234 J. G. BOUEINOT 



year lYST closed with Montcalm triumphant in America. But while France, governed 

 by an impure woman, neglected to give adequate support to her brave sous in Canada, 

 England rallied to the support of Pitt and the whole nation felt a confidence in the future 

 which it had not felt for many years under the administration of his predecessors. On the 

 continent of Europe Pitt contented himself with giving the largest possible sirbsidies of 

 money to his great ally, Frederick, and by entrusting the command of the English and 

 Hanoverian forces to the best of his generals, Ferdinand Prince of Brunswick, in place of 

 the incompetent Duke of Cumberland. The victories of Rossbach, Leuthen and Minden 

 were the answers that Frederick gave to the great English minister for the confidence he 

 reposed in his ability to cope with the four great powers, then combined with Saxony to 

 destroy Prussia and bring England to the feet of France, by invading her territory and 

 marching into her very capital. Hanover was saved by the memorable victory on the 

 Weser, and England was spared the humiliation and perils of an invasion by the destruc- 

 tion of a French fleet by Admiral H^iwke in Quiberon Bay. 



VII. Siege and Taking of Louisbourg in 1758 by Amherst and Boscawen.' 



While the military genius of Frederick and the inspiring statesmanship of Pitt were 

 successfully thwarting the ambitious plans of France and her allies in Europe, the Eng- 

 lish minister had. decided on a vigorous campaign in 

 America.' With that intuitive sagacity which he poss- 

 essed above most men for recognising ability in others 

 for the purpose in view, he chose G-eneral Amherst, 

 Admiral Boscawen and Brigadier-Greneral Wolfe as pos- 

 sessing those qualities, the want of which in Loudoun and Holbourne had brought disaster 

 upon the English arms. Unhappily he was forced, for ^^ 



the time being, by strong influences around him to retain /) , f/^Jy-^ C^^t/^^^'^^'^^/ 

 General Abercromby at the head of one of the expedit- ^ ' 



ions in America, but he hoped with others that the advice and co-operation of Lord Howe 

 f>,.,_^^ y^ would keep up the courage of the 



^^^t;Z^'-^^-2-£,^ ZC-^K»^-''^'^^''^^*^^'^ ^''^^^^ army, and prevent any blunders 



on the part of the slow and obtuse 

 soldier in command. The plan of the campaign which opened in 1758 was to send three 

 expeditions simultaneously against the three all important French positions held by the 

 French in the Ohio Valley, on Lake Champlain and at the entrance of the Grulf of St. Law- 

 rence. General Forbes, a resolute Scotch veteran, was to march on Fort Duquesne, 

 General Abercrombie was to lay siege to Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and General 

 Amherst with Admiral Boscawen was to attack the fortress of Louisbourg, which was 

 acknowledged as the key of the St. Lawrence. That formidable fortress once reduced, 

 the French would have no place of rendezvous at the mouth of the gulf, and the English 



' "He [Pitt] felt that the stake he was playing for was somethina vaster than Britain's standing among the 

 powers of Europe. Even while he attacked Frederick in Germany, his eye was not on the Weser but on the Hudson 

 and St. Lawrence." Green, "Hist, of the English People," iv. 195. See Parkman, "Montcalm and Wolfe," i. 39, 

 40 ; ii. 380. 



