V. 1759. Very nearly at the same moment that Wolfe fell, Mont- CHAP. calm, who was fighting opposite the English general, also received his death wound, and was born off on a litter to the general hospital. When told that death was inevitable, he replied, "I am glad of it;" and when informed that he had but ten or twelve hours to live at the most, he exclaimed, "So much the better, I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." When consulted by the commander of the garrison in relation to the defence of the city, he replied, "To your keeping, I commend the honor of France. As for me, I shall pass the night with God, and prepare myself for death." Early the next morning he expired. The English, under General Townsend, continued their preparations for a siege, but before the guns were ready to open fire, De Ramsay, at the urgent solicitation of the citizens, hoisted the white flag; and on the eighteenth of September, the cross of St. George floated from the castle of St. Louis. The shattered army of the French fled to Montreal; and Admiral Saunders, dreading the winter, with one thousand prisoners bore away for England. The news of the fall of Quebec was hailed both in England and America with acclamations of joy. In England a day was set apart for public thanksgiving; and in America the colonists burned bonfires. throughout the land. Yet amid all of these rejoicings, the glory of this victory was fringed with gloom for the loss of the gallant Wolfe; and with the universal delight, was mingled a deep and heartfelt sorrow at his untimely end. Parliament commemorated his services in a monument in Westminster abbey, and Massachusetts, holding him in kindly remembrance, voted to his memory a marble statue. The young general was worthy of all these expressions of affection. To a passionate fondness for his profession of arms, and a than to give the orders which, carried into execution, occasioned the overcoming of almost insurmountable natural obstacles, and the overthrow of Montcalm. V. CHAP. warm love for polite letters, he united a singular modesty; and though he possessed a reputation "wide as the civil1759. ized world," yet, in the quaint language of Jeremy Taylor, "as if he knew nothing of it, he had a low opinion of himself; and like a fair taper, when he shined to all the room, yet round about his own station he had cast a shadow and a cloud, and he shined to everybody but himself." CHAPTER VI. VI. It was now October, and the time for which provision CHAP. had been made for the pay of the Provincial troops would soon expire. General Amherst anticipating this, had 1759. written to the several colonial governors the latter part of September, requesting that their men might be kept in the field two months longer, in order that the campaign which had been so auspiciously carried on during the summer, might be successfully terminated. In response to this reasonable request, Mr. De Lancey summoned the assembly to meet on the seventeenth of October. On account of the then raging small pox in the city, the house met in the suburbs at the lieutenant governor's country seat, which stood within the recollection of persons now living on the east side of the Bowery above Grand street. In his opening message on the first day of the session, Mr. De Lancey informed the general assembly of the peculiar reasons which had led to its being summoned at this time. The important acquisitions which had been gained from the enemy, rendered it necessary that such measures should at once be taken as would ensure the advantages of the summer's campaign. He was therefore desirous that provision should be made for keeping in the field those of the Provincials who would otherwise be dismissed on the first of November. "You must be sensible," he continued, "that the enemy have had very small supplies of provisions this year from France, and that most of the men in Canada having been in arms this summer, their crops must have suffered greatly. In this pressing situation it cannot be doubted they will use their CHAP. utmost efforts to repossess themselves of their strongholds, 1759. VI. if it were only with a design of getting subsistence from our magazines: but if they know that there are respectable forts to oppose them, and find that the works are completed, they must lay aside all such attempts as fruitless and vain." These cogent reasons, however, were not needed by the house to convince it of the necessity of prompt action. On the same day it voted a further provision of one month's pay to the troops which had been raised by the province; and in addition, it resolved with a commendable liberality, to supply each soldier with a pair of shoes and stockings and a warm waistcoat, as a farther encouragement for them to continue in the service. The assembly was then adjourned to the fourth of November.1 1760. Meanwhile, before the next meeting of the assembly, the colonists were electrified by the farther successes of British arms under General Wolfe; and by the cheering news from the continent, of the glorious and decisive victories which had crowned the efforts of England and her ally, in the route of the French army at Minden, and the defeat of the French fleet off the coast of Algava. There was indeed abundant cause for gratitude in these signal victories, to which Mr. De Lancey, in his message to the legislature on the sixth of December, did not fail to allude in terms of deep feeling. Although Quebec had yielded to British prowess, there was much to be done before Canada would be completely subdued. Montreal, Detroit, and La Galette yet remained in possession of the French; and it was evident that until the last vestige of French supremacy was blotted out, the tribes of the north and northwest, would allow no peace to the entire line of the border. It was therefore determined by the ministry, that the campaign of this year should complete the reduction of Canada. Accordingly, on the twentieth of February, the lieutenant governor of New Journal of the Assembly. VI. York received a circular letter from Secretary Pitt, inform- CHAP. ing him of the determination of the home government to prosecute the war with vigor. The assembly was there- 1760. upon convened on the eleventh of March, to respond to the request of the secretary for aid. "It is the king's pleasure," said Mr. De Lancey in his opening address, "that I do forthwith use my utmost endeavors and influence, to induce you to raise, with all possible dispatch, within this government, at least as large a body of men as you did for the last campaign, and even as many more, as the number of its inhabitants may allow, to be formed into regiments, and to hold themselves in readiness as early as may be, to march to the rendezvous at Albany, or such other place as his majesty's commander in chief in America, shall appoint, in order to proceed from thence, in conjunction with a body of the king's British forces, so as to be in a situation to begin the operations of the campaign, as soon as shall be in any way practicable, by an irruption into Canada, in order to reduce Montreal, and all other posts belonging to the French, in those parts, and farther to annoy the enemy in such manner, as his majesty's commander in chief shall from his knowledge of the countries through which the war is to be carried on, and from emergent circumstances, judge to be practicable." The Provincial officers were also to rank according to their respective commissions, the same as during the last two years. Arms, ammunition, artillery, boats and vessels, were, moreover, to be furnished as heretofore by the parent government; and all that was required on the part of the colonial legislators, was to buy, clothe and equip their own troops. With renewed confidence in the triumph of British arms, the house proceeded harmoniously in the work for which it had been summoned. A motion of Robert R. Livingston to the effect that an address should be presented, reminding his excellency that the loan to General Amherst was yet unpaid, was negatived; and a like contribution to |