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ley* said, 'm tte House of Commons, that the colonists " took Louisbourg 

 from the French single-handed,- without any European assistance— as 

 mettled an enterprise as any in our history — an everlasting memorial 

 to the zeal, courage, and perseverance of the troops of New England."t 



These are the mere outlines of the accounts of this extraordinary 

 ■affair4 Several of our. books of history contain full details; but the 

 eorrespondence of Shirley, Pepperell, and Warren, which is preserved 

 in the CoUections of the Historical Sociiety of Massachusetts, as well as 

 the letters and narratives of subordinate actors, should be read in con- 

 nexion. 



i| century has elapsed. With the present condition of Cape Breton 

 ^^^w, we almost imagine that we hold in our hands books of fiction 

 '0mkc than the records of the real, when we read, as we do in Smol- 

 'j|l^lBnat the conquest of Louisbourg was " the most important ochieDement 

 of the war o/" 1744 ;" in the Universal History, that " New England gave 

 peaee to Europe by raising, arming, and transporting four thousand 

 men," whose success "proved an equivalent for all the successes of the 

 French upon the continent ;" and in Lord Chesterfield, that, "in the end 

 it produced peace," and that the noble duke at the head of the ad- 

 miralty declared that, " if France was mxister of Portsmouth, he would hang 

 the men who should give Cape Breton in excJmvge" 



The peace of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, was dishonorable to England 

 at home and in her colonies. Of the adjustment of the questions which 

 relate to our subject, I ma.}'' remark, that she not only restored Cape 

 Breton to France, and submitted to the humiliating condition of seind- 

 ing two persons of rank and distinction to reside in that kingdom as 

 hostages until that island and other conquests should be actually sur- 

 rendered, but consented also to omit all mention of the right of English 

 subjects to navigate the American seas without being liable to search 

 and molestation, though that pretension on the part of the French was 

 one of the original causes of the war, as well as the basis of the attacks 

 made on Walpole's ministry. The results of the peace to England 

 were an immense debt, the barren glory of supporting the German 

 sovereignty of Maria Theresa, and the alienation of the affections of 



* He was one of the British commissioners of peace in 1783. 



• tHorace Walpole calls Sir Peter Warren "the conqueror of Cape Breton;" aad says that 

 hp was " richer than Anson, and absurd as Vernon." Walpole also quotes a remark of Marshal 

 Belleisle, who, wJien he was told of the taking of Cape Breton, said, " he could believe tliat, 

 because the ministiy had no hand in it." Walpole j,dds: "We are making bonfires for Cape 

 Breton, and thundSring over Genoa, while our army m Flanders is running away and dropping 

 to pieces by detachments taken prisoners every day." 



t April 4, 1748, a committee of the House of Commons came to the following resolution: 

 "^ Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that it is just and reasonable that the 

 several provinces and colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Ehode 

 Island be reiiSiburBed the expenses they have been at in taking and Securing to the crown of 

 Great Britaia the island of Cape Breton and its dependencies." 



Mr. Burke, remarks on this resolution that " these expenses were immense for such colonies ; 

 th^ were above £200,000 sterling — money first raised and advanced on their public credit."' 



William Bollan, collector of the Customs for Salem and Marblehead, who manied a daughter 

 of Governor Shirley, was sent to England to solicit the reimbursement of these expensesr He 

 ojitaiiied the sum of £183,649 sterling, after a difficult and toilsome agency of three years. 



He returned to Boston' in 1748, with six hundred and fifty-three tlipusan^ ounces of silver 

 and tea tons of copper. This money was landed on Long Wharf, placed in wagons, and 

 carried through the streets mid much rejoicing. 

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