, arrived before Fort William Henry on the 4th August. General Webb ought to have pushed forward to its relief, but he felt himself too weak to cope with Montcalm's army of regulars and Indian allies. For four days the defenders made a gallant struggle; and on August 9th only capitulated on the terms of safe-conduct to Fort Edward. The Indians refused to recognise those terms, and fell upon the English. A ma.s.sacre ensued, horrible in character and of revolting details, though possibly these may have been exaggerated by lapse of years. It is thought that Montcalm and Levis did what they could to preserve order, but were unable to prevent the many coldblooded murders because of the utter indifference of the French Canadian officers, who had been hardened in the terrible school of border and Indian warfare.

The French had now reached the high-water mark of their triumph in the West; but in Europe the dawn of better things for the English people had already come, for the king had been forced to place William Pitt in office. An end was now to be put to all the dilatory conduct either of the home authorities or of the colonial a.s.semblies. A man had been found to save England and the Empire. Pitt's plans were not original; they had been tried before; but they were at last to succeed because proper effort was made, and able generals instead of incompetents were sent out, and chiefly because behind all was the man who inspired with his own glorious spirit every one with whom he came in contact. On December 30, 1757, Pitt addressed a letter to the Governors of the Thirteen Colonies, who cheerfully responded by raising a substantial force.

The first expedition--in which the colonials were not employed--was the capture of Louisburg. The possession of this fortress on Cape Breton Island by the English would ensure the starvation of the Canadians, who were at this time, practically without food. The men chosen for the work were Admiral Boscawen, a hard fighter and typical English seaman; General Jeffrey Amherst, a good but cautious soldier; and three others, Whitmore, Laurence, and General James Wolfe, of "whom the youngest was the most noteworthy,"[295] and whose name is so famously connected with the story of the British in North America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL JAMES WOLFE. _From the picture by Schaak in the National Portrait Gallery._]

James Wolfe was born in Kent in 1727. When most modern boys are still at school, he was adjutant of his regiment, and took part in the Battle of Dettingen. He then went through the arduous campaign necessitated by the Jacobite Rising of 1745. At twenty-five years of age he found himself a full colonel. There can be little doubt that he was possessed of many enn.o.bling qualities, but his appearance was much against him, as his face, with its pointed nose and receding forehead and chin, resembled very closely the flap of an envelope. His figure was loose and ungainly, and though over six feet in height, he lacked the smart appearance of the military man. As a soldier he showed the greatest enthusiasm in everything connected with his profession; he worked hard at mathematics, tactics, and strategy, and did his best to perfect himself in the French language. The records of this man's life go to prove that he won the affection and regard of every one, and that he was almost worshipped in the different places in which he was quartered. He never, however, lost his good sense, never became puffed up with pride, never thought himself greater than others. His gallantry in the unfortunate enterprise against Rochefort in January 1758 had come to the notice of the great Pitt, and it was for this reason that he was chosen to accompany Amherst in the attempt to capture the "Dunkirk of America."

Boscawen's fleet with the transports containing the army came in sight of Louisburg in June. Since the capture of the fort by the Ma.s.sachusetts militia in 1745, something had been done to strengthen its walls, and it was now regarded in Europe as impregnable, though it was probably not so formidable as it looked, since Drucour afterwards referred to it as "crumbling down in every flank, face, and courtine, except the right flank of the king's bastion, which was remounted the first year after my arrival."[296] A town of about four thousand inhabitants nestled in false security beneath the apparently[297] ma.s.sive walls; but it was of little good for them to imagine that a.s.sistance could reach them from France, for the British navy made it impossible for her to send soldiers or supplies. The English force was at last landed, and batteries were at once erected under the distinguished guidance of Wolfe. These fortified entrenchments were moved day by day nearer the doomed stronghold. The guns never ceased to bombard the wretched town that had once considered itself so secure. Within the harbour were eleven French men-of-war, but soon four of these were deliberately sunk at the mouth of the harbour by Drucour, while the rest were driven on sh.o.r.e or captured by a cutting-out expedition. On the 20th of July, Wolfe had erected his last battery; an enormous sh.e.l.l was sent into the chapel of the town, and a fearful explosion occurred. On the 27th the French, under their Governor, Drucour, were forced to capitulate, and Amherst and Wolfe entered the fortress in triumph. Shortly afterwards the vast fortifications were razed to the ground, and to this day there remains nothing save some few ruined cas.e.m.e.nts and huge, gra.s.s-grown stones, lying in dismantled heaps upon the edge of the restless Atlantic, to mark the spot where once stood one of the great triumphs of Vauban's engineering art.

The news that Louisburg had fallen was received with every expression of joy in all the colonies, and even the Quakers, who could not fight themselves, gave way to the general outburst and showed suitable signs of rapture at the victory of British arms. The news came at a moment when such glad tidings were sadly needed, for only three weeks before the colonies had been plunged into despair by the horrors of a great tragedy. General Abercromby, with a large force of regulars and colonials, had set out from Albany in May, and after tedious delays had come on July 5th to within striking distance of Ticonderoga. In a skirmish, two days before the great fight, Lord Howe, the most beloved of the British officers, was killed. On July 7th Montcalm with Levis hurriedly erected a palisade of pines with their branches outward about half a mile from the actual fort. The English general most foolishly did not bring up his guns, fearing lest they should impede his progress. On the morning of July 8 the a.s.sault began upon this palisade manned by the trained marksmen of Canada; regiment after regiment of the English were ordered to their annihilation. The Black Watch, for example, went into action about a thousand strong; they straggled out of that awful Gehenna with only half their numbers. At last, having thrown away the lives of two thousand men, Abercromby ordered the retreat, and left Montcalm for the third time the victor.

Amongst the men who fell in that disastrous expedition, no one was so honestly mourned as Lord Howe. Pitt spoke of him as "a complete model of military virtue in all its branches,"[298] but these words in no way summed up the character of one who was not only beloved by the English Army, but also by every man in the colonial contingent. Wolfe himself wrote, "if the report of Howe's death be true, there is an end of the expedition, for he was the spirit of that army, and the very best officer in the King's service."[299] It was in winning the goodwill, respect, and admiration of the settlers that Howe differed so remarkably from his fellow officers. Burke writes of him, "from the moment he landed in America he had wisely conformed and made his regiment conform to the kind of service which the country required."[300] In other words, he acted in a manner which would have caused Braddock to shudder; but it was the right thing to do. The long-tailed tunic of the British regular, his wonderful pig-tail, his b.u.t.tons and smart points were ruthlessly cut off because they were in the way. He dressed his men as nearly as possible like the colonials, for he it was who for the first time recognised that from them the English might gain experience in this new and strange warfare. He learnt much from men like Rogers the Ranger; and he taught much. Had Lord Howe and James Wolfe been spared to give more of their short lives to the American people, the later history of the Thirteen Colonies must have been very different.

As a set-off to the Ticonderoga disaster, two great victories marked the last six months of 1758. Colonel Bradstreet, in August, with a small portion of Abercromby's army, took Fort Frontenac, thus temporarily cutting off the communication between the French in the Ohio forts with those on the upper lakes. Besides this, Bradstreet was able to destroy the presents collected for the Western Indians and all the winter provisions for Fort Duquesne. These facts considerably a.s.sisted General Forbes, who was no less successful in his undertaking. He had to contend against the squabbles of Virginia and Pennsylvania, but he managed to get both men and money. With a force of about six thousand, for the most part settlers from the southern states, but also including a Highland regiment, he set out for Fort Duquesne. His first attack was repulsed; but in November on again advancing he found that the French commander De Ligneries had been obliged, owing to Indian desertions, to evacuate and destroy the fort. A stockade was at once erected by the English to take the place of the once formidable French fortress, and was now christened by the old general, in honour of his master, Pittsburg.

The year 1759 is called "the year of victories," and one of the chief of these was the capture of Quebec. With the actual struggle for the possession of the capital of New France, the colonials had little or nothing to do; the work was entirely that of the British sailors and soldiers. The expedition against Quebec, however, was only a part of a general plan of attack upon Canada, and in this the settlers showed some activity under the leadership of the Commander-in-Chief General Amherst.

In May, acting under Amherst's orders, General Prideaux, with two regiments and a small body of colonials, joined Sir William Johnson and his Mohawks at Schenectady. The plan of campaign was that this force should move forward to Fort Niagara, then commanded by Pouchot, and if possible drive out the French. Prideaux's force was quite sufficient for this, but his lack of skill seems to have delayed the surrender of the fort. On July 20 Prideaux was killed and the command devolved upon the more fiery Johnson, who first marched out and defeated a large French reinforcement, and then returned to receive Pouchet's surrender. The capitulation of Niagara was of considerable importance, as from that moment the French were debarred from exercising any influence on the lower lakes. Burke says that it "broke off effectually that communication so much talked of and so much dreaded between Canada and Louisiana."[301]

Meanwhile Amherst advanced north with a large force composed for the most part of regulars. In July he reached the deserted fort of Ticonderoga; on August 1 he found Crown Point abandoned. From this position Amherst ought to have hurried forward to the a.s.sistance of Wolfe at Quebec, but he suddenly directed his energies into wrong channels, and instead of pushing forward, employed his army in cutting paths and roads during the whole of August and September. The exertions of Robert Rogers and his New England Rangers has alone saved the expedition from contempt. Amherst lost his opportunity, and instead of being the Conqueror of Canada, by sheer sloth and lack of energy he allowed another man to do the work and win immortal glory on the Heights of Abraham.

James Wolfe had returned to England after the capture of Louisburg, but Pitt had other work for him to do, and he was dispatched to undertake the siege of Quebec. His immediate subordinates were Townshend, Monckton, Murray, and Carleton. The men who were to oppose him in this great undertaking were Montcalm and the incapable Vaudreuil, with Bougainville, upon whom his senior maliciously placed all the blame. In June 1759, Wolfe, supported by a strong naval contingent, sailed up the St Lawrence to the attack of Quebec. The town, steep and precipitous, frowned defiance upon the English; all along the Beauport sh.o.r.e was one vast camp, any path being strongly guarded, and the whole ridge being one long extended earthwork. Montcalm knew his business. If he could but keep Wolfe out until the winter months had come, he felt convinced that the expedition must fail. The English general, on the other hand, longed to tempt the French regulars and Canadian militia out of their snug position and beat them in open ground. In vain Wolfe established a battery upon the Ile d'Orleans, opposite to Quebec, and shattered the lower part of the town. Night after night the countryside was lighted by the fires of farmsteads and barns which were answered back by the flashing fires of Lower Quebec in flames. Nothing would tempt Montcalm to come out. His position was enormously strong, for his flank was protected by the rushing falls of Montmorency. It was at the foot of these that Wolfe made his first serious attempt on July 31, which proved a failure, not for want of bravery, but because of the rash behaviour of the grenadiers. To the astonishment of the general and his officers, the grenadiers had no sooner landed than without orders they tried to rush the hill. They clambered over the rocks, fought their way through bushes and thickets, and were then suddenly met with a withering fire from the French above them. A rain-storm came on at the moment and the army below stood petrified. The rain ceased almost as quickly as it had begun, and the cliffside was seen to be strewn with the redcoats; and worse, the Indians had rushed out and were wreaking their vengeance by their awful custom of scalping.

This success of Montcalm did not tempt him to leave his position and make an attack upon the English. The latter were now for a short time to lose all hope, for the news pa.s.sed rapidly through the army that their beloved general was at the point of death owing to an incurable complaint from which he had long suffered. His indomitable spirit, however, overcame his sufferings, and rousing himself he once more spent his time gazing carefully at the beetling cliffs. On the 2nd of September he had found what he wanted and determined to start upon what seemed to him somewhat of a forlorn hope, but which was destined to form one of the most glorious pages in British history.

A path had been discovered up the cliffside--the path disclosed seventy years before to Phipps--at the top there was a small guard and nothing more. On the night of the great venture the boats slipped quietly down the river, and as the French were expecting a convoy of provisions two sentries let them go by after a first challenge. Wolfe, sitting in the stem of one of the boats, was murmuring in a solemn whisper the beautiful lines of Grey's Elegy:--

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike th' inevitable hour; The paths of glory lead but to the grave."[302]

"Gentlemen," said he, "I would sooner have written that poem than take Quebec."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DEATH OF WOLFE. _After the painting by B.

West._]

The landing was successfully accomplished, the guard at the top was overpowered, and before Montcalm knew that the English had left their camp, four thousand five hundred men were standing in that "thin red line" upon the Heights of Abraham. The gallant Montcalm did what he could, and with surprising energy collected his troops and led them against the English. The French fired time and again upon Wolfe's men, but they stolidly awaited their advance until they could see the whites of their eyes and then let loose upon them a withering fire. The white coats of the French regulars and the gay costumes of the French Canadian trappers were ready targets and they reeled and fell. Wolfe then ordered the a.s.sault, and with a second volley the whole army charged, Wolfe leading his grenadiers. After receiving a slight wound, a fatal bullet singled out that gallant man, and he fell, unnoticed for the moment save by four of his officers, who tenderly carried him to the rear of the advancing host. "They run! They run!" cried one of the officers. "Who run?" said Wolfe. "The French," they replied. "G.o.d be praised, I die in peace."

Montcalm was also mortally wounded, and just before the city actually capitulated he pa.s.sed away, happy that he should not witness the surrender. Montcalm, like Wolfe, was a hero and a patriot, but whereas Wolfe gained the love and everlasting memory of a grateful country and Empire, Montcalm's name was dragged down by unworthy men who never understood his burning zeal, who had none of his ambition for a glorious French Empire in the West. Wolfe's "star had only just arisen. For a moment something like a cloud seemed to have obscured its very dawn; when suddenly bursting like a meteor across the whole horizon of war and politics, it vanished amid a blaze of glory as splendid in a sense and as lasting as that of Nelson himself. It seemed, in truth, as if a great leader had been found and lost in a single moon."[303]

General Murray was left in command of Quebec to pa.s.s one of the most trying winters ever undergone by a garrison which was without proper clothing or supplies. At no great distance was a very capable leader, Levis, plotting to recover the city, which he very nearly succeeded in doing, by defeating Murray outside the walls at the battle of St Foy, on April 28, 1760. The French general, however, lost his opportunity by not striking at the city itself when the garrison was confused by the defeat. Murray was saved by the timely appearance of the British fleet on May 15, and Levis retreated. All that was now left to be done to complete the conquest of Canada and the salvation of the Thirteen Colonies from French attack was a final advance upon Montreal. Murray was the first to make a move in July; while Haviland advanced down the Richelieu River with three thousand five hundred men, including Rogers and his New Englanders. Amherst's army had already collected at Schenectady, but its progress was r.e.t.a.r.ded by the slow arrival of the colonial contingent of about five thousand men. The forces at last combined before Montreal; and on September 8, just a year after Wolfe's splendid victory, the last stronghold of New France capitulated to the combined forces of England and the Thirteen Colonies.

According to Lord Chesterfield the acquisition of Canada cost the English nation four score millions. No one at the present day can think that the possession of the great Dominion, then regarded as "a few acres of snow," was not worth twenty times the sum. By the Treaty of Paris, 1763, Louis XV. ceded "in full right Canada with all its dependencies, as well as the island of Cape Breton and all other islands and coasts in the gulf and river of St Lawrence." The French had done their best, ever since the great voyage of Jacques Cartier in 1534, to build up a new French Empire in the West. They had failed, partly because of the fallacious principles of the French colonial system, but particularly for two reasons. The first was the absolute exclusion of the Huguenots, whereby the Canadians shut out the very people who would have made the Empire rich and strong; and the second reason was because their dreams were too diffuse, too magnificent, beyond the physical capacity of so small a nation. They proposed to shut within narrow limits a nation twenty times as large in population, far more energetic and industrious, and one which would by the laws of nature overflow into those very valleys and happy hunting-grounds that they had marked out for themselves.

What, then, was the effect of the capture of Canada upon the settlers of the Thirteen Colonies? We stand at the parting of the ways. The Treaty of Paris not only marked the increase of the British dominions beyond the seas, but also carried within it the germ of the future schism within the British Empire. Several of the Thirteen Colonies had for many years been filled with "a spirit of independence, puritan in religion, and republican in politics."[304] Ever since the seventeenth century the people of Ma.s.sachusetts had kicked against the p.r.i.c.ks of the Navigation Act. The danger from the north and the west had undoubtedly had a repressive influence upon the colonists, and had kept them subservient to the English colonial system, which they hated and which was in reality at the root of their disaffection. The Peace of Paris removed all danger from Spain in the south, while the French danger was removed by the victory of Wolfe; and the rising colonies felt themselves as a new race about to start some great venture. They were (they knew it themselves, and the French recognised it most clearly) absolutely free to choose their future. The sagacious Vergennes predicted events that actually occurred. "England," he said, "will soon repent of having removed the only check that could keep her colonies in awe. They stand no longer in need of her protection. She will call on them to contribute towards supporting the burdens they have helped to bring on her, and they will answer by striking off all dependence."[305] The defeat of New France meant the possibilities of a new nation in the Western hemisphere; and Old France revenged herself for the loss of her would-be Empire by throwing in her lot with those aforetime jealous and jarring Thirteen States. Old France, therefore, though she knew her own Empire was gone, largely a.s.sisted to create the new nation, the new people, the United States of America. The Thirteen Colonies had scarcely been taught the lessons of unity by the horrors of Indian barbarities and the French border war; but so much as they had learnt they tried to put into practice at the first Philadelphian Congress, and at the time of the Declaration of Independence. The Treaty of Paris, one of the most important of all colonial treaties, was merely the forerunner of that other great Treaty of Versailles; the former gave to us the vast area now known as the Dominion of Canada; the latter marked the disappearance of England's Thirteen Colonies, and the creation of the United States of America. It would not have been any very great or wonderful prophecy for a statesman, after the Treaty of Paris, to have foretold the rise of that new nation which has grown with such marvellous strides; and it would not have been inappropriate for him to have used the words of the poet in which to describe this great evolution, and say, "Methinks, I see in my mind a n.o.ble and puissant nation, rousing herself as a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her like an _eagle_ viewing her mighty youth and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam."

FOOTNOTES:

[281] Adams's _Works_ (ed. 1856), vol. i. p. 23.

[282] Doyle, _The Colonies under the House of Hanover_ (1907), pp. 544, 545.

[283] _Dinwiddie Papers_, vol. i. p. 258.

[284] _Dinwiddie Papers_, vol. i. p. 306.

[285] _Letters of Horace Walpole_ (Ed. 1861), vol. ii. p. 459.

[286] Parkman, _Wolfe and Montcalm_ (1901), vol. i. p. 188.

[287] _Annual Register_, 1758, p. 4.

[288] Bradley, _The Fight with France for North America_ (1905), pp.

81-99.

[289] Quoted by J. A. Harrison, _Washington_ (1906), p. 95.

[290] Letter of Washington to Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755.

[291] Doyle, _The Colonies under the House of Hanover_ (1907), p. 575.

[292] Letter of Washington to Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755.

[293] Lucas, _Hist. Geo. of British Colonies, Canada_, part i. (1901), p. 240.

[294] Wright, _Life of Wolfe_ (1864), pp. 440, 441.

[295] Parkman, _Wolfe and Montcalm_, vol. ii. p. 48.

[296] Drucour's letter, _Annual Register_, 1758, pp. 179-81.

[297] Bradley, _The Fight with France for North America_ (1905), p. 217, says a million sterling had been spent on the fortifications since 1745.

[298] _Grenville Correspondence_, vol. i. 262.