104 COLLISION OF THE RIVAL COLONIES. [1755. 



raised an outcry of indignation, and Mirepoix their 

 ambassador withdrew from the court of London. 



Thus began that memorable war which, kindhng 

 among the forests of America, scattered its fires 

 over the kingdoms of Europe, and the sultry empire 

 of the Great Mogul ; the war made glorious by 

 the heroic death of Wolfe, the victories of Fred- 

 eric, and the exploits of Clive ; the war which 

 controlled the destinies of America, and was first 

 in the chain of events which led on to her Eevo- 

 lution with all its vast and undeveloped conse- 

 quences. On the old battle-ground of Europe, the 

 contest bore the same familiar features of violence 

 and horror which had marked the strife of former 

 generations — fields ploughed by the cannon ball, 

 and walls shattered by the exploding mine, sacked 

 towns and blazing suburbs, the lamentations of 

 women, and the license of a maddened soldiery. 

 But in America, war assumed a new and striking 

 aspect. A wilderness was its sublime arena. Army 

 met army under the shadows of primeval woods ; 

 their cannon resounded over wastes unknown to 

 civilized man. And before the hostile powers 

 could join in battle, endless forests must be trav- 

 ersed, and morasses passed, and everywhere the 

 axe of the pioneer must hew a path for the bayonet 

 of the soldier. 



Before the declaration of war, and before the 

 breaking off" of negotiations between the courts of 



under the usual sanction of a formal declaration, the omission of which 

 exposed the administration to the censure of our neighbors, and fixed the 

 imputation of fraud and freebooting on the beginning of the war." — 

 Smollett, III. 481. See also Mahon, Hist. England, IV. 72. 



