so ignorant-so inefficient generally-as to imagine that "the ice in the river at Quebec, freezing to the bottom, would bilge his vessels," and that, to avert so fearful a disaster to her Majesty's ships, he "must place them on dry ground, in frames and cradles, till the thaw!"

He was spared the calamity of wintering in ice one hundred feet in thickness! On the passage up the St. Lawrence, eight of his ships were wrecked, and eight hundred and eighty-four men drowned. But for this, said he, "ten or twelve thousand men must have been left to perish of cold and hunger: by the loss of a part, Providence saved all the rest." Of course, an expedition consisting of fifteen ships-of-war and forty transports, of troops fresh from the victories of Marlborough, and of colonists trained to the severities of a northern climate, and sufficient for the service, under such chiefs, accomplished nothing but a hasty departure.

Peace was concluded in 1713. Down to this period the French fisheries had been more successful, probably, than those conducted by the English or the American colonists.

Their own account is, indeed, that, at the opening of the century, their catch of codfish was equal to the supply of all continental or Catholic Europe. By the treaty of Utrecht, in the year just mentioned, England obtained what she had so long contended for, as her statesmen imagined—namely, a supremacy in, or monopoly of, the fisheries of our seas.

On the coast of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, the French were utterly prohibited from approaching within thirty leagues, beginning at the Isle of Sable, and thence measuring southwesterly; while the unconditional right of England to the whole of Newfoundland, and to the Bay of Hudson and its borders, was formally acknowledged.

Yet, at Newfoundland, the privilege of fishing on a part of the eastern coast from Cape Bonavista to the northern point, and thence along the western shore as far as Point Riche, was granted to the subjects of Louis. It is to be observed that England reserved the exclusive use of the fishing-grounds considered the best, and also the territorial jurisdiction; that the French were not permitted to settle on the soil, or erect any structures other than fishermen's huts and stages; and that the old and well-understood method of fishing was to be continued without change.

By one party this adjustment of a vexed question was deemed favorable to England and just to France. But another party insisted that their rival, humbled by the terms of the peace in other respects, should have been required in this to submit to her own doctrines and to an unconditional exclusion from the American seas. The opponents of the treaty did not view the case fairly. The cession of Acadia was supposed to include the large island of Cape Breton; and, this admitted, the French were to be confined to a region from which their further, or at least considerable, interference with vessels wearing the English flag was hardly possible: while, with regard to that very region, it should be recollected that, though England claimed Newfoundland by the discovery of Cabot and the possession of Gilbert, no strenuous or long-continued opposition had been made, at any time, to all nations fishing, or even forming settlements, there; and that France

was entitled to special consideration, inasmuch as her establishments for conducting the fishery had been held without interruption for more than half a century, and had been recognised at the peace of Ryswick. Besides, she had captured several English posts in addition, and, in fact, was in actual possession of a large part of the island and its valuable appendages.

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The party in opposition assailed the ministry in terms of bitter denunciation. It was said that they "had been grossly imposed upon," that they "had directly given to France all she wanted," and that the concessions were "universally and justly condemned." Such are some of the words of reproach that appear in an official report. In the litical ferocity of the time, Lord Oxford was impeached; and it is among the charges against him that, "in defiance of an express act of Parliament, as well as in contempt of the frequent and earnest representations of the merchants of Great Britain and of the commissioners of trade and plantations," he, Robert, Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mortimer, had advised his sovereign that "the subjects of France should have the liberty of fishing and drying fish in Newfoundland."

His lordship was committed to the Tower, and tried for high treason; but such has been the advance of civilization and of the doctrine of human brotherhood, that an act which was a flagrant crime in his own age has become one honorable to his memory. The great principle he thus maintained in disgrace, that the seas of British America are not to be held by British subjects as a monopoly, and to the exclusion of all other people, has never since been wholly disregarded by any British minister, and we may hope will ever now appear in British diplomacy to mark the progress of liberal principles and of "man's humanity to man."

The loss of Nova Scotia caused but a temporary interruption of the French fisheries. Within a year of the ratification of the treaty of Utrecht, fugitive fishermen of that colony and of Newfoundland settled on Cape Breton and resumed their business. I have remarked that, as the English understood the cession of Acadia, "according to its ancient boundaries," this island was held to be a part of it. The French contended, on the other hand, that Acadia was a continental possession, and did not embrace, of course, an island sufficient of itself to form a colony. The settlement and fortification of Cape Breton was therefore undertaken immediately, as a government measure. Never has there been a better illustration of the facile character of the French people than is afforded by the case before us. Wasting no energies in useless regrets, but adapting themselves to the circumstances of their

* Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mortimer, a distinguished minister of state in the reign of Queen Anne, was born in 1661. "After the peace of Utrecht, the tory statesmen, having no longer apprehensions of danger from abroad, began to quarrel among themselves and the two chiefs, Oxford and Bolingbroke, especially, became personal and political foes.' Soon after the succession of George I, Oxford was impeached of high treason by the House of Commons, and was committed to the Tower. The Duke of Marlborough was among his enemies. Bolingbroke fled to the continent. Oxford was tried before the House of Peers in 1717, and acquitted of the crimes alleged against him. He was the friend of Pope, Swift, and other literary men of the time. He died in 1724. His son Edward, the second Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mortimer, was also a great and liberal patron of literature and learned men, and completed the valuable collection of manuscripts which he commenced, and which is now in the British Museum.

In

position, they recovered from their losses with ease and rapidity. 1721 their fleet of fishing-vessels was larger than at any former period, and is said to have been quite four hundred.

Reference to the map will show that Cape Breton and Nova Scotia are divided by a narrow strait. The meeting of vessels of the two flags was unavoidable. The revival of old grudges, collisions, and quarrels, was certain; but no serious difficulties appear to have occurred pre

vious to 1734.

In 1744, England and France were still again involved in war. Among the earliest hostile deeds were the surprise of the English garrison at Canseau, Nova Scotia, and the destruction of the buildings, the fort, and the fishery there, by a force from Cape Breton, and the capture at Newfoundland of a French ship, laden with one hundred and fifty tons of dried codfish, by a privateer belonging to Boston. These, however, are incidents of no moment, and may be disposed of in a word.

The French fisheries had continued prosperous. They excited envy and alarm. Accounts which are considered authentic, but which I am compelled to regard as somewhat exaggerated, show that they employed nearly six hundred vessels and upwards of twenty-seven thousand men; and that the annual produce was almost a million and a half quintals of fish, of the value of more than four and a half millions of dollars. More than all else, the fishery at Cape Breton was held to be in violation of the treaty of Utrecht; for, as has been said, that island was in the never-yet-defined country, Acadia.

Robert Auchmuty,* an eminent lawyer of Boston, and judge of the court of admiralty, when sent to England as agent of Massachusetts on the question of the Rhode Island boundary, published a pamphlet entitled "The importance of Cape Breton to the British nation, and a plan for taking the place," in which he demonstrated that its conquest would put the English in sole possession of the fisheries of North America; would give the colonies ability to purchase manufactures of the mother country of the value of ten millions of dollars annually; would employ many thousand families then earning nothing; increase English mariners and shipping; cut off all communication between France and Canada by the river St. Lawrence, so that, in the fall of Quebec, the French would be driven from the continent; and, finally, open a correspondence with the remote Indian tribes, and transfer the fur trade to Anglo-Saxon hands. All this was to follow the reduction and possession of a cold, distant, and inhospitable island. Such was the sentiment of the time.

In 1745, the conquest of Cape Breton was undertaken. Viewed as a military enterprise, its capture is the most remarkable event in our colonial history. Several colonies south of New England were invited

*Robert Auchmuty was of Scottish descent, but was educated at Dublin. He came to Boston when young, and was appointed judge of the court of admiralty in 1703. In 1740, he was a di ector of the "Land Bank," or bubble, which involved the father of Samuel Adams and many others in ruin. He was sent to England on important service, and, while there, projected an expedition to Cape Breton. After his return, he was appointed judge of admiralty a second time. He died in 1750. His son, Samuel, a graduate of Harvard University, was an Episcopal minister in New York; and his grandson, Sir Samuel Auchmuty, a lieutenant general in the British army, and died in 1822. The Auchmutys of the revolutionary era adhered to the side of the crown.

to join the expedition, but none would consent to waste life in a project so mad; and Franklin, forgetting that he was "Boston-born," ridiculed it in one of the wittiest letters he ever wrote. In Massachusetts, and elsewhere at the North, men enlisted as in a crusade. Whitefield made a recruiting house of the sanctuary. To show how the images in the Catholic churches were to be hewn down, axes were brandished and borne about; and, while Puritanism aimed to strike a blow at Catholicism, the concerns of the present life were not forgotten. Fishermen panted for revenge on those who had insulted them and driven them from the fishing-grounds. Merchants, with Auchmuty's pamphlet in their hands, thought of the increased sale and the enhanced price of New England fish in foreign markets. Military officers who had served in Nova Scotia in the previous war were ambitious of further distinction and preferment. Such were the motives.

William Vaughan, who was extensively engaged in the fisheries, and whose home was near Pemaquid, in Maine, claimed that, while listening to the tales of some of his own fishermen, he conceived the design of the expedition. Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, embraced his plans, and submitted them to the general court. By this body they were rejected. Renewed by the governor, and insisted upon by the merchants, they were finally adopted by the vote of the speaker, who had acted previously in opposition.t

Instantly Boston became the scene of busy preparation.

William Pepperell, of Kittery, in Maine, and the son of a fisherman of the Isles of Shoals, assumed command of the expedition. The merchants of Boston furnished a large part of the armed vessels and transports. The fishermen of Plymouth were the first troops to arrive. Those of Marblehead and Gloucester, and those who had been employed by Pepperell and Vaughan, followed in rapid succession. Lumberers, mechanics, and husbandmen completed the force.

Louisbourg was the point of attack; for Cape Breton would fall with its capital without another blow. This city was named in honor of the king. Twenty-five years and thirty millions of livres were required to complete it. Its walls were built of bricks brought from France. More than two hundred pieces of cannon were mounted to defend it. So great was its strength that it was called the "Dunkirk of America." It had nunneries and palaces, terraces and gardens. That such a city rose upon a lone, desolate isle, in the infancy of American colonization, appears incredible. Explanation is alone found in the fishing enthusiasm of the period.

The fleet sailed from Boston in March. Singular to remark, of a military order, Shirley's instructions required an ample supply of codlines for use on the passage, so that the troops might be fed, as much as possible, on the products of the sea.

William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, was a native of England, and was bred to the law. He came to Boston about the year 1733, and was appointed governor in 1741. In 1755, he was commander-in-chief of the British forces in America. He died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1771.

† Mr. Oliver, a Boston member, broke his leg on his way to the house, and was not present. His vote would have caused the rejection of the plan a second time. The members deliberated under the first oath of secrecy administered to a legislative assembly in America.

A more undisciplined and disorderly body of men never disem barked to attempt the reduction of a walled city. The squadron commanded by Warren, and ordered by the ministry to co-operate with Pepperell, arrived in time to share in the perils and honors of the siege. The colonial fleet and the ships of the royal navy kept up a close blockade. The colonists on shore, without a regular encampment, lodged in huts built of turf and bushes. With straps across their shoulders, they dragged cannon in sledges over morasses impassable with wheels. Making jest of military subordination, they fired at marks, they fished and fowled, wrestled and raced, and chased after balls shot from the French guns. Badly sheltered, and exhausted by toil in mud and water, and by 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 and six hundred bombs 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 achievement.

A single day's delay in the surrender might have resulted in discomfiture and defeat, and in extensive mortal sickness, since, within a few hours of the capitulation, a storm of rain set in, which, in the ten days it continued, flooded the camp-ground and beat down the huts which the colonists abandoned for quarters within the walls.

Pepperell and his companions were the most fortunate of men. Even after the fall of the city, the French flag (which was kept flying as a decoy) lured within their grasp ships with cargoes of merchandise worth more than a million of dollars. The exploit was commended in the highest and loftiest terms. Even thirty years afterwards, Mr. Hartley said, in the 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."+ These are the mere outlines of the accounts of this extraordinary affair. Several of our books of history contain full details; but the

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

+ Horace Walpole calls Sir Peter Warren "the conqueror of Cape Breton," and says that he was "richer than Anson, and absurd as Vernon." Walpole also quotes a remark of Marshal Belleisle, who, when he was told of the taking of Cape Breton, said, "he could believe that, because the ministry had no hand in it." Walpole adds: "We are making bonfires for Cape Breton, and thundering over Genoa, while our army in Flanders is running away and dropping to pieces by detachments taken prisoners every day."

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 Rhode Island be reimbursed the expenses they have been at in taking and securing to the crown of Great Britain the island of Cape Breton and its dependencies."

Mr. Burke remarks on this resolution that "these expenses were immense for such colonies; they 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 married a daughter of Governor Shirley, was sent to England to solicit the reimbursement of these expenses. He obtained 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 thousand ounces of silver and ten tons of copper. This money was landed on Long Wharf, placed in wagons, and carried through the streets mid much rejoicing.