i(j2 
French guns. Badly sheltered, and exhausted by toil in mud 
and water and exposure in a cold and foggy climate, fifteen 
hundred became sick and unfit for duty. Still the siege was 
conducted with surpassing energy, with some skill and courage 
seldom equalled; nine thousand cannon balls were discharged 
by the assailants. The French commander submitted on the 
forty-ninth day of the investment. The victors entered the 
Dunkirk of the western world amazed at their own achieve¬ 
ments. ”— Sabine. 
Notwithstanding that the British government restored Louis- 
burg afterwards to the French, in exchange for some islands in 
the Indies, yet the blow was struck which opened the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence to the Saxon. The British nation gave little 
credit to the colonial fishermen for their daring exploits ; intense 
jealousy prevailed, instigated by the wonderful strides which the 
New England colonists were making in developing the fisheries 
and commerce. This feeling finds an illustration in a writer of 
that period : “ New England,” he said, “ is the most dangerous 
plantation to this kingdom in America; none are so apt at 
shipbuilding or so qualified for the nurturing of seamen, by 
reason of their cod and mackerel fisheries. In my opinion 
there is nothing more prejudicial and in prospect more danger¬ 
ous to my mother country than the increase of ships in her 
colonies.” 
The Imperial Parliament drank deep of this poision and took 
the fatal steps which severed valuable branches from the parent 
trunk ; in 1773 that body passed a law for the ruin of the fish¬ 
eries in New England; high prohibitory duties were levied on 
the products of the foreign colonies in the West Indies landing 
in New England. In executing those measures the revenue 
officers were subjected to abuse, and in some cases, to bodily 
chastisement. The people were earnest in stirring up a warm 
opposition to this oppressive statute. “ Cheap sweetening ” 
became the password to fire the northern heart, — a text which 
James Otis expounded with telling effect, In all the commo¬ 
tions through which our country has since passed — the wars 
with the mother country and the awful rebellion in the south — 
the heroic deeds of the fishermen shine in historic brass* The 
recent “ cutting out ” of the “ Horton” demonstrates the daring 
valor of the fisherman. 
Fishermen as a class consume less fish than is generally sup- 
