[casgrain] remarks ON "THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC" 103 



For it looks most strange that with all the former known materials 

 in hand and the accretion of the present documentary information re- 

 ceived and at his early disposal, Mr. Doughty, in first instance and by his 

 paper, should have woefully failed to arrive at a true and correct con- 

 clusion on the main object of his contention, as to the battle of the Plains 

 of Abraham, that is to say, the real position of the armies when ready to 

 engage ; and should have produced in support thereof a plan of the battle 

 such as his Plan A, by him affirmed, bona fide, to be then perfectly 

 accurate. 



And what is more surprising is to see his collaborators, specially Mr. 

 Chambers ^ having remained so long " blind " over palpable errors, ap- 

 parent to the naked eye on this Plan A. 



This arraignment, improbable as it may seem at first, is nevertheless 

 but too well grounded. 



It needs no further proof than the preliminary one drawn from the 

 own showing of the four joint collaborators. For without diisdaiming 

 or in any way discaxding the first plan and finding of Mr. Doughty, 

 upon whose fadth t»hey assumied both to be accurate and trustworthy, 

 but, on the contrary extolling them as entirely reliable and conclusive, 

 they now come out with a very different version and a totally changed 

 plan of battle. 



This, of course, is a tacit but an unavoidable admission of the pre- 

 vious mistake; which it would have been more proper to candidly 

 acknowledge, as soon as it was perceived by them, particularly when they 

 could not help seeing %^q utterly false position given to both armies, 

 since their attention was called to it by an article in the Quebec 

 Morning Chronicle, August 4th, 1900. 



Otherwise, if these writers allow both plans and respective versions 

 to subsist on the same footing and be reputed as equally true and cor- 

 rect, the reader will remain at a loss to make a choice as to the one to be 

 relied on ; or may be inclined a priori to reject both as antagonistic, be- 

 cause they are drawn from the same materials and sources. 



Under the modest title " The Probable Site of the Battle of the 

 Plains of Abraham," Mr. Doughty has determined positively this exact 

 site according to his conception of it in 1899. 



In view of elucidating the two main objects and ultimate conclu- 

 sions of his paper, that is to say : first, the disposition of the contending 

 armies in battle array on the field, and secondly the complete elimination 

 of the Eace-course as part of that field, he has marshalled his evidence 

 and arguments with such seductive ingenuity and consummate skill as to 



'■ Cf. Quebec Morning Ulironicle, April 2nd, 1900. Mr. Uoughty's able contribu- 

 tion on the subject; also id.. May 3, 1903. North American Notes and Queries, 

 June, 1900, and August, 1900. 



