18 



the people of New England, who saw evidence thfit the notT.^c of Han*' 

 over, like the Stuarts, were ready to sacrifice their victories and thei? 

 interests as " equivalents" for defeats and disasters in Europe. 



The fall of Louisbourg and the general hazards of war redwced the 

 number of French vessels employed in the fisheries tipwards of four 

 hundred in a single year — to tbllow the received accoanis ; while, of 

 the one hundred w^iich slill remained, nearly the whole, probably, 

 made their fares at Newfoundland. This branch of industry was des- 

 tined to a slow recovery of prosperity ; for, in 1756, we record atiM 

 another war between Franee and England. 



Among the causes of hostilities on the part of the latter poi^'er, as an- 

 nounced in the ro^'al declaration, were the aggi'essions of ihe JVench in 

 Nova Scotia.* In that region, and on other coasts frequented by fish- 

 ermen, the war was attended with many distressing cireumstances.f 

 Without space for details, I can only give a single example at New- 

 foundland, where M. de Tourney, in eommand of a French loTce of foil? 

 ships-of-tlie-line, a bomb-ketch, and a body of troops, landed at the 

 Bay of Bulls, destroyed the English settlements of Trinity and Carbcv- 

 near, captured several vessels, destroyed the stages and implements o^ 

 fishery of the inhabitants, and, appearing off" St. John, the capital of the 

 island, demanded and obtained its surrender. 



Omitting notice of minor events, we come, in 1759, to the second 



siege of Louisbourg. The force employed was immense, consisting c*f 



twenty ships-of-the-line, eighteen frigates, a large fleet of smaller ves- 



?ls, and an army of fourteen thousand men. The success of this ex- 



dilion caused great rejoicings throughout the British empire. The 



nch colors were deposited in St. Paul's?, London, and a form oi 



ksgiving was ordered to be used in all the churches ; while in New 



and, prayers and thanksgivings were solemnly offered on the do- 



'C altar and in public worship. 



neral Wolfe commanded a detached bodyof tw^o thousand troops, 

 was highly distinguished.! He sailed from Louisbourg the follow- 

 ing ^^ear, at the head of eight thousand men, to "die satisiied" on the 

 Plains of Abraham. Well might he utter these words ! He w^as the 

 victor in one of the decisive battles of the world ! Li the hour that the 

 British troops entered Quebec, the rule of America pas&ed from the 

 Galhc to the Anglo-Saxon race. Between the death of a Jesuit father 

 and the breaking up of a French settlement in Maine, and the treaty of 

 Paris, was just a century and a half. We have seen how large a part 



* Mr. Huskisson, in a speech in Parliament in 1826, said: " Sir, the war wliieh Ix-gan in the 

 year 1756, conuuonly called the Seven Years' War, was, strictly speaking, so fur as relates to 

 this country ami to the liourbon governments of France and Spain, a irar for colonial pririlegcf, 

 coloniiil claims, and colonial ascendency. In the course of that war, British skill ami British 

 valor placed in the hands of this country Quebec and the Havana. By the capture of these 

 fortresses. Great Britain became mistress of the colonial destinies of the we.stern world." 



t The first conquests of British arms in America in the French war were the French fort of 

 Beau Scjour, in the Bay of Fundy, and two other posts in the same region. Colonel M»>HcktoD, 

 the conqueror, gave the name of Fort Cumberland to Beau Sejour. 



t" Wolfe," says Horace "VValptde, "who was no friend of Mr. Conway last year, and for 

 whom I consecpieutly have no atiection, has great merit, spirit, and alacrity, and shon« 

 extremely at Louisbourg." 



