encamped upon the eastern bank of the Montmorenci, whence he continued to storm the citadel with frightful effect. On the 18th, in concert with Saunders, Wolfe reconnoitred the shore above the town as far as the St.. Charles. July and August passed away, without delaying operations. Early in September, Wolfe resolved to draw Montcalm into an open action. To be sure he had "the whole force of Canada to oppose, and by the nature of the river, the fleet could render no assistance." Having well secured his posts on the Isle of Orleans, and opposite Quebec, he moved his army down stream, and landed on the 13th, on the cove, "which now bears his name, where the bending promontories almost form a basin with a very narrow margin, over which the hill rises precipitously." From this position he resolved to surprise the city. It was an autumn evening when the general issued his last orders. As he passed from ship to ship, to make his final inspection, he repeated to his comrades the prophetic words from Gray's Elegy: "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, The paths of glory lead but to the grave." "I would prefer," said he, "being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French to-morrow." But he knew that he lived under the eye of Pitt and of his country. On the morning of the 13th of September, Wolfe with Murray and Monckton, and about half of his army, glided down with the tide, and stood ready for battle upon the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm, stationed behind his intrenchments on the other side of the St. Charles, beheld with amazement the position of his enemy. "It can be but a small party," said he, 66 come to burn a few houses and retire." Later he exclaimed, "They have at last got to the weak side of this miserable garrison; we must give battle, and crush them before midday." About ten o'clock, the two armies stood face to face; and just before noon, the short but desperate conflict began. Wolfe and Montcalm both fell, mortally wounded. "Support me," said the former to an officer by his side; "let not my brave fellows see me drop." He was borne to the rear. "They run, they run!" remarked the officer. "Who run?" asked Wolfe. "The French give way everywhere." "What!" exclaimed the dying hero, "do they run already? Go, one of you, to Colonel Burton; bid him march Webb's regiment, with all speed, to Charles River, to cut off the fugitives. Now, God be praised, I die happy." "Ten or twelve hours, On another part of the field the brave and hopeful Montcalm was struggling with death. "How long shall I survive?" he asked of the surgeon. perhaps less." "So much the better; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." To De Ramsay, who commanded the garrison, and who asked his advice about defending 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." At five the next morning Montcalm expired. On the 17th of September, De Ramsay raised the white flag, and Quebec was surrendered. During the siege the English lost six hundred and sixty-four men, and the French lost nearly fifteen hundred.1 "The smiles of fortune were turned to frowns." The 1 Pouchot, Mems., ii. 131-150. Mante, 171-189. Mortimer, iii. 655–663. Warburton, ii. 171-220. Bancroft, iv. 324-338. Barry, ii. 236-239. fall of Montcalm, in the moment of his defeat, completed the victory, and the submission of Canada put an end to the dream of a French empire in America. In breaking through the line with which France had striven to check the westward advance of the English colonists, Pitt had unconsciously changed the history of the world. His support of Frederick and of Prussia was to lead in our own day to the creation of a United Germany. His conquest of Canada, by removing the enemy, whose dread knit the colonists to the mother country, and by flinging open to their energies in the days to come the boundless plains of the west, laid the foundation of the United States. Amherst closed the war, in the following year, by the reduction of Montreal; and on the 9th of September, the Marquis de Vaudreuil signed the capitulation which separated Canada from France forever. In 1763 peace was finally declared. To the Americans this conquest was the stepping-stone to the revolution; it trained up officers for the armies of Washington, and created soldiers for the defence of national freedom. 29 CHAPTER XI. THE STAMP ACT. CHARLES DAVENANT, an English dramatist, born in 1656, thus prophesied two centuries ago: "As the case now stands, we shall show that the colonies are a spring of wealth to this nation; that they work for us, that their treasure centres all here, and that the laws have tied them fast enough to us; so that it must be through our own fault and misgovernment if they become independent of England. Corrupt governors may hereafter provoke them to withdraw their obedience, and by supine negligence or upon mistaken measures we may let them grow, more especially New England, in naval strength and power, which, if suffered, we cannot expect to hold them long in our subjection. If, as some have proposed, we should think to build ships of war there, we may teach them an art which will cost us some blows to make them forget. Some such courses may, indeed, drive them, or put it into their heads, to erect themselves into independent commonwealths." 1 Many years before, Richard Hooker, the great light of English literature, had written, that "the lawful power of making laws to command whole political societies of men belongeth so properly unto the same entire societies, that for any prince or potentate, of what kind soever upon earth, to exercise the same of himself, and not either by express commission Discourses, pt. ii. 204-205. 1 immediately and personally received from God, or else authority received at first from their consent upon whose persons they impose laws, it is no better than mere tyranny." To the correctness of this doctrine the colonists readily subscribed; and believing that, as Englishmen and as men, they had rights which neither the king nor the Parliament could justifiably infringe, they now resolved to maintain the sanctity of these rights as a part of their own existence. England lost her colonies by her own mismanagement. A gigantic system of fraud and wrong was reared to such a height that the whole political fabric tottered under its weight, — and Revolution and Independence were the natu ral results. The controversies with the crown, which had been waged under the administrations of Dudley, of Shute, of Burnet, and of Belcher, were continued under the administration of Shirley. This gentleman was a sworn defender of the royal prerogative, and was zealous in his oppression of the colonists. In 1749 he wrote to the Duke of Bedford, urging the erection of "fortresses, under the direction of the king's engineers and officers," and that "a tax for their maintenance should be laid by Parliament upon the colonies." In this and in other ways he succeeded in poisoning the minds of the king's councillors, and in inflaming them against British subjects in America. On the 3d of March, 1749, a bill was brought into Parliament, providing for the enforcement of all the king's instructions in the colonies. By the foresight of wise men the bill was defeated. In the following year a committee in Parliament submitted a bill forbidding, "under a penalty of two hundred pounds, and declaring to be nuisances, the erection of mills for slitting or rolling iron, Ecclesiastical Polity, bk. viii. |