1755.

66

proceeded to Pitt, and consulted Pitt's judgment *; nevertheless Pitt felt aggrieved, and as it were forsaken, in the result. He disdained to make any complaint, but took an opportunity of saying that Mr. Fox's line and his own were now different, not opposite, but converging -“a word,” adds Fox, “which I do not quite understand," and that all connexion between them was at an end. In truth the conduct of Fox to Pitt on this occasion seems not easy to reconcile with perfect good faith; while the sudden, lowering of his pretensions to Newcastle was, beyond all doubt, an unworthy subservience. On one or both of these grounds he fell in public esteem, and it may be truly said that the desertion of Pitt proved nearly as injurious to the first Fox as the coalition with Lord North to the second.

By the aid of Fox and the silence of Pitt the remainder of the Session passed quietly. But great events were now at hand. The horizon had long been black with war, and in this summer burst the storm. In the East Indies the French and English settlers had for some years carried on hostilities, each party under the semblance of assisting its allies; their jars, however, were, if not composed, at least suspended by a compact between the two Companies. In North America the evil spread wider. Ever since the peace the limits of our colony of Nova Scotia-or Acadia as named by the French-had been a matter of angry discussion with the Court of Versailles. Commissioners had been appointed, and had accordingly met, but could come to no agreement. Both - sides appealed to the terms of ancient treaties or state papers, but these had been drawn almost at random, while the territories in dispute yet lay waste and unexplored. The very term Acadia had sometimes been applied by the French to the mere Peninsula of Nova Scotia; sometimes to the whole range of country between the 40th and 46th degrees of North latitude. Thus in

* See the Chatham Correspondence, vol. i. p. 124-134. But the date, April 25., which is supplied by the Editor, must be erroneous. See H. Walpole's Letter of January 9. 1755.

† Dodington's Diary, May 9. 1755.-Mr. Fox to Lord Hartington, May 13. 1755.

Sismondi, Histoire des Français, vol. xxix. p. 62. Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. i. p. 112.

like manner the line of demarcation between the French provinces of Canada and the British of New England. was by no means free from cavils. With feelings of jealousy so rife, any roving inroad of the wild Indians on one party was always resented as a malicious instigation, as a wanton insult, of the other. Besides, the French were eager to connect their settlements on the St. Lawrence with those on the Mississippi, by a chain of forts beyond their territory. Some progress had already been made in the design, and these encroachments had stirred up no small alarm and indignation in the States, especially, of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Collisions followed, neither slight nor few. In Nova Scotia some French fugitives and insurgents confederating with an Indian tribe took the name of "Neutrals," and stood their ground against the British, but were routed by a body of 1,000 men dispatched against them under Major Lawrence. On the Ohio it was reported that the French had surprised and sacked Block's or Log's Town, a settlement of the Virginians, who, on their part, sent forward Major George Washington, at the head of 400 men. His orders were to strengthen and maintain an unfinished fort on the Ohio, which, meanwhile, however, the French seized, completed, and called by the name of Duquesne. The Major having advanced to a place called Great Meadows, found himself surrounded in a small fort by superior numbers, and, notwithstanding his resolute resistance, overpowered; he was compelled to capitulate, marching out, however, with military honours. This skirmish, of small importance, perhaps, in itself, was yet amongst the principal causes of the war. It is no less memorable as the first appearance in the pages of history of one of their brightest ornaments, great and good man, GENERAL WASHINGTON. An able diplomacy in Europe exerted betimes would probably have removed the causes and allayed the ran

*

of that

*A much fuller and of course much better account of this outset of Washington's career is given in a note of several pages by Mr. Henry Reed, the American editor of this history (vol. ii. p. 307. ed. 1849). In my revision I have not failed to make use of the lights it has afforded. See also on some more special points the second volume of Washington's Writings in Mr. Sparks's edition, p. 447477. (1853.)

1755.

66

LORD ALBEMARLE.

45

cour of these feuds in America. But for our misfortune we had then at Paris as Ambassador the Earl of Albemarle, an indolent man of pleasure. He is held out by Lord Chesterfield to his son as an encouraging instance of the honours and emoluments which his favourite Graces can confer. "Between you and me, for this example must go no further, what do you think made our "friend, Lord Albemarle, Colonel of a regiment of guards, "Governor of Virginia, Groom of the Stole, and Ambas"sador to Paris; amounting in all to sixteen or seven"teen thousand pounds a year? Was it his birth? "No; a Dutch gentleman only. Was it his estate? No; he had none. Was it his learning, his parts, his political abilities and application? You can answer "these questions as easily, and as soon, as I can ask "them. What was it then? - Many people wondered, "but I do not, for I know, and will tell you. It was "his air, his address, his manners, and his graces.' During his latter years at Paris Albemarle was blindly devoted to a French mistress, who is alleged to have not only ruined his fortune, but sold his secrets to her government. He died suddenly at his post in December 1754, but not until the breach between the nations had widened almost beyond the hope of reconciliation.

66

In the month of March the King sent a message to the House of Commons, announcing that the state of affairs required an augmentation of his forces both by land and sea. The House of Commons in return voted another million as a vote of credit. But, notwithstanding this troubled state of affairs, -notwithstanding also great confusion in Ireland from the cabals of the Speaker and the Primate, and the mismanagement of the Duke of Dorset, the Lord Lieutenant, whom it was found necessary at this juncture to recall, and to send out Lord Hartington as peace-maker, His Majesty was not to be turned aside from his favourite recreation a summer's residence at Hanover. In vain did his Ministers remonstrate; in vain did Earl Poulett, a former Lord of the Bedchamber, and a recent patriot, bring forward a motion against it in the House of Lords. The remon

* Lord Chesterfield to his Son, May 27. 1752.

strances were unheeded; the motion, which indeed could scarcely be reconciled either with respect or with precedents, was set aside at the interposition of Chesterfield *; and thus the King at the close of the Session in April, attended by Lord Holderness, embarked for his Electoral dominions.

Only the day before King George embarked at Harwich Admiral Boscawen, with eleven ships of the line and two regiments on board, set sail from Portsmouth. His orders were to follow a large French armament which had recently been equipped at Brest, and to attack it, if designed for the Bay of St. Lawrence. A thick fog off Newfoundland concealed the rival fleets from each other; but two English ships, the first commanded by Captain (afterwards Lord) Howe, came within speech of two French. The foreign Commandant inquired if it was war or peace. Howe replied that he must wait for his Admiral's signal, but that he advised the Frenchman to prepare for war. Ere long appeared Boscawen's signal for engaging; Howe attacked, and after an engagement, in which he displayed equal skill and intrepidity, succeeded in taking the two French ships, the Alcide and the Lys. The rest of the French armament - eight or nine ships of the line-got safe into the harbour of Louisburg; and their safety caused as great disappointment in England, as the capture of their consorts irritation in France. The French Ambassador in London, M. de Mirepoix, was recalled at these tidings, yet still there was not on either side a formal declaration of war.

Other important tidings followed. In the preceding January General Braddock, with some troops, had been dispatched to the relief of Virginia. Braddock was a man cast in the same mould as Hawley, of a brave but brutal temper, and like Hawley also a personal favourite of the Duke of Cumberland. His rigorous ideas of discipline had made him hateful to his soldiers, and from the same cause he held in great contempt the American

*Lord Chesterfield to Mr. Dayrolles, May 2. 1755, and H. Walpole to Mr. Bentley, May 6. 1755. Lord Poulett afterwards advertised for the notes of his own speech as lost; and Legge, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said, in his punning style," My Lord P. has had a stroke of apoplexy; he has lost both his speech and motion!"

66

1755.

DEFEAT OF GENERAL BRADDOCK.

47

Militia, seeing that they could not go through their exercise with the same dexterity and regularity which he had so often admired and enforced in Hyde Park. As to the Indians, the allies of France, he treated with disdain all the warnings he received against an ambush or surprise from them; and the Indians of his own party, who would have been his surest guards against this particular peril, were so disgusted by the haughtiness of his demeanour that most of them forsook his banners. Aiming his operations against Fort Duquesne, the principal of the new French encroachments on the Ohio, he first reached Great Meadows, the scene of Washington's reverse in the preceding summer. Here he found it necessary to leave a part of his troops and all his heavy baggage, but pursued his march with twelve hundred men and ten pieces of artillery. On the 9th of July he had arrived within ten miles of Fort Duquesne, when about noon he entered a hollow vale between two thick woods. He had neglected all precautions of scouts or vedettes, when suddenly his men were assailed in front and in flank by a murderous fire from unseen enemies. These were the native Indians, assisted by a handful of French. They continued their fire from the covert, singling out especially the officers, whom they distinguished by their dress, and brought down with unerring aim. In this emergency Braddock's courage could not be exceeded; he had several horses killed under him, but at length was mortally wounded by a ball through his breast, and was borne off the field by some soldiers whom his aide-decamp had bribed to that service by a guinea and a bottle of rum to each. He lingered a few hours more, having first dictated a despatch in which he did justice to the good conduct of his officers. Seeing him fall, his troops sought safety in headlong flight, leaving behind them their artillery and 700 dead or dying men.

This disaster was scarcely balanced, later in the year, by a victory of another officer, General Johnson, over a body of French and Indians near Lake George, or by the capture of Beau-sejour in Nova Scotia by Colonel Monckton.

At home in the King's absence our councils were most feeble and wavering. Another powerful fleet was ready