Expansion by Conquest
(1688-1763).
(1) WHAT WE OWE TO WILLIAM OF ORANGE.
1. We pass now to a period in our history in which our struggle for
empire is chiefly with the French. That struggle began almost as
soon as the Prince of Orange became William III. of England. Though
a Dutchman, he is entitled to a place among the great builders of the
British Empire. To him we are doubly indebted, for he defended our
liberties at home against James II. of England, and our interests
abroad against Louis XIV. of France. His chief pleasure in accepting
the crown of England, arose from the hope that it would enable him to
unite the forces of England and Holland in curbing the power of
France.
2. It had been the one great object of William's life to thwart the
great enemy of his native country, Louis XIV. Though often defeated,
he was never conquered. In the darkest times he had never given way
to despair, and after each defeat had set to work to mend his broken
fortunes. And now he had England at his back, William believed that
he could meet his old enemy on equal terms, and he rejoiced at the
prospect. Few men have had to contend with so many difficulties, and
none have grappled with them more courageously.
3. Though William did much for England, it cannot be said that he
ever loved her, or was beloved by her. He was cold and reserved in
manner, and seldom seen to smile, being rarely free from bodily pain.
But in the field of battle, on his war charger, he seemed full of
life and joy; wherever the fight was fiercest and the danger
greatest, there he was sure to be. We see the kind of man he was in
his reply to the Parliament that proposed to make his wife, Mary,
Queen of England, and himself only Regent.
4. "My lords and gentlemen," he said, "No man can esteem a woman
more than I do the princess, but I am so made that I cannot think of
holding anything by my wife's apron-strings; nor can I think it
reasonable to have any share in the Government unless it be put in my
own person, and that for the term of my life. If you think fit to
settle it otherwise, I will not oppose you, but will go back to
Holland and meddle no more in your affairs." William, you see, knew
his own mind. He will be king or nothing, and king, accordingly, he
became.
5. William was scarcely seated on the throne, when James II. landed
in Ireland, with a body of French troops, brought there under the
escort of fifteen French men-of-war. As soon as news of this reached
London, war was declared against King Louis, in spite of the peril in
which the declaration placed England, for not only was the greater
part of Ireland in the hands of James II. and his French allies, but
the Highlanders of Scotland had risen in his favour. William first
made peace in Scotland, and then crossed to Ireland. He had no
sooner landed there with some thousands of troops than a great French
fleet under Admiral Tourville appeared in the Channel.
6. The spectators standing on the summit of Beachy Head on the last
day of June, 1690, must have watched the battle fought just below,
with sinking hearts; for the combined English and Dutch fleets were
that day completely beaten, and obliged to seek refuge in the Thames,
leaving the French fleet sole master of the Channel. Luckily no
French troops were ready to be landed on our shores, and the danger
soon passed away; for on the very next day, William won a complete
victory over James II. in Ireland, on the banks of the little river
Boyne.
7. On the day before the battle, whilst inspecting his troops, a
shot grazed William's shoulder, and made him reel in his saddle.
"There was no need for any bullet to come nearer than that!" was his
remark. And certainly not many bullets have ever come nearer to
changing the history of Britain, and therefore of the British Empire.
But on the fateful day itself (1st July, 1690) he escaped unhurt,
though often in the thick of the fight. Seeing the battle going
against him, James galloped off to Dublin and embarked for France.
The brave Irish who had fought for him that day were much disgusted,
and said to the victors after the battle: "Change leaders and we will
fight it all over again."
8. The battle of the Boyne is a memorable one, for it decided
whether the crown of England should be worn by a despot like James
II. under the patronage, if not the pay, of the French king, or by a
champion of popular freedom like William III., whose one aim was to
diminish the power of France and to foil the designs of King Louis.
9. James II., who had fled to France after his defeat in Ireland,
resolved to make one more effort, with the help of the French king,
to recover his throne. French troops were assembled in Normandy for
the invasion of England, and Admiral Tourville was sent with a fleet
to protect their passage across the Channel. It was feared that
Admiral Russell, who commanded the English fleet, would not do his
duty, for it was known that he was personally in favour of the
deposed monarch. But to James's friends he said, "Do not think I
will let the French triumph over us in our own seas; if I meet them,
I fight them, ay, though his Majesty himself should be on board."
10. Russell was as good as his word. After a determined fight for
five hours, the French were obliged to make for the shelter of their
ports. Fifteen ships that failed to reach St. Malo before the tide
had turned, took refuge in the bays of Cherbourg and La Hogue. Their
pursuers were soon upon them, and ship after ship was burnt under the
eyes of the French army, waiting to be taken across the Channel--in
sight too of James II. who, on beholding the daring of our sailors,
could not forbear exclaiming, "My brave English tars," even though
their victory was the death-blow of his hopes of ever regaining the
throne. La Hogue was the last general action fought by the French
fleet for a long period, and Louis's dream of supremacy at sea was,
for the present, at least, seen to be hopeless.
11. William was now safely seated on the throne, but he had no
intention of sitting quietly on it. He carried on the war vigorously
against Louis on the continent. Much English blood was shed, but it
was not shed in vain. It was necessary, in the interests of England,
to keep the French from overflowing the limits of their own land.
Had they succeeded in adding the Netherlands to France and the Dutch
navy to their own, our country would have been outmatched. She would
probably have lost her lead upon the sea, and her future greatness in
America and India. Louis by the Treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, agreed
to acknowledge William as King of England, and to give up all his
conquests except Strasburg. All honour to William of Orange who
foiled the ambition of the vain monarch that made war upon war for
his own glorification.
(2) A FAMOUS VICTORY AND A LUCKY CAPTURE.
1. When William died, in 1702, he was preparing for a new war, with
his old enemy, Louis XIV., to prevent the union of the Crowns of
France and Spain. It is known as the _War of the Spanish
Succession_, and arose from the fact that the King of Spain had
willed the crown to a French prince. "There are no longer any
Pyrenees," said Louis, as he contemplated the union of the two
crowns. Such an union would have put the other kingdoms of Europe
under the feet of France. Accordingly, an alliance was formed
between England, Holland, and Austria to keep the Pyrenees in their
place and the two nations apart.
2. Louis must have heard of the death of King William with deep
satisfaction. A queen now sat on the throne of England, but
fortunately she had in Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of
Marlborough, a general who was better qualified even than William as
Commander-in-chief, and whose good fortune as a commander proved so
remarkable that in the whole course of the war he suffered no defeat;
he never besieged a fortress he did not take, nor fought a battle he
did not win. Of his many victories the most splendid was that of
Blenheim, a little village on the Danube, in Bavaria.
3. The Bavarians having joined the French as allies, the way lay
open, through their country, into the very heart of Austria. The
French, under Marshal Tallard, were marching on Vienna, when they
were pulled up at Blenheim by the allied forces under Marlborough.
The right wing of the French army was posted in this village with the
river Danube on their flank. In front of the village the French had
erected strong palisades; they had also barricaded the streets and
loopholed the houses.
4. Marlborough first attempted to dislodge the French from this
strong position. Nothing could be finer than the onset of the
British, but they were bound to fail. Behind the palisades knelt
long lines of French troops, as brave as their assailants, whilst a
second line standing erect fired over the heads of their kneeling
comrades. Some of our men tried to tear up the palisades with their
hands, or clamber over them by mounting on each other's shoulders,
but the task proved beyond them. Marlborough withdrew his men, but
bade them keep up the feint of an attack upon Blenheim, whilst he
prepared to throw his cavalry on the French centre.
5. Marshal Tallard seems to have trusted to the protection of a
swamp which here separated the two armies. Across this swamp our
general led his cavalry, having first made tracks by laying down
faggots of wood. At the sound of the trumpet, about 8000
splendidly-mounted horsemen, who had made their way across moved up
the gentle slope, and then gradually quickening their pace, fell on
the French centre. So deadly was the volley of the French infantry
that the foremost of our squadrons recoiled and all was wild
confusion. The moment had come far the French cavalry to charge, but
they let the opportunity slip by. As soon as the British cavalry had
reformed, they renewed the attack with redoubled fury. The French
horsemen fired their carbines, wheeled, and fled. This decided the
day.
6. The French centre, flung back on the Danube, was forced to
surrender; their right, cooped up in Blenheim, and cut off from
retreat, also became prisoners of war. Marshal Tallard was caught
before he could make his escape. The French general, in command of
the troops posted in Blenheim, tried to swim his horse across the
Danube, and was drowned in the attempt. Before nightfall,
Marlborough wrote to his wife half-a-dozen lines in pencil, on the
back of an old hotel bill, to tell her to "give his duty to the
queen, and let her know that her army has won a glorious victory. M.
Tallard and two other generals are in my coach, and I am following
the rest."
"'It was the English,' Kaspar cried,
'Who put the French to rout;
But what they fought each other for
I could not well make out,
But everybody said,' quoth he,
'That 'twas a famous victory.'"
And it really was "a famous victory;" for it put an end to the danger
of France being able to lord it over the rest of Europe, and to
replace the Stuarts on the throne of England. Our free government
and our present line of sovereigns are among the results which we owe
to the genius of Marlborough and to the bravery of his troops.
7. But there was one other victory won in the same year as that of
Blenheim, which, though it was gained almost by accident, with little
fighting and little loss, has left us a prize which half the world
covets. This was the capture of Gibraltar by Admiral Sir George
Rooke (1704). Gibraltar was not then the strong fortress that it is
now; but it was so strong by nature that the Spaniards thought a
small garrison sufficient for holding it. Rooke first seized the
narrow strip of land by which the Rock of Gibraltar is joined to the
mainland. The next day, while the Spanish sentries were at church,
some English sailors climbed up the rock and hoisted the English
flag. That flag has waved over the Rock of Gibraltar from that day
to this.
8. Gibraltar owes its great importance to the fact that it is
situated on the strait that forms the gateway between the Atlantic
and the Mediterranean. It is, in consequence, called the Key to the
Mediterranean. In time of war it would be invaluable to our
shipping, serving as a place of refuge to our merchantmen, a
coaling-station for our men-of-war, a dockyard for their repair, and
a storehouse for providing them with guns, ammunition, and provisions.
NOTE I. By the Peace of Utrecht (1713), which ended the War of the
Spanish Succession, it was agreed that to Britain should belong--(1)
Gibraltar and Minorca, (2) Newfoundland and Acadia (Nova Scotia), and
(3) Hudson Bay Territory.
NOTE 2. It should be remembered that the union between England and
Scotland was effected in 1707. Hitherto we have spoken almost
entirely of England and the English; we shall now have to speak
chiefly of Britain and the British, not forgetting that Ireland and
the Irish are included in these terms.
(3) GRANDMOTHERLY GOVERNMENT OF THE FRENCH IN CANADA.
1. We are now on the threshold of one of the most important parts of
our story. In the eighteenth century was fought out the question:
Should the British or the French be the ruling race of North America?
In answering that question, the British navy had much to say,
although the battles which decided the contest were fought mostly on
land; for it was owing to Britain's command of the seas, that we were
able to send our soldiers in safety across the ocean, and to supply
them with all things necessary for a fighting force, whilst depriving
the enemy of all succour from their friends at home.
2. The commanding position which the British navy had reached at
that time is undisputed. "Before the war of the Spanish Succession,"
says a distinguished naval officer of the United States, "England was
one of the sea powers; after it, she was _the_ sea power, without any
second. This power also she held alone, unshared by friend,
unchecked by foe."
3. The Englishman who first enters Canada by way of Quebec is
surprised to find himself among a people speaking French, whilst
Quebec itself looks to him like a quaint old Norman town. The fact
is, the majority of the inhabitants are of French descent, although
at the present day as loyal to the British flag as any could desire.
The explanation of this French air about the place is, of course, the
fact that Canada was at first a French colony.
4. The French began to plant a colony in Canada about the same time
as did the English in Virginia, but for the first fifty years it
dragged out a miserable existence. A new day dawned upon Canada,
when Louis XIV. took the colony in hand (1665), with the resolution
that a new France should be added to the old. Soldiers, settlers,
horses, sheep, cattle, were all sent out in abundance, and the
well-being of the colony became the object of the king's fatherly
care. Before winter set in, about two thousand persons had landed at
Quebec at Louis's expense. "Thus a sunbeam from the court of France
fell for a moment on the rock of Quebec." Indeed the light of the
king's favour continued to fall on the colony for some years, but it
failed to insure prosperity.
5. The way in which Louis treated the French colonists in Canada is
a striking illustration of the difference between the French and
English methods of dealing with colonies; it is the difference
between liberty and restraint, between leaving the colonists to
manage their own affairs under friendly help and guidance, and
hampering them by foolish meddling. The French colonists were
treated as children and kept in leading-strings. The king acting for
some time the part of a fond father, and coddling them most unwisely.
Not only were their actual wants relieved by his bounty, but every
branch of trade and industry received liberal grants. They were thus
trained to dependence on their rulers to whom they were expected to
pay unquestioning obedience.
6. "It is God's will," wrote Louis, "that whoever is born a subject
should not reason but obey." Every one of his officials seemed to be
of the same opinion. "It is of very great consequence," wrote one of
them, "that the people should not be left at liberty to speak their
own minds." They were not free so much as to go home to France when
they pleased; leave had first to be obtained. They were even told at
what age to marry, and fines were imposed unless they conformed. The
colonists, in fact, were in the position of a papoose, or Indian
baby, bound up tight from head to foot and carried on its mother's
shoulders like a pack. What was the consequence?
7. All the most active and vigorous spirits in the colony took to
the woods and escaped the control of the king's officials. We hear
sometimes of farms abandoned, wives and children deserted, and the
greater part of the young men of a district turned into bushrangers
and forest outlaws. They joined the Indians, trapped the beaver,
trafficked with the natives for beaver-skins, and lived the wild life
of semi-savages. This was the natural result of their not enjoying
reasonable liberty in their own homes.
8. Such slow progress did New France make, notwithstanding King
Louis's tender care, that on his death, in 1715, the whole colony was
in the depths of poverty and numbered only 25,000 souls, whereas the
English colonists in America were at that date ten times as numerous,
and lived in the midst of plenty. The former depended on Government
aid, the latter on themselves.
(4) RIPENING FOR WAR.
1. The treaty of Utrecht (1713) left Britain at the commencement of
a long period of peace and prosperity. During that quiet period we
have little that is interesting to tell. Britain was quietly growing
in wealth and power, and her colonies in population and importance.
By the census of 1754 it appeared that the British colonists,
occupying a strip of territory about 200 miles in width along the
Atlantic coasts, numbered upwards of a million souls; whereas at that
date, the whole white population under the French flag in North
America did not exceed 80,000.
2. Though the French settlers were so few, France laid claim to all
America from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and from the
Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. They claimed it by right of discovery
and partial occupation. It was her explorers who first made their
way down the Mississippi, her missionaries who first visited the
Indian tribes of the interior, her traders who first opened a market
with the natives. But the French had hardly occupied any part of
that vast region south of the Great Lakes. It is true they had
founded Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi and partly colonized
Louisiana; but between the delta of that river and the St. Lawrence
there was still a vast wilderness, the home of the bison and beaver,
where the Indian trapped and hunted, with here and there a French
trading post or mission station.
3. "French America," says the historian of Canada, "had two
heads,--one among the snows of Canada, and one among the cane-breaks
of Louisiana; one communicating with the world through the gulf of
St. Lawrence, and the other through the Gulf of Mexico. These vital
points were feebly connected by a chain of military posts, circling
through the wilderness nearly three thousand miles. Midway between
Canada and Louisiana lay the valley of the Ohio. If the English
should seize it, they would sever the chain of posts and cut French
America asunder." And this they seemed now (1754) on the point of
doing.
4. The Governor of Canada at that time was a man of bold spirit and
clear insight. He saw that the British traders were crossing the
Alleghanies into the valley of the Ohio, poaching on the domains
which the French claimed as their own, ruining the French fur trade,
and making friends of the natives by underselling the French traders.
He felt that, cost what it might, France must link Canada to
Louisiana by a chain of forts strong enough to keep back the British
colonists and coop them up in their old domains. The king's
ministers in France were of the same mind, and ordered the governor
to "send force enough to drive off the English from the Ohio, and
cure them of all wish to return." The governor accordingly set to
work to build forts at commanding points along the Ohio. The most
important was Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio, where now
stands Pittsburg, with its clanging forges and flaming furnaces.
5. A young officer, who later in life became famous, George
Washington, was sent with a small colonial force to expel the French,
if possible, from this fort before they had time to gain a firm
footing. He found however, his small force unequal to the task.
Washington's failure had the effect of throwing the Indians of the
Ohio into the arms of the French, for of course their one desire was
to be on the winning side. And when, next year, the smouldering war
burst into flame, nearly all the western tribes drew their
scalping-knives for France.
6. It must be remembered that in all the fighting in America between
the British and the French, the native Indians took an active share.
Armed with their favourite weapon, the tomahawk, they were at close
quarters dangerous foes. Their fierce aspect in full war-paint--for
the warriors daubed their naked bodies with glaring colours--and
their wild war-whoops were well calculated to inspire soldiers
straight from England or France with considerable dread. From first
to last the various tribes were always ready to join one side or the
other, taking a fiendish delight in shedding blood and in crowing
over their fallen foes. And both English and French were equally
ready to bid for their support, and to fight side by side with them,
whilst abhorring their barbarities. Some tribes were always ready to
throw in their lot with the side that seemed the stronger, whilst
others were permanently attached either to the English or the French.
7. The English were fortunate in having secured from the first the
loyal support of the Iroquois Indians, known as the "Five Nations,"
the most formidable savages on the continent. But they were sorely
tempted to join the French whenever they felt aggrieved at the way
they were treated by the English colonists. They evidently found it
difficult, at times, to choose between the two peoples. "We don't
know what you Christians, English and French intend," said one of
their orators, "We are so hemmed in by you both that we have hardly a
hunting-place left. In a little while, if we find a bear in a tree,
there will immediately appear an owner of the land to claim the
property. We are so perplexed between the two that we hardly know
what to think or say."
8. Being on the eve of war with the French, the colonial governors
called a meeting of the chiefs of the Five Nations, at the frontier
town of Albany, to try to conciliate them. At that conference one of
the chiefs thus concluded his speech: "You have neglected us for
these three years past." Here he took a stick and threw it behind
him. "You have thus thrown us behind your back; whereas the French
are always caressing us, and doing their utmost to win us over to
them. You desire us to speak from the bottom of our hearts, and we
shall do it. Look about your country and see; you have no
fortifications, no, not even in this city. It is but a step from
Canada here and the French may come and turn you out of doors. Look
at the French; they are men; they are fortifying everywhere. But you
are all like women, bare and open, without fortifications."
9. They were however, induced to renew the covenant with our people.
A large "chain-belt" of white shells, called wampum, was provided, on
which the King of England was represented, holding in his embrace the
colonies and the Five Nations with their allied tribes. The chief,
on accepting the belt, said in reply: "We do now solemnly renew and
brighten the covenant chain. We shall take the chain-belt to
Onondaga, where our council-fire always burns, and keep it so safe
that neither thunder nor lightning shall break it."
10. Hearing of Washington's failure to capture Fort Duquesne, the
Home Government sent out General Braddock with two regiments to take
it and any other fort that prevented our colonists from spreading
westwards. But both general and soldiers were ignorant of
"bush-fighting," and knew little of the Indians and their mode of
warfare. The French at Fort Duquesne had armed their Indian allies
with firearms, and waited in ambuscade for the approach of the
British who were advancing through the adjoining forest. The
advanced guard had crossed a little gully and the flat beyond it, and
was just crossing a second gully, when a force of about a thousand
French and Indians suddenly appeared in front and flank; shots were
scarcely exchanged when every enemy disappeared from view; but from
behind trees on all sides, and from the two gullies, just deep enough
to serve as rifle-pits, a continuous fire poured in upon the crowded
British. After three hours' fighting with an invisible foe, the
general, wounded and in despair, ordered a retreat.
11. News of this defeat fired the minds of all Englishmen, and all
felt that nothing remained but "a fight to a finish" between the two
nations for settling their respective claims in America. The "Seven
Years' War," which began in 1756, was destined to decide once for all
the great questions in dispute between the two rivals in that quarter
of the globe. Few wars have had greater results in the history of
the world, and none has brought greater triumphs to Britain, but at
its opening the fortune of war, as usual, went wofully against us.
(5) "THE GREAT COMMONER" AND HIS "MAD GENERAL."
1. At the outset of the _Seven Years' War_ the French scored a great
success by the capture of Port Mahon, which was conceded to Britain
by the Peace of Utrecht. It was a fortified town of Minorca, with an
excellent harbour, and was of great value to our navy, as it enabled
our ships to winter and refit in the Mediterranean, instead of having
to come to England for that purpose.
2. Admiral Byng had been sent with a fleet to prevent its capture,
but judging that the French fleet was superior to his own, both in
the number of men and guns, he did not drive home the attack, but
thought more of saving his ships than of saving the port. He was
summoned home, tried by court-martial, and found guilty of not doing
his utmost to defeat the French fleet and relieve the garrison. The
unfortunate admiral was, accordingly, shot on board a man-of-war
while sitting, blindfolded, in a chair on deck. The nation, by its
approval, taught the lesson that an English admiral is expected to
think more of destroying the enemy's fleet than of saving his own.
3. In America, also, nothing at first seemed to prosper. The men in
command were old or incapable, and every attack made on the French
forts failed. Thus the first year of the war ended in gloom; but
with the appointment of William Pitt, as War Minister (1757), the
fortunes of Britain began to brighten and went on increasing in
splendour. "The Great Commoner," as Pitt was called, seemed to
inspire the whole country with his own lofty spirit. "No man," said
a soldier of the day, "ever entered Mr. Pitt's closet who did not
feel himself braver when he came out than when he went in."
4. Pitt's greatest triumphs were gained in America. He had, of
course, nothing to do with the actual fighting. It was for him to
plan the campaigns, to appoint the men for carrying out his designs,
and to provide them with the means of doing so successfully. His
first aim was to take Louisbourg, a strong fortress of Cape Breton,
which stood sentinel for the French at the entrance of the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. In a safe harbour, under the guns of its fortress, the
French ships could bide their time, ready to strike when the right
moment had come. This place, therefore, had to be captured before it
would have been safe to sail up the St. Lawrence and lay siege to
Quebec.
5. An army of twelve thousand men, placed under the command of
General Amherst, was sent out to wrest Louisbourg, if possible, out
of the hands of the French. Louisbourg, at that time, was the
strongest fortress in either English or French America. At the
entrance of the harbour was a rocky islet well fortified. In the
harbour itself were twelve French warships with 3000 men on board.
The forts of the harbour were garrisoned by 3000 troops, whilst
upwards of 200 cannon were mounted on the walls. The best defence of
Louisbourg was its craggy shore, with only a break here and there,
commanded by the guns of one or other of the forts.
6. On examining the shores for a landing-place for his troops, the
general feared that the task before him was hopeless. At length a
cove was selected for the attempt and Brigadier Wolfe--who afterwards
became famous--was honoured with the command of the attacking party.
The place selected was more strongly defended than it seemed to be.
About a thousand Frenchmen lay behind entrenchments covered in front
by fir trees, felled and laid on the ground. Eight cannon were
planted to sweep every part of the beach, and these pieces were
masked by young evergreens stuck in the ground before them.
7. The British were allowed to come within close range unmolested.
Then the batteries opened, and a deadly storm of grape and
musket-shot was poured upon the boats. It was clear in an instant
that to advance further would be destruction; and Wolfe gave the
signal to sheer off. But three boats on the right, little exposed to
the fire, made straight for the shore before them. There the men
landed on a strand strewn with rocks and lashed with breakers, but
sheltered from the cannon by a projecting point. Wolfe hastened to
support them. Many of the boats were stove among the rocks, and
others were overset, but most of the men tumbled through the surf and
climbed the crags. Forming his men in compact order, Wolfe attacked
and carried with the bayonet the first French battery. Thus the
first footing was gained, the first move of the great game was played
and won.
8. The great guns were now landed and the siege commenced. The
British lines grew closer and closer, and their fire more and more
destructive. On the thirteenth day of the siege the guns of the
Island Battery that guarded the entrance were dismounted and
silenced. The French commander, Ducour, then sank four of his large
ships to block the mouth of the harbour and prevent any English ships
from entering. This did not, however, prevent six hundred English
sailors from rowing into the harbour on a dark night and setting fire
to the remaining ships.
9. It is pleasing to find that during the siege various courtesies
were exchanged between the two commanders. Ducour, hoisting a flag
of truce, sent a letter to Amherst offering the services of a skilful
surgeon in case any English officers required them. Amherst, on his
part, sent letters and messages from wounded Frenchmen in his hands
to Ducour, and begged his wife to accept a gift of pine-apples. She
returned his courtesy by sending him a present of wine. After an
exchange of courtesies like this the cannon spoke again. The lady
herself was seen on the ramparts every morning encouraging the French
soldiers by her presence, and even firing cannon with her own hand.
10. On the twenty-sixth day the last of the enemy's guns was
silenced, and all was ready for the assault. Finding it impossible
to hold out any longer, Ducour surrendered. It was stipulated that
the garrison should be sent to England as prisoners of war, and that
all artillery and arms should be given up intact.
11. Amherst proceeded to complete his task by making himself master
of the adjacent possessions of France, including Cape Breton and what
are now called Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Meanwhile
another British force was successful in capturing Fort Duquesne, the
key of the Great West. The town which rose around this fort was
called Pittsburg, in honour of the minister who had planned its
capture. This success opened the country west of the Alleghanies to
the pushing British colonists, and deprived France of one-half of her
savage allies in that region.
12. Thus ended the campaign of 1758. The Canadian winter imposed a
truce on the combatants. Wolfe returned to England and, though only
thirty-two years of age, was raised by Pitt, the great war minister,
to the rank of general. When some one remarked to His Majesty,
George II., that Pitt's new general was mad, "Mad is he?" returned
the king; "then I hope he will bite some other of my generals."
(6) CAPTURE OF A SECOND GIBRALTAR.
1. The conquest of Canada hinged on the capture of Quebec the
"Gibraltar of America." This task was assigned to General Wolfe--a
bold, impetuous, and intrepid warrior, who had already won the
admiration of the soldiers at the siege of Louisbourg, and was about
to win undying fame at Quebec. No one had less the likeness of a
hero. It is worth while to picture out the man as he looked, at the
time of his appointment, that we may learn to distrust a hasty
judgment formed from mere outside appearance.
2. The forehead and chin receded, the nose was slightly upturned,
the mouth expressed no resolution, and nothing but the clear, bright,
and piercing eye bespoke the spirit within. He wore a black
three-cornered hat, his red hair was tied in a tail behind; his
narrow shoulders, slender body, and long, thin limbs were cased in a
scarlet coat, with broad cuffs and ample skirts that reached the
knee; while on his left arm he wore a band of crape in mourning for
his father. Wolfe's life was a constant battling with ill-health.
He seems always to have been at his best in the thick of battle; most
complete in his mastery over himself and others at a perilous crisis.
3. The fleet, with nine thousand troops on board, sailed out of the
harbour of Louisbourg in June, 1759, the officers drinking to the
toast, "British colours on every French fort, port, and garrison in
America," Fifteen months later this wild wish was realised, except at
New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi.
4. While the British fleet is making its way up the St. Lawrence,
the French under their brave, able and humane general, Montcalm, take
up a strong position east of Quebec, between two rivers, and behind
earthworks which lined the shore. The British army landed on the
Isle of Orleans three or four miles below Quebec. Wolfe soon saw
that the task before him was a desperate one. Before him frowned the
rock of Quebec, rising vertically more than 300 feet; and crowning
the rock was a citadel girdled with batteries.
5. Our troops had hardly taken up their quarters, after landing,
than the enemy in the hope of cutting off their retreat attempted to
destroy our fleet by means of fire-ships, filled with pitch, tar, and
other combustibles, mixed with bombs, grenades, and old cannon and
muskets loaded to the mouth. On they came with the tide, flaming and
exploding, yet doing no harm except to a few French sailors who were
steering them. Some of them ran ashore before reaching the fleet;
the others were caught with grappling irons by the British tars, and
towed safely out of harm's way. A second attempt, later on, to burn
the English fleet by means of a fire-raft met with no better success.
It consisted of seventy rafts, boats, and schooners chained together.
Nothing saved the fleet but the undaunted courage of the British
sailors, who towed the fire-raft safe to shore, and left it at
anchor, whilst sounding the well-known refrain, _All's well_.
[Illustration: GENERAL WOLFE'S ATTACK ON QUEBEC.]
6. Wolfe, meanwhile, had laid Quebec in ruins, but no injury he
could do could draw "the wary old fox" from his cover. The question
was less how to fight the enemy than how to get at him. Montcalm
persisted in doing nothing that his antagonist wished him to do. "I
can't get at him," wrote Wolfe, "without spilling a torrent of blood,
and that perhaps to little purpose." At last the attempt was made,
and many lives were lost in vain. The troops, however, so loved and
trusted their general that they were ready to do his bidding with
alacrity when he resolved on a still more daring venture.
7. The time was fast approaching when the English fleet would have
to leave the St. Lawrence to escape imprisonment in the ice. As a
forlorn hope, it occurred to Wolfe that an attempt might be made to
scale the heights under cover of night. About a mile above Quebec
was a tiny bay, now called Wolfe's Cove, from which a narrow path
passed up the face of the woody precipice, known as the _Heights of
Abraham_. Close upon the brow of the hill was the post of a French
captain with 150 men.
8. Whilst the main fleet made a feigned attack below Quebec, Wolfe
was quietly preparing for his venture ten miles further up the river.
There a squadron of ships, with 3600 troops on board, lay tranquil at
anchor. Around it was collected a number of boats sufficient to take
half the troops. At one o'clock two lanterns were raised to the
maintop of the leading ship as a signal for the soldiers to enter the
boats; and an hour later, when the tide began to ebb, the order was
given to cast off and glide down with the current. The vessels, with
the rest of the troops, were to follow a little later.
9. For full two hours the procession of boats floated silently down
the St. Lawrence. The stars were visible but the night was moonless
and sufficiently dark. The general, who was in one of the foremost
boats, repeated, in a low voice to the officers sitting round, Gray's
_Elegy in a Country Churchyard_. "Gentlemen," he said, as he
finished his recital, "I would rather have written those lines than
take Quebec."
10. The leading company disembarked on a narrow strand at the foot
of the heights to be climbed, and began the ascent, each man pulling
himself up by bushes, stumps of trees, and jutting rocks. On
reaching the top they saw in the dim light a cluster of tents and
made a dart at them. The French, taken by surprise, fled. The main
body of British troops waited in their boats, near the beach, all
intently listening. Soon from the top came a sound of musket shots,
followed by loud hurrahs from British throats, and Wolfe knew that
the position was gained. The word was given; the troops leaped from
the boats and climbed the heights, clutching at trees and bushes,
giving and taking hands, their muskets slung at their backs. As fast
as the boats were emptied they hastened to the ships to be refilled.
11. When the day broke Wolfe's battalions were drawn up in battle
array on the Plains of Abraham just behind Quebec, and there they
waited for the attack, Montcalm hurried to the spot, and full in
sight before him stretched the lines of Wolfe: the close ranks of the
English infantry, a silent wall of red, and the wild array of the
Highlanders with their bagpipes screaming defiance. The British
waited until the French were within forty yards and then rang out the
command, and a crash of musketry answered. Another volley quickly
followed, and then came the order to charge with the bayonet. As
Wolfe led on his grenadiers a shot shattered his wrist. He wrapped
his handkerchief about it and kept on. Another shot struck him, but
he still advanced, when a third lodged in his breast and brought him
to the ground. He was carried to the rear, and there lay dying, when
all at once an officer cried cut: "They run; see how they run!" "Who
run?" asked the dying hero. "The enemy, sir, they give way in all
directions." "Then God be praised; I shall die in peace!"
12. The brave Montcalm met with a similar fate. As, borne with the
tide of fugitives, he approached the town, a shot passed through his
body. He lingered until the next day, and soon afterwards Quebec
opened its gates to the conquerors. In the public gardens of Quebec,
there now stands an obelisk, bearing on one of its faces the word
Montcalm and on the opposite face the name Wolfe; two brave men equal
in honour, in devotion to duty, in patriotism.
13. The capture of Quebec was soon followed by the conquest of all
Canada. All the French troops in the colony were taken back to
France. Protection to person and property, and the free exercise of
their religion, were promised to all the colonists who were willing
to remain in the country. They had hitherto been treated as
children, unable to speak and act for themselves. All this was now
changed. A new spirit of freedom animated the whole colony, infusing
new life and vigour into all classes. This resulted in the increase
of wealth and comfort, and in the growth of a genuine loyalty to the
British Crown.
(7) FIRST FOUNDER OF OUR INDIAN EMPIRE.
1. Whilst General Wolfe was fighting the French in Canada, Robert
Clive was similarly engaged in India. Here, as in America, the
British and French were rivals for power. Both nations had an East
India Company, and until lately the two companies had confined
themselves to their own proper business as merchants. The British
had factories, or trading-stations, at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay;
the French had their headquarters at Pondicherry. The appointment of
Dupleix as governor at Pondicherry, in 1748, led to a change of
policy. From that time the French began to bid for empire, and the
British were not slow to follow their lead.
2. India at that time was nominally under the rule of an emperor,
known as the "Great Mogul"; but the real power was in the hands of
the princes who ruled, in his name, in the different provinces of the
empire. Dupleix saw in this state of things a chance of making
France the supreme power in India. Disputes were constantly arising
between the native princes about the right of succession. Dupleix's
plan was an immoral one; it was, in any dispute for a throne, to take
the side of the prince who had the least right to it; for the one who
gained the throne, by his help, without being entitled to it, would
afterwards be only a mere puppet prince under his thumb.
3. Dupleix also perceived that the army of a native prince was
merely an armed rabble, and that a small disciplined force would
easily beat it, even if that force was composed of merely
well-drilled natives under European officers. He perceived that the
natives, though not wanting in personal courage, were as babes in the
art of warfare. When, for instance, they engaged in battle, the
officer in command mounted an elephant and became the standard of his
army. All eyes were turned towards him; as long as he was visible
the troops rallied round him; directly he fell or turned they
dispersed, and the day was lost. It was thus possible for a
well-directed shot to decide the fate of a battle.
4. The opportunity which Dupleix wanted was not long in presenting
itself. A dispute arose between two princes for the right to rule
the Carnatic, a province of Southern India. The claimant whom
Dupleix favoured soon triumphed over his rival, but he was a mere
tool in the hands of his French patron, who became the real ruler of
the province. And to impress the natives with a sense of his
greatness, he clad himself in costly native dresses, trimmed with
jewels, and required his attendants to serve him on bended knee. But
Dupleix was not long left in the quiet enjoyment of his honours.
5. There was a clerk in the employ of our East India Company whose
adventurous spirit urged him to quit the desk and gird on the
soldier's sword. That man was Robert Clive, who proved to be one of
the master-makers of our empire, and the founder of British rule in
India. Clive showed himself to be a born leader of men, with a
genius for war, as brave as the bravest, with a presence of mind that
never forsook him however great the danger. Clive proposed to make a
sudden dash on Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, about a hundred
miles inland from Madras. His offer was accepted, and he set out
from Madras at the head of 200 English soldiers and 300
Sepoys--natives armed and drilled after the European fashion--with
eight English officers.
6. Clive made the journey by forced marches through the thunder and
lightning and rain of the wet season, and so astounded the garrison
of Arcot that they ran without striking a blow. A force of 3000 men
soon appeared to drive out the intruders. In the middle of the night
on which they arrived, while all of them were fast asleep,
Clive--without waiting to be besieged, as he should have done by all
the rules of Indian warfare--made a sudden sally, drove them headlong
from the place, and returned without losing a single man. Somewhat
later a force of 8000 men encircled the city, and for fifty days the
young captain foiled all their efforts to take it.
7. During this terrible time, officers and men--European and native
alike--were all animated by the same undaunted spirit and by the same
devotion to the young captain. When there was nothing left but rice
to live and fight on, and very little of that, the Sepoys came to him
of their own will to beg that the grain should be reserved for their
European comrades and the water in which it was boiled for themselves.
8. At last, the enemy stormed the fort, driving before them
elephants whose foreheads were armed with iron plates. It was
expected that the gates would yield to the shock of these living
battering-rams. But the balls from the fort sent the huge beasts
flying in terror into the crowded ranks of their own masters.
However, a breach had been made, and the attack went on. Clive had
placed his best marksmen in front, and ordered those in the rear to
load the muskets for them to fire. Three times the besiegers stormed
the breach, and three times they quailed before the leaden-storm that
beat upon them. During the night the enemy suddenly decamped,
leaving guns and stores to the victors.
9. Clive's success at Arcot may be justly considered the first stone
laid in the foundation of our Indian Empire. As the star of Clive
rose so that of Dupleix sank. The prince that the latter had set up
lost his throne, and Dupleix himself was recalled to France; for the
French Government regarded his lofty aims and pretensions as no
better than a wild dream. But the wild dream of Dupleix for France
was fulfilled by Clive and his successors for Britain. To-day we see
that dream realised, and an English King proclaimed Emperor of India.
10. To Clive belongs the honour of having been the first Englishman
to impress the people of India with the fighting-powers of our race,
the first to inspire them with the idea that Victory rode in a
British war-chariot. Nothing is more essential to success in ruling
the myriads of India than the conviction that our arms are sure to
prevail. Fortunately, the British soldier, ever since the days of
Robert Clive, has made his name famous in India; the credit he has
gained for valour and victory materially aids him in battle to win
the day. The name and renown gained by success and good fortune in
the past is what is meant by prestige, and this heritage of ours is
one of the secrets of the power that enables a few thousands of our
race in India to rule its three hundred million souls.
(8) BEGINNING OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.
1. Who has not heard of the "Black Hole of Calcutta" and of the
miscreant Surajah Dowlah, the _nawab_, or native governor, of Bengal?
This man hated the English, and he resolved to expel them from his
province. Marching to Calcutta with a large force, he seized all our
countrymen within his reach, and thrust them for the night into a
small stifling room. When the door was thrown open in the morning,
only 23 out of 146 staggered out alive. All the rest had fallen dead
from the intense heat and suffocating air.
2. When the news reached Madras there went up a cry for vengeance,
and all eyes turned to Clive as the avenger. A part of the famous
39th regiment, lately arrived from England, formed the backbone of
Clive's force. Admiral Watson was also at hand with a small fleet,
and sailed with the avenging army to the mouth of the Hooghly (Hugli).
3. On their arrival the work of retribution began. Calcutta soon
fell into their hands. The nawab's capital, Moorshedabad, was the
next object of attack, Clive boldly advancing against it with his
small force of 3000 men. The nawab drew up his army of 50,000 men on
the plains of Plassey, a few miles in front of his capital. Whilst
Clive could only muster ten light field pieces, his enemy had fifty
heavy guns at his command. But there was treachery in his ranks, for
Clive had won over Meer Jaffier, the principal commander of his
troops, and the nawab himself was hated by his own people.
4. Clive drew up his troops in front of a grove of mangoes, and near
it was a hunting-lodge from the roof of which Clive watched the
nawab's army take up its position. They came on with all the pomp
and panoply of war--the infantry with their banners flying, the
cavalry with their drawn swords flashing back the rays of the rising
sun, the elephants with their scarlet trappings, and the heavy guns
with their unwieldy platforms and struggling teams of white oxen.
The battle that followed lasted till noon.
5. At the right moment, Clive ordered a general advance, and after a
brief struggle, disorder and dismay having spread through the ranks
of his army, Surajah gave the order to retreat. Clive immediately
darted forward with all his men, while the hosts of the enemy fled
panic-stricken before them. The nawab mounted a swift dromedary, and
was the first to reach Moorshedabad, with a bodyguard of 2000
horsemen. Plassey was not a great battle, but it was fruitful in
great results. It was fought on 23rd June, 1757, a date from which
is reckoned the foundation of British rule in India.
6. As an immediate result of the battle Surajah Dowlah was deposed,
and Meer Jaffier made nawab. Clive was taken by the new nawab into
the royal treasury of Bengal, and there, walking between heaps of
gold and silver and cases filled with jewels, he was invited to help
himself. He accepted about two hundred thousand pounds, and became
the real ruler of Bengal. Much had yet to be done to place the power
of the British in Bengal on a firm footing, but that result was
achieved before Clive sailed for England (1760).
7. Whilst Clive was securing Bengal, his friend, Colonel Eyre Coote,
was doing much, in southern India, to raise the British and lower the
French in the eyes of the native soldiers. A decisive engagement was
fought between the troops of the two rivals at Wandewash, south of
Madras, in 1760. This battle is unique in the warfare of India,
being fought between Europeans only. The native soldiers, on both
sides, deliberately held back to let the strangers have a fair fight.
The French were routed, and their prestige soon faded from the native
mind. Coote's sepoys, in congratulating their general on his
victory, warmly thanked him for having shown them how a battle should
be fought. By the end of another year Pondicherry was surrendered to
Coote, and no spot of Indian soil remained under the French flag. It
is true Pondicherry was restored to France at the conclusion of the
Seven Years' War (1763), but only on condition that it should be held
simply for purposes of trade. Britain, on the other hand, retained
possession of Bengal and bade fair to become, ere long, the ruling
power in India.
8. To help England to build her Indian empire on a sound basis, our
hero returned to India (1765) as governor of Bengal, with the title
of Lord Clive. He soon set himself the most difficult task of his
life, and that was to put an end to the corrupt practices of the
officials of the Company, who were growing rapidly rich by accepting
bribes to act unjustly. The whole body of officials seemed to be
set, as one man, against the reforms of the new governor, but his
iron will was too strong for them all.
9. By his just and honest government Clive became the friend of the
Hindoo, and at the same time the true friend of his own country; for
if the first establishment of British rule in India was due to
British valour, its continuance is due to British truthfulness,
justice and fair-dealing. All that we could have gained by being as
false and subtle as the Orientals themselves were wont to be, is as
nothing compared with what we have gained by being the one power in
India whose word could be trusted. It is a thing of which we may be
justly proud, that no oath, however binding, no hostage, however
precious, inspires one tithe of the confidence which is produced by
the "yea, yea" and "nay, nay" of a British envoy.