1755.] THE WAR IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 105 



France and England, the English ministry formed 

 the plan of assailing the French in America on all 

 sides at once, and repelling them, by one bold push, 

 from all their encroachments.^ A provincial army 

 was to advance upon Acadia, a second was to 

 attack Crown Point, and a third Niagara ; while 

 the two regiments which had lately arrived in Vir- 

 ginia under General Braddock, aided by a strong 

 body of provincials, were to dislodge the French 

 from their newly-built fort of Du Quesne. To 

 Braddock was assigned the chief command of all 

 the British forces in ximerica ; and a person worse 

 fitted for the office could scarcely have been found. 

 His experience had been ample, and none could 

 doubt his courage ; but he was profligate, arro- 

 gant, perverse, and a bigot to military rules. ^ On 



1 Instructions of General Braddock. See Precis des Fails, 160, 168. 



2 The following is Horace Walpole's testimony, and writers of better 

 authority have expressed themselves, with less liveliness and piquancy, 

 to the same effect : — 



" Braddock is a very Iroquois in disposition. He had a sister, who, 

 having gamed away all her little fortune at Bath, hanged herself with a 

 truly English deliberation, leaving only a note upon the table with those 

 lines, ' To die is landing on some silent shore,' &c. When Braddock was 

 told of it, he only said, ' Poor Fanny ! I always thought she would play 

 till she would be forced to tack herself up.' " 



Here follows a curious anecdote of Braddock's meanness and profligacy, 

 which I omit. The next is more to his credit. " He once had a duel with 

 Colonel Gumley, Lady Bath's brother, who had been his great friend. As 

 they were going to engage, Gumley, who had good humor and wit (Brad- 

 dock had the latter), said, ' Braddock, you are a poor dog ! Here, take my 

 purse. If you kill me, you will be forced to run away, and then you will 

 not have a shiUing to support you.* Braddock refused the purse, insisted 

 on the duel, was disarmed, and would not even ask his life. However, 

 with all his brutality, he has lately been governor of Gibraltar, where 

 he made himself adored, and where scarce any governor was endured 

 before."— Letters fo Sir H. Mann, CCLXV. CCLXVI. 



Washington's opinion of Braddock may be gathered from his Writings, 

 11. 77. 



