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Presented  to  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 
LIBRARY 

by  the 

ONTARIO  LEGISLATIVE 
LIBRARY 

1980 


IN   THE 

NINETEENTH   CENTURY: 

ITS   PROGRESS   AND    EXPANSION   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD 

COMPRISING  A  DESCRIPTION   AND   HISTORY   OF  THE 

BRITISH   COLONIES   AND   DEPENDENCIES. 


BY 

EDGAR   SANDERSON,  M.A.  (CANTAB.), 

AUTHOR  OF  "HISTORY  OF  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE",  "OUTLINES  OF  THE  WORLD'S  HISTORY",  ETC.,  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED    BY    ENGRAVINGS    AND    MAPS. 


sixtieth  year  of  Queen  Victoria's  reign — now  the  longest  in  British 
A      history — presents  a  most  opportune  and  happy  occasion  for  laying 
before  the  public  a  comprehensive  work  on  the  British  Empire,  which  has 
prospered  so  signally  under  her  sway. 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  patriotic  Briton  to  make  himself  acquainted  with 
the  history  of  the  Empire.  As  set  forth  in  this  comprehensive  Work,  it  is 
a  glorious  tale  of  noble  deeds  and  exciting  events.  There  are  the  French 
and  Indian  wars  in  CANADA;  the  conquest  of  INDIA,  the  mutiny,  and 
the  Afghan  campaigns;  the  founding  of  AUSTRALIA  and  the  discovery 
of  the  gold-fields;  the  Maori  wars  in  NEW  ZEALAND;  and  the  struggles 
with  black  men  and  Boers  in  AFRICA. 

Canada,  India,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  Africa, — these  are  the  big  areas 
which  are  painted  with  British  red  on  the  world's  map.  But  this  same 
colour  is  dotted  all  over  the  globe;  and  so  the  reader  will  find  a  full  account 
of  every  single  colony,  possession,  and  dependency  where  flies  the  Union 
flag.  Such  a  book,  therefore,  is  invaluable  to  the  scholar,  the  trader,  those 
who  have  kin  beyond  the  sea,  the  general  reader,  and  even  the  younger 
members  of  the  family. 

The  mighty  expansion  of  the  Empire  abroad  is  profoundly  interesting, 
but  so  also  is  its  progress  at  home.  Consequently,  this  history  gives  a 
complete  account  of  affairs  in  Parliament  during  the  century,  with  special 
reference  to  the  great  reforms  which  have  been  achieved,  and  their  results 
on  the  national  life.  It  also  presents  a  very  interesting  and  fair-minded 
story  of  Irish  affairs  from  1801  to  the  present  time. 


During  the  nineteenth  century  vast  improvements  have  been  accom- 
plished in  the  material,  moral,  and  social  condition  of  Great  Britain.  This 
progress  is  set  forth  in  chapters  upon  such  subjects  as  manufactures,  ship- 
building, engineering;  the  postal  and  telegraph  systems;  sanitary  and 
temperance  reforms;  the  army  and  navy;  popular  sports  and  amusements; 
education,  science,  literature,  and  art 

This  Work  does  not  deal  exclusively  with  the  formal  facts  of  history; 
many  romantic  and  sensational  events  from  our  domestic  annals  are  fully 
described.  Great  conflagrations  and  shipwrecks;  mining,  railway,  and 
other  disasters;  sensational  crimes  and  notable  trials.  These  and  many 
more  subjects  are  dealt  with  in  a  terse  and  engaging  style  which  leads  the 
reader  on  from  chapter  to  chapter  with  never-ceasing  interest 

The  author  of  this  Work  is  specially  fitted  for  his  task  by  scholarship 
and  experience.  EDGAR  SANDERSON,  M.A.  (Cantab.),  is  the  well-known 
author  of  many  important  historical  books,  all  of  which  have  been  emin- 
ently successful.  In  this,  his  latest  work,  he  has  sought  to  present  his 
readers  with  an  entertaining  narrative,  vivid  and  vigorous  in  style,  and 
of  the  deepest  interest  from  beginning  to  end. 

The  value  of  this  Work  will  be  enhanced  by  a  series  of  about  fifty  very 
fine  illustrations,  drawn  specially  for  this  history  by  some  of  the  leading 
artists  of  the  day.  There  will  also  be  a  set  of  carefully-prepared  maps, 
showing  the  various  colonies  and  dependencies  of  the  British  Empire,  the 
routes  of  explorers,  the  ocean -routes  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  the 
telegraph  lines  connecting  the  Empire.  A  complete  index  is  also  appended 
for  purposes  of  easy  reference. 

THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  will  be 
published  by  subscription,  and  printed  on  specially  manufactured  paper, 
super-royal  8vo  size.  It  will  be  issued  in  22  parts,  price  2s.  each;  or 
6  volumes,  cloth  elegant,  price  gs.  each. 


BLACKIE  &  SON,  LIMITED; 

LONDON,   GLASGOW,    EDINBURGH,   AND  DUBLIN. 


LI  BRAKY, 

131897 


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J_-^--^^ 


THE    BRITISH    EMPIRE 


IN   THE 


NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


\V.   H.   MARGETSON. 


SABBATH-DAY  WITH  THE  PILGRIM   FATHERS    AT    THEIR 
FIRST   SETTLEMENT    IN    NEW    PLYMOUTH. 


Vol,  j,  p,  19$; 


SABBATH-DAY  WITH  THE    PILGRIM    FATHERS  AT  THEIR 
FIRST   SETTLEMENT   IN   NEW   PLYMOUTH. 

In  August,  1620,  the  Mayflower  sailed  from  Plymouth  with  a  company 
of  men,  women,  and  children,  who  went  forth  to  the  New  World  in  search 
of  religious  freedom.  They  touched  land  at  Cape  Cod  in  November,  and 
finally,  after  many  disasters  and  disappointments,  settled  at  a  place  on  the 
coast  of  Massachusetts,  which  they  named  New  Plymouth.  Here  they 
built  a  church  and  fort,  and  these  with  the  houses  were  surrounded  by  a 
stockade.  The  Settlement  suffered  severely  at  first,  especially  from  the 
rigours  of  the  winter;  but  these  Pilgrim  Fathers  prospered  in  time,  and 
founded  the  great  colony  which  was  known  as  New  England. 


THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 


IN   THE 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


ITS  PROGRESS  AND  EXPANSION  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD 

COMPRISING  A   DESCRIPTION   AND    HISTORY   OF  THE 

BRITISH   COLONIES   AND    DEPENDENCIES 


BY 


EDGAR   SANDERSON,  M.A.  (CANTAB.) 

\UTHOR   OF   "HISTORY  OF  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE",    "OUTLINES  OF  THE  WORLD'S  HISTORY* 

ETC.   ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED    BY  ENGRAVINGS   AND    MAPS 


VOLUME  I. 

r^\ON  vtrfftfi 

'   LIBRARY, 

DEC  13139? 

\\ 


BLACKIE    &    SON,   LIMITED 

LONDON,   GLASGOW,   EDINBURGH,   AND    DUBLIN 

J.   L.  NICHOLS  &  CO.,  TORONTO,  ONT. 

1897. 


u 


* 


CONTENTS 


VOL.   I. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS    AND    MAPS. 

Page 

SABBATH-DAY  WITH  THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS  AT  THEIR  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  IN 

NEW  PLYMOUTH,        -        -  Frontis. 

ADMIRAL  RODNEY  DIRECTS  THE  BATTLE  ON  BOARD  THE  FORMIDABLE,         -        -        -    30 
THE  BRITISH  TROOPS  FORCE  A  LANDING  AT  ABOUKIR  BAY  IN  FACE  OF  THE  FRENCH 

BATTERIES,  -    36 

THE  HUMOURS  OF  STOURBRIDGE  FAIR  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIMES, 62 

THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE   SPANISH  "BATTERING  SHIPS"  BY  THE  BRITISH  AT  GIB- 
RALTAR,       138 

GOVERNOR  PHILLIP  ADDRESSING  THE  FIRST  AUSTRALIAN  SETTLERS  UPON  LANDING  AT 

SYDNEY  COVE, -  154 

VIEW  OF  THE  TOWN  AND  FORTRESS  OF  QUEBEC:  A.D.  1759,    -----  -  232 

GENERAL  WOLFE  is  MORTALLY  WOUNDED  AS  HE  LEADS  THE  CHARGE  ON  THE  PLAINS 

OF  ABRAHAM, 240 

MAP  OF  THE  WORLD,  showing  all  the  British  Possessions  coloured  Red,  -        -       I 

MAP  OF  BRITISH  COLONIES  SOUTH  OF  CANADA,  to  1783,  -        -  -  104 

MAP  OF  CANADA  to  illustrate  the  History  of  1503-1801,  -  204 


BOOK    I. 

GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND  BEFORE  THE 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

CHAPTER  I.— INTRODUCTORY. 

Purpose  of  the  work — Peaceful  achievements  of  the  nineteenth  century — Its  distinguished  place 
in  history — Revolution  in  social  life — Changes  in  the  mental  and  political  world — Our  vast 
Colonial  Dependencies  and  Asiatic  Empire, I 

CHAPTER  II. — SKETCH  OF  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  BRITISH  CONSTITUTION. 

The  Great  Charter— First  complete  Parliament — The  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages— The  Refor- 
mation— Rise  of  the  Puritans — Union  of  the  two  crowns — Scotland  and  Ireland — James  I. 
and  "divine  right" — Charles  I. — The  Restoration — Persecution  of  Nonconformists — 
Habeas  Corpus  Act — James  II. — The  Revolution — William  and  Mary — The  Bill  of  Rights 
and  Toleration  Act — Freedom  of  the  Press — Act  of  Settlement, 6 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  III.— CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Page 

System  of  party  government — Union  of  England  and  Scotland— Accession  of  the  Hanoverian 
dynasty— The  Septennial  Act— Rebellions  of  1715  and  1745— Walpole  the  first  "prime 
minister  "—George  III.— Lord  North  and  the  "King's  friends  "—John  Wilkes— The 
Gordon  Riots— Demand  for  reform  of  House  of  Commons — Reform  bills  introduced  by 
William  Pitt — Freedom  of  the  press  vindicated — Independence  of  juries  established,  -  -  18 

CHAPTER  IV.— BRITAIN  AT  WAR  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Britain's  military  position— Duke  of  Marlborough— Peace  of  Utrecht— War  of  the  Austrian  Suc- 
cession— The  Seven  Years'  War — William  Pitt,  Clive,  and  Wolfe — Admirals  Rodney, 
Hood,  and  Hyde  Parker — Peace  of  Versailles — The  French  Revolution — The  "Young 
Corsican"at  Toulon — Sir  Sidney  Smith,  Horatio  Nelson,  and  Lord  Howe — Arthur  Wel- 
lesley — Buonaparte's  threatened  invasion — Victory  off  Cape  St.  Vincent — Buonaparte's 
expedition  to  Egypt — Victories  of  the  Nile  and  Alexandria — Continental  combination 
against  Britain — Battle  of  Copenhagen — Peace  of  Amiens — Result  of  the  wars,  -  -  -  27 

CHAPTER  V. — STATE  OF  IRELAND  DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Penal  laws  against  the  Roman  Catholics — The  Irish  Parliament — Convention  of  Dungannon — 
"  Whiteboys"  and  "  United  Irishmen" — Formation  of  "Orange"  lodges — Cruelties  prac- 
tised on  the  Roman  Catholics — Irish  rebellion  of  1798 — Act  for  union  with  Great  Britain 
passed, 38 

CHAPTER  VI.— RELIGIOUS  AND  SOCIAL  AFFAIRS  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Prevalence  of  Deism — Assailants  and  defenders  of  the  Christian  faith — Corruption  among  the 
clergy  of  the  Church  of  England — Rise  of  Methodism — Prison  reform — Hospitals  founded 
— Granville  Sharp  and  slavery — Rise  of  the  Evangelical  party — William  Romaine,  John 
Newton,  and  Charles  Simeon, 46 

CHAPTER  VII. — GROWTH  OF  INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE  PREVIOUS  TO 
THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Early  industries — The  Danes  give  an  impulse  to  English  commerce — Foreign  workers  settle  in 
England — Craft-  and  merchant-guilds  organized — Efforts  of  Edward  I.  to  establish  trade — 
Edward  III.  "the  father  of  English  commerce" — "Staple  towns"  established — Importance 
of  fairs — Ravages  of  the  Black  Death — Trading  by  merchant-adventurers — Early  "mercan- 
tile system  " — Discoveries  of  new  lands — Trinity  House  established — Commercial  policy — 
Extinction  of  trade  monopolies — Expansion  of  trade — Banking  system  established — Progress 
of  agriculture — Reclamation  of  waste  lands — Industries  and  commerce  of  Scotland,  -  '57 

CHAPTER  VIII.— INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE  DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Restrictions  on  trade  disappearing — Adam  Smith's  teachings — Government  bounties — The  first 
silk  mill  in  England — Woollen  and  cotton  manufactures — Inventions  of  John  Kay,  Har- 
greaves,  Arkwright,  Lees,  and  Crompton — Cartwright's  power-loom — Wedgwood's  improve- 
ments in  pottery — James  Watt  and  the  steam-engine — Improvements  in  bleaching  and 
calico-printing — Development  of  the  coal  and  iron  trades — Effects  on  the  distribution  of  the 
population — Progress  in  agriculture — Board  of  Agriculture  and  agricultural  societies  estab- 
.  lished — Improvements  in  internal  communication — The  post-office — Comparative  statistics 
at  close  of  the  century, 72 


CONTENTS.  vii 


BOOK    II. 

BRITISH   COLONIES  AND   POSSESSIONS   BEFORE  THE 
NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 

CHAPTER  I. — CHARACTER  AND  METHODS  OF  COLONIZATION— EARLY  NAVIGATORS. 

Page 

Our  Colonies  in  general — Modern  sense  of  the  term  "colony" — Methods  of  colonization — 
Maritime  enterprise  in  fifteenth  century — Discoveries  of  Columbus,  Vespucci,  and  the  Cabots 
— Spanish  colonization  in  America — The  aboriginal  tribes, 94 

CHAPTER  II.— THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  COLONIES  TILL  THEIR  SEPARATION 

FROM  BRITAIN. 

Britain  begins  her  colonial  dominion — Sir  Walter  Raleigh — Colonization  of  Virginia — The 
slave-trade  introduced — The  ' '  Pilgrim  Fathers  " — End  of  Dutch  sway — The  Thirteen 
Colonies — Progress  of  the  colonies — The  quarrel  with  Great  Britain — Attempt  to  impose 
taxes — Faneuil  Hall  and  Boston  Harbour — Beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  War — General 
Washington — Surrender  of  General  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga — Surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis 
— Paul  Jones  and  the  privateers — Independence  acknowledged — Constitution  of  the  United 
States — The  first  president  and  first  ambassador — Progress  of  the  cotton  cultivation,  -  -  103 

CHAPTER  III. — COLONIAL  POSSESSIONS  IN  EUROPE  AND  AFRICA. 

Early  history  of  Gibraltar — Its  acquisition  by  Britain — Attempts  by  Spain  to  recover  possession 
— Gallant  and  successful  defence  by  General  Eliott—  Gambia  and  the  Gold  Coast — 
African  trading  companies — St.  Helena — Sierra  Leone, -  -  133 

CHAPTER  IV.— AUSTRALASIA— NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 

Peculiar  conditions  of  early  Australian  colonization — First  authentic  notices  of  Australia  or  New 
Holland — Dampier  surveys  part  of  the  coast — Captain  Cook  the  first  real  discoverer  of  the 
continent — The  British  flag  hoisted  in  New  South  Wales — Transportation  of  convicts  to 
Botany  Bay — Captain  Phillip  appointed  governor — A  visit  from  the  French — Norfolk 
Island  occupied — Hardships  of  the  first  settlers,  and  difficulties  with  the  convicts — Free 
emigrants  begin  to  arrive — Major  Grose  succeeds  Captain  Phillip — A  demoralizing  truck- 
system  introduced — Growing  prosperity  of  the  colony — Early  attempts  to  explore  the 
continent — Important  surveys  of  the  coasts  by  Bass  and  Flinders — Flinders  detained  at 
Mauritius  by  the  French  governor — His  return  to  England,  and  death,  -  -  -  -  142 

CHAPTER  V.— CANADA— EARLY  HISTORY  (1534-1713). 

First  efforts  by  the  French  to  colonize  Canada — Jacques  Cartier — De  la  Roche's  attempt  to 
form  a  settlement — Pontgrave  and  Chauvin — Champlain,  the  founder  of  French  Canada — 
Colony  of  Acadie — Beginning  of  Quebec — The  Algonquins,  Iroquois,  and  other  Indian 
tribes — Arrival  of  the  Jesuits — Richelieu's  policy  towards  Canada — Quebec  surrendered  to 
the  English,  and  basely  restored  by  Charles  I. — Able  rule  of  Governor  Champlain — Indian 
outrages — Colbert's  able  administration — Marquis  de  Tracy  and  Governor  de  Courcelles — 
Encouragements  for  emigration  from  France — Ravages  of  disease  and  drunkenness  among 
the  Indians — Governor  de  Frontenac — La  Salle's  expedition  to  the  west — Massacre  of 
Lachine — French  attacks  on  English  territory — English  expeditions  against  Montreal  and 
Quebec — Failure  of  English  attempts  for  the  conquest  of  Canada, 167 

CHAPTER  VI.— CANADA— TILL  CESSION  TO  BRITAIN  (1713-1763). 

Condition  of  Canada  under  De  Vaudreuil  and  De  Beauharnois — Beginning  of  the  great  conflict 
—  The  Ohio  Company  and  Mr.  George  Washington — General  Braddock's  expedition 
against  Fort  Duquesne — Able  services  of  Sir  William  Johnson — Capture  of  Oswego  by 


Vlii  CONTENTS. 

Page 

the  French — Futile  British  expedition  against  Quebec — Fort  William  Henry  surrenders 
to  the  French — Massacre  by  the  Indians — Pitt's  resolution  to  expel  the  French  from 
Canada — Early  career  of  General  Wolfe — Failure  of  British  attack  on  Ticonderoga— Siege 
and  final  surrender  of  Quebec — Wolfe  and  Montcalm  mortally  wounded — Effort  of  the 
French  to  recover  Quebec — Montreal  surrenders  to  the  British — Canada  ceded  to  Britain 
by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  -  -  203 

CHAPTER  VII.— CANADA  UNDER  BRITISH  RULE  (1763-1801). 

War  with  the  Indians — Pontiac  the  Ottawa  chief— Major  Gladwin's  gallant  defence  of  Fort 
Detroit — British  forts  captured — Colonel  Bouquet's  expedition  —  Sir  William  Johnson's 
negotiations  with  the  Indians — Submission  of  Pontiac  and  the  tribes — The  French 
Canadians  under  the  new  rule — General  Murray  becomes  governor — Able  administration 
of  his  successor — Quebec  Act  of  1774 — Surrender  of  St.  John's — Quebec  besieged  by  the 
Americans — Loyalty  of  the  Canadians — Province  of  Ontario  created  and  colonized — 
Constitutional  Act  of  1791 — Upper  and  Lower  Canada  formed — Characteristics  of  the 
French  Canadian, ...  246 

CHAPTER  VIII.— NEWFOUNDLAND— NOVA  SCOTIA— NEW  BRUNSWICK- 
PRINCE  EDWARD  ISLAND. 

Discovery  of  Newfoundland — Customs  regulating  the  fisheries — The  English  flag  planted  on 
its  coast — Importance  of  the  cod-fishery — Attempts  to  colonize  by  the  English — Lord 
Baltimore's  colony — Wise  rule  of  Sir  David  Kirke — Newfoundland  finally  ceded  to  Britain 
— St.  John's  seized  by  the  French,  but  recaptured — After-history  of  the  island — Nova 
Scotia  or  Acadia — A  Scottish  settlement  at  Port  Royal — The  country  restored  to  France 
— Cromwell's  expedition  to  Port  Royal — Joint  occupation  by  English  and  French — Acadia 
ceded  to  France — Contests  between  the  English  and  French  settlers — Sir  William  Phipps' 
expedition  against  Port  Royal — The  colony  becomes  a  British  possession — Difficulties  with 
the  French  inhabitants — Governorship  of  Paul  Mascarene — Arrival  of  English  emigrants — 
Difficulties  with  the  Acadians — Their  expatriation — Representative  government  established 
— The  colonies  of  New  Brunswick  and  Prince  Edward  Island,  ...  -  274 

CHAPTER  IX.— HUDSON'S  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  NORTH-WEST. 

Early  history  of  Hudson's  Bay  territory — The  Hudson's  Bay  Company — Rupert's  Land- 
Troubles  with  the  French  traders — Assigned  to  Britain  at  the  Peace  of  Versailles — Explo- 
ration of  the  Great  North-western  regions — The  Verendryes — Their  important  discoveries 
— Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie  crosses  the  Rocky  Mountains,  -  302 

CHAPTER  X.— COLONIAL  POSSESSIONS  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES. 

Geographical  division  and  history — Barbados — Introduction  of  negro  labour  into  the  island — 
Enterprising  spirit  of  the  Barbadians — The  Bermudas  or  Somers'  Islands — Leeward  Islands 
— St.  Kitts —  Nevis — Antigua — Montserrat — Dominica — Virgin  Islands — Windward  Islands 
— Tobago — St.  Lucia — Grenada-and  the  Grenadines — St.  Vincent — The  Bahamas — British 
Honduras  or  Belize — Trinidad — Jamaica,  .  -  310 


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OUR  EMPIRE 
AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 


BOOK  I. 

GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND  BEFORE  THE 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 


CHAPTER  I.— INTRODUCTORY. 

Purpose  of  the  work— Peaceful  achievements  of  the  nineteenth  century— Its  distinguished 
place  in  history — Revolution  in  social  life — Changes  in  the  mental  and  political 
world — Our  vast  Colonial  Dependencies  and  Asiatic  Empire. 

THE  purpose  of  this  work  is  to  depict  the  progress  and  condition 
of  the  British  Empire  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  to  furnish 
a  complete  historical  and  descriptive  account  of  our  Colonial 
Possessions  and  Dependencies  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  from 
the  time  of  British  occupation,  or,  in  some  cases,  from  an  earlier 
period,  till  the  present  day.  In  pursuing  this  object,  we  hope  to 
see  little  of  party  conflicts  or  of  political  intrigues.  The  din  of 
parliamentary  debates  will  concern  us  only  so  far  as,  from  amid 
the  tumult  of  the  strife,  great  legislative  measures  have  emerged, 
conceived  in  wisdom,  wrought  with  skill,  and  rich  in  blessings 
for  generations  yet  unborn.  Those  statesmen  and  warriors  alone 
will  appear  upon  the  scene  whose  names  are  renowned  for 
eminent  services  of  lasting  value,  rendered  by  them  to  the  coun- 
try of  their  birth.  A  history  of  peaceful  progress  in  the  civilized 
arts,  a  record  of  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  improvement, 
will  render  homage  to  men  distinguished  rather  by  attainments 
in  learning  and  in  culture,  by  inventive  skill,  by  patient  investi- 
gation, and  by  brilliant  discovery  in  the  realm  of  science,  by  daring 
and  endurance  in  travel  and  exploration,  than  by  victories  won  in 
warfare  waged  against  human  foes. 


VOL.  I. 


2  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

The  place  reserved  in  history  for  the  peaceful  achievements 
of  the  nineteenth  century  is,  beyond  doubt,  one  of  the  first  order 
of  distinction.  No  equal  period  of  the  world's  history  has  wit- 
nessed economical  changes  of  such  a  kind  and  degree,  so  wonderful 
in  themselves,  so  abiding  and  far-reaching  in  their  influence  and 
effects.  Science  has  lengthened  human  life,  has  vastly  abridged 
distance,  and,  for  the  transmission  of  news,  has  annihilated  time. 
Nature,  at  many  points,  has  been,  according  to  the  divine  ordin- 
ance, conquered  by  man.  The  earth  has  been  at  last  subdued, 
and  vast  regions  once  void  are  fast  being  replenished.  The  abun- 
dance of  the  means  of  life,  combined  with  the  natural  fertility  of 
the  stock,  has  more  than  tripled,  since  1801,  the  population  of 
Great  Britain.  Apart  from  Canada  and  India,  the  British  nation 
has  acquired,  during  this  century,  settlements  beyond  the  seas  now 
peopled  by  some  millions  of  our  race.  The  wealth  of  the  whole 
people,  through  manufactures  and  trade,  along  with  the  operation 
of  fiscal  reforms,  has  vastly  increased;  and,  in  spite  of  the  evils  due 
to  keen  competition,  the  necessaries,  the  comforts,  and  even  some 
of  the  luxuries  of  life  are  far  more  widely  distributed  than  ever 
before  among  the  class  who  exist  by  manual  toil. 

The  improvements  effected  in  what  was  old,  the  discovery  and 
development  of  new  forces,  have  wrought  a  revolution  in  social 
life  without  example  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Men  not  yet 
conscious  of  old  age  have  beheld  a  transition,  in  the  means  of 
locomotion  alone,  from  almost  barbarous  times  to  an  era  of  high 
civilization.  The  traveller  by  train  thinks  with  horror  of  the  days 
of  movement  by  coach,  not  at  the  call  of  enjoyment  under  sunny 
skies,  but  on  compulsion  of  affairs  demanding  long,  dreary,  and 
shelterless  passage  beneath  driving  rain  or  snow,  over  perilous  and 
miry  roads.  The  facts  all  around  us,  in  this  marvellous  age,  tran- 
scend the  conceptions  of  fiction  and  romance.  The  moving  palace 
of  the  great  steamship  lines,  the  production  and  contents  of  the 
daily  gazette,  are  triumphs  of  human  skill  and  organization  at 
which,  on  a  sudden  revelation,  the  people  of  the  last  century  would 
stand  aghast.  Man's  knowledge  of  nature's  secrets  and  resources 
has  so  increased  in  extension  and  in  depth,  that  a  new  world  of 
acquirement  has  come  into  our  possession  more  than  equal,  for 
practical  effect  on  human  life,  to  all  that  was  known  before  the 
beginning  of  the  period  with  which  we  propose  to  deal. 


INTRODUCTORY.  3 

Not  less  striking  have  been  the  changes  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in  the  mental  and  political  world.  A  new  British  demo- 
cracy exists  along  with  new  methods,  standards,  and  beliefs  in 
literature,  philosophy,  education,  and  art.  Every  department  of 
intellectual  research  and  social  order  is  rife  with  the  restless  activity 
and  energy  of  this  unparalleled  age.  Countless  societies  exist, 
composed  of  men  devoted,  in  the  labour  of  a  life,  or  as  the  cherished 
pursuit  of  hours  of  leisure,  to  the  artistic  and  literary  records  of 
past  ages,  to  scientific  discovery,  to  the  enforcement  of  sound 
principles  in  practical  and  social  science,  and  to  the  cultivation  of 
art  in  every  kind.  Year  by  year  vast  stores  are  thus  added  to  the 
accumulated  treasure  inherited  from  past  ages.  The  endless  ener- 
getic work  of  men  and  women  who  are  true  lovers  of  their  kind 
is  seen  in  numberless  associations  founded  and  supported  for  the 
relief  of  human  suffering  and  the  redress  of  wrong.  Change  is  not 
always  improvement  and  progress  towards  higher  things,  but  this, 
at  least,  is  certain,  that  during  the  nineteenth  century,  among  the 
British  race,  human  pain  has  been  diminished,  human  happiness 
and  comfort  have  greatly  grown,  human  sympathies  have"  been 
enlarged,  human  eyes  have  brightened  with  a  better  hope  for  the 
future  of  the  world. 

Nor  is  it  merely  energetic  effort  and  kindly  impulse  that  are 
ceaselessly  at  war  with  evils  new  and  old.  Scientific  method  and 
skilful  organization  are  among  the  great  marks  of  the  present  age, 
and,  in  the  face  of  social  problems  to  be  solved,  and  public  diffi- 
culties to  be  encountered,  they  afford  a  reasonable  expectation, 
as  we  look  to  what  has  been  surmounted  and  achieved  during 
the  nineteenth  century,  that  real  and  permanent  improvement  will 
not  fail  to  be  attained. 

When  we  turn  from  the  narrow  limits  of  the  British  Isles  to 
our  expansion  abroad,  and  contemplate  the  vast  colonial  realm,  the 
Greater  Britain  beyond  Atlantic,  Indian,  and  Pacific  seas,  we  are 
confronted  by  a  spectacle  of  interest  and  importance  unequalled, 
unapproached  in  the  whole  course  of  political  history.  The 
Roman  Empire  in  olden  time  embraced  nearly  the  whole  civilized 
world;  but  the  world,  as  then  fully  known,  comprised  less  than 
half  the  area  of  Europe,  a  fringe  of  northern  Africa,  and  a  part 
of  south-western  Asia.  The  Russian  Empire  in  modern  days  is 
equal  in  area  to  the  British  possessions,  but  is  only  in  a  slight 


4  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

degree  a  colonial  dominion.  Two  hundred  years  ago  John  Milton, 
great  alike  as  poet  and  publicist,  pictured,  in  prophetic  mood, 
England  as  standing  "  with  all  her  daughter-lands  about  her",  but 
his  imagination,  vivid  as  it  was,  could  not  prefigure  a  New  Zea- 
land, an  Australia,  a  great  South  African  dominion,  or  such  a 
territory  as  the  larger  Canada.  Still  less  could  he  forecast  those 
unique  events  in  all  colonial  history — the  loss  to  England  of  one 
great  dependency  in  North  America,  just  preceded  by  the  acquire- 
ment of  new  lands  on  the  same  great  continent,  and  followed,  in 
due  time,  by  expansion  of  that  conquest  into  a  colonized  area 
extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  shore.  Last  to  take 
the  field  for  the  prize  of  colonial  possession,  Great  Britain  has  long 
ago  and  far  away  outstripped  all  her  rivals;  and  mainly  through 
her  children  is  the  civilization  of  Europe  at  this  moment  being 
spread  throughout  the  world.  Our  language,  our  literature,  our 
institutions,  our  political  freedom  have  been  transplanted  to 
regions  nigh  upon  the  Arctic  circle,  and  beneath  the  Southern 
Cross,  and  new  cities  are  ever  growing,  new  communities  arising, 
new  fields  and  gardens  being  reclaimed  from  wilderness,  in  a 
colonial  realm  about  sixty  times  as  large  as  the  motherland.  The 
mistaken  policy  which  alienated  one  great  British  community,  and 
so  created  the  United  States  of  North  America,  has  been  long 
exchanged  for  a  treatment  which  enables  our  distant  fellow- 
subjects  to  speak  with  real  affection  of  Great  Britain  as  "  Home". 
From  these  great  new  lands  many  a  young  colonist  comes  to 
study  in  the  ancient,  stately,  and  picturesque  abodes  of  English, 
Scottish,  and  Irish  learning,  and  to  display  his  athletic  vigour  in 
the  field  and  on  the  golf-links,  on  the  tennis-ground  and  the 
stream.  Now  and  again  an  old  or  middle-aged  Canadian  or 
Australian  magnate  arrives  on  our  shores  to  seek  reception  within 
the  walls  of  the  imperial  Parliament,  or  to  purchase  an  estate,  to 
found  a  new  family  in  Great  Britain,  and  to  lay  his  bones  in  the 
land  which  bred  himself  or  his  sire.  Closely  connected  by  blood, 
language,  and  traditions,  and  by  the  interests  of  trade  in  which 
our  settlers  furnish  food  and  raw  material  for  textile  fabrics  in 
profitable  barter  for  the  productions  of  the  British  loom  and  forge, 
the  British  race  at  home  and  abroad,  save  in  the  United  States, 
forms  one  great  democracy  of  nearly  fifty  million  souls,  subjects 
of  the  same  benignant  rule. 


INTRODUCTORY.  5 

Our  great  Asiatic  dependency,  the  Indian  Empire,  presents 
a  strong  contrast  to  the  other  colonial  dominions.  There  alone 
we  have  the  spectacle  of  two  hundred  thousand  Britons,  civilians  ^ 
and  armed  men,  controlling  more  than  two  hundred  millions  of 
men  of  foreign  races,  religions,  and  tongues.  The  most  remark- 
able fact  about  the  acquirement  of  this  dominion  is  its  accidental,  » 
unforeseen  development.  About  three  hundred  years  ago,  in  the 
last  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  a  trading  company  is  formed  for 
traffic  in  the  Eastern  lands  and  seas.  Two  centuries  and  a  half 
elapse,  and  that  Company,  which  has  long  represented  really  the 
might  and  majesty  of  Great  Britain  and  her  rulers,  has  become 
virtual  mistress  of  the  whole  vast  Indian  peninsula,  as  well  as  of 
a  large  territory  to  the  east  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  The  manner 
of  this  phenomenal  achievement  will  be  told  hereafter;  the  fact 
is  one  of  the  marvels  of  history.  The  nation  derives  no  direct 
benefit  of  tribute  or  profit  from  this  possession  save  that  which 
accrues  from  the  operations  of  trade.  No  revenue  is  raised  by 
taxation  beyond  that  which  is  absolutely  needed  to  cover  the 
expense  of  administration.  The  subjects  of  the  Queen  in  India 
are  in  no  wise  treated  as  the  victims  of  conquest,  but  are  now 
as  free  from  plunder  or  oppression  at  our  hands  as  the  dwellers 
in  any  of  the  British  colonies  mainly  composed  of  British  emi- 
grants and  their  children.  Through  her  presence  in  India  Britain 
has  become  a  great  Oriental  power,  and  contiguity  with  the 
Asiatic  possessions  of  Russia  creates  for  our  Cabinets  a  new  foreign 
policy  demanding  anxious  and  vigilant  care.  As  the  nature  of 
our  acquisition  of  this  Eastern  sphere  of  rule  is  without  example, 
so  is  the  future,  the  end  of  this  great  enterprise,  beyond  all 
calculation. 

From  this  preliminary  sketch  of  the  task  which  lies  before  us, 
we  may  now  pass  to  some  account  of  the  British  Empire  in  times 
prior  to  the  nineteenth  cenfury,  and  trace,  mainly  during  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  steps  by  which  the  nation  arrived  at  the 
position  which  she  occupied  in  the  year  1801. 


6  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

CHAPTER    II. 

SKETCH  OF  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  BRITISH  CONSTITUTION. 

The  Great  Charter— First  complete  Parliament— England  under  the  Tudors— The  Church 
of  the  Middle  Ages — The  Reformation — Church  of  England— Rise  of  the  Puritans 
— Union  of  the  two  crowns — Scotland  and  Ireland — James  I.  and  "divine  right  "- 
Charles  I.— The  Restoration — Persecution  of  Nonconformists— Habeas  Corpus  Act 
— James  II. — The  Revolution — William  and  Mary — The  Bill  of  Rights  and  Tolera- 
tion Act — Freedom  of  the  Press — Act  of  Settlement. 

Celts  or  Britons;  Romans;  conquering  Teutonic  tribes;  Scandi- 
navian warriors,  first  as  mere  invaders  and  plunderers,  then  as 
dwellers  settling  down  among,  and  absorbed  by  the  English 
race;  Norman  subjugation  and  feudal  rule;  these  are  the  phases 
which,  in  the  changes  and  conflicts  of  nearly  twelve  hundred 
years,  indicate  the  slow  formation,  and  bring  us  to  the  political 
birth,  of  the  English  nation.  The  Great  Charter,  wrung  from 
King  John  by  the  armed  Norman  barons,  proclaimed  that  Eng- 
land was  destined  to  be  and  to  live  politically  free.  In  the 
days  of  the  tyrant's  grandson,  one  of  our  greatest  monarchs, 
Edward  the  First,  the  distinction  between  Normans  and  English 
almost  vanished,  and  the  great  first  complete  Parliament,  that  of 
1295,  furnished  the  outline  of  our  modern  constitution.  This 
assembly,  which  first  sat  in  two  houses  under  Edward  the  Third, 
contained  both  lay  and  spiritual  barons,  along  with  elected  re- 
presentatives of  counties,  cities,  and  boroughs.  Here,  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  we  find  the  source  of  our  freedom,  our  pros- 
perity, and  our  national  fame.  The  rise  of  a  House  of  Commons, 
destined  to  be  the  model  for  representative  assemblies  in  all  free 
nations,  was  coeval  with  the  creation  of  the  earliest  colleges  at 
our  two  great  ancient  seats  of  learning;  with  the  formation  of  a 
noble  language,  and  with  the  dawn  of  a  splendid  literature,  "the 
brightest,  the  purest,  the  most  durable  of  all  the  glories  of  our 
country;  a  literature  rich  in  precious  truth  and  precious  fiction; 
a  literature  which  boasts  of  the  prince  of  all  poets  and  of  the 
prince  of  all  philosophers;  a  literature  which  has  exercised  an 
influence  wider  than  that  of  our  commerce,  and  mightier  than 
that  of  our  arms".  The  new  nation  soon  gave  assurance  of  the 
prowess  of  her  sons  on  the  field  of  battle.  In  the  Hundred  Years' 


GROWTH   OF   THE   CONSTITUTION.  7 

War,  though  she  happily  failed  in  all  attempts  at  the  conquest 
of  France,  the  knights  and  yeomen  who  went  forth  from  her 
shores  proved  themselves  to  be  truly  formidable  foes.  In  the 
fourteenth,  and  early  in  the  fifteenth  centuries,  English  skill  in 
the  arts  of  peace  was  displayed  in  the  erection  of  the  noble 
cathedrals  which  modern  architects  regard  with  envy  and 
despair. 

Thus  did  the  English  people  assert  a  claim  to  a  foremost  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  last  age  of  the  mediaeval  world.  During 
the  same  period  the  House  of  Commons  was  growing  in  strength, 
sometimes  in  alliance  with  the  king  against  the  barons,  sometimes 
in  concert  with  the  lords  against  the  king.  Before  the  close  of 
Plantagenet  times,  not  only  was  the  monarchy  of  England  so  far 
limited  that  the  king,  without  parliament,  could  make  no  law,  raise 
no  money  by  taxation,  and  rule  only  by  the  laws  of  the  land, 
with  advisers  and  agents  responsible  to  parliament  through  the 
power  of  impeachment;  but  the  Commons,  for  themselves,  had 
gained  the  right  to  share  in  all  legislation,  to  originate  money 
grants,  to  exercise  freedom  of  speech  in  debate,  to  enjoy  freedom 
from  arrest,  and  to  determine  disputed  elections  to  their  House. 
Feudalism  was  almost  at  an  end;  all  men  born  on  English  soil 
had  become  freemen,  and  could  all,  below  the  peerage,  claim  and 
maintain,  under  the  common  law,  equal  civil  rights  in  the  courts 
of  justice.  The  internecine  strife  among  the  nobles,  known  as 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  caused  the  collapse,  for  a  time,  of  this 
constitutional  liberty.  The  old  nobles  almost  vanished  through 
mutual  extermination  on  the  field  of  battle  and  by  bills  of  attain- 
der. A  statute  of  Henry  the  Sixth,  in  1430,  restricted  voting  for 
knights  of  the  shire,  or  county  members  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
to  freeholders  of  property  "  to  the  value  of  forty  shillings  by  the 
year",  a  sum  then  equal  to  many  pounds  of  our  day. 

The  strength  of  both  Lords  and  Commons  was  seriously  cur- 
tailed in  Tudor  times,  under  what  has  been  called  the  "New"  or 
"Popular"  Monarchy,  this  latter  expression  meaning  a  royal  power 
dependent  on  popular  will,  and  controlled  by  the  risk  of  insurrec- 
tion, against  which  the  sovereign,  happily  for  English  freedom, 
could  bring  no  standing  army  to  operate.  As  regards  the  House 
of  Commons,  the  borough  franchise,  as  well  as  the  county  voting, 
was  greatly  restricted  by  confinement  to  a  class  of  privileged 


8  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

burgesses,  and  the  assembly  was  largely  subject  to  royal  and  oli- 
garchical influence.  The  Tudor  sovereigns,  indeed,  used  Parliament, 
in  the  main,  only  for  their  own  ends.  During  the  last  twelve  years 
of  Henry  the  Seventh,  only  one  Parliament  was  held.  Henry  the 
Eighth  summoned  no  Parliament  from  1515  to  1522,  and  none 
again  from  1523  to  1530.  Royal  proclamations  acquired  the  force 
of  law,  and  the  Privy  Council,  aided  by  such  institutions  as  the 
Star  Chamber,  superseded,  to  a  large  extent,  the  work  of  juries, 
and  saved  servile  officials  from  the  punishment  of  their  misdeeds. 
Money  was  raised  from  the  wealthy  by  "benevolences"  or  enforced 
presents,  and  from  the  trading  class  by  forced  loans  which  were 
not  repaid;  by  judicial  fines,  and  by  the  plunder  of  the  Church. 

Yet  the  spirit  and  strength  of  English  subjects  prevented  the 
Tudor  dictatorship  from  passing  into  the  despotism  which  befell 
other  European  nations — France,  and-  Germany,  and  Spain.  In- 
dividuals might  and  did  suffer,  but  the  masses  were  ever  ready  to 
resist  gross  and  general  oppression.  The  people  kept  in  their 
hands  the  power  of  the  purse.  When  Henry  the  Eighth,  without 
the  consent  of  Parliament,  required  of  his  subjects  a  contribution 
amounting  to  one-sixth  of  their  goods,  a  general  outcry,  with  the 
appearance  of  thousands  of  men  in  arms,  compelled  him  not 
only  to  withdraw  his  demands,  but  to  make  a  public  and  solemn 
apology  for  his  infraction  of  English  laws.  In  1523,  the  House  of 
Commons,  with  great  Sir  Thomas  More  as  Speaker,  resisted  the 
imperious  Wolsey  at  the  height  of  his  power,  and  voted  only  half 
of  the  money  asked  by  the  crown.  Such  a  people  could  not  be 
enslaved,  and,  by  taking  their  stand  firmly  on  their  constitutional 
right  to  give  or  withhold  money,  they  prevented  the  sovereign  from 
hiring  professional  soldiers  in  numbers  sufficient  to  enforce  his 
will,  and  our  forefathers  thus  escaped  the  fate  of  the  countries 
where  parliamentary  institutions  soon  ceased  to  exist.  The  insular 
position  of  England,  guarding  her  from  foreign  invasion,  dispensed 
with  the  need  of  regular  troops  until  the  time  came  when  Parlia- 
ment had  provided  ample  securities  against  their  misuse  for  the 
ends  of  tyranny. 

In  Tudor  times  we  have  the  religious  revolution  which  was  so 
greatly  to  affect  the  future  of  the  British  Isles.  The  Church  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  invested  with  great  power  and  wealth,  had 
been  a  state  within  a  state,  and  some  of  the  most  dramatic  and 


GROWTH   OF   THE   CONSTITUTION.  9 

stirring  scenes  of  our  history  had  arisen  from  the  conflict  be- 
tween the  ecclesiastical  and  the  lay  authority.  In  feudal  times 
she  had  rendered  eminent  services  to  the  cause  of  human  happi- 
ness and  progress.  In  the  library  the  Church  had  preserved, 
and  in  the  writing-room  of  the  monastery  her  devotees  had  copied 
and  multiplied,  the  classic  treasures  of  the  past.  Her  chronicles 
had  handed  down  to  posterity  the  record  of  events.  Of  her 
wealth  the  hungry  had  been  fed,  the  college  and  the  school  estab- 
lished and  endowed.  By  the  skill  which,  in  earlier  days,  was  the 
almost  exclusive  possession  of  monk  and  priest,  the  sick  had  been 
healed,  and  the  arts  of  peace  had  been  practised  and  advanced,  in 
the  reclamation  of  wastes,  the  tillage  of  the  soil,  and  the  erection 
and  adornment  of  magnificent  architectural  shrines  and  abodes. 
By  the  pleading  of  her  priests  the  feudal  master  had  often  been 
persuaded  to  free  the  slave,  and  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  the 
vassals  bound  to  him  by  feudal  law.  The  persecuted  and  the 
weak  had  been  sheltered  in  her  sanctuaries,  and,  in  the  person  of 
Stephen  Langton  and  the  like,  she  had  lifted  up  the  bold  voice  of 
men  who,  fearing  God,  feared  none  besides,  against  the  wrong- 
doer and  oppressor,  the  mail-clad  baron  and  the  supreme  feudal 
lord,  the  crowned  and  anointed  king.  The  ranks  of  English 
statesmen  and  diplomatists,  prior  to  the  Reformation,  were  often 
recruited  from  the  clerical  order.  From  Dunstan  to  Wolsey, 
churchmen  were  seen  directing  the  greatest  affairs  with  a  skill  and 
knowledge  rarely  found  among  laymen. 

During  the  fifteenth  century  this  great  institution  largely  de- 
clined in  character  and  power.  The  movement  led  by  Wyclif  had 
been,  indeed,  suppressed,  for  the  fulness  of  time  had  not  yet  come. 
The  days  of  the  Renascence,  or  Revival  of  Learning,  when  the 
printing-press  spread  fast  and  far  the  thoughts  of  mutineers  against 
the  domination  of  the  Church,  found  the  clergy  no  longer  the  sole 
or  the  chief  proprietors  of  knowledge.  Men  were  asking  for  reasons, 
and  inquiring  into  dogmas,  rather  than  yielding  implicit  belief,  and 
Henry  the  Eighth,  without  any  defect  of  orthodoxy  in  himself, 
took  advantage  of  the  times  for  his  private  ends.  The  Houses 
were  summoned  to  do  his  work.  A  ready  compliance  passed  the 
needful  statutes,  and  the  king,  with  his  Protestant  adviser,  Thomas 
Cromwell,  as  chief  agent,  effected  the  separation  of  the  English 
Church  from  the  see  of  Rome.  The  Church  was  stripped  of  her 


IO  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

wealth,  and  received  a  new  earthly  head  in  the  person  of  the 
sovereign.  The  creed  and  ritual  of  the  Reformed  Church  were 
almost  settled,  by  Cranmer  and  others,  in  the  reign  of  Henry's  son, 
and,  after  the  short-lived  reaction  under  Mary  Tudor,  the  Church 
was  finally  established  by  Elizabeth  in  the  form  of  a  "mean  between 
two  extremes",  a  compromise  which  has  ever  since  enabled 
Anglican  churchmen  to  hold  widely  divergent  views  on  many  im- 
portant points.  Midway  between  Geneva  and  Rome,  she  embraces 
at  once  those  who  differ  little  in  doctrine  from  Calvin  and  Knox, 
and  those  who,  in  many  points,  are  in  sympathy  and  harmony  with 
the  feelings  and  principles  of  devoted  adherents  of  the  Roman  see. 
The  royal  supremacy  involved  in  the  very  existence  of  the  English 
Church  has  had  important  political  effects  in  binding  her  ministers 
and  laymen  to  the  throne  by  the  ties  at  once  of  hope,  gratitude, 
and  fear.  Her  tastes  and  traditions  are  all  monarchical. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who,  from  the  first,  dissented  from  the 
Church  on  the  question  of  prelacy,  and  especially  those  who  strictly 
followed  the  theology  of  Calvin,  formed  the  party  known,  under 
Elizabeth,  as  Puritans.  The  persecution  which  they  endured  from 
the  great  Tudor  queen  made  the  party  hostile  to  the  royal  pre- 
rogative, and  the  mercantile  classes  in  the  towns,  with  a  large 
section  of  the  smaller  landed  gentry,  became  powerful  upholders  of 
popular  rights  and  popular  claims  in  the  early  Stuart  days.  In 
Scotland,  especially,  the  democratic  nature  of  the  established 
Presbyterian  church  government,  and  in  Wales  the  strong  Calvin- 
istic  theology  adopted  by  the  numerous  Nonconformists,  composing 
the  main  body  of  the  people,  had  great  influence  on  political  feeling 
and  opinion,  and  largely  contributed  to  form  the  Liberal  and 
Radical  sentiments  and  views  by  which  those  countries  are  dis- 
tinguished in  these  latest  days  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  union  of  the  territory  under  one  king  created  a  Great 
Britain.  That  illustrious  monarch,  Edward  the  First,  had  made 
Wales  subject  to  English  rule,  though  the  Principality  was  not 
represented  in  Parliament  till  the  days  of  Henry  the  Eighth. 
Edward  and  his  degenerate  son  had  vainly  striven  to  gain  a 
permanent  hold  on  Scotland,  and  the  northern  country,  em- 
bracing the  French  alliance,  was  in  a  state  of  hostility,  active  or 
quiescent,  towards  her  neighbour,  for  nearly  three  centuries. 
The  union  of  the  crowns  in  the  person  of  James  the  First  of 


GROWTH   OF   THE   CONSTITUTION.  II 

England  and  Sixth  of  Scotland  would  have  been  productive  of 
immediate  benefit  to  both  countries,  if  the  Stuart  sovereigns  of  the 
male  line  had  been  wise  and  benignant  rulers.  The  first  Stuart 
king  of  England,  indeed,  was  the  first  ruler  of  the  whole  British 
Isles.  Ireland,  invaded  and  partially  subdued  under  Henry  the 
Second,  had  fought,  with  fitful  fierceness,  for  the  expulsion  of  the 
hated  "Saxon",  but  had  been  thoroughly  conquered  by  Mountjoy  in 
the  last  years  of  Elizabeth.  The  last  O'Donnel  and  O'Neil  who 
held  the  rank  of  independent  princes  or  chiefs  did  homage  to  James 
at  his  palace  of  Whitehall,  and  thenceforward  the  British  monarch's 
writs  ran,  and  his  judges  held  assize,  in  every  part  of  Ireland.  In 
1590,  on  James'  marriage  with  the  Danish  princess  Anne,  Den- 
mark had  formally  resigned  all  claims  to  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Orkney  Isles,  and  that  mixed  Scandinavian  and  Scottish  population 
came  finally  under  British  rule.  Scotland,  giving  instead  of 
receiving  a  king,  retained  her  own  laws  and  constitution,  with 
tribunals  and  parliaments  independent  of  those  which  sat  at  West- 
minster. The  administration  of  the  country  was  in  Scottish  hands, 
but  her  connection  with  a  wealthier  and  stronger  nation  caused 
her,  though  in  name  an  independent  kingdom,  to  receive,  for  more 
than  a  century,  much  of  the  treatment  of  a  subject  province.  As 
for  Ireland,  she  was  openly  ruled  as  a  dependency  won  by  the 
sword.  The  English  settlers,  wholly  relying  on  the  mother 
country  for  safety  and  existence,  were  subject  to  her  dictation, 
and,  for  their  own  parts,  they  oppressed  the  people  among  whom 
they  had  fixed  their  abodes.  The  Irish,  alone  among  the  nations 
of  northern  Europe,  had  remained  faithful  to  the  old  religion,  and 
sectarian  animosity  was  thus  added  to  the  hatred  inspired  by  the 
alien  conquering  race.  The  cruelties  perpetrated  by  English 
invaders  and  persecutors  in  the  later  Tudor  times  made  the  Celtic 
population  of  Ireland  regard  the  executive  administration,  wholly 
in  English  hands,  as  the  hated  rule  of  foreigners  and  foes,  ab- 
horrent to  the  ruled  in  character,  nationality,  and  religious  faith. 

Such  were  the  conditions  under  which  all  the  British  Isles,  in 
1603,  were  found  peaceably  united  as  the  realms  of  the  same  king. 
For  nearly  a  century,  under  Stuart  rule,  England  saw  herself 
deposed  from  her  high  place  among  the  nations  of  Europe,  save 
during  a  brief  interregnum,  in  which  the  genius  of  Cromwell, 
backed  by  a  formidable  army  and  fleet,  asserted  her  claims  with 


12  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

great  vigour  and  success.  The  nation,  for  a  long  period,  was 
involved  in  momentous  struggles  concerning  the  rights  of  parlia- 
ments and  kings.  James  the  First  brought  with  him  from 
Scotland  the  theory  of  divine  right.  Scottish  kings  had  for 
centuries  been  subject  to  being  thwarted  by  turbulent  mediaeval 
barons,  and  James  the  Sixth  found  all  the  charms  of  novelty  in  the 
theories  of  absolute  power  as  the  right  of  monarchs,  which  were  so 
much  opposed  to  his  experience  and  practice  of  rule  in  his  Scottish 
realm.  The  new  system,  contrary  to  all  the  implied  teaching  of 
both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments,  held  that  the  Supreme 
Being  had  ordained,  as  the  right  method  of  rule  over  nations, 
hereditary  monarchy,  with  succession  in  due  order  of  primogeni- 
ture; with  despotic  authority  residing  in  the  sovereign;  with  all 
limits  on  the  prerogative  liable  to  be  removed  by  him,  who  alone 
could  impose  them  as  concessions  of  his  free  will  and  pleasure. 
No  treaty  concluded  by  a  king  with  his  people  could  be  held  bind- 
ing on  him,  as  it  merely  declared  his  present  intentions,  and  those 
intentions  were  subject  to  change.  It  is  needless  to  point  out,  that 
this  patriarchal  theory  of  government  was  wholly  alien  from  pre- 
vious practice  in  England.  Many  kings  had  reigned  in  defiance 
of  the  strict  rule  of  descent.  The  Tudors  had  paid  little  heed  to 
the  "divine"  institution,  and  Henry  the  Eighth  had  obtained  an  act 
of  parliament  empowering  him  to  leave  the  crown  by  will.  Eliza- 
beth induced  Parliament  to  pass  a  law,  making  it  treason  to  deny 
the  reigning  sovereign's  competency,  with  the  assent  of  Parliament, 
to  alter  the  succession.  The  "divine  right  of  kings",  as  a  matter 
known  to  Englishmen,  is  completely  disposed  of  by  these  and  other 
facts.  During  the  hundred  and  sixty  years  which  preceded  the 
union  of  the  Red  and  White  Roses,  in  the  marriage  of  Henry  of 
Lancaster  to  Elizabeth  of  York,  nine  kings  reigned  in  England, 
and  of  these  nine  kings,  six  were  deposed,  and  five  lost  their  lives 
as  well  as  their  crowns,  either  by  secret  murder  or  in  civil  war. 

James  the  First  had  an  obvious  interest,  however,  in  asserting  that 
birth  confers  rights  anterior  to  law,  and  unalterable  by  law,  for  he 
was  excluded  from  the  throne  of  England  by  the  will  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  but  was  the  undoubted  heir  by  descent  from  both  William 
the  Conqueror  and  Egbert.  The  new  king's  strong  adherence  to 
episcopal  government  in  the  Church  won  many  supporters,  amongst 
the  English  clergy,  of  the  new  theory  of  kingly  rule,  and  divine  right 


GROWTH  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION.  13 

was  soon  preached  from  pulpits  of  the  Established  Church.  The 
claims  of  the  monarch  assumed  this  extreme  form  just  when  a 
republican  spirit  had  begun  to  be  prominent  in  Parliament  and  in 
the  country.  At  the  very  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  a  strong 
parliamentary  and  popular  attack  had  been  made  upon  the  odious 
monopolies,  and  the  haughty  and  despotic,  but  judicious,  Tudor 
queen  had  felt  compelled  to  recede,  as  she  did,  in  the  right  way 
and  at  the  right  time,  before  a  display  of  public  spirit,  in  favour  of 
public  liberties,  which  seemed  to  threaten  armed  revolt.  The 
lesson  was  wholly  lost  upon  her  successors.  James  the  First  did 
all  that  monarch  could  to  irritate,  alarm,  and  insult  a  parliament 
which  he  could  not  venture  to  attempt  to  coerce  or  suppress.  He 
imprisoned  some  patriotic  members.  He  tore  out  of  the  journals 
of  the  Commons,  with  his  own  hand,  the  page  containing  the 
famous  Protestation,  which  declared  the  "liberties,  franchises,  privi- 
leges, and  jurisdictions  of  parliament"  to  be  "the  ancient  and  un- 
doubted birthright  and  inheritance  of  the  subjects  of  England". 

Those  outrages  only  caused  the  undaunted  spirit  of  the  English- 
men of  those  days  to  swell  higher  and  higher  against  arbitrary  rule. 
At  the  same  time,  the  schism  between  the  Church  and  the  Non- 
conformists was  ever  growing  wider.  Both  parties  went  into 
extremes.  The  Anglican  clergy  in  many  quarters  favoured  "divine 
right",  and  drew  nearer  to  the  old  religion  in  ritual  and  doctrine. 
The  Puritans,  irritated  by  persecution,  adopted  the  stern  spirit  of 
the  Old  Testament  rather  than  the  benignity  of  the  New.  They 
made  the  Lord's  Day  into  a  strict  Jewish  Sabbath;  they  gave  to 
their  children  the  names  of  Hebrew  warriors  and  patriarchs;  they 
dwelt  much  on  Old  Testament  examples  of  cruel  vengeance 
wrought  on  foes;  they  denounced  popular  pastimes  and  innocent 
amusements  as  sins,  and  often  made  religion  displeasing  to  the 
young  and  the  light-hearted  by  their  sanctimonious  precision, 
their  Pharisaical  cant,  their  sour  solemnity  of  face,  and  the  nasal 
twang  with  which,  in  and  out  of  season,  they  degraded  the  imagery 
and  style  of  Scripture  by  application  to  the  most  trivial  matters  of 
daily  life.  With  all  this,  their  sound  morality  in  matters  of  real 
importance,  their  high  standard  of  right  and  wrong,  their  reckless 
disregard  of  man's  approval  in  matters  of  conscience,  created  an 
influence  which  has  never  ceased  to  act  for  good  on  the  social  life 
of  their  country.  To  the  Puritans,  above  all,  the  British  people 


14  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

are  indebted  for  the  inestimable  treasure  of  constitutional  free- 
dom. 

James  the  First  died,  and  left  the  throne  to  a  son  trained  in 
his  own  school  of  royal  prerogative.  The  son  bettered  the  lessons 
received  from  the  sire.  Aided  by  Laud  and  Wentworth  in  church 
and  state,  Charles  the  First  strove  for,  and  for  some  years  exer- 
cised, despotic  rule.  His  Scottish  subjects  were  alienated  by  gross 
interference  with  their  religious  system.  The  patience  of  a  large 
section  of  the  English  people  was  worn  out  at  last.  When  the 
monarch,  attended  by  an  armed  guard  of  court  bravoes,  went  to 
the  House  of  Commons  intent  to  seize,  within  the  walls  sacred  to 
free  debate,  the  persons  of  patriotic  members,  the  inevitable  end 
came  in  civil  war.  The  king  expiated  his  tyranny  and  his  bad 
faith  on  the  stricken  fields  of  Marston  Moor  and  Naseby,  and 
ended  his  career,  by  the  cruel,  lawless,  and  impolitic  act  of  a  small 
but  fanatical  and  powerful  armed  party  of  his  people,  on  the 
scaffold  at  Whitehall. 

This  terrible  lesson  was  not  lost  upon  his  son  and  successor  at 
the  "  Restoration",  which  succeeded  vain  attempts  to  create  a  new 
constitution.  There  was  no  more  thought  of  kingship  by  divine 
right.  A  parliament  must  and  did  exist  along  with  the  restored 
monarchy,  and  a  very  corrupt  parliament  it  was.  Bribery  by  bare 
gold,  and  royal  influence  in  various  forms,  tampered  with  debates 
and  votes;  but  even  this  House  of  Commons  again  and  again 
checked  the  royal  will,  and  Charles  the  Second,  with  all  his  moral 
worthlessness,  was  far  too  clever  and  cautious  to  provoke  a  new 
civil  war,  and  "  be  sent  again  on  his  travels",  as  in  the  early  days  of 
his  legal  reign.  He  "  managed  ",  like  a  dexterous  politician  as  he 
was,  quite  of  the  modern  school,  his  ministers,  his  Parliament,  and 
his  people,  and  died  regretted  at  any  rate  by  the  people  of  his 
capital,  leaving  a  signal  example  to  persons  in  high  places  of  the 
value  of  polite  and  charming  manners.  In  religious  affairs  under 
Charles,  the  Episcopal  Church  had  been  restored,  but  with  a  modi- 
fied spirit  which  claimed  no  divine  sanction  for  Episcopacy,  while  it 
inculcated  devotion  to  monarchical  power.  Under  the  persecution 
of  the  "  Clarendon  Code  "•  —the  new  Act  of  Uniformity,  the  Cor- 
poration Act,  the  Conventicle  Act,  the  Five  Mile  Act — Non- 
conformists or  Dissenters  were  prohibited,  under  severe  penalties, 
from  worshipping  according  to  their  own  beliefs;  they  were  excluded 


GROWTH   OF   THE   CONSTITUTION.  1 5 

from  municipal  office,  and  from  the  service  of  the  state ;  and 
in  many  cases  their  ministers  were  debarred  from  earning  their 
bread  by  teaching,  when  ejection  from  their  benefices,  as  men  not 
ordained  by  bishops,  had  deprived  them  of  their  livelihood  in  the 
service  of  the  Church.  In  foreign  affairs,  Britain  had  sunk  to  the 
lowest  point.  The  king  was  the  pensioner  of  the  French  mon- 
arch, and  had  engaged  in  schemes  for  the  establishment,  by  the 
aid  of  French  troops,  of  arbitrary  rule  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith. 

In  the  latter  part  of  Charles  the  Second's  reign,  the  party  names 
of  Tory  and  Whig,  corresponding  to  the  modern  Conservative  and 
Liberal,  had  been  assumed  by  the  parties  who  respectively  favoured 
the  royal  prerogative  (not,  of  course,  any  longer  meaning  mere 
arbitrary  rule),  and  the  cause  of  progress  towards  complete  civil  and 
religious  freedom. 

Under  Charles  the  Second  two  important  things — the  one  a 
wise  judicial  decision,  the  other  a  most  beneficent  statute — came  to 
favour  the  personal  freedom  of  British  subjects.  In  1670,  Vaughan, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  laid  it  down  that  jurors  cannot 
legally  be  fined  for  verdicts  given  against  the  direction  of  the  judge. 
Henceforth  juries,  freed  from  all  coercion,  could  safely  give  their 
verdicts  in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  their  conscience,  guided 
by  the  evidence  produced  before  them.  In  1679  the  Habeas  Cor- 
pus Act  once  for  all  secured,  save  in  cases  of  suspension  by  the  will 
of  Parliament,  the  freedom  of  all  subjects  that  obey  the  law  of  the 
land.  Under  this  statute,  the  name  of  which  is  taken  from  the 
first  words,  in  law  Latin,  of  the  written  fiat  of  a  judge  sent  to  the 
governor  of  a  jail,  the  order  "  You  must  produce  the  body " 
compels  the  production  of  a  prisoner  for  trial  before  a  legal  court, 
and  prevents  arbitrary  imprisonment  at  the  will  of  the  crown 
officers.  Under  severe  penalties  judges  are  bound,  on  application,  to 
issue  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  and  governors  of  prisons  must  act 
upon  the  order.  It  was  further  ordained  that  no  prisoner  must  be 
confined  beyond  the  seas,  and  that,  once  acquitted,  none  shall  be 
committed  to  prison  again  on  the  same  charge.  The  innocent 
alone  are  sheltered  by  this  law,  which  forces  the  guilty  to  submit 
to  speedy  trial. 

James  the  Second,  by  obstinate  misrule,  brought  matters  to  a 
speedy  and  decisive  issue.  The  new  king  was  sincerely  convinced 


l6  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

of  the  claims  of  his  religion,  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  secretly  held, 
and  avowed  on  the  bed  of  death,  by  his  brother  Charles.  In  devo- 
tion to  this  faith,  he  threw  away  the  excellent  position  bequeathed 
to  him,  and  strengthened  by  the  abortive  result  of  the  foolish  and 
wicked  enterprise  of  Monmouth.  By  the  humble  tone  of  his  first 
and  only  parliament,  James  was  encouraged  towards  arbitrary 
measures,  and  he  had  the  promise  of  support  from  his  brother's 
old  patron,  the  King  of  France.  He  chose  his  ministers,  in  1687, 
from  the  extreme  Catholic  section  of  his  advisers,  and,  under  the 
"dispensing  power"  which  he  claimed  and  exercised,  he  virtually 
annulled  the  Test  Act,  and  proceeded  to  fill  with  Catholics,  pro- 
fessed or  real,  numerous  posts  in  the  army  and  civil  service.  The 
universities  were  wronged  and  insulted  by  a  new  High  Commission 
Court  for  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  the  Church  of  England  was  out- 
raged both  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  in  the  person  of  her 
prelates,  arrested  and  tried  for  respectfully  asking  the  sovereign 
not  to  require  them  to  violate  the  law  of  the  land.  Scotland, 
harassed  by  religious  persecution  of  the  Covenanters,  or  advanced 
Presbyterians,  in  the  late  reign,  now  saw  the  religious  laws  sus- 
pended by  royal  prerogative,  and  old  distrust  of  the  Stuarts 
prevented  even  moderate  Presbyterians  from  being  conciliated  by 
indulgence  extended  to  themselves  along  with  the  Catholics,  who 
alone  were  admitted  to  office.  In  Ireland,  the  Catholics  were 
placed  in  a  dominant  position,  and  an  army  was  being  raised  there 
for  the  coercion  of  Great  Britain. 

The  acquittal  of  the  Seven  Bishops  gave  the  signal  for  action 
to  the  Whig  nobles  who  had  long  been  negotiating  with  William 
of  Orange,  nephew  and  son-in-law  of  James.  That  very  able,  brave, 
and  influential  prince  was  the  Protestant  champion  of  Europe,  and 
the  bitter  and  determined  foe  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  who  was 
aiming  at,  and  had  in  large  measure  acquired,  the  position  of  a 
dictator  in  continental  affairs.  The  birth  of  an  heir  to  James,  in 
June,  1688,  decided  William  to  accept  the  invitation  of  the  Whig 
leaders  for  an  invasion  of  England  with  Dutch  troops,  who,  in  case 
of  need,  would  support  an  insurrection  in  behalf  of  the  Protestant 
religion  and  of  the  civil  rights  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain. 
James,  left  without  support  from  any  class  of  his  subjects,  and 
unable  to  rely  upon  the  army  which  he  had  raised,  fled  helplessly 
to  France,  and  after  vain  efforts  to  maintain,  by  French  aid,  a  hold 


GROWTH   OF   THE   CONSTITUTION.  17 

upon  Ireland,  he  ceased  from  all  personal  connection  with  the 
British  Isles,  and  died  an  exile,  and  a  pensioner  of  the  generous 
Louis,  at  St.  Germains  in  1701. 

The  cause  of  the  Stuart  king  in  Scotland,  maintained  at  Killie- 
crankie  by  Viscount  Dundee,  did  not  long  survive  the  death  of 
the  victor  in  the  hour  of  triumph,  and  William  the  Third  and  his 
wife,  Mary  the  Second,  daughter  of  James,  became  sovereigns  of 
the  United  Kingdoms  early  in  1689,  on  terms  which,  in  the  Bill 
of  Rights,  amply  secured  for  future  subjects  of  the  crown  the  main 
substance,  including  germs  to  be  thereafter  developed,  of  complete 
civil  and  religious  freedom. 

Such  was  the  event  called  "  the  Glorious  Revolution " ;  one 
which  changed  the  dynasty,  and,  by  creating  a  purely  parliamentary 
title  for  future  holders  of  the  royal  position,  completely  did  away 
with  the  theory  of  "  divine  right  ".  Henceforth  Parliament  became 
the  chief  power  in  the  constitution,  and  the  House  of  Commons, 
controlling  the  public  purse,  was  to  be  the  stronger  part  of  Parlia- 
ment. The  beneficent  effects  of  this  grand  reform,  "  the  fruitful 
parent  of  reforms ",  were  quickly  seen  in  the  Toleration.  Act, 
which  relieved  Protestant  dissenters  from  some  of  the  penalties 
of  the  Clarendon  Code,  and  allowed  them  to  worship  freely  in 
their  own  way.  They  were  still  excluded,  like  the  Catholics,  from 
municipal  and  other  offices,  to  which  the  next  century  saw  them 
admitted  by  recognized  evasions,  and  through  the  passing  of  in- 
demnity bills.  In  1695,  when  the  House  of  Commons  refused 
to  renew  the  act  against  unlicensed  printing,  the  censorship  came 
to  an  end,  and  "  freedom  of  the  press  "  had  its  rise. 

The  foreign  action  of  William  the  Third  restored  Britain  to  a 
high  position  among  the  nations,  and  henceforth  she  had  her  full 
share  in  continental  affairs,  and  in  the  arrangements  made  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  "balance  of  power".  During  William's 
reign  we  have  our  first  legal  "  standing  army  ",  controlled  by  Parlia- 
ment through  an  annual  Mutiny  Act  and  the  power  of  the  purse; 
the  origin  of  the  national  system  of  finance  in  a  public  loan,  a 
national  debt,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Bank  of  England;  and 
an  innovation  which  has  since  become  an  institution  of  the  highest 
importance,  the  first  ministry,  afterwards  known  as  the  "  Cabinet ". 
It  was  by  slow  degrees  that,  during  the  eighteenth  century,  this 
body  of  men,  never  recognized  by  the  law,  became  an  executive 


VOL.  I. 


1 8  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

and  deliberative  committee  of  the  dominant  party,  or  majority,  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  including  peers  of  the  same  political  views, 
and  invested  with  the  attributes  of  united  responsibility,  concerted 
action,  and  political  unanimity  on  all  important  questions.  At  the 
close  of  the  reign,  a  clause  in  the  Act  of  Settlement,  which  secured 
the  Protestant  Hanoverian  succession  to  the  crown,  made  the  judges 
independent  of  the  sovereign,  by  conferring  on  them  a  tenure  of 
office  during  good  behaviour,  and  making  it  lawful  to  remove  them 
from  their  high  and  dignified  positions  only  upon  address  to  the 
crown  carried  by  vote  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament.  The  death 
of  William  the  Third,  in  1702,  thus  saw  the  constitutional  freedom 
of  these  realms,  and  the  substance  of  public  right  in  civil  and  reli- 
gious affairs,  established  upon  a  basis  which,  for  nearly  two  hundred 
years,  has  never  for  a  moment  been  shaken  or  disturbed. 


CHAPTER    III. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

System  of  party  government  under  Tories  and  Whigs — Union  of  England  and  Scotland — 
Accession  of  the  Hanoverian  dynasty — The  Septennial  Act — Rebellions  of  1715 
and  1745— Walpole  the  first  " prime  minister " — George  III. — Lord  North  and  the 
"  King's  friends" — John  Wilkes — The  Gordon  Riots — Demand  for  reform  of  House 
of  Commons — Reform  bills  introduced  by  William  Pitt — Freedom  of  the  press 
vindicated  by  Erskine  and  Fox — Political  prosecutions—  Independence  of  juries 
established. 

Under  Queen  Anne,  the  country  saw  the  early  growth  of  the 
system  of  party  government — Tories  and  Whigs — which  has  ever 
since  been  the  condition  of  our  political  existence.  In  politics, 
as  in  religion,  men  have  always  held,  and  will  hold,  different 
opinions,  and  when  Parliament  became  the  chief  authority  in 
the  state  the  only  practical  method  of  rule  was  one  by  which 
the  administration  of  affairs  was  intrusted  in  turns  to  rival  parties, 
struggling  for  place  and  power.  As  the  House  of  Commons 
held  the  control  of  taxation,  and,  by  refusing  supplies  of  money 
needed  for  the  public  service,  could  bring  the  machine  of  govern- 
ment to  a  stand,  that  House  acquired  the  greatest  weight  in  the 
constitutional  system,  and  political  leaders,  in  one  reign  at  least 
vigorously  helped  by  the  sovereign,  were  ever  striving  to  secure 


THE   CONSTITUTION   IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  19 

for  their  own  party  a  majority  of  supporters  in  that  assembly. 
Hence  came  the  "  bribery  and  corruption ",  the  intimidation,  the 
gross  revelry,  the  rioting,  and  other  disorders  attendant  upon  par- 
liamentary elections, 

The  chief  event  of  Anne's  reign  in  domestic  affairs  was  the 
parliamentary  union  with  Scotland,  which  had  been  aimed  at 
by  James  the  First,  effected  for  a  brief  space  by  Cromwell, 
permitted  to  lapse  at  the  Restoration,  and  strongly  desired  by 
William  the  Third.  After  some  vain  attempts,  in  discussion  be- 
tween English  and  Scottish  commissioners,  and  with  a  strong 
opposition  in  Scotland,  the  measure  was  carried  in  1707,  and  the 
one  kingdom  of  "  Great  Britain "  was  thus  fully  formed.  The 
succession  to  the  throne,  the  parliament,  the  standards  of  coin, 
weights,  and  measures,  the  laws  of  trade,  customs,  and  excise  were 
to  be  the  same  for  both  countries.  The  Presbyterian  Church  was 
to  remain  as  the  established  religion  of  Scotland;  the  four  Scottish 
universities  and  the  judicial  administration  were  left  as  before, 
except  that  an  appeal  was  granted  from  decisions  of  the  Court  of 
Session  to  the  House  of  Lords.  Scottish  civil  and  criminal  law 
was  retained,  and  in  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  the  northern 
country  was  represented  by  forty-five  members  of  the  Commons, 
and  by  sixteen  Scottish  peers,  chosen  for  each  parliament  by  the 
whole  body  of  their  fellow-peers  in  Scotland,  in  the  House  of 
Lords. 

This  great  political  change  proved,  after  the  subsidence  of 
mutual  jealousies  and  suspicions,  to  be  of  great  benefit  to  both 
countries.  England  was  freed  from  the  constant  danger  of  divided 
interests  which  might  end  in  civil  war.  The  trading  skill,  energy, 
and  enterprise  of  the  Scottish  people  were  provided  with  a  new 
and  free  career.  The  vast  growth  of  wealth  in  Scotland  dates  from 
that  auspicious  event.  The  two  peoples  were,  by  degrees,  knit 
into  one,  and  the  peculiarities  and  diversities  of  national  character 
have  long  ceased  to  interfere  with  mutual  kindness  and  respect. 
On  May  ist,  1707,  the  hoisting  of  the  flag  called  the  Union  Jack, 
which  blends  the  crosses  of  the  patron  saints,  St.  Andrew  and 
St.  George,  marked  the  completion  of  the  union  of  Scotland  and 
England. 

The   accession   to   the    British    throne  of  George   the    First, 
Elector  of  Hanover,  created  for  Britain  a  new  foreign  policy,  which 


2O  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

was  productive  of  much  embarrassment  and  loss.  In  wars  with 
which  we  are  not  now  concerned,  this  country  was  compelled  to 
provide,  as  far  as  might  be,  for  the  safety  of  her  sovereign's  con- 
tinental dominions,  in  which  his  British  subjects  had  no  real  interest. 
The  installation  of  the  Hanoverian  dynasty,  or  House  of  Brunswick, 
had  also  some  important  effects  on  internal  affairs.  The  new  sove- 
reign could  not  speak  English,  and  none  of  his  ministers  could 
speak  or  understand  German,  with  the  sole  exception  of  Lord 
Carteret.  The  king  was  thus  left  without  influence  on  the  Cabinet, 
and,  as  he  understood  nothing  of  British  affairs,  parties,  or  politicians, 
the  power  and  patronage  of  the  crown  fell,  for  a  long  term  of  years, 
into  the  hands  of  the  oligarchy  of  Whig  statesmen  who  had,  at  the 
close  of  Anne's  reign,  favoured  and  promoted  the  German  succes- 
sion. For  nearly  fifty  years  the  Whigs  were  supreme,  maintaining 
their  power  until  a  young  sovereign  born  on  British  soil  effected 
their  discomfiture,  and  brought  the  Tories  to  the  front  for  a  still 
longer  period  of  political  control.  The  two  Jacobite  attempts 
against  the  House  of  Hanover  utterly  failed.  The  Mar  rebellion 
of  1715  was  altogether  contemptible:  James  Stuart,  the  elder 
Pretender,  cut  a  very  poor  figure,  and  effected  nothing  beyond 
causing  some  useless  bloodshed  at  Sheriffmuir  and  at  Preston, 
followed  by  the  execution  of  Lords  Kenmure  and  Derwentwater. 
The  Septennial  Act,  still  in  force,  giving  to  parliaments  a  possible 
duration  of  seven  years  instead  of  three,  was  an  important  indirect 
result  of  the  '15. 

The  Scottish  rising  in  1745  appeared  far  more  formidable. 
The  younger  Pretender,  "  bonnie  Prince  Charlie "  of  Jacobite 
song,  was  a  much  more  attractive  personage  than  his  father, 
and  it  is  possible  that,  if  he  would  have  consented  to  change  his 
religious  faith,  he  might  have  endangered  the  throne  of  George 
the  Second.  England,  however,  would  lend  no  support  to  a  Stuart 
claimant  who  was  also  a  Catholic,  and  the  advance  of  the  High- 
landers as  far  as  Derby,  which  struck  terror  to  faint  hearts  in  the 
capital,  was  followed  by  a  retreat  which,  after  one  or  two  successes 
over  the  royal  troops,  ended  in  the  final  collapse  on  Culloden  Moor, 
near  Inverness.  After  this  tragical  event,  and  the  cruelties  per- 
petrated by  the  soldiers  of  "  butcher  Cumberland",  the  Highlands 
were,  for  the  first  time,  really  made  subject  to  British  rule,  and  the 
construction  of  military  roads,  the  opening  up  of  the  wild  country 


THE   CONSTITUTION    IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  21 

to  peaceful  traffic,  with  the  wise  policy  of  enlisting  the  activity, 
strength,  and  courage  of  the  people  in  the  service  of  the  dynasty 
which  their  sires  had  sought  to  dethrone,  produced  the  happiest 
results  for  law,  order,  and  civilization.  The  colours  borne  by  the 
noble  Highland  regiments  waved,  seldom  in  defeat,  never  in  dis- 
grace, very  often  in  glorious  victory,  on  many  a  field  of  battle,  and 
a  union  of  hearts  came  to  hallow  the  political  connection  of  north 
and  south. 

Sir  Robert  Walpole's  tenure  of  power  as  chief  minister  for  over 
twenty  years,  under  George  the  First  and  his  successor,  was  an 
important  matter  in  the  history  of  the  Cabinet  as  an  institution. 
He  may  probably  be  regarded  as  the  first  statesman  who  was  "prime 
minister".  He  established  the  principle  of  supremacy  for  one  man 
over  his  colleagues,  and  thenceforth  a  minister  who  might  be  at 
variance  with  his  chief  was  expected  to  resign  his  office.  Previous 
ministries  had  been  often  composed,  by  the  sovereign's  choice,  of 
men  of  both  parties,  without  reference  to  the  prevailing  majority 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  Walpole  insisted  on  leading  a  cabinet 
composed  of  men  who  shared  his  views  on  all  important  points  of 
policy,  and  so  he  gave  the  model  of  ministries  such  as  we  now  see 
in  charge  of  the  work  of  government.  The  head  of  the  ministry 
was,  in  those  days,  selected  by  the  king,  and  maintained  in  power, 
if  need  were,  by  the  purchase  of  votes  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Hard  cash,  pensions,  sinecures,  well-paid  offices,  garters,  and  stars, 
were  at  the  minister's  disposal  for  the  purposes  of  corruption,  and 
only  repeated  defeats  in  the  Commons,  or  a  great  display  of  public 
feeling,  could  drive  an  obnoxious  statesman  from  power.  The 
remedies  for  this  condition  of  affairs,  a  great  extension  of  the 
franchise  and  a  redistribution  of  political  power  among  constitu- 
encies, were  matters  which,  in  Walpole's  day,  lay  in  a  future 
removed  from  him  by  nearly  a  century.  Some  progress  was  made 
in  the  direction  of  religious  freedom.  From  the  year  1728  onwards, 
an  Act  of  Indemnity  was  annually  passed,  freeing  Protestant  dis- 
senters from  the  penalties  of  the  Test  Act,  when  they  had  held 
municipal  offices  against  the  statute.  Walpole,  however,  Whig 
though  he  was,  opposed  and  defeated  motions  for  the  repeal  of  the 
act  itself.  He  was  unwilling  to  wound  the  prejudices  of  church- 
men, or  to  meddle  with  the  existing  settlement  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs. 


22  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

The  accession  of  George  the  Third  brought  to  the  throne  a 
young  sovereign  trained  in  somewhat  high  notions  of  the  regal 
position  and  prerogative,  and  resolved  to  carry  those  ideas  into 
practice.  He  found  himself  possessed  of  enormous  wealth  and 
influence  through  the  income  derived  from  the  large  "civil  list" 
granted  by  parliament  for  England  and  Ireland;  the  hereditary 
revenues  of  Scotland;  the  great  revenues  obtained  from  his  German 
territory ;  and  the  patronage  of  posts  in  church  and  state.  The 
sovereign,  from  the  first,  employed  these  ample  resources  of  cor- 
ruption to  obtain  majorities  in  parliament,  and  the  strong  will 
described  by  his  opponents  as  "obstinacy",  with  his  persistent 
attention  to  what  was  daily  passing  in  the  Commons,  enabled  him 
to  wield  an  authority  unknown  to  his  two  predecessors.  Men  in 
high  place  were  freely  punished  for  daring  to  oppose  the  royal  will 
on  public  affairs.  Lord-lieutenants  thus  incurred  summary  dis- 
missal, and  office-holders  of  lower  class  were  removed  for  votes  in 
the  Commons  hostile  to  a  minister  supported  by  the  king. 

The  Tories  were  now  restored  to  political  power,  and  the  Whigs, 
divided  into  factious  groups,  were  mostly  left  in  the  cold  shade  of 
opposition.  In  1770  a  prime  minister  was  found,  in  the  person 
of  Lord  North,  who  was  content  to  be  simply  the  servant  of  the 
sovereign,  and  in  public  policy  to  carry  out  his  will.  He  had  at  his 
disposal,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  a  body  of  men  known  as  the 
"king's  friends".  This  "reptile  species  of  politicians"  was  never 
before  and  never  since  known  in  this  country.  They  were  mem- 
bers of  no  party,  and  had  no  political  ties,  except  those  which  bound 
them  to  the  throne.  They  were  holders  of  places  of  much  emolu- 
ment, little  work,  and  no  responsibility.  Secure  in  such  posts 
under  all  changes  of  cabinet  office,  they  were  content  to  support 
the  king  against  any  ministry  or  minister  whose  measures  he  dis- 
liked, and  to  thwart  at  every  turn  those  who  opposed  the  royal 
views. 

At  this  period  of  our  political  history,  we  find  existing  a 
House  of  Commons  which,  largely  composed  of  the  nominees  of 
the  crown  or  of  great  nobles,  and  elected  on  a  narrow  franchise, 
showed  a  tyrannous  spirit  towards  the  rights  of  electors,  and  was 
bitterly  jealous  of  public  interference  with  what  were  deemed  to 
be  parliamentary  privileges.  In  the  case  of  John  Wilkes,  the 
choice  of  the  Middlesex  electors  was  set  aside  again  and  again  with 


THE   CONSTITUTION   IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  23 

deliberate  and  insolent  injustice.  In  1771,  the  House  of  Commons 
engaged  in  a  conflict  with  the  lord  mayor  and  other  city  magis- 
trates in  a  matter  affecting  the  right  of  printers  to  publish  reports 
of  the  debates.  In  1728  and  in  1738  the  House  had  declared  any 
publication  of  speeches  made  in  parliament  to  be  a  breach  of 
privilege.  The  times  had  now  changed.  The  original  cause  of 
secrecy  for  debates,  which  was  to  enable  members  to  escape  royal 
wrath  against  free  utterances,  had  ceased  with  the  close  of  Stuart 
times,  when  Parliament  acquired  supreme  power  in  the  state.  The 
House  of  Commons,  under  George  the  Third,  was  seeking,  in 
fact,  to  escape  responsibility  to  the  nation  at  large.  The  public 
press  was  acquiring  yearly  greater  influence  on  opinion,  and  it  was 
of  high  importance  to  the  public  interests  that  the  sayings  and 
doings  of  members  of  the  Commons,  within  the  walls  of  their 
House,  should  be  known  outside.  In  both  the  cases  here  mentioned, 
the  cause  of  public  freedom  won  the  day.  Wilkes  was  soon  quietly 
allowed  to  take  his  seat  for  Middlesex,  and  from  1771  onwards 
there  was  practically  free  reporting  of  debates. 

A  small  step  towards  the  rights  of  citizenship  for  the  Catholic 
subjects  of  the  crown  was  taken  in  1778,  when  a  severe  act  of  1700 
was  repealed.  That  statute  had  subjected  to  heavy  penalties  the 
celebration  of  the  mass,  and  had  prohibited  Catholics  from  pur- 
chasing land,  with  many  restrictions  on  its  acquirement  by  in- 
heritance. This  disgraceful  law  had  from  the  first  been  left  almost 
devoid  of  practical  effect,  and  the  Gordon  or  No  Popery  riots  of 
1 780,  which  were  due  to  its  repeal,  are  the  strongest  possible  proof 
of  the  degraded  ignorance,  little  more  than  a  century  ago,  of  the 
population  of  London.  Without  the  shadow  of  a  grievance,  at  the 
summons  of  a  madman,  a  hundred  thousand  people  rose  in  insur- 
rection; For  nearly  a  week  anarchy  existed  in  the  greatest  and 
wealthiest  of  European  cities.  The  houses  of  Parliament  were 
besieged  by  the  mob,  and  lay  peers  and  bishops  were  forced  to 
flee.  The  chapels  of  foreign  ambassadors,  buildings  made  sacred 
by  the  law  of  nations,  were  destroyed.  The  house  of  a  chief  justice 
was  demolished.  Thirty-six  fires  were  blazing  at  once  in  London. 
Before  order  was  restored  through  the  firmness  of  the  king,  who 
set  the  troops  to  work,  more  than  five  hundred  persons  were  shot 
down  by  musketry. 

As  the  close  of  the  eighteenth   century   drew  near,  a  strong 


24  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

feeling  arose  in  favour  of  reform  in  the  constitution  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  New  towns  were  rising  into  political  importance, 
and  desired  representation  in  Parliament.  There  were  many 
thoughtful  persons  who  wished  to  break  up  the  system  of  influence 
by  which  the  crown  and  the  great  land-owners  contrived  to  nom- 
inate a  considerable  portion  of  members  of  the  Commons.  Some 
small  reforms  were  made  in  1782.  Revenue  officers,  a  class 
obviously  under  government  control,  were  disfranchised.  Public 
contractors  were  prevented  from  sitting  in  the  Commons,  and  some 
changes  were  made  in  the  civil  list,  which  abolished  useless 
offices,  and  limited  the  number  and  value  of  pensions.  Some  bills 
for  parliamentary  reform,  introduced  by  the  younger  William  Pitt, 
suffered  rejection  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  whole  subject 
was  set  aside  by  the  reaction  due  to  the  excesses  of  the  great 
French  Revolution  in  1 789.  Amongst  minor  changes  in  favour  of 
religious  freedom,  we  may  here  record  the  relief  of  dissenting 
ministers  and  schoolmasters  from  the  declaration  required  by  the 
Toleration  Act,  against  the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of  t^ansub- 
stantiation,  and  in  favour  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  This  was 
carried  in  1779.  Three  years  later,  Protestant  dissenters  were 
allowed  to  celebrate  marriages  in  their  own  chapels.  All  proposi- 
tions for  the  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  of  Charles 
the  Second's  reign,  with  a  view  to  the  admission  of  Catholics  to 
municipal  offices  and  to  seats  in  Parliament,  were  rejected  in  the 
House  of  Commons. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  century,  freedom  of  the  press  was  nobly 
vindicated  by  the  most  brilliant  of  all  advocates,  Thomas  Erskine, 
sometime  lord  chancellor  of  England,  and  by  Charles  James  Fox, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  Whig  statesmen.  Erskine,  in  the  very  year 
(1778)  that  he  was  called  to  the  bar,  sprang  at  one  bound,  by  a 
single  speech,  into  the  foremost  rank.  He  was  junior  counsel,  with 
four  others,  in  defence,  on  a  trial  for  libel,  of  Captain  Baillie, 
governor  of  Greenwich  Hospital.  That  noble  institution,  then  the 
home  of  England's  gallant  and  war-worn  seamen,  was  at  that  time 
grossly  abused.  The  first  lord  of  the  admiralty,  a  certain  wicked 
Lord  Sandwich,  was  in  the  habit  of  introducing  into  the  hospital 
as  inmates  men  who  were  not  sailors  at  all.  This  was  done  simply 
for  the  purposes  of  electoral  corruption.  Baillie,  after  vain  remon- 
strance, exposed  the  matter  in  a  pamphlet,  and  was  prosecuted 


THE   CONSTITUTION    IN    THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  25 

criminally  for  libel.  The  real  though  not  the  nominal  prosecutor 
was  Sandwich,  and  Erskine,  in  his  magnificent  speech,  boldly  un- 
masked his  lordship  by  name,  and  vindicated  the  right  of  censuring 
with  severity  the  mal-administration  of  a  public  institution.  In 
other  cases  the  same  great  forensic  orator  rendered  priceless 
services  to  the  cause  of  freedom. 

After  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  societies  formed 
in  England  to  advocate  change  were  stirred  to  fresh  life.  There 
was  the  "London  Corresponding  Society",  to  urge  Radical 
opinions.  In  1792,  the  association  called  the  "Friends  of  the 
People"  was  established,  embracing  many  men  who  were  eminent 
in  politics  and  literature,  with  Erskine  and  other  members  of 
parliament.  Pitt,  following  rather  the  feeling  of  his  supporters  in 
parliament  and  outside  than  his  own  judgment,  adopted  severe 
repressive  measures.  The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  suspended. 
Many  respectable  persons  who  urged  reform  were  severely  pun- 
ished by  imprisonment,  the  pillory,  and  heavy  fines,  for  "seditious" 
words.  The  "Scottish  martyrs",  Palmer  and  Muir,  were  trans- 
ported for  "sedition",  and  a  Traitorous  Correspondence  Act  made 
it  "treason"  to  hold  any  intercourse  with  France  without  special 
permission  under  the  great  seal.  In  1794,  prosecutions  for  "sedi- 
tion" and  "treason"  continued.  Skirving,  the  secretary  of  an 
Edinburgh  meeting  of  the  "Friends  of  the  People",  was  transported, 
and  Watt  was  executed  for  treason.  Then  came  a  Treasonable 
Practices  Bill,  by  which  writing,  printing,  preaching,  or  speaking 
to  incite  the  people  to  hatred  or  contempt  of  the  king,  or  the 
established  government  and  constitution  of  the  realm,  was  made 
a  "high  misdemeanour".  The  Seditious  Meetings  Bill  forbade 
the  assemblage  of  more  than  fifty  persons  for  considering  peti- 
tions or  addresses  for  alteration  of  matters  in  church  or  state,  or 
for  discussing  any  grievance,  without  previous  notice  to,  and  the 
attendance  of,  a  magistrate,  who  should  act  as  censor  on  any  pro- 
position or  discourse.  All  remonstrance  in  Parliament  was  vain; 
the  measures  were  carried  by  large  majorities,  and  in  1 799,  an 
Act  was  passed  suppressing  the  United  Societies  and  the  London 
Corresponding  Society,  as  well  as  all  debating  clubs. 

Such  was  the  benign  system  of  rule  under  which  the  grand- 
fathers of  men  now  middle-aged  were  living  in  the  last  days  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  mere  statement  of  the  facts,  com- 


26  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

pared  with  the  existing  system  under  Queen  Victoria,  is  an 
eloquent  exposition  of  "good  old  times",  and  a  standard  by  which 
we  may  measure  the  progress  made  in  constitutional  freedom. 
While  the  spirit  of  tyrannical  repression  was  thus  rampant,  while 
new  laws  were  gagging  free-born  Britons,  and  statutes  were  strained 
to  punish  common  liberty  of  utterance  in  speech  and  print;  while 
the  courts  were  daily  occupied  with  the  discussion  and  determina- 
tion of  grave  constitutional  problems,  Erskine  was  eagerly  and 
honourably  prominent  on  the  side  of  that  temperate  freedom  which 
Britons  have  in  many  a  contest  made  their  own  inalienable  posses- 
sion. Thoroughly  understanding  the  principles  of  the  British 
constitution,  and  never  committing  the  error  of  vindicating  freedom 
by  an  appeal  to  abstract  rights  or  to  a  false  philosophy,  Erskine 
was  often  able  to  bring  juries  over  to  the  side  of  liberty  and 
reason  even  in  the  midst  of  the  terror  aroused  by  the  excesses  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  to  coerce  into  impartiality  and  fairness  of 
exposition  judges  who  were  only  too  ready  to  interpret  the  laws  in 
a  despotic  sense.  It  was  thus  that  in  1794  he  procured  the 
acquittal  of  Hardy  and  Home  Tooke,  charged  with  treason  as 
members  of  the  London  Corresponding  Society. 

One  of  the  most  important  points  with  which  Erskine  had  to 
deal  was  the  state  of  the  law  of  libel.  In  1764,  Lord  Mansfield, 
chief  justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  had  decided  that,  in  cases  of 
prosecution  for  libel,  the  jury  were  only  to  deal  with  the  fact  of 
publication,  leaving  it  to  the  judge  to  decide  on  the  libellous 
character  of  the  matter  implicated.  This  doctrine,  if  it  were 
maintained,  clearly  put  the  liberty  of  the  press  at  the  mercy  of 
judges  appointed  by  the  crown,  and  went  far  towards  re-establishing 
in  England  the  hateful  Star  Chamber  of  the  worst  times  of  Stuart 
tyranny.  From  this  peril  the  press  of  Britain  was  saved  mainly 
by  the  courageous  and  brilliant  advocacy  of  Erskine.  Twenty 
years  after  Mansfield's  decision,  in  1784,  Dr.  Shipley,  the  Dean 
of  St.  Asaph,  was  prosecuted  for  publishing  a  seditious  libel  in  the 
form  of  a  pamphlet  on  the  principles  of  government,  written  by  his 
brother-in-law,  the  famous  scholar,  Sir  William  Jones.  In  this 
pamphlet  was  laid  down  the  not  very  monstrous  doctrine  of  the 
right  and  duty  of  resistance  to  lawless  tyranny.  After  Erskine's 
speech  for  the  defence,  the  jury  found  Dr.  Shipley  "guilty  of  pub- 
lishing only".  Mr.  Justice  Buller,  a  narrow-minded  lawyer  who 


BRITAIN   AT   WAR   IN   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  27 

presided  at  the  trial,  induced  the  jury,  after  much  brow-beating, 
to  omit  the  last  word,  and  to  leave  to  the  Court  the  decision  as  to 
whether  the  publication  were  a  libel  or  not.  This  verdict  was 
recorded,  and  the  law  thus  again  laid  down  was  justly  regarded  as 
a  heavy  blow  at  freedom.  Erskine  then  moved  for  a  new  trial, 
and  his  argument  in  support  of  this  motion  is  a  most  masterly 
and  exhaustive  defence  of  the  right  of  juries  to  decide  on  the 
substance  of  a  libel,  as  well  as  on  the  fact  of  its  publication.  The 
court  declined  to  sustain  his  view,  but  the  cause  thus  defeated  in 
the  law-courts  won  not  long  afterwards  a  signal  triumph  in  Parlia- 
ment. In  1792,  Fox  carried  his  Libel  Bill,  reversing  Lord 
Mansfield's  and  the  late  decisions,  and  giving  to  juries  full  scope 
in  libel  cases.  Thus  was  secured  the  freedom  of  the  press,  which, 
in  the  words  of  Junius,  "is  the  palladium  of  all  the  civil,  political, 
and  religious  rights  of  an  Englishman";  thus  was  maintained  "the 
right  of  juries  to  return  a  general  verdict,  in  all  cases  whatsoever, 
as  an  essential  part  of  our  constitution,  not  to  be  controlled  or 
limited  by  the  judges,  not,  in  any  shape,  questionable  by  the 
legislature". 


CHAPTER    IV. 

BRITAIN  AT  WAR  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Britain's  military  position  during  the  reigns  of  William  III.  and  Anne  —  Duke  of 
Marlborough — Peace  of  Utrecht — War  of  the  Austrian  Succession — The  Seven 
Years'  War — William  Pitt,  Clive,  and  Wolfe — Admirals  Rodney,  Hood,  and  Hyde 
Parker — Peace  of  Versailles — The  French  Revolution — The  "Young  Corsican"  at 
Toulon— Sir  Sidney  Smith,  Horatio  Nelson,  and  Lord  Howe — Arthur  Wellesley — 
Buonaparte's  threatened  invasion— Victory  off  Cape  St.  Vincent — Naval  Mutinies — 
Victory  at  Camperdown — Buonaparte's  expedition  to  Egypt — Victories  of  the  Nile 
and  Alexandria — Continental  combination  against  Britain — Battle  of  Copenhagen — 
Peace  of  Amiens — Result  of  the  wars  in  the  expansion  of  British  trade  and  colonial 
possessions. 

The  contests  waged  against  France  under  William  the  Third  and 
Queen  Anne  completely  restored  Great  Britain  to  the  position  in 
Europe  which  had  been  lost  during  the  two  previous  reigns.  The 
ambitious  schemes  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth  were  decisively  checked, 
and  his  country  was  reduced  to  exhaustion.  The  military  credit 
of  England  was  more  than  merely  revived.  William,  one  of  the  com- 


28  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

manders  who  met  almost  constant  defeat  without  incurring  serious 
loss  of  repute  as  a  general,  headed  our  first  regular  army.  Noth- 
ing could  exceed  his  courage,  or  his  resolution  after  ill-success,  and 
the  soldiers  whom  he  led  into  battle  were  worthy  of  their  general. 
He  was  pitted,  however,  against  the  best  armies  of  that  age, 
organized  by  the  genius  of  Louvois,  and  commanded  with  great 
ability  by  Luxembourg,  and  he  failed,  save  in  the  capture  of 
Namur,  to  obtain  the  victories  which  he  fully  deserved.  The 
consummate  skill  of  Maryborough,  backed  by  the  utmost  bravery 
in  our  troops,  deprived  the  French  of  the  proud  military  position 
which  they  had  held  in  Europe  since  the  decline  of  Spain.  The 
British  army  was  thenceforth  known  as  one  composed  of  men 
invincible  in  a  fair  field,  against  equal  numbers  and  leadership. 
Blenheim,  Ramillies,  and  Oudenarde  dissipated  for  ever  Louis' 
dreams  of  European  conquest,  and  nothing  but  political  intrigues, 
depriving  Marlborough  of  his  command,  prevented  him  from 
marching  in  victorious  strength,  at  the  head  of  his  gallant  army 
and  with  the  allies  led  by  his  noble  colleague,  Prince  Eugene,  to 
the  gates  of  Paris,  and  dictating  terms  to  the  French  monarch 
within  the  walls  of  his  capital.  The  British  navy  had  asserted  its 
power  in  the  battle  of  La  Hogue,  when  the  courage  of  the  sailors  had 
wrung  from  the  exiled  James  high  eulogies  for  those  whom  he  saw 
destroying,  at  the  close  of  the  struggle,  the  very  ships  intended  to 
strive  for  his  restoration  to  his  lost  kingdom. 

After  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  there  came  a  lull  of  warfare  for  a 
time.  That  treaty  had  left  a  Bourbon  prince  upon  the  throne  of 
Spain,  and  the  countries  thus  connected  by  dynastic  ties  will  soon 
be  found  engaged  in  fresh  contests  against  the  hated  power  which, 
in  the  Armada  fight,  and  on  the  soil  of  Bavaria  and  Flanders,  had 
lowered  their  pride  by  sea  and  land.  The  time  is  filled  with 
diplomatic  jargon  of  "Pragmatic  Sanctions"  concerning  the  house 
of  Austria,  " Family  Compacts"  between  the  sovereigns  of  the 
house  of  Bourbon,  and  much  else  that,  in  the  words  of  Carlyle,  as 
he  treats  of  this  period,  "we  will  forget".  The  War  of  the  Aus- 
trian Succession,  waged  from  1741  to  1748,  gave  Britain  a  victory 
at  Dettingen,  when  George  the  Second,  brave  if  little  else,  was 
the  last  of  our  sovereigns  to  lead  troops  in  battle,  and  dismounting 
from  his  horse,  went  on  sword  in  hand,  cheering  his  "  brave  boys  ". 
Our  defeat  at  Fontenoy,  under  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  was  made 


BRITAIN   AT   WAR   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  29 

glorious  by  the  courage  of  a  British  brigade,  advancing  against  a 
host  of  foes,  with  cannon  playing  on  their  front  and  on  both  flanks, 
and  retiring,  after  vain  efforts,  in  a  steady  and  heroic  form  that  the 
gallant  Frenchmen  could  not  forbear  to  praise.  The  great  contest 
known  as  the  Seven  Years  War,  from  1756  to  1763,  had  its 
triumphs,  as  we  shall  see,  on  other  fields  than  those  of  Europe. 
We  showed  the  world,  as  the  great  Frederick  of  Prussia  declared, 
"  a  man  "  at  last,  in  William  Pitt  the  elder,  better  known  as  Earl 
of  Chatham.  In  East  and  West,  Clive  and  Plassey,  Wolfe  and 
Quebec,  became  immortal  names.  In  Europe,  the  naval  disgrace 
incurred  at  Minorca  by  the  hapless  Byng  was  more  than  retrieved 
by  Boscawen  at  Lagos  Bay,  and  by  Hawke  on  the  iron-bound 
coast  of  Brittany.  The  Duke  of  Cumberland's  ignominious  capitu- 
lation, with  forty  thousand  Hanoverian  troops,  at  Kloster-seven, 
and  the  loss  of  Hanover,  were  followed  by  a  British  share  in  the 
victory  of  Minden,  when  the  second  general  of  that  age,  Ferdinand 
of  Brunswick,  overcame  the  French.  Before  the  war  closed,  the 
two  chief  colonial  towns  of  Spain,  Havana  in  Cuba,  and  Manilla 
on  the  Philippines,  became,  with  a  vast  booty,  the  prey  of  Britain, 
glorious  prizes  of  combined  naval  and  military  force,  tamely  restored, 
in  exchange  for  the  then  worthless  Florida,  by  the  ministry  of  the  day. 

In  the  momentous  contest  which  endured  from  1775  to  1783, 
Great  Britain  met  at  last  the  three  chief  maritime  powers  in  their 
combined  strength,  France  and  Holland  and  Spain.  Since  the 
days  of  Van  Tromp,  save  for  a  brief  space  before  the  victory  of 
La  Hogue,  the  dwellers  on  the  southern  shores  of  Britain  had 
never  seen  a  hostile  fleet  sailing  defiant  and  unattacked  in  the 
waters  of  the  Channel.  More  than  once  or  twice  this  spectacle 
was  presented  during  that  perilous  time.  Action  after  action  was 
fought  against  the  enemy's  ships.  In  January,  1780,  Rodney 
captured  or  destroyed  eight  Spanish  vessels  off  Cape  St.  Vincent. 
Hood,  with  nineteen  men-of-war,  fought  a  drawn  battle  in  1781 
against  twenty-eight  French  ships,  under  De  Grasse,  on  the  Vir- 
ginian coast.  In  the  same  year,  Hyde  Parker  defeated  the  Dutch 
in  their  own  waters. 

By  slow  degrees  our  strength  at  sea  was  asserted  and  main- 
tained against  these  formidable  odds,  and  the  naval  part  of  the 
struggle  was  gloriously  closed  by  Rodney's  brilliant  exploit  in  the 
West  Indian  waters.  The  united  force  of  France  and  Spain, 


3<D  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

among  those  islands,  amounted  to  sixty  ships  of  the  line,  and  all 
our  possessions  in  that  part  of  the  world  had  been  captured  by 
the  foe  except  Barbadoes,  Antigua,  and  Jamaica.  In  February, 
1782,  Sir  George  Rodney,  the  commander-in-chief  on  the  West 
India  station,  arrived  at  Barbadoes  with  twelve  line-of- battle  ships. 
A  great  French  armament  was  preparing  against  Jamaica,  and  at 
this  crisis  Rodney  was  joined  by  Sir  Samuel  Hood's  squadron. 
With  three  more  ships  arrived  from  home,  Rodney  now  had  thirty- 
six  sail.  Hood's  old  antagonist,  the  Comte  de  Grasse,  put  to  sea 
on  April  8th  with  thirty-three  first-rates,  including  his  flag-ship,  the 
Ville  de  Paris,  of  1 10  guns,  one  of  the  finest  vessels  afloat.  There 
were  thousands  of  troops  on  board  the  French  vessels  for  the 
intended  land  operations  at  Jamaica.  Rodney  at  once  weighed 
anchor,  and  started  from  St.  Lucia,  eager  to  close  before  De 
Grasse  could  be  joined  by  Spanish  ships.  After  a  partial  action 
between  Hood  and  the  enemy,  a  general  battle  was  engaged  in 
on  April  i2th,  in  the  waters  between  the  islands  Mariegalante, 
Dominica,  and  Guadeloupe.  From  seven  in  the  morning  till  sun- 
set a  fierce  contest  raged,  as  the  British  ships  came  up,  received 
from  Rodney  the  signal  for  close  combat,  and  laid  themselves  in 
turn  along  the  enemy's  line.  Yard-arm  to  yard-arm  lay  the  ships, 
pouring  in  shot  that  could  not  miss  their  mark,  and  that  wrought 
fearful  havoc  on  the  crowded  decks  of  the  French.  About  noon,  the 
British  admiral  executed  the  daring  and  splendid  manoeuvre — fol- 
lowed with  sublime  effect  by  Nelson  at  the  Nile — of  breaking  the 
enemy's  line.  His  flagship,  the  Formidable,  found  an  opening 
about  three  ships  from  the  centre,  where  De  Grasse  was  lying 
with  the  Ville  de  Paris.  Rodney  was  followed  by  other  ves- 
sels, and  they  all  doubled  round  upon  the  hostile  ships,  and 
brought  part  of  the  enemy  under  fire  on  both  sides.  The  French 
line  was  completely  broken,  and  thrown  into  utter  disorder  by  this 
revived  mode  of  attack,  practised  in  the  1 7th  century  against  the 
Dutch,  the  merit  of  which,  as  a  modern  invention  or  theory,  has 
been  assigned  to  Mr.  Clerk,  the  author  of  a  very  able  treatise  on 
naval  tactics,  published  about  the  time  that  Rodney  left  London  to 
take  up  his  command.  The  credit  has  been  also  claimed  by  Sir 
Charles  Douglas  for  his  father,  Rodney's  flag-captain  on  the 
Formidable,  as  suggesting  to  the  admiral  that  the  line  should  be 
broken,  at  the  moment  when  the  opportunity  arose.  However 


ADMIRAL   RODNEY   DIRECTS  THE   BATTLE  ON   BOARD 
THE   FORMIDABLE. 

A  great  French  fleet,  under  the  Comte  de  Grasse,  arrived  in  the  West 
Indies,  early  in  1782,  with  orders  to  attack  Jamaica.  In  April  it  was 
sighted  by  the  British  fleet  under  Sir  George  Rodney,  and  almost  at  once 
a  fierce  contest  began.  About  noon  the  British  Admiral,  by  a  skilful 
manoeuvre,  thrust  his  flagship  through  the  enemy's  line,  and  ranging  up 
on  his  weather  side,  brought  several  of  the  French  ships  under  a  cross- 
fire. This  new  method  of  attack  threw  the  enemy's  fleet  into  disorder,  and 
at  length  the  French  Admiral  pulled  down  his  flag  in  sign  of  surrender. 
Five  other  ships  were  taken,  one  was  sunk,  and  the  remainder  were  scat- 
tered to  the  four  winds. 

(i) 


W.   H.   OVEREND. 


ADMIRAL  RODNEY  DIRECTS  THE  BATTLE 
ON   BOARD  THE  FORMIDABLE. 


Vol.  i.  p.  30,  31. 


BRITAIN   AT   WAR   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  3t 

that  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  Rodney  was  the  first  naval  comman- 
der of  his  time  to  carry  the  idea  into  execution,  and  that  to  him 
belongs  the  credit  of  promptly  seizing  the  chance  presented  to  him 
with  the  coolness  of  a  hero  who  has  all  his  faculties  under  com- 
mand amidst  the  roaring  of  cannon,  the  eddying  of  smoke,  the 
crashing  of  torn  timbers,  and  the  cries  of  men  maimed  by  wounds, 
or  excited  by  the  spirit  of  deadly  strife.  A  grand  success  rewarded 
the  skill  and  courage  of  British  seamen.  The  French  admiral,  in 
his  great  vessel,  was  compelled  at  the  very  close  of  the  battle  to 
strike  his  flag  to  Hood,  in  the  Barfleur.  Five  other  large  ships 
were  taken,  one  was  sunk,  and  the  remainder  were  scattered  in 
flight  towards  various  ports,  no  more  to  be  united  in  hostile  array 
during  the  continuance  of  the  war.  The  carnage  on  the  Ville  de 
Paris  was  seen  to,  be  terrific,  when  an  officer  went  aboard  to  receive 
the  admiral's  sword.  Most  of  De  Grasse's  officers  were  killed  or 
wounded,  and  only  two  or  three  stood  with  him  on  the  quarter- 
deck. The  swift-falling  darkness  of  tropical  climes  prevented 
instant  pursuit,  and  a  three  days'  calm  off  Guadeloupe  caused 
further  delay  to  the  victor.  A  week  later,  however,  Hood  over- 
took five  French  ships,  and  captured  two  frigates  and  two  seventy- 
fours.  The  Ville  de  Paris  and  another  prize,  the  Glorieux,  never 
reached  England,  having  foundered  in  a  storm  off  Newfoundland. 
Thus  was  Jamaica  saved,  and  the  pride  of  Britain  in  her  navy 
restored.  This  war  was  ended  in  January,  1783,  by  the  Peace  of 
Versailles. 

The  next  great  struggle,  ten  years  later,  was  the  first  war 
with  France,  after  the  Revolution  of  1 789.  This  contest  continued 
for  nine  years,  from  1793  to  1802,  and  was  marked  by  great 
events  on  sea  and  land,  for  the  last  of  which  we  must  for  a 
moment  overstep  the  bounds  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  its 
earlier  stages,  little  credit  was  won  by  British  arms  in  military 
operations.  George  the  Third's  second  son,  the  Duke  of  York, 
was  no  match  for  the  French  generals,  leading  hosts  of  men  who, 
well  trained  to  war,  after  some  preliminary  failures,  were  also  filled 
with  a  fierce  revolutionary  spirit,  eager  to  encounter  the  soldiers  of 
a  monarchy.  In  1793  the  British  troops,  under  York,  with  Ger- 
man allies,  defeated  the  French  republicans  near  Valenciennes,  and 
that  fortified  town  was  taken.  In  the  same  year,  however,  Toulon, 
captured  for  the  French  royalists  by  a  British  expedition  under 


32  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

Lord  Hood,  was  recovered  for  the  new  French  state  by  the  skill 
of  a  young  Corsican  colonel  of  artillery,  aged  twenty-four  years, 
whose  name  was  Napoleon  Buonaparte.  It  is  remarkable  that 
among  his  English  antagonists  there  was  the  future  foiler  of  his 
plans  for  Oriental  conquest,  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  of  Acre  renown. 

Men  of  the  highest  order  kept  coming  to  the  front  in  those 
stirring  days.  In  1794,  when  Corsica  was  reduced  by  Lord  Hood, 
a  young  naval  captain  lost  his  right  eye  at  the  siege  of  Calvi.  His 
name  was  Horatio  Nelson.  The  naval  might  and  fame  of  Britain 
were  fully  maintained  in  the  same  year,  on  "the  glorious  first  of 
June",  when  Lord  Howe  gained  his  splendid  victory  over  the  Brest 
fleet,  and  frustrated  a  design  for  the  invasion  of  England.  The 
British  and  Hanoverians,  under  the  Duke  of  York,  had  some  suc- 
cesses, with  Austrians  and  Prussians,  against  the  republican  armies 
in  the  north-east  of  France,  but  in  May  the  duke  was  surrounded  by 
larger  French  forces,  and  barely  escaped  personal  capture,  losing 
fifty  guns.  In  the  winter  of  1794,  our  troops,  though  no  longer 
under  the  same  incompetent  commander,  were  driven  by  the 
French  from  Holland  into  Westphalia,  and  in  March,  1795,  they 
were  forced  to  embark  at  Bremen  and  return  to  England.  A 
redeeming  feature  of  this  ignominious  and  disastrous  retreat  was 
the  skill  and  resolution  displayed  in  the  rear-guard  by  the  young 
colonel  of  the  33rd  regiment  of  the  line.  His  name  was  Arthur 
Wellesley.  Holland  was  at  this  time  overrun  and  subjugated  by 
the  French,  and  her  naval  forces  were  turned  against  us  by  the 
conquerors. 

At  the  close  of  1795,  Buonaparte  haa  risen  to  the  highest 
military  position  in  France,  and  the  following  year  saw  him 
victorious  over  Austria  in  northern  Italy.  At  this  juncture,  Spain 
joined  the  ranks  of  Britain's  enemies,  and  our  fleets  were  again 
confronted  by  the  combined  naval  forces  of  the  three  chief  con- 
tinental maritime  countries.  An  invasion  of  England  was  again 
planned,  and  squadrons  were  gathered  at  Brest,  Cadiz,  and  at  the 
island  of  Texel  on  the  Dutch  coast.  The  British  tars,  forced  to 
serve  as  many  of  them  were  by  the  cruel  system  of  impressment, 
half-starved  and  half-poisoned  by  insufficient  and  bad  Tood  in  the 
iniquitous  and  corrupt  naval  system  of  those  times,  driven  at  last 
by  ill-treatment  to  open  mutiny  of  a  formidable  kind,  were  the 
saviours  of  their  country  at  this  portentous  and  perilous  time. 


BRITAIN   AT   WAR   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  33 

In  February,  1797,  Sir  John  Jervis,  with  fifteen  sail  of  the  line, 
attacked  and  smartly  defeated,  off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  a  Spanish  fleet 
of  more  than  double  his  own  force.  Several  of  the  greatest  ships 
of  the  enemy  were  taken.  Commodore  Nelson,  the  second  in 
command,  in  his  ship  the  Captain,  of  seventy-four  guns,  disobeyed 
his  superior's  signal,  and  closed  with  three  huge  Spanish  vessels, 
the  Santissima  Trinidad,  of  136  guns,  the  San  Josef,  of  112,  and 
the  Salvador  del  Mundo,  of  equal  force.  The  San  Nicolas,  of  80 
guns,  and  three  other  Spanish  liners,  were  close  at  hand.  Thomas 
Trowbridge,  in  the  Culloden,  came  up  to  the  rescue,  and  Nelson's 
dearest  friend,  Cuthbert  Collingwood,  was  eager  to  help  and  to 
save.  The  Captain  was  reduced  to  a  mere  wreck,  when  Nelson, 
sword  in  hand,  led  the  boarders  on  to  the  capture  of  the  San 
Nicolas,  and  then,  crying  "Westminster  Abbey,  or  victory!", 
bounded  on  to  the  San  Josef,  and  was  at  once  master  of  another 
prize.  It  is  well  to  remind  the  reader  that  Nelson's  name  was  not 
even  mentioned  in  the  official  letter  of  Jervis,  who  was  created 
Earl  St.  Vincent.  That  just  and  generous  man  was  hampered,  it 
is  supposed,  by  some  official  ideas  of  etiquette,  and  by  Nelson's 
daring  and,  in  this  case,  most  useful  disobedience  of  orders.  In  a 
private  letter  his  merit  was  acknowledged  by  his  superior,  and  the 
nation  soon  learnt  the  truth.  The  same  year  was  made  note- 
worthy by  the  naval  mutinies  at  Spithead  and  the  Nore,  outbreaks 
which  were  quieted  by  concessions,  by  firm  measures,  and  by  the 
influence  of  two  commanders  justly  beloved  by  our  seamen,  Lord 
Howe,  and  the  noble  Admiral  Duncan.  The  Spanish  navy  had 
been  roughly  handled,  but  the  French  and  Dutch  ships  were  to 
meet,  with  troops  on  board,  for  a  landing  in  Ireland,  where,  as  we 
shall  see,  a  rebellion  had  been  arranged.  The  great  victory  of 
Duncan  at  Camperdown,  on  the  coast  of  Holland  opposite  Yar- 
mouth, put  an  end  to  this  project.  The  Dutch  fleet,  of  fifteen  line- 
of-battle  ships,  commanded  by  the  brave  and  skilful  De  Winter, 
was  attacked  by  an  equal  force,  and  after  a  desperate  engagement, 
worthy  on  both  sides  of  the  traditionary  naval  heroism  of  Stuart 
days,  the  enemy  lost  eight  sail  of  the  line  and  three  frigates,  which 
were  brought  as  prizes  to  England. 

Buonaparte,  on  the  failure  of  attempts  against  the  British  Isles, 
turned  his  thoughts  to  conquest  in  the  East.  He  was  now 
virtually  supreme  in  France,  as  the  chief  man  in  the  republican 


VOL.  I. 


34  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

government  called  the  Directory,  and  a  powerful  expedition,  under 
his  command,  started  for  Egypt,  as  the  first  great  stride  towards 
an  attack  on  our  possessions  in  India.  A  number  of  men-of-war 
and  transports  carried  twenty  thousand  troops  to  Alexandria. 
The  Turkish  soldiers  were  defeated  in  the  "battle  of  the 
Pyramids";  the  famous  Mameluke  cavalry  succumbed;  Cairo 
was  taken,  and  the  lower  valley  of  the  Nile  was  in  French  hands. 
On  August  ist,  1798,  the  enemy  were  cut  off  from  the  power 
of  return  to  France  by  Nelson's  victory  at  the  Nile.  The  French 
fleet  was  almost  destroyed,  and  Buonaparte,  early  in  1799,  aim- 
ing now  at  an  overland  expedition  to  India,  marched  from  Egypt 
into  Syria.  At  the  key  of  that  country,  the  famous  fortress  of 
St.  Jean  d'Acre,  a  scene  of  Cceur  de  Lion's  valour  against  Saladin 
in  the  second  Crusade,  the  French  general  received  a  rude  shock 
to  his  own  and  his  soldiers'  belief  in  his  invincibility  on  land.  A 
siege  of  sixty  days,  in  which  the  power  of  Turks  in  defence, 
armed  with  sabre  and  dagger  to  meet  assaults  with  the  bayonet, 
was  brilliantly  displayed,  ended  in  the  utter  discomfiture  of  the 
best  efforts  made  by  heroism  and  skill.  A  body  of  British  sea- 
men and  marines,  led  by  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  gave  most  important 
aid,  and  caused  Buonaparte,  many  years  later,  in  his  exile  at 
St.  Helena,  to  declare  of  the  British  seaman,  "  That  man  made 
me  miss  my  destiny". 

The  French  general  then  made  his  way  back  to  France,  where 
he  became  sole  master,  with  the  title  of  First  Consul.  His  hatred 
to  Britain  was  confirmed  by  Pitt's  rejection  of  his  overtures  for 
peace,  and  by  our  government's  refusal  to  recognize  his  new  official 
position  as  head  of  the  French  republic.  In  1799  another  attempt 
against  the  French  in  Holland  failed.  Some  battles  were  won,  in 
conjunction  with  Russian  troops,  the  military  abilities  of  Sir  John 
Moore  and  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie  being  employed  on  our  side. 
In  the  end,  however,  the  sinister  presence  of  the  Duke  of  York  as 
commander-in-chief  made  itself  felt,  and  he  retired  from  the  country 
in  the  autumn,  by  an  arrangement  with  the  French  and  Dutch 
commanders,  which  was  virtually  a  capitulation  on  favourable 
terms.  A  large  Dutch  squadron  surrendered  to  our  Admiral 
Mitchell,  and  the  enemy's  schemes  for  an  invasion  of  Britain  were 
made  as  futile  as  were  our  efforts,  at  that  time,  to  cope  with  French 
forces  on  the  Continent. 


BRITAIN   AT   WAR   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  35 

Pitt  now  resolved  to  expel  the  French  forces  from  Egypt,  and 
Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie  was  sent  thither  with  fifteen  thousand  men. 
In  March,  1801,  the  first  division  of  our  troops,  in  face  of  a  tre- 
mendous fire  of  shot,  shell,  grape,  and  musketry,  landed  at  Aboukir 
Bay,  and,  with  the  most  brilliant  courage,  drove  off  the  opposing 
French  with  the  bayonet.  Their  main  army,  under  Menou,  was 
soon  afterwards  defeated  by  Abercrombie,  one  of  our  best  com- 
manders, at  the  battle  of  Aboukir,  or  Alexandria,  where  the  gallant 
and  able  Scot  received  a  fatal  wound.  His  successor,  General 
Hutchinson,  took  Rosetta,  Cairo,  and  Alexandria,  and  the  French 
troops,  on  their  surrender,  were  sent  back  to  France  in  British 
ships.  Thus  ended  Buonaparte's  efforts  towards  the  Eastern 
world. 

The  scene  of  conflict  next  draws  our  eyes  to  the  north  of 
Europe.  The  insane  emperor  Paul  of  Russia  had  formed  with 
Sweden  and  Denmark  an  "armed  neutrality",  to  resist  by  force 
the  British  claim  to  stop  and  search  neutral  vessels  for  "contra- 
band of  war",  or  stores  for  warlike  use  which  such  ships  might 
be  conveying  to  our  foes.  Prussia  joined  the  hostile  ranks  early 
in  1801:  Hanover  was  occupied,  and  the  north  German  rivers, 
the  Weser,  Ems,  and  Elbe,  were  closed  against  our  ships.  The 
government  resolved  to  strike  hard  and  fast  at  Denmark,  the  only 
member  of  the  coalition  which  possessed  a  strong  naval  force.  In 
the  fierce  battle  of  Copenhagen,  fought  on  April  2nd,  Nelson,  again 
the  real  hero  of  the  occasion,  now  as  second  to  Sir  Hyde  Parker, 
brought  the  Danes  to  terms,  and  caused  their  retirement  from  the 
combination  against  Britain.  The  alliance  had  already,  unknown 
to  Nelson  at  the  time,  received  its  death-blow  by  the  assassination, 
on  March  24th,  of  the  Russian  emperor.  His  son  and  successor, 
Alexander  the  First,  at  once  made  peace,  and  long  remained  on 
friendly  terms  with  this  country.  The  struggle  ended  for  a  brief 
space  by  the  truce  known  as  the  Peace  of  Amiens,  concluded  on 
March  25th,  1802,  between  Great  Britain,  France,  Holland,  and 
Spain. 

These  contests  of  the  eighteenth  century  have  an  interest 
apart  from  and  beyond  the  details  which  display  British  energy 
and  courage.  The  struggles  by  sea  and  land  which  were  so 
eventful  and,  on  the  whole,  so  glorious  to  our  arms,  were,  above 
all,  important  in  their  real  aims  and  results.  They  were  wars 


36  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

waged  for  trade  and  for  colonial  rule.  The  crisis  of  modern 
British  history  came  in  the  days  of  the  Armada.  It  was  then 
that  our  forefathers  awoke  to  a  sense  of  the  great  destinies  that 
were  reserved  for  the  British  race.  The  very  bigotry  of  the  time, 
an  evil  thing  in  itself,  but  overruled,  like  other  evils,  for  high 
ends  controlled  by  a  supreme  Power,  aided  the  new  spirit  whose 
workings  have  been  immortalized  by  Charles  Kingsley  in  West- 
ward Ho!  a  story  which  no  real,  undegenerate  Englishman  can 
read  without  delight  and  pride.  Who  were  the  hated  Spaniards 
—this  was  the  cry — the  professors  of  a  false  faith,  the  desolators 
of  the  Netherlands,  at  once  the  victims  and  the  upholders  of  the 
Inquisition,  that  they  should  inherit  and  hold  the  world?  True, 
that  in  the  last  days  of  Elizabeth  we.  had  yet  no  possessions 
beyond  the  borders  of  Europe.  During  the  seventeenth  century 
we  were  mainly  given  up  to  internal  constitutional  struggles,  but 
Cromwell,  fanatic,  tyrant  in  his  own  despite,  the  conqueror  of 
his  own  countrymen,  was  moved  by  the  old  spirit  of  later  Tudor 
times  when  he  wrested  Jamaica  from  Spain  and  founded  a  do- 
minion in  the  sunny  West  Indian  isles. 

Britain  had  begun  that  wonderful  expansion  which  was  to  carry 
her  flag  round  the  world.  The  growth  of  our  trade  under  Walpole 
as  first  minister  made  British  merchants  eager  for  new  markets, 
and  the  industrial  development,  soon  to  be  traced  on  these  pages, 
of  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  gave  an  irresistible  im- 
pulse to  the  aspirations  after  wider  territory.  Chatham,  the  em- 
bodiment of  British  character  in  its  energy  and  courage,  rose  to  the 
occasion,  and  "the  hour  and  the  man"  were  happily  combined.  The 
eighteenth  century,  so  often  and  so  long  regarded  by  the  shallow 
and  the  ill-informed  as  a  dull  and  ignoble  period  of  our  annals, 
as  they  look  at  kings  and  courts  and  the  wranglings  of  politicians, 
was  the  era  of  great  contests  which  were  to  determine  the  posses- 
sion of  new  worlds  to  the  East  and  to  the  West,  on  the  shores 
of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  in  Indian  seas,  and  far  away  to 
the  south,  verging  even  on  Antarctic  waters.  With  France  and 
Spain,  with  Louis  the  Fifteenth,  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  with  Napoleon,  we  fought,  at  the  expense  of  hundreds 
of  millions  of  pounds,  not  merely  for  the  flag,  and  for  our  inde- 
pendence and  freedom,  but  for  the  trade  which  ever  "  follows  the 
flag",  for  the  possession  of  great  and  distant  lands  which  were 


THE   BRITISH    TROOPS   FORCE  A   LANDING  AT  ABOUKIR 
BAY   IN   FACE  OF  THE   FRENCH   BATTERIES. 

In  1798  Buonaparte,  who  was  then  virtually  ruler  of  France,  determined 
to  conquer  Egypt,  as  a  preliminary  to  an  attack  on  the  British  possessions 
in  India.  With  twenty  thousand  men  he  defeated  the  Turkish  army  in 
the  Battle  of  the  Pyramids,  and  in  a  short  time  the  whole  of  the  lower 
valley  of  the  Nile  was  in  French  hands.  In  the  following  year,  however, 
Nelson  destroyed  the  French  fleet  at  the  battle  of  the  Nile,  and  it  was  then 
decided  by  the  British  Government  to  drive  Buonaparte  from  Egypt.  To 
that  end  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie  was  despatched  to  Aboukir  Bay,  where 
he  successfully  landed  his  army  under  a  tremendous  fire  from  the  French 
batteries.  Soon  afterwards  he  met  and  defeated  the  whole  French  army, 
and  in  so  doing  ended  Napoleon's  conquests  in  the  East. 

(2) 


BRITAIN   AT   WAR   IN    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  37 

either  richly  provided  already  with  populations  to  receive  the 
products  of  our  looms,  or  had  "ample  verge  and  room  enough" 
for  emigrants  from  our  shores.  In  America  and  in  Asia,  as  we 
shall  see,  we  were  face  to  face  with  our  old  European  foes,  the 
French,  and  a  decisive  duel  ensued  for  mastery  in  those  regions. 
Compared  with  this  issue,  the  European  part  of  the  contest  which 
lasted,  with  intervals,  from  1740  to  1783,  becomes  of  slight 
significance.  These  were  our  first  wars  on  the  larger  scale,  when 
our  ships  and  men  were  engaged  in  almost  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  The  hostility  of  Napoleon  to  Britain,  armed  as  he  was 
with  the  material  resources  of  the  great  country  which  he  ruled, 
and,  by  conquest,  of  much  that  lay  outside  the  borders  of  France, 
was  also,  as  we  have  partly  seen  in  dealing  with  Egypt,  fiercely 
spurred  by  ambition  which  had  fixed  an  eager  eye  upon  empire, 
not  in  Europe,  but  in  Asia. 

The  eighteenth  century,  thus  viewed,  becomes  for  us  the  grand 
epoch  of  British  colonial  extension,  so  far  as  it  was  secured  by  the 
achievements  of  armies  and  fleets.  The  British  navy  became  irre- 
sistible :  Britain  was  shown  forth  as  the  undisputed  mistress  of  the 
seas.  Able  to  guard  her  merchant  ships  by  escorts  of  men-of-war 
which  could  crush  the  spasmodic  efforts  of  foes  whose  great  fleets 
had  perished  in  pitched  battles  of  signal  victory  for  the  islanders, 
she  spread  her  goods  abroad,  ruined  the  trade  of  her  foes,  and 
established  a  commercial  ascendency  long  to  endure  without  any 
hope  for  would-be  rivals.  We  will  elsewhere  describe  the  de- 
velopment at  home  of  the  industrial  resources  which  supplied  this 
country  with  the  pecuniary  means  of  conducting  this  gigantic 
struggle  to  the  successful  issue  sealed  by  the  Peace  of  1815. 


38  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

CHAPTER   V. 
STATE  OF  IRELAND  DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Penal  laws  against  the  Roman  Catholics — Restrictions  upon  Irish  industries  and  trade — 
The  Irish  Parliament — Flood  and  Grattan — Convention  of  Dungannon— "  White- 
boys"  and  "United  Irishmen" — Formation  of  "Orange"  lodges — Cruelties  prac- 
tised on  the  Roman  Catholics — Irish  rebellion  of  1798 — Act  for  union  with  Great 
Britain  passed. 

For  nearly  a  century  after  the  last  conquest  of  Ireland,  under 
William  the  Third,  that  unhappy  country  was  quiescent  with  the 
apathy  of  exhaustion,  misery,  and  despair.  In  Elizabeth's  reign 
the  native  Celts  had  been  hunted  like  wild  beasts;  their  faith 
had  been  proscribed ;  their  lands  had  been  largely  confiscated. 
Great  further  land  robberies  were  perpetrated  in  the  days  of 
James  the  First,  his  son  Charles,  Cromwell,  and  William  the 
Third.  In  one  quarter  alone,  Ulster,  the  Protestant  "  plantation " 
of  Scottish  and  English  settlers,  formed  by  James  the  First, 
was  there  any  real  prosperity.  After  the  surrender  of  Limerick 
in  1691,  the  treaty  which  promised  religious  freedom  to  the 
Catholics  was  grossly  violated,  and  they  were  made  subject 
to  the  action  of  severe  "penal  laws",  passed  in  the  Irish  parlia- 
ment, an  assembly  composed  of  Protestant  lords,  and  of  members 
returned  for  boroughs  controlled  by  the  crown  or  by  patrons  or 
by  close  corporations,  and  for  counties  dominated  in  election  affairs 
by  great  proprietors  of  land.  Catholics  were  not  permitted  to  keep 
school;  to  go  beyond  seas,  or  to  send  others  thither,  for  education 
in  the  Romish  religion.  Intermarriage  with  Protestants  was  dis- 
allowed, in  case  of  the  possession  of  an  estate  in  Ireland.  Children 
of  mixed  marriages  were  always  to  be  brought  up  in  the  Protest- 
ant faith.  A  "  Papist"  could  not  be  guardian  to  any  child,  nor 
hold  land,  nor  possess  arms.  He  could  not  hold  a  commission  in 
the  army  or  navy,  or  be  a  private  soldier.  No  Catholic  could 
hold  any  office  of  honour  or  emolument  in  the  state,  or  be  a 
member  of  any  corporation,  or  vote  for  members  of  the  Commons, 
or,  if  he  were  a  peer,  sit  or  vote  in  the  Lords.  Almost  all  these 
personal  disabilities  were  equally  enforced  by  law  against  any 
Protestant  who  married  a  Catholic  wife.  It  was  a  felony,  with 
transportation,  to  teach  the  Catholic  religion,  and  treason,  as  a 


IRELAND   DURING   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  39 

capital  offence,  to  convert  a  Protestant  to  the  Catholic  faith.  The 
legislation  devised  for  the  Irish  Catholics  in  that  evil  time  was 
described  by  Burke  as  "  a  machine  as  well  fitted  for  the  oppression, 
impoverishment,  and  degradation  of  a  people,  and  the  debasement 
in  them  of  human  nature  itself,  as  ever  proceeded  from  the  per- 
verted ingenuity  of  man". 

The  legislation  against  Irish  industries  had  its  origin  in  the 
narrow  and  selfish  spirit  of  commercial  monopoly  in  England 
which  had  devised  the  Navigation  Acts  against  the  carrying  trade 
of  the  Dutch,  and  was  displayed  by  her  in  commercial  dealings  with 
her  "plantations"  and  colonies  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  Irish  manufactures  and  trade  were  openly  suppressed 
and  extirpated.  In  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second,  Irish  land 
was  chiefly  used  for  pasture,  and  Irish  wealth  was  derived  from  the 
export  of  cattle,  meat,  butter  and  cheese  to  western  English  ports. 
The  English  landowners  complained,  and  laws  of  1665  and  1680 
prohibited  the  importation  of  all  this  Irish  produce  into  England. 
Her  trade  with  the  colonies  was  ruined  by  legislation  which  forbade 
exports  thither  save  in  English  ships,  or  imports  thence  except 
with  first  unlading  in  English  harbours.  When  the  Irish  land- 
owners were  prevented  from  exporting  their  cattle  to  England, 
they  raised  large  flocks  of  sheep  and  began  a  manufacture  in  wool. 
English  jealousy  was  again  aroused,  and  in  1699  Irish  woollens 
were  excluded  from  the  English  and  all  foreign  markets.  Thou- 
sands of  workmen  left  Ulster  for  America  and  the  Continent,  and 
the  country  was  once  more  reduced  to  penury,  when  the  people 
were  thrown  for  sustenance  entirely  upon  the  land.  The  linens 
of  Ireland,  and  some  manufactures  in  cotton,  were  also  shut  out 
from  the  English  markets  by  heavy  duties.  The  trade  in  beer 
and  malt  was  heavily  taxed,  and,  under  George  the  Second,  severe 
restrictions  were  laid  on  Irish  manufactures  in  glass,  paper,  velvet, 
hats,  and  other  articles.  The  breaking  up  of  land  from  pasture 
into  arable  was  restricted  by  legislation,  and  disastrous  famines 
arose  from  time  to  time  in  the  failure  to  grow  sufficient  corn. 

The  political  position  of  the  country  was  that,  under  the  laws 
procured  by  Lord-deputy  Poynings  in  1495,  the  Irish  parliament 
was  subject  to  the  privy-council  in  England,  and,  by  later  legis- 
lation, to  the  British  parliament  at  Westminster.  By  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  much  relaxation  had  arisen  in  applying 


4O  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

the  laws  against  religion,  but  the  faith  of  the  great  majority  ot  the 
Irish  people  was  illegal,  and  there  was  no  repeal  of  the  persecuting 
statutes.  In  the  early  part  of  George  the  Third's  reign,  the  Irish 
parliament  began  to  show  some  signs  of  an  independent  spirit. 
In  1768  the  Commons  rejected  a  money  bill  "because  it  did  not 
take  its  rise  in  that  House",  and  parliaments  in  Ireland  became 
octennial,  instead  of  the  Commons  being  chosen  for  the  duration 
of  each  reign.  Henry  Grattan  succeeded  Flood  as  the  advocate 
of  legislative  independence,  and  England's  difficulty  of  war  with 
her  American  colonies  and  with  European  powers  gave  Ireland 
her  opportunity.  In  1778,  the  British  parliament,  on  Irish  de- 
mands, gave  some  relief  to  Irish  trade,  and  changes  were  made 
in  the  penal  code  against  the  Catholics.  They  could  now  hold 
their  property  on  the  same  terms  as  Protestants,  and  in  1782  they 
were  enabled  to  acquire  freeholds  for  lives  or  by  inheritance,  to 
open  schools,  and  to  educate  their  youth  in  literature  and  religion. 
In  1779  the  British  government,  in  dread  of  invasion,  had 
desired  to  raise  a  Protestant  militia  in  Ireland,  but  there  were  no 
funds  for  their  payment,  and  volunteer  corps  arose,  for  part  of 
whom  the  ruling  powers  provided  arms.  Eighty  thousand  men, 
all  Protestants,  were  soon  enrolled,  the  Catholics  being  permitted 
only  to  subscribe  towards  the  expenses.  It  was  this  volunteer 
movement  which  led  to  the  brief  legislative  independence  of  Ire- 
land that  existed  from  1782  till  1800.  Early  in  the  former  year 
the  famous  Convention  of  Dungannon  was  held.  This  was  a 
meeting  of  the  Protestant  leaders  of  the  Ulster  volunteers,  and 
after  long  debate  they  passed  a  resolution  that  "  The  claim  of  any 
body  of  men,  other  than  the  King,  Lords,  and  Commons  of  Ire- 
land, to  make  laws  to  bind  that  kingdom  is  unconstitutional, 
illegal,  and  a  grievance".  A  second  resolution  was  that  "  We 
hold  the  right  of  private  judgment  in  matters  of  religion  to  be 
equally  sacred  in  others  as  in  ourselves.  We  rejoice  in  the  re- 
laxation of  the  penal  laws  against  our  Roman  Catholic  fellow- 
subjects,  and  we  conceive  this  measure  to  be  fraught  with  the 
happiest  consequences  to  the  union  and  prosperity  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Ireland".  The  men  who  passed  these  resolutions  had 
arms  in  their  hands,  and  were  not  to  be  trifled  with.  In  April, 
1782,  the  Irish  parliament  carried  a  Declaration  of  Rights,  de- 
manding legislative  independence,  and  Great  Britain  was  forced 


IRELAND   DURING   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  41 

to  come  to  terms.  The  legislative  and  judicial  authority  of  the 
British  parliament  was  renounced:  the  right  of  the  privy-council 
to  alter  bills  transmitted  from  Ireland  was  abandoned,  and  Ireland, 
for  eighteen  years,  had  an  independent  legislature,  and  occupied 
a  constitutional  position  like  that  of  Scotland  before  the  Union 
of  1707. 

This  Irish    Parliament   was,   however,   from    the   first  a  fore- 
doomed   failure.       Not   merely   was    it   purely    Protestant,    while 
four-fifths    of  the    Irish    people    were    Catholics,    but   it   did    not 
properly   represent   even   the   Protestant  minority.       Of  the   300 
members  of  this   Irish   House  of  Commons  only   72   were  really 
returned  by  the  Protestant  voters,  while   123  sat  for  nomination 
boroughs,  and  represented  only  their  patrons.       Fifty-three  peers 
directly  appointed  these  "legislators",  and  could  also  ensure,  by 
their  influence,  the  election  of  ten  others.     Fifty  commoners  also 
nominated  ninety-one  members,  and  controlled  the  election  of  four 
others.      As  a  representative  assembly  it  was,  therefore,  a  farce 
more  ridiculous  even  than  the  British   House  of  Commons  prior 
to  1832.      It  was,  in  other  ways,  a  grossly  corrupt  body,  and  the 
government  in  England  influenced  its  debates  and  votes  by  whole- 
sale and  unblushing  bribery.      The  changes  needed,  in  order  to 
turn    it    into    a    really    representative    and    useful    body,    were    a 
thorough  franchise  reform  and  Catholic  emancipation.     For  these 
changes,  in  those  days,  it  was  hopeless  to  strive,  and  the  last  state 
of  the   Irish  parliament  was  worse  than  the  first.      Pitt,  an  en- 
lightened statesman   placed   in  a  very  difficult  position   between 
the  promptings  of  his  own  judgment  and  the  prejudices   of  his 
chief  supporters,   including  those  of  a  monarch  now  half  insane, 
strove  to  give  more  freedom  to   Irish  trade.      His  efforts  failed 
in  both   Parliaments,  and   matters  drifted   on  towards  the  legis- 
lative union  of  the  two  countries.      In   1793,  the   Irish  Catholics 
obtained  the  right   of  voting  for   Protestant  members,  but  they 
could  not  sit  in  parliament,  and  George  the  Third,  from  scruples 
which  he  supposed  to  affect  his  coronation  oath,  declined  to  grant 
full  political  emancipation. 

The  national  life  of  Ireland,  deprived  of  an  outlet  in  Parliament, 
sought  relief  in  various  forms  of  secret  and  open  organization.  The 
"  Whiteboys  "  and  other  violent  men  who  met  in  dark  places  and 
wrought  corresponding  deeds,  had  long  been  at  work  against  the 


42  OUR    EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

payment  of  rent  and  tithe.  As  the  end  of  the  century  drew  near, 
the  revolutionary  spirit  of  France  produced  its  effect  in  Ireland, 
and  in  July,  1790,  the  "Society  of  United  Irishmen",  organized  by 
Wolfe  Tone  and  Hamilton  Rowan,  was  formed  at  Belfast.  This 
body  included  men  of  both  religions,  and  proclaimed  "  an  identity 
of  interests  and  a  communion  of  rights"  for  all  Irishmen.  The 
successes  of  the  French  republicans  so  far  alarmed  the  British 
government  that,  in  1793,  the  Irish  Catholics,  besides  receiving  the 
electoral  franchise,  were  allowed  to  become  barristers,  attorneys, 
freemen  of  corporations,  grand  jurors,  and  magistrates,  and  to  attain 
the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  army.  The  country  was  in  a  welter  of 
confusion  and  trouble.  The  intelligent  and  leading  Catholics 
were  conciliated  by  the  policy  of  concession,  but  bigots  on  both 
sides  had  formed  hostile  associations,  and  in  1795  open  war  was 
being  waged  in  pitched  battle  between  the  Catholic  "  Defenders" 
and  the  Protestant  "  Peep-of-day  Boys"  of  Ulster.  Then  came 
the  formation  of  "  Orange"  lodges  by  the  Protestants,  in  strong 
opposition  to  Catholic  claims. 

Early  in  1795  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  a  distinguished  Whig  states- 
man, an  avowed  and  warm  supporter  of  Catholic  emancipation,  had 
arrived  in  Dublin  as  viceroy.  Many  Catholic  petitions  were  pre- 
sented, asking  admission  to  Parliament,  and  large  numbers  of 
Protestants  were  in  favour  of  the  measure.  Then  the  viceroy, 
after  a  reply  expressing  his  sympathy  with  the  Catholics,  was 
suddenly  recalled,  and  this  step  has  been  held  to  have  greatly 
conduced  to  the  subsequent  rebellion.  The  "United  Irishmen", 
largely  composed  of  Presbyterians,  now  became  a  secret  society, 
and  adopted  republican  views,  aiming  at  revolution,  and  separation 
from  Great  Britain,  instead  of  merely  the  reforms  which  they  had 
vainly  striven  to  obtain.  An  alliance  with  France  was  sought,  and 
the  Directory  sent  an  armament,  under  their  famous  young  general, 
Lazare  Hoche,  in  1796.  The  hostile  fleet  was  dispersed  by  a 
storm,  and  the  enterprise  was  abandoned.  Excessive  punishment 
followed  this  failure  in  Irish  rebellion.  The  Catholics  in  Ulster 
had  already  been  driven  by  thousands  from  their  homes,  and 
Lord  Gosford,  the  governor  of  Armagh,  declared  that  "neither 
age  nor  sex,  nor  even  acknowledged  innocence  of  any  misconduct, 
is  sufficient  to  excite  mercy,  much  less  to  afford  protection.  The 
only  crime  with  which  the  objects  of  this  ruthless  persecution  are 


IRELAND   DURIN7G   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  43 

charged  is  simply  a  profession  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion". 
Before  the  attempted  French  invasion,  the  Irish  parliament  had 
passed  two  Coercion  Acts,  giving  large  powers  of  arrest  to  magis- 
trates on  mere  suspicion.  The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  sus- 
pended; martial  law  was  proclaimed;  and  the  country  was  placed 
in  a  state  of  siege.  After  the  failure  of  Hoche's  expedition  the 
Irish  Catholics  were  delivered  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the 
"  Orange "  yeomanry  and  of  militia  regiments  from  England. 
The  grossest  outrages  were  rife,  including  methods  of  torture 
called  "half-hanging",  "pitch-capping",  and  "picketing".  "Half- 
hanging"  consisted  in  stringing  up  the  victim,  cutting  him  down, 
and  allowing  him  to  struggle  back  to  life  again.  "  Pitch-capping" 
meant  the  pouring  of  hot  pitch  on  the  head,  allowing  it  to  cool, 
and  then  roughly  tearing  off  the  "cap"  thus  formed,  bringing  with 
it  the  hair  and  portions  of  the  scalp.  The  fearful  device  of 
"picketing"  placed  the  bare  soles  of  the  tortured  man  on  pegs 
driven  into  the  ground,  with  their  pointed  ends  uppermost.  His 
whole  weight  was  thus  supported  on  a  most  sensitive  part,  and 
exquisite  pain  was  caused.  The  gallant  Scottish  soldier,  Sir 
Ralph  Abercrombie,  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  army 
in  Ireland  in  December,  1796,  and  in  one  of  his  letters  he 
declares  that  "here  (in  Ireland)  every  crime,  every  cruelty  that 
could  be  committed  by  Cossacks  or  Calmucks  has  been  committed 
by  the  troops".  He  issued  a  general  order,  severely  rebuking 
the  "  licentiousness  which  must  render  the  troops  formidable  to 
every  one  but  the  enemy",  and  he  stoutly  refused  to  withdraw 
this  order  at  the  request  of  the  viceroy,  Lord  Camden.  Within 
four  months  he  resigned  his  command  to  General  Lake,  being 
unable  to  check  excesses,  and  resolved  not  to  play  the  part  of 
an  executioner. 

The  Irish  Catholics  were  goaded  by  these  horrors  into  pre- 
mature and  unsuccessful  revolt.  In  March,  1798,  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald,  one  of  their  leaders,  died  of  wounds  received  in  his 
desperate  resistance  to  arrest  in  Dublin.  In  May,  detached 
risings  took  place,  chiefly  in  the  counties  of  Wexford  and  Wick- 
low,  and  the  rebels  at  first  gained  some  successes  over  the  troops. 
Enniscorthy  and  Wexford  were  taken,  and  cruel  massacres  of 
Protestants  occurred.  After  repulse  from  New  Ross  and  Arklow, 
the  insurgents  were  finally  and  decisively  defeated  by  General 


44  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

Lake  at  Vinegar  Hill,  near  Enniscorthy,  on  June  2ist.  This 
event  was  followed  by  an  exciting  episode,  not  very  creditable 
to  the  rulers  of  Ireland  and  their  instruments.  In  August 
three  frigates,  under  English  colours,  dropped  anchor  in  Killala 
Bay,  county  Mayo.  About  eleven  hundred  Frenchmen,  with  two 
guns,  under  General  Humbert,  landed.  Killala  and  Ballina  were 
taken,  and  the  invaders  were  joined  by  some  fourteen  hundred 
Irishmen.  With  this  small  force  Humbert  advanced  on  Castlebar, 
which  was  held  by  about  four  thousand  yeomanry  and  militia,  in 
the  bad  state  of  discipline  denounced,  as  we  have  seen,  by  Aber- 
crombie.  Humbert  showed  much  skill,  took  the  British  in  flank 
and  drove  them  away  in  disgraceful  rout,  which  amply  fulfilled 
Abercrombie's  prophecy  as  to  the  probable  value  of  lawless  troops 
in  action.  General  Lake  was  in  command,  and  he  left  behind 
him  all  the  artillery,  ammunition,  and  small  arms.  The  fleeing 
troops  scarcely  halted  until  they  reached  Athlone,  eighty  miles 
from  the  field.  They  there  encountered  the  viceroy,  Lord  Corn- 
wallis,  and  so  ended  what  the  Irish  called  "the  Races  of  Castle- 
bar".  A  brave  resistance  was  made  at  Castlebar,  when  the 
French  occupied  the  town,  only  by  a  small  body  of  Highlanders, 
who  scorned  to  flee  rather  than  fight.  The  Irish  Republic  was 
proclaimed  by  the  French  victors  and  their  friends;  but  there 
could,  of  course,  be  no  hope  of  ultimate  success  against  the  large 
British  forces  in  Ireland.  On  leaving  Castlebar  for  Sligo,  Hum- 
bert found  his  march  followed  or  watched  by  bodies  of  men,  with 
Lake,  General  Moore  (afterwards  Sir  John,  the  hero  of  Corunna), 
and  Cornwallis  in  command.  He  defeated,  in  a  fierce  battle, 
the  Limerick  militia  who  faced  him  forty  miles  north-east  of 
Castlebar,  but  was  at  last  surrounded  by  an  overwhelming  force, 
and,  after  a  resistance  made  for  honour's  sake,  the  French  general 
was  driven  to  lay  down  his  arms — less  than  nine  hundred  French- 
men thus  becoming  prisoners  to  above  thirty  thousand  foes  on 
or  near  the  scene. 

The  suppression  of  the  rebellion  of  1798  was  followed  by 
severities  so  brutal  that  the  viceroy,  Lord  Cornwallis,  wrote : 
"  There  is  no  law  either  in  town  or  country  but  martial  law. 
Numberless  murders  are  committed  by  our  people  without  any 
process  or  examination  whatever";  and  again,  in  April,  1799,  when 
all  danger  of  further  outbreaks  had  long  ceased,  Cornwallis 


IRELAND   DURING   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  45 

denounced  the  system  of  free  quarters  for  the  troops,  "  which 
comprehended  universal  rape  and  robbery  throughout  the  whole 
country".  Later  still,  he  declared  that  the  "violence  of  our  loyal 
friends  "  (the  Orangemen)  was  such  as  would,  if  not  checked  with 
the  strictest  hand,  become  "a.  more  violent  and  intolerable  tyranny 
than  that  of  Robespierre  ". 

In  this  terrible  condition  of  affairs  it  appeared  to  Pitt  that  a 
legislative  union  of  the  two  countries  was  the  one  policy  which 
afforded  a  prospect  of  restored  and  lasting  peace.  This  policy  he 
adopted,  with  the  full  intention  of  granting  therewith  full  political 
rights  to  the  Catholics  of  both  Ireland  and  Great  Britain  by  ad- 
mitting them  to  seats  in  the  legislature,  and  removing  all  disabilities 
which  now  placed  them  in  a  position  inferior  to  that  of  their 
Protestant  fellow-subjects.  His  beneficent  intentions  in  this  respect 
were  frustrated  by  the  obstinate  refusal  of  the  king,  and  the  measure 
was  thus  deprived  of  that  quality  which  would  have  commended  it 
with  great  force  to  the  feelings  of  the  Irish  Catholics  who  formed 
the  bulk  of  the  nation.  The  immorality  of  the  inevitable  means 
employed  in  Ireland  in  order  to  effect  the  Union  has  been  denounced 
by  some  of  its  strongest  supporters  as  an  existing  fact,  men  who 
stoutly  oppose  its  repeal.  The  Irish  Orangeman  and  Unionist, 
Mr.  Lecky,  declares  "the  Union,  as  it  was  carried",  to  be  "a  crime 
of  the  deepest  turpitude — a  crime  which,  by  imposing,  with  every 
circumstance  of  infamy,  a  new  form  of  government  on  a  reluctant 
and  protesting  nation,  has  vitiated  the  whole  course  of  Irish 
opinion".  What  is  certain  is,  that  Castlereagh,  the  Chief  Secretary 
chosen  by  Pitt  to  carry  out  the  work,  spent  over  a  million  sterling 
in  buying  out  the  owners  of  "  rotten "  or  "  nominee "  boroughs 
which  were  disfranchised  under  the  Act.  In  spite  of  the  destruction 
of  a  large  part  of  the  correspondence,  the  clearest  evidence  exists 
of  military  intimidation,  of  the  bribery  of  the  Irish  press  and  the 
Irish  bar,  and  of  the  forcible  suppression  of  public  meetings  called 
to  protest  against  the  measure.  The  bill  was  at  last  carried  through 
the  Irish  parliament,  and  on  the  first  day  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  Act  came  into  force.  One  hundred  Irish  members  now  sat  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  Irish  peerage  was  represented  by 
four  bishops,  and  by  twenty-eight  lay  peers,  chosen  for  life.  Irish 
trade  was  admitted  to  a  free  career,  with  undoubted  benefit  to  the 
country,  and  her  share  of  contribution  to  the  imperial  revenue  was 


46  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

placed  at  two-fifteenths,  far  below  the  proportion  due  to  population, 
and  reckoned  in  accordance  with  her  degree  of  national  resources. 
Thus  came  into  political  existence  "  The  United  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland",  and  the  addition  of  the  diagonal  cross  of  St. 
Patrick,  red  on  a  white  ground,  completed  the  union  flag  in  its 
existing  form. 


CHAPTER   VI. 
RELIGIOUS  AND  SOCIAL  AFFAIRS  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Prevalence  of  Deism  in  the  reigns  of  George  I.  and  II. — Assailants  and  defenders  of  the 
Christian  faith — Corruption  among  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England — Ignorance 
and  brutality  of  the  lower  classes — Rise  of  Methodism — The  Wesleys  and  White- 
field — Labours  of  General  James  Oglethorpe  and  John  Howard — Prison  reform — 
Hospitals  founded — Hannah  More,  Robert  Raikes,  Thomas  Clarkson,  and  William 
Wilberforce — Granville  Sharp  and  slavery — Rise  of  the  Evangelical  party  in  the 
Church  of  England — William  Romaine,  John  Newton,  and  Charles  Simeon. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  an  outbreak  of 
Puritanism  within  the  Church  did  great  service  to  the  cause  of 
religion  and  morality  among  the  masses,  and  ended  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  great  body  of  orthodox  or  evangelical  dissenters. 
The  social  condition  of  both  the  upper  and  the  lower  classes, 
in  the  reigns  of  George  the  First  and  George  the  Second,  was 
such  as  loudly  to  call  for  the  efforts  of  earnest  men  towards 
a  beneficial  change.  Christian  belief  was  at  a  very  low  ebb  in 
polite  society,  where  opinions  had  been  long  tending  towards 
mere  Deism.  A  Deist  is  understood  to  be  one  whose  belief  in 
the  existence  and  providence  of  God  is  based  simply  on  evidence 
and  reason.  He  denies  all  "revelation"  or  "supernatural  religion", 
and  is  also  known  as  a  "  Freethinker". 

During  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  a  school  of 
English  writers  appeared  advocating  such  views.  The  Scriptures 
were  subjected  to  hostile  criticism;  the  miracles  and  the  main 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith  were  rejected,  and  some  even 
denied  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  These  writers  were  rather 
sharp-witted  than  learned,  accurate,  or  profound,  but  for  a  long 
period  they  exercised  a  strong  influence  on  a  society  devoid  of 
earnestness  or  enthusiasm  on  all  subjects  save  self-interest  and 
personal  enjoyment.  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  soldier,  statesman, 


RELIGIOUS   AND   SOCIAL  AFFAIRS   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.        47 

philosopher,  and  poet,  the  friend  of  the  Constable  Montmorency 
and  of  Isaac  Casaubon,  and  the  comrade-in-arms  of  Maurice  of 
Nassau,  has  been  called  the  "  Father  of  Deism  ",  from  the  work, 
published  in  1645,  in  which  he  advocated  the  belief  in  a  supreme 
God;  in  virtue  and  purity  as  the  worship  due  to  Him;  in  repent- 
ance for  sins;  and  in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments. 
He  was  succeeded  by  Matthew  Tindal,  who  published  in  1730  his 
Christianity  as  Old  as  the  Creation,  maintaining  that  there  has 
been  no  special  revelation,  and  advocating  "natural"  religion;  by 
John  Toland  and  Woolston;  by  the  third  Earl  of  Shaftesbury, 
whose  Characteristics  was  published  in  1711;  by  Anthony  Collins, 
whose  Discourse  on  Freethinking  appeared  in  1713;  by  Lord 
Bolingbroke,  and  others  of  the  same  anti-Christian  class. 

A  blight  came  over  the  Church  soon  after  the  close  of  Queen 

o  X> 

Anne's  reign.  Zeal  was  greatly  cooled,  doctrine  was  somewhat 
lax,  and  devotion  to  episcopal  and  parochial  duty  was  deplorably 
deficient  during  the  period  that  came  between  the  Hanoverian 
succession  and  the  French  Revolution.  The  assailants  of  Chris- 
tianity were,  indeed,  ably  met  in  controversial  writing  by  one  of  the 
greatest  of  English  divines,  Joseph  Butler,  bishop  of  Bristol,  and 
then  of  Durham,  whose  Analogy  was  published  in  1736;  and  by 
William  Law,  who  answered  Tindal's  book  in  1732,  after  publishing 
in  1729  the  famous  Serious  Call  to  a  Devout  and  Holy  Life,  which 
first  aroused  religious  convictions  in  Dr.  Johnson,  wrought  deeply 
and  strongly  upon  the  Wesley  brothers  and  their  work,  and 
received  hearty  praise  for  its  sincerity  and  power  from  one  whose 
single  eulogy  could  confer  lasting  renown,  Edward  Gibbon,  the 
foe  of  Law's  religion,  the  author  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  The  Church  hierarchy  and  lower  ministers  were, 
however,  lacking  in  that  life-example  of  sincerity  and  zeal  which 
must  always  influence  both  belief  and  practice  in  lay  society  more 
strongly  than  bare  argument,  or  dialectical  skill,  or  rhetorical  appeal. 
The  English  prelates  and  higher  clergy,  under  George  the  Second, 
would  often  stoop  to  court,  in  hope  of  still  better  preferment,  the 
king's  coarse-mannered  female  favourites.  The  levees  of  the 
prime  minister  were  more  familiar  with  episcopal  faces  and  garb 
than  the  scenes  of  labour  which  called  for  oversight  and  care.  We 
hear  of  a  Welsh  bishop  who  dwelt  amid  the  hills  and  dales  of 
Westmoreland,  and  admitted  without  shame  that  he  had  only  once 


48  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

visited  his  diocese.  The  literature  of  the  day  informs  us  that  the 
best-known,  the  permanent,  resident  in  many  country  parishes  was 
the  ill-paid  curate.  The  incumbent,  rector  or  vicar,  under  the 
evil  system  which  at  that  time  prevailed  in  the  National  Church, 
was  a  wealthy  pluralist,  who  held  and  enjoyed  the  incomes  of 
several  benefices,  and  passed  his  life  in  a  centre  of  learning,  as 
at  Cambridge  or  at  Oxford  or  some  other  cathedral-town,  or  amid 
the  fashionable  throng  of  London,  Bath,  and  other  resorts  of  the 
polite  world.  A  large  part  of  the  clergy  showed,  in  their  daily 
lives,  unbecoming,  if  not  vicious,  tastes  and  habits.  The  pages  of 
Fielding  and  Smollett,  with  all  due  allowance  for  satire  and  exag- 
geration, cannot  be  wholly  false  in  their  delineation  of  hard-drinking, 
gambling  priests.  The  country  parson  would  be  often  more  devoted 
to  his  stable,  his  kennel,  and  the  sports  of  the  field  and  the  race- 
ground  than  to  his  duties  inside  the  church  fabric  or  the  abodes 
of  penury  and  disease.  The  contemporary  denunciations  of  respec- 
table men  of  their  own  order;  the  admissions  of  clerical  sinners 
themselves,  in  correspondence  published  in  later  days;  the  testi- 
mony of  men  like  Arthur  Young,  and  Cowper,  and  Crabbe,  leave 
no  room  for  doubt  as  to  the  character  of  too  many  of  the  Georgian 
clergy  in  the  last  century.  When  they  did  address  their  flocks 
from  the  pulpit  nothing  could  be,  as  a  rule,  more  meagre  than  the 
matter,  more  dull,  insipid,  monotonous,  and  unaffecting  than  the 
delivery  of  their  discourses.  As  the  great  actor,  Garrick,  said, 
"  You  clergymen,  in  the  pulpit,  deal  with  the  real  as  if  it  were 
fictitious;  we  players,  on  the  stage,  treat  the  fictitious  as  the 
real ".  The  clergyman  of  that  day  who  wished  to  stand  well  with 
the  fashionable  world  was  bound  to  avoid  the  least  approach  to 
excitement  or  -enthusiasm  in  matters  connected  with  his  sacred 
profession.  He  would  be  guilty  of  that  worst  of  sins,  "  bad  taste  "; 
he  would  be  playing  the  part  of  a  Puritan  or  "  canting  dissenter  ". 
The  religion  and  morals  of  the  upper  and  the  lower  orders  were 
consonant  with  the  apathy,  neglect,  and  bad  example  rife  among 
those  who  were  charged  with  the  work  of  maintaining  a  high 
standard  of  faith  and  practice.  In  the  fashionable  world,  the  men, 
and  many  of  the  women,  were  Deists  at  the  best.  Their  lives  were 
stained  by  gross  vice.  Drunkenness,  gambling,  sexual  profligacy, 
gluttony,  were  rampant;  many  a  promising  young  life  was  cut 
short  by  the  sword  or  bullet  of  the  duellist.  Virtue  and  religion 


RELIGIOUS   AND   SOCIAL   AFFAIRS   IN   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.        49 

were  found  chiefly  in  the  middle  and  lower  middle  classes.  The 
lower  mass  of  the  people  were  sunk  in  a  condition  of  gross  ignor- 
ance, brutality,  and  vice.  Fielding  remarks  on  their  insolence  and 
rudeness  of  language  and  demeanour,  in  the  streets  and  on  the 
river,  in  London,  towards  those  guilty  of  the  crime  of  being  better- 
garbed  than  themselves,  by  virtue  of  their  superior  means  or 
station.  A  French  writer  notes  the  "  insolent  rabble  "  of  porters, 
sailors,  chairmen  (the  carriers  of  sedan-chairs),  and  day-labourers 
as  worthy  only  of  "  a  country  without  law  or  police ".  A  large 
portion  of  the  lower  class,  especially  in  the  towns,  almost  wholly 
neglected  by  the  clergy,  and  cared  for  only  by  some  of  the  Baptists 
and  other  dissenting  bodies,  were  mere  heathens  as  to  religious 
knowledge  and  belief,  and  little  better  than  the  brutes  in  their  lives, 
sodden  with  the  newly-devised  drink,  gin,  and  devoted  in  their 
hours  of  ease  to  dog-fighting,  cock-fighting,  bear-baiting,  and  other 
coarse  and  cruel  recreations. 

The  University  of  Oxford  enjoys  the  distinction,  little  valued 
by  her  scions  in  that  age,  of  sending  forth  the  men  who  were  to 
work  with  immense  and  enduring  regenerative  effect  upon  this 
festering  immorality  and  irreligion.  John  Wesley,  son  of  the  rector 
of  Epworth,  in  the  Isle  of  Axholme,  Lincolnshire,  after  education 
at  Charterhouse  School  and  at  Christ  Church,  became  a  fellow  and 
classical  lecturer  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  in  1726,  and  took 
priest's  orders  in  the  Church  two  years  later.  He  and  some  other 
young  men,  including  Wesley's  younger  brother,  Charles,  with 
James  Hervey,  George  Whitefield,  a  poor  scholar  of  Pembroke 
College,  and  William  Law,  formed  the  habit  of  meeting  in  each 
other's  rooms  for  prayer,  religious  converse,  and  mutual  help  in 
efforts  towards  a  life  of  serious  thought  and  of  good  works.  They 
taught  poor  children  in  the  town,  visited  the  sick  and  the  prisoners 
in  the  jail,  and  led  strict  and  holy  lives.  Such  conduct  did  not 
fail  to  draw  attention  from  the  idle  and  profligate  society  which 
was  then  largely  found  at  the  universities.  A  student  of  Christ 
Church,  sneering  at  their  strict  observance  of  the  rules  of  religion 
and  at  the  regularity  of  their  lives,  dubbed  them  "  Methodists". 
Hostile  wit  also  styled  them  "The  Holy  Club",  and  "  Sacramen- 
tarians",  and  "  Bible  Moths",  but  the  young  enthusiasts  were  not 
made  of  moral  stuff  to  be  moulded  by  the  force  of  ridicule. 
Whitefield,  Hervey,  and  Law  also  took  orders  in  the  Church, 


VOL.  I. 


50  OUR   EMPIRE  AT    HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

where  their  enthusiasm  found  no  encouragement,  save  in  the 
recognition,  most  honourable  to  himself  at  that  time,  accorded  to 
Whitefield  by  Dr.  Benson,  bishop  of  Gloucester.  That  true- 
hearted  prelate,  when  a  complaint  was  made  to  him  that  White- 
field's  first  sermon  at  Gloucester  had  driven  several  people  mad, 
coolly  expressed  a  hope  that  the  "madness"  would  not  be  for- 
gotten before  the  next  Sunday. 

After  voyages  made  to  Georgia,  in  North  America,  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  the  colonists  and  to  the  heathen  Indians,  the  Wesleys 
and  Whitefield  began  to  address  the  "  common  people  "  in  England 
in  the  open  air,  or  in  barns,  or  in  dissenting  chapels,  or  where- 
soever men  and  women  would  gather  to  hear  them.  This  initial 
work  was  undertaken  in  the  spring  of  1739,  and  was  continued 
with  ardour  and  industry,  amidst  the  railing  or  the  contempt  of 
the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church,  and  the  persecution,  in  word 
and  act,  of  mobs  who,  aroused  against  the  preachers,  sometimes 
pelted  them  with  mud  and  stones.  The  light  literature  of  England, 
for  forty  years,  abounds  in  sneers  and  slanders  aimed  at  the  leaders 
of,  and  converts  to,  the  new  religious  movement.  They  were 
denounced  as  fanatics  or  as  hypocrites,  and  some  of  the  number, 
as  in  all  such  phases  of  religious  excitement  and  revival,  were  open 
to  such  reproach,  but  the  work  went  on,  conquering  and  to  conquer, 
until  the  dormant  Church  was  herself  stirred  into  new  life  and 
shamed  into  rivalry.  A  moral  and  religious  revolution  was  pro- 
duced which  had  a  great  effect  in  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order 
when  the  wild  passions  of  mankind,  along  with  legitimate  desires 
for  conservative  reform,  were  aroused  or  encouraged  by  the  great 
political  outbreak  beyond  the  Channel. 

The  labours  of  John  Wresley  as  an  itinerant  preacher  were 
incessant.  He  had  no  permanent  residence,  and  never  allowed 
bad  weather  or  rough  roads  to  stay  his  journeys  of  from  forty  to 
sixty  miles  a  day  on  horseback.  He  read  or  wrote  as  he  travelled, 
and  often  preached  four  or  five  times  in  the  space  of  a  single 
day.  Wesley's  eloquence  was  enforced  by  a  dignified  manner,  a 
harmonious  voice,  and  a  thorough  persuasion  of  the  truth  and 
importance  of  that  which  he  uttered,  and,  in  his  perorations,  he 
pointed  and  drove  home  his  appeals  by  the  use  of  the  Scriptural 
"thou"  and  "thee",  as  though  he  addressed  a  single  soul,  so  that 
each  hearer  to  whom  his  words  were  applicable  was  thrilled  as  by 


RELIGIOUS   AND   SOCIAL   AFFAIRS   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.         51 

a.  personal  exhortation  to  repent.  The  effect  of  Whitefield's 
preaching  is  beyond  rivalry  in  modern  days.  His  voice  was  so 
resonant,  that  the  words  clearly  reached  the  ears  of  thirty  thousand 
people  gathered  in  the  open  air.  The  tones  were  as  musical  and 
charming  as  they  were  far-reaching,  and  his  utterance  was  rein- 
forced by  vehement  action,  startling  apostrophes,  and  thrilling 
appeals  of  marvellous  impetuosity  and  power.  When  he  addressed 
a  large  gathering  of  coal  miners  at  Kingswood,  near  Bristol,  the 
rude  hearers  were  at  first  awed  into  deep  silence,  and  he  has 
described  the  feelings  which  almost  overcame  himself  when,  with 
the  open  firmament  above  him,  amid  the  fields  where  thousands 
were  gathered,  some  in  coaches,  some  on  horseback,  and  some  in 
the  trees,  he  saw  "  the  white  gutters  made  by  the  tears  which  fell 
down  the  black  cheeks  of  the  men  just  come  out  of  their  coal  pits". 

These  two  great  evangelists  widely  differed  in  some  points  of 
character  and  ability.  Whitefield  rested  on  his  work  of  rousing 
sinners  by  his  burning  eloquence,  without  thought  of  founding 
a  systematic  and  permanent  body  of  successors  to  his  personal 
effort.  His  followers  were  found  in  all  parts  of  the  land,  but 
they  were  not  organized  by  him,  though  some  regard  him  as  the 
founder  of  "  Calvinistic  Methodism".  On  one  occasion  White- 
field  gave  help  at  a  religious  revival  in  Scotland,  when  the  lowest 
of  the  people  of  Glasgow  went  forth  to  Cambuslang,  and  the 
English  Methodist  saw  thirty  thousand  persons  from  all  parts 
around  gathered  to  attend  his  preaching.  Scenes  of  extraordinary 
bodily  excitement  were  there  beheld,  as  at  many  of  the  English 
meetings — shrieks,  fainting  fits,  convulsions.  The  ministers  of  the 
Scottish  Church  held  various  views  as  to  the  value  of  these  mani- 
festations, but  the  general  abiding  effect  was  the  diffusion  of  a 
more  earnest  religious  feeling  throughout  Great  Britain.  John 
Wesley,  at  an  early  period,  separated  himself,  without  any  personal 
quarrel,  from  his  eloquent  friend  and  colleague.  Wesley  did  not 
approve  Whitefield's  plan  of  permitting  every  converted  man,  how- 
ever unfitted  he  might  be  in  knowledge  or  in  training,  to  become  a 
preacher,  and,  when  he  was  practically  ejected  from  the  Church, 
he  set  himself  to  the  work  of  organizing  his  followers  into  a  per- 
manent religious  body. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Wesley  never  formally  renounced 
his  connection  with  the  Church,  and  that  he  was  strongly  attached 


52  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

to  Episcopacy,  but  he  and  other  ordained  ministers  of  the  Estab- 
lishment found  themselves  excluded  from  her  pulpits,  and  were 
fain  to  work  outside.  He  did  not  desire  to  adopt  the  name  of 
"Methodist",  which  has  adhered  (like  the  word  "Christian",  itself 
at  first  a  hostile  designation)  not  only  to  the  body  which  he 
founded,  but  to  most,  if  not  to  all,  the  ramifications  of  this  great 
undesigned  schism.  Our  most  brilliant  historian  describes  John 
Wesley  as  "a  man  whose  eloquence  and  logical  acuteness  might 
have  made  him  eminent  in  literature,  whose  genius  for  govern- 
ment was  not  inferior  to  that  of  Richelieu,  and  who,  whatever 
his  errors  may  have  been,  devoted  all  his  powers,  in  defiance 
of  obloquy  and  derision,  to  what  he  sincerely  considered  as  the 
highest  good  of  his  species".  Such  were  the  high  qualities  dis- 
played by  the  founder  of  Methodism.  The  first  conference  of  the 
new  religious  body  was  held  in  1744,  and  was  composed  of  six 
clergymen,  who  considered  the  topics  "What  to  teach;  How  to 
teach;  and  What  to  do".  Secession  from  the  Church  was  then 
disavowed,  but  five  years  later  the  movement  took  an  organic  and 
definite  form,  with  its  own  ministers,  lay  preachers,  leaders,  trustees, 
and  stewards.  The  empire  was  divided  into  circuits  for  the 
labours  of  about  seventy  ministers,  and  from  this  date  till  John 
Wesley's  death,  in  1791,  Methodism  was  becoming  divergent  from, 
and  at  last  entirely  independent  of  the  Anglican  Church.  Many 
excellent  hymns  were  written  for  the  use  of  the  worshippers  in 
"Wesleyan"  or  Methodist  chapels  by  Charles  Wesley  and  others, 
and  the  various  "societies"  had,  at  the  above  date,  spread  over  the 
United  Kingdom,  the  West  Indies,  and  the  United  States,  and 
were  composed  of  about  80,000  members.  This  number  has  grown 
to  many  millions  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  formed  into  several 
distinct  Methodist  bodies.  The  original  organization,  comprising 
the  Wesleyan  Methodists  of  the  United  Kingdom,  is  governed  by 
an  annual  Conference,  now  partly  made  up  of  laymen,  invested  with 
supreme  legislative  and  judicial  power,  and  headed  by  a  president 
and  secretary  chosen  for  one  year. 

The  revival  of  religion  wrought  by  Wesley  and  his  com- 
peers was  coincident  with  much  new  philanthropic  work  on  be- 
half of  the  most  miserable  and  degraded  classes  of  society. 
General  James  Oglethorpe,  who  had  fought  on  the  Continent 
under  Prince  Eugene,  and  had  afterwards  entered  the  House 


RELIGIOUS   AND   SOCIAL   AFFAIRS   IN   EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.         53 

of  Commons,  where  he  sat  for  more  than  thirty  years,  is  the 
man  whose  "strong  benevolence  of  soul"  was  sung  by  Pope. 
This  good  man  was  chairman  of  the  select  committee  of  the 
Commons  which  examined  into  and  reported  on  the  terrible 
cruelty  and  oppression  prevailing  in  the  three  London  prisons 
for  debtors — the  Fleet,  the  King's  Bench,  and  the  Marshal- 
sea.  It  was  mainly  due  to  his  exertions  that  the  misdeeds  of 
the  wardens  of  the  Fleet,  and  of  the  keeper  of  the  Marshalsea, 
were  brought  to  light.  The  unhappy  debtors  were  subject  to 
fraud,  extortion,  filth,  starvation,  disease,  and  to  torture  wrought 
by  heavy  fetters,  thumb-screws,  and  iron  skull-caps.  The  gifts  of 
the  charitable,  to  provide  food  for  the  prisoners,  were  often  stolen 
by  the  wicked  men  in  charge.  A  wretch  named  Bambridge,  co- 
warden  of  the  Fleet,  was  deprived  of  his  office  by  an  Act,  and 
many  of  the  abuses  were  remedied.  The  colony  of  Georgia,  in 
North  America,  was  projected,  and  founded  in  1733  by  Oglethorpe, 
as  a  place  of  refuge  where  debtors  lying  in  English  prisons  might 
make  a  new  start  in  life. 

It  is  for  beneficent  action  in  regard  to  prisons  that  John 
Howard  is  renowned.  As  a  young  man  of  large  fortune,  he  was 
making  a  voyage  to  Lisbon  in  1756,  in  order  to  view  the  effects 
of  the  great  earthquake,  when  he  was  taken  prisoner  by  a  French 
privateer.  That  which  he  saw  and  suffered  in  a  French  dungeon 
at  Brest  drew  his  attention  to  the  treatment  of  prisoners  in  British, 
Irish,  and  Continental  jails.  In  1773  he  became  high-sheriff  of 
Bedfordshire,  and  he  then  used  his  position  for  practical  ends  in 
behalf  of  prisoners.  After  a  series  of  tours  of  investigation,  he 
brought  some  of  the  results  of  his  inquiries  before  Parliament, 
and  two  Acts  were  passed,  one  for  the  payment  of  fixed  salaries 
to  jailers,  who  were  thereby  debarred  from  detaining  untried,  or 
even  acquitted,  prisoners  for  non-payment  of  arbitrary  fees;  the 
other  for  the  enforcement  of  cleanliness  in  jails,  with  the  object 
of  staying  the  outbreaks  of  the  fever  which  still,  when  it  was 
brought  by  "  lean  and  yellow  culprits",  as  in  Stuart  days,  from 
their  cells  to  the  dock,  "  sometimes  avenged  them  signally  on 
bench,  bar,  and  jury".  His  important  work,  The  State  of  Prisons, 
was  published  in  1777,  and  his  long  labours  led,  directly  or  in- 
directly, to  the  provision  of  healthy  cells,  the  separation  of  the 
sexes,  and  the  division  of  debtors  from  felons.  The  attention 


54  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

which  Howard  also  gave  to  the  condition  of  hospitals  led  him  to 
efforts  for  the  prevention  of  the  plague,  during  which  new  toils  he 
perished  from  typhus  fever  at  Kherson,  in  South  Russia,  in  1790. 
St.  George's  Hospital,  London,  followed  in  1733  the  founding  of 
the  noble  institution,  Guy's  Hospital,  in  1725;  the  London  and  the 
Middlesex  Hospitals  arose  in  1740  and  1745,  and  the  Small  Pox 
Hospital  in  1746. 

Jonas  Han  way,  a  kindly  and  eccentric  merchant,  traveller, 
and  navy  commissioner,  was  mainly  instrumental  in  founding 
the  Magdalen  Asylum  for  unhappy  women,  and  the  excellent 
Marine  Society  for  taking  distressed  boys  off  the  streets,  and 
training  them  for  service  on  merchant  ships  or  men-of-war.  A 
good  example  of  effort  to  promote  education  among  the  agri- 
cultural class  was  given  by  Hannah  More,  the  friend  of  Johnson, 
Reynolds,  and  Burke,  at  her  dwelling  on  Cowslip  Green,  near 
Bristol.  One  of  the  best  of  English  philanthropists  and  patriots, 
Robert  Raikes,  proprietor  of  the  Gloucester  Journal,  founded 
Sunday-schools  about  1781.  He  gathered  from  the  streets  of  his 
native  city  parties  of  degraded  boys  and  girls,  children  of  drunken 
and  neglectful  parents,  who  had  left  them  to  become  revolting,  in 
sight  and  sound,  to  the  people  passing  to  public  worship  on  Sunday. 
Some  women  were  paid  to  teach  these  waifs  and  strays  to  read, 
and  then  to  go  to  church  with  cleanly  persons.  Self-respect 
followed  the  growth  of  knowledge  and  decency,  and  outcasts 
became  honest  and  useful  citizens.  Thus  began  the  great  and 
good  work  which  has,  in  a  later  age,  placed  millions  of  children  in 
the  Sunday-schools  of  Great  Britain. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  some  men  devoted 
to  good  works,  began  the  efforts  which,  early  in  the  nineteenth, 
were  to  produce  the  abolition  of  the  British  trade  in  slaves.  The 
names  of  Thomas  Clarkson,  of  Zachary  Macaulay,  the  father  of 
the  historian,  and  of  William  Wilberforce,  will  be  found  also  in 
connection  with  later  toils  undertaken  for  the  completion  of  human 
freedom  within  the  limits  of  the  empire.  To  Granville  Sharp,  a 
scholar  and  writer  of  repute,  who  at  one  time  held  a  civil  post  in 
the  Ordnance  Office,  belongs  the  glory  of  obtaining,  at  great  cost 
of  money  and  exertion,  a  famous  legal  decision  concerning  slaves. 
It  was  he  who,  in  effect,  "freed  the  soil  of  his  native  land  from 
the  taint  and  the  possibility  of  slavery" :  he  established  the  pro- 


RELIGIOUS   AND   SOCIAL   AFFAIRS   IN   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.         55 

position  that  "slaves  cannot  live  in  England".  Sharp  asserted, 
before  the  lord  mayor,  in  1765,  the  freedom  of  a  maimed  negro 
slave,  named  Jonathan  Strong,  who  was  seized  in  the  city  of 
London  by  his  former  master,  Mr.  David  Lisle,  a  Barbadoes 
lawyer,  who  had  turned  out  the  man  into  the  streets  as  useless, 
after  reducing  him  to  that  condition  by  brutal  treatment.  The 
lord-mayor  discharged  the  negro  from  custody,  and  Lisle  then 
began  legal  proceedings  against  Sharp,  relying  upon  opinions 
stated  to  have  been  given  in  1729  by  the  attorney-general  and  the 
solicitor-general,  to  the  effect  that  a  slave  did  not  gain  his  freedom 
by  the  fact  of  coming  from  the  West  Indies  to  Great  Britain  or 
Ireland.  This  opinion  was  said  to  have  been  supported  by  Lord 
Chief- justice  Mansfield.  Sharp  then  spent  nearly  two  years  in  the 
study  of  the  laws  which  concerned  liberty  of  person  for  British 
citizens,  and  wrote,  for  private  circulation  amongst  lawyers,  a 
pamphlet  on  the  subject,  which  seems  to  have  deterred  Lisle  from 
proceeding  with  his  action. 

In  1770  the  great  case  of  James  Somerset  arose.  This  slave, 
brought  to  England  by  his  master,  Charles  Stewart,  in  1769,  had 
left  his  service.  He  was  then  seized  in  London,  and  taken  on 
board  a  vessel  for  conveyance  to  Jamaica,  to  be  sold  there  as  a 
slave.  Sharp  intervened,  and  the  matter  came  before  Lord 
Mansfield  and  three  other  judges  in  February,  1770.  Counsel 
for  Somerset  maintained  "  that  no  man  at  this  day  is  or  can  be 
a  slave  in  England".  The  case  was  postponed,  for  the  further 
consideration  of  issues  so  important,  and  in  May  the  question 
again  came  before  the  Court,  on  the  broad  ground  "whether  a 
slave,  by  coming  into  England,  becomes  free?".  On  June  22nd, 
Lord  Mansfield  delivered  the  unanimous  judgment  of  himself  and 
colleagues  that  "the  power  claimed  (of  seizing  and  detaining 
Somerset)  never  was  in  use  here,  or  acknowledged  by  the  law,  and 
therefore  the  man  must  be  discharged".  Thus  was  established  the 
principle,  as  laid  down  by  the  counsel  for  Somerset,  following  the 
judgment  given,  "  As  soon  as  any  slave  sets  his  foot  on  English 
ground,  he  becomes  free".  Granville  Sharp  aided  Clarkson  in 
founding,  in  1787,  the  Association  for  the  Abolition  of  Negro 
Slavery,  and  was  also  instrumental  in  establishing  the  colony  of 
Sierra  Leone  for  the  reception  of  freed  men. 

The    influence    of   the    Methodist   revival    was   felt,    towards 


56  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  the  Church  of  England 
which  had  practically  forced  the  Methodists  out  of  her  com- 
munion. The  "  Evangelical  party "  arose,  having  its  centre 
at  Cambridge,  and  including  some  men  of  distinguished  charac- 
ter and  position.  William  Romaine,  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
who  became  in  1764  rector  of  St.  Andrew  Wardrobe  and  St. 
Ann's,  Blackfriars,  was  a  great  and  shining  light  among  this 
energetic  party  until  his  death  in  1795.  John  Newton,  curate  of 
Olney,  and  the  friend  of  the  poet  Cowper,  became  rector  of  St. 
Mary  Woolnoth,  in  the  city  of  London,  in  1779,  and  was  the 
author  of  some  famous  hymns,  dear  to  the  religious  world  of  Eng- 
land. Cecil,  Zachary  Macaulay,  and  William  Wilberforce  were 
among  the  most  pious  and  active  members  of  the  Evangelical 
school,  whose  leader  was  Charles  Simeon,  a  fellow  of  King's 
College,  Cambridge,  and  incumbent  of  Trinity  Church  in  that  town 
for  more  than  fifty  years.  He  was  one  of  the  chief  founders  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  and  it  was  he  who  induced  Henry 
Martyn,.  of  St.  John's  College,  the  senior  wrangler  and  first  Smith's 
prizeman  of  1801,  to  sail  for  the  mission  work  in  the  East,  where 
he  was  to  find,  after  exhausting  toil  as  a  preacher,  and  as  a  trans- 
lator of  the  New  Testament  into  some  Oriental  tongues,  the 
early  grave  lamented  in  some  youthful  verse  from  Macaulay's  pen. 
Simeon  collected  funds  for  a  society  to  purchase  advowsons  in  the 
Church,  and  to  this  day  "  Simeon's  Trustees "  present  to  certain 
livings  clergymen  of  the  Evangelical  party.  Simeon  and  his 
followers  did  not  further  any  corporate  reforms  within  the  Church, 
or  seek  to  influence  it  as  a  national  institution.  Their  aim  was  to 
increase  individual  piety,  and,  above  all,  to  create  a  high  standard  of 
clerical  devotion  to  duty,  in  connection  with  the  holding  of  sound 
doctrine,  in  strict  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  of  the  primitive  church.  In  this  regard  much  useful 
work  was  achieved. 


INDUSTRY  AND   COMMERCE   IN    EARLY   TIMES. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

GROWTH  OF  INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE  PREVIOUS  TO  THE 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Early  industries— The  Danes  give  an  impulse  to  English  commerce — Foreign  workers 
settle  in  England — Craft-  and  merchant-guilds  organized — Efforts  of  Edward  I.  to 
establish  trade — Edward  III.  "the  father  of  English  commerce" — Manufacture  of 
cloths — "  Staple  towns"  established — Importance  of  fairs — Ravages  of  the  Black 
Death  cause  scarcity  of  labourers  and  rise  of  wages — Trading  by  merchant-adven- 
turers— Early  "mercantile  system" — Discoveries  of  new  lands  open  new  sources  of 
trade — Trinity  House  established — Commercial  policy  of  Elizabethan  statesmen — 
Extinction  of  trade  monopolies  —  Expansion  of  trade  under  James  I.  and  the 
Commonwealth— Banking  system  established— Progress  of  agriculture— Reclama- 
tion of  waste  lands — Industries  and  commerce  of  Scotland. 

Looking  at  the  whole  course  of  our  history  since  the  Norman 
Conquest,  we  find  that  the  commercial  supremacy  of  Great  Britain, 
to  which  she  largely  owes  her  foremost  position  amongst  the 
nations  of  the  world,  is  of  very  recent  date.  It  was  not  till  long 
after  Stuart  times  that  we  took  our  place  as  the  wealthiest  of 
existing  nations,  contributing  to  the  general  stock  of  civilization 
triumphs  of  enterprise  in  trade  and  manufactures,  and  a  marvellous 
industrial  success  among  the  peoples  of  the  world. 

Leaving  aside  for  the  moment  the  great  primitive  occupation, 
agriculture,  we  proceed  to  a  rapid  sketch  of  progress  prior  to  the 
eighteenth  century,  before  treating  of  the  advance  "  by  leaps  and 
bounds"  which  was  witnessed  soon  after  the  middle  of  that  momen- 
tous time. 

In  tracing  the  changes  due  to  the  application  of  foresight  and 
energy  in  industrial  affairs,  we  shall  see  a  succession  of  typical 
forms  of  organization,  due  to  the  diverse  needs  and  circumstances 
of  different  ages  in  history.  Britain  has  in  turns  been  distinguished 
among  the  countries  of  Europe  for  the  growing  of  corn,  the  pro- 
duction of  wool,  and  the  mining  of  coal  and  iron,  and  these  different 
phases  of  industry  were  brought  to  pass  not  merely  by  her  own 
wants,  but  by  her  commercial  dealings  and  connection  with  other 
lands.  Social  and  industrial  economy,  in  the  earlier  days  of  civil- 
ized life,  are  concerned  with  the  needs  and  subsistence  of  large 
households  and  of  village  communities.  Thence,  in  the  middle 
ages,  we  pass  to  the  organized  industry  of  towns,  and  again  to 
arrangements  for  trade  and  labour  which  have  in  view,  through  a 


58  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

regular  system  of  mercantile  development,  the  creation  and  main- 
tenance of  national  wealth  and  power. 

The  arts  of  our  early  English  sires,  apart  from  the  tilling  of 
the  soil,  showed  skill  in  the  making  of  weapons,  wheeled  vehicles, 
and  ships.  After  their  settlement  in  Britain,  and  the  rise  of  an 
England,  with  the  growth  of  kingly  power,  and  the  adoption  of 
the  Christian  faith,  we  have  industries  plied  by  monks  and  nuns 
in  their  religious  houses,  as  in  carpentry  and  weaving,  and  in  other 
forms  needful  for  communities  that,  with  the  almost  entire  absence 
of  trade,  must  supply  their  own  wants.  By  degrees,  we  come  to 
hawkers  or  travelling  dealers,  and  to  the  rise  of  rude  markets,  with 
warehouses  for  the  storage  of  food  against  the  day  of  sale.  Monks 
from  abroad  introduced  the  art  of  illumination  of  manuscripts,  the 
making  of  glass,  and  working  in  various  metals  for  ornament  and 
for  uses  before  unknown.  The  English  women  began  to  have 
higher  skill  in  weaving,  and  to  embroider  vestments  for  the 
service  of  the  church.  Under  Alfred  the  Great,  ship-building, 
which  had  long  declined,  was  revived  for  the  work  of  defence 
against  the  Danes.  English  merchants  had  begun  to  appear  at 
continental  marts,  and  Charles  the  Great  made  a  sort  of  commercial 
treaty  with  Offa,  King  of  Mercia.  The  trade  in  slaves  was  carried 
on,  against  the  denunciations  of  the  clergy,  Bristol  being  one  of 
the  chief  scenes  of  this  traffic  in  the  eleventh  century. 

The  coming  of  the  Danes  to  England  gave  an  impulse  to 
commerce,  and  wrought  with  abiding  effect  on  the  national  char- 
acter, in  reviving  the  decayed  spirit  of  maritime  enterprise.  The 
Norwegians  and  Danes,  at  the  time  when  their  race  so  largely 
settled  on  British  soil,  were  noted  for  commercial  energy  and  skill. 
By  way  of  the  Russian  rivers  and  the  Caspian  or  the  Black  Sea, 
an  export  trade  in  amber  was  carried  on  with  Oriental  lands,  in 
exchange  for  imported  gold,  spices,  jewels,  and  other  products. 
The  existence,  in  Swedish  museums  and  private  collections,  of  many 
thousands  of  ancient  Arabian  coins,  from  many  different  towns  of 
the  Caliphate,  is  an  interesting  proof  of  this  traffic,  which  the 
Crusades  were  to  divert,  in  a  large  measure,  to  the  southern  nations 
of  Europe.  Their  voyages  extended  to  Iceland  and  Greenland, 
and  the  former  country  was  quickly  colonized  by  settlers  from 
Norway.  The  English  now  began  to  trade  with  the  north  of 
Europe,  and  towns  on  tidal  and  other  rivers,  as  well  as  on  the 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EARLY   TIMES.  59 

coast,  grew  with  the  growth  of  internal,  foreign,  and  coasting 
traffic.  The  extended  use  of  money  removed  the  inconveniences 
of  mere  barter,  and  began  also  to  lessen  the  payment  of  rents  in 
kind.  Another  proof  of  progress  was  given  in  the  settlement  and 
use  of  units  of  length,  area,  distance,  capacity,  and  value,  and  in  the 
adoption  of  some  standards  of  measure  and  weight.  Tolls  for 
facilities  of  trade  were  charged,  and  laws  were  aimed  at  commercial 
crime. 

After  the  Norman  Conquest,  the  feudal  system  of  rule  dealt 
a  blow  at  private  enterprise  in  industry  and  trade.  Authority 
interfered  with  the  prices  of  home  products,  and  traders  were 
forced  to  pay  exorbitant  dues.  These  disadvantages  were  com- 
pensated by  the  closer  connection  established  between  England  and 
the  Continent,  and  the  Crusades  aroused  daring  and  adventurous 
spirits,  opened  new  sources  of  knowledge,  and  new  paths  for  com- 
merce. A  revival  of  trade  came  with  the  rise  of  new  foreign  cities, 
or  the  progress  of  ancient  towns  in  Germany,  Italy,  and  Flanders, 
and  the  burghs  of  Scotland  began  to  develop  prosperity  arising 
from  toil  and  traffic.  The  industries  of  England  received  some 
benefit  from  a  large  immigration  after  the  Conquest.  A  body  of 
Flemings  was  settled  in  South  Wales  by  Henry  the  First,  where 
they  pursued  their  craft  as  workers  in  wool.  Merchants  from 
Normandy  appeared  in  London,  and  the  art  of  building,  with  the 
substitution  of  stone  for  wood,  was  displayed  by  foreign  masons  in 
cathedrals,  abbeys,  castles,  and  other  edifices.  Weaving  appears 
to  have  become  at  this  time  a  regular  craft,  carried  on  by  foreign 
artisans,  who  were  not  admitted  to  the  municipal  privileges  of  the 
freemen  in  the  towns.  Trades  began  to  be  organized  in  craft- 
guilds,  with  royal  charters  to  secure  their  rights. 

The  extent  of  trade  between  Germany  and  England  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  appears  from  the  records  of  the 
time  which  mention  British  exports  of  meat  and  fish,  lead  and 
tin,  wool  and  jet,  and  fatted  cattle,  in  return  for  which  our  mer- 
chants received  the  silver  of  German  mines,  with  some  supplies 
of  corn  in  time  of  need.  The  Hansa,  or  Hanseatic  League,  com- 
posed of  cities  in  northern  Germany  and  adjacent  states,  becomes 
of  great  importance  in  the  trade  of  this  period.  Merchants  from 
Cologne,  with  special  privileges,  were  settled  in  London,  and  the 
wars  of  Edward  the  Third  were  supported  by  money  borrowed 


60  OUR   EMPIRE   AT    HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

from  the  wealthy  members  of  that  guild.  In  the  thirteenth  century, 
we  find  English  wool  worked  up  in  the  looms  of  Italian  towns. 
A  great  export  of  wine  to  our  shores  was  made  from  Gascony 
and  central  France.  The  monks  in  England  at  this  time  were 
large  producers  of  wool  on  the  abbey-lands,  and  their  wealth 
enabled  them  to  be  free  importers  of  wine  and  other  foreign 
luxuries. 

Before  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  industry  and  com- 
merce had  become,  in  various  ways,  well  arranged  for  the  wants 
of  the  time,  according  to  the  ideas  then  prevalent,  which  regarded 
local,  rather  than  national,  prosperity.  The  merchant-guilds  re- 
gulated the  internal  trade  of  towns,  with  regard  to  the  sale  and 
quality  of  goods,  the  recovery  of  debts,  and  the  management  of 
markets.  The  craft-guilds,  composed  of  artisans  in  different  kinds 
of  labour,  framed  and  enforced  rules  for  the  direction  of  their  own 
particular  business,  and  were  the  mediaeval  form  of  trades-unions. 
The  chief  aim,  however,  was  the  production  of  good  work,  not  the 
raising  of  the  price  of  labour.  The  members  were  not  to  labour  at 
night,  when  poor  artificial  light  might  mar  the  result  of  toil.  Bad 
work  was  punished,  and  every  effort  was  made  to  prevent  those 
who  were  not  members  of  the  craft  from  producing  goods  of  that 
class.  Youths  were  trained  in  the  handicraft  controlled  by  each 
of  these  corporations,  and  this  practice  gave  rise  to  the  apprentice 
system  of  later  days.  Financial  dealings  had  been  improved  in 
convenience  by  the  ingenuity  of  Jews,  and  we  find  that  letters 
of  credit  were  in  common  use,  and  that  bills  of  exchange  were 
known.  The  keeping  of  accounts  had  made  advances  and  had 
even  been  introduced  on  many  estates. 

It  was  Edward  the  First  that  began  to  organize  industrial 
and  commercial  transactions  upon  a  national  basis.  He  provided 
the  machinery  by  which  the  whole  subsequent  development  of 
British  industry  and  commerce  has  been  directed  and  controlled. 
He  organized  local  powers  and  interests  as  parts  of  one  body,  con- 
nected not  only  with  the  head,  but  with  all  the  other  members. 
General  legislation,  applicable  to  business  throughout  the  land, 
superseded  local  rules,  and  internal  trade  was  greatly  benefited 
by  the  establishment  of  uniform  law,  custom,  and  taxation. 
Edward  the  First  appointed  regular  custom-house  officers,  and 
in  seeking  sites  for  new  ports,  he  selected  the  ground  on  which 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EARLY   TIMES.  6 1 

we  now  see  Hull  and  Great  Yarmouth  as  places  to  found  free 
towns.  Under  his  guidance,  Parliament  provided  by  legislation 
for  the  security  of  merchants  travelling  by  land,  for  the  protection 
of  ships  from  wreckers,  for  the  recovery  of  debts,  and  for  the 
purity  of  current  coin.  Great  prosperity  existed  in  the  commercial 
towns  of  England  at  this  time,  and  the  arts  of  working  in  metal  and 
stone,  painting  on  glass,  and  embroidering,  were  cultivated  with 
much  success. 

Edward  the  Third,  who  is  usually  associated  in  the  minds  of 
modern  readers  of  history  only  with  warfare  and  ambitious  attempts 
at  continental  dominion,  has  been  also  called,  with  some  justice, 
the  father  of  English  commerce.  It  is  likely  that  in  his  French 
wars  he  was  not  moved  merely  by  personal  or  dynastic  ambition, 
but  was  chiefly  intent  on  the  increase  of  national  power,  and  on 
the  development  of  national  resources.  The  conquest  of  France 
would  have  secured  peaceful  and  steady  trade  between  the  two 
countries,  and  his  friendly  relations  with  Flanders  would  have 
made  her  a  third  member  of  a  commercial  union  likely  to  be  profit- 
able to  all  concerned.  It  is  certain  that  the  victor  of  Cre9y  did 
what  he  could  to  encourage  foreign  trade,  on  principles  which 
aimed  at  obtaining  a  high  price  for  English  exports,  and  rendering 
imports  cheap  to  the  English  consumer.  It  is  certain  also  that  he 
caused  a  development  of  English  textile  industry.  Married  to 
Philippa  of  Hainault,  he  was  regarded  with  a  friendly  eye  by  the 
people  of  the  Low  Countries,  whose  artisans  were  greatly  skilled  in 
weaving,  and  sent  the  products  of  their  looms  in  exchange  for  the 
raw  wool  shorn  from  the  backs  of  English  sheep.  The  weavers  of 
Ghent  and  Bruges  supplied  garments  to  clothe  the  dwellers  in  our 
damp  and  chilly  clime,  and  the  royal  revenue  was  'largely  derived 
from  the  export-tax  on  the  wool  which  was  sent  from  English 
ports.  Our  native  weavers  produced  only  the  coarser  woollens, 
with  some  fabrics  made  of  hemp  and  flax,  the  chief  seats  of  the 
trade  then  lying  in  Norfolk  and  Suffolk.  There  was  also  a  manu- 
facture of  cloth  in  Wiltshire  and  adjacent  parts  of  the  west.  The 
fine  cloths  worn  by  the  wealthy  were  imported  from  Flanders,  in 
linen  as  well  as  woollen  fabrics;  silks  and  velvets  came  hither  from 
Italy.  By  Edward's  encouragement  many  Flemish  artisans  came 
to  settle  in  England,  especially  at  Norwich,  then  the  chief  seat  of 
weaving  in  wool,  with  a  population  of  some  six  thousand  persons. 


62  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

The  export  of  English  wool  soon  declined,  in  consequence  of  the 
increase  of  home  manufacture.  Edward  also  confirmed  by  statute 
the  institution  of  "staple  towns",  where  alone,  in  each  district,  its 
chief  product  or  staple  could  be  sold.  Only  merchants  engaged  in  that 
particular  trade  could  export  its  special  goods.  The  staple  towns  for 
the  chief  English  commodity,  wool,  were  Newcastle,  York,  Lincoln, 
Norwich,  Westminster,  Canterbury,  Chichester,  Winchester,  Exe- 
ter, and  Bristol.  The  system  was  extended  to  the  Continent  by 
the  appointment  of  a  particular  foreign  town  for  the  sale  of  English 
produce.  At  various  times,  Antwerp,  St.  Omer,  and  Calais,  after 
its  capture  in  1347,  had  this  privilege.  The  "staple"  system  ren- 
dered easier  the  collection  of  custom  dues,  and  gave  importance  to 
merchants  as  a  rising  class  of  the  community. 

Much  of  the  business  of  that  time  was  transacted,  in  provincial 
towns,  at  weekly  or  bi-weekly  markets,  and  at  great  annual  fairs, 
which  increased  facilities  of  communication  have  long  reduced  from 
the  position  of  needs  to  nuisances,  and,  in  most  cases,  have  utterly 
abolished.  Leeds  had  a  wool  fair  for  the  sheep-owners  of  Lanca- 
shire and  Yorkshire,  and  the  place  was  then  a  great  resort  of 
English  and  foreign  merchants  from  the  ports  on  the  east  coast. 
On  St.  Giles'  Hill,  Winchester,  a  sixteen-days'  fair  was  yearly  held 
for  the  sale  of  all  kinds  of  goods.  Stourbridge  Fair,  near  Cam- 
bridge, was  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  kingdom,  lasting  for 
the  whole  of  September,  and  visited  by  the  traders  from  many 
parts  of  the  Continent,  who  disembarked  at  the  then  convenient 
harbours  of  Blakeney  and  Lynn.  The  merchants  of  Genoa  and 
Venice  came  to  this  great  mart,  which  was  still  flourishing  in  the 
days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  with  gems  and  spices,  velvets  and  silks. 
Flanders  sent  thither  the  fine  woollen  and  linen  cloths  of  Ghent, 
Liege,  and  Bruges.  Vintners  tasted  samples  of  French  and 
Spanish  wines:  ship-builders  bargained  for  the  pitch  and  tar  of  Nor- 
way. Amber  and  furs  for  the  use  of  the  wealthy  were  displayed 
by  merchants  of  the  great  Hanseatic  League,  with  copper  and  iron 
for  domestic  and  agricultural  purposes,  and  raw  flax  and  yarn  for 
the  making  of  linen.  The  English  dealers  took  to  Stourbridge 
their  great  sacks  of  wool  for  continental  looms,  with  horses,  corn, 
and  cattle,  and  barley  for  the  Flemings  to  brew  strong  ale.  The 
tin  of  Cornwall,  and  Derbyshire  lead,  could  there  be  seen,  and  the 
fair  was,  for  a  month,  a  busy  town,  with  its  long  lines  of  stalls, 


THE   HUMOURS   OF  STOURBRIDGE   FAIR   IN 
THE  OLDEN    TIMES. 

A  great  part  of  England's  business  was  transacted,  in  the  olden  times, 
at  large  annual  fairs.  One  of  these  was  held  at  Stourbridge,  near  Cam- 
bridge. It  lasted  the  whole  month  of  September,  being  visited  by  traders 
from  Genoa,  Venice,  Ghent,  Bruges,  and  the  great  towns  of  the  Hanseatic 
League.  Much  trafficking  was  done  in  gems,  spices,  cloth,  wines,  silks,  and 
other  such  commodities;  while  there  was  also  a  considerable  amount  of 
fun  and  merry-making  combined  with  the  serious  business.  It  was  a 
gathering  like  this  which  suggested  Vanity  Fair  to  the  author  of  The 
Pilgrim's  Progress. 

(3) 


W.   S.   STACEY. 

THE   HUMOURS  OF  STOURBRIDGE  FAIR  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIMES. 

Vol.  i.  p.  fe. 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EARLY   TIMES.  63 

named  either  from  the  class  of  goods  exposed  for  sale,  or  from  the 
nationalities  whose  tongues  were  heard  amidst  the  din  of  chaffering 
and  fun. 

Just  at  the  time  when  the  country  was  greatly  prospering  in 
trade  and  industry,  and  the  mass  of  the  people,  chiefly  given  to  the 
work  afforded  by  pasture  and  tillage,  were  even  then  enjoying 
higher  physical  comfort  than  their  fellows  in  continental  countries, 
a  great  economic  change  was  wrought  by  the  fearful  plague,  which 
broke  out  in  1348,  known  as  the  Black  Death.  It  seems  certain 
from  the  records  that  nearly  half  of  the  population  of  England, 
which  may  then  have  been  four  millions,  was  swept  away  in  this 
pestilence.  Labourers  became  very  scarce;  wages  rose  about  fifty 
per  cent,  and  legislation  strove  in  vain  to  find  a  remedy  for  the 
land-owners.  The  main  results  were,  a  great  increase  in  the  number 
of  petty  farmers,  the  rapid  extinction  of  villeinage  or  serfage,  and 
the  consequent  growth  of  the  class  of  free  labourers  on  the  soil. 
The  agricultural  population  were  seldom  in  better  case,  as  regards 
sufficient  wages  to  purchase  food,  than  during  the  fifteenth  century, 
in  spite  of  wars  at  home  and  abroad. 

The  growth  in  importance  of  the  trading  classes,  shown  in  the 
formation  of  the  great  City  Companies,  who  lent  large  sums  to 
kings,  and  in  the  splendid  style  of  living,  which  enabled  William 
Canynges  of  Bristol  to  give  fit  entertainment  to  Edward  the  Fourth, 
was  one  cause  of  the  trade-transition  to  modern  times,  which  has 
been  called  the  "  mercantile  system  ".  Restrictions  laid  upon  the 
dealings  of  foreign  merchants  in  England  secured  for  natives  the 
home  and  retail  trade.  In  the  fifteenth  century,  English  merchants 
began  to  aim  at  competition  with  foreign  shipping.  No  English 
vessel,  up  to  that  time,  entered  the  Mediterranean,  and  many  of  the 
products  of  the  East  and  of  southern  Europe  reached  our  shores 
on  board  the  vessels  of  the  great  annual  trading  squadron  from 
Venice,  which  brought  them  to  the  ports  on  the  English  Channel. 
New  companies  of  English  "merchant-adventurers"  began  to  be 
rivals  in  the  trade  of  the  Hanseatic  League,  and,  under  Henry  the 
Fifth,  large  ships  for  trading  purposes  were  built  at  Southampton, 
Bristol,  and  Hull.  Commercial  treaties  were  made  with  foreign 
sovereigns,  and  near  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  we  find  an 
Italian  appointed  English  consul  at  Pisa. 

The    protection    of   home    manufactures    was    sought,   under 


64  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

Edward  the  Fourth,  in  the  absolute  prohibition  of  import  for  many 
classes  of  finished  foreign  goods.  The  "  mercantile  system "  or 
"theory"  was  that  of  increasing  national  wealth  at  the  expense 
of  other  countries,  in  the  belief  that  prosperity  consists  in  posses- 
sing much  silver  and  gold,  by  excluding  foreign  manufactures,  and 
admitting  only  raw  material  to  be  worked  up  here  for  sale  abroad. 
This  policy,  lately  abandoned,  had  some  success  at  the  time  of  its 
adoption.  In  1463  the  English  farmers,  suffering  from  imported 
foreign  corn,  were  cheered  by  a  law  which  forbade  the  introduction 
of  the  produce  from  abroad  until  English  corn  had  passed  the  high 
price,  at  that  day,  of  six  shillings  and  eightpence,  or  half  a  mark, 
per  quarter.  In  manufactures,  the  chief  thing  to  be  noted  at  this 
time  is  the  great  development  in  the  making  of  cloth,  carried 
on  by  capitalists  who  employed  spinners  and  weavers  at  their  own 
cottages  in  the  country  or  tenements  in  towns.  Industrial  villages 
began  to  arise,  and  there  were  even  some  small  beginnings  of 
the  modern  factory  system. 

When  the  boundaries  of  the  world  were  widened  by  the  mari- 
time discoveries  of  Columbus,  Da  Gama,  Magalhaens,  and  other 
great  navigators,  near  and  after  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  trade  of  the  world  was  placed  upon  a  new  basis.  The  Medi- 
terranean ceased  to  be  the  great  centre  of  commerce.  The  traffic 
between  East  and  West  was  diverted  from  its  paths  through  Genoa, 
Venice,  and  Alexandria,  and  the  new  passage  round  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  made  Portugal,  for  a  time,  the  chief  trading  nation,  and 
Lisbon  the  great  commercial  town  of  western  Europe.  By  slow 
steps,  the  merchants  of  England  began  to  share  in  the  benefits  laid 
open  to  enterprise  in  the  enlarged  sphere  of  commercial  dealing. 
An  epoch  had  arrived  in  which  our  trading  class  was  to  enter  on 
the  course  which  ended  in  making  Great  Britain  the  chief  owner 
of  shipping,  and  London  and  Liverpool,  with  other  great  ports, 
the  storehouses  for  a  vast  distributing  commerce,  involving  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  The  physical  extension  of  their  bounds 
for  European  peoples,  the  throwing  down,  by  courage  and  skill, 
of  the  barriers  which  had  seemed  to  be  impassable  for  man,  placed 
the  British  Isles  in  the  centre  of  the  land-masses  of  the  globe, 
and  gave  to  the  inhabitants  a  new  geographical  relation  to  the 
rest  of  mankind. 

Prior  to  the  new  discoveries,  Britain  had  lain  almost  on  the 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN   EARLY   TIMES.  65 

north-western  edge  of  the  regions  known  to  civilized  man;  she 
was  now  to  become,  as  the  ages  rolled  away,  the  very  centre,  the 
beating  heart,  of  the  traffic  of  the  world.  Our  commercial  policy 
henceforth  considered  not  merely  the  prosperity  of  the  country 
by  herself,  but  her  position  relative  to  other  nations.  Superiority 
was  now  the  statesman's  aim,  and,  as  time  passed  on,  victorious 
repulse  of  formidable  foes  gave  thoughts  of  imperial  sway  to  the 
prouder  and  more  ambitious  spirits  of  the  coming  wielders  of  mari- 
time power.  In  the  days  of  Elizabeth  the  crisis  came.  The  com- 
mercial sceptre,  transferred  from  Bruges  to  Antwerp  at  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  had  passed  to  London  before  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth.  Protestant  refugees,  skilled  in  the  arts  of  industry  and 
trade,  fled  to  our  shores  from  the  cruelties  of  the  Inquisition  and  of 
Philip  the  Second's  viceroy,  Alva,  which  were  desolating  the  cities  of 
the  Netherlands.  Flemish  merchants  found  a  home  in  the  English 
capital,  where  Elizabeth's  friend  and  entertainer,  the  generous  and 
hospitable  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  had  reared,  on  the  model  of  the 
great  edifice  at  Antwerp,  the  resort  of  merchants  called  the  Royal 
Exchange.  The  defeat  and  ruin,  by  the  weapons  of  man  and  the 
winds  of  Heaven,  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  in  1588,  gave  England  a 
foremost  position  among  the  European  nations,  as  the  champion  of 
the  Protestant  peoples,  and  as  the  victor  over  the  power  then  held 
dominant  on  land  and  sea. 

From  that  time  forward  our  future  was  sure.  The  navy  created 
by  Henry  the  Eighth,  backed  by  the  adventurous  courage  and  skill 
of  Drake  and  Hawkins,  Frobisher  and  Raleigh,  shown  in  their 
exploits  as  privateers  and  buccaneers,  as  well  as  in  formal  battle 
against  Spanish  foes,  made  England,  for  the  first  time  since 
Alfred's  days,  a  nation  of  admitted  strength  upon  the  seas. 
Under  Tudor  sovereigns  new  companies  arose  for  the  extension 
of  trade.  The  Merchant  Adventurers,  a  society  formed  in  the 
days  of  Henry  the  Seventh,  was  followed  by  the  Turkey  Com- 
pany, for  trade  with  the  Levant,  by  the  Russian  Company,  in 
1554,  and  by  the  East  India  Company,  in  1600.  The  interests 
of  shipping  on  the  British  coasts  were  duly  regarded  when  Henry 
the  Eighth  established  the  corporation  still  known  as  the  Trinity 
House,  a  guild  whose  full  style  is  that  of  the  "Fraternity  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  at  Deptford ".  Beacons  and  sea-marks,  ballastage 
and  buoys,  and  the  general  safety  of  harbours  and  coasts  became, 

VOL.  I.  5 


66  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

under  Elizabeth's  charter,  the  special  care  of  the  incorporated 
Brethren.  Bristol  at  this  time  acquired  a  new  importance  from 
the  American  trade,  and  the  decline  of  the  Hanseatic  League 
threw  the  traffic  of  the  Baltic  and  northern  Europe  into  the  hands 
of  merchants  at  Boston  and  Hull. 

The  Elizabethan  age  was  the  time  when  the  mercantile  system, 
destined  to  last  for  more  than  two  centuries,  through  civil  struggles 
and  the  earlier  days  of  colonial  expansion,  was  fully  established  by 
careful  legislation.  This  national  regulation  of  industry  and  trade 
had  for  its  object  the  increase  of  national  power.  The  measures 
adopted  for  this  end  were  the  accumulation  of  treasure  by  means 
of  manufactures  and  commerce,  the  increase  of  shipping,  the  gather- 
ing of  naval  stores,  the  fostering  of  fisheries  as  a  nursery  of  trained 
and  hardy  seamen,  the  establishment  of  new  manufactures,  the 
protection  of  English  commerce  and  tillage  by  navigation  laws  and 
corn  laws.  A  new  Poor  Law  provided  for  the  support  of  the 
helpless  and  for  the  punishment  of  the  wilful  idler,  and  the  growth 
of  prosperity  secured  peace  at  home,  while  it  prepared  the  people 
to  encounter  enemies  abroad.  The  results  attained  were  commen- 
surate with  the  efforts  made. 

Passing  over  for  the  present  the  colonial  development  of  Stuart 
times,  we  may  point  to  the  fact  that  the  policy  inaugurated  by 
Elizabethan  statesmen  enabled  Great  Britain  to  outstrip  first  Por- 
tugal, then  Spain,  next  Holland,  and  lastly  France,  in  the  race 
for  commercial  supremacy.  When  we  turn  to  the  manufactures 
of  the  country  in  the  Tudor  period,  we  find  a  great  increase  in 
the  working  of  wool.  London  employed  some  thousands  of  per- 
sons in  the  making  of  woollen  caps,  and  many  other  towns 
were  engaged  in  the  trade.  The  worsted  trade,  with  Norwich 
for  its  centre,  was  extended  throughout  the  eastern  counties. 
The  broadcloths  of  the  west  of  England  now  became  famous, 
and  the  long  stagnant  north  awoke  to  new  industrial  life  in  the 
production  of  various  woollen  cloths  at  Halifax,  Manchester,  and 
York.  Artisans  from  Flanders  settled  at  Sandwich,  Colchester, 
Maidstone,  Lynn,  and  many  other  towns,  bringing  with  them  im- 
provements in  cloth-making  and  dyeing,  with  linen-weaving,  thread- 
making,  needle-making,  cutlery  work,  clock-making,  pottery,  the 
lace  manufacture  that  arose  in  Buckinghamshire  and  adjacent 
districts,  and  the  famous  lace  fabrics  then  founded  at  Honiton. 


INDUSTRY  AND   COMMERCE   IN    EARLY   TIMES.  67 

Before  the  middle  of  Elizabeth's  reign  Norwich  had  more  than 
four  thousand  Dutch  and  Flemish  inhabitants,  and  the  "  new 
drapery  ",  as  the  cloth  made  by  the  foreign  settlers  was  called,  was 
exported  very  largely  to  the  country  from  which  Spanish  cruelty 
and  folly  had  expelled  them.  The  extinction  of  many  of  the 
injurious  monopolies  in  1601  was  a  further  benefit  to  trade.  Bir- 
mingham, a  town  named  in  Domesday-book,  was  now  beginning 
to  be  known  for  hardware  in  the  form  of  knives,  cutting  tools  of 
all  kinds,  bits,  nails,  and  swords;  and  Sheffield,  famous  for  its 
arrow-heads  in  the  days  of  Cre9y  and  Poitiers,  had  now  the  rise 
of  its  renown  for  cutlery  in  the  skill  of  artisans  escaped  from  the 
Low  Countries.  The  tin  mines  of  Cornwall  were  still  at  work, 
as  they  had  been  for  so  many  hundreds  of  years,  and  a  valuable 
copper  mine  was  opened  in  Cumberland  in  early  Elizabethan  days. 
The  iron  trade  was  confined  to  Kent,  Surrey,  and  Sussex,  and 
loud  complaints  were  made  that  the  land  was  being  stripped  of  its 
forests,  the  wood  from  which  was  then  the  sole  material  used  by 
workers  in  smelting  the  ore.  The  rich  salt  deposits  of  Worcester- 
shire and  Cheshire  still  remained  unused,  and  our  forefathers,  for 
the  salting  of  winter  meat  and  other  uses,  employed  the  imports 
from  the  south-west  of  France,  or  the  salt  obtained  on  our  own 
coasts  by  evaporation.  The  use  of  brick  for  building  had  been 
revived,  after  the  disuse  of  about  a  thousand  years,  and  the  clays 
of  the  eastern  counties  and  of  the  valley  of  the  Thames  furnished 
building  material  for  London  and  the  neighbouring  districts.  The 
coal-mining  largely  practised  by  the  Romans  became  extinct  till 
Norman  days,  and  it  was  not  till  nearly  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century  that  Newcastle  coal  was  heard  of.  In  the  fifteenth,  the 
mining  of  coal  had  become  a  source  of  revenue,  but  the  want  of 
adequate  means  to  pump  water  from  the  pits  remained  a  great 
hindrance  till  the  time  of  steam,  and  the  total  output  was  small 
indeed,  compared  with  that  which  coming  ages  were  to  see. 

The  Stuart  age  witnessed  the  commercial  triumph  of  Britain 
over  the  energetic  little  state  whose  rise  was  the  chief  event  in 
northern  Europe  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century.  At  the  union 
of  the  Scottish  and  English  crowns,  Holland  was  the  foremost  com- 
mercial and  maritime  power.  Before  the  accession  of  her  Orange 
Prince  to  the  British  throne,  the  fisheries,  the  trade,  the  war-fleets  of 
this  country  were  at  least  on  a  level  with  those  of  her  sturdy  rival. 


68  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

Blake  made  Cromwell  master  of  the  seas,  and  only  for  a  short  time 
after  the  Restoration  was  this  position  imperilled  by  waste  and  mis- 
rule. In  the  reign  of  James  the  First,  English  merchants  had  become 
a  numerous,  wealthy,  and  powerful  class,  the  chief  purchasers  of  the 
title  of  "baronet"  invented  by  the  "  statecraft  "  of  that  needy  king. 
Our  trade  had  spread  to  all  the  ports  of  western  Europe  and  the 
Mediterranean,  of  the  Baltic  and  the  North  Seas.  British  fishermen 
were  catching  the  whales  of  Greenland  and  the  cod  of  Newfound- 
land. The  Navigation  Acts  of  the  Commonwealth  did  much  to 
destroy  the  carrying  trade  of  Holland.  Before  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  our  commerce  with  the  East  and  West  Indies 
had  vastly  grown.  The  skilled  artisans  driven  to  our  shores  from 
France  by  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  in  1685,  brought 
with  them  to  London  and  to  many  other  towns  improvements  in 
the  weaving  of  linen  and  silk,  in  the  making  of  clocks,  glass,  paper, 
surgical  instruments,  locks,  and  other  articles  of  prime  utility.  These 
Huguenot  refugees,  who  founded  many  famous  English  families— 
the  Trenches,  Romillys,  Martineaus,  Boileaus,  De  Crespignys, 
Layards,  and  Millais — numbered  many  thousands  of  souls,  and 
introduced  to  the  free  land  of  their  adoption  some  millions  of  capi- 
tal, with  abundant  political,  military,  and  literary  skill.  The  cloth 
manufacture  of  the  country  grew  apace  in  this  age.  The  counties 
of  Worcester,  Devon,  Hereford,  Wiltshire,  Somerset,  and  Glouces- 
ter in  the  west;  Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  and  Westmoreland,  with 
its  famous  "  Kendal-green  "  cloth,  in  the  north;  the  old  seats  of 
the  trade,  Suffolk,  Norfolk,  and  Essex  in  the  east,  had  weaving 
industries  whose  total  product,  by  1 700,  was  valued  at  about  seven 
millions  of  pounds.  The  export  trade  of  Newcastle  now  brought 
a  crowd  of  colliers  from  the  Tyne  to  the  Thames,  where  their 
freights  were  being  used,  not  only  for  the  workshops,  but  for  house- 
hold fires,  and  people  were  complaining  of  the  "  sea-coal  smoke", 
which  in  Victorian  days,  mingled  with  fog,  has  become  such  a  curse 
to  the  citizens  of  London  and  all  great  towns. 

Along  with  this  material  development  of  the  national  resources, 
the  financial  methods  and  machinery  of  commerce  were  improved. 
We  now  have  the  establishment  of  a  banking  system,  with  the 
issue  of  notes,  and  this  was  followed,  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  by  the  reform  of  the  coinage  and  the  foundation  of  the 
Bank  of  England.  The  same  "  mercantile  system  "  was  continued 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN   EARLY   TIMES.  69 

in  restrictions  on  the  import  of  manufactured  goods,  and  on  the 
exportation  of  native  raw  material,  such  as  wool  and  hides  and 
fuller's  earth.  The  encouragement  of  the  woollen  manufacture  was 
attempted  in  an  Act  of  1666,  which  enjoined,  under  heavy  penalties, 
the  burial  of  bodies  wrapped  in  woollen  only,  instead  of  in  linen 
shrouds,  which  latter  use  tended  to  increase  the  importation  of 
foreign  goods.  The  amassment  of  treasure  within  the  country 
had  been  sought  in  the  past  by  laws  forbidding  the  export  of 
bullion,  but,  under  Charles  the  Second,  full  liberty  was  given  to 
traders  to  take  and  send  abroad  foreign  coin  and  precious  metals 
in  other  forms,  and  the  attention  of  legislators  on  commercial  affairs 
was  turned  to  the  doctrine  of  the  "balance  of  trade",  which  aimed 
at  preventing  imports  of  foreign  merchandise  from  surpassing  in 
value  the  exports  of  native  goods. 

The  earliest  agriculture  and  pasturing,  after  the  English  Con- 
quest, was  by  a  partner  system  under  which  the  oxen  of  several 
men  were  employed  together  at  the  plough,  while  the  cattle 
were  fed  on  land  held  in  common,  and  the  same  herd  tended, 
on  the  grass  or  amid  the  woods  of  oak  and  beech,  the  swine 
and  sheep  of  divers  owners.  The  arable  land  was  managed  on 
the  three-field  system  of  one  portion  being  under  wheat  or  rye 
for  a  first  crop  after  fallow,  another  sown  with  barley  or  oats,  and 
the  third  lying  fallow  for  a  year,  till  its  turn  came  round  for  rye  or 
wheat.  The  monks  did  much  in  the  draining  of  fen-lands,  and  in 
improving  the  art  of  cultivating  the  soil. 

In  Plantagenet  times,  as  villeinage  became  extinct,  the  better 
sort  of  serfs  were  turned  into  small  tenant-farmers,  and  the  poorer 
kind  were  labourers,  living  mainly  on  wages  for  tilling  the  land  held 
by  others.  At  this  period,  with  its  rude  methods  of  tillage,  a  corn- 
crop  of  eight  bushels,  or  one  quarter  to  the  acre,  was  reckoned  a 
very  good  return.  Sheep  were  largely  kept  for  their  wool,  and 
oxen  were  used  for  drawing  the  plough  and  wheeled  carts,  but  the 
lack  of  winter  food  prevented  the  fatting  of  much  stock  for  the 
table.  There  were  plenty  of  swine,  whose  meat  was  salted  for 
winter  use.  Much  care  was  given  to  improving  the  breeds  of 
sheep,  for  the  value  of  the  fleeces,  but  the  finest  animals  of  that 
day  would  be  diminutive  specimens  to  modern  eyes.  The  lessening 
of  the  supply  of  labour  through  the  great  plague  of  the  fourteenth 
century  caused  a  vast  increase  of  permanent  pasture,  and  in  Tudor 


70  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

days  the  inclosures  of  land  for  the  spread  of  sheep-farming  caused 
the  rising  known  as  Ket's  rebellion. 

The  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  by  Henry  the  Eighth  de- 
prived the  religious  bodies,  who  had  been,  in  general,  excellent 
and  kindly  landlords,  of  all  their  estates,  and  their  transfer  into 
the  possession  of  the  new  class  of  nobles  caused  a  rise  of  rents 
which  ruined  many  of  the  poorer  tenants,  and  led  to  much  pauper- 
ism. The  confiscation  of  guild-lands  by  Protector  Somerset,  under 
Edward  the  Sixth,  had  a  like  effect  upon  the  agricultural  labourers, 
and  caused  the  insurrections  of  1549.  In  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  progress  made  in  farming  included  the  use  of  greater  capital, 
with  better  breeds  of  horses  and  horned  cattle,  and  wiser 
methods  of  manuring  the  land.  The  growth  of  corn  per  acre 
was  doubled,  and  new  objects  of  tillage  were  introduced  by  the 
Dutch  and  Flemish  immigrants.  The  gardens,  fields,  and  or- 
chards began  to  supply  wholesome  and  agreeable  food  in  cherries, 
currants,  apricots,  better  kinds  of  apples,  celery,  cabbages,  carrots, 
and  other  vegetables.  The  hop-gardens  of  Kent  and  Surrey 
were  seen  to  bloom  in  beauty,  and  beer  became  a  national  home- 
made beverage,  making  our  Tudor  forefathers  independent  of  the 
Netherlands  and  Germany  for  the  foaming  ale  which  then  held 
the  place  of  coffee,  tea,  and  cocoa  at  the  morning  meal.  Before 
the  close  of  that  epoch,  England  had  so  far  recovered  her  position 
as  a  corn-growing  country,  that  Bacon,  writing  in  1592,  describes 
her  as  "  feeding  other  countries "  instead  of  being  fed  by  them. 
Books  upon  husbandry  began  to  appear.  Sir  A.  Fitzherbert,  in 
1534,  with  a  farming  experience  of  forty  years,  published  maxims 
for  the  tillers  of  his  day.  Thomas  Tusser,  in  1573,  issued  his 
famous  Five  Hundreth  Points  of  Good  Husbandry  in  rhyming  verse. 

Under  the  Stuarts,  some  roots,  hitherto  confined  to  the  gardens, 
were  grown  in  fields  as  a  crop  after  corn,  instead  of  the  land  being 
left  fallow.  The  great  area  of  fen-lands  around  the  Wash,  which 
had  been  useful  ground  in  Roman  times,  but  had  relapsed  into  marsh 
at  the  Norman  Conquest,  was  now  taken  in  hand.  In  1634,  the 
Earl  of  Bedford  spent  three  years  in  attempts  to  reclaim  by  drain- 
ing the-  great  district  afterwards  named  the  Bedford  Level:  the 
work  was  only  completed,  by  his  successor  in  the  title,  in  1688,  and 
in  the  end  about  three-quarters  of  a  million  of  acres  became  good 
pasture-land,  or  corn-land  of  the  best  quality.  The  scheme  em- 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EARLY   TIMES.  71 

ployed  was  one  devised  by  an  ingenious  Dutchman,  Vermuiden, 
who  cut  new  channels  of  a  spacious  size  to  receive  some  of  the 
sluggish  waters  of  the  Nene  and  Welland,  Cam  and  Ouse,  and 
other  streams,  and  so  created  a  current  sufficient  to  clear  the  river- 
mouths  of  soil.  The  same  engineer  drained  Hatfield  Chase,  in 
the  south-east  of  Yorkshire,  and  relieved  the  country  from  the 
floodings  of  the  Don. 

It  is  not  needful  to  say  much  concerning  the  industries  and 
commerce  of  Scotland  prior  to  the  Act  of  Union.  The  qualities 
inherent  in  the  Scottish  people  were  such  as  all  the  world  now 
recognizes,  and  have  mainly  contributed  to  the  wonderful  advances 
made  by  that  country  in  almost  every  department  of  material  and 
mental  civilization.  Prior  to  the  eighteenth  century,  it  appears 
that  trade,  manufactures,  and  tillage  were  not  in  a  forward  state. 
The  land  had  been  much  hampered  by  civil  and  religious  troubles. 
The  handicrafts  were  of  a  rude  and  homely  kind,  the  chief  manu- 
facture being  in  linen.  The  fisheries  enabled  the  people  to  export, 
as  now,  large  quantities  of  salmon  and  herrings,  and  Scottish  beef, 
now  of  superlative  merit,  was  known  to  English  markets  in  Stuart 
times,  by  way  of  peaceful  trade,  after  the  cessation  of  the  border 
forays  conducted  by  the  cattle-lifters  of  both  countries.  In  1649  we 
find  Parliament  dealing  with  the  importation  of  the  material  made 
at  Scottish  salt-pans,  on  complaint  of  the  English  makers  that  "their 
salt  could  not  keep  market "  with  that  produced  by  their  rivals. 
The  impetus  to  progress  came  when  the  statute  which  effected  the 
parliamentary  union  swept  away  trade  restrictions  on  the  energies 
of  the  Scottish  people.  The  industrial  affairs  of  Ireland  have  been 
already  dealt  with  in  her  history  prior  to  1801. 


72  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

INDUSTRY  AND  COMMERCE  DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Restrictions  on  trade  disappearing — Adam  Smith's  teachings  on  political  economy — 
Government  bounties — Lighthouses  and  marine  assurance  companies  established — 
Story  of  the  first  silk  mill  in  England — Woollen  and  cotton  manufactures — Inven- 
tions of  John  Kay,  Hargreaves,  Arkwright,  Lees,  and  Crompton — Cartwright's 
power-loom — Wedgwood's  improvements  in  pottery — James  Watt  and  the  steam- 
engine — Improvements  in  the  arts  of  bleaching  and  calico-printing — The  linen, 
paper,  and  glass  manufactures — Vast  development  of  the  coal  and  iron  trades — 
Effects  on  the  distribution  of  the  population — Progress  in  agriculture — Improve- 
ments in  breeds  of  stock — Board  of  Agriculture  and  agricultural  societies  estab- 
lished— Improvements  in  the  means  of  internal  communication — Construction  of 
canals — Building  of  bridges — The  post-office  system — Comparative  statistics  at 
close  of  the  century. 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century  the  principles  and  practice 
of  the  "mercantile  system"  were  maintained,  with  the  old  object  of 
regulating  trade,  now  in  rivalry  with  France,  as  a  means  of  increas- 
ing national  power.  It  was  for  this  that  the  cattle-trade  and  manu- 
factures of  Ireland — then  treated  as  a  merely  conquered  and  foreign 
country — were  hampered  and  nearly  ruined  by  hostile  restrictions, 
and  by  the  policy  of  exclusion  from  any  share  in  British  profits;  it 
was  for  this  that  the  colonies  in  North  America  were  subjected  to 
enactments  of  similar  purport,  if  not  of  equally  crushing  force. 

As  the  century  advanced,  the  "  landed  interest"  began  to  be 
overweighted  by  the  growing  mercantile  and  manufacturing  classes. 
Under  Walpole's  fiscal  rule  many  beneficial  changes  were  made. 
He  aimed  at  freedom  for  British  exports  of  manufactured  goods, 
and  at  ease  of  import  for  the  raw  materials  of  which  they  were 
made.  The  export  duties  on  home-made  goods  were  almost  swept 
away.  The  duty  on  raw  silk  and  on  about  forty  other  imports  was 
removed  or  lightened,  and  the  manufacturing  towns  and  the  sea- 
ports, Birmingham  and  Manchester,  Liverpool  and  Bristol,  grew 
fast  in  population  and  wealth.  By  the  middle  of  the  century,  the 
value  of  exported  goods,  which  had  been  about  six  millions  in 
1701,  had  risen  to  twelve  millions.  Wise  changes  in  the  mode  of 
collecting  the  customs  deprived  the  smugglers  and  other  fraudulent 
dealers  of  a  great  part  of  the  profits  which  had  previously  been 
so  detrimental  to  the  revenue. 

The  industrial  system  of  Elizabethan  days  was  now  about  to 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  73 

break  down  under  the  changes  wrought  by  the  use  of  new  machinery 
in  manufactures.  The  science  of  Political  Economy,  whose  prophet 
was  Adam  Smith,  now  arose  to  deal  with  new  industrial  conditions, 
and  to  establish  the  principle  of  "natural  liberty"  for  the  workings 
of  handicrafts  and  commerce.  This  great  man,  born  in  1723,  of 
middle-class  parentage,  at  Kirkcaldy,  was  educated  at  the  univer- 
sities of  Glasgow  and  Oxford,  became  the  close  friend  of  David 
Hume,  occupied  the  chair  of  moral  philosophy  at  Glasgow  in  1752, 
won  wide  fame  in  1759,  by  his  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments,  and 
died,  in  1790,  lord-rector  of  his  "nursing  mother"  in  the  liberal  arts, 
the  seat  of  learning  founded  in  1449,  under  the  auspices  of  Pope 
Nicholas  the  Fifth.  It  is  significant  and  remarkable  that  the 
renowned  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes  of  the  Wealth  of 
Nations  was  published  in  1776,  the  year  when  Watt,  another 
distinguished  Scot,  produced  the  first  effective  steam-engine. 
The  new  method  of  dealing  with  the  results  of  toil  was  thus 
simultaneous  with  the  new  machine  for  making  labour  easy  and 
swift,  and  the  two  combined  were  to  work  a  revolution  in  the 
industrial  world.  Adam  Smith  was  the  outcome  and  the  highest 
product  of  a  new  school  of  economical  thought.  John  Locke, 
William  Petty,  Joshua  Child,  and  Dudley  North,  in  England; 
and  the  illustrious  Turgot,  in  France,  had  been  striving  towards 
freedom  from  "regulated"  and  restricted  trade.  The  world  was 
to  be  now  taught  that  the  increase  of  personal  wealth,  by  allow- 
ing to  the  individual  a  free  use  of  his  particular  abilities  and 
energy,  was  the  sure,  straight  road  to  the  growth  of  national 
wealth;  and  that  the  growth  of  national  wealth  must  not  be  sought 
in  efforts  to  depress  the  industries  of  foreign  nations,  but  in  a 
system  which  seeks  to  work  good  for  each  in  the  benefit  of  all. 
In  this  we  are  somewhat  anticipating  the  course  of  events. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  the  century,  Parliament  sought  the  good 
of  the  British  ship-builders  in  bounties  given  for  the  export,  from 
the  American  colonies  to  England,  of  masts  and  spars,  turpentine 
and  hemp,  pitch  and  tar;  a  trade  which  would  tend  to  make  this 
country  less  dependent  on  the  Swedish  monopoly  in  materials  , 
for  the  construction  and  outfit  of  a  mercantile  marine.  Bounties 
were  also  awarded  to  those  who  built  stout  ships  of  about  five 
hundred  tons  burthen  or  upwards,  suitable  for  arming  in  self- 
defence  against  hostile  cruisers  or  privateers.  The  authorities 


74  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

of  the  Trinity  House  adopted  measures  to  improve  the  safety 
of  the  coasts.  New  lighthouses,  as  that  at  the  Eddystone  in 
1709,  followed  by  Smeaton's  grand  stone  building  in  1755,  were 
erected  at  various  points.  Landmarks,  buoys,  and  floating  lights 
gave  further  help  to  navigators,  and  many  Acts  were  passed  for 
the  improvement  of  harbours  on  the  English  and  Scottish  coasts. 
Imperfect  charts  were  remedied  by  more  careful  and  complete 
surveys,  and  a  mechanical  genius  of  Yorkshire,  John  Harrison, 
received,  in  1767,  a  reward  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  from  the 
government,  for  the  construction,  on  the  principle  of  the  compen- 
sating balance,  of  a  chronometer  which  enabled  mariners  to  deter- 
mine, with  near  approach  to  accuracy,  the  longitude  of  their 
vessels  at  sea.  Under  George  the  First,  two  Assurance  Companies, 
still  flourishing,  began  the  business  of  securing  owners  against 
losses  by  sea;  and  in  1779,  Lloyd's  system  of  marine  insurance 
was  fully  established  among  the  underwriters  who  met  at  the 
Coffee-house  in  the  Royal  Exchange.  The  Lloyd's  List,  or  ship 
news,  had  then  been  published  for  more  than  fifty  years. 

In  the  development  of  industries  during  the  earlier  half  of  the 
century  under  review  may  be  noted  the  extension,  after  the  Union, 
of  the  Scottish  linen  manufacture,  the  growth  of  copper-mining  in 
Devonshire  and  Cornwall,  and  the  increased  consumption  of  coal 
from  Newcastle.  The  cotton  manufacture,  dependent  on  material 
obtained  from  Cyprus  and  Smyrna,  is  certainly  known  as  estab- 
lished, in  some  shape,  in  1641;  it  was  just  becoming  a  dangerous 
rival  for  the  makers  of  linen  when  the  new  machinery  came  to 
effect  an  enormous  change  in  the  manufacturing  system.  Do- 
mestic work  was  to  give  place  to  the  labours  of  the  factory  or 
mill,  and  the  small  capitalists  were  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the 
swelling  waves  of  industrial  advance  created  by  new  iron-masters, 
"  cotton-lords",  and  other  producers  of  goods  on  a  huge  and 
systematic  scale.  The  makers  of  articles  for  wear  and  other  use 
had  hitherto  either  worked  at  home,  at  looms  or  forges  in  or 
adjacent  to  their  dwellings,  or  in  small  workshops  at  the  abodes 
of  masters  who  were  often  also  engaged  in  tillage.  There  were, 
indeed,  factories  or  "mills"  to  be  seen,  where  more  than  a  hundred 
"hands"  were  employed,  but  this  was  not  the  usual  method.  The 
work  was  largely  put  out  by  masters  to  be  done  by  the  operatives 
at  their  own  homes,  and,  in  place  of  large  towns,  shrouded  in 


INDUSTRY  AND   COMMERCE   IN   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  75 

smoke,  with  people  crowded  in  close  narrow  streets  and  courts, 
there  were  countless  small  industrial  villages,  where  the  artisan 
and  family  combined  the  cultivation  of  a  plot  of  ground,  and  the 
tending  of  fowls  and  pigs,  or  even  of  a  cow,  with  the  labours  of 
spinning  and  weaving,  fulling  and  dyeing,  hammering  iron  and 
making  tools. 

The  earliest  of  the  modern  English  factories  or  mills  was  the 
establishment  for  the  working  of  silk,  erected  at  Derby  in  1718,  by 
the  brothers  John,  William,  and  Thomas  Lombe.  Here,  for  the 
first  time,  motive  power  was  supplied  from  outside  for  work  per- 
formed by  machinery  instead  of  by  human  hands.  The  English 
dealers  in  silk  thread  had  long  been  undersold  by  imports  smuggled 
in  from  Italy  and  France.  Rumours  came  that  the  abnormal 
cheapness  of  the  foreign  product  was  due  to  the  use  of  improved 
machinery,  driven  by  other  power  than  that  of  human  muscles. 
The  youngest  of  the  three  brothers,  John  Lombe,  had  some  know- 
ledge of  machinery,  and  he  went  out  to  Leghorn  in  order  to  strive 
to  penetrate  the  secret,  which  was  guarded  with  the  utmost  care, 
under  the  severest  penalties  for  disclosure.  By  the  aid  of  a  priest, 
who  was  confessor  to  the  owner  of  the  Italian  works,  Lombe  obtained 
employment  in  the  mill,  and  was  allowed,  as  a  poor  young  man 
whose  character  was  vouched  for  by  the  priest,  to  sleep  on  the 
premises.  By  the  help  of  a  dark  lantern,  instruments,  and  paper, 
drawings  were  made,  in  the  depth  of  night,  of  different  parts  of 
the  machinery,  and,  again  by  the  assistance  of  the  priest,  were 
sent  over  to  England  in  bales  of  silk.  The  youthful  traitor  made 
his  escape,  and  a  large  mill,  with  machines  driven  by  a  great  water- 
wheel,  was  erected  on  the  banks  of  the  Derwent.  One  of  the 
brothers,  Sir  Thomas  Lombe,  took  out  a  patent  for  fourteen  years, 
and  received,  on  its  expiration  in  1732,  a  large  sum  of  money  from 
the  treasury  for  the  service  rendered  to  the  nation.  Other  mills 
were  soon  erected  in  or  near  Derby,  at  Stockport  and  Congleton 
in  Cheshire,  and  at  other  towns. 

Soon  after  the  middle  of  the  century  a  burst  of  inventive  power 
came  upon  the  industrial  world  of  Great  Britain.  About  1 760  the 
"flying-shuttle"  was  applied  to  quicken  the  weaving  of  woollen 
and  cotton  goods.  This  invention  was  due  to  John  Kay,  a  native 
of  Bury  in  Lancashire.  At  his  father's  mill  in  Colchester  he  first 
devised  improvements  in  the  reeds  for  looms,  by  the  use  of 


76  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

polished  blades  of  metal  instead  of  cane,  and  then  contrived  an 
arrangement  for  throwing  the  shuttle  with  more  rapidity  and 
greater  force,  which  enabled  the  weaver  to  double  his  daily  pro- 
duction of  cloth.  The  great  names  of  this  inventive  period  in 
British  history  are  those  of  Hargreaves,  Arkwright,  Crompton, 
Wedgwood,  Cartwright,  and  Watt.  James  Hargreaves,  an  illiter- 
ate and  humble  weaver,  born  about  1720  near  Blackburn,  in 
Lancashire,  was  also  a  carpenter  who  did  some  work  in  constructing 
a  carding-machine  for  Mr.  Robert  Peel,  the  grandfather  of  the 
great  statesman.  Hargreaves  was  often  at  a  loss  for  yarn,  which 
his  wife  and  children  could  not  spin  fast  enough  to  keep  his  loom 
employed.  An  accident  observed  by  his  watchful  eye  suggested 
the  invention  of  the  "spinning-jenny",  whereby  eight  threads  were 
spun  at  once  instead  of  a  single  one.  A  patent  was  taken  out 
in  1770,  and  the  number  of  threads  spun  at  one  operation  was 
greatly  increased. 

The  claims  of  Richard  Arkwright,  born  at  Preston  in  1732, 
and  in  1750  working  as  a  barber  at  Bolton,  have  been  the  subject 
of  much  controversy.  The  invention  of  the  famous  "spinning- 
frame"  for  cotton,  in  which  an  arrangement  of  rollers  drew  out 
the  threads  to  needful  fineness,  has  been  ascribed  to  a  friend  of 
Ark wright's,  named  Thomas  Hayes  or  Highs.  Arkwright,  it  is 
admitted,  was  at  any  rate  the  man  who  perfected,  developed,  and 
applied  the  machine.  Driven  from  Preston  by  the  rage  of  the 
spinners  against  his  new  process,  he  met,  at  Nottingham,  Mr. 
Jedediah  Strutt  of  Derby,  who  had  greatly  helped  the  rising  trade 
in  hosiery  by  the  application  of  improvements  in  the  stocking- 
loom.  In  1771  a  large  mill,  with  water-power,  was  set  up  by 
Strutt  and  Arkwright  at  Cromford  in  Derbyshire,  and  Arkwright's 
skill  and  energy  in  organization  made  him  one  of  the  chief  founders 
of  the  factory  system.  In  legal  contests  against  those  who  infringed 
his  various  patents  Arkwright  was  victorious  over  some  of  his 
opponents,  became  high-sheriff  of  Derbyshire,  was  knighted  by 
George  the  Third,  and  died  in  1792,  the  possessor  of  a  vast  for- 
tune. The  carding-machine,  for  straightening  the  fibres  of  raw 
material,  before  it  can  be  spun  into  thread,  was  due  to  John  Lees 
of  Manchester  in  1772,  and  it  was  perfected  by  Arkwright  in  the 
following  year. 

Samuel  Crompton,  one  of  the  great  benefactors  of  his  kind, 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  77 

ranks,  so  far  as  pecuniary  results  for  himself  were  concerned, 
among  the  martyrs  of  the  history  of  invention.  Born  near  Bol- 
ton  in  1753,  son  of  a  man  who  laboured,  like  many  others  in  that 
age,  both  with  the  loom  and  with  the  plough,  Crompton  set  himself 
to  devise  a  machine  for  producing  better  thread  than  that  of 
Hargreaves.  In  1779,  after  five  years'  labour,  he  perfected  the 
famous  spinning-mule,  which  derived  its  name  from  the  fact  of 
being  a  hybrid  compound  of  the  inventions  of  both  Hargreaves 
and  Arkwright.  This  most  ingenious  and  valuable  invention  did 
the  work  of  the  spinning-frame  and  the  spinning-jenny  in  succes- 
sive operations,  and  gave  so  mighty  an  impulse  to  production 
that,  in  little  more  than  thirty  years,  nearly  five  millions  of  spindles 
were  being  worked  by  "mules"  in  the  British  mills.  The  hapless 
inventor  was  too  poor  to  obtain  a  patent,  and  his  lack  of  worldly 
wisdom  and  self-assertion  led  to  his  being  cheated  of  the  secret, 
for  a  paltry  sum,  by  a  manufacturer  at  Bolton.  The  nation  was 
enriched  by  many  millions  of  pounds,  but  the  paltry  sum  of  five 
thousand  was  all  that  could  be  wrung  out  of  the  government, 
and  this  was  not  obtained  till  1812.  Crompton  failed  in  the 
business  started  with  this  modest  capital,  and  died,  a  poor  man, 
in  1827. 

We  come  next  to  the  application  of  inventive  power  to  the 
process  of  weaving,  which  the  machines  just  described,  used 
for  making  yarn,  left  in  its  former  rude  and  slow  condition. 
Edmund  Cartwright,  born  in  1743  at  Marnham,  in  Nottingham- 
shire, was  educated  at  Oxford,  and  in  1779  became  the  rector 
of  Goadby  Marwood,  near  Melton  Mowbray.  It  was  a  visit 
to  Arkwright's  Derbyshire  mills  that  turned  the  parson's  thoughts 
towards  weaving,  and  in  1785  he  invented,  in  a  rude  form,  the 
power-loom  which  was  to  revolutionize  the  weaving  trade.  The 
enraged  hand-weavers  burnt  down  a  mill  at  Manchester  contain- 
ing the  new  machines,  and  it  was  only  in  the  present  century, 
after  the  adoption  of  many  improvements,  that  the  swift-working 
loom  was  generally  used.  The  inventor  of  the  principle  justly 
received  a  grant  of  ten  thousand  pounds. 

To  Josiah  Wedgwood,  far  beyond  all  others,  Britain  owes  her 
high  position  in  the  fictile  trade.  He  found  it  a  rude  industry;  he 
left  it  a  great  and  flourishing  business,  producing  objects  of  high 
art,  things  of  combined  beauty  and  utility.  Holland,  with  her 


78  OUR  EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

ware  of  Delft,  and  France,  the  native  land  of  Bernard  Palissy,  had 
hitherto  been  productive  of  the  best  pottery.  Some  coarse  goods 
had  long  been  made  in  Staffordshire.  German  artisans  had  fur- 
nished fine  porcelain,  first  at  Chelsea,  then  at  Derby,  while  some 
improved  pottery  had  begun  to  appear  at  Burslem,  in  Staffordshire. 
This  hamlet,  as  it  then  was,  gave  birth,  in  1730,  to  Wedgwood. 
His  family  had  long  been  engaged,  with  some  success,  in  the 
trade,  and  the  young  Josiah,  as  an  excellent  "thrower"  or  worker 
at  the  potter's  wheel,  for  some  years  worked  at  his  father's  business. 
A  weakness  of  the  right  knee  broke  off  this  toil,  and  Wedgwood 
turned  his  efforts  towards  artistic  improvement  in  the  objects  made. 
In  1759  he  had  a  small  factory  at  Burslem,  and  made  many  ex- 
periments, ending  in  improvement  of  both  white  stoneware  and 
the  cream-coloured  ware.  The  colour,  the  lightness  of  weight,  the 
form,  glaze,  and  decoration,  were  beyond  all  previous  make  in 
Europe.  The  Wedgwood- ware  soon  had  a  wide  renown  for  its 
hardness  and  durability,  and  its  power  of  receiving  the  most  delicate 
and  brilliant  hues  produced  by  fused  metallic  oxides  and  ochres. 
His  admirable  works  caused  the  development  of  the  Staffordshire 
handicraft  into  the  vast  industry  which  has  bestowed  the  name  of 
The  Potteries  on  a  large  and  flourishing  district,  crowded  with 
towns. 

In  James  Watt,  we  come  to  the  greatest  of  all  transformers  of 
the  world's  industrial  system.  Mining,  manufactures,  agriculture, 
printing,  navigation,  and  locomotion  by  land,  were  all  to  receive, 
from  the  principle  applied  by  the  genius  of  Watt  to  practical  ends, 
an  impulse  producing  the  most  marvellous  results.  The  general 
use  of  the  power  of  steam  in  driving  machines  was  due  to  the 
inventive  skill  of  this  illustrious  man,  born,  the  son  of  a  merchant, 
in  1736,  at  Greenock.  At  twenty-one  years  of  age,  Watt  was 
maker  of  mathematical  instruments  to  the  University  of  Glasgow: 
in  1763  he  became  a  civil  engineer,  making  surveys  for  harbours 
and  canals.  In  the  days  of  the  earlier  Stuart  kings,  a  French 
engineer,  Solomon  de  Caus,  had  thought  of  employing  steam  in 
industry.  The  Marquis  of  Worcester,  in  1663,  showed  his 
acquaintance  with  a  rude  form  of  steam-engine,  which  was  after- 
wards improved  by  Thomas  Savery  and  Thomas  Newcomen,  the 
former  of  whom  employed  the  principle  of  obtaining  a  vacuum  by 
condensation,  while  Newcomen  developed  the  Frenchman  Papin's 


INDUSTRY  AND   COMMERCE   IN   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  79 

device  of  a  piston  working  in  a  cylinder.  Steam  was  employed  for 
pumping  out  water  that  gathered  in  mines,  but  the  engine  was  a 
wasteful  machine  of  little  utility,  until  Watt  devised  the  separate 
condenser,  and  made  the  engine  double-acting,  by  using  steam  for 
both  the  up-stroke  and  down-stroke  of  the  piston.  His  adoption 
of  a  fly-wheel;  of  a  "governor"  to  regulate  the  quantity  of  steam 
passing  into  the  cylinder;  of  an  indicator,  to  measure  the  pressure 
upon  the  piston;  and  of  an  automatic  slide-valve,  to  regulate  the 
action  of  the  steam  in  the  cylinder,  created  a  machine  almost  the 
same,  in  essential  points,  as  that  now  used.  In  partnership  with 
the  able  Matthew  Boulton  of  the  Soho  Foundry,  near  Birmingham, 
Watt  began  to  supply  manufacturers  with  the  means  of  working  at 
a  speed,  and  with  a  power  of  accurate  production,  that  were  soon 
to  transform  the  face  of  the  land.  The  first  engine  constructed  by 
Watt  that  was  ever  employed  in  the  weaving  trade  was  one  made 
in  1785  for  the  works  of  Messrs.  Robinson,  at  Papplewick,  in 
Nottinghamshire;  the  first  ever  used  in  Lancashire  was  at  the 
factory  of  Mr.  Drinkwater,  in  Manchester,  four  years  later.  In  1 790, 
Arkwright  had  one  in  use  at  one  of  his  mills;  the  first  Watt's 
engine  used  in  Scotland  was  furnished,  in  1792,  to  Messrs.  Scott  & 
Stevenson,  of  Glasgow.  In  all  these  cases,  the  factories  whose 
machines  were  driven  by  the  new  power  were  engaged  in  the 
cotton  trade.  The  steam-engine  was  soon  engaged  in  flax-spinning 
at  Leeds,  and,  in  1793,  the  same  rising  town  first  used  Watt's 
mechanism  for  the  spinning  of  wool.  A  Bradford  worsted-mill 
applied  this  mighty  agency  in  1800,  and  factories  for  spinning  and 
weaving  soon  arose  in  great  numbers  in  the  midlands,  north,  and 
north-west,  where  the  coal-fields  could  furnish  cheap  supplies  of  the 
needed  fuel  for  the  engines.  The  various  processes  of  fabrication 
were  henceforth  conducted,  on  a  well-arranged  system,  under  the 
same  roof,  or  at  any  rate  in  various  workshops  erected  in  close 
connection.  Machinery  took  the  place,  to  a  vast  extent,  of  human 
hands,  and  armies  of  workpeople,  of  both  sexes  and  of  all  ages  fit 
for  toil,  were  brought  under  a  strict  discipline  in  order  to  maintain 
the  ever-growing  supply  of  clothing  and  of  other  goods  demanded 
by  the  needs  of  people  in  four  quarters  of  the  globe. 

The  increased  production  of  woven  fabrics  was  accompanied 
by  great  improvement  in  the  method  of  bleaching.  The  art  of 
chemistry  came  to  the  aid  of  the  manufacturers  of  cotton  and  linen 


8O  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

cloth,  and  enabled  them  to  whiten,  within  the  space  of  two  or  three 
days,  the  fabrics  which,  up  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
had  required  labour  applied,  at  long  intervals,  during  six  or  eight 
months.  A  Scdt,  Dr.  Home  of  Edinburgh,  about  1750,  taught 
the  bleachers  to  use  water  mixed  with  sulphuric  acid  instead  of 
sour  milk,  and  the  more  powerful  agent  shortened  by  one-half  the 
time  required  for  bleaching.  About  thirty  years  later,  the  famous 
Swedish  chemist,  Carl  Wilhelm  Scheele,  who,  in  his  brief  life  of 
forty-four  years,  made  many  most  valuable  discoveries,  mentioned, 
about  1783,  the  effect  of  chlorine  in  whitening  a  cork.  The  French 
chemist,  Berthollet,  a  follower  of  the  illustrious  Lavoisier,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  applying  the  new  acid  to  the  purpose  of  bleach- 
ing. In  1785  he  won  success  in  his  experiments,  and  James  Watt, 
then  staying  in  Paris,  carried  the  system  back  to  Scotland.  His 
father-in-law,  Mr.  Macgregor,  adopted  chlorine,  and  Mr.  Henry, 
of  Manchester,  an  able  chemist,  proved  to  the  bleachers  of  his 
town  and  neighbourhood,  in  1788,  the  perfect  treatment  of  cloth 
by  means  of  the  new  agent.  Its  use  spread  far  and  wide,  and  the 
fabrics  of  the  mills  now  only  needed  to  remain  for  a  few  days  in 
the  hands  of  the  bleacher. 

The  art  of  calico-printing,  introduced  into  England  by  a 
Frenchman  about  1690,  was  brought  into  Lancashire  in  1764.  Mr. 
Robert  Peel,  at  his  mills  near  Blackburn,  practised  the  process  on 
a  very  large  scale,  and  he  and  his  successor,  the  first  baronet, 
derived  therefrom  vast  profit  and  fame.  The  aid  of  steam  was 
of  great  value  in  moving  the  huge  cylinders  of  engraved  copper, 
and  many  thousands  of  hands  were  soon  employed  in  tending  the 
machinery. 

When  we  turn  to  other  branches  of  trade,  we  see  the  linen 
manufacture  greatly  developed  in  Scotland.  At  the  Union,  much 
of  the  money  granted  for  the  fostering  of  industries  was  used  to 
encourage  the  making  of  linen.  In  1727,  the  Scottish  Board  of 
Manufactures  invited  over  some  French  weavers,  skilled  in  making 
cambric.  They  settled  between  Edinburgh  and  Leith,  on  a  site 
still  called  "  Picardy "  Place.  About  the  middle  of  the  century, 
large  grants  of  money  were  voted  by  Parliament  for  increasing  the 
make  of  linen  in  the  Highlands,  and  great  progress  was  made. 
The  British  Linen  Company,  still  a  flourishing  banking  corporation, 
was  founded  at  Edinburgh  in  1746,  for  the  purpose  of  lending 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  8 1 

money  to  the  makers  of  the  fabric.  In  1750,  the  annual  production 
of  Scotland  had  reached  seven  millions  of  yards.  The  making  of 
finer  sorts  of  paper,  introduced  by  the  Huguenot  refugees,  became 
established  in  England  and  Scotland  early  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. The  fabrication  of  glass  for  windows  and  other  uses  dates 
from  Tudor  times,  when  some  Flemings  brought  the  art  to  London. 
In  Stuart  days,  Venetian  artists  improved  the  trade.  In  1773,  the 
"British  Plate  Glass  Manufacturers"  was  the  title  of  a  company 
founded  near  St.  Helen's,  in  Lancashire,  a  district  thenceforth 
largely  devoted  to  the  work. 

The  improved  use  of  steam  for  engines  at  coal-mines  caused  a 
great  increase  in  the  output,  through  the  effectual  pumping  thereby 
obtained.  The  iron  trade  and  other  manufactures  in  metal  received 
a  sudden  and  vast  development.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
some  iron-ore  had  been  imported  from  abroad,  and,  after  it  had 
been  smelted  at  works  in  the  Forest  of  Dean,  the  pure  metal  was 
distributed  among  the  merchants,  who  gave  out  the  rough  iron,  to 
be  worked  up  into  its  various  forms  for  sale,  to  the  domestic 
makers,  or  small  masters  in  the  craft.  A  little  iron  was  also  made 
in  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire.  The  use  of  coal  for  smelting,  intro- 
duced or  revived  in  1713,  by  Abraham  Darby,  at  the  Coalbrook- 
dale  furnaces,  in  Shropshire,  gave  some  impetus  to  the  manufacture, 
but  it  declined  again  until  the  introduction  of  coke  as  fuel,  the 
invention  of  a  new  blowing-machine,  the  application  of  steam,  and 
of  Henry  Cort's  processes  of  puddling  and  rolling,  caused  an  annual 
production,  by  1 788,  of  the  then  vast  quantity  of  seventy  thousand 
tons.  The  great  ironworks  at  Carron,  near  Falkirk,  were  founded 
in  1760.  The  vast  iron  and  coal  field  of  South  Wales  had  been 
opened  up,  five  years  previously,  by  an  iron-master  named  Bacon, 
who  leased  a  large  district  near  Merthyr  Tydvil.  Foundries  soon 
arose  at  Bristol,  London,  and  Liverpool.  In  1767,  the  Coalbrook- 
dale  works  made  iron  rails  to  replace  wooden  ones  on  the  tram- 
ways there  used,  and  in  1778  the  first  iron  bridge  ever  made  was 
there  cast  and  set  up.  Another  advance  in  the  metal  trade  was 
the  great  production  of  superior  tools  and  mechanism,  due  to  the 
ingenuity  of  Brindley,  Smeaton,  and  other  able  engineers.  Hence 
came,  in  time,  the  substitution,  on  a  large  scale,  of  iron  hands  for 
human,  in  the  ingenious  machines  employed  for  shaping,  planing, 
slotting,  drilling,  and  other  work  in  metal.  A  vast  trade  in  the 


VOL.  I. 


82  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

construction  of  machinery  to  be  worked  by  hands,  or  driven  by 
steam  under  human  guidance,  was  an  outcome  of  the  new  skill  and 
energy  displayed  in  the  closing  years  of  the  century.  The  British 
nation  was  fairly  launched,  amid  the  dangers  and  losses  of  war,  on 
the  great  industrial  career  which  was  to  supply  her  with  the  means 
of  meeting  a  portion  of  her  vast  expenditure,  and  of  holding  her 
own  against  a  host  of  foes. 

The  industrial  revolution  had  important  effects  on  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  population.  The  northern,  north-western,  and  north- 
midland  parts  of  the  country,  where  great  coal-fields  were  found 
and  were  extensively  worked,  after  the  application  of  steam  to 
machinery,  drew  to  themselves  the  workers  of  the  southern, 
eastern,  and  western  districts,  where  the  textile  trades  had  hitherto 
held  their  chief  seats.  The  growth  of  manufactures  is,  in  a  large 
degree,  indicated  by  the  increased  output  of  coal  from  the  mines, 
which  rose  from  about  two  and  a  half  millions  of  tons  in  1700  to 
over  six  millions  in  1770,  and,  with  a  far  greater  rapidity,  to  above 
ten  millions  of  tons  in  1795.  The  change  from  the  domestic  to 
the  factory  system  carried  the  artisans  from  villages  to  towns. 
The  use  of  steam  instead  of  water,  as  power  for  driving  machinery, 
drew  them  away  from  the  mills  once  planted,  in  lonely  spots  often 
rich  with  the  beauties  of  nature  in  her  happiest  moods,  where 
running  streams  came  down  from  springs  on  wild  moors,  haunted 
only  by  furred  and  feathered  creatures,  to  work  in  the  valley  the 
spindles  and  looms  of  man.  The  toilers  and  makers  of  wealth 
were  now  to  dwell  by  factories  built  near  the  mines  which  supplied 
the  needful  fuel  for  the  new  monster  of  force  that  fed  on  coal. 

Many  a  new  town  had  then  its  rise  in  southern  Lancashire  and 
western  Yorkshire.  The  north  of  England,  and  the  south-west 
of  Scotland,  where  coal  was  found  in  its  richest  deposits,  became 
the  great  centres  of  wealth  and  population.  The  prosperity  of 
Norwich  and  our  eastern  towns,  famous  for  crapes  and  the  lighter 
woollens;  of  Bradford-on-Avon,  and  her  sisters  in  the  west,  noted 
for  fine  serge;  of  Stroud  and  her  neighbour  towns  of  Gloucester- 
shire, where  the  Cotswold  wool  was  worked  up  into  the  finest 
broadcloth,  began  to  pale  before  the  rising  fortunes  of  Halifax  and 
Leeds,  of  Huddersfield  and  the  new  Bradford  of  the  West  Riding. 
At  Glasgow,  bleaching  and  calico-printing  had  been  established  in 
1738,  thirty  years  before  they  were  heard  of  in  Lancashire,  and,  in 


INDUSTRY  AND   COMMERCE   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  83 

the  last  years  of  the  century,  the  discovery  of  bleaching  powder,  or 
chloride  of  lime,  by  Mr.  Charles  Tennant,  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  enormous  trade  in  chemicals.  The  town  of  the  Clyde  took  up 
with  zeal  the  inventions  of  Arkwright,  Cartwright,  and  their  com- 
peers, and  embarked,  in  spinning  and  weaving,  upon  that  course  of 
industry  which,  combined  with  her  commerce  on  every  sea,  has 
made  her  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  The  cotton  trade  then, 
as  now,  had  its  English  centre  in  the  Lancashire  towns  clustered 
round  Manchester  as  their  chief,  with  some  slight  overflow  into  the 
neighbouring  parts  of  Cheshire  and  west  Yorkshire. 

Grave  social  and  political  results  followed  on  the  displacement 
and  changed  conditions  of  labour.  The  class  of  artisans  was  forced 

o 

down  to  a  lower  level.  Under  the  old  domestic  system  of  manu- 
factures, the  workers  bought  for  themselves  the  yarn  for  weaving, 
and  owned  the  cloth  which  came  from  the  loom.  This  they  could 
sell  at  the  market  price,  and  they  thus  held  the  position  of  inde- 
pendent traders.  Under  the  factory  system,  which  at  first,  it  is 
true,  gave  a  better  income,  from  the  high  wages  caused  by  the  great 
production,  and  the  demand  for  labour,  the  artisan  became  depend- 
ent on  the  mill-owner.  Labour  was  made  subject  to  capital.  We 
shall  notice  hereafter  the  monstrous  evils  which  greed  for  gain 
caused  to  the  men,  women,  and  children  who  worked  for  others  in 
this  revolutionized  system  of  industrial  life.  The  migration  from 
the  open  country,  with  its  purer  air,  to  the  crowded  and  fetid  alleys 
of  factory  towns,  had  serious  effects  on  health  and  life.  The  people 
who  were  left  behind  in  the  rural  districts,  devoid  of  their  former 
gains  by  spinning  and  weaving,  were  thrown  upon  the  rates,  and 
the  poor-law  question,  in  later  years,  became  hereby  prominent  in 
formidable  guise.  The  inevitable  evils  of  a  state  of  transition 
were  felt  by  the  poorer,  dependent  classes,  just  as  they  had  been 
in  Tudor  times,  when  agricultural  labour  underwent  a  change. 

The  gathering  of  the  workers  into  towns  had  also  a  great  politi- 
cal effect.  Close  connection  led  to  constant  discussion;  discussion 
dealt  with  and  magnified  grounds  for  discontent.  The  souls  of 
artisans  were  stirred  to  their  depths  by  the  outbreak  in  France, 
which  was  hailed  with  joy  by  Fox  and  the  Whigs,  as  the  champions 
of  freedom,  while  Pitt,  at  the  outset,  had  no  desire  to  assume  a 
hostile  attitude.  The  son  of  the  great  Chatham  was,  however,  the 
statesman  of  the  commercial  class,  and  to  him  the  land-owners  also, 


84  OUR  EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

both  from  their  own  inherent  prejudices,  and  from  natural  feelings 
of  horror,  wrought  into  fury  by  Burke's  denunciation  of  French 
excesses,  were  looking  as,  not  merely  the  preserver  of  internal 
peace,  but  the  represser  of  every  movement  or  utterance  in  favour 
of  reform.  All  the  upper  and  middle  classes  at  last  supported  the 
minister  when  he  waged  war  with  France,  for  the  manufacturers 
and  merchants,  in  behalf  of  trade,  for  the  king,  clergy,  nobles,  and 
land-owners,  as  the  avenger  of  outrages  done  to  monarchy,  to 
religion,  and  to  lords  of  the  soil.  The  growing  wealth  of  Great 
Britain  was  mortgaged  in  advance  to  support  the  expenditure  of 
the  gigantic  struggle,  and  our  children's  children,  and  their 
descendants  to  a  distant  age,  must  feel  in  taxation  the  effects  of  a 
policy  which,  right  or  wrong,  commanded  the  assent  of  a  vast 
majority  of  the  British  people. 

Great,  if  gradual,  progress  was  made  in  the  art  of  tillage  and 
in  the  breeding  of  stock  during  the  eighteenth  century.  A  taste 
for  agriculture,  not  only  as  a  means  of  livelihood,  but  as  a  pursuit 
for  men  of  wealth  and  leisure,  was  widely  spread.  Many  rich 
merchants  and  professional  men,  as  well  as  large  owners  of  the 
soil,  took  a  personal  interest  in  cultivation.  Great  improvements 
were  made  on  large  estates,  and  especial  regard  was  paid  to  the 
raising  of  root-crops  and  of  artificial  pasture  and  various  grasses, 
for  the  winter-feeding  of  increased  numbers  of  cattle  and  sheep, 
which,  in  their  turn,  enriched  the  soil  by  larger  supplies  of  excellent 
manure.  The  use  of  lime  and  clay  for  mixing  with  earth  that 
needed  such  additional  elements  was  largely  developed,  and  the 
result  of  effort  and  of  expended  capital  was  seen  in  greater  crops 
of  corn,  in  weightier  cattle,  and  in  more  ample  fleeces  of  better 
quality  from  the  sheep  that  supplied  the  weaver  with  wool. 

One  probably  evil  feature  of  the  time  was  the  disappearance,  to 
a  great  degree,  of  the  small  freeholders  or  yeomen,  a  change  which 
was  due  to  mingled  political  and  social  causes.  The  wealthier 
merchants,  seeking  to  rival  the  noble  class,  and  to  obtain  from  the 
minister  whom  they  supported  admission  in  time  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  were  ever  seeking  to  purchase  land,  and  the  smaller  holdings 
were  thus  absorbed  to  form  large  estates.  The  system  of  primo- 
geniture and  of  stringent  settlements  hampered  the  subdivision  of 
land,  and  the  changed  methods  of  agriculture,  demanding  larger 
capital,  tended  to  oust  the  smaller  cultivators.  Under  numerous 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  85 

Acts  some  millions  of  acres  of  common  and  other  lands  were 
inclosed,  and  thus  arose  many  of  the  vast  estates  which  still 
confine  the  possession  of  a  large  portion  of  British  soil  to  the 
hands  of  a  few  land-owners.  The  country  as  a  whole  gained  by 
the  change  of  system,  and  by  legislation  which,  in  many  cases, 
acted  to  the  hurt  of  individuals.  There  was  a  great  rise  of  rents 
during  this  period,  amounting,  in  the  case  of  one  family  of  large 
land-owners  who  were  regarded  as  favouring  the  interests  of 
tenants,  to  a  five-fold  increase  during  the  century — from  less  than 
four  shillings  to  nearly  a  pound  per  acre.  The  labourers  who 
worked  the  soil  suffered,  at  the  same  time,  a  fall  of  wages,  owing 
to  the  system,  dating  from  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  by  which  the 
magistrates  regulated  the  price  of  their  toil.  Their  poor  earnings, 
under  the  evil  law  then  existing,  were  somewhat  .  increased  by 
payments  from  the  rates,  and  this  method  of  pauperizing  the 
peasantry  had  very  pernicious  and  long-enduring  effects.  The 
price  of  corn  rapidly  rose,  with  the  great  increase  of  population, 
during  the  latter  half  of  the  century,  from  an  average  of  thirty-six 
to  forty-eight  shillings  per  quarter.  The  existing  corn-laws  pro- 
tected the  farmers  against  imported  produce,  and  men  of  large 
capital  were  able  to  make  considerable  profits. 

As  regards  improvement  in  tillage  and  stock,  much  was  due 
to  the  spirit  of  the  age  which  led  men  to  inquire  and  to  make 
experiments,  and  to  found  societies  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
primitive  and  all-important  pursuit.  In  1723  the  Society  of  Im- 
provers was  founded  in  Scotland  for  the  good  of  agriculture, 
headed  by  Lords  Reay,  Rollo,  and  Ross,  Sir  James  Fergusson, 
Sir  Archibald  Grant,  and  other  patriotic  men.  Seventy  years 
later,  the  able,  active,  and  enlightened  Sir  John  Sinclair,  of  Thurso 
Castle,  after  founding  a  Scottish  society  for  improving  the  breeds 
of  sheep  and  the  quality  of  wool,  was  a  main  cause  of  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  whose  secretary  was  the  famous 
traveller  and  inquirer,  Arthur  Young.  In  1753  the  Society  of 
Arts  and  Manufactures  was  founded  in  England,  and  its  work  for 
many  years  included  encouragement  to  progress  in  agriculture. 
In  1777  the  Bath  and  West  of  England  Agricultural  Society 
arose,  preceded  and  followed  by  many  like  institutions.  The 
Smithfield  Club,  whose  early  title  was  "the  Smithfield  Cattle  and 
Sheep  Society",  arose  in  1798.  In  Scotland,  the  Highland  and 


86  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

Agricultural  Society,  still  greatly  flourishing,  was  founded  in  1784. 
In  Ireland,  the  year  1734  saw  the  formation  of  the  Dublin  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Husbandry,  which  some  years  later  received 
a  royal  charter,  and  was  enabled  to  do  much  good  work.  In  the 
latter  half  of  the  period  the  king  himself  won  the  title  of  "  Farmer 
George  ",  from  his  enthusiastic  regard  for  his  Windsor  farm. 

The  politician  Lord  Townshend,  brother-in-law  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  retired  to  his  Norfolk  seat  in  1728,  and  there  served 
his  country  well  by  encouraging  the  growth  of  turnips.  This  root, 
so  valuable  as  the  winter  food  of  sheep,  was  now  planted  on  fields 
which  had  hitherto  been  left  to  lie  fallow  every  third  year.  Norfolk 
and  Suffolk  set  sound  examples  in  the  new  husbandry,  and  a  four- 
course  rotation  of  crops — turnips,  barley,  clover,  and  wheat — began 
to  be  pursued.  In  1776  Mr.  Coke  of  Holkham,  founder  of  the 
modern  earldom  of  Leicester,  came  into  possession  of  his  large 
estate,  and  by  energy  and  skill  wrought  wonders  of  improvement. 
At  that  time  the  land  was  not  inclosed,  and  the  people  ate  bread 
made  of  wheat  imported  from  other  parts,  or  of  rye,  the  only  corn 
there  grown.  Coke  changed  the  country  of  his  abode  into  a 
garden  of  fertility.  Resolved  to  become  a  tiller  of  the  soil,  he 
gathered  round  him  the  farmers  of  the  district,  learned  his  trade, 
and  in  due  time  became  himself  a  teacher.  Landlord  and  tenants 
were  both  enriched  by  the  greater  growth  of  produce  and  the  just 
rise  of  rents.  Improvement  in  the  sheep,  both  for  use  as  meat 
and  for  quality  of  wool,  made  Coke's  name  famous  throughout  the 
world,  and  his  elevation  to  the  peerage,  long  declined  by  the 
modesty  of  real  worth,  on  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria,  was 
hailed  with  delight  by  all  true  lovers  of  the  art  which  he  improved 
and  of  the  land  of  his  birth. 

Suffolk,  renowned  for  its  breed  of  ploughing-horses  called 
"punches",  was  now  greatly  improved  by  the  better  and  wider 
drainage  of  the  soil.  From  the  east  of  England,  good  example 
spread.  In  Bedfordshire,  near  the  close  of  the  century,  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,  at  Woburn  Abbey,  strove  to  emulate  the  deeds  of  the 
Norfolk  squire,  and  the  growth  of  corn  and  production  of  meat 
were  vastly  increased.  Robert  Bakewell,  a  grazier,  of  Dishley 
Grange,  in  Leicestershire,  who  died  in  1795,  had  wonderful  suc- 
cess in  breeding  sheep,  horses,  and  horned  cattle,  and  his.  repu- 
tation may  be  measured  by  the  fact  that,  in  a  single  season,  the 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  87 

hire  of  one  of  his  rams  produced  the  sum  of  over  twelve  hundred 
pounds.     Such  were  some  of  the  men  that  raised  the  stock  whose 
descendants   were   in  time   to  produce   the  swarming  flocks  and 
herds  that  form  the  chief  wealth  of  many  of  our  great  colonial 
possessions.     The  drainage  of  some  of  the  eastern  fens  has  been 
already  described:  the  same  work  was  done  on  a  large  scale  in 
the  low-lying  parts  of  Lincolnshire,  and  her  wolds  also  began  to 
feel  the  benefit  of  improved  farming.      In  the  south,  the  Wilt- 
shire and  Hampshire  downs,  from  the  growth  of  turnips,  began 
to  bear  greater  flocks  of  sheep.     In  Yorkshire,  the  Whig  leader, 
Lord  Rockingham,  farming  two  thousand  acres  of  his  own  land, 
set  an  example  of  good  husbandry.      Sir  Digby  Legard,  in  the 
east  of  the  same  county,  succeeded  in  doubling  the  product  of 
wheat  per  acre  upon  land  reclaimed   from   the  wolds,  while  he 
raised  from  the  same  soil  a  five-fold  increase  of  the  former  crops 
of  oats,  and  a  six-fold  growth  of  barley.     The  rent  was  raised  from 
a  shilling  an  acre  for  the  grassy  wold  to  a  pound  per  acre  for  the 
same  land  under  tillage.     In  Durham,  the  short-horn  ox  was  already 
a  famous  breed,  but  it  was  not  till  later  days  that  the  land  was 
inclosed    or   duly   cultivated.      In    Northumberland,    towards   the 
close  of  the  century,  great  advances  were  made  in  tillage,  and 
the   fertile   vales   of  the   northern   parts  gave  a  large  return   to 
improved  methods.     In  the  south  of  Scotland,  East  Lothian  led 
the   way  to  the  admirable  culture   which   was  wholly  to  change 
the  face  of  the  land  between  the  Forth  and  Clyde  and  the  English 
border.     The  beautiful  country  of  the  Teviot  and  the  Tweed  had 
then  but  few  inclosures  or  roads.     The  men  who  started  the  work 
of  improvement  which  was  to  lead  to  such  marvellous  results  of 
energy  and  skill  have  already  been  noticed.      In  Ireland,  the  lack 
of  capital    and   energy   and    knowledge,    with    the   curse    of  the 
"middleman",    combined   to   produce,    on    the    whole,    a    system 
which,  making  a  large  part  of  the  population  dependent  for  sub- 
sistence on  a  single  root,  was  to  cause  in  the  end  disastrous  effects. 
The  eighteenth  century  saw  much  improvement  in  the  means 
of  internal  communication  which  is  needed  for  easy  and  lucrative 
traffic.     The  state  of  things  which  existed  at  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  is  vividly  described  in  the  third  chapter  of 
his  history  by  Lord  Macaulay.     Under  Queen  Anne,  the  condition 
of  the  roads  still  greatly  hampered  the  conveyance  of  goods  from 


88  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

the  places  of  manufacture  to  the  markets  for  sale  and  to  the  ports 
for  shipment.  Only  in  the  summer  could  large  quantities  of 
produce  be  taken  to  distant  parts,  and  many  small  towns  and 
villages  suffered  from  scarcity  of  grain  and  fuel.  Good  husbandry 
was  checked  by  the  lack  of  cheap  manure.  About  the  middle, 
and  in  the  latter  half  of  the  century,  these  matters  were  greatly 
altered.  Harder  roads  dispensed  with  the  work  of  nearly  half 
the  horses  formerly  needed  to  drag  the  waggons  through  the 
depth  of  mire,  and  the  pack-horses  could  each  carry  heavier 
loads.  The  former  condition  of  the  highways  may  be  judged  by 
the  fact  that,  even  in  1736,  a  carriage,  in  wet  weather,  required 
two  hours  for  the  drive  from  St.  James's  Palace  to  Kensington, 
and  might  be  stuck  in  the  mud  on  the  way.  In  Scotland,  the 
military  roads  made  by  General  Wade,  in  the  period  between  the 
two  Jacobite  rebellions,  did  much  to  open  up  the  Highlands  to 
traffic  from  the  then  more  civilized  southern  districts.  Many 
Acts  were  passed  in  England  for  the  establishment  of  turnpike- 
trusts  on  highways,  and  the  roads  were  kept  in  repair  by  the 
tolls  levied  at  the  countless  gates  which,  until  far  into  the  present 
reign,  were  encountered  by  the  traveller  by  carriage  or  on  horse- 
back throughout  the  land.  In  1741  a  general  Act,  apart  from  the 
turnpike-roads,  was  passed  with  the  intent  of  providing  for  the 
repair  of  the  parish-roads  and  other  by-ways  of  traffic.  For  the 
conveyance  of  passengers,  the  stage-waggon  and  the  waggon-coach 
were  the  chief  methods  known  to  early  Georgian  times.  In  1739, 
the  advertisement  of  a  "  flying- waggon  "  undertakes  to  convey 
people  from  London  to  Frome  in  Somerset,  a  few  miles  south 
of  Bath,  in  two  and  a  half  days. 

The  history  of  the  modern  mail-coaches  begins  with  the  year 
1784,  when  the  enterprising  Mr.  John  Palmer,  manager  of  the 
Bath  Theatre,  and  M.P.  for  that  city,  began  to  carry  letters  for 
the  Post-office.  The  coach  which  left  London,  under  the  new 
system,  at  eight  in  the  morning,  arrived  in  Bristol  an  hour  before 
midnight.  The  plan  was  adopted  by  most  of  the  larger  towns, 
and  the  pace  of  transit,  as  the  roads  grew  better  and  the  organi- 
zation was  improved,  was  raised  by  degrees  from  six  miles  an 
hour  to  eight.  The  care  of  Parliament  was  largely  devoted  to 
the  removal  of  all  hindrances  to  safe  and  speedy  traffic.  The 
width  of  the  roads,  ditching,  draining,  the  prevention  of  all  ob- 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  89 

structions  by  fairs  and  markets,  by  floods  and  falling  trees,  by 
straying  cattle  and  rustic  sports;  the  erection  of  milestones  and 
direction-posts;  the  placing  of  the  names  of  towns  and  villages 
at  the  main  entrances  by  the  high-roads;  the  width  of  wheels, 
the  weights  of  goods,  and  the  number  of  passengers  to  be 
carried  on  each  vehicle,  the  horsing,  the  harnessing,  the  very 
forms  of  axles,  and  the  method  of  attaching  the  tires  of  wheels, 
were  all  made,  from  time  to  time,  subjects  of  inquiry  and  regula- 
tion. More  than  five  hundred  turnpike  Acts  had  been  passed 
before  the  year  1770.  Some  preparation  had  thus  been  made 
for  the  increase  of  trade  caused  by  the  industrial  revolution.  It 
was  not  until  many  years  of  the  present  century  had  passed, 
however,  that  the  English  people  saw  the  swift,  well-horsed, 
perfectly  driven,  minutely  punctual,  festive-looking  coaches,  with 
scarlet-coated  guard  and  resounding  horn,  that  enlivened  the 
perfect  roads  made  in  that  age  by  the  skilful  labours  of  Telford 
and  Macadam. 

The  development  of  our  communications  by  water,  of  vast 
importance  for  the  traffic  in  heavy  goods,  the  products  of  the  rising 
factories  and  the  mines,  was  due  to  the  example  set  by  the  wise 
expenditure  of  a  noble  and  the  daring  spirit  of  an  engineer.  The 
word  "  canal "  at  once  suggests  the  names  of  James  Brindley  and 
of  Francis  Egerton,  third  Duke  of  Bridgewater.  The  history  of 
canals  in  Britain  would  carry  us  back  to  the  days  of  Roman  occu- 
pation, when  they  cut  two  great  Dykes  in  Lincolnshire,  one  of 
which,  the  Foss  Dyke,  is  still  navigable.  Near  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  Aire  and  Calder  Navigation  made  a 
beginning  of  the  modern  system  of  artificial  water-ways. 

James  Brindley,  the  great  pioneer  of  these  important  works,  was 
born  in  Derbyshire,  in  1716.  First  a  mill-wright,  then  an  engineer, 
he  showed  much  skill  in  the  construction  of  a  water-engine  for  the 
draining  of  a  coal-mine.  By  a  happy  turn  of  fortune  for  him  and 
for  his  country,  he  came  under  the  notice  of  the  young  Duke  of 
Bridgewater,  a  man  who  had  seen  something  of  the  world,  and  had 
then  retired  to  one  of  his  estates,  wearied  of  London  life,  and  seek- 
ing to  remove  encumbrances  from  his  property.  At  Worsley, 
seven  miles  from  Manchester,  then,  in  1758,  containing  about  forty 
thousand  people,  the  young  noble  possessed  a  rich  bed  of  coal,  and 
his  object  was  to  convey  the  fuel  cheaply  to  his  neighbours  in 


9O  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

Manchester,  and  in  the  end  to  reach  Liverpool.  After  discussion 
with  Brindley,  an  audacious  plan  was  formed  for  constructing  a 
new  water-way  without  locks,  by  cutting  through  hills  and  crossing 
streams.  The  bold  design,  in  the  course  of  twelve  years,  was 
carried  out  with  complete  success.  The  astonishment  of  Brindley's 
countrymen  was  aroused  by  the  gigantic  works  now  executed.  In 
the  mines  at  Worsley,  canals  were  carried  through  a  mile  and  a 
half  of  tunnels.  The  course  of  the  great  canal  lay  through  valleys 
where  huge  mounds  of  earth  were  raised  to  form  its  bed.  Rocky 
hills  were  pierced,  and  at  Barton  the  river  Irwell  was  crossed  by 
an  aqueduct  six  hundred  feet  in  length  and  nearly  forty  high.  A 
land  agent,  John  Gilbert,  helped  to  raise  money  for  the  expensive 
operations,  and  the  duke,  resolved  to  finish  what  he  had  begun, 
lived  for  years  on  the  simplest  fare,  and  reduced  his  household 
expenses  to  the  standard  of  a  small  trader.  In  1771,  the  "eighth 
wonder  of  the  world",  as  a  letter  of  the  day  styles  this  canal,  had 
reached,  by  way  of  Manchester,  Runcorn  on  the  Mersey,  forty-two 
miles  from  Worsley,  and  thus  brought  the  coal-pits  into  connection 
with  the  rising  seaport  of  the  day.  The  price  of  coals  in  Man- 
chester fell  by  one  half,  and  the  duke,  by  this  and  like  enlightened 
labours,  acquired  vast  wealth.  The  great  engineer  to  whom  the 
work  was  intrusted  was  a  plain-looking  man,  rude  in  speech  and 
devoid  of  education.  The  workings  of  his  brain  supplied  the  place 
of  written  documents  and  drawings,  and  he  gained  his  undying  fame 
by  the  sheer  force  of  native  ability.  This  noble  achievement  was 
followed  by  the  Grand  Trunk  Navigation,  or  Staffordshire  Canal, 
also  planned  and  partly  executed  by  Brindley  :  his  early  death  in 
1772,  hastened  by  excessive  toil  of  body  and  mind,  robbed  him  of 
the  sight  of  its  completed  works.  The  pottery  and  iron  districts  of 
Staffordshire  were  thus  connected  with  the  Mersey  and  the  Trent. 
In  all,  Brindley  either  made  or  planned  nearly  four  hundred  miles 
of  canal,  uniting  the  Thames,  the  H umber,  the  Mersey,  and  the 
Severn,  and  thus  giving  London  communication  by  water  with 
Bristol,  Liverpool,  and  Hull. 

Before  the  end  of  the  century,  from  1791  to  1794,  there  was 
a  "  mania  ",  or  rush  of  speculation,  in  canals,  and  more  than  three 
thousand  miles  of  such  works  were  ultimately  made  within  the 
United  Kingdom.  In  Scotland,  the  Forth  and  the  Clyde  were 
joined  by  a  canal  planned  in  1768.  The  Crinan  Canal,  nine 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE   IN    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  91 

miles  long,  running  through  charming  scenery,  and  uniting  a 
branch  of  Lochfyne,  in  Argyleshire,  with  the  Atlantic  at  the 
Sound  of  Jura,  was  constructed  between  1793  and  1801.  This 
excellent  work  avoids  the  passage  of  seventy  miles  round  the 
Mull  of  Kintyre.  The  famous  Caledonian  Canal,  traversing 
some  of  Scotland's  noblest  scenery,  was  first  devised,  as  a  prac- 
ticable work,  by  the  eye  and  judgment  of  James  Watt :  its  execu- 
tion came  only  with  the  early  years  of  the  present  century.  The 
canals  at  that  date  were  largely  used,  notably  in  Scotland,  for  the 
conveyance  of  passengers  with  an  ease  and  smoothness  far  surpas- 
sing those  of  travel  on  roads.  The  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal,  by 
means  of  very  light  barges  called  "swift  boats",  sharply  cut  at  the 
bows  and  with  fine  lines  of  structure,  carried  people  at  the  rate  of 
nearly  nine  miles  an  hour.  The  "fly-boats",  between  London  and 
Birmingham,  of  a  heavier  build,  had  about  half  that  speed.  The 
ordinary  boats  carried  some  twenty  tons  of  goods,  with  a  towage  of 
from  two  to  three  miles  an  hour. 

The  building  of  bridges,  an  art  which  forms  so  important  an 
element  in  developing  communications,  made  little  progress  in 
Europe  from  the  days  of  the  Roman  Empire  until  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  the  French  architects  led  the  way  to  improvement, 
and  the  famous  Perronet  executed  works  of  masterly  skill  over  the 
Seine  at  Paris,  Nogent,  and  Neuilly.  The  longest  bridge  built  in 
England  in  mediaeval  times  was  that  constructed  at  Burton,  over  the 
Trent,  of  freestone,  in  the  twelfth  century.  Its  thirty-six  arches 
extended  for  over  fifteen  hundred  feet,  and  the  bridge  remained  in 
use  until  1864.  A  really  great  work  was  completed  in  1750  in  the 
erection,  by  William  Edwards,  a  country  mason,  of  the  bridge  over 
the  Taff,  midway  between  Merthyr  Tydvil  and  Cardiff.  This 
bold  and  ingenious  structure  gave  the  name  of  "  Newbridge  "  to  the 
place  where  it  spans  the  river  with  a  single  arch  of  140  feet.  The 
same  architect  built  several  other  bridges  in  South  Wales.  The 
days  of  the  greatest  bridge  engineers  had  not  yet  arrived.  A  cast- 
iron  bridge  of  a  single  arch,  spanning  one  hundred  feet,  was  erected 
over  the  Severn  in  1779,  at  the  place  thence  called  "  Ironbridge". 
The  constructor  of  this  was  Mr.  Darby,  of  the  Coalbrookdale  Iron 
Works.  In  London,  old  London  Bridge,  completed  in  1209, 
remained  covered  with  houses  until  1757:  the  structure  then,  with 
new  parapets  and  balustrades  erected  on  each  side,  outlasted  the 


92  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

century.  The  old  Blackfriars  Bridge  was  completed  in  1769,  from 
plans  of  Robert  Mylne,  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  and  once  bore  the 
name  of  Pitt  Bridge,  in  honour  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  a  designa- 
tion dropped  by  degrees  from  its  inconvenience  in  not  marking  for 
strangers  the  spot  where  it  crossed  the  river.  This  bridge  con- 
tinued to  exist  for  nearly  a  century.  The  first  bridge  made  at 
Westminster  was  opened  to  the  public  in  1750,  and  lasted  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years.  The  other  bridges  crossing  the  Thames  in 
London  belong  to  the  period  since  1800. 

The  first  regular  inland  post  was  established  in  1635,  for  the 
keeping  up  of  communications  between  London  and  Edinburgh, 
with  by-posts  to  the  chief  towns  lying  near  the  main  road.  A 
royal  proclamation,  two  years  later,  forbade  the  carriage  of  letters  by 
any  persons  "other  than  the  messengers  of  the  king's  postmaster- 
general",  with  certain  exceptions  therein  named.  This  service  was 
under  the  charge  of  Thomas  Witherings,  who  had  been  for  some 
years,  with  William  Frizell,  controller  of  the  English  post  for 
foreign  letters.  About  this  date,  eight  chief  postal  lines  for  England 
were  established  at  a  cost  of  eightpence  to  Scotland  for  a  single 
letter,  sixpence  in  England  for  a  distance  exceeding  140  miles, 
fourpence  between  80  and  140  miles,  and  twopence  for  shorter  dis- 
tances. In  1657,  under  the  Commonwealth,  many  improvements 
were  made,  and  these  were  confirmed  by  statute  after  the  Restora- 
tion, the  year  1662  being  the  date  of  the  legal  establishment  of  a 
postal  system.  In  Scotland,  the  Parliament  in  1695  passed  an  Act 
for  a  general  letter-post.  Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  a  penny-post  was  set  up  in  London  for  letters  and  small 
parcels,  with  Thomas  Dockwra  as  controller.  In  1710  we  have 
the  first  modern  "Postmaster-general",  when  an  Act  rearranged  the 
whole  system,  and  a  general  post-office  for  the  three  kingdoms  and 
the  colonies  was  established.  An  Irish  post-office,  as  a  separate 
system,  was  set  up  by  the  "independent"  parliament  in  1784. 
With  the  institution  of  mail-coaches,  as  described  above,  in  1784, 
Mr.  Palmer  became  controller  to  the  General  Post-office,  and  letters 
were  henceforth  carried  with  far  greater  safety,  regularity,  and 
speed. 

We  may  well  conclude  this  part  of  our  subject,  displaying  some- 
what of  the  internal  economy  of  the  British  Empire  up  to  the  year 
1 80 1,  with  a  few  suggestive  figures  for  comparison  with  those  to  be 


INDUSTRY   AND   COMMERCE    IN   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  93 

hereafter  given.  The  growth  of  manufactures  in  the  last  third  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  the  period  including  what  has  been  called 
the  Industrial  Revolution,  is  thus  indicated.  In  1766  the  number 
of  pounds  weight  of  foreign  and  colonial  wool  imported  into  the 
United  Kingdom  was  nearly  two  millions;  in  1800,  it  was  above 
eight  and  a  half  millions.  In  1764  the  number  of  pounds  weight  of 
raw  cotton  imported  was  under  four  millions;  in  1800,  it  just 
exceeded  fifty-six  millions.  For  the  iron  trade,  we  take  a  period  of 
about  sixty  years.  In  1740,  the  pig-iron  made  in  Great  Britain 
(England,  Wales,  and  Scotland)  was  a  little  over  seventeen  thou- 
sand tons;  in  1796  it  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  tons,  a  quantity  more  than  doubled  ten  years  later.  In 
1750  the  value  of  exports  for  England  alone  approached  thirteen 
millions  of  pounds  sterling;  in  1800,  for  Great  Britain,  it  exceeded 
thirty-four  millions.  It  is  needless  to  state  that  in  those  days  but 
a  small  part  of  this  increase  was  due  to  Scotland  and  Wales.  In 
1750,  the  imports  of  England  alone  just  exceeded  in  value  seven 
and  three-quarter  millions;  in  1800,  with  a  great  war  raging, 
the  value  of  imports  for  Great  Britain  was  twenty-eight  and 
a  quarter  millions.  In  1766,  the  tonnage  of  ships  cleared 
outwards  from  British  ports  was  nearly  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  tons,  in  time  of  peace,  of  which  nearly  fourteen-fifteenths 
was  British  shipping.  In  1800,  during  war,  the  ships  cleared  out- 
wards reached  nearly  two  millions  of  tons,  of  which  more  than 
three-fifths  were  British.  In  1774  the  revenue  raised  in  England 
alone  somewhat  exceeded  seven  millions;  in  1800  the  United 
Kingdom,  for  this  purpose  mostly  England,  contributed  more  than 
thirty-three  millions.  In  1760  the  population  of  England  and 
Wales  was  a  little  beyond  six  and  a  half  millions;  in  1801,  the  year 
of  the  first  census,  it  had  nearly  reached  nine  millions.  In  1776 
the  poor-rate  just  exceeded  a  million  and  a  half;  in  1803  it  had 
reached  more  than  four  millions  of  pounds,  an  amount  which 
betrays  at  once  an  increase  of  poverty  in  one  class,  along  with  a 
great  growth  of  national  wealth,  and  a  scandalous  mismanagement 
partly  due  to  the  operation  of  a  poor-law  wholly  unsuited  to  the 
times. 


LIBRARY, 
DEC  13  1397 


BOOK    II. 

BRITISH   COLONIES   AND   POSSESSIONS   BEFORE  THE 
NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 


CHAPTER    I. 
CHARACTER  AND  METHODS  OF  COLONIZATION — EARLY  NAVIGATORS. 

Our  Colonies  in  general — Modern  sense  of  the  term  "colony" — Methods  of  colonization — 
Maritime  enterprise  of  European  nations  in  fifteenth  century  —  Discoveries  of 
Columbus,  Vespucci,  and  the  Cabots  —  Spanish  colonization  in  America — The 
aboriginal  tribes  of  America. 

Before  entering  upon  the  history  of  the  existing  colonies  and 
dependencies  of  Great  Britain  during  the  period  prior  to  the  nine- 
teenth century,  it  is  our  purpose  to  trace  the  career  of  those  colonies 
in  North  America  which  constituted  the  fine  dominion  lost  to  this 
country  soon  after  the  days  that  saw  the  rise  of  a  new  British 
empire  in  the  East,  and  in  the  part  of  America  lying  north  of  the 
settlements  which  engaged  in  a  successful  revolt  from  British 
rule. 

A  brief  dissertation  on  colonies  in  general  may  well  precede  a 
particular  account  of  the  important  and  interesting  offshoots  from  a 
parent  political  stem  which,  with  diverse  forms  of  origin  and  de- 
velopment, are  included  in  the  general  term  of  "British  colonies". 
A  "  colony",  in  its  original  agricultural  sense,  was  more  properly 
called  a  "plantation",  the  term  applied  to  the  first  British  settle- 
ments in  the  West  Indies  and  in  North  America.  The  modern 
sense  of  the  word  implies  a  community  of  people  whose  forefathers, 
or  themselves,  quitted  their  native  country  to  dwell  permanently  in 
another  land,  either  devoid  or  nearly  empty  of  inhabitants,  and 
there  pursue  their  fortunes  in  some  condition  of  political  connection 
with,  or  dependence  on,  the  mother  country.  To  this  definition  we 
may  add  that  the  "  colony  "  may  consist  of  persons  whose  superior 
strength,  supported  by  help  from  home,  enables  them  to  dominate 
a  native  population  in  the  new  land,  in  spite  of  great  inferiority  of 
numbers  on  the  part  of  the  new-comers.  It  will  be  seen  that  we 


CHARACTER   AND   METHODS   OF   COLONIZATION.  95 

thus  embrace  at  any  rate  a  large  part  of  the  dependencies  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  since  we  include  the  vast  Canadian  Dominion, 
the  West  Indies,  the  Australasian  colonies,  most  of  the  African 
settlements,  and  many  smaller  colonial  possessions.  It  is  equally 
clear  that  India,  where  the  British  residents  have,  for  the  most  part, 
not  made  their  permanent  home,  and  Malta,  and  Gibraltar,  and 
Aden,  and  Cyprus,  mainly  military  and  naval  posts,  lie  outside  the 
real  meaning  of  what,  in  popular  use,  is  the  elastic  term  "colonies", 
applied  officially  to  all  our  foreign  possessions,  with  the  sole  excep- 
tion of  what  is  termed,  with  some  propriety  derived  from  its  mode 
of  acquisition  and  of  tenure,  the  "Indian  Empire". 

The  methods  of  colonization,  by  which  the  "  Greater  Britain  " 
has  been  formed,  have  been  as  various  as  the  motives  which  have 
led  men  abroad,  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  from  their  own  country  to 
foreign  lands.  In  some  cases,  the  love  of  adventure  and  the  spirit 
of  enterprise,  aroused  in  the  hearts  of  British  citizens  at  the 
time  of  the  great  European  awakening  under  our  Tudor 
sovereigns,  drove  men  across  the  seas  to  discover  new  lands, 
to  coerce  aboriginal  possessors,  to  seek  new  wealth,  to  be 
extracted  either  from  hoped-for  mines  of  silver  and  gold,  or  from 
the  bosom  of  a  soil  making  rich  returns  for  cultivation.  Rights  of 
settlement  and  possession  were  conferred  by  royal  charters  on  bands 
of  adventurers  under  some  trusted  leader,  or  on  the  pioneers  and 
agents  of  companies  formed  for  the  prosecution  of  trade.  In  other 
cases,  as  we  shall  see,  social  or  political  discontent,  sometimes  due 
to  religious  persecution,  sent  men  beyond  the  stormy  waters  of  the 
Atlantic  to  found  new  homes  wherein  they  might  freely  worship 
according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  conscience,  or  might  be 
exempt  from  the  burdens  of  poverty  or  other  ills.  Again,  the 
British  government,  from  time  to  time,  banished  parties  of  dis- 
orderly or  disaffected  subjects,  both  men  and  women,  to  distant 
parts  where  they  would  cease  for  ever  to  plague  the  body  politic  at 
home.  To  some  small  extent,  the  missionary  spirit,  or  desire  for 
the  conversion  of  heathens  to  the  Christian  faith,  influenced  our 
early  efforts  at  colonization,  but  the  commercial  motive,  the  desire 
for  wealth,  was  the  main  agent  in  the  colonial  expansion  attempted 
and  achieved,  in  turn  or  simultaneously,  by  Portugal,  Spain,  Hol- 
land, France,  and  Great  Britain.  Germany  and  Italy,  the  latest  of 
all  the  colonizing  nations,  have  sent  forth  people  either  driven 


96  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

abroad  by  pressure  of  poverty,  or  by  the  purely  commercial  spirit, 
or  by  a  desire  to  escape  from  military  conscription. 

The  success  of  the  British  race  in  colonization  has  been  due  to 
the  possession  and  use  of  certain  physical  and  moral  qualities,  in- 
herent or  acquired  by  the  experience  of  ages.  Our  nation  has, 
apart  from  India  and  some  other  countries  where  our  citizens  abide 
either  in  very  limited  numbers  or  for  a  limited  time,  migrated  to 
temperate  or  cold  climates  suited  to  our  bodily  constitution  and  our 
British  way  of  life.  This  condition  is,  in  the  main,  satisfied  by 
Canada  and  the  Cape,  by  Australia,  and  above  all  by  New  Zealand. 
Physical  endurance,  energy,  reproductive  power,  a  love  of  explora- 
tion, a  masterful  spirit,  a  keen  commercial  sense,  a  power  of 
adaptation  to  new  circumstances  and  new  peoples,  a  progressive 
genius,  a  faculty  of  government,  native  vigour,  independence,  and 
self-reliance — these  are  the  chief  possessions  of  a  people  whose 
descendants  are  now  manifestly  destined  to  occupy  a  large  part  of 
the  world  with  their  language,  their  religion,  and  their  political  and 
social  institutions.  The  Phoenicians,  and  the  Greek  republics  of 
olden  time  made  no  permanent  conquests.  The  Jews,  in  ancient 
and  mediaeval  times,  and  the  Chinese,  in  modern  days,  were  and 
have  been  mere  foreign  settlers  in  countries  already  occupied  by 
overwhelming  numbers  of  people  alien  from  the  immigrating  race. 
The  Spaniards  and  the  French  showed,  the  one  in  Central  and 
South  America,  the  other  in  Canada  and  in  Hindostan,  much 
power  of  conciliating  native  races,  but  the  faculty  of  ruling,  and  of 
retaining  dominion  in  a  lasting  form,  appears  to  have  been  granted 
in  a  larger  degree  to  men  of  the  Teutonic  race,  as  to  the  Romans 
of  the  ancient  world,  than  to  any  other  of  the  peoples  or  states 
whose  name  is  writ  large  in  the  history  of  mankind. 

When  the  possession  of  the  mariner's  compass,  to  show  the 
way;  of  the  printing-press,  to  spread  knowledge;  and  of  gun- 
powder, to  enable  small  bodies  of  civilized  explorers  to  overcome 
large  numbers  of  ignorant  natives,  had  provided  fitting  instruments 
for  the  work  to  be  undertaken,  the  chief  European  peoples  began 
to  look  abroad  to  distant  lands.  In  the  coming  contest  for 
supremacy  the  compact,  enterprising  Portugal  showed  the  way, 
round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  to  the  coasts  of  India  and  China, 
and  sailed  westwards  to  Brazil.  The  conquest  of  this  pioneer 
in  colonization,  by  her  more  powerful  neighbour,  Spain,  made  an 


CHARACTER   AND   METHODS   OF   COLONIZATION.  97 

end  of  Portugal  as  a  chief  people  in  colonial  dominion,  leaving 
her  the  just  and  lasting  renown  of  giving  to  the  world  Prince 
Henry  the  navigator;  Bartolomeu  Diaz,  the  first  modern  mariner 
to  round  the  Cape;  Vasco  da  Gama,  the  first  modern  European 
to  reach  the  East  Indies  wholly  by  sea;  Magalhaens,  the  first 
European  who  ever  sailed  into,  and  the  man  who  named,  the 
Pacific;  and  Alfonso  d' Albuquerque,  the  great,  because  wise  and 
good,  viceroy  of  the  Indies.  For  American  discovery  the  com- 
mercial republic  of  Genoa  supplied  Spain  with  Christopher 
Columbus,  and  her  great  rival  on  the  Adriatic  coast  of  Italy  gave 
John  Cabot,  and  his  son  Sebastian,  to  England. 

The  great  colonial  empire  founded  by  Spain,  with  a  feudal  and 
despotic  system  of  rule,  decayed  with  the  decline,  and,  to  a  large 
degree,  perished  for  her  with  the  downfall  of  Spanish  power  in 
Europe.  Political  and  commercial  progress,  growth  in  freedom, 
mental  expansion  with  the  changing  times,  were  wanting  to  the 
mother  country,  and,  early  in  the  present  century,  her  American 
possessions  fell  away  in  revolt,  to  become  separate  states  with 
republican  rule.  The  Dutch,  in  due  time,  freed  by  desperate 
efforts  from  Spanish  control,  appeared  upon  the  colonizing  scene  of 
history.  This  dogged  people  of  Teutonic  blood,  gallant  seamen, 
devoted  to  labour,  skilled  in  trade,  acquired  a  large  share  in 
Portugal's  eastern  sway  of  commercial  affairs.  Their  mariners 
were  found  in  Arctic  seas,  as  well  as  amid  the  spicy  breezes  of  the 
coasts  of  Ceylon  and  the  Moluccas.  Their  settlers  were  soon  at 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  in  North 
America.  A  Dutchman  was  the  first  to  round  Cape  Horn;  a 
Dutchman  the  first  to  view  Tasmania  and  New  Zealand.  Worthy 
antagonists  of  British  sailors  in  Stuart  times,  when  they  fought 
so  bravely  for  "the  honour  of  the  flag",  and  for  the  carrying  trade 
which  aroused  British  envy  and  brought  on  hostile  legislation  in 
the  Navigation  Acts,  this  sturdy  little  nation,  after  a  brief  period 
of  brilliant  renown,  succumbed  to  our  rising  maritime  power,  to 
remain,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  one  of  the  most  solid  and 
respectable  of  minor  European  states,  with  rich  colonial  possessions 
in  Eastern  seas. 

The  contest  in  East  and  West,  of  Great  Britain  against  France, 
the  last  in  the  line  of  earlier  European  colonizing  states,  will  be 
dealt  with  at  a  later  stage  of  this  narration.  With  great  aptitude 


VOL.  I. 


98  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

for  colonization,  in  courage,  warlike  skill,  enterprise,  and  tactful 
dealing  with  native  races,  the  French  were  destined,  at  the  moment 
when  complete  success  appeared  to  be  within  their  grasp,  to  lose 
all  that  they  had  won  through  the  efforts  of  brilliant  soldiers 
abroad,  sometimes  helped  by  great  statesmanship  at  home.  France, 
in  fact,  undertook  in  colonial  affairs  what  was  beyond  the  strength 
of  a  nation  engaged,  at  the  same  period,  in  a  career  of  European 
aggrandizement,  and  her  worthless  rulers,  in  the  age  preceding  the 
French  Revolution,  united  gross  political  and  economical  corruption 
to  the  most  unwise  and  ungrateful  treatment  of  able  and  patriotic 
colonial  leaders.  Religious  bigotry,  directed  against  the  Huguenots, 
who  should  have  been  encouraged,  as  men  skilled  in  the  industrial 
arts  and  in  maritime  affairs,  to  become  the  bone  and  substance  of 
their  country's  colonial  system,  was  another  chief  cause  of  French 
colonial  failure. 

The  world  of  Europe  and  America  has  lately  (1892)  celebrated 
the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  great  work  of  exploration 
due  to  the  genius  and  courage  of  Christopher  Columbus.  We 
do  not  in  the  least  degree  detract  from  the  fame  of  that  illustrious 
man  when  we  assert  the  indubitable  fact  that  he  made,  not  a  new 
discovery,  but  a  re-discovery  of  a  once  found  and  then  forgotten 
region.  Five  centuries  before  his  time  there  were  colonies  of 
Norsemen  in  Greenland  and  in  the  coast-lands  much  farther  south. 
The  way  to  North  America  had  been  partly  and  circuitously 
shown  by  Danes  who,  in  874,  colonized  Iceland,  where  they  found 
some  Irish  monks  who  had  come  thither  from  their  own  country 
"because  they  desired  for  the  love  of  God  to  be  in  a  state  of 
pilgrimage  they  recked  not  where".  A  rover  called  Eric  the  Red, 
banished  for  crime,  first  from  Norway  and  then  from  Iceland, 
made  his  way  to  Greenland,  a  region  so  named  by  him  with  the 
object  of  drawing  settlers  as  if  to  a  fertile  land.  Two  colonies 
were  there  formed  in  985.  A  man  named  Bjarni,  in  986,  who 
had  started  from  Iceland  for  the  purpose  of  joining  his  father  in 
Greenland,  was  driven  by  north  winds  within  sight  of  the  lands 
since  called  New  England,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Newfoundland. 
A  son  of  Eric  the  Red  wintered,  in  994,  on  the  coast  near  Cape 
Cod,  Massachusetts,  and  the  place  was  called  Vynland,  from 
the  wild  grapes  seen  growing.  Some  Irish  settlers  were  found 
there  also,  and  a  district  to  the  south  was  once  called  "  Great 


CHARACTER  AND   METHODS   OF   COLONIZATION.  99 

Ireland".  Monuments  and  runic  inscriptions  on  the  American 
coast  confirm  the  evidence  of  the  Icelandic  sagas  or  tales  concern- 
ing the  Danish  expeditions.  There  are  statements  as  to  inter- 
course between  Greenland  and  Iceland  in  the  twelfth  century, 
and  between  Markland  (Nova  Scotia)  and  Iceland  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  These  early  settlements  had,  however,  been  quitted 
by  the  people,  or  the  colonists  had  died  off,  and  in  the  time  of 
Columbus  the  matter  had  been  entirely  forgotten. 

The  great  navigator,  Cristoforo  Colombo  (Latinised  into 
Christopher  Columbus,  and  rendered,  in  Spanish,  as  Cristobal 
Colon,  from  another  Latin  form  Colonus,  referring  to  his  work 
and  its  results),  was  born  about  1440,  in  or  near  Genoa.  After 
much  service  at  sea,  in  peace  and  war,  he  was  wrecked,  about 
1470,  in  a  naval  battle  off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and  was  thrown  on 
the  coast  of  Portugal.  At  Lisbon  he  married  the  daughter  of 
an  Italian  navigator,  who  had  been  governor  at  Madeira,  and 
Columbus  lived  for  some  time  at  the  Portuguese  capital,  engaged 
in  making  charts  for  his  livelihood.  The  study  of  his  father-in- 
law's  papers  and  maps  seems  to  have  turned  his  mind  to  thoughts 
of  western  voyages,  and  in  1474  he  desired  to  reach  Asia  in 
that  direction.  His  main  object  was  to  benefit  the  merchants 
of  Genoa,  whose  land  trade  with  the  East  was  greatly  harmed 
by  the  conquering  and  ravaging  Turks  and  Tartars.  He  had 
no  idea  of  discovering  a  "  New  World",  and  part  of  his  ambition 
was  to  rival  the  Portuguese  efforts  at  reaching  India  by  the  east- 
ward route  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  It  is  remarkable 
that  Columbus  never  knew  the  real  nature  of  his  own  discovery, 
but  died,  like  Amerigo  Vespucci,  the  Florentine,  and  other  earlier 
successors,  in  the  belief  that  he  had  found  some  part  of  Asia. 
Hence  came  the  misnomer  of  "  Indians"  for  the  native  people, 
and  of  "West  Indies"  for  the  groups  of  isles. 

After  a  voyage  beyond  Iceland  in  1477,  Columbus  spent  many 
years  in  vain  applications  for  help  to  wealthy  and  powerful  men  of 
his  time.  The  senate  of  Genoa,  King  John  II.  of  Portugal,  Henry 
the  Seventh  of  England,  and  Spanish  grandees,  have  all  the  dis- 
credit of  declining  to  listen  to,  or,  at  any  rate,  to  practically  aid 
the  persevering  and  enterprising  navigator.  The  Duke  of  Medina 
Celi,  shifting  the  burden  of  importunity,  sent  Columbus  to  Isabella 
of  Castile,  and  the  good  offices  of  Juan  Perez  de  Marchena,  a 


100  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

monk  who  had  been  confessor  to  the  Catholic  queen,  at  last 
brought  the  Genoese,  in  spite  of  ecclesiastical  opposition,  into 
communication  with  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  It  was  not  until 
seven  weary  years  of  consideration,  with  hot  and  cold  fits  of 
changing  favour  and  rejection,  had  passed  away,  that  the  Spanish 
sovereigns  gave  their  consent  to  the  expedition  westwards. 
Columbus,  with  the  title  of  admiral,  sailed  from  the  harbour  of 
Palos,  in  the  south-west  of  Spain,  with  three  little  ships,  the  Santa 
Maria,  the  Pinta,  and  the  Nina,  carrying  in  all  one  hundred 
and  twenty  men,  on  Friday,  August  3rd,  1492.  The  interesting, 
picturesque,  and  touching  details  of  this  memorable  voyage — the 
murmurings  of  the  men,  the  carved  staff  floating  on  the  waves, 
the  branch  with  fresh  leaves  and  berries,  the  distant  moving 
lights  on  land — are  known  to  all  readers  of  maritime  discovery. 
The  soil  first  reached,  and  touched  by  the  feet  of  the  adventurers 
amidst  tears  of  joy  and  prayers  and  songs  of  praise,  was  that  of 
an  island  styled  by  Columbus  San  Salvador  (Holy  Saviour),  and 
is  uncertainly  identified  with  Watling's  Island,  one  of  the  Bahamas; 
it  was,  beyond  doubt,  an  island  of  that  group.  The  discoverers 
returned  to  Europe  after  visits  to  Cuba  and  to  Hayti,  then  called 
by  Columbus  Hispaniola  or  Little  Spain.  The  flag-ship  of  the 
admiral,  the  Santa  Maria,  had  been  wrecked;  the  Pinta  had 
parted  company  in  stormy  weather;  the  Nina  alone,  with 
Columbus  on  board,  came  to  anchor  at  Palos  on  March  i5th, 
1493,  amid  shouting  crowds,  ringing  bells,  and  the  roar  of  cannon. 
The  Genoese  navigator,  who  had  brought  back  with  him  visible 
and  tangible  proofs  of  success  in  birds,  animals,  plants,  gold,  and 
six  natives  of  the  islands,  was  received  at  Barcelona  with  the 
highest  distinction,  seated  before  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  to  tell 
his  tale,  and  created  a  grandee  of  Spain.  In  later  voyages,  along 
with  many  troubles  from  quarrels,  Spanish  jealousy  of  a  famous 
foreigner,  bodily  disease,  and  cruel  treatment  at  the  hands  of 
insolent  officials,  Columbus  discovered  Jamaica,  Dominica,  Trini- 
dad, and  the  mainland  of  South  America,  and  died  at  Valladolid, 
in  Spain,  in  1506.  The  race  of  people  found  at  that  period  in 
the  West  Indian  isles  is  known  as  Caribs,  now  existing,  in  a  pure 
form,  only  near  the  Orinoco  and  in  the  wilder  parts  of  Guiana. 
The  success  of  Columbus  caused  an  outburst  of  exploring  enter- 
prise in  the  same  direction.  One  of  his  friends,  Amerigo  Ves- 


CHARACTER   AND    METHODS   OF   COLONIZATION.  IOI 

pucci,  first  visited  the  new  region  in  1499,  and,  becoming  widely 
known  as  the  preparer  of  charts  and  routes  for  voyagers,  the 
maker  of  maps,  with  an  injustice  to  Columbus  in  no  wise  due 
to  Vespucci's  action,  was  immortalized  by  the  bestowal  of  the 
name  America  on  the  continent  now  made  known  to  the  European 
world. 

The  mainland  of  North  America  was  discovered  in  June,  1497, 
by  Sebastian  Cabot,  son  of  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian  pilot,  who  had 
long  been  settled  as  a  merchant  at  Bristol.  Sebastian  set  sail 
from  that  port,  perhaps  with  his  father,  and  with  one  or  more 
brothers.  The  voyagers  reached  Labrador,  and,  as  it  seems, 
Nova  Scotia.  The  father  probably  died  about  1498,  Sebastian 
Cabot,  in  a  course  of  discovery,  having  made  his  way  to  New- 
foundland in  the  preceding  year,  and  coasted  south  as  far  as 
Chesapeake  Bay.  Other  explorers  aimed  at  a  north-west  passage 
to  India,  and  sailed  on  various  voyages  with  which  we  are  not 
now  concerned.  The  opening  up  of  the  vast  regions  of  North 
America  was  begun  by  Spanish  explorers.  Ponce  de  Leon, 
governor  of  Porto  Rico,  searching,  in  old  age  and  broken  health, 
for  a  fabled  fountain  whose  waters  would  confer  perpetual  youth, 
landed,  in  1512,  on  the  coast  of  the  region  named  by  him  Florida 
from  the  day  of  its  discovery,  which  took  place  on  Easter  Sunday, 
the  festival  styled,  in  Spanish,  Pascua  Florida.  By  the  year 
1522  Cortez  had  achieved  his  wonderful  conquest  of  Mexico. 
De  Narvaez,  six  years  later,  strove  to  conquer  Florida,  but  was 
harassed  by  the  Indians,  and  driven  to  take  to  boats  on  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  where  he  perished  by  shipwreck.  The  gallant  Ferdin- 
and de  Soto,  lured  by  the  hope  of  finding  gold,  landed  with  an 
expedition  in  Florida  in  May,  1539,  and  marched  forth  into  un- 
known regions  with  the  waving  of  banners,  the  gleaming  of  lances 
and  helmets,  and  the  sound  of  trumpets.  The  lands  now  called 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi  were  crossed,  and  in  1541  the 
party,  or  some  of  them,  came  out  of  the  forest  on  the  banks  of 
the  mighty  Mississippi,  meaning,  in  the  tongue  of  the  Algonquins, 
a  leading  aboriginal  race,  "  Great  River".  After  another  year 
of  weary  travel,  unsuccessful  in  the  search  for  gold,  De  Soto  died, 
and  the  enterprise  virtually  ended  with  the  sinking  of  his  body, 
for  burial,  in  the  stream.  Melendez,  in  1565,  founded  a  colony 
in  Florida,  and  named  the  place  St.  Augustine,  in  honour  of  the 


102  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

day:  this  place  is  the  oldest  town  in  the  United  States.  Cali- 
fornia, a  country  whose  designation  was  taken  from  the  name 
of  an  island  in  a  Spanish  romance,  described  as  full  of  gold  and 
gems,  was  explored  by  expeditions  sent  out  by  Cortez  from 
Mexico.  Three  centuries  later,  the  omen  contained  in  the  name 
California  was  to  receive  fulfilment  by  the  discovery  of  rich 
auriferous  deposits.  In  1542  Cabrillo  sailed  along  the  Pacific 
coast  as  far  north  as  the  present  Oregon,  and  in  1582  Santa  Fe, 
the  second  oldest  town  of  the  United  States,  was  built  in  New 
Mexico.  The  French  explorers  will  be  dealt  with  when  our 
record  arrives  at  the  coming  conflict,  as  waged  on  American  soil, 
between  the  two  great  European  rivals  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  natives  of  this  newly-discovered  continent  were  called 
"  Red  Indians"  from  their  coppery  hue  of  skin,  and,  apart  from 
the  Eskimos  (Esquimaux)  of  the  far  north,  were  found  to  be, 
in  all  their  differences  of  character  and  mode  of  life,  essentially 
one  type  of  mankind.  Tall,  erect,  and  strongly  built  frames;  high 
cheek-bones;  deep-set,  black  eyes;  coarse,  straight,  black  hair; 
prominent  noses,  were  their  physical  marks.  The  American 
Indian,  in  his  native  condition,  was  serious;  reserved  in  manner; 
proud;  brave,  and  therewith  cautious;  hardy  against  bodily  pain; 
kindly  to  strangers;  given  to  cruel  revenge  for  wrong.  War 
and  hunting,  in  which  acuteness  of  sight  and  hearing  were  of  great 
service,  formed  the  chief  employments  of  Indian  "braves".  In 
council  they  have  been  credited  with  a  taste  and  talents  for 
eloquent  speech.  Their  religion  involved  a  general  belief  in  one 
Supreme  Power,  with  minor  spirits,  good  and  bad:  the  expectation 
of  a  future  life,  with  its  "  happy  hunting-grounds  "  for  the  good, 
is  well  known.  A  superstitious  regard  for  the  incantations  and 
juggleries  of  impostors  called  "  medicine-men  "  presented  a  lower 
form  of  ideas  concerning  the  natural  and  spiritual  worlds.  Few 
of  the  native  tribes  ever  emerged  from  the  savage  state,  the  chief 
exceptions  being  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico  and  the  peoples  of  Central 
America  and  Peru.  The  principal  families  of  American  Indians 
were  the  Athabascans  of  Alaska  and  northern  Canada;  the  Algon- 
quins,  who  once  lived  from  Labrador  southwards  to  Virginia,  and 
westwards  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  included  the  Delawares, 
the  Chippeways,  and  many  extinct  tribes;  the  Iroquois,  a  former 
warlike  race  of  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence;  the  Dakotas, 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  IO3 

about  the  upper  Mississippi;  with  smaller  divisions,  well  known 
from  backwoods,  frontier,  and  colonial  records  as  Blackfeet,  Paw- 
nees, Cherokees,  Comanches,  and  other  names  dear  to  the  youthful 
readers  of  "  Indian"  books. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  COLONIES  TILL  THEIR  SEPARATION 

FROM  BRITAIN. 

Britain  begins  her  colonial  dominion — Sir  Walter  Raleigh — Colonization  of  Virginia  by 
the  London  and  Plymouth  Companies — The  slave-trade  introduced — The  "  Pilgrim 
Fathers"— Birth  of  "  New  England"— The  Dutch  claim  "  New  Netherland"— End 
of  Dutch  sway — The  Thirteen  Colonies — General  Oglethorpe's  emigration  plans — 
Progress  of  the  colonies — Their  differences  in  social  character — The  quarrel  with 
Great  Britain — Attempt  to  impose  taxes — Faneuil  Hall  and  Boston  Harbour — 
Beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  War — General  Washington — Surrender  of  General 
Burgoyne  at  Saratoga — Surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis — Paul  Jones  and  the  privateers 
— Independence  acknowledged  by  Britain — Constitution  of  the  United  States — The 
first  president  and  first  ambassador — Progress  of  the  cotton  cultivation. 

It  was  in  the  later  Tudor  days  and  in  early  Stuart  times  that 
Britain  fairly  began  to  found  a  colonial  dominion,  and  to  have  her 
people  living  on  both  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  In  religious  dissension, 
in  the  desire  for  extended  trade,  and  in  other  sources  of  action,  the 
causes  and  motives  of  emigration  are  to  be  discovered.  Under  Eliza- 
beth, Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  soldier,  mariner,  poet,  courtier,  prose  writer, 
scholar,  and  gentleman-adventurer,  made  vain  attempts  to  found 
settlements  in  the  great  undefined  territory  called,  from  the  un- 
wedded  queen,  "Virginia".  The  art  of  smoking  tobacco  was  the 
solitary  trophy  of  Raleigh's  enterprises  in  North  America,  but  he 
had  shown  the  way  for  later  efforts.  The  matter  was  taken  in 
hand  by  trading  corporations,  and  early  in  his  reign,  James  the 
First  gave  charters  for  the  colonization  of  Virginia  to  the  London 
Company  and  the  Plymouth  Company.  The  London  merchants 
were  to  have  the  region  between  the  34th  and  38th  degrees  of 
latitude;  the  men  of  Plymouth  were  to  be  masters  of  the  soil,  in 
what  was  then  styled  "  North  Virginia",  between  the  4ist  and  45th 
degrees. 

In  1607  a  colony  sent  out  by  the  London  Company  made 
at  Jamestown,  on  the  river  named  in  honour  of  the  king,  the 


IO4  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

first  permanent  British  settlement  in  what  is  now  the  United 
States.  The  fleet  of  three  ships,  of  100,  40,  and  20  tons,  carrying 
one  hundred  "  adventurers  ",  had  sailed  from  Blackwall  in  Decem- 
ber, 1606,  and  reached  Chesapeake  Bay  in  the  following  April. 
Famine  and  fever  destroyed  half  the  colonists  during  the  summer, 
and  then  occurred  the  romantic  adventure  of  Captain  John  Smith, 
one  of  the  council  under  the  charter.  Brought  as  a  prisoner  before 
the  Indian  chief,  Powhatan,  and  saved  from  death  by  Pocahontas, 
his  daughter,  he  was  allowed  to  return  with  supplies  of  food  to  his 
fellow-settlers,  and  became,  through  his  energy  and  wise  conduct, 
the  saviour  of  the  colony  from  extinction.  There  is  good  evidence 
to  show  that  a  main  object  of  the  managers  of  the  London  Com- 
pany was  to  spread  Christian  doctrine  and  civilization  among  the 
natives.  These  founders  of  Virginia  represented  the  Church  of 
England,  and  were  careful  to  select  emigrants  of  good  character, 
and  men  trained  in  all  kinds  of  trades  and  crafts,  who  should 
steadily  work  for  the  benefit  of  the  community.  In  1609  a  second 
charter  was  granted  to  this  South  Virginia  Company,  extending 
their  limits  to  two  hundred  miles  north  and  south  of  the  James 
River,  and  Lord  Delaware,  a  man  of  energetic  character,  was 
appointed  governor.  Some  hundreds  of  fresh  emigrants  went  out, 
carrying  large  supplies  of  stores,  and  these  new  settlers,  with  Lord 
Delaware  at  their  head,  arrived  just  in  time  to  save  the  colony 
from  ruin  due  to  attacks  of  the  Indians,  and  to  famine  and 
disease.  The  settlement  had  to  contend  with  many  difficulties, 
but  it  prospered  by  degrees,  and  the  colonists  were  soon 
engaged  in  the  growth  of  the  tobacco  which  was  to  become  so 
famous  in  later  days,  and  a  main  source  of  wealth  to  Virginian 
planters.  As  regards  government,  at  first  control  was  given  to  a 
London  council  appointed  by  the  king,  with  a  local  body  to  manage 
affairs,  the  people  having  no  choice  in  the  matter.  A  third  charter, 
in  1612,  abolished  the  London  council,  and  placed  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  stockholders.  In  1619  Governor  Yeardley  called 
together  an  assembly  at  Jamestown,  composed  of  the  governor,  the 
local  council,  and  deputies  or  "burgesses"  from  the  various  planta- 
tions or  "  boroughs".  This  was  the  first  legislative  body  that  ever 
assembled  in  America.  Its  laws  required  ratification  by  the  com- 
pany in  London,  but  on  the  other  hand,  orders  sent  from  London 
were  not  to  be  valid  without  confirmation  by  the  colonial  assembly. 


v    BRITISH 
COLONIES 

South  of" 

CANADA 

To  1783. 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  IO5 

In  1621  these  privileges  were  embodied  in  a  written  constitution, 
the  first  document  of  that  kind  seen  in  America.  South  Virginia, 
in  accordance  with  the  advance  of  public  spirit  in  Britain,  was  thus 
becoming  a  nursery  of  freedom  for  men  of  European  birth.  In 
1624  the  company  was  dissolved,  through  King  James'  jealousy  of 
the  steps  taken  towards  self-government,  and  the  colony  became  a 
royal  province,  with  a  governor  and  council  appointed  by  the  king, 
but  with  the  retention  of  the  colonial  representative  assembly.  An 
element  of  evil,  which  was  in  later  times  to  be  developed  into  vast 
proportions,  with  terrible  issues  in  civil  strife,  had  arisen  in  1619, 
when  a  Dutch  trader  came  into  port  and  sold  twenty  negroes  to 
the  colonists.  Their  labour  was  found  so  valuable  in  the  growth 
of  tobacco,  with  which  the  very  streets  of  Jamestown  were  at  one 
time  planted,  that  large  cargoes  of  "  black  ivory ",  in  the  slave- 
dealers'  slang,  were  soon  imported,  and  the  banks  of  the  James 
River  were  lined  with  plantations  for  many  a  mile.  The  taste  for 
tobacco  was  rapidly  growing  in  England,  and  in  Stuart  times  pro- 
tective laws,  aimed  at  the  Spanish  trade  in  the  herb  denounced  by 
James  the  First,  were  passed  to  support  the  Virginian  growth. 

The  Plymouth  or  North  Virginia  Company,  of  west-country 
merchants  and  gentlemen  headed  by  Chief-justice  Popham,  wholly 
failed  in  attempts  to  found  a  colony  in  the  district  assigned  to  them 
by  charter.  That  part  of  America  was  reserved  by  destiny  for 
settlers  of  a  very  different  class. 

Pursuing  for  a  time  the  fortunes  of  Virginia,  we  find  the 
colony  suffering  from  the  Navigation  Act  of  1660,  restricting 
her  trade  to  English  ships,  and  confining  her  export  of  tobacco 
to  dealings  with  England.  The  house  of  assembly  was  chiefly 
composed  of  "  royalists  ",  who  carried  matters  with  a  high  hand, 
levied  heavy  taxes,  narrowed  the  franchise,  and  persecuted  Non- 
conformists. There  were  thus  two  parties,  the  aristocratic,  com- 
prising office-holders,  royalists  who  had  fled  from  England  under 
the  Commonwealth,  and  wealthy  planters;  the  democratic,  made 
up  of  the  smaller  traders  and  the  working  class,  who  saw  them- 
selves deprived  of  political  rights.  In  1676  Virginia  was  afflicted 
with  an  Indian  war,  followed  by  an  armed  civil  struggle,  in 
which  a  young  lawyer  named  Nicholas  Bacon  headed  the  demo- 
crats against  Governor  Berkeley.  The  capital,  Jamestown,  was 
burned,  and  all  that  now  remains  of  the  place  is  the  crumbling 


IO6  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

tower  of  an  old  church,  almost  hidden  by  shrubs,  with  tall  trees 
waving  above  some  weather-marked  tombstones  of  the  churchyard 
in  the  rear.  The  death  of  Bacon  in  the  hour  of  success  left 
Berkeley  free  to  exercise  a  revenge  on  the  patriotic  party  which 
aroused  the  disgust  of  Charles  the  Second,  and  caused  his  recall. 
In  1679  Lord  Culpepper  became  governor,  and  aristocratic  rule 
was  restored.  The  franchise  was  confined  to  freeholders  and 
householders.  The  assembly  could  be  summoned  solely  by  the 
Crown,  and  could  deal  only  with  measures  drafted  by  the  governor 
and  council,  and  approved  by  the  Crown.  The  legislative  body 
had,  however,  the  sole  right  of  initiating  money-bills. 

The  "Pilgrim  Fathers"  derived  their  name  from  the  wanderings 
undertaken  in  search  of  religious  freedom.  Some  Puritan  "  Separa- 
tists", of  the  Brownist  or  Independent  sect,  had  quitted  Scrooby, 
in  Lincolnshire,  for  Holland,  in  1608,  driven  from  their  homes  by 
the  action  of  the  laws  against  nonconformity.  They  settled  at 
Leyden,  with  John  Robinson  as  pastor,  and  their  numbers  were 
reinforced  by  brethren  arriving  from  other  parts  of  England.  In 
July,  1620,  about  half  their  body,  desiring  to  find  a  home  for  their 
children  in  a  land  free  from  the  contaminating  influences  of  old- 
world  civilization,  sailed  from  Delfthaven  in  the  Speedwell.  On 
August  5th,  with  a  few  emigrants  from  England,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  persons  sailed  from  Southampton  on  board  the  Mayflower, 
of  1 80  tons,  and  the  Speedwell.  Driven  first  into  the  Dart  and 
then  into  Plymouth  by  stress  of  weather,  they  condemned  the 
Speedwell  as  an  unseaworthy  vessel,  and  at  last,  on  September  6th, 
1620,  the  party  of  pilgrims,  seventy-four  men,  twenty-eight  women, 
and  a  number  of  children,  started  from  Plymouth  in  the  Mayflower, 
and  reached  Cape  Cod  in  November,  a  long  way  north  of  the  ter- 
ritory assigned  to  the  Virginia  Company.  A  covenant  to  obey  all 
laws  enacted  by  the  males  of  the  community  in  council  was  signed, 
and  John  Carver  was  chosen  as  governor.  An  exploring  party  under 
Miles  Standish,  after  losing  rudder,  mast,  and  sail  in  a  furious  storm, 
placed  foot  ashore  on  "  Forefathers'  Rock ",  at  the  place  called 
New  Plymouth,  from  the  port  of  departure  in  the  motherland.  Their 
companions  in  the  Mayflower  ratified  the  choice  of  a  spot  for 
settlement,  and  New  England  thus  began  to  exist.  The  colony 
suffered  so  severely  in  the  first  winter  that  half  the  number,  includ- 
ing Carver,  died,  but  the  rugged  character  of  the  new-comers  matched 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN    COLONIES.  IO/ 

the  climate,  and  they  were,  happily,  received  as  friends  by  the 
Indians.  There  was  no  royal  charter  to  interfere  with  freedom, 
and  the  settlers  were  from  the  first  a  self-governed  community.  A 
church  and  fort  were  erected,  and  these,  with  the  houses,  were  sur- 
rounded by  a  stockade.  New  emigrants  came  out  from  England, 
and  land  was  assigned  to  each  household  for  the  growth  of  corn. 
In  five  years'  time  they  were  in  a  position  to  sell  produce  to  the 
Indians.  In  1633  the  colonists  had  paid  off  all  the  debt  to  the 
Company  in  London  which  had  fitted  out  the  party  in  the  May- 
flower. In  1643  they  numbered  as  many  as  three  thousand  souls. 

The  colony  of  Massachusetts  dates  from  a  royal  charter  granted 
to  a  Company  in  1629,  allotting  land  in  proportion  to  investment, 
and  leaving  the  government  to  a  head  and  council  resident  in  the 
settlement.  Nearly  a  thousand  emigrants,  including  many  influen- 
tial Puritan  families,  went  out,  and  founded  settlements  along  the 
shore  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Governor  Winthrop,  in  1630,  began 
to  build  the  town  of  Boston,  which  became  the  capital  so  famous 
in  later  days.  Very  strict  discipline,  in  moral  and  religious  affairs, 
was  maintained  in  the  new  colony,  and  no  small  amount  of  bigotry 
was  shown.  Church  membership  was  needed  for  the  possession 
of  civil  rights.  Witches  were  sought  out,  and  "  heretics "  were 
banished.  Two  members  of  the  council  were  sent  back  to  England 
for  the  crime  of  using  the  Church  prayer-book,  and  in  1635,  Roger 
Williams,  an  eloquent  young  minister,  was  driven  out  for  asserting 
freedom  of  conscience  in  certain  matters,  and,  taking  refuge  among 
the  Indians,  he  founded  a  settlement  named  Providence.  Quakers 
were  fined,  whipped,  imprisoned,  banished,  and  even  hanged,  but 
cruelty  produced  its  natural  effect  of  arousing  sympathy  for  sufferers 
and  disgust  against  persecution,  and  by  degrees  the  rigour  of  the 
bigots  was  relaxed. 

Connecticut  was  founded  under  the  auspices  of  a  Company 
which  included  Lord  Say  and  Sele  and  Lord  Brook,  who  re- 
ceived from  Lord  Warwick,  the  president  of  the  "  Council  for 
New  England",  in  London,  a  tract  of  land  in  the  valley  named 
from  its  chief  stream,  Connecticut,  in  the  Indian  tongue  meaning 
"  Long  River".  In  1635  bodies  of  emigrants  went  out,  and  after 
disputes  with  the  Dutch,  who  claimed  the  territory,  they  founded 
the  town  of  Hartford,  and  secured  their  position  by  a  fort  estab- 
lished at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Many  settlers  from  New  Plymouth 


108  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

and  Massachusetts,  attracted  by  the  rich  meadow-lands,  joined  the 
new  colony. 

The  progress  of  Virginia  at  this  time  may  be  estimated  by 
the  fact  that  the  plantations  extended  about  seventy  miles  in- 
land, and  exported  abundant  supplies  of  corn  to  the  settlers 
further  north.  The  spirit  of  the  Puritan  founders  of  Connecticut 
is  seen  in  their  attitude  towards  the  natives.  The  Indians  were 
regarded  as  mere  foes  by  those  who  "  claimed  to  be  the  divinely- 
favoured  conquerors  of  a  new  Canaan".  In  1637  the  Pequod 
tribe,  who  had  attacked  the  new-comers,  was  utterly  destroyed,  men 
women,  and  children,  after  an  assault  upon  their  palisaded  fort, 
which  was  set  on  fire.  Most  of  the  natives  perished  in  the  flames, 
and  the  few  that  could  flee  were  hunted  down  to  annihilation  in 
the  river-swamps.  The  other  tribes  took  the  alarm,  and  in  fear  of 
a  combined  Indian  assault,  the  colonists  of  New  Plymouth,  New- 
haven  (a  settlement  founded  in  1638  by  some  wealthy  London 
families),  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut  formed  a  federation,  the 
first  of  its  kind  in  America,  styled  "  The  United  Colonies  of  New 
England ".  The  civil  troubles  then  raging  in  Britain  left  them 
unfettered  by  home  control,  and  while  they  were  nominally  subject 
to  England,  these  northern  colonies  were,  from  the  first,  to  a  large 
degree  independent.  At  this  time  the  population  of  Massachusetts 
had  risen  to  nearly  30,000,  and  the  other  New  England  settle- 
ments contained  over  one-third  of  that  number.  In  1638  the  Rev. 
John  Harvard,  a  graduate  of  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  who 
had  settled  in  New  England,  bequeathed  a  noble  gift  of  books  and 
money  to  the  college  being  founded  by  the  general  court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts at  Newton,  afterwards  called  Cambridge,  on  the  river 
Charles,  and  now  virtually  a  suburb  of  Boston.  The  place  had 
been  settled  in  1630.  In  1639  the  first  printing-press  in  America 
was  there  set  up  by  Day,  a  printer  brought  out  from  London  by 
Joseph  Glover,  a  Nonconformist  minister.  The  new  Cambridge 
soon  became  famous  for  its  publications,  producing  in  1640  the  Bay 
Psalm-book,  the  first  book  printed  in  the  British  American  colonies. 
It  has  since  acquired  world-wide  renown  as  the  abode  for  many 
years  of  Longfellow,  in  a  house  once  occupied  by  George  Wash- 
ington, and  as  the  seat  of  the  noble  institution  of  learning  known 
as  the  Harvard  University. 

The  origin  of  Rhode  Island  colony  is  seen  in  the  settlement  of 


THE    NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  IOQ 

Providence,  founded  as  above  by  Roger  Williams,  the  pioneer  in 
those  parts  of  religious  freedom.  The  soil  was  fertile,  and  the 
place  "  offered  a  refuge  from  the  spiritual  tyranny  of  Massachu- 
setts'*. The  island  of  Aquiday  or  Aqueduck,  called  by  the  Dutch, 
from  the  colour  of  its  soil,  "  Roode  "  (Red)  Island,  was  occupied, 
and  hence  arose  the  name  of  the  new  settlement.  A  charter  was 
obtained  from  England,  after  the  victory  of  the  Parliament  in  the 
Civil  War,  and  in  1647  tne  people  met  to  choose  their  governor 
and  other  officials,  and  to  frame  laws  granting  freedom  of  faith  and 
worship  to  all.  This  was  "  the  first  legal  declaration  of  liberty  of 
conscience  ever  adopted  in  the  Old  or  New  World  ". 

Returning  for  a  moment  to  Virginia,  we  find  that,  in  1647,  the 
colony  contained  some  15,000  Englishmen  and  some  hundreds  of 
slaves,  with  many  thousands  of  cattle  and  other  stock,  and  an 
abundant  growth  of  wheat,  tobacco,  and  maize  or  Indian  corn. 
The  James  River  had  anchored  in  her  waters  at  one  time  nearly 
three  dozen  ships  from  London,  Holland,  Bristol,  and  New  Eng- 
land. On  the  execution  of  Charles  the  First,  Virginia,  now  con- 
taining, as  we  have  seen,  many  royalist  refugees,  acknowledged 
his  son  as  Charles  the  Second,  "King  of  England  and  Virginia", 
while  the  colonies  of  New  England  adhered  to  the  cause  of  the 
new  republic  established  at  home. 

The  list  of  the  New  England  states  is  completed  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, a  feeble  settlement  founded  by  a  man  named  John  Mason, 
and  called  after  his  native  English  county.  From  time  to  time 
this  territory  was  united  to,  and  again  separated  from,  Massachu- 
setts, either  by  the  consent  of  the  people  or  by  royal  authority. 
In  1741  the  colony  became  "a  royal  province",  and  so  remained 
until  the  final  separation  from  Great  Britain. 

In  1652  Virginia  was  forced,  by  the  arrival  of  an  expedition, 
to  submit  to  the  Commonwealth,  with  an  indemnity  for  the  past, 
and  with  the  sole  right  of  taxation  vested  in  her  own  Assembly, 
a  most  important  arrangement  in  our  view  of  coming  events. 
The  Assembly  was  also  to  elect  all  officials.  In  the  same  year 
Boston  erected  a  mint,  and  began  to  coin  silver  in  shillings,  six- 
pences, and  threepenny  pieces.  In  1656  many  settlers  from  New 
England  migrated  to  Jamaica,  newly  conquered  by  Cromwell 
from  Spain.  In  1660,  on  the  Restoration,  a  "Council  for  the 
Plantations"  was  created  in  London,  and  the  New  England 


IIO  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

colonies  recognized  the  authority  of  Charles  the  Second,  who 
thereupon  granted  a  charter  to  Massachusetts,  including  a  con- 
stitution with  full  legislative  and  executive  power  within  the 
colony,  provided  their  Acts  were  not  at  variance  with  the  laws 
of  England.  Charters  were  also  given  to  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island.  The  Navigation  Acts  of  1661  and  1663,  allowing  the 
imports  and  exports  of  the  colonies  to  be  carried  only  in  Eng- 
lish vessels,  and  further  restricting  trade,  severely  affected  the 
commerce  of  the  now  thriving  Massachusetts.  Much  discontent 
arose,  and  the  colony  defied  the  provisions  of  the  Acts  in  trading 
direct  with  the  West  Indies.  In  1686  James  the  Second,  carrying 
out  a  plan  formed  by  his  predecessor,  placed  the  government  of 
Massachusetts  in  the  hands  of  a  President  and  Council,  devoid  of 
power  to  make  laws  or  to  impose  taxes.  No  representative  assem- 
bly was  to  exist,  and  the  abode  of  freedom  was  thus  subjected  to  a 
stern  despotic  sway.  This  final  effort  of  Stuart  tyranny  was  swept 
away  by  the  Revolution  of  1689.  The  troubles  of  past  years  had 
included  a  war  in  1675,  against  the  Indian  "  King  Philip".  Many 
towns  in  Massachusetts  and  other  parts  of  New  England  were 
burnt,  and  the  struggle  lasted  till  the  end  of  1676,  when  Philip 
was  defeated  and  slain. 

The  colonies  now  to  be  dealt  with  were  partly  acquired  by 
conquest.  The  Dutch,  in  some  parts  of  the  New  World,  had 
been  beforehand  with  their  European  rivals  in  maritime  affairs. 
Captain  Henry  Hudson,  whose  name  survives  in  a  strait,  a  grand 
bay,  and  a  noble  and  beautiful  river,  was  an  English  navigator  in 
the  service  of  Holland.  In  1609  he  entered  the  harbour  where 
rfie  "  Empire  City  "  was  thereafter  to  stand,  and  sailed  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  in  the  hope  of  reaching  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
up  the  river  to  which  his  name  was  given.  Such  were  the 
European  conceptions  at  that  date  of  the  shape  and  size  of  the 
North  American  continent  It  was  on  this  discovery  that  the 
Dutch  based  their  claim  to  possess  the  land  stretching  from  Cape 
Cod  to  the  river  Delaware,  to  which  they  gave  the  designation 
o£  "  New  Netherland ".  Their  ships  soon  began  to  visit  this 
region  for  traffic  in  furs  with  the  Indian  hunters.  In  1615  a 
trading-post  was  formed  on  Manhattan  Island,  and  a  fort  was 
erected  to  the  south  of  the  present  site  of  Albany.  Their  "  West 
India  Company"  made  a  permanent  settlement  at  New  Amsterdam, 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  Ill 

and  Protestant  colonists  were  brought  over  from  Belgium.  Land 
was  purchased  from  the  Indians,  and  the  manors,  of  which  some 
still  remain,  were  formed  by  possessors  who,  with  their  heirs,  were 
called  "patroons".  The  records  of  the  Dutch  colony  include 
Indian  wars,  ruthlessly  waged  on  both  sides,  disputes  with  the 
British  settlers  on  the  Connecticut  and  with  the  Swedes  on  the 
Delaware,  and  the  doings  of  four  governors,  of  whom  the  last  and 
ablest  was  Peter  Stuyvesant.  In  1664  the  recapture,  by  the 
famous  Admiral  De  Ruyter,  of  settlements  on  the  Guinea  coast, 
caused  the  seizure  of  many  Dutch  vessels  in  English  ports,  and 
further  retaliation  was  planned.  Charles  the  Second  granted  New 
Netherland  to  his  brother  James,  Duke  of  York,  and  a  fleet  was 
sent  out  to  give  effect  to  this  bestowal.  Brave  old  Stuyvesant 
desired  to  resist,  but  he  was  a  hater  of  free  institutions,  and  many 
of  the  Dutch  had  been  seduced  by  the  prospect  of  the  self-govern- 
ment enjoyed  by  their  neighbours  in  Connecticut,  and  were  strongly 
inclined  to  make  a  trial  of  English  rule.  In  September,  1664,  the 
English  flag  was  hoisted  on  Manhattan,  and  the  town  and  colony 
were  renamed  New  York,  in  honour  of  the  new  proprietor.  The 
English  rulers,  however,  did  not  grant  the  desired  rights,  and  in 
1673,  when  England  and  Holland  were  again  at  war,  a  strong 
Dutch  squadron  retook  New  York  by  surrender,  and  the  place 
was  again  held  by  Holland  for  a  few  months.  The  peace  con- 
cluded in  1674  restored  the  colony  to  Britain;  and  this  was  the 
end  of  Dutch  sway  in  North  America. 

They  left  behind  them  many  marks  visible  to  this  day.  Some 
of  the  best  families  in  New  York  city  and  state  are  of  Dutch 
descent  The  custom  of  New  Year's  Day  visits,  the  children's 
legend  of  Santa  Claus  at  Christmas,  the  Easter  coloured  eggs,  the 
dough-nuts,  or  small  round  cakes  of  flour,  eggs,  milk,  and  sugar, 
are  all  of  Dutch  origin.  Washington  Irving's  History  of  New 
York,  ascribed  to  "  Diedrich  Knickerbocker ",  a  designation  of 
which  the  surname  commemorates  an  early  settler,  is  a  masterly 
piece  of  good-natured  satire  on  the  old  Dutchmen  of  Manhattan 
Island.  The  little  man  in  knee-breeches  and  cocked  hat,  a  per- 
manent figure  among  literary  portraits,  gave  his  name  to  a  favourite 
style  of  masculine  costume,  and  to  the  New  York  families  whose 
ancestors  came  out  from  Holland.  The  story  of  Rip  Van  Winkle, 
the  hero  of  another  charming  production  of  Irving,  if  it  has  not 


112  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

been  read  in  the  original  sketch,  can  never  be  forgotten  by  those 
who  have  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  Joseph  Jefferson,  one  of 
America's,  nay,  of  the  world's,  greatest  actors  in  his  presentment- 
beautiful  in  idea,  most  delicate  in  execution — of  the  good-natured, 
worthless  Dutchman  who  wanders  to  the  woods  of  the  Catskill 
Mountains,  falls  into  a  deep  slumber,  and  awakens,  after  a  sleep  of 
many  years,  to  find  himself  changed  from  a  subject  of  George  the 
Third  into  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  with  his  wife  dead,  his 
beard  grown  a  foot  long,  and  new  faces,  buildings,  and  names  all 
around  him  on  his  return  to  his  native  village  near  the  Hudson. 

New  Jersey,  once  forming  a  part  of  "  New  Netherland  ",  was 
granted  by  James,  Duke  of  York,  in  1664,  to  Lord  Berkeley  and 
Sir  George  Carteret,  and  derived  its  name  from  the  largest  of  the 
Channel  Islands,  where  Carteret  had  been  governor.  It  soon 
became,  by  sale  to  William  Penn,  and  by  settlement,  a  Quaker 
colony,  and  after  union  for  some  time  with  New  York,  was  made 
a  "royal  province"  in  1738.  It  contained  also  many  other  Puritan 
settlers,  and  Presbyterians  who  had  fled  from  persecution  in  Scot- 
land under  Charles  the  Second. 

Pennsylvania,  destined  to  become  one  of  the  most  important 
territories,  was  founded  by  the  famous  Quaker,  William  Penn,  son 
of  the  admiral  who  captured  Jamaica.  In  payment  of  a  debt  due 
from  the  Crown  the  younger  Penn  received  from  Charles  the 
Second,  in  1682,  a  grant  of  the  territory  lying  between  New  Jersey 
and  Maryland,  west  of  the  Delaware.  The  woody  region  took 
its  name  from  the  founder  and  the  Latin  word  for  "  forest ". 
Penn  wished  to  secure  a  place  of  refuge  for  his  persecuted  brethren, 
and  applied,  from  the  first,  in  his  new  colony  the  principles  pro- 
fessed by  the  Quaker  sect.  Two  thousand  colonists,  despatched 
in  the  first  year,  founded  as  capital  the  town  of  Philadelphia,  em- 
bodying the  Greek  for  "brotherly  love".  The  code  called  "The 
Great  Law  ",  drawn  up  by  a  legislative  body  of  settlers,  required 
all  voters  and  office-holders  to  be  professors  of  the  Christian  faith : 
apart  from  that,  all  Deists  were  left  free  to  their  own  religious 
profession.  Penn's  kindly  words  and  demeanour  at  once  gained 
the  hearts  of  the  Indians,  at  an  interview,  ending  in  a  treaty,  held 
beneath  the  foliage  of  a  great  elm-tree,  which,  carefully  preserved 
until  1810,  was  then  blown  down,  and  has  its  site  marked  by  a 
monument.  It  is  the  boast  of  the  peaceful  sect  who  object  to 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  113 

oaths  that  this,  the  only  treaty  not  sworn  to,  was  the  only  treaty 
never  broken.  Love  begets  love,  and,  amidst  the  internecine 
conflicts  waged  between  colonists  and  natives,  the  Indians  never 
shed  the  blood  of  a  single  Quaker. 

Delaware  was  composed  of  three  counties  on  the  lower  course 
of  that  river,  which  broke  off  from  Pennsylvania  after  the  founder's 
return  to  England.  Penn  allowed  their  action,  and  granted  them 
a  separate  assembly,  but  the  two  colonies  remained  under  one 
governor  until  the  revolt  from  the  British  crown. 

All  the  states  to  the  south,  lying  between  Chesapeake  Bay  and 
Florida,  were  formed  out  of  the  original  extensive  "  Virginia  ",  and 
were  mainly,  in  religion,  attached  to  the  Anglican  Church,  and  in 
social  and  political  matters  were  aristocratic  in  tastes  and  form  of 
rule. 

The  foundation  of  Maryland  takes  us  back  to  the  year 
1634,  when  Charles  the  First  granted  to  Cecil  Calvert,  Lord 
Baltimore,  a  Catholic,  a  grant  of  land  in  Virginia.  The  noble- 
man's object  was  to  find  a  place  of  free  worship  for  his  brethren 
who  suffered  persecution  in  England.  A  body  of  emigrants  settled 
at  an  Indian  village  near  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac,  and  the  colony 
had  its  name  from  the  queen,  Henrietta  Maria.  The  yield  of  corn 
from  the  virgin  soil  was  so  rich  that  the  growers  could  at  once 
export  to  New  England.  The  charter  gave  all  freemen  a  share 
in  legislation,  and  the  assembly  in  1649  passed  a  famous  Toleration 
Act,  securing  freedom  of  worship  to  all  Christians.  Armed  civil 
strife  occurred  at  intervals,  owing  in  one  case  to  interference  from 
Virginia,  and  in  another  to  the  disgraceful  conduct  of  a  Protestant 
majority  in  the  assembly,  who  excluded  the  Catholics,  and  declared 
them  outlaws.  After  a  long  and  varying  struggle  Maryland  was 
made  a  "royal  province"  in  1690,  and  the  Church  of  England 
became  the  established  form  of  religion.  The  Catholics,  with  the 
greatest  injustice  and  ingratitude,  were  disfranchised  in  the  very 
territory  which  they  had  planted.  Redress  came  in  1715,  when 
the  fourth  Lord  Baltimore  recovered  the  proprietary  rights  lost 
to  his  predecessor,  and  restored  the  system  of  religious  toleration. 

North  and  South  Carolina  arose  from  a  grant  of  1663,  whereby 
Charles  the  Second  gave  to  patentees,  including  Lords  Clarendon, 
Ashley,  and  Albemarle,  the  territory  lying  between  Virginia  and 
the  river  St.  Mathias,  in  Florida.  The  name  was  derived  from 


VOL.  I. 


114  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

Carolus,  the  Latin  form  of  "  Charles  ".  The  province  was  to  be 
directly  subject  to  the  Crown,  with  liberty  of  conscience  for  all  the 
people,  the  proprietors,  in  other  respects,  having  absolute  power 
for  making  war  and  raising  money  by  taxation.  Some  emigrants 
from  Virginia  were  already  in  the  land,  when  settlers  from  England 
arrived  in  1670,  and  afterwards  founded  the  city  of  Charleston. 
The  colony  grew  fast,  from  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  genial 
climate,  which  attracted  many  Dutchmen  from  New  York.  Per- 
secution in  France  drove  thousands  of  Huguenots  across  the 
Atlantic,  where  they  proved  to  be,  as  elsewhere,  most  valuable 
acquisitions,  in  their  moral  conduct,  marked  by  charity  and  thrift, 
their  polished  manners,  and  their  political,  artistic,  and  agricultural 
skill.  The  mulberry  and  the  olive  were  planted  in  a  new  soil,  and 
the  descendants  of  these  Huguenots  furnished  three  presidents,  in 
the  revolutionary  time,  to  the  Congress  of  Philadelphia. 

Georgia,  the  last  of  the  thirteen  colonies,  belongs  alone,  in  its 
origin,  to  the  eighteenth  century,  having  been  founded  in  1732,  the 
year  of  Washington's  birth.  Its  name  was  given  from  the  reigning 
British  king:  its  first  settlement  was  due  to  the  benevolent  General 
Oglethorpe,  a  man  who  had  served  on  the  Continent  under  Marl- 
borough's  famous  friend  and  colleague,  Prince  Eugene.  It  was 
when  he  was  M.P.  for  Haslemere,  a  Surrey  borough  at  that  time, 
that  Oglethorpe  planned  a  new  American  colony,  as  a  place  where 
the  debtors  then  leading  a  miserable  and  useless  life  in  the  noisome 
jails  of  the  period,  might  enter  on  a  new  course  of  profitable  and 
healthful  toil.  He  also  designed  the  provision  of  a  refuge  for 
certain  German  Protestants  who  were  suffering  bitter  persecution 
from  the  prince-archbishop  of  Salzburg,  and  who  were  driven  into 
exile,  to  the  number  of  thirty  thousand,  as  described  in  Goethe's 
famous  story,  Hermann  und  Dorothea.  The  sum  of  ten  thousand 
pounds  was  furnished  by  Parliament,  and  George  the  Second  made 
a  grant  of  land.  In  1733  the  good  general  took  out  a  body  of 
more  than  a  hundred  emigrants,  and  founded  the  town  of  Savannah. 
Two  years  later  he  went  out  with  a  party  of  three  hundred  fresh 
settlers,  including  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  who  preached  there 
for  a  time.  The  Indians  were  conciliated  by  presents,  and,  better 
still,  by  Oglethorpe's  kindly  spirit.  One  of  their  chiefs  gave  him 
a  buffalo's  skin  with  the  head  and  feathers  of  an  eagle  painted  upon 
it.  His  explanation  was  that  the  eagle  signified  swiftness  and  the 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  115 

buffalo  strength,  qualities  displayed  by  the  new-comers  in  flying 
like  birds  over  the  vast  sea,  and  in  meeting  hostile  attacks.  The 
soft  eagle's  feathers  represented  love;  the  warm  buffalo's  skin  was 
a  protection  against  cold.  "  Therefore,"  said  the  Indian,  "  love  and 
protect  our  families."  Further  emigrations  brought  over  members 
of  the  Church  of  the  Brethren,  a  Protestant  society,  popularly 
known  as  the  Moravians,  claiming  to  represent  the  old  Bohemian 
Brethren  of  the  days  of  John  Huss.  These  excellent  persons  gave 
examples  of  a  pure  and  gentle  Christian  life.  A  number  of  sturdy 
Scottish  Highlanders  brought  bone  and  sinew  to  the  aid  of  the 
new  colony.  In  1738  the  general  took  out  a  regiment  of  six 
hundred  men,  with  whom  he  waged  war  against  the  Spaniards  of 
Florida.  In  later  days,  a  declension  from  the  primitive  purity  of 
Georgian  morals  showed  itself  in  the  discontent  aroused  by  regula- 
tions which  excluded  rum  and  the  use  of  slaves.  The  rum  had 
been  exported  from  the  West  Indies  in  exchange  for  lumber  and 
other  products  of  the  colony,  and  the  loss  of  this  trade  was  a  real 
grievance.  Oglethorpe  left  the  colony  finally  in  1743,  and  nine 
years  later  the  surrender  of  the  charter  to  the  British  government 
made  Georgia  a  crown  colony  until  the  final  rupture. 

The  history  of  the  thirteen  Colonies,  before  the  revolt,  is  mainly 
one  of  peaceful  progress  arising  from  tillage,  manufactures,  and 
trade.  We  find  a  spirit  of  independence  shown  in  1665,  when  the 
settlement  of  New  Plymouth  "  declined  to  permit  the  king  a  voice 
in  the  appointment  of  a  governor",  and  the  "  general  court"  of 
Massachusetts  successfully  resisted  the  royal  claim  to  hear,  in  the 
courts  at  home,  appeals  from  the  colonial  tribunals.  At  the  same 
time,  Massachusetts  owned  nearly  two  hundred  vessels,  mostly 
hailing  from  Boston.  In  1671,  Maryland  lays  a  tax  of  two 
shillings  a  hogshead  on  exported  tobacco,  a  clear  proof  of  increase 
in  that  article  of  production.  In  1687,  the  governor  of  New  York 
invites  the  Iroquois  Indians  "  to  bring  their  trade  to  Albany". 
This  powerful  people  was,  at  this  time,  harassing  the  French  in 
Canada,  and  it  was  prudent  for  an  English  colony  to  keep  them  on 
friendly  terms.  The  intellectual  advance  is  shown  in  1692  by  the 
establishment,  under  royal  charter,  of  the  Williamsburg  College  in 
Virginia,  endowed  by  government  and  by  private  funds,  with  a  large 
grant  of  land,  and  a  duty  of  a  penny  per  pound  weight  of  exported 
tobacco.  In  1716,  Yale  College,  named  from  its  chief  founder, 


Il6  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

Elihu  Yale,  was  established  at  Newhaven,  in  Connecticut,  and  now, 
as  Yale  University,  has  a  high  position  among  American  seats  of 
learning,  with  schools  for  students  in  theology,  arts,  medicine,  law, 
and  science.  In  1699  the  North  American  Colonies  had  probably 
attained  to  a  population  of  300,000,  of  whom  the  bulk  were  found 
in  New  England,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  New  York.  About 
one-sixth  of  the  whole,  or  50,000,  were  negro  slaves,  four-fifths  of 
whom  belonged  to  the  southern  settlements,  where  the  hotter 
climate  caused  a  demand  for  labour  unsuited  to  whites.  It  is 
significant  of  coming  opinions  and  action  on  the  great  question  of 
slavery  that,  so  early  as  1705,  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
sitting  at  Boston,  imposed  a  duty  of  ^4  a-head  on  every  imported 
negro. 

Symptoms  of  coming  trouble  made  themselves  observed 
in  1761,  when  the  restrictions  and  duties  placed  on  colonial 
commerce  by  the  English  Board  of  Trade  caused  a  large  amount 
of  smuggling,  and  many  evasions  of  the  obnoxious  Navigation 
Acts.  In  the  struggle  against  the  French  and  their  Indian  allies, 
ending  in  1763,  the  men  of  different  colonies,  living  under  diverse 
systems  of  rule,  had  been  brought  together,  to  fight  side  by  side  in 
a  common  quarrel,  and,  with  the  better  knowledge  of  each  other 
gained  as  comrades,  the  colonists  laid  aside  provincial  jealousies, 
and  learned  the  strength  and  helpful  spirit  of  union.  They  had 
been  contending  as  one  nation,  apart  from  the  mother  country, 
though  they  fought,  in  many  cases,  side  by  side  with  British  troops, 
whose  officers  caused  much  irritation  by  open  contempt  for  the  un- 
skilled, however  brave,  colonial  soldiers.  A  democratic  spirit  had 
arisen  in  the  use  of  self-government,  and  some  of  the  colonies  had 
long  been  accustomed  only  to  taxation  voted  by  their  own  legis- 
latures. A  sense  of  freedom  and  independence  was  abroad,  and 
the  people  had  grown  conscious  of  their  strength.  Education  had 
much  advanced,  especially  in  New  England,  and  seven  other 
colleges  had  followed  the  foundation  of  Harvard  and  Yale.  The 
chief  industry  was  agriculture,  but  manufactures  of  hats,  paper, 
shoes,  furniture,  coarse  cutlery,  and  cloth -weaving  had  been 
developed  in  the  northern  colonies.  A  large  coasting-trade  existed, 
and  the  bold  fishermen  of  New  England  were  prominent  among 
the  whalers  of  Arctic  seas.  The  chief  mode  of  travel  was  on  foot 
or  horseback,  and  by  means  of  coasting  sloops,  though  coaches 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  1 17 

called  "flying  machines",  journeying  in  two  days  from  New  York 
to  Philadelphia,  were  introduced  at  the  end  of  this  period.  A 
postal  system,  of  which  Benjamin  Franklin  was  one  of  the  earlier 
directors,  was  established  for  the  whole  country. 

There  were  marked  differences  of  social  character  and  life  be- 
tween the  peoples  of  the  three  different  groups  of  colonies,  and,  in 
political  and  military  affairs,  when  the  day  of  trial  came,  much 
divergence  of  spirit  was  revealed.  The  colonists  of  New  England, 
who  dwelt  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  and 
Rhode  Island,  were  largely  Puritan :  strict  in  morals,  simple  in  life, 
possessed  of  free  and  popular  institutions,  and  of  intellectual  power 
which  was  brilliantly  shown  in  oratorical  and  literary  effort,  then 
and  in  later  days.  From  New  England  sprang  America's  most 
original  metaphysician,  Jonathan  Edwards,  born  in  Connecticut,  in 
1 703,  author  of  the  Freedom  of  the  Will,  and  founder  of  a  school  of 
Calvinistic  theologians.  Daniel  Webster,  one  of  the  most  moving 
of  American  speakers,  was  born  in  New  Hampshire.  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  the  brilliant  describer  of  early  New  England  life,  as 
author  of  Twice-told  Tales,  The  Scarlet  Letter,  and  The  House  of 
the  Seven  Gables,  was  of  Salem,  in  Massachusetts.  Longfellow 
first  saw  the  light  in  Portland,  Maine,  a  state  founded  in  1820,  and 
forming,  in  1 807,  the  year  of  the  poet's  birth,  a  part  of  Massachusetts. 
Dr.  Channing,  the  great  preacher,  liberal  theologian,  and  opponent 
of  slavery,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  was  a  native  of  Rhode  Island. 
Emerson,  the  wise  philosopher,  lofty  in  spirit,  quaint  and  delicate 
in  utterance,  is  one  of  whom  Boston  is  justly  proud.  Motley,  the 
vivid  and  accurate  historian  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  was  a  man  of 
Massachusetts.  The  same  state  produced  Bancroft  and  Prescott, 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  and  James  Russell  Lowell. 

The  Middle  Group  of  colonies,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Dela- 
ware, and  Pennsylvania,  had  people  of  very  mixed  race.  The 
Dutch  in  New  York,  the  Swedes  in  Delaware,  German  Protestants, 
Huguenots,  Welsh  emigrants,  with  the  other  British  settlers, 
furnished  many  shades  of  social  and  commercial  character.  The 
main  occupations  were  mining  and  agriculture.  There  was,  during 
the  war  against  Great  Britain,  a  lack,  at  various  times,  of  public 
spirit  and  self-sacrifice  in  the  cause.  One  famous  politician, 
Benjamin  Franklin,  won  his  renown  as  a  citizen  of  Pennsylvania, 
though  he,  like  so  many  of  the  illustrious  men  above  named,  was 


Il8  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

born  in  Massachusetts.  New  York  glories  in  having  given  birth 
to  Washington  Irving,  a  prince  among  essayists,  admirable  in 
fiction,  and  in  Spanish  history  and  romance,  most  loveable  of  men. 

The  Southern  Group,  including  Virginia,  Maryland,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  were  all  nominally  attached, 
in  religious  faith,  to  the  Anglican  Church,  and  contained  a  popula- 
tion which,  in  its  upper  class  of  large  planters,  was  connected  in 
blood,  as  existing  names  show,  with  families  of  high  standing  in 
the  mother-country.  There  were  large  numbers  of  negroes  and  of 
inferior  whites,  chiefly  engaged  in  the  cultivation,  at  this  period,  of 
tobacco,  to  be  followed,  at  a  later  date,  by  cotton.  Three  men  of 
high  distinction,  including  one  of  the  first  rank  in  the  world's 
history,  came  forth  from  Virginia  to  aid  the  colonial  cause  in  the 
struggle  for  independence.  Their  names  are  George  Washington ; 
Thomas  Jefferson,  third  president  of  the  United  States;  and  Patrick 
Henry,  a  man  of  Scottish  blood,  the  greatest  of  American  orators. 
The  social  life  of  these  states  differed  widely  from  that  which  was 
developed  further  north.  Plantations  took  the  place  of  populous 
towns  and  villages,  and  every  estate  was  a  little  kingdom  in  itself, 
with  a  large  slave  population,  including  men  of  every  trade,  and 
ruled  by  a  proprietor  who,  in  the  main,  was  a  just  and  generous 
master.  His  house,  often  rich  in  costly  furniture  and  plate,  and 
displaying  a  high  degree  of  refinement  and  luxury  in  the  mode  of 
living,  was  the  scene  of  boundless  hospitality  to  neighbours,  and  to 
all  well-conducted  strangers  arriving  from  other  parts  of  the 
colonies  or  from  lands  beyond  the  seas.  A  chief  point  of  rivalry 
amongst  wealthy  planters  was  the  possession  of  fine  horses,  and 
the  English  fox-hunter  who  might  visit  the  southern  colonies  would 
often  be  able  there  to  enjoy  the  excitement  of  the  chase,  and  listen 
to  the  music  of  well-trained  hounds  in  full  cry.  Apart  from  the 
mansion  of  the  owner  would  be  seen  the  negro  quarters,  with  their 
poultry-yards  and  gardens,  and  the  settlement  was  completed  by 
the  great  sheds  for  the  "  curing "  of  tobacco,  the  workshops  for 
smiths,  carpenters,  and  other  craftsmen,  and  the  mills  for  grinding 
wheat  and  maize.  A  pleasant  picture  of  life  in  "  Ole  Virginny", 
as  the  negroes  styled  the  land,  may  be  found  in  the  noble  fiction  of 
Thackeray  which  forms  the  sequel  to  his  immortal  Henry  Esmond. 

Such  was  the  fine,  flourishing,  and  promising  colonial  dominion 
which  the  motherland  was  to  see  torn  apart,  by  the  colonists'  own 


THE    NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  1 19 

act,  from  her  political  embrace.  The  causes  of  the  quarrel,  remote 
and  immediate,  were  manifold.  Some  were  of  long,  slow,  and 
pernicious  growth  and  effect ;  others  took  the  form  of  exasperation 
which  produced  instantaneous  retaliation  of  explosive  and  disastrous 
force.  This  history  knows  nothing  of  political  party,  Whig  or  Tory, 
Conservative,  Radical,  or  Liberal.  The  one  thing  certain,  as  to 
the  loss  of  the  American  colonies,  is  that,  even  assuming  the 
colonial  subjects  of  George  the  Third  to  have  been  wholly  wrong 
on  the  principles  involved  in  the  disputes  between  them  and  the 
Crown,  the  British  king  and  ministers  did  not  act  according  to 
the  saying  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  wise  and  benevolent  emperor 
of  Rome,  which  lays  down  that  "a  prudent  ruler  will  not  offend 
the  prejudices  of  his  people,  though  he  might  wish  they  were 
wiser".  It  is  equally  certain  that,  as  in  most  quarrels,  there  were 
faults  on  both  sides.  If  there  was  provocation  from  the  home 
government,  there  was  also  selfishness  on  the  part  of  colonists  who 
forgot  the  benefits  lately  conferred,  at  vast  cost  of  men  and  money, 
by  their  fellow-subjects  in  Britain.  The  capture  of  Quebec,  and 
the  destruction  of  French  power  in  America,  with  the  maritime 
superiority  acquired  by  Great  Britain,  had  left  the  colonists  free 
from  all  apprehension  of  danger  both  by  sea  and  land.  They  were 
thus  no  longer  dependent,  for  their  very  existence,  on  the  mother- 
country,  and  they  appear  to  have  been  somewhat  hasty  in  showing 
resentment  for  attempts  to  exact  a  small  contribution  towards  the 
cost  of  the  struggle  which  had  brought  them  a  great,  manifest,  and 
lasting  advantage. 

There  had  been  efforts  made,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  to  obtain  a  revenue  from  the  colonies,  and  many  dis- 
putes had  arisen  concerning  schemes  for  colonial  defence,  and 
methods  of  federal  union  amongst  the  different  colonies.  The 
restrictions  on  colonial  trade  appeared,  to  the  colonists  them- 
selves, to  be  part  of  a  system  devised  and  worked  for  the  benefit 
of  the  home  merchants.  They  felt  as  if  they  were  being  treated, 
in  this  respect,  as  a  mere  possession,  as  conquered  people,  though 
the  claim  to  interfere  at  all  with  any  of  their  affairs  was  based  upon 
the  fact  that  they  were  brothers  and  Britons,  mainly  one  with 
their  fellow -subjects  at  home  in  blood,  language,  and  religion. 
The  Navigation  Acts  had  long  been  evaded  in  various  ways, 
notably  in  an  illicit  trade  carried  on  by  the  colonists  with  South 


120  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

America,  whereby  they  obtained  silver  bullion  in  exchange  for 
timber  and  other  produce^ 

In  an  evil  hour,  George  Grenville,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
and  prime-minister  in  1 765,  began  to  read  the  despatches  from  the 
colonies,  which  had  long  been  habitually  left  unopened  and  dusty 
in  the  pigeon-holes  of  the  official  whose  business  it  was  to  manage 
colonial  affairs.  Grenville  discovered  what  was  going  on  to  the 
detriment  of  the  revenue,  and,  eager  to  pay  off  some  of  the 
National  Debt,  which  had  increased,  between  1748  and  1763,  from 
about  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and  thirty  millions,  he  resolved 
to  levy  some  taxation  from  the  colonies.  This  able,  intrepid, 
pertinacious,  and  narrow-minded  man  had  the  highest  notions 
concerning  the  powers  of  Parliament,  and  was,  in  fact,  a  tyrant  who 
disguised  tyranny  under  constitutional  forms.  King  and  subjects 
alike  were  small,  in  his  view,  compared  with  the  sacred  House 
composed  of  the  people's  representatives.  He  held  that  the 
colonies  could  lawfully  be  taxed,  and  all  that  was  lawful  was  also, 
in  the  minister's  view,  not  only  expedient,  but  a  laudable  discharge 
of  duty  to  the  state.  The  two  great  champions  of  the  American 
colonies  against  Grenville  were  the  elder  Pitt,  soon  to  become 
Earl  of  Chatham,  and  Edmund  Burke.  They  took,  however, 
different  grounds,  Pitt  holding  that  the  colonial  assemblies  were 
parliaments  which  alone  possessed  the  right  of  taxation :  Burke 
thought  that  the  British  Parliament  had  the  abstract  right  to  tax, 
but  that  it  was  expedient  to  consult  the  feelings  of  the  colonists, 
and  request  a  voluntary,  instead  of  demanding  a  legal  contribution. 
The  colonists  held  to  the  principle  of  "  no  taxation  without  repre- 
sentation". 

In  1764  Parliament  carried  a  resolution  that  it  was  "just 
and  necessary  for  a  revenue  to  be  raised  in  his  majesty's  domin- 
ions in  America  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  defending,  pro- 
tecting, and  securing  the  same ".  "  Writs  of  Assistance ",  or 
warrants  authorizing  the  British  custom-house  officers  in  the 
colonies  to  search  for  smuggled  goods,  were  issued,  and  aroused 
great  indignation  at  Boston,  where  James  Otis,  advocate-general  of 
Massachusetts,  denounced  them  as  "  instruments  of  slavery  on  the 
one  hand  and  villainy  on  the  other".  In  1765  the  Stamp  Act  was 
passed,  for  levying  duties  in  America  by  way  of  stamps  on  deeds 
and  other  legal  documents,  newspapers,  and  pamphlets.  The 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN    COLONIES.  121 

assembly  of  Virginia  first  publicly  opposed  the  law,  and  Patrick 
Henry,  a  brilliant  and  rising  young  lawyer,  introducing  a  resolution 
which  denied  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  America,  took  occasion, 
amid  cries  of  "Treason!"  from  several  quarters  of  the  House,  to 
remind  George  the  Third  of  the  fate  of  Julius  Csesar  and  Charles 
the  First.  John  Ashe,  speaker  of  the  North  Carolina  Assembly, 
told  Governor  Tryon,  "  This  law  will  be  resisted  to  blood  and  to 
death."  The  houses  of  British  officials  were  mobbed,  stamps  were 
seized,  prominent  loyalists  were  hung  in  effigy,  British  manufactures 
were  "boycotted"  by  "  Daughters  of  Liberty"  wearing  nothing  but 
hosiery  made  of  home-spun  yarn,  and  "  Sons  of  Liberty"  were 
banded  in  resistance  to  the  law. 

In  February,  1766,  when  the  mild  Lord  Rockingham  had 
succeeded  Grenville  as  prime-minister,  the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed, 
after  nearly  ^7000  had  been  expended  in  gathering  a  stamp  revenue 
of  four  thousand.  At  the  same  time  a  Declaratory  Act  was  passed 
asserting  that  Great  Britain  had  the  right  and  authority  to  make 
laws  binding  upon  the  colonies  and  people  of  America  in  all  cases 
whatsoever.  In  1767,  under  the  Duke  of  Grafton  as  nominal 
premier,  Charles  Townshend,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  imposed 
additional  custom-dues  in  America  on  glass,  paper,  painters'  colours, 
and  tea,  in  order  to  raise  a  revenue  for  the  payment  of  the  officials 
appointed  by  the  Crown.  A  fresh  cause  of  quarrel  was  thus  estab- 
lished, and  the  government  at  home,  anticipating  resistance,  carried 
a  Mutiny  Bill,  ordering  the  colonies  to  provide  quarters  and  supplies 
for  the  troops  sent  out  to  enforce  the  laws. 

This  ill -judging  and  menacing  Act  stirred  violent  indignation 
in  America.  The  New  York  legislature  refused  compliance,  and 
was  suspended  from  its  functions  by  another  Act  of  the  home 
Parliament.  The  Massachusetts  Assembly  sent  round  a  circular 
urging  the  other  colonies  to  unite  for  the  redress  of  grievances, 
and  refused,  on  demand,  to  recall  the  letters.  This  legislative  body 
was  then  suspended  by  the  Governor.  In  October,  1768,  British 
troops,  under  General  Gage,  entered  Boston,  and,  on  being  refused 
quarters,  took  possession  of  the  State  House.  The  British  Parlia- 
ment, early  in  the  following  year,  denounced  the  action  of  the 
Massachusetts  Assembly,  and  requested  the  king  to  order  the 
Governor  to  send  treasonable  persons  home  for  trial  before  a 
Special  Commission.  About  this  time,  the  House  of  Burgesses  in 


122  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

Virginia  was  dissolved  by  the  Governor  for  condemning  the  pro- 
posed transmission  to  England  of  persons  accused  of  treason. 
Swiftly  now  and  surely,  matters  were  thus  drifting  to  the  cataract 
of  civil  war. 

Lord  North  became  prime- minister  in  1770,  and  all  the 
American  import-duties  were  repealed,  saving  the  tax  of  three- 
pence per  pound  on  tea,  which  was  maintained  as  a  matter  of 
principle.  The  revenue  from  this  source  was  only  three  hun- 
dred pounds  a  year,  but  the  government,  in  its  "firm"  attitude, 
supported  by  the  king,  thus  defied  the  colonial  contention  that  the 
home  Parliament  had  no  constitutional  right  to  tax  at  all  those  who 
did  not  send  representatives  to  that  assembly.  There  had  already 
been  a  small  conflict  between  the  troops  of  General  Gage  and  the 
citizens  of  Boston,  in  which  three  men  were  shot  dead  and  eight 
wounded  by  the  soldiers,  two  of  whom  were  tried  and  convicted  of 
manslaughter.  An  English  revenue -schooner,  which  had  run 
aground  in  1772,  was  destroyed  by  the  people  of  Rhode  Island. 
In  the  following  year,  an  ominous  step  was  taken  by  the  men  of 
Virginia,  when  the  leading  burgesses  united  the  colonies  by 
appointing  a  committee  to  maintain  correspondence  and  communi- 
cation with  them. 

The  final  provocation  given  to  the  colonists  was  one  of  a 
peculiar  kind,  in  the  shape  of  a  favour  conferred.  The  East  India 
Company  was  in  financial  difficulties  when  Lord  North  arranged 
for  them  to  get  rid  of  a  large  quantity  of  tea  lying  in  their  London 
warehouses,  by  permitting  its  shipment  to  America  without  pay- 
ment of  the  English  duty,  then  fixed  at  one  shilling  per  pound. 
The  colonists,  paying  only  threepence,  would  drink  their  tea 
more  cheaply  than  the  people  of  England.  The  subterfuge  aroused 
hot  indignation.  New  York  and  Philadelphia  prevailed  on  the 
captains  of  the  tea-ships  which  arrived  there  to  depart  without 
unloading  their  cargoes.  At  Charlestown,  the  tea  was  landed, 
but  no  man  would  purchase  it,  and  it  lay  in  the  cellars  until  it  was 
spoiled  by  damp.  In  Boston,  as  all  the  world  knows,  a  party  of 
citizens,  after  a  meeting  held  at  the  famous  Faneuil  Hall,  since 
called  the  "cradle  of  liberty",  boarded  the  ships,  in  the  disguise  of 
Indians,  and  blackened  the  surface  of  the  harbour -waters  by 
emptying  overboard  some  hundreds  of  tea-chests.  The  men  of 
Massachusetts,  who  headed  the  cause  of  freedom  at  the  north,  as 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN   COLONIES.  123 

Virginia  led  the  way  in  the  south,  were  further  exasperated  by 
insults  offered  at  the  Privy  Council,  in  London,  to  their  repre- 
sentative, Benjamin  Franklin.  The  immediate  effect  of  the 
"  Boston  Tea  Party",  as  it  was  styled  in  America,  was  that,  early 
in  1774,  the  British  Parliament  passed  measures  closing  the  port 
of  Boston,  revoking  the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  and  providing 
that  persons  accused  of  capital  crimes  should  be  sent  for  trial 
either  to  England,  or  to  some  other  colony  than  that  in  which  the 
offence  was  committed.  The  council  of  the  colony  was  to  be 
chosen  by  the  Crown,  the  judges  nominated  by  the  governor,  and 
the  late  rioters  were  to  be  sent  to  England  for  trial.  The  Virginia 
House  of  Burgesses,  for  protesting  against  the  treatment  of  Boston, 
was  again  dissolved  by  the  governor,  but  the  leading  citizens  met 
at  the  Raleigh  Tavern,  in  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  and  directed  the 
Committee  of  Correspondence  to  propose  to  the  other  colonies  a 
general  congress. 

The  colonists  were  now  divided  into  opponents  of  the  crown  as 
"Whigs",  and  loyalists,  called  "Tories".  The  aspirants  after 
freedom  took  up  the  words  of  Patrick  Henry,  "  Give  me  liberty  or 
give  me  death".  Bodies  of  soldiers  were  formed  by  the  "Whigs", 
under  the  name  of  "minute  men",  as  ready  to  act  in  arms  at  the 
shortest  notice.  It  is  clear  that  but  a  spark  was  needed  to  explode 
such  a  magazine.  In  September,  1774,  a  congress  representing  all 
the  colonies  except  Georgia  assembled  at  Philadelphia,  and  agreed 
upon  a  "  Declaration  of  Rights",  with  the  adoption  of  addresses  to 
the  people  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the  colonies.  It  does  not  appear 
that  the  idea  of  independence  was  yet  entertained.  A  protest 
against  standing  armies,  without  popular  consent,  was  made,  and, 
until  the  redress  of  grievances,  it  was  resolved  to  abandon  all 
commercial  intercourse  with  Great  Britain. 

Lord  North,  in  1775,  began  a  policy  of  concession,  which  came 
too  late.  The  colonists  were  not  to  be  taxed  by  Parliament,  pro- 
vided they  taxed  themselves  with  the  approbation  of  the  British 
king  and  legislature.  Before  this  news  could  reach  America,  the 
battle  of  Lexington  had  been  fought.  In  this  running  conflict,  a 
body  of  British  troops,  sent  by  General  Gage  to  destroy  military 
stores  at  Concord,  eighteen  miles  from  Boston,  was  most  severely 
handled  by  the  "  minute  men  "  of  Massachusetts,  and  returned  with 
the  loss  of  about  three  hundred  men.  One  hundred  Americans 


124  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

had  fallen,  and  the  blood  of  the  colonists  was  now  at  fever-heat. 
Gage  was  hemmed  in  at  Boston  by  twenty  thousand  men ;  the 
forts  of  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga  were  taken,  and  on  May 
loth,  1775,  the  Congress  of  the  Colonies  met  at  Philadelphia. 
The  famous  Olive  Branch  Petition  to  the  British  king  was  adopted, 
but  George  refused  to  receive  a  document  emanating  from  an  un- 
lawful assembly;  he  would  not  recognize  a  "  Congress",  but  would 
receive  the  submission  of  "Colonies".  Washington,  meanwhile, 
had  been  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  colonial  forces,  and 
the  battle  of  Bunker's  Hill,  near  Boston,  though  it  was  a  defeat  for 
the  Americans,  greatly  encouraged  the  colonies,  whose  untrained 
men  had  killed  or  wounded  more  than  one  thousand  choice  British 
troops  at  a  cost  to  themselves  of  less  than  half  the  number. 

The  civil  war  had  begun,  and  on  July  4th,  1 776,  the  Congress  at 
Philadelphia  adopted  the  renowned  Declaration  of  Independence, 
drawn  up  by  a  committee  composed  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  John 
Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Roger  Sherman,  and  Robert  Living- 
stone. The  resolution  was  carried  at  two  o'clock,  while  the  streets 
of  Philadelphia  were  crowded  with  anxious  people.  In  the  steeple 
of  the  old  State  House  was  a  bell  on  which,  by  a  happy  coincidence, 
was  inscribed,  "  Proclaim  liberty  throughout  all  the  land  unto  all 
the  inhabitants  thereof".  When  the  glad  tidings  came  from  the 
place  of  assembly,  a  boy,  posted  below  by  the  ringer,  clapped  his 
hands  and  shouted  out  "Ring!  Ring!"  The  iron  clapper  did  its 
work;  the  streets  rang  with  shouts  of  applause,  every  steeple  took 
up  the  peal,  and  the  night  drew  on  with  blazing  bonfires  and 
booming  cannon,  proclaiming  to  the  world,  as  events  were  to  prove, 
the  advent  of  a  new  nation.  It  would  be  an  ungracious  task  to 
pursue  in  detail  the  momentous  contest,  happily  unique  in  British 
history,  which  was  now  to  be  waged.  Citizens  of  the  United 
States  of  America  were,  during  the  year  1892,  visitors  to  the 
number  of  eighteen  thousand  at  the  tomb  of  Shakespeare  in  the 
grand  old  church  of  Stratford-on-Avon.  There,  and  in  the  great 
Abbey,  "where  so  many  enmities  lie  buried",  the  men  and  women 
of  two  mighty  nations  meet  on  the  common  ground  of  associations 
fraught  with  deathless  interest  and  renown,  and  have  long  since 
agreed  to  inter  there  all  bitter  memories  of  the  past. 

The  chief  reputation  created  during  this  conflict  between  the 
mother-country  and  her  daughter-states  was  that  of  Washington. 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN    COLONIES.  1 25 

This  great  man  was  descended  from  an  Englishman,  John  Wash- 
ington, who  emigrated  in  1657,  and  he  was  the  eldest  son,  by  a 
second  wife,  of  a  substantial  farmer  in  Westmoreland  county, 
Virginia.  Born  in  1732,  he  became,  at  an  early  age,  a  surveyor 
by  profession.  As  an  officer  of  the  Virginia  militia,  he  soon  took 
the  field  against  the  French,  showing  high  military  qualities,  but 
without  meeting  the  due  reward  of  success.  In  1754  he  was 
compelled,  in  command  of  his  regiment,  to  surrender  to  a  superior 
force,  and,  in  the  following  year,  serving  as  a  volunteer  under 
General  Braddock,  he  was  almost  the  only  officer  who  returned 
safe  from  the  disastrous  expedition  against  the  French  at  Fort 
Duquesne.  By  the  death  of  his  half-brother  he  became  a  wealthy 
landowner,  in  the  possession  of  the  Mount  Vernon  estates  and 
plantations,  and,  as  a  member  of  the  Virginia  Assembly,  he  gained 
the  high  regard  of  his  fellow-colonists  which  caused  his  appointment 
as  their  supreme  leader  in  war  at  the  crisis  of  their  political  history. 
The  real  greatness  of  Washington  corresponds,  in  one  direction, 
with  that  belonging  to  other  heroic  figures  of  the  first  rank  in 
history,  such  as  Wellington  and  William  of  Orange.  Indomitable 
patience  and  resolution  amidst  difficulties  which  would  have  utterly 
subdued  a  man  of  weaker  soul  carried  him  on  to  final  triumph.  He 
rises  to  the  highest  point  in  the  dark  hours  of  defeat,  and  of  the 
dismay  and  discouragement  which  follow  thereon.  Contending, 
with  raw  troops,  against  large  bodies  of  British  regulars,  aided  by 
Hessians  and  other  German  hirelings,  and,  to  the  disgrace  of 
England,  by  hordes  of  savage  Indians,  he  was  often  unable  to 
make  head  against  the  foe.  Driven  from  New  York,  in  1776,  by 
Clinton,  Howe,  and  Cornwallis,  after  the  defeat  of  Putnam  at  Long 
Island,  and  of  himself  at  White  Plains,  he  made  his  way  to  Penn- 
sylvania, where  he  found  himself  heading  a  mere  handful  of  ragged, 
disheartened  fugitives.  Many  leading  colonists  then  turned  '  loyal- 
ists,' but  Washington  never  for  a  moment  lost  heart.  On  the  night 
of  Christmas,  1776,  he  crossed  the  Delaware,  in  a  storm  of  sleet, 
amid  the  dangers  of  drifting  ice,  with  a  picked  force,  routed  the 
Hessians  at  Trenton  in  the  midst  of  their  festivities,  took  a  thousand 
prisoners,  slew  their  leader,  and  crossed  back  to  his  camp  with  the 
loss  of  but  four  men,  two  killed  in  action,  two  frozen  to  death. 
This  brilliant  feat  kept  with  the  colours  crowds  of  men  whose  term 
of  service  was  expiring,  and  brought  large  numbers  of  recruits. 


126  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

In  the  first  days  of  1 777,  a  masterly  device,  which  deceived  Corn- 
wallis,  gave  Washington  another  victory  at  Princeton,  and  his  con- 
duct of  affairs  at  this  period  is  said  to  have  won  the  highest  praise 
from  Frederick  the  Great.  The  Pennsylvania  campaign  of  this 
year  included  a  defeat  for  Washington  at  Brandywine,  the  loss  of 
Philadelphia,  and  another  defeat  of  Washington  at  Germantown. 
Then  came  the  terrible  winter  passed  by  the  American  leader  and 
his  beaten  and  disheartened  troops  at  Valley  Forge,  north-west  of 
Philadelphia.  In  bitter  cold,  scantily  clad  and  fed,  shoeless,  sick, 
the  men  were  sustained  by  the  heroic  courage  of  their  general, 
strong  in  the  sublime  faith  inspired  by  the  cause  which  he  held  to 
be  that  of  justice,  and  were  ready  to  take  the  field  in  the  spring 
with  the  new  hopes  derived  from  the  capitulation  of  Burgoyne  in 
October,  1777,  and  the  adhesion  of  France. 

The  surrender  at  Saratoga,  between  Lake  Champlain  and  New 
York,  where  General  Burgoyne,  with  nearly  6000  men,  laid  down 
his  arms  to  overwhelming  numbers  under  General  Gates,  was  one 
of  the  decisive  events  of  modern  history.  Franklin,  already 
renowned  for  his  diplomatic  skill,  had  been  despatched  to  France, 
and  the  chief  European  rival  of  Great  Britain  now  acknowledged 
the  independence  of  the  "  United  States ",  a  title  assumed  at  a 
Congress  held  in  November,  1777,  and  sent  out  a  fleet,  with  troops 
on  board,  to  help  the  "  rebels  "  against  King  George. 

In  February,  1778,  a  bill  was  passed  through  the  British  Par- 
liament, formally  renouncing  the  claim  to  tax  the  colonies,  and 
naming  commissioners  to  treat  for  peace.  Lord  North,  however, 
was  again  too  late,  for  in  that  same  month  France  concluded  an 
alliance  with  the  new  nation  beyond  the  Atlantic.  The  Americans 
would  not  now  listen  to  any  overtures  which  did  not  recognize  their 
political  severance.  It  was  in  April  of  the  same  year  that  the 
historic  scene,  recorded  by  the  brush  of  the  Boston  painter,  Copley, 
in  his  ill-named  "  Death  of  Chatham  ",  occurred  in  the  House  of 
Lords.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  moved  to  recognize  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  States,  and  the  great  British  champion  of  colonial 
rights,  protesting  with  such  vehemence  as  was  left  to  his  enfeebled 
frame  "  against  the  dismemberment  of  this  ancient  and  noble 
monarchy",  sank  down  in  the  fit  which,  a  few  weeks  later,  was 
followed  by  his  death  in  one  of  the  most  gloomy  periods  of  the 
fortunes  of  the  land  which  he  loved  so  well. 


THE   NORTH   AMERICAN    COLONIES.  127 

During  1778  and  the  two  succeeding  years,  the  British  troops 
were  often  successful  in  the  field,  especially  in  the  southern  states, 
and  Washington  himself  was  again  defeated.  In  1781  the  persis- 
tence of  the  leader  and  the  faithful  adherents  of  the  American  cause 
was  rewarded  by  a  great  and  finally  decisive  success.  On  October 
1 9th,  at  Yorktown,  in  the  east  of  Virginia,  Lord  Cornwallis,  with 
about  7000  men,  blockaded  on  land  by  Washington  and  the  French 
general  La  Fayette,  and  by  a  French  fleet  on  the  coast,  held  out 
until  his  last  cartridge  was  spent,  and  then  had  no  resource  but 
surrender.  It  was  felt  by  both  sides  that  the  end  had  now  virtually 
come.  It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  the  momentous 
news  arrived  at  Philadelphia,  and  the  people  were  awakened  by 
the  watchmen's  cry  "  Past  two  o'clock  and  Cornwallis  is  taken  ". 
The  streets  were  soon  thronged  with  joyous  crowds,  and  Congress, 
meeting  at  an  early  hour,  marched  in  procession  to  the  Lutheran 
church  to  make  thanksgivings  for  this  glorious  issue.  On  Sunday 
at  noon  of  November  25th,  more  than  five  weeks  after  the  event 
had  occurred,  the  British  cabinet  received  the  ominous  news. 
Lord  North,  faithful  to  his  king  and  to  what  he  had  held  to  be  the 
righteous  cause,  cried  in  his  distress  "  O  God!  it  is  all  over".  He 
had  never  uttered  truer  words  than  those. 

The  incidents  of  the  war  included  successes  for  privateers  who 
were  let  loose  by  Washington  on  British  commerce  with  disastrous 
results.  Five  hundred  ships  were  taken,  and  the  famous  Paul 
Jones,  of  Scottish  birth,  commanding  a  vessel  called  The  Ranger, 
attacked  Whitehaven,  in  Cumberland,  in  1778,  set  fire  to  the  ship- 
ping, and  plundered  the  Earl  of  Selkirk's  mansion.  In  the  following 
year,  on  board  of  his  42-gun  frigate,  the  Bon  Homme  Richard,  he 
threatened  Leith,  and,  attacking  a  convoy  of  merchantmen  in  the 
North  Sea,  he  captured,  after  a  most  sanguinary  fight,  the  British 
war-sloop  Serapis,  off  Flamborough  Head.  Her  consort  was  also 
taken  by  another  ship  of  Paul  Jones'  little  squadron. 

Even  after  Yorktown,  the  Americans  were  in  a  position  of 
much  difficulty,  though  the  end  of  the  struggle  was  well  assured, 
when  their  antagonist  was  faced  in  Europe  by  the  forces  of  France 
and  Holland  and  Spain.  The  colonists,  however,  had  lost  all  their 
foreign  trade;  the  currency  was  worthless;  tillage  and  manufactures 
had  been  neglected;  countless  villages  and  homesteads  had  been 
burned.  Charleston  was  held  by  the  British  for  more  than  a  year, 


128  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

and  Savannah  and  New  York  for  about  two  years,  after  the 
capitulation  of  Lord  Cornwallis,  and  George  the  Third  was  still 
resolved  to  continue  the  effort  to  conquer  the  "  rebellion  ". 

The  powerful  and  benignant  influence  of  Washington  was 
needed  to  prevent  disastrous  quarrel  between  the  army  and  the 
civil  powers,  but  the  feeling  of  the  British  nation,  with  the  resigna- 
tion of  Lord  North  in  March,  1782,  prepared  the  way  for  the 
Peace  of  Versailles,  in  January,  1 783,  acknowledging  the  thirteen 
Colonies  of  America  to  be  free,  sovereign,  and  independent  states, 
and  relinquished,  for  the  British  crown,  all  claims  to  the  govern- 
ment thereof,  and  to  proprietary  and  territorial  rights.  The  treaty 
was  signed,  on  behalf  of  the  Americans,  by  John  Adams,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Benjamin  Franklin,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  John  Jay,  of 
New  York.  The  causes  of  success  in  a  war  waged  by  a  people 
numbering  only  two  millions  against  the  enormous  odds  of  Great 
Britain,  with  about  ten  millions  (exclusive  of  Ireland)  and  an  over- 
whelming superiority  in  resources  of  every  kind,  must  be  sought 
in  the  distance  of  the  scene  of  action  from  the  British  base  of  opera- 
tions, in  the  combination  of  powerful  European  foes  with  which 
Britain  was  required  to  deal,  and,  above  all,  in  the  constancy,  deter- 
mination, and  skill  displayed,  amongst  much  despondency  of  feeble 
souls,  and  much  traitorous  ill-will  to  the  colonial  cause,  by  George 
Washington,  General  Gates,  General  Greene,  and  other  leaders 
of  their  country's  levies.  Whatever  the  causes,  whatever  the 
remoter  issues  were  to  be,  right  or  wrong,  for  good  or  for  evil,  the 
work  was  done,  and  a  new  nation  was  thus  placed  on  the  roll  of 
independent  states. 

As  one  immediate  consequence  of  this  great  change  in  Ameri- 
can affairs,  many  of  the  people  who  called  themselves  "  United 
Empire  Loyalists"  migrated  from  the  United  States  into  Canada 
and  adjacent  territory,  where  they  settled,  to  the  number  of  about 
forty  thousand,  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  shores 
of  Lake  Ontario,  and  in  that  part  of  Nova  Scotia  which  was  after- 
wards called  New  Brunswick.  Lands  were  assigned  to  them  by  the 
British  government,  and  a  great  impulse  was  given  to  the  progress 
of  the  territory  which  had  been  lately  conquered  from  the  French. 
Soon  after  the  conclusion  of  peace  at  Versailles,  the  army  was  dis- 
banded, and  Washington,  after  a  solemn  and  affecting  farewell  to 
his  officers,  retired  to  his  estate  of  Mount  Vernon,  with  the  eulogies 


THE   UNITED   STATES.  129 

and  thanks  of  the  people  whom  he,  beyond  all  others,  had  contri- 
buted to  make  an  independent  nation. 

The  first  business  to  be  undertaken  was  the  formation  of  a 
system  of  rule,  as  to  which  men's  minds  were  greatly  divided. 
The  separate  States  were  jealous  of  each  other,  and  many  people 
were  opposed  to  the  formation  of  a  national  government,  with 
large  powers  vested  in  a  Congress.  A  convention  was  called  to 
Philadelphia  in  1787,  with  Washington  as  its  president,  and  lengthy 
deliberations  ended  in  the  adoption  of  a  new  constitution,  which 
came  into  operation  two  years  later.  The  constitution  of  Great 
Britain  was  the  model  chosen  by  the  organizers  of  a  system  of 
rule  for  the  new  power.  The  chief  aim  was  to  separate  the 
Executive,  the  Legislative,  and  the  Judicial  functions.  In  the 
mother-country,  the  sovereign  and  the  ministers  were  the  execu- 
tive department  of  administration.  The  legislative  powers  lay 
with  Parliament.  The  judges,  during  good  behaviour,  were  inde- 
pendent of  both,  and  secure  in  their  exalted  and  important 
positions.  The  needful  express  provision  for  the  circumstances 
of  the  case  in  hand  was  that  by  which  local  powers  were  reserved 
for  the  several  States,  who  agreed  to  resign  to  a  central  authority 
certain  rights  of  action  expressed  in  a  strictly  definite  bond  of 
federal  union. 

In  accordance  with  their  pattern,  thus  modified,  the  President 
became  an  elective  sovereign,  chosen  for  four  years'  tenure  of  office, 
by  electors  chosen  from  each  state  in  numbers  proportioned  to 
population.  These  electoral  delegates  were  supposed  to  represent 
the  flower  of  the  citizens  in  wisdom  and  fitness  to  choose  a  tem- 
porary ruler.  In  fact,  they  are  themselves  chosen  as  men  who  are 
pledged  to  the  support  of  one  of  the  particular  candidates,  Demo- 
cratic or  Republican,  already  nominated  by  opposite  parties.  A 
vice-president  for  four  years  is  chosen  in  the  same  way.  The 
President's  executive  powers  are  those  of  a  constitutional  sovereign 
in  regard  to  peace  and  war,  the  issue  of  coinage  and  notes,  but  he 
possesses  and  uses  a  power  long  become  obsolete  in  Great  Britain, 
that  of  vetoing  bills  of  Congress,  unless  they  are  passed  by  a  two- 
thirds  majority  in  both  houses.  The  Secretaries  of  State  and  other 
ministers  are  selected  by  him ;  they  do  not,  like  our  Cabinet  and 
some  other  high  officials,  sit  in  the  Parliament. 

The  House  of  Representatives,  one  branch  of  the  legislature,  is 

VOL.  I.  9 


130  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

chosen  by  the  people  of  each  state,  in  numbers  proportionate  to 
the  population,  and  under  a  franchise  of  local  regulation.  The 
Senate  consists  of  members  elected  by  the  local  legislatures  of  the 
several  States,  two  from  each  State,  and  they  sit  for  six  years,  the 
chamber  being  renewed  by  the  biennial  retirement  of  a  third  of 
the  members.  The  powers  and  privileges  of  these  two  bodies 
resemble  those  of  the  two  British  Houses  of  Parliament;  the  Senate 
being  a  republican  "  House  of  Lords  ",  with  the  right  of  judging 
officers  of  state  impeached  by  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
more  popular  body,  as  with  us,  has  the  sole  right  of  introducing 
bills  for  taxation.  The  judges  hold  office,  as  in  Great  Britain 
since  the  Act  of  Settlement,  "  for  life  or  good  behaviour  ".  One 
important  restriction  exists  upon  the  power  and  validity  of  Acts  of 
Congress:  they  must  be  in  accordance  with  what  is  laid  down  in 
the  written  Constitution,  and  a  judge  may  decide  that  an  Act,  or  a 
clause  or  section  of  an  Act,  is  contrary  thereto,  and  is  thereby 
annulled. 

There  could  be  but  one  man  to  whom  the  eyes  of  the  American 
people  turned  as  the  first  President  of  the  new  republic,  and  Wash- 
ington, inaugurated  in  that  high  office  in  April,  1789,  was  chosen 
for  a  second  term  in  1793.  He  died  in  December,  1799,  some 
two  years  after  the  close  of  his  second  period  of  rule,  leaving 
the  country  mainly  of  his  creation  fairly  launched  on  her  grand 
career. 

Mr.  Chauncy  Depew,  one  of  America's  greatest  living  speakers, 
delivering  the  Columbian  oration  at  Chicago  in  October,  1892, 
referred  in  proud  terms  of  eulogy  to  the  first  century  of  his 
country's  history.  He  declared  that  "  the  constitution  and  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  had  now  passed  the  period  of  experi- 
ment, after  a  hundred  years  of  successful  trial,  and  that  their 
demonstrated  permanency  and  power  were  revolutionizing  the 
governments  of  the  world.  Anarchists  and  Socialists  had  taken 
no  root,  and  made  no  converts,  on  American  soil.  Religion  had 
flourished,  and  a  living  and  practical  Christianity  was  the  charac- 
teristic of  the  people.  They  had  accumulated  wealth  far  beyond 
the  visions  of  the  Cathay  of  Columbus  or  the  El  Dorado  of  De 
Soto".  In  describing  the  effects  of  the  American  experiment 
upon  the  Old  World,  the  orator  claimed  that  "  the  sum  of  human 
happiness  had  been  boundlessly  increased  by  the  millions  who  had 


THE   UNITED   STATES.  131 

found  new  homes  and  improved  conditions  of  life  on  the  soil  of  the 
New  World,  and  that  the  returning  tide  of  lesson  and  experience 
had  incalculably  enriched  the  fatherlands  whence  these  emigrants 
issued.  France  was  rudely  roused  from  the  sullen  submission  to 
centuries  of  tyranny  by  her  soldiers  as  they  returned  from  service 
in  the  American  Revolutionary  War.  The  orgies  of  the  Reign  of 
Terror  were  the  revenges  and  excesses  of  a  people  who  had  dis- 
covered their  power,  but  were  not  prepared  for  its  beneficent  use. 
After  fleeing  from  herself  into  the  arms  of  Napoleon,  France,  in 
the  processes  of  her  evolution  from  darkness  to  light,  had  tried 
Bourbon,  and  Orleanist,  and  a  Napoleon  again,  and  had  cast  them 
all  aside.  Now,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  and  through  training  in  the 
school  of  hardest  experience,  the  French  people  had  reared  and 
were  enjoying  a  permanent  Republic.  England  of  the  Mayflower 
and  of  James  the  Second,  England  of  George  the  Third  and  of 
Lord  North,  had  enlarged  her  suffrage,  and  was  to-day  animated 
and  governed  by  the  democratic  spirit.  The  United  States  threw 
wide  her  gates  for,  and  gladly  received  with  open  arms,  those  who, 
by  intelligence  and  virtue,  by  loyalty  and  thrift,  were  worthy  of 
admission  to  the  equal  advantages  and  priceless  gift  of  American 
citizenship."  Making  all  abatement  for  the  natural  pride  of  an 
American  citizen  in  the  marvellous  progress  and  wide-spread 
influence  of  his  country,  we  may  fairly  say  that  "  this  witness  is 
true". 

We  proceed  to  trace  briefly  the  relations  existing  between  the 
mother-country  and  the  United  States  in  the  period  which  followed 
on  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  When  the  struggle  was 
over,  and  the  final  separation  was  effected,  the  British  king,  who 
had  largely  been  responsible  for  the  original  quarrel,  accepted  the 
position  with  an  excellent  grace.  In  receiving  at  St.  James'  the 
first  American  ambassador,  John  Adams,  George  the  Third,  on 
the  arrival  of  the  minister  in  1785,  addressed  him  thus:  "  I  will  be 
very  frank  with  you.  I  was  the  last  to  conform  to  the  separation; 
but  the  separation  having  been  made,  and  having  become  in- 
evitable, I  have  always  said,  as  I  say  now,  that  I  would  be  the 
first  to  meet  the  friendship  of  the  United  States  as  an  independent 
power.  Let  the  circumstances  of  language,  religion,  and  blood 
have  their  full  effect." 


132  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

It  is  idle  to  speculate  on  what  would  have  happened  if  the 
motherland  had  never  quarrelled  with  her  offspring.  It  is  certain 
that  Great  Britain  quickly  recovered  from  the  shock  received  in 
the  loss  of  her  colonies.  The  trade  of  the  old  country  grew  fast 
along  with  the  growth  of  prosperity  in  the  new.  The  United 
States,  with  her  rich  and  virgin  soil,  soon  acquired  the  means  of 
largely  importing  the  manufactured  goods  poured  into  the  market 
by  the  workers  in  the  British  hives  of  industry.  William  Pitt 
strove  for  perfect  freedom  of  trade  with  the  new  republic,  and, 
though  he  failed  in  this  effort,  the  commerce  between  the  countries 
soon  attained  proportions  which  had  never  yet  been  reached. 

This  was  largely  due  to  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  which  was 
successfully  begun  in  the  southern  states  during  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence. This  valuable  shrub,  known  from  distant  ages  in 
India,  and  brought  thence  into  Egypt  in  the  sixth  century  before 
the  Christian  era,  was  introduced  into  Europe  about  the  ninth 
century,  being  planted  by  the  Moorish  conquerors  of  Spain  in  the 
fertile  plains  of  Valencia.  Cotton  factories  soon  arose  at  Cordova, 
Granada,  and  Seville,  and  by  the  fourteenth  century  the  cotton 
stuffs  of  Granada  were  held  to  be  superior  even  to  the  Syrian 
fabrics.  The  making  of  cotton-cloth  appears  to  have  been  prac- 
tised by  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  long  before  Europeans 
arrived  in  the  New  World.  The  British  colonists  of  Virginia 
began  to  plant  the  cotton-shrub  as  an  experiment  in  1621,  but  the 
amount  of  cotton  produced  was  very  small,  and  the  first  impetus 
towards  a  large  culture  appears  to  have  been  given  by  the  intro- 
duction of  new  plants,  at  the  time  above-mentioned,  from  the 
Bahamas  into  Carolina  and  Georgia.  The  invention  of  the  cotton- 
gin,  in  1793,  by  Eli  Whitney,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  was  a 
great  event  in  the  history  of  the  United  States.  This  machine 
effected  with  ease  and  rapidity  the  separation  of  the  fibre  from  the 
seed,  a  process  hitherto  performed  by  hand  with  slow  and  toilsome 
labour.  The  cotton  was  thus  made  ready  for  export  at  a  lower 
price,  and  a  new  source  for  raw  material  at  a  cheap  rate  was  thus 
laid  open  to  British  manufacturers. 


POSSESSIONS   IN   EUROPE   AND   AFRICA.  133 

CHAPTER    III. 

COLONIAL  POSSESSIONS  IN  EUROPE  AND  AFRICA. 

Early  history  of  Gibraltar — Its  acquisition  by  Britain — Attempts  by  Spain  to  recover 
possession — Gallant  and  successful  defence  by  General  Eliott. — Gambia  and  the 
Gold  Coast — African  trading  companies — St.  Helena — Sierra  Leone. 

We  proceed  to  a  historical  record  of  the  dependencies,  settle- 
ments, colonies,  and  foreign  possessions  of  Great  Britain,  as  they 
existed  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Geo- 
graphical, commercial,  and  statistical  accounts  of  the  whole 
Colonial  Empire,  with  the  mode  of  government  obtaining  in 
each  at  the  date  of  writing,  are  reserved  for  a  later  section  of 
this  work. 

Apart  from  the  Channel  Islands,  the  great  rock-fortress  of 
Gibraltar  was  the  only  foreign  European  dependency  of  Great 
Britain  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century.  This  world- 
famous  promontory  of  the  south  of  Spain  was  known  to  the  early 
navigators  of  Phoenicia.  The  Greeks  gave  it  the  name  of  Calpe, 
and  this  hill  on  the  northern  side  of  the  strait,  and  that  above 
Ceuta  on  the  African  coast,  styled  A  by  la,  were  the  ancient  Columns 
or  Pillars  of  Hercules,  deriving  that  name  from  various  forms  of 
a  mythological  story  concerning  the  demigod,  who  either,  in  one 
account,  erected  pillars  at  those  points  to  mark  the  limit  of  his 
travels  to  the  west,  or  tore  asunder  the  solid  earth  so  as  to  make 
the  strait,  and  turn  one  mountain  into  two.  The  Columns  of 
Hercules  were,  for  many  ages,  treated  as  the  boundary  of  the 
western  world,  beyond  which  lay  the  ocean-stream  that  surrounded 
the  flat  disk  of  earth  as  conceived  by  men  of  olden  time. 

Gibraltar  came  within  the  range  of  mediaeval  history,  and  re- 
ceived its  present  name  when  the  Saracens,  whose  conquering 
arms  had  been  carried  along  the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  had 
reached  the  western  ocean.  It  was  in  the  year  711  that  one  of 
their  leaders,  Tarik,  crossed  the  strait  to  undertake  the  conquest 
of  the  Visigothic  kingdom  in  the  region  afterwards  known  as  Spain. 
The  great  rock  was  by  him  furnished  with  a  castle,  of  which  one 
old  tower  remains,  and  the  position  was  held  as  one  which  afforded 
a  sound  base  of  operations  towards  the  north,  and  a  point  of  safe 
and  speedy  landing  from  the  African  side.  The  Arabic  name  of 


134  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

Gebel-el-Tarik,  or  Hill  of  Tarik,  passed,  by  an  obvious  process 
of  corruption,  into  Gibraltar.  In  1302,  Ferdinand  the  Second, 
king  of  Castile,  won  it  back  from  its  Moorish  possessors.  The 
place,  however,  again  changed  hands,  and  only  became  firmly, 
though  not  then  finally,  a  Spanish  possession  in  1462.  The  rock 
was  then  converted  into  a  fortress  of  the  modern  type,  mounted 
with  guns,  and  provided  with  various  artificial  works  of  strength. 

The  acquirement  of  Gibraltar  was  the  sole  permanent  success 
achieved  by  British  arms  in  Spain  during  Queen  Anne's  War 
of  the  Spanish  Succession.  The  opportunity  for  its  seizure  was 
afforded,  through  the  gross  neglect  of  the  then  degenerate  rulers 
of  Spain,  to  a  combined  British  and  Dutch  force,  consisting  of  a 
fleet  commanded  by  Sir  George  Rooke  and  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel, 
carrying  soldiers  under  the  Prince  of  Hesse-Darmstadt.  In  the 
last  days  of  July,  1704,  the  Spanish  garrison  within  the  works 
numbered  only  a  hundred  men.  The  chivalrous  commander  dis- 
dained surrender  even  to  odds  so  great,  and  a  force  of  two  thousand 
marines,  led  by  the  German  prince,  was  landed  on  the  isthmus  to 
cut  off  supplies  from  the  mainland  of  Spain.  On  August  2nd  the 
guns  of  the  squadron  opened  fire,  and,  on  the  following  day,  after 
further  bombardment,  the  place  was  carried  by  an  escalade  of 
British  sailors  on  the  precipitous  eastern  face  of  the  rock,  while  a 
part  of  the  garrison  were  engaged  in  prayer  at  the  festival  of  some 
saint,  instead  of  manning  the  works  and  guns.  A  simultaneous 
attack  on  the  south  mole-head  ended,  after  heavy  loss  to  the  stormers 
from  the  explosion  of  a  mine,  in  the  capture  of  the  ramparts  in  that 
quarter,  and  the  surrender  of  the  post  on  honourable  terms.  The 
English  flag  was  at  once  hoisted  by  Sir  George  Rooke,  though  the 
Prince  of  Hesse- Darmstadt  wished  to  raise  the  Spanish  standard 
and  to  secure  the  fortress  for  "  Charles  the  Third ",  son  of  the 
emperor  Leopold,  and  titular  king  of  Spain.  Two  thousand  men 
were  left  as  a  garrison,  and,  though  the  importance  of  the  conquest 
was  not  fully  understood  at  the  time,  Gibraltar  was  retained,  in 
1713,  by  the  terms  of  the  Peace  of  Utrecht. 

.  The  Spanish  government  had,  from  the  first,  severely  felt  the 
loss  of  their  southern  stronghold,  and  two  fierce  attempts  at  repos- 
session had  been  made  in  1704  and  the  following  year.  In  1727, 
when  further  trouble  arose  with  Spain,  an  army  under  the  Count 
de  las  Torres  attacked  the  fortress,  and  strove  to  fulfil  their  leader's 


POSSESSIONS   IN   EUROPE   AND  AFRICA.  135 

boast  that  in  six  weeks'  time  the  "  heretics  "  should  be  driven  into 
the  sea.  The  British  fleet  kept  the  garrison  well  supplied  with 
food  and  ammunition,  and  a  siege  of  four  months,  from  February 
till  June,  closed  with  the  discomfiture  of  the  assailing  force,  the 
fire  of  whose  guns  had  wrought  little  or  no  damage. 

The  last  and  by  far  the  greatest  attempt  for  the  forcible  recovery 
of  Gibraltar  from  British  hands  was  made  in  the  siege  which  con- 
tinued from  June  2ist,  1779,  until  March,  1783.  In  that  dark 
period  of  our  country's  fortunes,  when  the  British  fleets  were 
matched  against  the  combined  marine  forces  of  France  and  Spain 
and  Holland,  and  British  armies  were  unable  to  hold  their  own, 
beyond  the  Atlantic,  against  colonial  levies,  the  historic  and  suc- 
cessful resistance  of  Gibraltar,  one  of  the  grandest  achievements  in 
modern  times,  saved  the  country's  honour,  and  nobly  vindicated 
our  British  claim  to  the  possession  of  dogged  valour  and  endurance 
against  immeasurable  odds.  The  place  was  invested,  on  the  land- 
side,  by  a  vast  Spanish  force,  and  lines  of  works,  mounting  many 
scores  of  cannon,  were  erected  for  bombardment.  The  governor 
and  commander-in-chief,  General  George  Augustus  Eliott,  headed 
a  garrison  of  five  thousand  men,  a  force  including  about  one  thou- 
sand Hanoverians. 

This  brave  man,  then  in  his  sixty-second  year,  was  born  on 
Christmas-day,  1717,  the  seventh  son  of  Sir  Gilbert  Eliott,  a  Rox- 
burgh baronet.  Wounded  at  Dettingen,  and  engaged  at  Fontenoy, 
Eliott,  as  a  colonel  of  light  horse,  had  also  served  with  the  English 
force  aiding  Frederick  the  Great,  the  first  captain  of  that  age, 
against  Austria  in  the  latter  half  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  By  a 
happy  choice,  he  was  sent  out  to  put  Gibraltar  in  a  state  of  defence, 
for  which  purpose  he  was  backed  by  about  five  hundred  artillery- 
men and  engineers. 

Towards  the  end  of  June,  1779,  the  place  was  cut  off  on  the 
side  of  Spain,  and  the  friendly  intercourse  with  the  Spanish  villages, 
the  excursions  into  the  cork-forests,  and  the  visits  to  the  Barbary 
coast,  which  had  lent  a  charming  variety  to  a  life  of  garrison  routine, 
came  to  an  end  for  the  holders  of  the  fortress.  Their  country's 
fleets  were  hard  beset  even  in  the  British  Channel,  and,  at  an  early 
period  of  the  investment,  the  supplies  of  fresh  food,  in  corn,  fruit, 
and  meat  from  the  African  coast,  were  made  difficult  of  arrival 
through  the  presence  of  Spanish  ships  in  the  bay.  The  people  of 


136  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

the  town  of  Gibraltar,  lying  at  the  foot  of  the  rock  on  the  western 
side,  had  neglected  the  order  to  keep  always  in  hand  a  store  of 
provisions  for  six  months'  consumption.  They  were  destined,  in 
due  time,  to  pay  dearly  for  this  disregard  of  the  dictates  of  common 
prudence.  The  works  of  the  fortress  could  scorn  the  earlier  bom- 
bardments from  the  Spanish  lines,  but  within  a  few  months  of  the 
commencement  of  the  blockade  there  were  serious  menaces  of 
famine.  In  the  earliest  days  of  1780,  the  wives  and  children  of 
officers  and  troops  were  partly  living  on  the  wild  herbs  that  grew 
on  the  face  of  the  Rock.  In  that  same  month  of  January,  Rodney's 
victory  over  the  Spanish  fleet  near  Cape  St.  Vincent  brought  relief 
by  ending  the  sea-blockade,  and  throwing  into  the  place  a  large 
store  of  provisions.  The  garrison  was  also  reinforced,  and  the 
troops  could  face  the  enemy  with  renewed  hopes  of  final  success. 

In  June,  1780,  the  besiegers  failed  in  an  attempt  with  fire-ships 
against  the  British  squadron.  As  month  after  month  wore  away, 
the  thoughts  of  the  whole  civilized  world  were  turned  upon  the 
rock-fortress,  beleaguered  in  vain,  while  the  flag  of  Great  Britain 
still  proudly  floated  above  its  batteries  and  corridors,  hewn  out  by 
man  from  the  solid  stone.  The  first  inquiry  of  Charles  the  Third 
of  Spain,  as  he  awoke  to  the  light  of  a  new  morning,  was,  "Is  It 
taken?"  At  a  later  stage,  the  Queen  of  Spain  had  her  seat  placed 
upon  a  lofty  hill  still  called  "  The  Queen's  Chair",  and  vowed  that 
she  would  never  move  from  the  spot  until  the  English  flag  was 
lowered.  Her  release  was  brought  about  by  General  Eliott's 
courtesy  in  striking  his  colours,  on  this  understanding,  for  a  few 
hours. 

In  the  autumn  of  1780,  the  continued  use  of  salt  provisions 
caused  a  terrible  outbreak  of  scurvy,  relieved  at  last  by  the  capture 
of  a  Danish  vessel  with  a  cargo  of  lemons  and  oranges.  The  value 
of  lemon-juice,  which  had  recently  been  proved  by  Captain  Cook, 
as  a  specific  for  the  scourge  of  mariners  in  those  days,  was  quickly 
demonstrated  anew  in  the  hospitals  of  Gibraltar.  The  want  of  food, 
partly  arising  from  the  Sultan  of  Morocco's  churlish  prohibition  of 
trade  with  his  ports,  was  again  creating  severe  distress  in  the  spring 
of  1781.  The  soldiers  and  the  townsfolk  were  well-nigh  starving 
when  fresh  relief  arrived.  In  April,  Admiral  Darby  forced  away 
the  blockading  ships,  and  brought  in  a  convoy  of  a  hundred  vessels 
laden  with  stores.  The  baffled  besiegers,  now  Spanish  and  French, 


POSSESSIONS   IN   EUROPE   AND   AFRICA.  137 

at  once  began  a  severe  bombardment  from  their  works  to  the  north, 
and  from  gunboats  in  the  bay,  laying  the  town  in  ruins,  but  making 
slight  impression  on  the  batteries  of  the  fortress  or  on  the  fighting 
strength  of  the  garrison.  Through  May  and  June  their  fire  was 
maintained,  and  the  powerful  siege-works  received  daily  additions 
of  a  formidable  kind. 

It  was  in  the  last  week  of  November,  1781,  that  the  gallant 
Eliott  resolved  to  show  his  enemy  that  the  troops  under  his  com- 
mand could  strike  outside  as  well  as  from  within  the  shelter  of  their 
stronghold.  At  sunset  of  the  26th,  Brigadier  Ross  led  a  sortie  of 
two  thousand  men  against  the  hostile  lines  at  the  distance  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile.  The  foe  were  taken  completely  by  surprise, 
and  fled  in  panic,  leaving  the  British  to  work  their  will  on  the 
captured  works.  The  pioneers  and  artillerymen  quickly  destroyed 
the  thick  and  lofty  ramparts;  the  gabions  and  wooden  gun-plat- 
forms were  set  on  fire,  and  in  half  an  hour  the  flames  consumed  all 
the  wood-work  in  the  lines.  The  cannon  and  mortars  were  ren- 
dered useless  by  spikes  driven  into  the  touch-holes,  the  magazines 
were  blown  up,  and  the  assailants  retired  with  a  loss  of  only  thirty 
men,  after  destroying,  in  one  hour,  works  which  had  cost  three 
millions  sterling  for  construction,  and  the  lives  of  five  thousand 
men  from  the  British  fire.  All  efforts  at  renewal  were  foiled  by 
Eliott's  discharge  of  red-hot  shot,  maintained  until  the  whole  of  the 
advanced  works  were  again  destroyed.  During  the  remainder  of 
that  year,  and  the  spring  of  1782,  the  blockade  continued,  with 
daily  firing  from  the  Spanish  gunboats  and  from  the  batteries  on 
land. 

The  approach  of  peace  urged  the  enemy  to  a  final  and  desperate 
attempt  at  recovering  the  great  fortress  for  the  crown  of  Spain. 
The  native  army  numbered  nearly  thirty  thousand  men,  and  in 
September,  1782,  the  Due  de  Crillon,  fresh  from  the  conquest  of 
Minorca,  was  in  command  of  a  yet  larger  French  army.  The 
chief  war-engineers  of  Europe  had  been  invited,  by  large  rewards, 
to  furnish  plans  for  the  reduction  of  Gibraltar  in  a  combined  attack 
by  sea  and  land.  The  method  devised  by  the  Chevalier  d'Arcon 
was  adopted  with  eager  hopes  of  success.  In  the  port  of  Alge9iras, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  Gibraltar  Bay,  ten  large  ships  were  cut 
down,  and  turned,  at  a  great  cost,  into  floating  batteries  of  very 
ingenious,  peculiar,  and  formidable  construction.  In  order  to  make 


138  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

them,  as  it  was  fondly  believed,  proof  against  fire  and  the  risk  of 
submersion,  these  great  engines  of  war  were  surrounded  with  raw 
hides,  backed  by  thick  layers  of  wet  sand,  and  were  furnished  with 
bomb-proof  roofs,  and  with  large  quantities  of  the  cork  abounding 
in  the  Spanish  forests. 

Eliott,  for  his  part,  prepared  his  furnaces,  which  were  placed  in 
all  parts  of  the  defensive  works.  The  French  and  Spanish  fleets, 
which  had  been  menacing  our  coasts  in  the  Channel,  had  come 
southwards  to  share  in  the  final  effort,  and  the  government  at  home 
ordered  Lord  Howe  to  equip  his  fleet  at  Portsmouth  for  the  relief 
of  Gibraltar.  It  was  at  this  time,  on  August  29th,  1782,  that  the 
magnificent  Royal  George,  of  108  guns,  sank  at  Spithead  with 
Admiral  Kempenfeldt  on  board.  On  September  nth,  Howe 
sailed  from  Spithead  with  a  powerful  naval  armament,  having  on 
board  two  regiments  to  strengthen  the  garrison,  and  convoying 
many  transports  laden  with  stores.  Before  he  could  arrive  on  the 
scene  of  action,  the  fate  of  Gibraltar  had  been  decided  by  British 
valour,  energy,  and  skill.  The  hostile  bombardment  began  on 
September  8th,  and  was  vigorously  sustained  for  a  week.  On 
the  1 3th,  the  terrific  storm  of  red-hot  shot,  shell,  and  cold  cannon- 
balls,  kept  up  from  the  fortress  with  accurate  aim,  completed  its 
work  of  triumphant  repulse.  The  towering  Rock,  the  bay  of 
Gibraltar,  the  waters  of  the  Strait,  the  African  shore,  were  illumi- 
nated by  the  flames  of  the  "incombustible"  floating-batteries,  and 
British  soldiers  were  soon  employed  in  saving  the  panic-stricken 
crews  of  the  foe.  The  sun  rose  upon  a  scene  of  utter  destruction, 
and  the  arrival  of  Lord  Howe  on  October  i  ith  drove  off  the 
French  and  Spanish  fleets,  while  his  supplies  of  men  and  food 
placed  the  noble  garrison  beyond  all  risk  from  within  or  from 
without. 

The  siege,  now  practically  over,  was  continued,  in  a  languid 
fashion,  during  the  winter,  and  ended  with  the  peace  of  1783,  after 
a  continuance  of  three  years  and  seven  months.  The  total  loss  of 
the  garrison  was  but  twelve  hundred  men,  of  whom  less  than  five 
hundred  perished  or  were  disabled  by  the  enemy's  fire.  From  that 
hour  Gibraltar  has  remained  a  British  possession.  Her  defender, 
who  ranks,  for  combined  skill,  intrepidity,  and  moral  courage, 
among  the  greatest  soldiers  of  his  century,  was  ennobled  as  Lord 
Heathfield,  a  title  derived  from  his  Sussex  estate,  and  Baron  of 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF   THE   SPANISH    "BATTERING 
SHIPS"   BY   THE   BRITISH  AT  GIBRALTAR. 

The  combined  naval  forces  of  France,  Spain,  and  Holland  sought  to 
wrest  Gibraltar  from  Britain  in  a  great  siege  which  lasted  from  June,  1779, 
to  March,  1783.  The  chief  war-engineers  of  Europe  had  been  induced, 
by  large  rewards,  to  furnish  devices  for  the  capture  of  the  fortress,  and  the 
floating  batteries  of  the  Chevalier  d' Argon  was  the  method  finally  adopted. 
These  batteries  were  built  up  from  the  frameworks  of  ten  large  ships,  which 
were  surrounded  with  raw  hides,  and  furnished  with  bomb-proof  roofs. 
They  were  supposed  to  be  invulnerable  and  incombustible,  but  when  they 
were  towed  into  position,  the  storm  of  red-hot  shot  and  shell  from  Gibraltar 
soon  set  them  in  a  blaze.  In  a  short  time  the  panic-stricken  crews  jumped 
overboard,  and  so  this  attempt, — like  all  the  other  attempts  to  reduce  the 

fortress  held  by  Governor  Elliot, — ended  in  complete  failure. 

(  5) 


POSSESSIONS  IN   EUROPE  AND  AFRICA.  139 

Gibraltar,  with  the  further  distinctions  of  the  Knighthood  of  the 
Bath,  the  thanks  of  Parliament,  and  a  pension  of  ^1500  a  year. 

The  earliest  history  of  our  African  possessions  takes  us  back  to 
the  fifteenth  century.  The  great  river  Gambia  was  discovered  by 
the  early  Portuguese  navigators,  but  no  settlement  was  made  by 
Portugal  on  that  part  of  the  west  African  coast.  In  1588,  the  year 
of  the  Armada,  a  charter  for  trade  with  the  Gambia  was  granted 
by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  some  Exeter  merchants,  but  nothing  was 
attempted,  it  seems,  in  the  way  of  settlement  until  1618,  when  a 
Company  was  formed  in  London,  and  unsuccessful  efforts  were 
made  to  open  commercial  relations  with  the  natives.  In  1664  the 
post  now  called  Fort  James  was  built  on  St.  Mary's  Island,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  and  a  British  hold  on  that  region  was  thus 
secured.  During  the  eighteenth  century,  the  chief  trade  of  the 
settlement  was  that  in  negroes,  exported  as  slaves  to  the  "  planta- 
tions" of  America  and  the  West  Indies.  The  Treaty  of  Versailles, 
in  1783,  secured  the  Gambia  trade  for  England,  while  France 
received  the  sole  possession  of  rights  in  the  river  Senegal,  with 
trifling  reservations  in  each  region,  which  were  afterwards  made 
the  subject  of  exchange  between  the  Powers. 

The  Upper  Guinea  coast  was  visited  by  adventurous  French 
traders  from  Rouen  and  Dieppe  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  the  return  of  vessels  with  a  fair  amount  of  gold  and 
other  produce  aroused  much  interest.  A  settlement  was  formed 
on  shore  at  La  Mine,  afterwards  called,  by  the  Portuguese, 
Elmina,  and  the  place  was  duly  provided  with  a  church  for  worship, 
and  with  forts  for  defence.  The  Portuguese  arrived  as  colonizers 
on  the  Gold  Coast  about  1483,  when  they  occupied  the  abandoned 
French  post,  and  settled  at  various  points  in  that  region.  They 
held  almost  a  monopoly  of  the  Guinea  trade  for  more  than  a 
hundred  years,  though  merchant  ships  from  Bristol  had  arrived  on 
the  scene  about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  the  first 
half  of  the  seventeenth,  the  Dutch,  now  risen  to  a  high  point  of 
naval  and  commercial  power  and  prosperity,  ousted  the  Portuguese 
from  that  quarter  by  the  capture  of  their  chief  fort,  and  were  soon 
followed  by  their  English  rivals.  In  1662,  a  Royal  Company  of 
Adventurers  was  formed,  and  the  Dutch  and  English  were  soon  in 
conflict.  The  settlements  of  Holland  were  taken  by  England,  only 
to  be  again  lost,  except  Cape  Coast  Castle,  to  the  famous  De 


140  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

Ruyter.  The  trading  company  was  soon  dissolved,  to  be  succeeded, 
in  1672,  by  the  Royal  African  Company,  which  erected  forts,  and 
trading -posts  or  factories,  at  several  points  between  Accra  and 
Dixcove.  The  works  at  Cape  Coast  Castle  were  strengthened, 
and  a  good  hold  of  the  strip  of  territory  was  thus  obtained.  In 
1 750  the  Company  was  deprived  of  its  charter,  and  its  settlements 
were  transferred  to  a  new  African  Company  of  Merchants,  founded 
by  an  Act,  subsidized  by  the  government,  and  invested  with  the 
right  of  trading  on  the  coast  and  of  establishing  posts  between 
twenty  degrees  of  north  and  south  latitude.  Fighting  with  their 
Dutch  neighbours  was  a  chronic  trouble  to  the  British  traders  until 
the  general  peace  of  1783. 

The  world-renowned  islet  of  St.  Helena  was  discovered,  on  St. 
Helena's  day,  May  2ist,  1502,  by  the  Portuguese  naval  captain, 
Juan  de  Nova.  It  was  at  that  time  without  human  inhabitants, 
and  covered  with  thick  forest.  Its  existence,  or,  at  least,  its 
position,  was  kept  as  a  strict  secret  from  the  other  European 
nations  until  its  re-discovery  by  Thomas  Cavendish  in  1588.  This 
famous  Elizabethan  navigator,  the  second  Englishman  to  sail  round 
the  world,  crossed  the  Pacific  after  a  plundering  expedition  to  the 
Spanish  possessions  on  the  west  coast  of  America,  and  on  June  Qth, 
about  three  weeks  after  rounding  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  he 
landed  on  the  island.  The  crew  of  his  vessel,  the  only  survivor 
of  three  which  had  sailed  forth  from  Plymouth  nearly  two  years 
gone,  were  in  grievous  suffering  from  sickness,  and  found  health 
and  refreshment  from  its  pleasant  fruits  and  herbs,  planted  there 
by  the  Portuguese,  and  from  the  flesh  of  the  swine  and  wild  goats 
that  roamed  in  the  woods  and  on  the  hills,  and  of  the  turkeys, 
pheasants,  and  partridges  that  formed  the  fair  region's  feathered 
game.  The  place  was  abandoned  by  the  Portuguese  to  the  Dutch, 
who  held  it  for  some  years,  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  then  deserted  the  island  in  their  turn.  In  1651  it  was 
occupied  by  our  East  India  Company,  which  was  empowered,  by  a 
charter  of  the  year  after  the  Restoration,  to  plant  and  fortify  the 
place.  During  the  ensuing  Dutch  wars,  it  was  twice  seized  by 
Holland,  but  was  finally  retaken,  in  May,  1673,  by  Commodore  Sir 
Richard  Munden,  and  was  granted,  by  a  new  charter  of  Charles 
the  Second,  to  the  East  India  Company,  who  remained  its  masters 
until  many  years  after  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


POSSESSIONS   IN    EUROPE  AND   AFRICA.  141 

During  all  that  period,  its  chief  use  lay  in  its  convenient  position 
as  a  place  of  call,  to  procure  fresh  water,  provisions,  and  fruit,  or  to 
refit  after  damage,  for  ships  on  the  homeward  voyage  round  the 
Cape.  St.  Helena  is  fairly  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  South 
Atlantic  trade-wind,  and  in  the  direct  route  of  ships  returning  from 
Eastern  seas. 

Sierra  Leone,  or  "  Lion  Mountain",  named  from  the  terrific  roar 
of  the  tropical  thunder  over  its  heights,  was  discovered  in  1462  by 
the  Portuguese  navigator,  Da  Cintra.  Its  British  history  dates 
only  from  1787,  when  the  tract  of  land  now  partly  occupied  by 
Freetown  was  given  up  by  a  native  chief  to  an  English  society, 
formed  to  help  free  and  destitute  negroes.  The  decision  of  Lord 
Mansfield  in  1770,  recorded  above,  that  no  human  being  can  be 
detained  as  a  slave  on  British  soil,  had  thrown  many  of  these 
persons,  abandoned  by  previous  owners,  on  the  streets  of  London, 
Bristol,  and  other  commercial  towns.  A  cargo  of  these  free 
emigrants  was  sent  out  in  1787,  and,  four  years  later,  a  Company, 
including  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce,  Thornton  and  Granville  Sharp, 
was  formed,  with  powers  secured  by  an  Act.  A  large  body  of 
negroes,  quitting  Nova  Scotia  for  a  land  of  more  genial  clime, 
landed  in  the  following  year,  and  good  hopes  for  the  prosperity  of 
the  new  colony  were  formed  by  its  benevolent  promoters.  In 
1800,  there  was  a  fresh  arrival  of  freed  negroes  from  Jamaica,  but 
the  settlement  was  not  an  entire  success.  Its  later  history  will  be 
given  in  coming  pages  of  the  present  work. 


142  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

AUSTRALASIA — NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 

Peculiar  conditions  of  early  Australian  colonization — First  authentic  notices  of  Australia 
or  New  Holland — Dampier  surveys  part  of  the  coast — Captain  Cook  the  first  real 
discoverer  of  the  continent — The  British  flag  hoisted  in  New  South  Wales — Trans- 
portation of  convicts  to  Botany  Bay — Captain  Phillip  appointed  governor — He 
explores  Port  Jackson,  and  selects  Sydney  Cove  for  a  settlement — A  visit  from  the 
French — Norfolk  Island  occupied — Hardships  of  the  first  settlers,  and  difficulties 
with  the  convicts — Fresh  consignments  of  criminals  sent  from  Britain — Free 
emigrants  begin  to  arrive — Major  Grose  succeeds  Captain  Phillip — A  demoralizing 
truck-system  introduced — Captains  Paterson  and  Hunter  successively  governors — 
Growing  prosperity  of  the  colony — John  Macarthur  inaugurates  the  wool  trade. — 
Early  attempts  to  explore  the  continent — Important  surveys  of  the  coasts  by  Bass 
and  Flinders — Flinders  unjustly  detained  at  Mauritius  by  the  French  governor,  and 
deprived  of  his  papers — His  return  to  England,  and  death. 

In  all  the  Empire,  Australia  possesses  the  truest  models  of 
"  colonies ",  as  lands  of  virgin  soil,  containing  from  the  first  but 
few  aborigines,  and  formed  into  states  by  emigration  conducted 
mainly  for  the  purpose  of  founding  new  homes,  through  tillage  or 
stock-keeping,  for  a  surplus  population  from  the  old  country,  Great 
Britain.  This  vast  continental-island  resembles  North  America, 
apart  from  Mexico,  in  showing  no  traces  of  former  dwellers  who 
played  any  part  in  the  advance  of  civilization.  There  are  no 
stately  ruins  to  declare  that  it  was  ever  the  seat  of  empire, 
founded  and  held  by  a  people  great  in  industries  and  arts.  The 
region,  when  it  was  discovered  by  Europeans,  appears  to  have 
been  declined  as  worthless.  The  Dutch  might  have  added  it  to 
their  colonial  dominions,  but  their  merchants  could  see  there  no 
prospect  of  wealth  to  be  easily  and  quickly  won,  as  in  the  "spice 
islands"  of  East  Indian  seas,  nor  any  other  opening  for  profitable 
settlement. 

The  real  origin  of  Australian  colonization  was,  as  will  be  seen, 
somewhat  ignominious.  A  British  navigator,  sailing  along  the 
south-eastern  coast,  makes  a  good  report  of  the  land  as  one  fitted 
for  settlers,  and  the  government  first  uses  the  territory  as  a  place 
of  deportation  for  criminals,  excluded  from  North  America  by  the 
newly-won  independence  of  the  colonies  that  had  become  the 
"  United  States  ".  Thus  it  was  that  "  Botany  Bay  ",  which,  even 
in  the  "  fifties  "  of  the  present  century,  was  still  a  name  of  sinister 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  143 

sound,  was  at  first  selected  as  a  place  of  abode  for  those  who,  in 
the  words  of  one  of  the  early  Australian  convicts,  Charles  Bar- 
rington,  the  famous  pickpocket,  "  left  their  country  for  their  country's 
good  ". 

It  is  another  feature  of  Australian  history  that,  from  the  first 
hour  of  a  British  landing,  uncontested  by  any  other  of  the  Euro- 
pean nations,  the  great  territory  has  been  wholly  a  British  posses- 
sion. No  Wolfe,  no  Clive,  was  needed  there  to  urge  in  battle 
our  rightful  or  wrongful  claims  against  earlier  wielders  of  power. 
The  British  flag  alone  has  ever  floated  on  Australian  forts,  alone 
has  caught  the  breezes  blowing  on  Australian  shores.  The  sole 
frontier  is  the  sea.  The  internal  history,  save  for  the  briefest  and 
least  important  of  civil  broils,  and  fights  of  settlers,  sometimes 
harsh  and  even  cruel,  against  "  mobs "  of  ignorant  and  savage 
natives,  has  been  one  of  perfect  peace.  We  begin  herewith  the 
history  of  a  land  which  started  on  her  colonial  career  as  a  prison, 
and  passed,  by  slow  degrees,  into  a  grand  ever-widening  wool- 
farm  and  a  garden  rich  in  corn  and  wine  and  other  goodly 
produce,  from  beneath  whose  soil  there  came,  with  a  rush,  to  light 
the  riches  of  a  splendid  gold-mine.  The  colony  then  became, 
"  by  leaps  and  bounds ",  a  nation,  emulating  the  mother-country, 
far  away  beyond  the  seas,  in  material,  social,  political,  and  intel- 
lectual advance. 

Having  lately  completed  the  first  century  of  her  history  in  the 
records  of  civilization,  Australia  presents  herself  to  our  gaze  as  a 
region  finely  illustrative  of  British  powers  of  progress,  as  a  land 
which  is  developing,  under  novel  climatic,  social,  and  economical 
conditions,  a  new  type  of  Briton,  dwelling  amid  scenes  lit  up  with 
brightest  suns,  burning  in  bluest  skies,  by  day,  where  the  vault  of 
heaven,  by  night,  is  spangled  with  the  most  lustrous  of  stars.  For 
many  an  age,  in  the  words  of  one  of  her  most  tuneful  poets,  she 
rested,  like  "  some  sweet  child  within  a  chamber  darkened,  left 
sleeping  long  into  a  troubled  day",  while  the  distant  world  of 
Europe  struggled  on,  through  civil  and  religious  strife  and  turmoil, 
into  a  higher  and  a  better  life.  The  day  of  Australia's  awakening 
came  at  last,  and  the  best  of  European  energy  and  skill  went 
forth  to  possess  and  to  cultivate  the  region  found  again  "by  strong 
prying  eyes  of  English  seekers",  a  continent  to  be  "a  realm  for 
happier  sons  "  of  those  who  came,  "  one  land  whose  history  had 


144  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

not  begun",  "a  spacious  reach  of  earth  that  has  no  heartache  for 
a  ruined  past",  "a  gracious  freehold  for  the  free"  men  of  Great 
Britain  to  have  and  to  rule  in  a  beneficent  tenure  of  peaceful 
progress,  and  there  build  up  a  new  empire  "  beyond  the  rim  of  an 
enchanted  sea". 

Passing  from  poetry  into  more  sober  but  not  more  truthful  or 
instructive  prose,  we  find  that  the  ancient  geographical  writers, 
Strabo,  Pliny,  and  Ptolemy,  the  last  (and  latest)  of  whom  flourished 
in  the  second  century  of  the  Christian  era,  have  allusions  to  the 
existence  of  a  mysterious  great  south  land.  It  is  believed  that  the 
soldiers  of  Alexander  the  Great  brought  back  with  them  from 
India  fragments  of  stories,  long  current  there  and  in  China,  con- 
cerning a  vast  island  visited  by  birds  of  passage  and  by  the  more 
adventurous  savages  of  what  is  now  called  the  Malay  Archipelago. 
In  modern  times,  Australia  may  have  been  first  discovered  by  a 
French  navigator  from  Provence,  named  Le  Testu,  who  was  on  its 
northern  shores  about  the  year  1531.  It  is  certain  that,  in  a  rude 
form,  the  region  is  marked  on  some  French  charts  of  1542,  as 
Jave  la  Grande,  or  "  Great  Java."  A  book  by  Cornelius  Wytfliet, 
published  at  Louvain  in  1598,  mentions  the  land. 

The  first  authenticated  discovery  was  made  in  1601  by  a 
Portuguese  named  Manoel  de  Eredia.  In  1606,  a  Spanish  navi- 
gator, Luis  de  Torres,  who  was  second  in  command  of  an  expedi- 
tion, consisting  of  three  small  ships,  intrusted  by  the  governor  of 
Peru  to  Fernandez  de  Quiros,  was  separated  from  his  chief  in 
stormy  weather,  and  passed  through  the  strait,  called  by  his  own 
name,  between  Australia  and  New  Guinea.  Torres  may  or  may 
not  have  caught  sight,  in  his  southward  gaze,  of  the  greater  island, 
but  in  the  same  year,  beyond  doubt,  the  Dutch  came  upon  the 
scene,  and  a  vessel  named  the  Duyffhen  or  Dove,  landed  some 
men,  who  were  killed  by  the  natives,  on  the  north-west  shore  of 
the  great  Gulf  of  Carpentaria.  During  the  next  twenty  years, 
several  Dutch  navigators  were  engaged,  at  intervals,  in  viewing 
the  north-western  and  western  coasts,  and  the  arid  nature  of  much 
o.f  the  country,  so  widely  differing  from  the  south-east  in  appear- 
ance and  fertility,  was  doubtless  a  chief  reason  for  the  Hollanders 
showing  no  desire  to  gain  in  that  quarter  fresh  colonial  territory. 
The  words  on  the  map  still  bear  token  of  the  former  presence  of 
Dutch  navigators,  in  "Arnhem  Land"  and  "Cape  Arnhem ", 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  145 

"Dirk  Hartog  Island",  and  "Cape  Leeuwin",  or  Lioness^  from 
the  name  of  the  Dutch  vessel  which  sailed  along  much  of  the 
southern  coast  in  1622.  The  claim  of  the  Batavian  explorers  to 
early  discovery  was  asserted  by  the  title  of  "New  Holland",  the 
name  which  remained  in  use  for  the  whole  region  until  a  period 
well  advanced  into  the  present  century.  The  designation  "  Aus- 
tralia", used  by  Samuel  Purchas,  the  follower  of  Hakluyt,  in  his 
famous  book  of  voyages  and  travels,  Purchas  his  Pilgrimes, 
published  in  1625,  and  by  other  old  writers,  for  the  great  un- 
explored southern  continent,  was  revived  by  Captain  Flinders, 
whom  we  shall  meet  hereafter,  and  was  adopted  by  the  early 
Australian  colonists  about  the  year  1817,  afterwards  passing  into 
general,  official,  and  lasting  acceptance.  In  1696,  we  find  Willem 
de  Vlaming,  another  Dutchman,  arriving  with  three  ships  off  the 
mouth  of  the  Swan  River,  and  in  the  early  days  of  the  following 
year,  a  boat's  crew  sent  ashore  found  the  commemorative  tin  plate 
left  behind  by  Dirk  Hartog  more  than  eighty  years  before.  A 
few  natives  were  seen,  but  no  intercourse  with  them  took  place, 
and  the  expedition  soon  returned  to  Batavia,  on  the  north-west 
coast  of  Java,  which  was  then,  as  it  remains,  the  capital  of  the 
Dutch  East  Indian  possessions. 

"  Dampier  Archipelago  "  and  "  Dampier  Land  ",  on  the  west 
coast,  reveal  the  presence  of  William  Dampier,  the  first  English- 
man, so  far  as  is  now  known,  who  ever  set  eyes  on  the  mainland 
of  Australia,  and  probably  the  first  man  of  any  nation  who  made 
any  formal  survey  of  the  coast,  or  attempted  to  gain  some  real 
acquaintance  with  the  interior.  This  adventurous  mixture  of  the 
explorer  with  the  buccaneer  was  born  near  Yeovil,  in  Somerset- 
shire, in  1652,  and  spent  his  youth  and  early  manhood  in  voyages 
to  the  East  and  West  Indies.  After  some  years  passed  as  a  log- 
wood cutter  on  the  coast  of  Yucatan,  he  joined  a  party  of  buc- 
caneers in  1679,  who  crossed  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  and  plundered 
the  Spanish  coast  far  to  the  south.  In  1683  he  started  with 
anotjier  semi-piratical  expedition,  which  took  him  along  the  shores 
of  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Chili,  and  across  the  Pacific  to  the  Philip- 
pine Islands,  China,  and  other  localities.  After  many  adventures, 
including  a  forced  stay,  through  a  quarrel  with  his  comrades,  on 
the  Nicobar  Islands,  Dampier  made  his  way  to  England  in  1691, 
and  published,  six  years  later,  an  account  of  his  voyage  round  the 

VOL.  I.  10 


146  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

world.  It  was  during  this  long  cruise  that  Dampier  and  some  of 
his  companions,  in  January,  1688,  landed  on  the  north-west  coast 
of  "  New  Holland ",  spending  some  weeks  in  refitting  the  ships, 
and  gaining  some  knowledge  of  the  surrounding  country. 

The  two  volumes  of  Dampier's  travels  aroused  the  interest  of 
William  the  Third,  and  in  1699  he  was  placed  in  command  of  a 
small  vessel  named  the  Roebuck,  provisioned  for  a  long  voyage, 
and  supplied  with  a  crew  of  fifty  men.  The  leader  was  instructed 
to  ascertain  whether  "New  Holland"  were  a  continent  or  merely 
an  archipelago.  In  August  the  ship  entered  Sharks'  Bay,  the  fine 
inlet  on  the  west  coast,  deriving  its  name  from  an  enormous  shark 
there  caught,  and  from  the  number  of  those  fierce  foes  of  the 
mariner  with  which  its  waters  were  then,  as  now,  infested. 
Nearly  a  thousand  miles  of  the  coast,  northwards  as  far  as  Roe- 
buck Bay,  were  carefully  explored,  with  frequent  landings  in  search 
of  fresh  water,  which  was  only  once  obtained.  Some  natives  were 
seen,  but  were  too  shy  for  friendly  intercourse,  and  too  swift-footed 
for  capture.  He  describes  them  as  "miserable  wretches",  devoid 
of  raiment  or  dwellings,  living  upon  fish,  and  having  tall,  lean, 
upright  bodies.  The  region  seen  by  Dampier  was  mainly  low  and 
sandy.  The  only  animal  which  struck  him  was,  beyond  doubt,  the 
kangaroo,  which  he  describes  as  "like  a  raccoon",  but  "jumping 
about  on  its  long  hind-legs  ". 

The  navigators  who  sailed  to  the  southern  seas  in  that  age 
were  fated,  as  it  seems,  to  reach  the  north-western  and  western 
sides  of  New  Holland,  the  least  attractive  to  the  visitor  who  sees 
nothing  but  the  coast-lands,  and  this  fact,  for  many  years,  turned 
men's  thoughts  away  from  the  region  as  one  likely  to  prove 
valuable  for  settlement.  The  Dutch,  who  could  most  fairly  claim 
possession,  lost  the  reward  due  to  their  many  efforts,  simply 
because  they  knew  not  the  value  of  the  prize  which  they  had 
won,  and  the  legal  doctrine  of  non  user  caused  their  right  to  lapse. 

Dampier,  after  cruising  along  New  Guinea  and  some  adjacent 
islands,  returned  to  England  without  having  solved  the  problem 
presented  by  the  "  Great  South  Land,"  and  his  report  of  what 
appeared  to  be  a  wholly  barren  and  worthless  region  had  its  natural 
effect  on  the  minds  of  explorers  and  colonizers. 

The  day  was  to  arrive,  seventy  years  after  Dampier's  second 
visit,  when  a  greater  man  than  he  was  to  light  upon  a  fairer  spot 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  147 

in  the  vast  mysterious  land.  On  the  morning  of  April  28th,  1770, 
a  party  of  dusky  natives,  armed  with  boomerangs  and  spears,  their 
bare  bodies  decked  only  with  streaks  of  white,  lay  on  the  shore  of 
a  little  bay  on  the  south-east  coast  of  the  long-neglected  region 
which  still  bore  the  name  assigned  by  some  patriotic  Dutch  navi- 
gator, be  he  Abel  Tasman  or  any  other  Hollander.  The  sky  was 
clear  overhead,  glowing  with  the  light  of  the  southern  sun.  The 
wavelets  rustled  at  the  natives'  feet  on  the  long  curving  bar  of  sand, 
and  the  gray-winged  gulls  were  wading  in  the  shallow  pools,  or 
uttering  notes  of  call,  as  they  rose  and  fell  and  circled  in  the  air 
with  capricious  flight.  Faintly  to  the  ear  comes  the  boom  of  the 
waves  from  the  open  Pacific,  as  they  break  against  the  shore  outside 
the  bold  headlands  at  the  entrance  of  the  bay.  Over  rocks  in  the 
rear  the  water  drips  with  a  lulling  sound  of  harmony  with  the  breeze 
that  blows  through  the  metallic  leafage  of  the  gum-trees  in  the 
forest.  But  these  children  of  the  soil  have  little  regard  for  the 
beauties  of  the  scene  amidst  which  they  dwell.  Their  gaze  is  fixed 
on  a  ship  that  rounds  the  headland  to  the  south,  preceded  by  a 
pinnace  rowing  along  the  beach  in  search  of  an  anchorage.  They 
spring  to  their  feet  in  an  attitude  of  menace,  and  keep  pace  with 
the  vessel  as  she  moves  near  the  shore.  The  anchor  is  dropped, 
and  the  ship  swings  round  opposite  a  group  of  trees  near  some 
huts  whence  issue  the  smell  and  smoke  of  native  cooking. 

The  scene  is  homely,  but  the  circumstance  is  historic.  The  ship 
is  the  famous  Endeavour:  her  commander  is  James  Cook.  He 
comes,  though  he  knows  it  not  yet,  to  be  the  first  real  discoverer 
of  Australia,  the  pioneer  of  a  new  and  mighty  empire  for  his  native 
land.  His  vessel  has  been  beating  up  from  the  southward,  skirting 
a  beautiful  line  of  cliffs,  with  breaks  into  tiny  havens,  and  with 
beaches,  here  and  there,  of  fair  white  sand.  In  the  afternoon  he 
prepares  to  land,  and,  eager  to  make  friends,  if  he  may,  with  the 
people,  he  flings  beads  and  nails  to  propitiate  two  savages  who  take 
their  stand,  with  uplifted  spears,  on  a  jutting  rock.  They  pick  up 
the  nails  and  beads  with  evident  delight,  but  still  oppose  any  effort 
to  land,  and  only  flee  when,  in  reply  to  a  stone  flung  at  the  boat, 
some  small  shot  from  a  musket  peppers  their  legs.  They  soon 
return  with  rude  shields  for  their  protection,  but  the  spear  and 
shield  cannot  match  the  musket,  and  another  shot  drives  the  natives 
to  the  woods.  The  party  land  and  examine  the  huts,  leaving 


148  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

behind  some  ribbons  and  beads  and  pieces  of  cloth,  as  friendly 
tokens  in  exchange  for  two  or  three  spears  secured  as  mementoes 
of  the  visit.  The  captain  sails  round  the  shallow  bay  in  his  pinnace, 
and  some  excellent  hauls  of  fish  are  taken. 

Two  of  his  passenger-friends  on  board,  named  Banks  and 
Solander,  whose  names  are  affixed  to  the  rocky  headlands  at  the 
mouth,  are  enchanted  with  the  wealth  of  plants,  unseen  before  by 
scientific  eyes,  displayed  on  the  shores  of  the  new-found  bay.  An 
endless  variety  of  flowers  and  flowering  shrubs  would  have  dazzled 
their  sight  with  a  profusion  of  brightest  yellows  and  blues,  and  reds 
and  purples,  and  purest  whites,  in  the  early  summer  of  the  Australian 
year;  but  April  there  is  the  autumn-time,  and  the  once  glowing 
mass  of  petals  on  tree  and  shrub,  plant,  moss,  and  grass,  unrelieved 
by  the  bright  and  abundant  green  of  the  British  foliage,  is  now 
beheld  in  less  brilliant  array.  The  novel  and  varied  abundance  of 
the  plants,  with  parasites  and  vines  linking  the  gum-trees  in  pendent 
chains  of  foliage,  amply  justified  the  title  assigned  by  Cook  on  the 
suggestion  of  his  friends,  and  accepted  by  posterity,  of  "  Botany 
Bay."  A  trip  inland  showed  the  voyagers  flocks  of  bright-hued 
parrots  and  paroquets,  with  the  crested  cockatoos  never  before  seen 
by  European  eyes.  It  is  curious  that,  in  two  ways,  the  voyagers 
should  have  missed  seeing  the  magnificent  harbour  just  north  of 
Botany  Bay.  In  their  rambles  along  shore  and  inland,  they  must 
have  come  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  hills  whence  their  eyes 
would  have  looked  down  upon  its  waters. 

After  hoisting  the  British  flag,  amid  the  roar  of  the  ship's  cannon, 
and  volleys  of  musketry,  near  both  the  northern  and  southern  head- 
lands, and  claiming  the  country  for  George  the  Third,  under  the 
name  of  New  South  Wales,  from  its  resemblance  in  coast-line  to 
the  south  of  the  Principality,  Cook  sailed  away  on  May  6th  to  the 
northwards.  He  soon  passed  a  small  opening  in  the  land,  which 
he  named  "  Port  Jackson ",  in  honour  of  his  friend  Sir  George 
Jackson,  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty.  His  neglect  to  enter  was  the 
second  failure  to  discover  the  grand  haven  which  he  thus  named 
without  any  idea  of  its  real  proportions.  As  he  coasted  the  lofty 
land,  with  rolling  hills  clad  in  foliage  to  the  summits,  the  ship  came 
to  an  anchor  in  the  broad  and  shallow  "  Moreton  Bay  ",  and,  con- 
tinuing the  northward  voyage,  she  reached  the  latitude  of  the  great 
coral  barrier-reef.  At  Keppel  Bay,  Cook,  Banks,  and  Solander 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  149 

took  a  long  walk  inland,  seeing  hills  erected  by  the  white  ants, 
many  flights  of  bright-winged  butterflies,  and  some  beautiful  birds. 

After  thirteen  hundred  miles  of  voyaging  along  a  coast  never 
before  seen  by  Europeans,  Cook,  not  far  from  a  point  which  he 
styled  "  Cape  Tribulation  ",  had  a  narrow  escape  of  losing  his  ship. 
At  ten  o'clock  on  a  moonlit  night,  as  the  Endeavour  sailed  through 
twenty-fathom  water,  a  sudden  crash,  followed  by  a  quiver  which 
ran  through  the  hull,  and  a  heeling  over  till  she  lay  fixed  on  one 
side,  showed  that  they  had  struck  on  a  coral  reef.  The  lightening 
of  the  vessel,  with  the  loss  of  cannon  and  part  of  the  stores,  and 
the  rise  of  the  tide  on  the  following  night,  set  them  afloat,  but  with 
a  leak  only  reduced  to  a  degree  with  which  the  pumps  could  cope, 
by  the  ingenious  device  ef  passing  a  sail  below  and  hauling  it  tight 
with  ropes  on  each  side.  The  vessel  was  beached  at  the  mouth  of 
a  stream  called  by  the  captain  "  Endeavour  River  ",  and  it  was  then 
found  that  she  had  mainly  owed  her  safety  to  a  huge  piece  of  coral 
left  sticking  in  the  timber,  and  thereby  narrowing  the  rent  which 
had  been  made.  During  the  repairs,  Banks,  with  two  greyhounds 
which  he  had  on  board,  varied  his  botanical  studies  by  the  first 
kangaroo-hunt  that  an  European  had  ever  enjoyed,  though  the 
game,  with  its  long  leaps,  was  found  to  be  too  nimble  for  the  dogs. 
The  voyagers  then  sailed,  still  northwards,  to  Cape  York,  and 
passed  through  Torres  Strait,  arriving  in  England,  after  grievous 
suffering  and  many  deaths  from  tropical  fever,  in  about  two  years 
from  the  time  of  departure. 

The  original  object  of  Captain  Cook's  voyage  is  well  known. 
The  great  mariner,  whose  rise  in  life  was  due  to  natural  ability  and 
the  sheer  merit  of  self-improvement  and  courageous  effort,  was 
born  at  Marton,  in  breezy  Cleveland,  Yorkshire,  in  1728,  son  of  a 
field-labourer,  and  apprenticed  to  a  draper  at  the  little  fishing- town 
of  Staithes,  ten  miles  north  of  Whitby.  The  lad  could  not  brook  life 
behind  a  counter,  and  was  soon  found  sailing  in  the  coasting  and 
Baltic  trade.  In  1755  he  entered  the  navy  as  an  able  seaman,  and 
four  years  more  saw  him  ranked  as  master.  With  many  years' 
experience  gained  in  surveying  about  the  St.  Lawrence  and  New- 
foundland, and  after  time  and  trouble  devoted  to  mathematics  and 
scientific  navigation,  Cook  became  lieutenant  in  1 768,  and  was  well 
chosen  to  command,  as  we  have  seen,  the  ship  sent  forth,  in  August, 
1769,  with  scientific  men  on  board,  to  observe  in  the  southern  seas 


ISO  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

the  rare  phenomenon  of  the  transit  of  Venus  across  the  disc  of  the 
sun.  The  Royal  Society  induced  the  king  to  make  the  expedition 
a  national  undertaking,  and  Cook,  who  had  displayed  the  utmost 
coolness  and  the  steadiest  nerve  in  taking  soundings  for  Wolfe, 
within  earshot  of  the  hostile  sentries'  challenge,  in  front  of  Quebec, 
had  thus  received  his  first  great  chance  of  fame. 

We  are  not  now  concerned  with  his  brilliant  later  career  in 
Antarctic  and  Pacific  seas,  his  discovery  of  New  Caledonia,  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  and  many  other  new  lands,  closed  by  his  tragical 
death  in  1779,  at  the  hands  of  the  natives  of  Hawaii,  the  largest 
island  of  the  group  named  after  Lord  Sandwich,  then  at  the  head 
of  the  Admiralty.  The  main  fact  of  Captain  Cook's  life,  for  our 
present  purpose,  is  his  voyage  along  the  eastern  coast  of  Australia, 
and  especially  his  landing  at  Botany  Bay.  He  it  was  who  first,  in 
the  true  sense,  discovered  Australia  for  his  country  and  the  rest  of 
the  civilized  world.  Favoured  by  fortune  in  the  point  of  his  access, 
and  aided  by  his  keen  and  practical  eye,  Cook  saw  the  value  of  the 
new  land  as  a  place  for  colonization.  While  Banks  and  Solander, 
true  to  their  vocation,  were  exulting  in  the  acquirement  of  new 
scientific  specimens,  the  commander  of  the  expedition  had  observed 
rich  pasturage,  patches  of  black  soil  which  promised  great  fertility 
as  a  return  for  tillage,  and  freestone  good  for  house-building.  The 
report  which  he  made  was  duly  noted  by  government  officials,  and 
was  turned  to  account  when  the  time  arrived.  Meanwhile,  Cook's 
discovery  of  eastern  Australia  made  a  revolution  in  European 
beliefs  concerning  the  distant  land.  The  impression  made  by 
Dampier  was  effaced,  and  the  navigators  of  other  nations  turned 
their  thoughts,  and  then  steered  their  ships,  towards  Australian 
shores.  Apart  from  Cook's  claim  on  behalf  of  his  king  and  country, 
Great  Britain,  as  we  shall  see,  narrowly  escaped  the  assertion  of  a 
right  in  favour  of  France. 

It  was  not  till  after  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  in  1783,  granting 
independence  to  our  late  North  American  colonies,  that  the  difficulty 
caused  by  the  want  of  a  place  whither  to  transport  felons,  caused 
the  official  mind  to  bethink  itself  of  Botany  Bay.  In  1 787,  Viscount 
Sydney,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  Home  affairs,  to  whose  control,  in 
a  measure,  colonial  matters  also  belonged,  resolved  to  found  a  con- 
vict-settlement in  the  spot  described  by  Captain  Cook.  The  new 
policy  was  dictated  by  considerations  of  benevolence  as  well  as  of 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  151 

public  convenience.  The  pity  of  good  men  had  been  aroused  in 
behalf  of  the  criminal  class,  who  were  declared  by  some  philan- 
thropical  writers  to  be  victims  of  a  vicious  social  system,  and  the 
public  conscience  was,  in  some  degree,  shocked  by  the  frequent 
executions  which  took  place  under  the  then  atrocious  criminal  code. 
The  royal  prerogative  was  often  used  in  commuting  death  to 
banishment  for  life,  with  capital  punishment  for  unauthorized 
return,  and  the  benevolent  were  anxious  to  afford  to  criminals,  on 
a  distant  shore,  the  chance  of  a  new  and  better  career. 

Hence  came  the  sailing  in  the  month  of  May,  1787,  of  the 
notable  expedition  called  the  "  First  Fleet ".  The  Sirius  frigate, 
under  Captain  Hunter;  an  armed  tender,  the  Supply,  under  Lieu- 
tenant Ball;  three  store-ships,  and  six  transports,  carried  altogether 
more  than  a  thousand  persons,  all  under  the  control  of  Captain 
Arthur  Phillip  as  Commodore  for  the  voyage,  and  as  Governor  for 
the  projected  colony.  The  new  movement  was  made  under  an  Act 
of  1783,  for  the  transportation  of  offenders  "beyond  the  seas",  and 
their  removal  from  the  lately-established  and  now  crowded  "  peni- 
tentiaries "  and  hulks.  Public  interest  had  been  widely  and  warmly 
aroused,  when  the  ships  went  forth,  conveying  ten  civil  officials, 
over  two  hundred  marines  and  their  officers,  with  wives  and  children, 
about  eighty  free  persons  of  various  trades  and  callings,  five  hundred 
male  and  nearly  two  hundred  female  convicts.  Mr.  Collins  went 
out  as  judge-advocate,  with  the  duty  of  presiding  in  the  military 
courts  which  were  to  administer  justice.  The  confinement  and 
crowding  of  an  eight  months'  voyage,  with  disease  either  brought 
on  board  or  thus  engendered,  proved  fatal  to  eighty-nine  persons. 
After  touching  at  Teneriffe,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  the  whole  of  the  ships  came  to  an  anchor  in  Botany  Bay  on 
January  i8th,  1788,  and  the  two  succeeding  days,  and  a  debarka- 
tion was  promptly  effected. 

The  head  of  the  expedition  had  been  happily  chosen  for  the  very 
important  work  in  hand.  Captain  Phillip  was  one  of  the  noblest 
types  of  mankind — a  British  sailor  of  the  highest  class.  Now  in 
his  fiftieth  year,  he  had  served  in  the  navy  at  the  capture  of 
Havannah,  the  capital  of  Cuba,  in  1762,  and,  a  year  later,  when  the 
Treaty  of  Paris  gave  him  leisure,  he  had  married  and  settled  down 
to  farming  at  Lyndhurst,  in  the  New  Forest.  Afloat  again  in  the 
great  war  when  Britain  was  engaged  with  the  naval  forces  of 


152  OUR   EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

France  and  Spain  and  Holland,  he  was  now  selected  for  duties  to 
which  he  was,  by  nature  and  training,  admirably  fitted.  Accus- 
tomed to  discipline  and  method,  of  gentle  and  most  sympathetic 
nature,  calm  of  soul  and  patient  in  the  hour  of  difficulty  and  distress, 
generous  and  hopeful,  self-reliant,  decided,  prompt  and  terrible  in 
his  rarely-needed  punishments,  he  dealt  with  the  circumstances  of 
a  novel  and  difficult  position  in  such  a  way  as  to  earn  the  blessings 
of  those  whom  he  ruled,  and  to  win  the  renown  of  one  of  Australia's 
foremost  governors  in  character  and  ability,  as  he  was  first  in  order 
of  time. 

Captain  Phillip  soon  found  reason  to  regard  the  beautiful  Botany 
Bay  as  a  spot  unsuitable  for  the  foundation  of  his  penal  colony. 
Most  of  the  ground,  from  its  sandy  or  rocky  nature,  was  not  fitted  for 
tillage,  and  the  only  fresh  water  to  be  seen  lay  in  swampy  soil  likely, 
in  a  hot  climate,  to  breed  fever  for  those  committed  to  his  care.  The 
waters  of  the  bay  were  so  shallow  as  to  prevent  a  near  access  to 
the  shore  for  most  of  his  vessels,  which  were  compelled  to  anchor 
out  near  to  the  headlands,  exposed  to  the  roll  of  the  great  Pacific 
waves.  With  three  ships'  boats  he  went  forth  in  search  of  a  more 
convenient  haven  and  place  for  settlement,  and,  passing  northwards 
for  eight  or  nine  miles,  he  turned  into  the  opening,  believed  by 
Cook  to  be  a  mere  boat-harbour,  and  named  by  him,  as  he  passed, 
Port  Jackson.  The  winding  channel  was  guarded  on  either  side 
by  lofty,  grim -looking  rocky  cliffs,  and  then  a  few  oar-strokes 
brought  the  searcher  in  sight  of  one  of  the  finest  prospects  of  its 
kind  in  the  world.  Far  away  to  the  west,  until  it  was  lost  on  the 
horizon,  lay  a  vast  expanse  of  water,  winding  into  countless  creeks, 
the  coast  clad  in  foliage  of  dark-green  woods,  the  surface  dotted 
with  little  sunny  isles,  the  beaches  of  the  bays  fringed  with  strips 
of  gold-hued  sand.  Silent  lay  the  scene  beneath  the  blue  of  Aus- 
tralian skies  on  the  January  day  which  there  affords  the  warmth  of 
summer  at  its  height,  as  the  boats  glided  onwards  and  flung  from 
their  oars  the  first  foam  ever  churned  from  the  surface  of  that  sea, 
since  the  dawn  of  the  world,  by  the  arm  of  any  civilized  man.  On 
projecting  rocks  stood  dark-skinned  groups  of  natives  at  the  gaze, 
as  the  white  men  looked  with  enchanted  eyes  on  the  matchless 
beauty  of  the  new-found  refuge  for  the  exiled  band.  After  three 
days  spent  in  examining  parts  of  the  spacious  harbour  and  explor- 
ing some  of  the  numerous  inlets,  a  site  was  selected  at  a  tree-shaded 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  153 

cove,  into  which  a  purling  stream  discharged  its  clear  waters.  Close 
to  the  rocks  which  lined  the  shore  there  was  anchorage  for  ships 
in  a  depth  of  twenty  feet,  and  it  would  be  needless  to  construct 
wharves  or  piers.  The  place  was  named  by  its  discoverer  Sydney 
Cove,  in  honour  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  on  its  shores  were 
shortly  to  arise  the  beginnings  of  the  now  stately  and  beautiful 
town  known  to  all  the  world  as  Sydney. 

On  his  return  to  Botany  Bay,  Phillip  found  parties  of  convicts 
engaged  in  digging  wells  and  in  making  wharves  for  the  landing  of 
goods,  but  the  news  of  his  discovery  of  the  grand  harbour  to  the 
north  brought  these  toils  at  once  to  an  end,  and  preparations  were 
made  for  a  move  on  the  morrow.  At  daybreak  of  January  26th 
the  anchors  were  being  weighed,  and  the  echoes  of  the  sailors' 
chorus  were  rolling  round  the  bay,  when  two  strange  vessels  were 
seen  standing  in  between  the  headlands.  They  were  flying  the 
French  flag,  and  proved  to  be  the  Boussoleand.  the  Astrolabe,  under 
the  command  of  the  Count  de  la  Perouse,  his  second-in-command 
M.  de  Langle,  of  the  Astrolabe,  having  been  killed  a  month  previ- 
ously in  an  encounter  with  the  fierce  natives  of  the  Navigators 
Islands.  The  famous  and  ill-fated  La  Perouse  was  thus,  as  we 
hinted  above,  a  week  too  late  upon  the  scene  to  claim  that  part  of 
New  Holland  for  the  Bourbon  king,  the  hapless  Louis  the  Six- 
teenth, so  shortly  to  be  face  to  face  with  armed  revolt  in  his  capital. 
The  French  navigator,  who  had  been  distinguished  in  the  late 
war  against  Great  Britain,  by  destroying  forts  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  received  a  courteous  welcome  from  Phillip,  and  came  to 
anchor  in  the  bay,  where  he  remained  for  some  weeks.  In  the  last 
days  of  February,  or  the  early  days  of  March,  the  Frenchmen  sailed 
forth  from  Botany  Bay,  and  from  that  hour,  for  many  a  year,  they 
vanished  from  the  sight,  and  even  from  all  knowledge,  of  civilized 
man.  French  expeditions  of  search  went  forth  in  vain,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  year  1826  that  any  light  was  thrown  on  the  mysterious 
end  of  La  Pe" rouse  and  his  men.  Captain  Dillon,  of  the  East  India 
Company's  service,  was  at  that  time  cruising  in  southern  seas,  when 
he  came  upon  the  relics  of  shipwrecks  which  had  occurred  at  the 
Vanikoro  Reefs,  off  an  island  of  that  name  lying  north  of  the  New 
Hebrides.  Both  vessels  had  gone  ashore  and  part  of  one  crew  had 
escaped  from  the  sea,  some  to  die  by  the  hands  of  savages,  others  to 
sail  off  in  a  small  vessel  of  their  own  building,  and  never  to  be  heard 


154  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

of  again  in  Europe.  Some  guns,  anchors,  and  chains,  recovered  from 
the  spot  in  1883,  are  now  to  be  seen  in  a  Paris  museum.  On  the 
northern  shore  of  Botany  Bay  stands  a  tall  pillar,  backed  by  Norfolk 
Island  pines,  in  memory  of  the  French  explorer  and  his  comrades. 

January  26th,  1788,  is  a  memorable  date  in  Australasian  history. 
In  the  evening  of  that  day  the  whole  party  of  emigrants  went 
ashore  in  Sydney  Cove.  A  few  trees  were  cleared  away  on  the 
bank  of  the  little  stream,  and  on  this  open  space  a  flagstaff  was 
erected.  The  Union  Jack  was  run  up,  and,  after  the  firing  of  three 
volleys,  the  governor  read  his  commission  to  the  assembled  com- 
pany. A  canvas  dwelling  was  put  up  for  his  accommodation,  with 
a  piece  of  garden-ground  on  which  to  plant  the  saplings  of  orange, 
grape,  and  fig  brought  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  The  next 
few  days  beheld  a  toilsome  and  bustling  scene  where  trees  were 
being  felled,  and  axes,  saws,  and  hammers  plied  for  the  building  of 
huts  under  the  orders  of  the  convict  overseers  and  the  directions 
of  the  skilled  free  craftsmen.  When  some  approach  to  comfort  and 
order  had  been  secured,  the  women  of  the  party  came  ashore,  and 
on  the  following  day,  February  yth,  a  ceremonial  took  place.  The 
marines  were  drawn  up  in  square,  and  Governor  Phillip  addressed 
the  first  settlers  of  Australia,  including  the  convict  party,  in  a  few 
words  of  manly  eloquence,  some  of  which  have  proved  to  be  pro- 
phetic of  good  fortune  surpassing  the  most  sanguine  hopes  which 
he  could  ever  have  formed.  The  convicts,  for  their  part,  were 
exhorted  to  pay  a  due  regard  to  their  own  welfare,  by  leading 
better  lives  in  their  new  abode.  His  speech  concluded  thus:— 
"  What  Frobisher,  Raleigh,  Delaware,  and  Gates  did  for  America, 
that  we  are  this  day  met  to  do  for  Australia,  but  under  happier 
auspices.  Our  enterprise  was  wisely  conceived,  deliberately  devised, 
and  efficiently  organized;  the  Sovereign,  the  Parliament,  and  the 
people  united  to  give  it  their  authority,  encouragement,  and  sanc- 
tion. We  are  here  to  take  possession  of  this  fifth  division  of  the 
globe,  on  behalf  of  the  British  people,  and  to  found  a  state  which, 
we  hope,  will  not  only  occupy  and  rule  this  great  country,  but  will 
also  be  the  beneficent  patroness  of  the  entire  southern  hemisphere. 
How  grand  is  the  prospect  which  lies  before  this  youthful  nation!" 

Within  a  brief  space  of  time,  the  labour  of  the  emigrants  had 
laid  a  firm  foundation  of  the  first  Australian  town.  Round  the  head 
of  the  cove  were  placed  the  main  buildings  needful  for  the  kind  of 


GOVERNOR  PHILLIP  ADDRESSING  THE  FIRST  AUSTRALIAN 
SETTLERS   UPON   LANDING   AT  SYDNEY  COVE. 

In  May,  1787,  an  expedition,  consisting  of  a  frigate  and  tender,  with 
store-ships,  transports,  and  about  a  thousand  people,  sailed  from  England 
to  found  a  colony  in  Australia.  Early  in  the  following  year  they  discovered 
a  great  harbour  inside  the  headlands  of  Port  Jackson,  and  landed  at  a  point 
which  they  named  Sydney'Cove — now  the  city  of  Sydney.  Here  Captain 
Phillip,  the  head  of  the  expedition,  assembled  all  the  colonists  and  addressed 
them  in  stirring  words.  His  concluding  sentences  were  prophetic:  "We 
are  here,"  he  said,  "  to  take  possession  of  this  fifth  division  of  the  globe  on 
behalf  of  the  British  people,  and  to  found  a  State,  which,  we  hope,  will  not 
only  occupy  and  rule  this  great  country,  but  will  also  be  the  beneficent 
patron  of  the  whole  southern  hemisphere.  How  grand  is  the  prospect 
which  lies  before  this  youthful  nation!" 


W.    S.   STAGEY. 


GOVERNOR    PHILLIP  ADDRESSING  THE   FIRST  AUSTRALIAN   SETTLERS 
UPON   LANDING  AT  SYDNEY  COVE. 

Vol.  i.  p.  154. 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  155 

community  which  had  just  started  on  its  career.  The  prisoners' 
huts  were  flanked  by  the  marine  barracks.  The  prison,  near  the 
waterside,  was  faced  by  another  barrack.  The  officers'  quarters 
were  erected  a  little  way  inland,  and  beyond  them  lay  the  maga- 
zine. Storehouses  and  workshops  were  put  in  hand,  and  a  hospital 
was  provided  for  the  many  sufferers  from  scurvy  and  other  bodily 
ills.  At  the  end  of  the  western  headland  were  placed  an  observa- 
tory, or  look-out  station,  and  a  battery  for  signalling.  The  first 
"Government  House"  of  Australia  was  constructed  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  cove,  and  beyond  that,  inland,  were  buildings  for  a  farm. 
A  stratum  of  clay,  some  distance  to  the  south,  became  the  site  of 
brickfields  and  kilns,  and  the  erection  of  a  gallows,  as  a  necessary 
terror  to  the  many  evil-doers,  completed  the  equipment  of  the 
infant  colony. 

The  governor  was  destined  to  discover,  at  an  early  day,  that 
he  had  been  charged  by  his  sovereign  with  the  execution  of  a  very 
difficult  and  arduous  task.  The  opening  history  of  New  South 
Wales  is  a  record  of  severe  trial,  and,  in  the  hands  of  a  less  able 
and  resolute  ruler  than  Phillip,  disastrous  results  might  well  have 
ensued.  The  government  had  bidden  him  to  aim  at  making  the 
colony  self-supporting,  and  he  was  expected  to  obtain,  by  tillage 
and  other  means,  within  two  years  of  landing,  about  half  the  supply 
of  food  needed  by  the  settlers.  One  of  the  first  steps  taken  by 
Phillip  towards  this  end  was  a  division  of  his  numbers.  On  March 
5th,  1788,  within  a  month  of  his  inaugural  address,  he  despatched 
Lieutenant  King  and  Lieutenant  Ball  with  fifteen  convicts,  nine 
officers  and  soldiers,  a  surgeon,  and  two  free  labourers,  to  an  island 
discovered  by  Captain  Cook  in  1774.  Norfolk  Island,  famous  for 
its  noble  pines,  which  often  exceed  a  height  of  two  hundred  feet,  is 
a  small  and  picturesque  spot  about  midway  between  New  Caledonia 
and  New  Zealand.  Its  fertility,  partly  shown  by  a  dense  and 
wide-spread  growth  of  native  flax,  had  been  greatly  praised  by  its 
discoverer,  and  it  was  hoped  that  the  free  labourers,  who  were 
skilled  in  flax-dressing,  might  teach  the  convicts  to  turn  the  plant 
to  profitable  use.  A  few  weeks  later,  on  a  good  report  made  by 
Lieutenant  Ball,  a  larger  party  was  sent  to  the  island,  and  abundant 
crops  were  raised  from  the  soil. 

This  agricultural  prosperity  was  not,  at  the  outset,  the  lot  of 
those  who  remained  in  New  South  Wales.  Some  land  was  taken 


156  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

up  at  a  spot  called  Rosehill,  at  the  head  of  a  river  flowing  down  to 
Sydney,  fourteen  miles  away.  The  town  which  there  arose  is  known 
as  "  Parramatta",  from  native  words  meaning  "  head  of  the  water", 
and  comes  next,  in  point  of  age,  to  Sydney.  The  first  harvest  ever 
reaped  in  Australia  was  there  gathered  in  at  the  close  of  1789,  and 
two  years  later  about  one  thousand  acres  were  under  tillage  around 
the  two  settlements.  Before  that  better  time  was  reached,  the 
colonists  in  and  near  Sydney  had  been  more  than  once  threatened 
with  starvation.  The  farming,  at  first,  was  of  the  rudest  kind,  and 
the  convicts  gave  incessant  trouble.  Many  could  scarcely  be  forced 
to  work  even  in  the  menacing  presence  of  armed  soldiers.  Their 
implements  of  labour  were  wilfully  broken,  or  hidden  away  for 
avoidance  of  the  labour  absolutely  needed  to  wrest  food  from  the 
soil.  The  weekly  allowance  of  provisions  was  wilfully  wasted  or 
devoured  too  fast,  and  then  came  piteous  appeals  to  the  governor, 
and  frequent  robberies  of  provisions  from  the  stores.  Nothing  but 
the  strong  arm  of  military  force,  directed  by  the  firm  will  of  Governor 
Phillip,  could  have  staved  off  ruin  in  these  earlier  times.  A  few 
horned  cattle,  including  two  bulls  and  half  a  dozen  cows,  with  a 
horse  and  three  mares,  some  sheep,  goats,  and  pigs,  and  a  number 
of  fowls,  had  been  brought  out,  but  the  sheep  and  cattle  were 
nearly  all  killed  for  food,  and  the  prospect  of  future  stock  would 
have  vanished,  but  for  the  happy  neglect  of  a  convict  herdsman  who 
allowed  a  bull  and  two  or  three  cows  to  stray  into  the  "  bush", 
where  they  soon  were  lost.  A  few  years  later,  their  descendants 
were  found  as  a  fine  herd  of  sixty  feeding  in  the  meadows  of  the 
Hawkesbury  river,  flowing  into  the  sea  about  fourteen  miles  to  the 
north  of  Port  Jackson. 

In  March,  1790,  the  stock  of  provisions  had  fallen  so  low  that 
nearly  three  hundred  convicts,  with  two  companies  of  marines, 
under  Major  Ross  as  Lieutenant-governor,  were  sent  to  Norfolk 
Island,  where  it  was  hoped  that  an  abundant  supply  of  food  was 
being  furnished  from  the  soil.  The  Sirius  frigate  conveyed  this 
party,  but  was  wrecked  on  a  reef  near  the  island,  with  the  loss  of 
many  stores,  including  the  personal  effects  of  the  passengers  and 
crew,  who  were  all  saved  in  a  half-drowned  condition.  They  came 
ashore  at  Norfolk  Island  only  to  learn  that  there,  too,  misfortune 
had  befallen  the  settlers.  A  recent  hurricane  had  ruined  the 
granaries  and  the  crops,  and  had  been  followed  by  a  flood  which 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  157 

swept  off  all  that  the  winds  had  spared.  Luckless,  indeed,  were 
these  first  Australian  colonists  under  the  rule  of  the  excellent  man 
who  could  control  himself  and  the  people  in  his  charge,  but  could 
not  deal  with  the  forces  of  nature.  Before  this  time,  the  Guardian 
transport,  bringing  supplies,  had  been  in  collision  with  an  iceberg, 
and  had  thrown  overboard  a  large  quantity  of  food.  The  Sirius, 
sent  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  the  Supply,  despatched  to 
Batavia,  had  returned  with  provisions  that  only  sufficed  for  a  few 
weeks'  consumption.  Governor  and  officers,  alike  with  the  soldiers, 
free  settlers,  and  convicts,  were  forced  for  a  time  to  exist  on  rations 
barely  sufficient  for  the  support  of  life. 

Meanwhile,  the  government  at  home,  unaware  of  the  serious 
state  of  affairs,  were  making  free  use  of  the  new  opening  for  the 
criminal  class.  In  June,  1790,  a  vessel  arrived  in  Sydney  Cove 
with  more  than  two  hundred  female  prisoners,  and  the  first  detach- 
ment of  a  body  of  troops  called  the  New  South  Wales  Corps, 
raised  in  1789  as  the  JO2nd  Regiment  of  the  Line.  The  officers 
and  men  were  not  of  the  highest  class  in  character,  as  convict- 
guarding  was  considered  a  somewhat  degrading  duty,  and  the  new 
colony,  at  present,  held  forth  in  Great  Britain  no  attractions  for 
either  military  men  or  civilians.  Other  vessels  with  convicts 
arrived,  after  voyages  marked  by  large  mortality  among  the 
prisoners,  due  to  overcrowding  and  to  the  lack  of  fresh  provisions 
and  pure  water,  aggravated,  in  at  least  one  instance,  by  cruel  treat- 
ment at  the  captain's  hands.  By  degrees,  at  one  point,  the  prospect 
brightened,  and  the  fear  of  failing  food  was  ended  in  1791  by  the 
arrival  of  vessels  with  ample  stores,  and  by  the  growing  success  of 
the  tillage  on  the  lands  near  Sydney  and  Parramatta.  Criminals 
were  still  poured  in  from  the  home  country,  and  the  "  Second 
Fleet",  which  arrived  in  September,  1791,  brought  about  fifteen 
hundred  convicts,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  men.  Two  hundred 
people  had  been  buried  at  sea,  and  those  who  landed  were  in  a 
shocking  state  of  bodily  weakness. 

The  energies  of  Phillip,  whose  health  was  failing,  as  his  pale 
pinched  features  painfully  proved,  were  taxed  to  the  utmost  in 
dealing  with  the  various  elements  of  trouble.  The  convicts  were 
the  cause  of  incessant  care.  Now  they  stole  away  to  the  woods, 
and  either  died  of  starvation  or  in  conflict  with  the  natives,  whom 
they  had  often  provoked,  or  returned,  with  the  looks  of  living 


158  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

skeletons,  to  seek  mercy  and  food  from  the  governor's  hands. 
Others,  again,  stole  boats  in  the  cove  and  tried  to  escape  to  the 
Dutch  in  Java,  and  one  adventurous  party  of  forty  or  fifty  men,  in 
their  blank  ignorance  of  geography,  set  off  with  the  intent  of 
walking  to  China.  A  few  years  later,  the  whitened  bones  of  these 
miserable  creatures  were  found  in  the  bush  not  far  from  the  settle- 
ment. 

Towards  the  close  of  Governor  Phillip's  five  years'  tenure  of 
office,  some  bolder  spirits  from  the  British  Isles  came  forth  to  the 
new  colony  as  free  emigrants,  encouraged  by  the  promise  of  gifts 
of  land.  A  number  of  these,  in  1792,  received  grants  of  about  one 
hundred  acres  at  a  place  called  Liberty  Plains,  near  Sydney.  At 
the  same  time,  the  policy  of  granting  land  to  well-conducted  and 
promising  convicts  was  adopted  as  a  means  of  social  regeneration 
for  the  penal  element.  The  first  gift  of  freedom,  with  a  piece  of 
land  at  Parramatta,  was  bestowed  on  a  convict  in  1790,  and  before 
the  governor's  departure  for  England  in  December,  1792,  nearly 
three  thousand  acres  had  been  awarded  to  free  immigrants,  and 
about  fifteen  hundred  to  emancipated  men,  who  received  therewith 
a  gift  of  rations  for  eighteen  months,  with  implements  and  stock 
for  their  new  career.  Captain  Phillip  retired  with  a  well-earned 
pension,  and  died  at  Bath  more  than  twenty  years  later,  leaving 
behind  him  an  honoured  name. 

After  the  departure  of  Captain  Phillip,  the  colony  inaugurated 
by  him  became  subject  to  troubles  arising  from  misgovernment  of 
a  noxious  character.  The  rule  of  the  settlements  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Major  Grose,  as  senior  officer  of  the  New  South  Wales 
Corps,  a  second  detachment  of  which  reached  Sydney  at  the  time 
when  Phillip  was  sailing  for  home.  This  body  of  military  police 
succeeded  in  earning  an  evil  repute  for  violent  and  unscrupulous 
behaviour,  and  their  commander  appears  to  have  been  worthy  of 
his  men.  Major  Grose,  having  official  charge  as  Lieutenant- 
governor,  was  succeeding  to  the  control  of  a  system  in  which, 
amidst  many  serious  troubles,  good  order  had  been  established  and 
maintained.  That  system  was,  to  a  large  extent,  dependent  upon 
the  military  power,  and  the  new  ruler  seems  to  have  been  led 
astray  by  his  exclusive  regard  for  the  military  element.  In 
defiance  of  the  instructions  which  he  had  brought  from  home,  large 
grants  of  land  were  made  to  the  officers,  and  they  were  allowed  to 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  159 

have  round  them  a  needless  number  of  convict-servants,  to  whom, 
under  what  is  called  a  "truck  system"  of  the  most  pernicious  kind, 
wages  were  paid  in  ardent  spirits  instead  of  in  cash.  The  employer 
derived  much  profit  from  these  transactions,  and  the  efforts  which 
the  late  governor  had  made  to  debar  the  convicts  from  the  use  of  a 
large  original  cause  of  their  crimes,  were  now  succeeded  by  direct 
temptations,  furnished  to,  or  rather  forced  upon,  their  victims  by 
the  very  men  in  authority,  who  thus  subverted  discipline  and  de- 
stroyed all  hope  of  reformation.  The  convict  portion  of  the  settlers 
were  abandoned  to  all  the  debauchery  of  intoxicating  liquors,  which 
were  not  only  imported  by  the  officers  from  Great  Britain  and 
from  nearer  sources,  but  were  eagerly  thrust  into  the  colonial 
market,  with  unprincipled  greed  for  wealth,  by  the  merchants  of 
our  Indian  possessions. 

In  December,  1794,  Grose  was  succeeded  by  his  colleague, 
Captain  Paterson,  of  the  same  military  corps,  and  he,  for  the  few 
months  of  his  official  supremacy,  permitted  the  same  evils  to 
endure.  The  home  government,  however,  had  at  length  obtained 
knowledge  of  the  grossly  demoralized  condition  of  the  colony,  and 
their  resolve  to  suppress  the  traffic  in  strong  liquor  was  followed 
by  the  appointment  of  a  new  ruler.  A  further  supply  of  free 
emigrants  had  reached  New  South  Wales  in  1793,  and  the  tillage 
of  the  soil  was  thus  extended  in  grants  of  land  accompanied  by 
gifts  of  needful  stores  until  the  reaping  of  the  fruits  of  toil. 

The  new  governor,  Captain  Hunter,  who  had  returned  to 
England  after  the  loss  of  his  ship,  the  Sirius,  assumed  a  five  years' 
tenure  of  power  in  September,  1795.  He  was  a  just  and  honest 
man,  of  virtuous  life  and  kindly  disposition,  but  he  was  not,  it 
seems,  gifted  with  the  strong  will  of  Governor  Phillip,  and,  in  spite 
of  his  righteous  intentions  and  efforts,  the  evil  traffic  was  not  much 
lessened.  The  colony,  however,  began  to  make  real  and  marked 
progress  in  agricultural  affairs,  due  to  the  arrival,  in  1 796  and  1 798, 
of  fresh  bodies  of  free  settlers,  to  whom  convicts  were  assigned  as 
labourers.  Hunter  had  himself  brought  out  a  number  of  these 
useful  emigrants  from  the  old  country,  and  the  foundation  of  the 
towns  of  Windsor  and  Richmond,  on  and  near  the  river  Hawkes- 
bury,  soon  followed  the  breaking  up  of  soil  in  that  quarter. 

Before  the  close  of  the  century,  New  South  Wales  had  been 
fairly  launched  on  her  great  career,  and  the  coming  source  of  her 


160  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

principal  and  most  enduring  wealth  had  been  discovered  in  the 
production  of  wool.  The  length  of  the  voyage  made  it  difficult  to 
land  sheep  at  Sydney  even  alive,  much  less  in  a  healthy  condition, 
and  many  attempts  ended  in  failure.  Manufacturers  at  home  were 
clamouring  for  wool,  the  production  of  which  was  decreasing  in 
England,  as  pasture-farms  were  turned  into  arable  land  under  the 
rising  price  of  wheat.  The  greatest  gratitude  is  due  to  the  efforts 
of  a  very  sagacious,  able,  and  enterprising  man,  John  Macarthur, 
founder  of  Australasian  pastoral  industry.  Macarthur  went  to 
Sydney  in  1791  as  captain  in  the  New  South  Wales  Corps.  He 
soon  resigned  his  commission  in  disgust,  and,  while  his  late  brother- 
officers  were  amassing  wealth  by  the  illicit  sale  and  the  distillation 
of  rum,  he  turned  his  thoughts  to  sheep  as  a  likely  source  of 
legitimate  gain.  The  fine  pastures  of  the  land  had  caught  his  eye, 
and  his  first  aim  was  to  improve  the  breed  of  the  fleece-bearers. 
Having  taken  up  a  grant  of  land  at  Parramatta,  he  obtained  some 
ewes  and  lambs  from  Bengal,  but  their  wool  was  poor  in  quality 
and  colour.  In  1794,  a  cross  was  made  with  some  Irish  sheep 
procured  from  the  captain  of  a  merchant -vessel,  and  Macarthur 
noted  an  improvement  in  the  fleeces.  The  great  object  was  to 
produce  a  really  fine  wool  for  the  British  spinners  and  weavers, 
now  obtaining  the  material  for  the  best  broad-cloths  solely  from 
the  flock-masters  of  Saxony  and  Spain,  who  possessed,  in  limited 
numbers,  the  finest  sheep  for  wool  in  the  world,  of  the  breed  known 
as  Spanish  merino.  In  1797,  Macarthur  obtained  some  pure 
merinos  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  derived  from  the  famous 
Escurial  flock,  specimens  of  which  had  been  presented  by  the 
Spanish  king  to  the  Dutch  government.  A  marked  and  rapid  im- 
provement in  the  wool  was  the  result,  and  it  was  clearly  shown 
that  a  brilliant  future  in  this  direction  was  opening  for  settlers  in 
the  southern  hemisphere.  Macarthur  was  soon  possessed  of  some 
thousands  of  sheep,  and,  to  pass  for  a  brief  space,  on  this  important 
subject,  into  the  present  century,  we  may  record  that  in  1801  he 
took  to  England  fleeces  of  so  fine  a  quality  as  to  prove  to  the 
British  woollen  manufacturers  that  they  need  no  longer  be 
dependent  on  Saxony  and  Spain  for  their  best  material. 

During  this  visit,  the  enlightened  and  public-spirited  colonist 
was  allowed  to  purchase,  from  George  the  Third's  farm  at  Kew, 
some  rams  and  an  ewe,  of  the  best  merino  breed,  sent  from  Spain 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  l6l 

as  a  present  to  the  British  "  farmer-king ".  They  were  tended 
with  extreme  care,  and  their  safe  arrival  at  Sydney,  in  good 
condition,  finally  secured  the  development  of  what  was  to  become 
one  of  the  greatest  industries  of  the  world.  An  application  to  the 
Privy  Council  in  London,  and  the  support  of  the  British  workers 
in  wool  induced  Lord  Camden,  then  in  charge  of  colonial  affairs,  to 
send  a  despatch,  at  the  close  of  1804,  to  Governor  King,  which 
obtained  for  Macarthur  a  grant  of  ten  thousand  acres  of  land,  still 
known  as  the  Camden  estate,  about  forty  miles  south-west  of 
Sydney. 

The  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  saw  the  colony  of  twelve 
years'  history  containing  from  six  to  seven  thousand  souls.  Other 
occupations  than  tillage  and  sheep-farming  were  beginning  to  gain 
ground.  The  Australasian  harbours  became  the  seat  of  a  flourish- 
ing whale-fishery  in  the  southern  seas,  and,  for  years  before  the 
arrival  of  any  large  number  of  free  immigrants,  this  was  the  chief 
occupation  of  mariners  in  those  waters.  A  whale  in  the  act  of 
spouting  is  included  in  the  arms  of  Sydney  and  Melbourne,  and 
the  shores  of  Tasmania,  New  Zealand,  and  southern  and  western 
Australia  were  the  resort  of  British,  colonial,  and  American 
fishers.  In  1795  a  brewery,  established  at  Parramatta,  began  to 
tempt  settlers  to  the  consumption  of  good  ale  in  place  of  bad 
spirits,  and  this  was  the  commencement  of  an  industry  which  now 
produces  beer  equal  even  to  that  issuing  from  the  vats  of  Burton- 
on-Trent. 

EXPLORATION   OF  THE   CONTINENT  AND   SURVEY   OF 

THE    COASTS. 

In  these  early  times  of  Australian  settlement,  little  was  done 
in  the  way  of  exploring  the  interior  of  the  vast  continent.  In 
1793,  some  officers  of  the  New  South  Wales  corps  made  a  vain 
attempt  to  cross  the  barrier  called  the  Blue  Mountains,  and  the 
only  person  known,  in  that  age,  to  accomplish  the  feat  was  a 
convict  who  had  lived  long  among  the  blacks,  and  who  made 
his  way,  in  1799,  as  far  as  the  Lachlan  river.  Before  the  close 
of  the  century,  Lieutenant  Bowen  travelled  as  far  as  Jervis 
Bay,  a  fine  harbour  about  one  hundred  miles  south  of  Sydney, 
and  Port  Stephens,  eighty  miles  to  the  north-east,  was  also 
surveyed. 

VOL.  I.  11 


1 62  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

The  first  Europeans  who  ever  landed  in  the  region  which  now 
forms  the  colony  of  Victoria  were  the  crew  of  the  Sydney  Cove, 
wrecked  on  Furneaux  Island,  north  of  Van  Diemen's  Land.  A 
large  party  of  the  crew  started  in  boats,  hoping  to  reach  Sydney 
by  a  coasting-voyage,  but  they  were  cast  ashore  in  a  storm  near 
Cape  Howe,  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  New  South  Wales. 
The  place  of  their  landing  was  more  than  three  hundred  miles,  as 
the  crow  flies,  from  Sydney,  and  the  road  lay  through  a  region  of 
dense  bush.  Their  stock  of  provisions  was  soon  exhausted,  and 
little  food  or  fresh  water  could  be  found  on  their  way.  Many 
dropped  down  and  died  from  hunger  and  fatigue,  and  most  of  the 
survivors  were  murdered  by  natives  when  they  were  but  thirty 
miles  from  the  longed-for  refuge.  Two  or  three  arrived  at  Port 
Jackson,  with  their  raiment  in  rags,  their  frames  wasted  to  mere 
skin  and  bones,  and  so  weak  that  they  were  carried  like  infants 
on  board  the  boat  which  conveyed  them  to  Sydney  Cove.  Mr. 
Clarke,  the  ship's  supercargo,  was  one  of  these  survivors,  and,  on 
his  recovery,  he  gave  an  interesting  account  of  the  large  tract  of 
country  which,  under  circumstances  so  tragical,  he  had  been  enabled 
to  observe. 

Within  the  thirty  years  that  elapsed  between  Cook's  arrival  in 
Botany  Bay  and  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  very  much 
was  done  towards  completing  the  world's  knowledge  of  Austral- 
asian coasts.  The  first  discovery  and  the  early  history  of  Tas- 
mania belong  to  a  later  section  of  this  work,  but  we  may  here 
observe  that  Captain  Furneaux,  Cook's  second  in  command,  on  his 
second  voyage  round  the  world,  sailed  along  the  coast  of  Tasmania 
in  the  belief  that  it  formed  part  of  the  mainland  of  Australia,  and 
regarded  the  straits  as  a  deep  indentation.  Captain  George  Van- 
couver, of  the  royal  navy,  whose  name  has  acquired  enduring 
renown  as  that  of  a  fine  British  colonial  possession,  and  who  was 
a  comrade  of  Cook  on  his  third  great  voyage,  discovered  King 
George's  Sound,  in  Western  Australia,  in  1791. 

The  two  navigators  whose  names  will  ever  be  connected  with 
this  period  of  Australian  discovery  were  George  Bass  and  Matthew 
Flinders.  Bass,  born  in  1770,  son  of  a  Lincolnshire  farmer, 
became  surgeon  to  the  Reliance,  which  in  1795  brought  out 
Governor  Hunter  to  Sydney.  Flinders,  one  of  our  greatest 
seamen,  was  also  a  native  of  Lincolnshire,  four  years  younger 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH    WALES.  163 

than  Bass,  whom  he  accompanied  as  midshipman  on  board  the 
Reliance.  There  were  never  two  young  men  of  more  admirable 
character,  compounded  of  modesty,  kindliness,  daring,  and  en- 
thusiasm. Devoted  friends,  they  had  resolved  by  joint  endeavours 
to  win  fame  in  the  exploration  of  unknown  regions.  Flinders  had 
lately  heard  the  roar  of  guns  in  battle  at  Lord  Howe's  victory  of 
"the  glorious  First  of  June",  1794,  when  he  was  serving  on  board 
the  Bellerophon.  His  future  career  was  to  be  of  a  more  peaceful, 
but  yet  of  a  very  adventurous  and  chequered  kind.  A  month 
after  their  arrival  at  Sydney  Cove,  the  two  comrades  bought  a 
boat  eight  feet  long,  which  they  named  the  Tom  Thumb,  and, 
taking  a  boy  on  board  to  complete  her  crew,  they  sailed  out 
between  the  Heads  to  the  open  Pacific.  Tossed  like  a  cork 
on  the  ocean  waves,  they  steered  into  Botany  Bay,  and  made  an 
accurate  map  of  its  shores  and  streams. 

With  this  first-fruits  of  their  adventurous  toil  they  won  from 
the  governor  a  leave  of  absence  which  enabled  them  to  start  on 
a  new  and  somewhat  longer  expedition.  Nearly  eight  hundred 
miles  of  coast  to  the  south  of  Port  Jackson  was  marked  on  the 
charts  of  the  day  as  "  unknown  ",  and  they  were  fully  resolved  to 
clear  up  some  of  this  mystery.  In  the  same  tiny  craft,  they  went 
on  their  way,  and  soon  had  their  boat  upset  on  the  shore.  The 
powder  for  their  guns  was  wetted  by  the  sea,  and  they  spread  it 
out  on  rocks  to  dry  in  the  sun.  A  large  body  of  natives  gathered 
round  with  menacing  air,  but  Flinders,  knowing  something  of 
native  tastes,  gained  time  and  amused  the  blacks  by  clipping  their 
beards  with  a  pair  of  scissors.  When  the  powder  was  ready,  the 
muskets  were  charged,  and  they  were  allowed  to  put  off  without 
molestation.  During  the  trip,  currents  carried  them  away  to  the 
south,  and  much  peril  was  incurred  from  storms.  The  boy  had  to 
bale,  while  Bass  held  the  sail,  as  they  scudded  with  the  wind,  and 
Flinders  steered  their  course  with  an  oar.  Returning  to  Sydney, 
after  other  dangers  off  rocky  shores,  they  brought  with  them  the 
means  of  accurately  mapping  between  thirty  and  forty  miles  of 
coast.  It  was  then  that  they  learnt  how  Mr.  Clarke,  of  the  Sydney 
Cove,  had  already  supplied  information  as  to  much  of  the  coast-line 
which  they  had  started  to  examine. 

Flinders  was  now  compelled  to  go  with  his  ship  to  Norfolk 
Island,  and  Bass  was  sent  out  by  the  governor  in  charge  of  a  whale- 


1 64  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

boat  with  six  men,  supplied  with  provisions  to  last  some  time. 
In  this  craft  the  young  surgeon,  during  a  voyage  of  eleven  weeks, 
made  many  important  discoveries,  and  secured  a  lasting  place  for 
his  name  on  the  maps.  Shoalhaven  Bay  and  River  were  entered. 
Jervis  Bay,  one  hundred  miles  south  of  Sydney,  was  added  to  the 
charts,  with  the  noble  haven  of  Twofold  Bay,  good  for  anchorage, 
and  safe  from  all  winds  save  the  east.  Thirty  miles  further 
brought  him  to  Cape  Howe,  and,  steering  along  the  Ninety-mile 
Beach,  Bass  discovered  and  marked  down  the  great  headland 
called  Wilson's  Promontory,  the  most  southerly  point  of  the 
Australian  continent,  forming  part  of  a  huge  granitic  mass.  A 
continued  voyage  to  the  westward  proved  that  Van  Diemen's 
Land  was  no  part  of  Australia,  and  the  water  which  divides  them 
has  since  been  known  as  Bass  Strait.  Six  hundred  miles  of 
Australian  coast  were  explored  before  the  return  to  Sydney. 
Flinders,  on  his  arrival  from  duty  at  Norfolk  Island,  was  engaged 
in  making  careful  surveys  of  the  islands  and  coast  to  the  north  of 
Tasmania. 

The  geographical  achievements  of  Bass  and  Flinders  were  not 
lost  upon  Governor  Hunter.  In  1798  he  supplied  them  with  a 
small  sloop,  and  accorded  three  months'  leave  of  absence  for 
further  exploration.  They  sailed  all  round  Van  Diemen's  Land, 
discovering  the  river  Tamar,  named  after  the  beautiful  Devonshire 
and  Cornish  river,  with  its  estuary,  Port  Dalrymple.  Flinders 
made  the  most  exact  and  beautiful  charts  of  all  the  coast-line,  and 
the  party  returned  to  Sydney  with  a  rich  harvest  of  geographical 
research. 

From  this  point  we  lose  sight  of  Bass,  who,  according  to  some 
accounts,  returned  to  England  in  1799,  and  afterwards  continued 
to  serve  in  the  navy;  while  others  assert  that  he  engaged  in  a  con- 
traband trade  with  Spanish  America,  where  he  is  supposed  to  have 
been  captured  by  the  guarda-costas,  and  to  have  died  a  prisoner, 
toiling  in  the  silver  mines.  In  any  case,  he  here  vanishes  from 
the  view,  though  not  from  the  memory  of  mankind.  Flinders 
remained  constant  to  his  useful  labours,  and  in  1799  carefully 
surveyed,  in  the  sloop  which  had  carried  him  round  Tasmania,  the 
Australian  coast  northwards  from  Sydney  to  Hervey  Bay,  in  what 
is  now  Queensland.  He  had  now  attained  the  naval  rank  of 
lieutenant,  and,  when  he  returned  to  London,  in  1800,  the  publica- 


AUSTRALASIA — NEW   SOUTH   WALES.  165 

tion  of  his  Australasian  charts  obtained  for  him  high  praise,  and, 
from  the  Government,  a  practical  recognition  in  the  form  of  an 
independent  command.  In  1801  he  left  the  British  shores  as 
head  of  an  expedition  for  the  express  purpose  of  further  explora- 
tion of  the  Australian  coasts,  commanding  the  Investigator,  and 
furnished  with  papers  from  the  French  Government,  with  which 
his  country  was  then  at  war,  to  secure  him  from  molestation.  His 
scene  of  action  was  now  on  the  south  coast,  where  he  discovered 
the  fine  Kangaroo  Island,  named  from  the  large  number  of  those 
animals  which  were  seen  leaping  amongst  the  scrub,  and  Spencer 
Gulf,  on  the  mainland  opposite. 

In  April,  1802,  at  Encounter  Bay,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Murray 
River,  Flinders  fell  in  with  the  French  ships  Gtographe  and  Natu- 
raliste,  under  the  command  of  M.  Baudin,  who  had  been  despatched 
by  Napoleon  on  a  voyage  of  Australian  exploration.  The  French- 
men found  that,  on  the  southern  coast,  Flinders  had  anticipated  all 
their  intended  researches  in  discoveries  which  were  afterwards 
claimed  by  the  French.  The  French  and  English  explorers  met 
again,  a  few  months  later,  at  Port  Jackson,  where  the  foreign  crews, 
suffering  from  scurvy,  were  treated  with  extreme  kindness  by  the 
Sydney  settlers. 

It  is  well  to  remember  these  facts  in  view  of  the  subsequent 
fate  of  the  great  Australasian  navigator.  Before  this  second  meet- 
ing with  the  French,  Flinders  had  taken  the  eastern  and  northern 
coasts  in  hand,  surveying  the  Great  Barrier  Reef,  the  passage 
through  Torres  Straits,  and  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria.  After  a  visit 
to  Timor  for  fresh  provisions,  he  sailed  down  the  western  coast,  and 
arrived  at  Sydney  in  June,  1803,  winning  the  honour  of  being  the 
first  man  to  circumnavigate  Australia.  He  then  sailed  for  England, 
with  his  valuable  charts  and  journals,  in  a  store-ship  which  was  soon 
wrecked  on  a  coral-reef.  The  papers  were  saved,  and  the  dis- 
coverer returned  to  Sydney  in  an  open  boat,  to  start  again  for  home 
in  a  vessel  which,  proving  leaky  and  ill-found,  was  forced  to  put  in 
at  Mauritius,  then  in  French  possession.  The  governor,  M.  de  Caen, 
made  Flinders  a  prisoner,  and  deprived  him  of  his  papers,  on  the 
pretence  that  the  safe -conduct  of  Napoleon  only  applied  to  the 
Investigator,  on  which  Flinders  had  left  England.  At  this  juncture 
M.  Baudin  called  at  Mauritius,  but  any  efforts  which  he  might  have 
made  for  the  release  of  the  gallant  Englishman  were  prevented  by 


1 66  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

his  own  death.  The  charts  were  sent  to  France,  and  were  pub- 
lished there  under  the  names  of  Frenchmen.  Flinders  remained  a 
prisoner  until  1810,  when  Mauritius  was  captured  by  a  British  ex- 
pedition, and  at  last  he  reached  England  to  find  that  his  countrymen 
were  already  in  possession  of  the  knowledge  which  he  had  hoped 
to  be  the  first  to  communicate.  The  truth,  however,  was  soon 
brought  to  light,  and  the  real  discoverer  sat  down  to  write  the 
account  of  his  explorations,  with  most  accurate  maps  and  extracts 
from  his  log-book.  His  constitution  had  been  broken  by  years  of 
toil  and  exposure,  with  shipwreck  and  severe  privation  as  interludes, 
followed  by  a  lengthy,  harsh,  and  wrongful  imprisonment.  The 
constant  labour  of  four  years  in  preparing  his  great  work,  A  Voyage 
to  Terra  Australis,  completed  the  process  of  slaying  the  author. 

There  is  nothing  more  touching  in  the  whole  history  of  travel 
and  its  literary  records  than  the  closing  scene  of  this  true  British 
hero,  Matthew  Flinders.  He  never  saw  the  book,  in  its  finished 
form,  which  had  cost  him  his  poor  remains  of  life.  As  the  last 
sheets  of  the  three  volumes  were  issuing  from  the  press,  his  wife 
and  daughter  were  in  tears  over  his  bed  of  death,  and  he  drew  his 
last  breath  on  July  igth,  1814,  the  very  day  on  which  the  work 
was  published.  If  real  merit  always  earned  due  recognition,  the 
remains  of  this  great  maritime  discoverer,  devoted  to  his  work  for 
the  work's  own  sake,  asking  and  receiving  no  earthly  reward  save 
the  power  of  toiling  on  for  mankind,  would  assuredly  lie,  among 
countless  inferior  men,  within  the  walls  of  Westminster  Abbey.  His 
name  will  exist  as  long  as  Australia  is  found  upon  the  maps,  in 
Flinders  counties  of  New  South  Wales  and  South  Australia;  in 
a  watering-place  about  sixty  miles  south-east  of  Melbourne;  in 
Flinders  Bay,  between  Capes  Leeuwin  and  Beaufort,  discovered  by 
him  in  1801 ;  in  the  Flinders  Group,  off  the  coast  of  Queensland;  in 
Flinders  Island,  off  South  Australia;  in  another  and  larger  Flinders 
Island  at  the  eastern  side  of  Bass  Strait;  in  the  two  Flinders  Points 
of  Tasmania  and  Victoria;  in  the  Flinders  Range,  reaching  hun- 
dreds of  miles  to  the  north  of  Spencer  Gulf;  and  in  Flinders  River, 
flowing  into  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria.  These  are  the  monuments 
which  keep  his  name  ever  before  the  men  of  Australasia,  who  have 
not  failed  to  accord  substantial  recognition  to  the  posterity  of  the 
man  who,  beyond  all  others,  drew  the  veil  from  their  coast-line.  It 
is  an  agreeable  duty  to  record  that  the  granddaughter  of  Flinders 


CANADA — EARLY  HISTORY.  1 67 

has  been  receiving  for  nearly  half  a  century  a  pension  of  two 
hundred  pounds  granted  by  the  governments  of  Victoria  and  New 
South  Wales. 


CHAPTER   V. 

CANADA — EARLY  HISTORY  (1534-1713). 

First  efforts  by  the  French  to  colonize  Canada — Jacques  Carder — De  la  Roche's  attempt 
to  form  a  settlement — Pontgrave  and  Chauvin — Champlain,  the  founder  of  French 
Canada — The  Sieur  de  Monts  and  De  Poutrincourt — Colony  of  Acadie — Beginning 
of  Quebec — The  Algonquins,  Iroquois,  and  other  Indian  tribes — Their  savage  raids 
on  the  settlers — Arrival  of  the  Jesuits — Richelieu's  policy  towards  Canada — The 
"  Hundred  Associates"— Quebec  surrendered  to  the  English,  and  basely  restored  by 
Charles  I. — Able  rule  of  Governor  Champlain — Indian  outrages  on  the  missionaries 
— Colbert's  able  administration — Marquis  de  Tracy  and  Governor  de  Courcelles — 
Military  operations  against  the  Iroquois  —  Encouragements  for  emigration  from 
France — Ravages  of  disease  and  drunkenness  among  the  Indians — Governor  de 
Frontenac—  La  Salle's  expeditions  to  the  west —  Massacre  of  Lachine — French  attacks 
on  English  territory — English  expeditions  against  Montreal  and  Quebec — Continua- 
tion of  the  frontier  warfare — Failure  of  English  attempts  for  the  conquest  of  Canada. 

The  rise  of  the  existing  British  colonial  dominion  in  North 
America  was  mainly  based,  not  on  settlement  or  colonization  in  the 
true  sense,  but  on  conquest  from  another  European  power,  which 
had  acquired  a  prior  possession  of  territory  on  and  near  the  great 
river  which  reaches  the  Atlantic  just  fifty  degrees  north  of  the 
equator.  Around  the  mouth  of  another  and  greater  river,  falling 
into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  just  twenty  degrees  further  south,  our  great 
European  rivals  had  also  set  their  feet  as  claimants  of  a  vast  and 
indefinite  region  to  the  north  and  west  of  that  commanding  point. 
We  shall  see  that  the  struggle  ending  in  victory  for  Great  Britain 
was  provoked  by  French  attempts  to  connect,  to  our  detriment, 
their  possessions  on  the  northern  river  and  the  great  adjacent  lakes 
with  the  southern  lands  claimed  for  Louis  the  Fourteenth  in  1682 
by  one  of  the  greatest  French  explorers  in  North  America.  This 
was  Robert  Cavalier,  Sieur  de  La  Salle,  a  native  of  Rouen,  and  a 
settler  in  Canada,  who,  descending  the  Ohio  in  hope  of  reaching  the 
Pacific,  passed  into  the  Mississippi,  reached  the  mouth,  and  named 
the  country  "  Louisiana".  Apart  from  the  visits  of  the  Northmen, 
five  hundred  years  before  Columbus,  the  mainland  of  North  Ame- 


1 68  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

rica,  as  we  have  seen,  was  first  reached  by  European  navigators  at 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  In  1498,  the  Cabots  of  Bristol  saw 
Labrador,  the  country  named  in  1501  by  a  Portuguese  navigator, 
Gaspard  Cortereal,  who  sailed  from  Lisbon  with  two  ships,  and 
called  the  country  between  Newfoundland  and  Hudson  Strait 
Terra  Labor  odor,  or  labourers'  land,  from  a  cargo  of  natives  whom 
he  carried  off  as  slaves. 

The  attention  of  Francis  the  First  of  France  was  called  to  the 
wealth  which  was  being  won  from  fisheries  in  that  part  of  the  New 
World,  and  he  resolved  that  his  brother  -  kings  of  Portugal  and 
Spain  should  not,  as  he  exclaimed,  "  divide  all  America  between 
them,  without  allowing  me  any  share".  He  accordingly  sent  forth, 
in  1534,  a  bold  seaman  of  St.  Malo,  Jacques  Cartier,  who  sailed  in 
the  month  of  April  with  two  vessels  of  about  sixty  tons  each,  carry- 
ing one  hundred  and  twenty  men.  Detained  by  ice  off  Newfound- 
land, he  passed  through  the  Strait  of  Belle  Isle,  saw  the  Magdalen 
Islands,  rich  in  berries,  birds,  and  blossoms,  named  a  fine  bay  "  Des 
Chaleurs",  from  the  heat  which  the  voyagers  felt  on  a  sunny  July 
day,  and  finally  landed,  south  of  a  great  estuary,  at  the  rocky 
Cape  Gasp6.  A  wooden  cross  was  erected,  with  a  shield  bearing 
the  fleur-de-lis,  and  an  inscription  claiming  the  land  for  the  French 
monarch.  The  natives,  by  signs,  made  known  to  him  the  existence 
of  a  large  river  flowing  north-east  from  the  interior,  and  he  passed 
onwards  until  he  saw  the  land  on  either  side.  The  season  was 
advancing,  and  the  French  voyagers  returned,  carrying  with  them, 
as  willing  visitors  to  Europe,  the  two  sons  of  an  Indian  chief. 

Francis  the  First  was  much  pleased  with  Cartier's  success,  and 
supplied  him,  for  the  next  year's  voyage,  with  three  ships  of  larger 
size,  better  fitted  out  and  manned.  Some  young  French  nobles 
were  on  board,  when,  after  hearing  mass  in  the  cathedral  of  St. 
Malo,  and  receiving  the  bishop's  blessing,  the  expedition  went  forth 
in  the  last  days  of  May,  1535,  with  instructions,  as  stated  in  the 
royal  commission,  to  "  form  settlements  in  the  country  and  to  open 
traffic  with  the  native  tribes".  Stormy  weather  retarded  the  arrival 
of  the  voyagers  at  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  until  the  middle  of 
July.  It  was  on  August  loth,  the  festival  of  St.  Lawrence,  that 
Cartier  bestowed  on  a  small  bay  the  saint's  name  which  afterwards 
passed  to  the  river  and  to  the  great  gulf  into  which  it  flows.  As  he 
sailed  up  the  estuary,  through  a  dark  ravine  near  a  river  on  the  left 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  169 

bank,  and  past  high  jutting  cliffs,  he  came  to  an  island  covered  with 
wild  grapes,  where  he  was  welcomed  by  a  native  chief,  one  of  the 
Algonquin  tribe,  with  a  large  body  of  followers. 

The  French  leader  now  determined  to  pass  the  winter  in  the 
new-found  land,  and  on  September  I4th  he  cast  anchor  at  the 
mouth  of  another  river  on  the  left  bank,  above  which  rose  a  massive 
lofty  hill.  The  river  now  bears  the  name  of  St.  Charles.  At  the 
foot  of  the  heights  stood  the  little  Indian  town  of  Stadacona,  on 
the  site  of  the  future  Quebec.  Passing  upwards  with  the  boats,  as 
the  navigation,  from  sand-banks  and  other  obstacles,  grew  difficult 
for  the  ships,  Cartier  and  his  comrades  beheld  on  each  hand  the 
rich-hued  leafage  of  the  far-reaching  forest,  and  on  October  2nd 
they  arrived  at  a  Huron  Indian  town  called  Hochelaga,  above 
which  rose  a  great  woody  hill.  The  Frenchman  named  this  height 
Mont  Royal,  which  became  in  due  time  the  designation  "Montreal" 
for  the  colonial  city. 

A  most  friendly  reception  from  the  natives,  who  supplied  abun- 
dant fish,  and  maize  from  the  fields  around  their  strongly-stockaded 
town,  was  followed  by  a  feast,  and  by  the  first  Christian  service 
ever  held  in  those  regions.  The  natives  appeared  to  regard  their 
white  visitors  as  people  of  supernatural  powers,  and  brought  their 
sick  and  maimed  and  blind  for  healing.  Cartier  read  a  lesson  from 
the  Gospels,  and,  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  prayed  for  the  bodies 
and  souls  of  his  hosts.  The  Indians  looked  on  in  friendly  amaze- 
ment, and  then  received,  with  a  better  understanding,  presents  of 
beads  and  toys  and  knives.  The  discoverer  of  Canada — for  such 
was  Jacques  Cartier — had  a  noble  prospect  of  water  and  wood 
from  the  summit  of  Mont  Royal,  and  he  learned  from  his  Indian 
friends  something  of  the  existence,  to  the  west  and  south,  of  mighty 
lakes  and  rivers,  and  of  interminable  lands,  rich  in  game,  and  rarely 
or  never  trodden  by  the  foot  of  man.  A  few  days  later,  the  French- 
men returned  to  their  Algonquin  friends  at  Stadacona,  near  which 
they  erected  a  stockade,  armed  with  cannon,  around  their  ships. 
In  his  resolve  to  winter  on  American  ground,  Cartier  had  not  duly 
reckoned  with  the  severities  of  the  Canadian  climate,  and,  in  the 
lack  of  proper  clothing  and  provision,  much  suffering  and  many 
deaths  ensued  from  attacks  of  scurvy. 

In  the  spring  of  1536,  when  the  melting  ice  allowed  the  ships 
to  move,  the  French  returned  to  Europe,  taking  with  them  ten  of 


I/O  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

the  Algonquin  chiefs  who  had  been  decoyed  on  board.  This  per- 
fidious return  for  many  kindnesses  received  had  for  its  object  the 
display  to  the  French  king  of  some  living  tokens  that  success  had 
been  again  achieved.  The  effect  upon  the  native  mind  was  disas- 
trous, and  Cartier's  act  is  believed  to  have  been  the  origin  of  hostile 
feelings  towards  European  visitors.  If  it  was  intended  to  restore 
them  to  their  native  forests,  the  purpose  was  frustrated  by  the 
death  of  the  whole  number  before  Cartier's  next  voyage  to  Canada. 
It  was  in  1541  that  he  again  went  from  Europe  to  America,  now 
in  command  of  five  ships.  A  Picardy  noble,  the  Sieur  de  Rober- 
val,  had  been  appointed  Viceroy  of  "  New  France  ",  and  Cartier,  as 
his  deputy,  preceded  him  with  a  body  of  settlers.  His  appearance, 
in  August,  at  Stadacona,  without  any  of  the  Indian  chiefs,  was 
unwelcome  to  their  brethren,  and  Cartier  found  it  necessary  to 
fortify  a  position  at  the  point  called  Cap  Rouge,  some  miles  above 
Quebec,  and  to  await  reinforcements,  for  which  two  of  his  fiv.e 
vessels  were  sent  back  to  France. 

In  1542,  after  another  wretched  winter,  Cartier  himself,  hearing 
nothing  from  Roberval,  started  for  Europe,  and  met  his  superior, 
with  three  ships  and  a  large  body  of  male  and  female  colonists, 
off  the  coast  of  Newfoundland.  He  declined  to  turn  back  with 
Roberval,  who  landed  at  Cap  Rouge,  passed  a  winter  made  terrible 
by  cold,  famine,  and  disease,  causing  the  deaths  of  over  sixty  per- 
sons, and  unrelieved  now  by  friendly  aid  from  the  Indians.  The 
settlers  brought  out  by  the  Sieur  were  chiefly  convicts,  and  needed 
the  sternest  treatment  for  the  maintenance  of  due  order. 

In  the  summer  of  1543,  Cartier  was  again  sent  out  to  fetch 
home  Roberval,  and,  after  a  third  winter  passed  there,  he  left  the 
country  in  May,  1544,  conveying  back  to  France  the  surviving 
settlers,  who  had  wholly  failed  in  attempts  to  explore,  to  trade,  or 
to  till  the  soil.  At  this  point,  the  discoverer  of  Canada  vanishes 
from  history,  after  arriving  at  St.  Malo.  De  Roberval,  in  1549, 
sailed  with  another  private  colonizing  expedition,  but  not  a  vessel 
of  the  little  fleet,  nor  a  man  on  board,  was  ever  again  heard  of. 
Thus  ended  the  first  French  efforts  to  colonize  Canada. 

Half  a  century  glides  away,  during  which  French  fishermen 
would  be  found  on  or  near  Canadian  shores,  and,  at  some  points  on 
the  St.  Lawrence,  a  trade  in  furs  and  skins  was  carried  on  with  the 
natives  by  Frenchmen  who  did  not  settle  in  the  country.  The 


CANADA— EARLY   HISTORY. 


I/I 


attention  of  English  navigators  and  colonizers  was  drawn,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  other  parts  of  the  Atlantic  sea-board.  The  fisheries 
of  Newfoundland  were  a  source  of  vast  profit  to  British  "adven- 
turers ",  and  the  experience  of  Cartier  did  not  recommend  the 
climate  of  Canada.  Efforts  at  finding  the  "  north-west  passage  " 
drew  off  some  of  our  boldest  spirits,  taking  Frobisher  and  Davis, 
Hudson  and  Baffin,  on  lines  removed  from  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence,  and  from  the  territory  claimed  as  "  La  Nouvelle  France". 
Raleigh's  thoughts,  in  his  exploring  moods,  were  full  of  Virginia 
and  Guiana,  and,  in  the  conflict  with  Spain  for  freedom,  faith,  and 
national  existence,  Englishmen  of  later  Elizabethan  days  had  abun- 
dant work  to  prevent  them  from  seeking  to  enter  the  New  World 
by  the  gateway  which  France,  for  so  many  years,  seemed  to  have 
left  open. 

At  last,  under  Henry  the  Fourth,  in  1598,  France  again  paid 
heed  to  her  trans- Atlantic  claims.  A  Breton  noble,  the  Marquis  de 
la  Roche,  received  a  commission  as  "  Viceroy  of  Canada,  Acadie, 
and  other  territories  ",  which  was  taken  to  include  the  whole  nor- 
thern part  of  the  North  American  continent,  with  sole  rights  of 
trade  in  fur.  The  marquis  took  an  ignoble  view  of  his  enterprise, 
and  filled  a  ship  with  a  cargo  of  convicts.  Forty  poor  creatures 
were  landed  on  the  sand-hills  of  Sable  Island,  near  the  coast  of 
Acadie  (afterwards  Nova  Scotia),  where  they  remained  for  five 
years,  living  a  savage  life,  and  subsisting  on  fish  and  on  wild  cattle, 
the  descendants  of  stock  left  there  by  an  early  French  explorer. 
In  1603  twelve  survivors,  clad  in  skins,  were  rescued  by  a  French 
vessel.  De  la  Roche,  driven  back  to  France  by  a  westerly  gale, 
died  a  ruined  man,  after  many  years'  imprisonment. 

In  1599,  a  merchant  of  St.  Malo,  named  Pontgrave,  and 
Chauvin,  a  naval  officer  of  Rouen,  received  from  Henry  the  Fourth 
the  rights  forfeited  by  De  la  Roche,  and  undertook,  in  return  for 
a  monopoly  of  the  Canadian  fur-trade,  to  establish  a  colony  of  five 
hundred  persons.  Two  vessels  left  France  in  the  spring  of  1600, 
and  a  trading-post  was  formed  at  Tadousac,  near  the  ravine  of  the 
river  Saguenay.  This  attempt  also  ended  in  failure.  Some  of  the 
French  fur-traders  perished  from  the  severe  cold,  and  the  rest  were 
dependent  for  food  on  the  Indians.  Chauvin  died  during  his  third 
attempt  at  a  French  colony  in  Canada,  but  was  not  left  long  without 
a  successor. 


1/2  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

The  trade  in  furs  which  had  arisen  with  the  Indian  trappers 
and  hunters  was  one  of  great  profit  to  the  European  purchasers, 
and  De  Chastes,  the  governor  of  Dieppe,  brought  the  matter  before 
the  notice  of  some  wealthy  merchants.  The  hour  and  the  man 
had  at  last  arrived,  when  Samuel  de  Champlain  was  induced  to 
join  the  enterprise.  This  able,  honest,  and  energetic  man,  whose 
name  lives  in  that  of  the  beautiful  lake  which  he  discovered,  was 
the  real  founder  of  French  Canada,  the  father  of  her  colonial  exis- 
tence. For  more  than  thirty  years  his  personal  history  is  almost 
identical  with  that  of  the  colony  which  he  set  upon  a  firm  basis. 
A  native  of  the  old  province  of  Saintonge,  born  in  1567  at  Brouage, 
on  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  Champlain  was,  from  his  early  years,  inured 
to  the  sea,  and  in  1603,  when  he  started  on  his  first  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic  to  Canada,  he  held  a  position  in  the  royal  marine. 
He  had  fought  as  a  soldier  under  his  sovereign,  Henry  of  Navarre, 
in  the  wars  of  the  League,  and  it  is  almost  certain  that  he  was  a 
Huguenot  or  French  Protestant.  His  character  was  composed  of 
a  mixture  of  romantic  enterprise  with  religious  enthusiasm  and 
chivalrous  courage.  An  ardent  explorer  and  keen  observer,  he  left 
behind  him  writings  which  describe  in  lively  terms  some  of  the 
scenes  of  his  adventurous  career  in  colonial  affairs.  Pontgrav6 
and  Champlain,  sailing  with  two  small  vessels,  and  passing  up  the 
St.  Lawrence,  found  nothing  whatever  left  of  the  trading-post  at 
Tadousac,  or  the  Indian  town  of  Stadacona;  nothing  but  ruins  at 
the  fort  of  Cap  Rouge,  and  not  a  trace  of  the  Indian  town  of 
Hochelaga.  On  their  return  to  France  they  found  that  de  Chastes 
was  dead.  Champlain,  however,  who  had  partly  explored  the  rivers 
Saguenay  and  Richelieu,  won  the  king's  favour  by  displaying  a 
map  of  his  travels. 

The  enterprise  was  renewed  under  the  auspices  of  a  rich  Hu- 
guenot noble,  the  Sieur  de  Monts,  high  in  favour  with  Henry,  who 
appointed  him  viceroy  of  La  Cadie  or  Acadie,  specified  as  the 
region  extending  from  the  fortieth  to  the  forty-sixth  degree  of 
north  latitude.  This  country  corresponds  with  Nova  Scotia  and 
some  of  the  adjacent  continental  territory.  The  patentee,  de 
Monts,  received  a  monopoly  of  the  fur-trade  and  powers  as  supreme 
ruler,  with  permission  to  exercise  and  allow  his  own  Calvinistic 
faith,  but  to  cause  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  to  be  preached 
among  the  natives. 


CANADA — EARLY    HISTORY.  173 

In  March,  1604,  de  Monts,  Champlain,  and  Pontgrave  sailed 
from  Le  Havre  with  the  largest  expedition  that  had  yet  left  the 
French  shores  for  America.  The  colony  included  persons  of  very 
diverse  station  and  character.  There  were  gentlemen  of  good  birth 
and  criminals  from  jails;  soldiers  and  artisans,  Calvinist  preachers 
and  Catholic  priests.  After  exploring  the  Grande  Baye  Franchise 
(afterwards  Bay  of  Fundy),  where  a  noble  named  de  Poutrincourt 
received  a  grant  of  land,  which  became  the  site  of  Port  Royal,  the 
voyagers,  on  June  24th,  St.  John  Baptist's  day,  entered  a  harbour 
since  called  by  his  name.  A  severe  winter  was  passed  on  the  bleak 
and  barren  island  of  St.  Croix,  where  nearly  forty  of  the  settlers 
died  of  scurvy,  and  the  spring  saw  de  Monts  remove  to  Port  Royal, 
from  which  he  explored  the  coasts  for  some  distance  to  the  south. 
During  the  terrible  sufferings  from  cold  which  froze  the  very  wine 
in  the  casks,  Champlain  had  been  the  life  and  soul  of  his  desponding 
fellow-countrymen.  Their  hearts  were  cheered  in  the  early  summer 
of  1605  by  the  arrival  of  Pontgrave  and  de  Poutrincourt  with  sup- 
plies from  France.  The  foundations  of  a  town  were  laid  in  store- 
houses and  barracks,  workshops  and  dwellings,  a  chapel  and  a 
governor's  house.  A  mission  to  the  heathen  natives  of  the  land, 
with  the  support  of  Mary  de  Medicis,  was  started  by  a  Jesuit 
Father  named  Biart,  and  matins  and  vespers  were  regularly  sung 
round  a  cross  erected  in  the  centre  of  the  hamlet  called  St.  Sauveur. 

The  colony  in  Acadie  was  beginning  to  prosper,  and  the  settlers 
could  live  by  the  fruits  of  their  toil,  when  the  winter  of  1606  arrived. 
De  Monts  had  been  compelled  to  return  to  France,  where  enemies 
were  plotting  against  his  interests,  and  in  1607  a  vessel  arrived 
with  news  that  his  charter  had  been  revoked,  and  an  order  that  the 
settlement  should  be  abandoned.  Champlain  and  all  the  colonists 
returned  to  France,  and  thus  ended  the  first  serious  French  attempt 
to  settle  in  North  America.  In  full  prospect  of  success,  jealousy  at 
home  and  court  intrigues  had  brought  the  enterprise  to  a  sudden 
and  untimely  end. 

Three  years  later,  Baron  de  Poutrincourt  returned  to  the  scene, 
armed  with  new  powers  from  Henry  the  Fourth,  and  received  a 
warm  welcome  from  the  Indian  chiefs,  whose  people  had  done  no 
harm  to  the  buildings  of  the  little  town,  nor  to  any  of  their  contents. 
The  death  of  the  French  king  by  Ravaillac's  hand  made  Jesuit 
influence  paramount  at  court,  and  the  revived  colony  was  seriously 


1/4  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

troubled  by  quarrels  between  the  civil  and  religious  powers. 
Anarchy  and  famine  were  threatening  the  settlers,  when  destruction 
from  a  new  quarter  swooped  down  upon  Port  Royal.  A  Captain 
Argall,  from  Virginia,  who  was  little  more  than  a  British  piratical 
adventurer,  attacked  a  settlement  founded  by  the  Jesuits,  who  had 
now  left  their  countrymen,  on  an  island  in  an  inlet  on  the  coast  of 
Maine,  which  is  known  to  this  day  as  "  Frenchman's  Bay  ".  A 
single  broadside  swept  off  the  Frenchmen  who  had  manned  their 
ship,  and  the  place  was  plundered  and  reduced  to  ruin.  Some  of 
the  prisoners  were  turned  adrift  in  a  boat;  the  rest  were  carried 
away  to  Virginia,  where  the  governor  threatened  to  hang  them  for 
invasion  of  British  territory.  This  sorry  exploit  of  international 
greed  was  perpetrated  in  1613.  In  the  following  year,  Argall  came 
down  upon  Port  Royal,  plundered  the  houses  of  all  their  goods, 
even  to  the  very  locks  upon  the  doors,  and  razed  the  fort  level  with 
the  ground.  De  Poutrincourt's  efforts  to  colonize  Acadie  were,  on 

o 

this  blow,  finally  abandoned  in  despair,  and  in  1615  he  found  a 
soldier's  grave  in  his  native  land. 

From  Acadie  our  narrative  wanders  away  to  a  new  scene  of 
action  on  the  great  St.  Lawrence.  Champlain,  in  1608,  returned 
to  America,  with  Pontgrave  as  his  companion,  both  of  them  in  the 
service  of  de  Monts.  On  July  3rd,  near  the  spot  where,  about 
seventy  years  before,  Cartier  had  passed  the  winter  months,  Cham- 
plain  laid  the  foundation  of  Quebec.  He  describes  the  name  as 
the  Indian  term  for  a  strait,  applied  to  the  narrows  of  the  river 
where  the  promontory  stands  which  he  then  saw  covered  with 
creeping  vines,  and  crowned  by  walnut-trees  of  stately  growth. 
The  wooden  fort  of  his  erection  was  on  the  site  of  the  existing 
market-place  in  the  lower  town. 

The  career  of  Canada  had  now  fairly  begun,  and  her  founder 
soon  had  troubles  to  face.  A  plot  for  his  murder,  provoked  by 
the  needful  sternness  of  his  rule,  and  punished  by  the  hanging  of 
its  leader  and  the  despatch  of  his  fellows  in  chains  to  France,  left 
the  great  French  pioneer  of  colonial  rule  with  less  than  thirty  men 
at  his  command.  The  scurvy,  in  the  winter,  carried  off  all  of  these 
save  eight.  The  spring  of  1609  brought  new  colonists  and  sup- 
plies from  France,  and  Champlain  set  himself  zealously  to  work. 
His  efforts  at  exploration  brought  him  into  contact  with  the 
powerful  Algonquins,  one  of  the  three  North  American  tribes  of 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  175 

whom  we  hear  most  in  early  Canadian  history,  which  at  one  period 
chiefly  consists  in  a  narrative  of  continual  warfare  between  the 
natives  and  the  European  colonists  who  were  striving  to  make 
their  way  to  the  great  western  prairie-region.  The  two  others  are 
the  Hurons  and  the  Iroquois. 

These  native  tribes,  devoted  to  the  chase,  and  thus  acquiring 
exceptional  endurance  and  activity  of  frame,  were  regularly  formed 
into  subdivisions,  villages,  or  bands,  the  whole  being  subject  to  a 
sachem  or  civil  chief,  aided  by  councillors  chosen  from  the  foremost 
warriors,  and  ruling,  as  he  best  could,  a  fiercely  democratic  people. 
The  local  system  was  that  of  clans,  connected  in  blood  through 
female  descent,  and  bearing  emblems  or  crests  called  "  Totems ", 
which  often  exhibited  the  form  of  some  wild  animal,  the  bear  or 
the  beaver,  the  otter  or  the  wolf,  regarded  with  superstitious 
reverence,  and  secured  against  killing,  as  being  the  common 
ancestor  of  the  clan.  If  the  "totem"  were  a  plant,  the  prohibition 
would  then  be  directed  against  eating.  The  members  of  the  same 
clan  could  not  intermarry,  and  were  all  bound  together  by  the 
principle  of  vendetta  or  blood-feud.  Craft  and  cruelty  were  com- 
mon to  all  the  natives  of  North  America,  who  numbered,  it  has 
been  reckoned,  but  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  in  the  whole 
vast  region  lying  between  Hudson's  Bay  and  the  basin  of  the 
Mississippi. 

The  Algonquins,  amounting  to  nearly  one  hundred  thousand, 
ranged  over  a  great  region  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  South  Carolina, 
and  from  Cape  Gaspe,  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  to  the 
river  Des  Moines  in  Iowa.  Their  sub-tribes  included  the  Mic- 
macs  of  Nova  Scotia;  the  Abenakis  of  Maine;  the  Pequods  of 
New  England;  the  Shawnees  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee;  the 
Miamis,  along  the  Ohio  to  Lake  Michigan;  the  Ojibways,  near 
Lake  Superior;  and  the  Sioux  on  the  prairies  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. The  Hurons  or  Wyandots  dwelt  in  the  peninsula  which 
lies  between  Lakes  Erie,  Ontario,  and  Huron,  and  may  have  num- 
bered twenty  thousand. 

The  Iroquois,  or  Five  Nations,  are  the  Indians  most  familiar 
to  the  student  of  that  period  of  North  American  history  which 
deals  with  the  struggles  between  the  British  and  the  French 
settlers.  They  included  the  divisions  called  Senecas  and  Mo- 
hawks, and  roamed  over  the  land  lying  between  the  upper  waters 


1/6  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

of  the  Ohio,  Delaware,  and  Susquehannah,  and  the  shores  of  Lake 
Ontario.  The  Iroquois  have  been  regarded,  with  good  reason,  as 
the  bravest  and  most  cruel  of  Indian  tribes,  waging  war  on  all 
sides,  both  against  foreign  settlers  and  natives,  and  earning  their 
successes  by  a  combination  of  courage  and  disciplined  arrange- 
ment. Their  position  in  the  country  which  now  forms  the  state  of 
New  York  gave  them  a  great  advantage  in  moving  by  lakes  and 
rivers  to  the  parts  where  they  wished  to  deal  their  blows.  The 
Hiawatha  of  Longfellow  presents  their  chief  points  of  character. 
The  energetic  spirit  of  this  master-tribe  of  North  America  was 
displayed  alike  in  the  conflict  with  man  and  in  the  hunting  of  wild 
animals;  in  their  hours  of  leisure,  devoted  to  gambling,  hard 
drinking,  and  dancing;  in  the  careful  tillage  of  large  tracts  of 
maize,  and  in  the  fact  that  their  victorious  achievements  were 
those  of  warriors  who  at  no  time  exceeded  the  number  of  four 
thousand.  It  was  in  an  expedition  with  the  Algonquins  against 
their  ancient  foes,  the  Iroquois,  that  the  French  explorer  dis- 
covered Lake  Champlain.  The  European  muskets,  in  a  fight  near 
Lake  George,  by  its  later  name,  routed  the  Iroquois  in  sudden 
dismay,  but  the  victory  was  one  for  which  the  Canadian  French 
were  destined  to  pay  a  heavy  price.  The  defeated  tribe,  for  a 
century  and  a  half,  were  the  deadly  foes  of  their  European 
assailants,  and,  in  the  ambush  of  their  irregular  warfare,  and  in 
the  stealthy  murder  of  outlying  settlers,  they  wreaked  a  manifold 
vengeance  for  every  warrior  that  fell  in  the  battle.  In  the  spring 
of  1610,  an  attack  on  their  entrenchments  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Richelieu  ended  in  a  second  defeat  for  the  Iroquois,  but  the 
struggle  was  hard,  and  Champlain  was  wounded  by  an  arrow  in 
the  neck. 

For  many  years  from  this  date,  Champlain  was  the  animating 
spirit  of  the  French  colony.  More  than  twenty  times  in  all  he 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  interests  of  his  charge,  and,  through  his 
courage,  fidelity,  and  zeal,  he  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  successive 
nobles  named  as  Viceroys  by  Louis  the  Thirteenth.  These  titular 
governors  remained  in  France,  and  left  their  deputy  free  in  his 
exercise  of  actual  rule.  In  1611,  he  selected  the  island  of  Mont- 
real as  the  site  for  a  future  city,  by  erecting  a  fort  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  fur-trade  at  the  point  where  the  Ottawa  joins  the  St. 
Lawrence.  The  island  called  St.  Helen's  commemorates  the  name 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  177 

of  Champlain's  newly-wedded  wife.  Religious  duty  towards  the 
natives  was  not  forgotten,  and  in  1615,  through  his  personal  inter- 
vention in  France,  a  new  body  of  settlers  was  accompanied  by 
three  Recollet  friars,  the  first  of  the  devoted  missionaries  who  play 
so  large  a  part  in  the  early  history  of  Canada.  One  took  his  place 
at  Tadousac,  another  at  Three  Rivers,  and  a  third  at  Quebec, 
where,  on  June  25th,  mass  was  first  said  in  a  Canadian  church. 

Eager  for  exploration,  Champlain,  in  the  same  year,  accom- 
panied by  some  of  his  Huron  friends,  was  the  first  European  that 
ever  gazed  on  the  waters  of  Lakes  Huron  and  Ontario.  His 
most  westerly  point  was  Lake  St.  Clair;  and  he  reached  Quebec 
in  July,  1616,  after  taking  part  in  another  attack  on  the  Iroquois. 
Their  strongly  stockaded  town  was  assailed  in  vain,  and  the 
Algonquins  retired,  carrying  their  French  ally,  disabled  by  two 
wounds  in  the  leg.  He  now  devoted  his  time  and  thoughts  to 
the  advance  of  his  little  colony.  Quebec,  having  then  but  wooden 
walls,  was  strengthened  by  a  fort  of  stone  in  the  lower  town,  and 
Champlain  began  to  erect,  on  the  higher  ground,  the  castle  of  St. 
Louis,  which  became  the  abode  of  Canadian  governors  until  its 
destruction  by  fire  in  1834.  Little  encouragement  came  from 
home  in  the  form  of  new  settlers  aiming  at  tillage,  and  the 
Iroquois,  in  1620,  made  the  first  of  the  invasions  which,  in  coming 
years,  were  so  often  to  harass  the  French  in  Canada.  Their 
attacks  were  at  present  repulsed  by  the  aid  of  muskets  and  cannon. 
In  1621,  the  departure  of  many  of  the  traders  in  fur,  who  were 
hampered  by  interlopers  from  France,  reduced  the  number  of 
colonists  to  less  than  fifty. 

In  1625,  Henri  de  Levis,  Due  de  Ventadour,  became  Canadian 
viceroy.  This  nobleman  had  lately  exchanged  the  luxuries  of 
court  life  for  the  severities  of  a  monastic  order,  and  was  fired  with 
zeal  for  the  spread  of  the  Christian  faith  in  the  New  World. 
With  this  view,  he  sent  out  some  Jesuit  fathers  to  Canada.  This 
religious  body,  the  Society  of  Jesus,  so  renowned  in  the  ecclesias- 
tical and  in  much  of  the  political  history  of  the  modern  world,  had 
been  founded,  about  ninety  years  before,  by  the  noble  ex-soldier  of 
Spain,  Ignatius  Loyola,  aided  by  his  countrymen  Lainez,  Francis 
Xavier,  and  Bobadilla.  These  foremost  champions  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  the  Jesuit  order,  were  soon  distinguished  by  their 
subtleness  of  policy,  their  vehemence  of  zeal,  their  exactness  of 

VOL.  I.  12 


1 78  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

discipline;  by  self-denial,  by  intense  and  stubborn  devotion  to  a 
single  end,  and  by  the  utmost  versatility  and  skill  in  their  choice  of 
means.  Debarred  from  promotion  to  high  rank  in  the  church,  and 
freed  from  all  temptations  towards  the  visible  prizes  of  worldly 
ambition,  the  Jesuit  aimed  at  unseen  strongholds  of  an  inner  realm 
in  controlling  the  minds  and  the  souls,  in  winning  the  opinions  and 
the  feelings  of  men.  The  pulpit,  the  press,  the  confessional,  the 
school, — these  were  the  battlefields  of  Jesuit  warfare.  Science, 
literature,  learning,  art,  were  all  pressed  into  the  service  of 
orthodox  religion.  In  the  world  of  Europe,  as  they  waged  their 
contest  amongst  heretical  peoples,  their  fearless  courage  defied  the 
terrors  of  spies  and  penal  laws,  of  racks  and  dungeons,  of  gibbets 
and  blocks.  In  every  land,  under  every  disguise,  their  work  was 
done.  In  missionary  effort,  they  took,  in  exact  truth,  the  world 
for  their  province.  The  distant  regions  of  China  and  Japan,  India 
and  Tibet,  and  the  Philippine  Isles,  of  the  eastern  hemisphere ; 
Brazil  and  Paraguay  and  California,  in  the  new-found  west;  Abys- 
sinia, and  Kaffirland,  and  the  Guinea  coast,  of  African  climes, 
were  all  within  the  range  of  Jesuit  travel.  Their  endeavours  to 
convert  the  heathen  were  greatly  aided  by  sound  judgment  and 
by  worldly  wisdom.  As  they  wandered  through  the  regions  laid 
open  to  European  enterprise  by  maritime  discovery,  among  divers 
nations  and  peoples  and  tongues,  they  were  careful  to  tend  the 
bodies  as  well  as  to  strive  to  win  the  souls  of  those  to  whom, 
with  enthusiasm  guided  by  knowledge  and  light,  they  made  their 
appeals.  They  sought  to  civilize  the  pagan  for  his  life  in  this 
world  of  weariness  and  pain,  as  well  as  to  fit  him  for  the  happiness 
and  glory  of  a  future  state.  Their  skill  in  botany  and  medicine, 
their  acquaintance  with  the  arts  of  tillage,  carpentry,  and  building, 
all  contributed  to  the  attainment  of  the  main  object  of  their  lives. 
Nor  was  it  distant  lands  alone  that  received  benefit  from  the 
labours  of  the  Jesuits.  They  largely  added  to  the  store  of 
European  knowledge  in  languages  and  science,  in  ethnology  and 
exploration.  The  alkaloid  quinine,  priceless  as  a  tonic  and  a 
specific  remedy  for  certain  fevers,  was  formerly  known  as  Jesuits' 
Bark,  being  first  brought  to  Rome  from  the  forests  of  Peru, 
and  distributed  thenceforth  among  the  missionary  stations  of  the 
order. 

Among  all  explorers  of   North   America,  the    Jesuit  fathers, 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  179 

undaunted  in  all  dangers,  untired  by  any  toils,  were  the  most 
successful  and  renowned.  One  of  their  number,  Claude  Allouez, 
made  his  way  to  the  regions  lying  north  of  Lake  Superior,  and,  on 
his  return  to  Quebec,  first  gave  knowledge  of  the  vast  land  of 
prairie  lying  to  the  west.  Marquette,  launched  on  the  Wisconsin 
in  a  birch-bark  canoe,  paddled  down  the  river  till  he  reached  a 
greater  stream,  passed  along  until  it  received  the  waters  of  the 
great  Missouri,  and  continuing  his  course  beyond  the  mouth  of  the 
Wabash  or  Ohio,  arrived  at  the  Arkansas,  first  revealing  that  the 
mighty  Mississippi  had  a  southward  course  towards  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  which  afterwards,  as  we  have  seen,  was  attained  by  his 
countryman,  also  of  Jesuit  training,  Cavalier  de  la  Salle. 

The  one  thing  in  which  the  Jesuits  failed  in  North  America 
was  as  regards  helping  forward  the  work  of  colonization.  The 
Indians,  in  some  cases,  were  won  for  the  Christian  faith,  but  the 
whole  system  of  the  church,  as  then  administered  in  France,  was 
opposed  to  political  equality  and  progress,  and  advance  was  hin- 
dered by  the  strife  which  arose  between  the  priestly  element  and 
the  more  liberal  and  enlightened  of  the  French  governors.  The 
fatal  policy  adopted  in  1685,  when  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  alienated  and  banished  a  large  part  of  the  best  industrial 
skill  and  intellectual  resource  of  France,  had  its  counterpart  in 
Canadian  rule,  and  rendered  the  French  trans-Atlantic  colonies 
yearly  less  capable  of  coping  with  the  swiftly  advancing  British 
settlements  in  New  England  and  on  other  parts  of  the  Atlantic 
coast.  Before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  colonists 
of  Canada  were  outnumbered  by  their  British  neighbours  in  the 
proportion  of  about  twenty  to  one,  and  the  failure  of  France  to 
secure  for  herself  a  trans-Atlantic  empire  was  thus  largely  due  to 
the  sheer  want  of  population  to  hold  in  sufficient  force  the  land 
which  she  claimed. 

In  1627,  the  great  statesman,  Cardinal  Richelieu,  was  the 
virtual  ruler  of  France,  as  minister  of  Louis  the  Thirteenth.  By 
his  advice  an  important  change  was  now  made  in  the  machinery 
for  governing  Canada.  All  charters  were  annulled,  and  the  country 
was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  body  called  the  "Company  of  the 
Hundred  Associates".  Their  rights  extended  from  Hudson's  Bay 
to  Florida,  and  theirs  was  the  monopoly  of  all  trade,  with  the  great 
exception  of  that  arising  from  the  whale  and  cod  fisheries.  Com- 


ISO  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

merce  and  religion  were  combined  in  the  objects  of  the  new  scheme, 
which  bound  the  Associates,  within  the  space  of  fifteen  years,  to 
bring  from  France  and  plant  colonists  to  the  number  of  five  thou- 
sand, with  due  provision  for  their  spiritual  wants.  The  cardinal 
and  Champlain,  with  many  wealthy  merchants  and  distinguished 
nobles,  were  members  of  the  "  Hundred  Associates",  among  whom 
the  character,  experience,  and  performances  of  the  founder  of 
French  Canada  naturally  gave  him  a  foremost  place. 

The  one  thing  wanting  for  permanent  success  was  a  readiness 
among  large  numbers  of  the  French  people  to  follow  their  colonial 
and  religious  pioneers  from  the  towns  and  fields  of  sunny  France  to 
the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  This  they  persistently  declined  to 
do,  and,  without  this,  no  patronage,  however  distinguished,  no  views 
or  purposes,  however  enlightened  or  benevolent,  could  possibly 
win  success  for  a  colonial  enterprise.  The  right  man,  however,  was 
retained  at  the  head  of  affairs  when,  on  the  abolition  of  the  vice- 
royalty,  Champlain  was  appointed  Governor  of  Canada.  It  is  im- 
portant to  observe  that  a  State  Church  was  now  fully  established, 
in  the  technical  sense,  and  that  all  Huguenots,  the  very  salt  of  the 
earth  for  real  colonization,  were  banished  from  the  country. 

The  new  departure  had  scarcely  been  made,  when  British  hos- 
tility dealt  a  severe  blow.  In  1628,  Charles  the  First  declared  war 
against  France,  and  Buckingham  made  his  imbecile  attempt  to 
relieve  the  Huguenots  besieged  in  La  Rochelle.  A  French  Pro- 
testant refugee,  Sir  David  Kirke,  was  intrusted  with  a  fleet  for 
operations  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  sailed  for  those  waters  with  a 
dozen  British  ships.  From  Tadousac  he  despatched  a  message  to 
Champlain,  demanding  the  surrender  of  Quebec.  That  chivalrous 
and  stout-hearted  man  was  hard  pressed  for  food  and  devoid  of 
means  to  resist  so  large  a  force,  but  his  answer  was  a  bold  defiance 
to  the  foe.  The  position  was  one  of  the  utmost  anxiety  for  the 
French.  The  first  fleet  of  the  Associates  was  due  from  France, 
consisting  of  eighteen  vessels,  heavily  laden  with  cannon,  ammu- 
nition, and  provisions  for  Quebec.  The  messengers  of  Kirke,  with 
their  demand  for  surrender,  had  been  well  entertained  with  the 
best  at  command,  but  the  French  were  really  limited  to  half  a 
pound  of  bread  per  day,  and  the  magazine  held  only  fifty  pounds 
of  powder.  Life  or  death  seemed  to  depend  on  the  arrival  of  the 
fleet.  Fortune  declared  against  the  French,  when  Kirke,  who  was 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  l8l 

cruising  in  the  river  and  biding  his  time,  heard  that  the  ships  had 
appeared  off  Cape  Gaspe.  On  July  i8th  a  running  fight  gave  him 
possession  of  all  save  one,  and,  after  removing  the  cargoes  and 
burning  most  of  the  vessels,  he  returned  to  England  with  prisoners 
and  plunder.  Hard  times  had  come  for  the  people  of  the  colony, 
who,  by  the  spring  of  1629,  were  searching  the  woods  for  edible 
roots.  Champlain,  according  to  his  wont,  played  a  hero's  part  in 
enduring  hardship  and  inspiring  hope,  but  the  government  at  home 
could  not  or  would  not  send  supplies,  and  the  arrival  of  three 
British  men-of-war,  at  the  end  of  July,  alone  saved  the  people 
from  death  by  starvation.  Quebec  was  given  up  with  its  garri- 
son of  sixteen  haggard  men;  the  townsfolk,  about  one  hundred 
souls,  were  glad  to  share  with  them  the  food  furnished  by  the 
victors.  For  three  years  from  this  date  the  British  flag  flew 
from  the  Castle  of  St.  Louis,  where  a  brother  of  Kirke  resided  as 
governor. 

Champlain,  taken  to  England  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  and  then 
restored  to  France,  was  again  able  to  work  for  her  colonial  interests. 
Finding  that  peace  between  the  two  countries  had  been  made  in 
Europe  at  the  time  when  Quebec  was  surrendered  to  Kirke,  he 
induced  the  French  government  to  demand  the  return  of  its  colo- 
nial possession  on  this  technical  ground.  Charles  the  First,  who 
now  was  ruling  England  as  an  absolute  monarch,  yielded  to  the 
request,  and  in  1632,  by  the  Treaty  of  St.  Germain  -  en  -  Laye, 
Canada  was  restored  to  France.  Champlain  was,  of  course,  re- 
placed as  governor,  and  went  forth,  in  March,  1633,  on  his  twelfth 
voyage  beyond  the  Atlantic,  with  three  ships,  bearing  two  hundred 
settlers  and  large  supplies  of  goods  for  trade,  provisions,  and  war- 
like stores.  His  work  for  Canada  was,  as  it  proved,  nearly  done. 
In  1634  he  erected  forts  at  Three  Rivers  and  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Richelieu,  for  the  protection  of  the  fur-trade,  and  as  barriers  against 
the  inroads  of  the  implacable  Iroquois,  and  directed  his  utmost 
efforts  to  the  advance  of  the  colony  and  the  spread  of  the  faith 
among  the  native  tribes.  On  Christmas-day,  1635,  after  a  long 
illness,  which  reduced  him  to  the  last  extremity  of  weakness, 
Champlain,  first  and  greatest  of  his  country's  Canadian  rulers,  high- 
souled,  pure  in  life,  just,  merciful,  laborious,  disinterested,  a  bold 
and  successful  explorer,  passed  from  the  world  in  which  he  had 
played  not  merely  a  notable,  but  a  noble  part. 


1 82  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

We  may  here  inquire  how  it  was  that  England,  once  in  posses- 
sion of  Quebec,  surrendered  the  post,  after  three  years'  tenure, 
which  she  was  finally  to  acquire  by  conquest  after  the  lapse  of  more 
than  a  century  and  a  quarter.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
keen  discernment  of  Richelieu,  when  he  placed  the  colony  on  its 
new  basis,  under  the  Hundred  Associates,  had  marked  Canada  as 
a  region  worthy  of  retention  by  his  country,  from  the  wealth  of  its 
fisheries,  specially  valuable  as  a  nursery  for  seamen,  from  the  trade 
in  furs,  and  from  the  existence,  in  that  region,  of  vast  supplies  of 
timber.  On  these  grounds  the  conquest  made  by  Kirke  should  have 
been  of  at  least  equal  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  English  government. 
Why  was  so  promising  a  territory,  fairly  won  in  time  of  war,  so 
unwisely  and  tamely  abandoned  ?  The  answer  is  plain.  The  trans- 
action was  but  one  instance  of  the  base  betrayal  of  the  national 
interests  and  honour  at  the  hands  of  the  Stuart  kings  who  strove 
to  exercise  arbitrary  power  over  a  free  and  high-spirited  people. 
There  is  documentary  evidence,  in  the  shape  of  a  letter  in  Charles 
the  First's  own  hand,  which  proves  that  the  English  king  simply 
sold  back  to  France  the  nation's  new  acquisition.  Charles  had 
lately  made  reckless  and  unprovoked  war  upon  his  wife's  native 
country,  and  had  disastrously  and  ignominiously  failed  in  the 
attempt  to  relieve  La  Rochelle.  Much  money  had  been  spent,  and 
the  king  was  at  issue  with  Parliament  on  the  subject  of  "supplies" 
for  the  service  of  the  crown.  The  secret  of  his  conduct  with 
regard  to  the  cession  of  Quebec  was  only  revealed  in  1884,  when 
Mr.  Brymner,  the  Archivist  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  had  dis- 
covered the  king's  letter  in  the  Harleian  Collection  at  the  British 
Museum.  The  document  is  addressed  to  Sir  Isaac  Wake,  ambas- 
sador to  France,  and  is  dated  June  I2th,  1631.  It  is  a  fact  that 
at  this  time  only  half  of  the  marriage-portion  of  Henrietta  Maria 
had  yet  been  paid  over.  One-half  had  been  paid  in  London  on  the 
queen's  arrival  after  the  proxy-marriage,  which  took  place  in  Paris 
on  June  i3th,  1625.  The  remainder  was  due  in  June,  1626,  but 
had  never  been  received  by  Charles.  Wake  was  directed  to  urge 
payment  of  the  money  on  the  ground  that  Quebec  should  be 
restored  to  France.  The  affair  thus  became  a  mere  matter  of 
bargain,  and  no  other  reason  for  the  act  has  been  or  can  be  given. 
The  place  could  have  been  held  with  the  greatest  ease  against  any 
force  which  Richelieu  was  likely  to  despatch  for  its  recovery  by 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  183 

arms.  The  national  strength  was  bartered  away  in  order  to  put 
money  in  the  pocket  of  Charles  the  First. 

We  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  history  of  Quebec  during  the 
three  years  of  its  occupation  by  England,  but  we  learn  from  a 
report  addressed  to  the  king  that  the  fort  was  armed  with  cannon 
and  furnished  with  supplies  of  food  for  eighteen  months,  and  with 
all  kinds  of  tools  needed  for  the  construction  of  other  works.  The 
holders  of  Quebec  declare  themselves  to  be  in  a  position  to  with- 
stand an  attacking  force  of  ten  thousand  men,  and  that  they  "doe 
not  care  what  French  or  any  other  can  doe".  The  time,  however, 
was  not  yet  come  for  the  development  of  the  vast  resources  of 
Canada,  and  English  colonization  was,  through  the  action  of  an 
English  monarch,  to  remain  for  many  a  year  shut  in  by  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  The  extension  of  British  territory  was  thus  made  to 
follow,  as  we  have  seen,  the  run  of  the  Atlantic  sea-board,  from 
Massachusetts  to  New  Hampshire  and  Rhode  Island,  and  from 
Virginia  to  the  south.  The  French  held  the  waterways  giving 
access  to  the  five  great  lakes,  and  the  spirit  of  adventure  in  New 
England  was  thus  turned  in  the  direction  of  maritime  enterprise 
against  their  French  neighbours,  with  results  to  be  hereafter  seen. 

The  value  of  Champlain  to  the  French  colony  in  Canada  was 
strikingly  demonstrated  by  the  languor  which  followed  his  removal 
from  the  scene.  The  Hundred  Associates  had  no  ideas  higher  than 
those  of  mere  merchants,  eager  to  drive  bargains  with  the  Indian 
fur-hunters  and  to  make  profits  in  the  trade.  During  the  quarter 
of  a  century  after  the  death  of  Champlain,  little  real  progress  was 
made.  The  Associates,  who  had  undertaken  to  send  over  five 
thousand  colonists  in  fifteen  years,  despatched  less  than  one  thou- 
sand in  more  than  double  that  period  of  time.  Champlain  had  left 
behind  him,  in  1635,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  Europeans. 
Barely  a  hundred  were  added  during  the  next  five  years,  and  in 
1662,  when  the  charter  of  the  Associates  was  annulled,  the  French 
population  had  not  reached  two  thousand,  few  of  whom  had  arrived 
there  through  the  Company's  action. 

In  temporal  matters  the  duties  of  government  were  grossly 
neglected.  Kingsford,  the  latest  historian  of  French  Canada,  in  a 
work  of  the  utmost  research  and  value,  declares  that  "  there  was  no 
protection  to  life  or  property.  The  husbandman  who  sowed  his  seed 
could  not  count  on  his  life  to  reap  it;  the  wife  who  saw  her  husband 


184  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

depart  in  the  morning  to  his  work  was  not  certain  that  he  would 
return  to  partake  of  the  meal  she  was  preparing."  Champlain  had 
made  it  one  of  his  chief  objects  to  erect  forts,  not  only  as  material 
defences,  but  as  visible  signs  of  the  power  of  France,  which  should 
impress  the  native  mind  with  an  image  of  the  strength  beyond  the 
seas  that  was  ready  to  protect  her  sons  on  the  banks  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  amid  the  clearings  of  Canadian  woods.  It  was  with 
this  view  that  he  had  fortified  the  island  now  called  He  Richelieu, 
about  fifty  miles  above  Quebec,  and,  a  few  months  before  his  death 
had  made  a  strong  post  at  Three  Rivers. 

In  spiritual  affairs,  at  this  time,  great  zeal  was  shown  on  the 
part  of  the  mother-country.  Within  twelve  years  of  Champlain's 
death  more  than  forty  Jesuit  missionaries  went  out  among  the 
Huron  Indians,  and  many  emigrants  from  France  arrived  for  reli- 
gious work,  including  some  ladies  of  rank  and  fortune.  A  stone 
convent  arose  at  Quebec  in  1642,  on  the  site  now  occupied  by  the 
Ursuline  nuns,  and  the  devotion  of  French  women  to  Christian 
labours  was  shown  in  their  nursing  the  victims  of  small-pox,  which 
had  seized  the  natives  in  their  loathsome  huts.  The  Duchesse 
d'Aiguillon,  a  niece  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  founded  a  hospital  for 
the  natives  far  up  the  country,  and  the  nurses  for  this  first  Hotel 
Dieu  of  Canada  were  young,  well-born  ladies  from  a  hospital  at 
Dieppe.  The  Marquis  de  Sillery,  a  wealthy  Knight  of  Malta,  who 
had  devoted  himself  and  all  his  riches  to  the  service  of  the  Church, 
founded  a  mission  at  the  little  cove  still  bearing  his  name,  a  few 
miles  above  Quebec.  In  1642,  the  town  of  Montreal,  on  the  site 
before  chosen  by  Champlain,  owed  its  foundation  to  missionary 
enterprise.  A  large  sum  of  money  was  raised  in  France,  where 
the  annual  "  Relations",  or  reports  of  religious  progress  among  the 
Indians,  were  arousing  much  enthusiasm,  and  a  new  settlement  was 
made  on  the  island  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  under  the  name  of  Ville 
Marie  de  Montreal.  The  place  was  then  an  outpost  of  great  peril, 
unconnected  with  the  profitable  fur-trade,  and  entirely  due  to  zeal 
for  the  conversion  of  souls.  The  governor  was  a  brave  and  devout 
soldier,  the  Sieur  de  Maisonneuve,  who  himself  felled  the  first  tree 
at  the  clearing  of  the  ground,  and  worked  with  spade  and  mattock 
at  the  trench  round  the  little  fort. 

The  arm  of  flesh,  however,  was  needed  by  these  Christian 
pioneers,  and  the  missionaries  were  soon  involved  in  trouble  with 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  185 

the  fierce  Iroquois,  who  were  beginning  to  lose  their  dread  of  fire- 
arms, and  had  even  obtained  muskets  from  Dutch  traders  on  the 
river  Hudson.  In  1648,  a  mission-station  among  the  Hurons  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Simcoe  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  the  Jesuit 
father  died  a  dreadful  death.  The  fort  erected  by  Montmagny, 
Champlain's  successor  as  governor  of  Canada,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Richelieu,  was  attacked  by  seven  hundred  warriors,  who 
advanced  to  the  very  loopholes  of  the  stockade,  fired  their  guns 
through  them,  and  were  only  repulsed  by  desperate  efforts.  Ever 
on  the  watch  for  the  colonial  hunter,  fisherman,  or  farmer,  they 
made  life  a  burden  even  to  those  who  dwelt  within  range  of  the 
cannon  mounted  at  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal.  The 
allies  of  the  French,  the  Algonquins  and  Hurons,  were  constantly 
harassed  by  their  implacable  foes,  the  Iroquois,  in  whose  lodges 
many  a  French  scalp  hung  alongside  those  of  Indian  victims.  Two 
of  the  most  famous  Jesuits,  Brebeuf  and  Lallemand,  were  murdered 
by  tortures  spread  over  many  hours.  Amidst  these  terrors,  the 
missionaries  still  made  their  way  inland,  and  by  the  year  1660  they 
had  mapped  the  outlines  of  Lakes  Erie  and  Superior,  and  had 
viewed  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan.  Another  Jesuit,  named 
Jogues,  lived  as  a  prisoner  among  the  Mohawks,  escaped  and 
returned  to  France,  went  back  to  the  scene  of  his  labours,  and  was 
murdered,  in  1644,  by  Indians  of  the  same  tribe.  In  spite  of  all 
opposition,  some  thousands  of  Indians  were  converted  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  but  this  success  only  aroused  the  keener  hatred  of  the 
Iroquois,  who  attacked  the  villages  of  the  Christianized  natives, 
slew  the  people  by  hundreds,  and  for  ten  years,  from  1650  to  1660, 
established  a  reign  of  terror  in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

In  no  long  space  of  time,  the  Huron  friends  of  the  colonists 
were  almost  swept  away  by  the  Iroquois,  and  in  1660  those  deter- 
mined savages  formed  a  plan  for  the  utter  destruction  of  the  whole 
colony.  Twelve  hundred  warriors  marched  to  attack  by  turns  the 
three  military  posts  of  Montreal,  Three  Rivers,  and  Quebec.  The 
heroic  devotion  of  some  settlers  at  Montreal  saved  the  French 
from  ruin.  Dulac  des  Ormeaux,  a  young  man  of  twenty-two,  went 
forth  with  sixteen  friends,  after  they  had  made  their  wills,  confessed, 
received  the  sacrament,  and  taken  a  solemn  farewell.  Their  pur- 
pose was  to  sacrifice  their  lives,  if  need  were,  in  meeting  the  enemy 
half-way.  At  the  Long  Sault  rapid,  on  the  Ottawa  river,  they  were 


1 86  OUR    EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

joined  by  forty  Christian  Hurons  and  a  few  Algonquin  friends,  and 
the  party  then  manned  an  old  redoubt,  which  was  little  more  than 
a  breastwork  of  logs.  The  defence  was  improved  by  a  facing  of 
sods,  with  loopholes  left  for  musketry,  and  there  they  received  the 
attack  of  the  enemy's  vanguard,  composed  of  two  hundred  men. 
Five  days  and  nights  the  post  was  held  against  incessant  assaults, 
by  defenders  hourly  weakened  through  hunger,  thirst,  and  want  of 
sleep.  When  more  Iroquois  appeared,  the  Hurons  went  over  to  the 
foe,  and  for  three  days  longer  twenty  heroes  held  out  against  seven 
hundred  savages.  A  breach  was  made  at  last,  when  but  four 
defenders  remained  alive,  three  of  whom  were  mortally  wounded, 
and  were  at  once  burnt  by  the  victors.  The  sole  survivor  was 
carried  off  to  die  under  torture.  All  the  treacherous  Hurons  were 
killed  but  five,  who  carried  the  news  to  the  French  settlements. 
The  desperate  defence  of  the  men  who  had  fallen  so  far  daunted 
the  foe  that  they  retired  to  prepare  new  plans  of  extermination. 

In  1659,  the  Abbe  de  Laval,  a  member  of  the  house  of  Mont- 
morency,  arrived  from  France,  to  become,  some  years  later,  the 
first  bishop  in  Canada.  He  now  held  the  post  of  vicar-apostolic, 
and  was  a  man  of  the  greatest  piety  and  zeal,  wholly  devoted  to 
the  interests  of  the  church  and  of  the  Jesuit  order.  His  influence 
was  not,  in  some  respects,  beneficial  to  the  progress  of  the  colony, 
which  was  soon  distracted  by  quarrels  between  the  ecclesiastical 
and  civil  authorities,  and  it  became  plain  that  a  change  in  the  mode 
of  government  was  needed.  In  one  point,  at  least,  the  Abbe  and 
the  missionaries  had  right  on  their  side.  The  fur-traders  had  long 
been  wont  to  pay  for  skins  with  the  brandy  which  was  mere  destruc- 
tion to  the  natives.  The  Jesuits  waged  constant  war  against  this 
evil,  but  could  not  obtain  the  assistance  of  the  governor,  and  Laval 
returned  to  France  in  order  to  appeal  to  the  young  king,  Louis  the 
Fourteenth,  who  had  lately  assumed  the  reins  of  power.  In  conse- 
quence, mainly,  of  Laval's  intervention,  the  power  of  the  Hundred 
Associates  came  to  an  end  early  in  1663,  and  "  New  France"  was 
made  a  royal  province. 

Canada  thus  entered  on  a  new  and  more  prosperous  stage  of 
her  career,  the  first  sign  of  which  was  a  striking  increase  of  her 
military  power  against  her  native  foes,  the  Iroquois.  The  interests 
of  the  colony  were  now,  in  fact,  under  the  charge  of  one  of  the 
greatest  men  that  France  ever  produced,  Jean  Baptiste  Colbert, 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  l8/ 

who,  as  chief  minister  of  the  French  monarch,  had  charge  at  once  of 
the  finances,  the  commerce,  the  agriculture,  the  marine,  and  the 
public  works  of  his  country.  He  was  one  of  the  most  enlightened 
and  far-sighted  of  all  statesmen,  one  of  the  most  inventive,  sagacious, 
and  capable  of  all  administrators.  Born  at  Rheims  in  1619,  he 
entered,  in  1651,  the  service  of  Mazarin,  who  bequeathed  him,  ten 
years  later,  to  Louis,  with  the  dying  words,  "  I  owe  you,  Sire,  all 
that  I  possess,  but  I  repay  you  in  some  degree  in  giving  you  Col- 
bert". Louis  the  Fourteenth,  with  all  his  faults,  had  a  keen  eye 
for  a  great  man,  and  he  quickly  found  his  advantage  in  the  new 
minister.  His  financial  reforms  were  such  that,  in  twenty-two  years, 
the  net  revenue  was  increased  threefold,  mainly  through  the  sharp 
measures  taken  with  the  "  farmers"  of  the  taxes.  The  whole  system 
of  administration  was  organized  anew,  and  the  effects  were  quickly 
seen  in  tillage  and  trade,  in  roads  and  canals,  in  colonies  and  legal 
codes,  in  sciences  and  arts,  in  arsenals  and  seamen  and  men-of-war. 
He  it  was  who  furnished  Louis  with  the  force  that  enabled  him  to 
meet  the  fleets  of  England  on  the  sea,  and  almost  to  dominate 
Europe  on  land.  The  ultimate  failure,  part  of  which  the  great  man 
lived  to  behold,  was  due  to  the  extravagance  of  a  luxurious  and 
vicious  court,  and  to  the  wars  of  ambition  waged  by  the  sovereign. 
The  heart  and  mind  of  Colbert  were,  amidst  his  countless  and 
incessant  cares,  largely  devoted  to  colonial  development,  and  proofs 
of  this  were  given  alike  in  East  and  West — in  America  and  India, 
and  on  the  African  coasts.  It  was  not  long  before  Canada  felt  the 
presence  of  a  new  pilot  at  the  helm  of  French  affairs.  The  new 
governor  was  M.  de  Mezy,  assisted  by  a  council  composed  of  him- 
self, Laval,  the  royal  intendant,  and  four  others,  the  latter  appointed 
by  the  governor  and  the  bishop,  and  holding  office  for  a  year.  The 
governor  directed  military  affairs  as  the  king's  representative.  The 
intendant  was  the  legal  official,  also  controlling  the  finances,  and 
issuing  ordinances  on  various  matters  of  social  and  commercial  life, 
with  the  force  of  law.  The  elements  of  evil  at  work  in  the  new 
system  proved  to  be  disputes,  arising  from  ill-defined  limits  of 
power  between  the  governor  and  the  intendant,  and  between  the 
governor  and  the  bishop,  supported  by  the  Jesuits.  A  new  body 
called  the  "  Company  of  the  West "  had  a  monopoly  of  trade,  in 
return  for  which  they  were  to  defray  the  expenses  of  civil  govern- 
ment and  of  the  religious  system,  strictly  confined  to  the  teaching- 


1 88  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

of  the  Catholic  faith.  In  the  end,  this  commercial  monopoly  had 
evil  effects,  but  the  measures  taken  by  Colbert  had  immediate  results 
in  securing  the  safety  and  the  progress  of  Canada.  The  intendant, 
Talon,  was  a  man  of  ambitious  views  for  the  colony,  guided  by 
sound  sense,  and  he  directed  the  attention  of  new-comers  specially 
to  tillage,  in  order  to  make  the  settlement  wholly  independent  of 
extraneous  support. 

In  1665,  eight  hundred  emigrants  arrived  from  France,  and  this 
considerable  body  was  accompanied  by  a  large  accession  of  military 
strength.  Due  provision  for  colonial  progress  was  made  in  the 
despatch  from  France  of  horses,  sheep,  horned  cattle,  and  imple- 
ments of  agriculture.  Canada  was  no  longer  to  be  left  devoid  of 
resources  either  for  the  acquirement  of  wealth  by  the  cultivation  of 
the  soil,  or  for  her  own  defence  against  external  foes.  A  military 
officer  of  experience  and  skill,  the  Marquis  de  Tracy,  appeared 
upon  the  scene  as  the  king's  lieutenant-general  and  viceroy  of  all 
the  French  possessions  in  America.  He  brought  with  him  four 
companies  of  the  regiment  styled  Carignan-Salieres,  which  had  won 
renown  on  Hungarian  fields  of  battle  against  the  Turks.  It  was 
a  striking  and  a  stirring  sight  for  the  people  of  Quebec  when  these 
fine  troops,  part  of  a  total  force  of  twelve  hundred  men,  with  glit- 
tering equipments,  amid  pealing  trumpets  and  the  beat  of  drums, 
marched  up  to  the  citadel.  The  soldiers  had  been  raised  in  Savoy 
under  the  Prince  of  Carignan,  and  were  now  commanded  by  M.  de 
Salieres  as  colonel.  To  this  day  the  names  of  towns  and  counties 
along  the  river  Richelieu — Varennes  and  Berthier,  Lavaltrie  and 
Vercheres — commemorate  the  former  officers  of  the  regiment, 
stationed  through  that  district  to  command,  against  the  Iroquois, 
the  approaches  to  Montreal.  A  new  governor,  M.  de  Courcelles, 
had  now,  in  September,  1665,  superseded  de  Mezy,  through  the 
influence  of  Laval.  The  arrival  of  the  troops  and  the  fresh  settlers 
had  more  than  doubled  the  scanty  French  population,  by  raising  it 
to  four  thousand. 

De  Tracy  at  once  resolved  on  aggressive  measures  against  the 
native  foe,  the  heretofore  indomitable  Iroquois.  Three  forts  were 
at  once  erected  on  the  river  Richelieu,  the  water-way  by  which,  in 
their  birch-bark  canoes,  the  enemy  obtained  access  to  Canada.  Of 
these,  the  works  at  Chambly  and  Saurel  received  the  names  of  the 
officers  in  command.  Four  companies  of  troops  were  sent  to  Three 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  189 

Rivers,  as  the  base  of  operations,  with  a  hundred  Canadian  militia, 
and  some  Indian  allies.  De  Salieres  had  command  of  a  detachment 
stationed  at  Montreal,  and,  as  the  season  was  far  advanced,  and  the 
approaches  were  now  barred  against  the  enemy,  the  colonists  could 
rest  in  peace  within  reach  of  the  fortified  and  garrisoned  works. 

It  was  in  the  depth  of  winter  that  the  governor,  De  Courcelles, 
marched  to  attack  the  Mohawks,  a  tribe  of  the  Iroquois,  in  their 
own  abodes.  On  January  9th,  1666,  he  left  Quebec  with  one  hun- 
dred men  of  the  royal  regiment,  each  carrying  the  usual  accoutre- 
ments, with  a  blanket,  a  pair  of  snow-shoes,  and  twenty  pounds  of 
biscuit.  The  road  lay  at  first  up  the  frozen  St.  Lawrence,  with  a 
sharp  wind  blowing  that  chilled  the  marchers  to  the  bone.  At 
Three  Rivers  he  was  joined  by  more  troops  and  some  militia,  the 
latter  being  duly  provided  with  moccasins  of  deer-skin  or  other 
hide,  over  thick  woollen  wraps,  called  nippes,  placed  round  the 
stockings,  against  the  intense  cold.  The  soldiers,  fresh  from 
France,  had  neither  experience  of  Canadian  wintry  weather,  nor 
the  same  dress  for  resisting  it,  and  suffered  much  both  from  the  low 
temperature  and  from  the  lack  of  practice  in  moving  on  show-shoes. 
At  the  forts  on  the  Richelieu,  de  Courcelles  added  more  men  to 
his  command,  and  a  body  of  troops  joined  him  from  Montreal,  by 
a  road  sixteen  miles  in  length,  the  first  of  its  kind  constructed  in 
Canada,  leading  to  the  fort  at  Chambly.  The  marching  column 
now  consisted  of  six  hundred,  after  the  despatch  to  Three  Rivers 
of  the  men  who  had  succumbed  to  the  cold  and  fatigue.  On 
quitting  Fort  St.  Therese,  the  last  post  on  the  Richelieu,  the  route 
against  the  Mohawks  lay  through  a  region  wholly  unknown  to  the 
invaders.  The  expected  Algonquin  guides  had  not  appeared.  De 
Courcelles  soon  found  that  he  was  trespassing  on  the  territory 
lately  ceded  by  the  Dutch  to  the  English  at  New  York,  when  he 
arrived,  on  February  2Oth,  at  the  village  of  Corlaer,  afterwards 
Schenectady,  on  the  Mohawk  river.  He  had  missed  his  road  to 
the  haunts  of  the  Iroquois,  and,  as  the  enemy  were  now  aware  of 
his  approach,  and  no  surprise  could  be  effected,  the  prudent  course 
lay  in  retreat.  The  French  governor  had  found,  to  his  disgust, 
that  the  British  held  the  country  that  he  had  expected  to  find  in 
the  hands  of  the  Dutch,  and  grumbled  that  "the  king  of  England 
did  grasp  all  America",  as  his  words  are  reported  by  a  chronicler 
and  ear-witness.  Sixty  men  were  missing  on  arrival  at  the  French 


OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

forts,  and  the  other  brave  men  who  had  set  the  example  of  such 
expeditions,  to  be  often  repeated  during  the  next  hundred  years, 
arrived  at  Quebec  in  a  worn-out  condition,  after  a  journey  of  more 
than  eight  hundred  miles.  During  the  retreat,  the  Iroquois  had 
waylaid  their  enemies,  and  a  French  detachment  fell  into  an  ambush, 
with  the  loss  of  nearly  twenty  men  in  wounded  and  slain. 

The  Mohawks  were,  however,  so  far  impressed  by  the  intrepid 
advance  of  their  enemy,  that  the  tribes  of  the  "  Five  Nations", 
when  the  spring  had  opened  the  waters  to  their  canoes,  sent  an 
embassy  to  Quebec.  In  July,  1666,  peace  was  made,  but  De  Tracy 
had  no  faith  in  the  sincerity  of  the  Indians,  and  news  at  this  time 
arrived  of  an  attack  made  upon  a  party  of  young  officers  from  one 
of  the  Richelieu  forts.  Two  were  killed,  and  four  were  made 
prisoners.  The  chiefs  at  Quebec  were  at  once  arrested,  and  De 
Tracy  prepared  for  a  signal  act  of  punishment  and  intimidation. 
The  veteran  soldier,  nearly  seventy  years  of  age,  organized,  with 
Talon's  aid,  a  powerful  expedition,  composed  of  thirteen  hundred 
men,  including  Indian  allies,  Canadian  militia,  and  six  hundred 
of  the  Carignan  regiment,  eager  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  their 
comrades.  On  October  3rd  a  start  was  made,  and  three  hundred 
boats  carried  the  force  along  the  Richelieu,  and  Lake  Champlain, 
to  Lake  St.  Sacrament,  afterwards  Lake  George.  Then  came  a 
march  of  nearly  seventy  miles  through  bush,  along  a  narrow  trail, 
hampered  by  fallen  trees,  thick  brushwood,  and  decaying  stumps. 
Swampy  and  rocky  ground  were  also  traversed,  but  over  and 
through  all  the  troops,  wearied  and  short  of  food,  continued  to  drag 
the  two  small  field-pieces  which  formed  their  sole  artillery.  At  one 
point,  the  hungry  men  gladly  came  upon  a  fine  grove  of  chestnut 
trees,  covered,  in  the  autumn  time,  with  nuts  well-ripened.  A  com- 
plete surprise  of  the  enemy's  villages  could  not  be  effected,  as  some 
lurking  Iroquois  had  seen  De  Tracy's  Algonquin  scouts.  The 
troops  were  formed  in  columns  of  attack,  but  four  villages  in  suc- 
cession were  found  deserted  by  the  foe,  who  had  left  behind  them, 
in  hasty  retreat,  a  welcome  supply  of  food.  The  French  were 
about  to  retrace  their  steps,  when  an  Algonquin  woman,  who 
accompanied  the  scouts,  came  forward  to  tell  of  the  existence  of 
another  Iroquois  town.  She  had  suffered  much  in  girlhood  as  a 
prisoner  in  their  hands,  and  she  was  allowed  to  show  the  way  at 
De  Courcelles'  side.  The  place  was  soon  reached,  to  be  found  also 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  191 

abandoned,  save  by  a  single  infirm  old  man.  The  collection  of 
houses,  some  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  length,  for  the 
lodgment  of  several  families,  was  surrounded  by  a  triple  stockade, 
twenty  feet  high,  flanked  with  four  bastions.  There  were  magazines 
of  stones  for  hurling  at  assailants,  and  large  vessels  filled  with 
water  for  the  quenching  of  fire  applied  to  the  palisade.  Large 
quantities  of  maize  were  found  in  granaries  underground,  with 
beans  and  Indian  fruits,  forming  provision  which,  if  the  means  of 
transport  had  been  at  hand,  would  have  fed  all  the  French  colonists 
for  months.  All  the  arrangements  of  this  chief  village,  including 
utensils  obtained  from  the  Dutch,  displayed  a  higher  order  of 
social  life  than  had  yet  been  observed  amongst  Indian  tribes.  The 
Te  Deum  was  sung,  the  cross  was  erected,  and  the  whole  country 
of  the  Mohawks  was  claimed  by  De  Tracy  for  Louis  the  Four- 
teenth. The  troops  carried  off  all  the  provisions  that  could  be 
thus  removed,  and,  in  all  the  villages,  the  rest  of  the  food  was 
spoilt  or  destroyed.  Everything  was  then  given  to  the  flames,  and 
hundreds  of  the  hostile  Indians  are  said  to  have  perished  from 
famine  during  the  next  winter. 

This  great  blow  broke,  for  a  time,  the  power  of  the  Iroquois. 
They  were  forced  to  understand  that  the  French  in  the  valley  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  were  no  longer  a  feeble  folk,  to  be  preyed  upon 
and  murdered  at  will;  that  the  route  to  their  territory  was  barred 
by  well-appointed  forts;  that  the  road  to  their  own  country  was 
known,  and  that  severe  punishment  would  promptly  follow  outrages 
perpetrated  upon  the  subjects  of  the  French  king.  The  returning 
expedition  was  received  at  Quebec  with  exultant  joy,  and  a  treaty 
was  made  which,  for  nearly  a  score  of  years,  gave  repose  from 
Indian  foes  to  the  long-troubled  colony. 

After  settling  the  civil  government  on  a  firmer  basis,  De  Tracy, 
in  1667,  handed  over  the  charge  of  affairs  to  M.  de  Courcelles,  and 
returned  to  France.  At  the  request  of  the  Mohawks,  some  Jesuit 
missionaries  went  to  live  among  the  tribe,  and  it  is  believed  that 
from  this  time  the  cruelty  of  the  Indians,  as  displayed  against 
captured  foes,  was  sensibly  lessened.  De  Courcelles  remained  in 
Canada  as  Governor  until  1672,  exercising  supreme  authority  in 
the  council,  and  in  disputes  which  might  occur  between  the  settlers 
and  the  Seigneurs  who  held  rights  under  the  crown.  His  authority 
extended  over  all  ecclesiastics  and  all  other  persons  of  every  class, 


192  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

Talon,  the  Intendant,  being  the  administrator  of  civil  and  judicial 
affairs. 

Such  prosperity  now  ensued  as  was  possible  under  a  system 
that  gave  no  play  to  the  individual  and  independent  efforts  which 
were  bringing  swift  and  sure  success  to  the  British  colonies  lying 
to  the  south.  One  evil  that  arose  was  the  greed  of  gain  which 
caused  officials  to  engage  in  trade  by  methods  that  spread  a  moral 
taint  throughout  the  community.  In  outward  material  develop- 
ment the  country  made  advance,  largely  through  Talon's  efforts  to 
promote  tillage,  and  the  trade  in  timber,  fish,  and  furs,  with  some  re- 
gard also  paid  to  shipbuilding  and  manufactures.  Exploration  was 
extended  towards  H  udson's  Bay  and  the  great  lakes.  The  population 
was  increased  by  the  special  measures  undertaken  for  that  end. 
On  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  the  Mohawks,  most  of  the  royal 
troops  returned  to  France,  but  four  hundred  disbanded  officers  and 
men  remained  in  the  colony,  settled  on  grants  of  land,  and  were 
a  valuable  element  for  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  for  frontier- 
defence.  The  policy  of  emigration  was  conducted  in  a  most 
practical  way  for  the  growth  of  population.  Between  1665  and 
1670  cargoes  of  young  women  of  good  character  were  regularly 
shipped  as  wives  for  settlers,  and  were,  as  a  rule,  immediately 
married.  In  1669,  we  find  Colbert  writing  to  Talon,  "The  king 
sends  150  girls  to  be  married,  6  companies  of  50  men,  30  officers 
or  gentlemen,  200  other  persons".  In  1670,  the  minister  writes  to 
De  Courcelles,  "  Encourage  early  marriage,  so  that  by  the  multi- 
plication of  children  the  colony  may  have  the  means  of  increase". 
In  the  same  year,  Talon  reports  to  the  king,  "165  girls  arrived,  30 
do  not  remain  unmarried;  150  to  200  more  asked  for".  Dowries 
in  the  shape  of  stock  for  a  little  farm  were  given  to  the  maidens; 
bounties  were  offered  for  early  marriages  and  for  the  largest 
families;  fines  and  certain  civil  restrictions  were  imposed  on  men 
who  remained  unmarried.  The  result  of  these  paternal  proceedings 
is  seen  in  Talon's  letter  to  Colbert  in  1671,  "  Between  600  and  700 
children  born;  inexpedient  to  send  out  girls  next  year".  In  1669, 
six  companies  of  infantry,  numbering  two  thousand  men,  arrived 
from  France  as  settlers.  Officers  were  forbidden  to  return  to  the 
old  country,  on  pain  of  the  king's  displeasure,  and  those  who  settled 
received  rewards  of  money.  Ladies  also  emigrated  to  become  the 
wives  of  officers  and  of  other  settlers  of  the  higher  class. 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  193 

The  modified  feudal  system  of  holding  land  in  Canada  at  this 
period  of  her  history  divided  the  country  into  large  blocks,  granted 
to  seigneurs,  who  were,  as  a  rule,  military  officers,  or  men  of  noble 
birth.  Due  fealty  was  paid  to  the  king,  or  to  the  governor,  as  his 
deputy,  and  when  any  land  was  sold,  a  fifth  of  the  purchase-money 
passed  to  the  treasury.  The  feudal  lord  administered  justice  and 
kept  public  order  within  his  demesne,  and  was  also  required  to 
erect,  if  need  were,  a  block-house  for  frontier-defence,  and  to  pro- 
vide the  settlers  with  a  corn-mill.  Land-grants  lay  much  along  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  the  Richelieu,  with  a  narrow  frontage  to  the 
river,  and  extension  far  back.  Subdivision  by  inheritance  reduced 
farms  to  mere  strips  of  land,  some  of  which  still  remain  in  the  same 
old  French  families.  Feudal  dues  were  paid  to  the  seigneur  in 
produce,  labour  for  certain  days  in  the  year,  toll  for  grinding  corn 
at  his  mill,  tithe  on  fish  caught,  and  one-twelfth  of  the  purchase- 
money  for  lands  sold.  This  system  of  tenure  was  not  wholly 
abolished  until  after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  efforts  of  Talon  for  the  improvement  of  trade  were 
hampered  by  the  restrictions  of  the  "  West  India  Company",  and 
the  rules  for  promoting  marriage  were  evaded  by  large  numbers 
of  the  young  men,  whose  adventurous  spirit  drove  them  to  the 
forests,  where  they  became  coureurs  de  bois  or  "wood-rangers", 
living  as  nomads  on  the  shores  of  the  great  lakes.  The  com- 
mercial monopoly  of  the  Company,  in  its  exclusive  right  of  importa- 
tion, could  settle  the  price  of  needful  foreign  supplies,  as  well  as 
of  the  furs  and  fish  which  the  country  produced,  and  in  1671 
Talon  compelled  the  cessation  of  the  restrictions  on  free  importa- 
tion and  purchase  of  furs,  granting,  as  compensation  for  the  loss 
of  the  skin-trade,  a  duty  on  buffalo-robes  and  beaver-skins.  Efforts 
were  still  made  by  the  pious  dwellers  in  Canada  and  by  their 
friends  in  France  to  spread  religion  among  the  natives,  but  the 
oft-repeated  experience  of  missionary-toil  was  not  wanting  to  the 
Jesuit  fathers.  The  non-religious  spread  the  vices  and  maladies 
of  Europe  faster  than  the  priests  could  impart  the  virtues  of 
Christianity  and  civilization.  Drunkenness  and  small-pox  made 
havoc  with  the  Indians.  At  Sillery  nearly  the  whole  body  of 
fifteen  hundred  Indians  perished  from  the  scourge,  then  unsoftened 
by  the  skill  of  modern  science.  Tadousac  and  Three  Rivers,  the 
annual  resort  of  native  dealers  in  furs,  were,  for  a  time,  deserted. 

VOL.  I.  13 


194  °UR   EMPIRE   AT    HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

In  spite  of  all  difficulties,  it  is  claimed  for  Talon  that  when  he  and 
De  Courcelles  returned  to  France  in  1672,  the  cultivation  of  hemp 
had  begun  in  Canada,  with  the  manufacture  of  soap  and  cloth,  the 
working  of  tanneries,  the  making  of  potash,  and  the  brewing  of 
beer,  and  the  building  of  ships  at  Quebec. 

The  new  governor  was  a  man  of  great  note  in  Canadian  history 
— Louis  de  Buade,  Count  de  Frontenac.  On  his  arrival  the  popula- 
tion of  the  colony  amounted  to  nearly  seven  thousand.  De  Fronte- 
nac, a  soldier  who  had  served  his  country  with  distinction  in  the 
Dutch  wars,  was  a  man  of  masterful  character,  who  found  himself, 
in  maintaining  what  he  held  to  be  his  rightful  authority  and  position, 
constantly  at  issue  both  with  his  colleague,  the  royal  Intendant,  and 
with  the  Jesuits.  Brave,  energetic,  able,  courteous,  dignified  in 
demeanour,  speech,  and  written  utterance,  he  won  the  confidence 
of  the  colonists  and  the  respect  of  the  Indians.  His  cruel  mode 
of  warfare  in  massacre  and  devastation,  directed  both  against  his 
British  neighbours  and  his  Indian  foes,  did  not  arise  from  any 
natural  tendency,  but  was,  unhappily,  only  too  much  in  accordance 
with  the  spirit  of  the  school  in  which  he  was  reared,  and  was  often 
dictated  by  deliberate  policy.  In  his  first  term  of  government  he 
used  slight  resources,  with  little  help  from  France,  to  great  advan- 
tage against  enemies  all  around  him,  and  firmly  maintained,  within 
the  limits  of  his  colonial  rule,  the  cause  of  law,  justice,  and  order. 
It  was  his  lot  to  be  called  to  administer  a  system  of  absolute  rule 
involving  restrictions  on  civil  freedom  at  every  turn — on  departure 
from  place  to  place  within  the  colony,  and  outside  its  borders;  on 
family  arrangements,  domestic  service,  the  prices  of  bread  and 
wine,  and  many  other  points.  He  did  all  that  could  be  done  in 
such  a  position,  and  upheld  the  honour  of  his  country,  at  great 
odds  against  himself,  in  struggles  both  with  British  and  with 
native  antagonists. 

De  Frontenac  was  a  man  who,  like  many  other  rulers,  was 
valued  to  the  full  when  his  place  of  action  knew  him  no  more. 
His  first  term  of  office  was  marked  by  bold  explorations,  and  it 
was  then  that  Louis  Joliet,  the  first  native  French  Canadian  of 
distinction,  and  Father  Marquette,  sailed  for  more  than  a  thousand 
miles  down  the  Mississippi.  Marquette  died  at  his  work  among 
the  Miami  Indians;  Joliet,  after  journeying  overland  to  Hudson's 
Bay,  and  exploring  the  coasts  of  Labrador,  received  the  island  of 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  195 

Anticosti  as  a  grant,  and  there  died  in  the  first  year  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  In  1674  De  Frontenac,  applying  at  home 
for  troops,  was  told  that  he  must  drill  the  settlers,  and  train  them 
to  war,  as  his  sole  reliance  for  the  defence  of  the  colony.  Louis 
the  Fourteenth,  at  war  with  Holland,  could  send  no  men  to  Canada. 

One  of  the  governor's  first  acts  was  to  establish  a  trading-post 
and  fort,  long  called  by  his  own  name,  at  the  north-east  corner 
of  Lake  Ontario,  where  now  stands  the  town  of  Kingston.  The 
main  objects  in  view  were  to  check  British  interference  with  the 
fur-trade,  and  to  stop  one  mode  of  ingress  for  the  Iroquois.  The 
merchants  of  Montreal,  Three  Rivers,  and  Quebec  were  uneasy 
as  to  the  profits  of  their  trade  in  furs,  which  the  new  post  would, 
to  a  large  degree,  intercept.  Frontenac,  however,  compelled 
these  very  men  to  supply  a  number  of  troops  and  canoes  for  the 
enterprise  in  hand,  and  made  his  way  up  the  rapids  and  amid  the 
maze  of  the  Thousand  Islands,  with  a  great  flotilla,  to  meet  the 
Iroquois  deputies  whom  he  had  summoned.  They  were  received 
by  him  with  military  pomp  and  the  roll  of  drums,  amongst  a  bril- 
liant staff,  and  the  savages  were  quickly  won  by  the  imposing  and 
yet  attractive  demeanour  of  the  new  governor.  Addressing  them 
as  "children",  he  referred  to  French  power,  pointed  to  his  cannon, 
reminded  them  of  the  value  of  his  friendship,  recommended  the 
Christian  religion,  and  bestowed  presents  of  guns  and  tobacco  for 
the  "braves",  of  prunes  and  raisins  for  their  squaws  and  children, 
and  a  hearty  feast  for  them  all,  In  ten  days'  time,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  natives,  the  fort  was  nearly  finished,  with  trench  and 
palisade,  and,  leaving  a  garrison  behind,  Frontenac  returned  to 
Montreal,  holding  now  the  key  of  the  great  lakes.  La  Salle 
undertook  to  defray  the  cost,  and  received  in  return  the  seigneury 
of  "  Fort  Frontenac  ",  with  the  privilege  of  trade,  and  the  posses- 
sion of  adjacent  lands.  His  profits  were  such  that  the  wooden 
erection  was  replaced  by  stone,  and  four  small  decked  vessels,  the 
first  ever  seen  on  Lake  Ontario,  were  soon  afloat  for  the  protection 
of  the  trade. 

In  1678  La  Salle,  with  an  Italian  officer,  De  Tonti;  a  Recollet 
friar,  Father  Hennepin;  and  the  Sieur  de  La  Motte,  sailed  from 
Fort  Frontenac  in  a  ten-ton  vessel,  along  the  northern  shore  of 
Ontario,  to  the  Niagara  river,  and  saw  the  mighty  falls  in  the 
depth  of  winter.  The  little  ship  was  afterwards  wrecked  on  the 


196  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

lake,  but  another  and  larger  one  was  built  above  the  Falls,  and 
Lake  Erie  was  reached  in  August,  1679.  After  escaping  a  violent 
storm  on  Lake  Huron  the  vessel  was  freighted  with  furs  for  a 
return  voyage  to  Niagara,  while  La  Salle  and  most  of  his  comrades 
awaited  her  return.  She  was  never  seen  again,  and  must  have 
foundered  in  a  gale.  In  March,  1680,  La  Salle,  with  five  com- 
panions, started  back  by  land,  through  snow-spread  woods,  a 
thousand  miles  to  Fort  Frontenac,  in  order  to  procure  equipments 
for  a  vessel  building  for  him  on  a  lake  in  the  Illinois  country. 
After  dreadful  sufferings  La  Salle  alone  arrived  at  Fort  Frontenac, 
leaving  his  comrades  behind  at  Fort  Niagara  to  recruit  their 
wasted  strength.  The  needful  supplies  and  men  for  his  expedition 
were  obtained  at  Montreal,  and  the  intrepid  explorer  again  set 
out  westwards.  He  arrived  at  the  lake  to  find  that  the  town  of 
seven  or  eight  thousand  people,  near  which  his  vessel  lay  upon 
the  stocks,  had  been  sacked  and  burnt  by  the  Iroquois,  who  had 
now  almost  annihilated  the  Hurons  and  other  tribes,  and  were 
seeking  new  conquests.  For  this  end  five  hundred  warriors  had 
come  through  the  forests,  from  the  lakes  in  the  centre  of  what 
is  now  the  state  of  New  York,  to  the  prairies  of  the  Illinois.  The 
women  and  children,  as  well  as  the  men,  were  butchered,  and  the 
graves  were  rifled  of  the  dead  for  burning.  We  must  here  leave 
the  great  explorer  of  the  West  thus  far  on  the  course  which,  as 
already  related,  took  him  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

In  1 68 1  the  retirement  of  Colbert  from  office  left  Frontenac 
without  a  strong  support  against  Bishop  de  Laval,  the  Jesuits,  the 
Intendant  Duchesnan,  a  mere  tool  of  the  prelate,  and  the  council, 
against  all  of  whom  he  had  been  engaged  in  conflict.  In  the 
following  year  he  and  Duchesnan  were  both  recalled.  The  new 
governor  was  a  naval  officer  of  good  service,  M.  de  la  Barre,  but 
he  was  devoid  of  his  predecessor's  energetic  promptitude.  The 
English  colonists  at  this  time  outnumbered  the  French  tenfold, 
and  were  doing  their  utmost  to  divert  the  trade  in  furs  from 
Quebec  and  Montreal  to  Albany  and  New  York.  The  governor 
of  New  York,  Colonel  Dongan,  was  striving  to  rouse  the  Iroquois 
against  the  French,  but  the  shrewd  savages,  though  they  divined 
the  rising  power  of  the  British,  were  not  inclined  to  help  either 
side  to  a  supremacy  which  might  prove  fatal  to  the  native  powers, 
and,  in  the  seeming  caprices  of  alternate  support  and  opposition, 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  197 

they  really  strove  to  hold  the  balance  between  the  two  nations 
whom  they  had  reason  to  dread.  La  Barre  obtained  two  hundred 
troops  from  France,  and,  in  1684,  set  out  from  Montreal  with  a 
force  of  about  one  thousand  men.  His  object  was  to  punish  the 
Iroquois  for  attacks  on  the  French  forts  in  the  west,  but  privation 
and  disease  wasted  his  force,  and  he  was  obliged  to  accept  terms 
dictated  by  the  enemy.  His  return  to  Quebec  was  quickly 
followed  by  recall  to  France. 

In  1685  the  Marquis  de  Denonville,  a  brilliant  cavalry  officer, 
went  out  as  governor  of  Canada,  and  soon  adopted  vigorous 
measures  against  the  old  foe.  Furnished  with  six  hundred  royal 
troops  he  marched  to  Fort  Frontenac,  and,  after  the  perfidious 
step  of  seizing  fifty  Iroquois  chiefs  at  a  conference,  he  took  the 
field  from  Montreal  in  June,  1687,  at  the  head  of  nearly  two 
thousand  men.  The  Seneca  Indians  were  defeated  with  great 
loss,  their  country  ravaged  and  their  villages  burned,  with  vast 
stores  of  food.  The  fort  of  La  Salle  at  the  Niagara  was  restored 
and  manned,  and  fortified  posts  were  made  at  several  other  points, 
to  bar  out  both  the  British  and  the  Iroquois.  The  attack  upon 
the  Senecas  brought  into  the  field,  inflamed  with  the  utmost  wrath, 
the  forces  of  the  "  Five  Nations".  Fort  Niagara  was  entered 
and  destroyed,  when  the  garrison,  greatly  reduced  by  sickness, 
had  abandoned  the  place.  The  Iroquois  swarmed  along  the 
frontier,  lurked  near  every  settlement,  and  burned  some  houses 
close  to  Montreal.  In  1688  above  a  thousand  colonists  were 
killed  by  Indians,  and  the  same  number  perished  from  scurvy  and 
small-pox.  Negotiations  for  peace  were  begun  by  the  French, 
but  they  failed  through  the  crafty  treachery  of  a  Huron,  who 
wished  for  war  between  the  French  and  the  Iroquois. 

In  August,  1689,  came  the  dreadful  massacre  of  Lachine,  when 
twelve  hundred  warriors  landed  near  Montreal  by  night,  surrounded 
the  village,  and  at  daybreak  butchered  some  hundreds  of  settlers, 
men,  women,  and  children  alike,  two  hundred  perishing  in  the 
flames  of  the  burning  houses,  and  as  many  more  being  carried  off 
for  torture.  For  two  months  the  savages  ravaged  the  country 
around  Montreal.  The  colony,  by  a  succession  of  fearful  blows, 
was  brought  near  to  ruin,  when  Fort  Frontenac  was  abandoned 
and  blown  up,  and  the  French  hold  on  North  America  was  once 
more  reduced  to  the  posts  at  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal. 


198  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

It  was  time  for  a  change  of  rulers  to  be  made  when  De  Fron- 
tenac,  during  this  disastrous  year,  arrived  for  his  second  term  of 
rule.  He  came  at  a  critical  time  in  the  history  of  French  Canada. 
The  colony  numbered  less  than  eleven  thousand,  and  New  England 
alone  contained  a  population  at  least  eight  times  larger.  War  was 
existing  between  the  two  countries  in  Europe,  and  De  Frontenac 
brought  with  him  instructions  from  Louis  the  Fourteenth  to  seize 
Albany,  on  the  Hudson  river,  and  to  attack  New  York,  then  having 
but  a  few  hundreds  of  inhabitants.  The  old  soldier  and  proconsul, 
now  approaching  his  seventieth  year,  devoted  to  his  country's  cause, 
and  endowed,  as  we  have  seen,  with  high  capacity  and  a  resolute 
will,  was  just  the  man  for  the  emergency.  He  carried  back  with 
him  the  Iroquois  chiefs  who  had  been  treacherously  seized  by 
Denonville;  and  after  having  gained  their  good-will  during  the 
voyage,  he  dismissed  them  to  their  old  homes  with  the  hope  of 
thus  regaining  the  alliance  of  their  people. 

His  first  step  was  to  assail  the  nearest  British  colonies.  The 
Abenaki  Indians,  who  were  French  allies,  attacked  some  New 
England  posts,  and  slew  some  two  hundred  persons.  In  February, 
1690,  an  united  French  and  Indian  force  issued  from  Montreal, 
made  a  march  of  more  than  twenty  days  through  snow-blocked 
woods,  over  morasses  and  streams,  and  fell  upon  Corlaer  (Schenec- 
tady),  the  English  frontier-town,  on  the  river  Mohawk,  north-west 
of  Albany.  Through  a  gross  want  of  caution  and  vigilance  on  the 
part  of  its  inhabitants,  the  place  was  surprised  at  midnight  and  set 
on  fire,  while  over  sixty  men,  women,  and  children  were  butchered 
in  their  beds  or  in  wild  efforts  to  escape  the  tomahawk  and  sword. 
A  few  made  their  way  to  Albany,  and  about  thirty  were  taken 
prisoners.  It  is  pleasant  to  record  that  an  English  pursuit  from 
Albany,  aided  by  a  party  of  Mohawks,  slew  twenty-five  of  the 
blood-stained  invaders,  and  chased  the  rest  to  the  gates  of  Mon- 
treal. Two  other  English  settlements,  at  Salmon  Falls  and  Fort 
Loyal  (now  Portland,  in  the  state  of  Maine),  belonging  to  New 
Hampshire,  were  surprised  by  other  French  and  Indian  parties, 
with  the  burning  of  all  the  buildings,  and  the  death  and  capture  of 
some  scores  of  people.  The  Iroquois,  seeking  revenge  for  the 
wrongs  of  their  British  allies,  ravaged  the  French  frontier,  and 
much  loss  was  caused  at  outposts  and  solitary  villages. 

In  May  the  colonists  of  New  England  met  at  New  York  to 


CANADA— EARLY   HISTORY.  199 

concert  measures  for  retaliation  on  the  French.  No  less  an  enter- 
prise was  undertaken  than  the  conquest  of  Canada,  by  a  military 
force  directed  against  Montreal  by  way  of  the  Hudson  valley  and 
Lake  Champlain,  under  General  Winthrop,  while  a  powerful  squad- 
ron, commanded  by  Sir  William  Phipps,  was  to  sail  for  Quebec. 
Both  attempts  ended  in  failure.  Winthrop's  men  were  attacked  in 
camp  near  Lake  Champlain  by  an  outbreak  of  small-pox,  and  a 
lack  of  canoes  and  provisions  forced  his  retreat  to  Albany.  A  small 
party  made  their  way  to  La  Prairie,  near  Montreal,  and  returned 
after  the  slaughter  and  capture  of  some  Canadians.  De  Frontenac 
made  vigorous  preparations  for  the  defence  of  Quebec  by  new 
works,  and  in  October,  1690,  after  a  defiant  reply  to  Phipps'  sum- 
mons for  an  immediate  surrender,  he  repulsed  his  attacks  both  by 
land  and  water.  The  guns  of  the  fortifications  were  of  too  heavy 
metal  for  the  ship  artillery,  and  the  assailants  on  shore  were  driven 
back  by  the  fire  of  a  much  superior  force,  composed  of  three  thou- 
sand men,  commanded  by  skilful  officers.  The  British  ships  were 
severely  treated  by  the  weather  on  their  return,  and  after  the  wreck 
of  several  vessels  they  arrived  at  Boston  with  the  discredit  of  utter 
failure.  The  exultant  French  struck  a  medal  for  their  success,  and 
erected  a  church  to  "  Notre  Dame  de  la  Victoire  ",  still  to  be  seen 
in  the  lower  town  of  Quebec. 

The  frontier  war  continued  with  its  usual  atrocities.  French 
privateers  were  daring  enough  to  cut  out  ships  in  the  harbour  of 
Boston.  The  French  and  the  English,  as  they  hounded  on  their 
Indian  allies  to  their  savage  warfare,  disgraced  themselves  by  offer- 
ing large  rewards  for  scalps.  In  1693  a  British  naval  expedition, 
aiming  at  the  French  American  possessions,  was  secretly  fitted  out 
in  the  dockyards  at  home.  Repulsed  with  severe  loss  in  an  attack 
on  Martinique,  the  crews  brought  away  with  them  the  scourge  of 
yellow-fever,  which  destroyed  on  the  voyage  to  Boston,  and  after 
arrival  there,  two-thirds  of  the  five  thousand  sailors  and  marines. 
The  projected  attack  on  Quebec  was  abandoned,  and  Canada  was 
again  safe  from  British  assaults. 

De  Frontenac  maintained  with  energy  the  struggle  against  the 
Iroquois,  rebuilding  the  western  fort  at  Frontenac  abandoned  by 
Denonville,  and  severely  repulsing  an  Indian  attack  on  Montreal. 
In  civil  affairs  he  strongly  asserted  himself  against  the  political  pre- 
tensions of  the  Bishop  and  the  Jesuits,  who  were  supported  by  the 


200  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

Intendant,  M.  de  Champigny.  In  1696,  when  he  was  in  his  seventy- 
sixth  year,  the  gallant  old  governor,  with  snowy  hair,  but  his  eyes 
still  bright  with  the  fire  of  the  spirit  that  burned  within,  was  carried 
on  a  litter  at  the  head  of  a  strong  force  marching  against  the  Iro- 
quois.  The  savages  fired  their  town  and  fled,  and  the  destruction 
of  stores  of  grain  and  other  food  left  many  of  them  to  starve  during 
the  next  winter.  In  the  same  year  a  strong  English  work  at  Pema- 
quid,  on  the  coast  of  the  territory  now  forming  the  state  of  Maine, 
was  taken  by  a  French-Canadian  squadron  under  d'Iberville. 

The  Treaty  of  Ryswick,  in  1697,  left  France  with  a  strong 
position  in  America,  as  mistress  of  the  posts  on  Hudson's  Bay,  to 
be  hereafter  mentioned,  of  the  country  from  Maine  to  Labrador, 
and  of  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi.  The 
Indians  of  the  west  had  been  partly  overcome,  and  De  Frontenac 
had  recovered  the  French  hold  upon  the  great  lakes.  The  work 
of  the  governor  was  nearly  done,  one  of  his  last  official  acts  being 
the  assertion,  against  Lord  Bellomont,  the  new  governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  York,  of  French  claims  to  the  allegiance  of  the 
really  independent  Iroquois.  This  letter  was  dated  on  September 
2ist,  1698,  and  the  writer  died  about  two  months  afterwards.  He 
had  saved  New  France,  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  and  he  was  buried  in 
the  Recollet  Church  at  Quebec  amid  general  marks  of  sorrow  and 
high  esteem. 

In  1699  the  Chevalier  de  Callieres,  commandant  of  Montreal, 
succeeded  De  Frontenac  as  governor.  In  September,  1700,  peace 
was  concluded  between  the  French  and  the  Iroquois,  and  the  treaty 
was  observed  for  several  years.  A  fort  was  erected,  to  secure  the 
upper  lakes,  on  the  site  of  Detroit,  and  the  new  governor  was  soon 
engaged  in  preparations  to  take  his  colonial  part  in  the  War  of  the 
Spanish  Succession,  declared  in  Europe  on  May  4th,  1702.  A  year 
later  he  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  com- 
mandant of  Montreal,  who  had  served  in  the  country  since  1687. 

The  cruel  warfare  on  the  frontiers  was  now  resumed.  In  the 
winter  of  1703,  a  French  and  Indian  force  burned  the  town  of 
Deerfield  in  Massachusetts,  slew  nearly  fifty  of  the  people,  and 
dragged  off  more  than  a  hundred  as  prisoners  to  Canada.  In  1708 
a  border-raid  of  French  and  Indian  troops  was  marked  by  the 
atrocities  perpetrated  at  Haverhill,  near  the  Merrimac,  again  in 
Massachusetts.  The  place  was  a  cluster  of  cottages  and  log-huts 


CANADA — EARLY   HISTORY.  2OI 

amid  primeval  forest.  A  small  chapel  rose  in  the  middle  of  the 
settlement,  and  in  the  last  days  of  August  the  Indian  corn  was 
ripening  in  a  little  clearing  from  the  woods.  At  daybreak  came 
the  whoop  of  war  and  the  crack  of  guns.  The  minister  Wolfe  (a 
name  to  be  hereafter  known  to  Canadian  Frenchmen)  was  beaten 
to  death;  his  wife's  skull  was  split  by  an  Indian  tomahawk,  and 
another  savage  dashed  out  the  baby's  brains  against  a  stone.  The 
place,  after  further  slaughter,  was  left  in  smoking  ruins,  but  the 
retiring  foe  were  severely  handled  by  some  of  the  neighbouring 
farmers  who  started  in  pursuit.  The  colonists  of  New  England 
henceforth  waged  a  deadly  war  against  the  French  and  their  Indian 
friends,  offering  rewards  for  Indian  scalps,  and  forming  parties  to 
hunt  down  their  enemies  like  beasts  of  prey.  It  was  at  this  time 
that  the  more  adventurous  and  hardy  of  the  British  settlers  became 
the  backwoodsmen  of  legendary  story  and  romance,  truly  described, 
however,  as  rivalling  the  best  of  the  Indians  in  knowledge  of 
guerilla  warfare  and  in  crafty  skill  at  tracking  and  circumventing 
their  foes.  By  sea,  the  colonists  waged  an  incessant  and  unsparing 
contest  against  every  French  settlement  on  or  within  easy  reach  of 
the  coasts. 

In  1709,  another  plan  for  the  conquest  of  Canada  was  formed 
in  New  England,  and  help  from  the  mother-country  was  sought. 
Before  that  could  arrive,  Colonel  Nicholson,  Governor  of  Virginia, 
with  fifteen  hundred  men  raised  from  his  own  colony,  Maryland, 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  the  New  England  settlements, 
marched  against  Montreal.  His  route  lay  by  Lake  Champlain, 
and  his  force  was  increased  by  a  body  of  Iroquois.  De  Vaudreuil 
prepared  for  a  stout  defence,  but  the  British  expedition  failed 
without  any  fighting,  the  camp  at  Lake  George  being  attacked  by 
sickness,  and  the  non-arrival  of  expected  help  from  England 
compelling  a  retreat.  In  the  following  year,  Nicholson,  as  will  be 
seen,  was  successfully  engaged  elsewhere  against  the  French.  He 
then  went  to  England,  and  urged  with  effect  a  serious  effort  for 
the  conquest  of  Canada. 

In  June,  1711,  a  powerful  fleet,  composed  of  fifteen  men-of-war 
and  nearly  fifty  transports  and  store-ships,  with  seven  British 
regiments,  and  two  battalions  of  the  Massachusetts  militia,  sailed 
from  Boston  to  attack  Quebec,  while  two  thousand  men  from  other 
colonies  went  overland,  again  commanded  by  Nicholson,  on  the 


2O2  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

road  to  Montreal.  The  troops  from  England  included  some  of 
Marl  borough's  men  who  had  won  triumphs  over  the  French  at 
Blenheim  and  Ramillies,  Oudenarde  and  Malplaquet,  but  there 
was  no  Marlborough  in  command  of  this  expedition.  The  curse 
of  court-influence  ruined  the  whole  enterprise.  The  military  force 
was  intrusted  to  a  General  Hill,  brother  of  Mrs.  Masham,  the 
favourite  of  Queen  Anne.  Sir  Hovenden  Walker,  a  man  wholly 
devoid  of  merit,  had  charge  of  the  fleet.  On  August  22nd,  from 
careless  navigation  during  a  fog,  eight  of  the  transports  went 
ashore  upon  some  reefs  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  were  broken  up 
with  the  loss  of  many  sailors  and  nearly  a  thousand  troops. 
Walker,  after  this  disaster,  in  which  the  drowned  men  belonged 
mainly  to  the  splendid  British  regiments,  calmly  accepted  the 
misfortune,  made  no  further  effort,  turned  tail,  and  sailed  home, 
alleging  that  the  loss  of  part  had  saved  all  the  rest,  since  arrival  at 
Quebec  would,  he  declared,  in  the  absence  of  stores,  "  have  left  ten 
or  twelve  thousand  men  to  perish  of  cold  and  hunger".  Nicholson 
and  his  men,  on  hearing  of  Walker's  retreat,  returned  home  after 
reaching  Lake  George. 

Thus  ended  a  disgraceful  display  of  cowardice  and  imbecile 
mismanagement,  which  has  received  scanty  notice  from  English 
historians.  The  enterprise  had  been  undertaken  with  the  utmost 
deliberation.  When  Nicholson  went  home  from  his  government 
to  advise  the  invasion,  five  Iroquois  chiefs,  in  a  court-costume,  had 
been  presented  to  the  queen.  Handing  to  her,  as  pledges  of  their 
fidelity,  belts  of  wampum,  composed  of  thin  shells,  about  an  inch  in 
length,  used  as  money  by  the  Indians,  they  engaged  that  their 
fellows  should  fight  along  with  the  English  for  the  conquest  of 
Canada.  The  brilliant  St.  John,  Lord  Bolingbroke,  had  devised 
the  plan,  but,  unfortunately  for  the  due  organization  of  the  expedi- 
tion, and  for  the  choice  of  commanders,  the  minister,  Godolphin, 
was  at  this  time  removed  from  office  to  make  way  for  Harley. 
General  Hill,  known  as  "honest  Jack  Hill",  was  a  jovial  man 
whom  the  great  Sarah,  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  had  taken  in 
hand  as  a  boy  and  put  to  school.  He  then  became,  through  her 
influence,  aide-de-camp  to  Marlborough,  who  "always  said",  the 
Duchess  affirms,  "  that  Jack  Hill  was  good  for  nothing".  Mrs. 
Masham,  in  spite  of  the  duke's  earnest  remonstrance  with  the 
queen,  procured  her  brother's  rise  to  the  rank  of  brigadier,  followed 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  203 

by  his  selection  for  the  command  of  the  troops  sent  to  Canada, 
where  he  agreed  with  Walker,  after  the  shipwrecks,  in  abandoning 
all  attempts  to  carry  out  the  project  After  the  failure,  Hill  became 
Governor  of  Dunkirk,  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  and  a  Privy 
Councillor,  while  his  colleague  Walker,  who  published  a  foolish, 
ill-written  vindication  of  his  own  conduct,  was  struck  off  the  navy- 
list,  and  deprived  of  his  half-pay.  The  history  of  this  transaction 
forms  a  striking  contrast  to  that  which  will  meet  us  nearly  half  a 
century  later. 

French  Canada  had  now  received  a  new  lease  of  life,  and  De 
Vaudreuil,  the  governor,  turned  his  attention  to  the  strengthening 
of  her  defences  for  any  future  struggle,  and  to  extending  the  line 
of  western  forts  towards  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  The  colony 
now  contained  somewhat  more  than  eighteen  thousand  people. 
The  Peace  of  Utrecht,  signed  on  March  i3th,  1713,  gave  to  Great 
Britain  the  final  and  full  possession  of  Newfoundland,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  the  Hudson's  Bay  territory,  the  history  of  which 
colonies  we  will  trace  in  a  succeeding  chapter. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

CANADA — TILL  CESSION  TO  BRITAIN  (1713-1763). 

Condition  of  Canada  under  De  Vaudreuil  and  De  Beauharnois — Beginning  of  the  great 
conflict — Louisbourg  taken  by  the  British,  and  afterwards  exchanged — The  Ohio 
Company  and  Mr.  George  Washington — General  Braddock's  unfortunate  expedition 
against  Fort  Duquesne — Able  services  of  Sir  William  Johnson — Arrival  of  De 
Montcalm— Capture  of  Oswego  by  the  French — Futile  British  expedition  against 
Quebec — Fort  William  Henry  surrenders  to  the  French — Massacre  by  the  Indians 
—Pitt's  resolution  to  expel  the  French  from  Canada — Early  career  of  General 
Wolfe — Louisbourg  again  taken  by  the  British  —  Failure  of  British  attack  on 
Ticonderoga — Forts  Frontenac  and  Duquesne  captured — The  British  government 
and  the  colonists  resolve  to  attack  Quebec — Fort  Niagara  captured— Siege  and 
final  surrender  of  Quebec — Wolfe  and  Montcalm  mortally  wounded — Effort  of  the 
French  to  recover  Quebec — Montreal  surrenders  to  the  British — Canada  ceded 
to  Britain  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris. 

We  now  come  to  deal  with  the  struggle  between  two  great 
European  rivals  for  the  possession  of  power  in  North  America. 
In  that  view,  we  continue  the  history  of  French  Canada  in  1713, 
remembering  that  the  British  colonies,  at  that  date,  are  still,  and 
are  to  remain  for  sixty  years,  though  with  many  ominous  rumblings 


204  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

of  discontent,  ever  growing  louder,  outwardly  loyal  to  the  mother- 
country,  Great  Britain.  During  the  remaining  twelve  years  of 
De  Vaudreuil's  government  of  Canada,  ending  only  with  his  death 
in  1725,  the  country  remained  at  peace,  and  the  population  rose  to 
the  number  of  about  thirty  thousand.  Industries  were  developed 
in  the  making  of  woollen  and  linen  cloth,  salt,  and  iron.  The 
taste  for  horses,  as  instruments  both  of  use  and  amusement,  which 
is  still  so  marked  among  the  French-Canadians,  led  to  the  intro- 
duction of  the  sleigh  for  winter-locomotion,  in  place  of  the  snow- 
shoe.  At  Quebec  arose  the  building  of  ships,  which  was  afterwards 
so  greatly  extended  in  that  town.  The  fur-trade  grew  to  a  great 
extent,  and  there  was  a  large  commerce  in  the  export,  to  France 
and  to  her  West  Indian  islands,  of  timber,  tar,  pork,  and  flour,  in 
exchange  for  the  manufactures  of  the  home-country,  and  the  sugar, 
molasses,  and  rum  of  the  tropical  settlements  in  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  The  Intendant  exercised  his  minute  and  searching 
arbitrary  power  in  almost  all  the  affairs  of  life,  over  the  customs- 
duties  and  the  coin,  the  streets  and  roads,  sanitary  measures,  such 
as  were  then  known,  the  sale  of  liquor,  the  exercise  of  trades,  and 
countless  minor  affairs. 

This  paternal  system  of  rule  had  important  effects  in  checking 
the  growth  of  that  self-reliance  and  independent  spirit  which,  with 
some  mischiefs,  are  fostered  by  popular  government.  Under  the 
rule  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  who  died  in  1715,  Canada  had  been 
furnished  with  institutions  devoid  of  all  vitality,  and  her  prosperity 
was  poor  indeed  compared  with  that  which  would  have  come  under 
a  system  of  religious  toleration,  along  with  schools  for  the  young, 
a  representative  assembly,  a  sound  method  of  land-tenure,  in  place 
of  feudality,  and  an  extension  of  tillage,  as  in  the  British  colonies, 
instead  of  a  chief  devotion  to  the  fur-trade.  In  1722  we  find 
an  able  Jesuit  missionary,  Pere  Charlevoix,  comparing  French- 
Canadians  and  their  capital  with  the  New  Englanders.  Quebec, 
with  a  population  of  seven  thousand,  is  described  as  having  a 
society  largely  composed  of  an  agreeable  military  element,  and 
much  more  brilliant  than  that  of  Boston.  He  admits  that  the 
English  "  better  knew  how  to  accumulate  wealth,  but  the  French 
had  the  more  elegant  manner  of  spending  it".  This  epigrammatic 
utterance  explains  to  a  large  degree  the  failure  of  France  as  a 
colonizing  power. 


CANADA 


to  illustrate   the  History 
1503-1801 


r    L    A    N 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  2O5 

De  Vaudreuil  was  succeeded  as  governor  of  Canada  by  the 
Marquis  de  Beauharnois,  who  was  in  power  from  1725  to  1746. 
These  years,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  three,  were  a  time  of 
nominal  peace,  save  in  Acadia,  where,  as  we  shall  see,  the  struggle 
for  possession  between  the  colonists  of  the  two  great  European 
nations  was  carried  on.  The  foreign  policy  of  France  was  at  this 
time  directed  by  the  pacific  Cardinal  Fleury,  and,  for  nearly  all  the 
above  period,  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  equally  averse  to  war,  was  at 
the  head  of  affairs  in  Great  Britain.  The  French  in  Canada 
numbered,  in  1726,  about  thirty  thousand,  and  the  people  began  to 
push  forward  to  the  west,  establishing  a  fort,  and  trade-relations 
with  the  Sioux  Indians,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  British  governor  of  New  York,  Burnet,  a  son  of  William  the 
Third's  friend,  the  famous  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  made  a  counter- 
movement  to  the  French  position  of  advantage  at  Fort  Niagara, 
by  erecting  a  strong  -post  at  Oswego,  on  Lake  Ontario.  His 
object  was  to  direct  the  fur-trade  with  the  Indians,  by  way  of  the 
Mohawk  and  Hudson  rivers,  towards  New  York.  Beauharnois 
retorted  by  strengthening  the  works  at  Fort  Niagara,  and  by  the 
erection  of  Fort  Frederick,  at  Crown  Point,  on  Lake  Champlain, 
near  the  British  frontier. 

In  these  acts  of  jealousy  concerning  trade  we  have  the  fore- 
shadowing of  the  great  conflict,  arising  in  petty  warfare  between 
the  settlers  of  two  great  nations,  and  assuming  large  proportions 
when  the  home-government,  long  neglectful  of  the  issues  involved, 
gave  serious  attention  to  colonial  affairs  in  North  America.  It 
was  clear  already  that  the  French  were  striving  to  keep  the  British 
to  the  coast,  and  to  secure  for  themselves  the  sole  command  of  the 
great  west.  The  French  meanwhile,  outnumbered  by  the  English 
in  the  proportion  of  about  twenty  to  one,  neglected  tillage  for  the 
fur-trade,  which  was  so  attractive  to  those  who  loved  exploration, 
and  to  the  restless  spirits  who  have  been  already  mentioned  as 
coureurs  de  bois.  From  the  latter  class  sprang,  through  inter- 
marriage with  native  girls,  a  number  of  half-breeds  that  formed  for 
a  long  period  a  considerable  element  in  Canadian  population. 
The  advance  of  the  French  westwards  naturally  caused  collision 
with  Indian  tribes,  and  there  was  much  sanguinary  warfare  with 
the  Foxes,  the  Sakis,  and  other  bodies  of  savages,  against  whom 
the  best  allies  of  the  Europeans  were,  in  the  end,  the  imported 


206  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

scourges  of  strong  drink  and  small-pox.  In  1732,  more  than  six 
hundred  French-Canadians  died  of  this  disease  in  and  around 
Montreal  and  Quebec.  It  was  about  this  time  that  the  minerals 
of  Canada  began  to  be  noticed  in  the  working  of  bog-iron  ore 
found  at  Three  Rivers,  and  the  discovery  of  good  copper  near 
Lake  Superior.  The  outbreak,  in  1743,  of  European  war  between 
Great  Britain  and  France  was  coincident,  as  we  shall  see,  with 
colonial  conflicts.  The  neglect  to  define,  in  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
a  boundary-line  between  British  Acadia,  or  Nova  Scotia,  and 
French  Acadia,  afterwards  New  Brunswick,  was  one  source  of 
trouble,  but  the  main  cause  lay  in  the  pretensions  of  the  French, 
backed  by  overt  action,  to  claim  as  their  own  the  whole  basin  of 
the  Mississippi  as  well  as  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Their  right  lay, 
as  they  asserted,  in  the  discovery  of  new  regions,  and  in  charters 
granted  by  French  sovereigns — by  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  in  1712, 
and,  in  1716,  by  the  ministers  of  his  young  successor,  to  John 
Law's  famous  Mississippi  Company,  which,  however,  came  to  an 
end  within  the  space  of  four  years. 

The  British  colonies,  having,  to  some  extent,  diversity  of 
interests,  and  being  ruled  by  separate  governments,  were  placed  at 
a  disadvantage  through  the  lack  of  united  spirit  and  action.  It 
was  in  1745  that  the  New  England  colonies,  with  assistance  from 
the  home-country,  at  last  made  a  determined  and  successful  effort 
against  the  chief  French  stronghold  adjacent  to  their  coasts.  This 
was  the  fortress  of  Louisbourg,  in  Cape  Breton  Island,  whose 
privateers  preyed,  with  disastrous  effect,  upon  the  growing  com- 
merce of  the  British  in  those  waters.  Shirley,  the  energetic  and 
enterprising  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  appointed  to  his  office  in 
1740,  resolved,  in  1745,  to  make  an  effort  for  the  capture  of  the 
French  basis  of  operations.  Four  thousand  troops,  raised  in 
New  England,  were  placed  under  the  command  of  Mr.  William 
Pepperell,  a  native  of  the  colonies  descended  from  a  Devonshire 
family.  He  was  a  colonel  of  militia,  occupied  during  peace  in 
mercantile  affairs.  Shirley  had  learned,  from  certain  English 
prisoners  returned  from  Louisbourg,  that  the  French  garrison  was 
ill-disciplined  and  discontented.  An  element  of  religious  enthusi- 
asm had  part  in  the  expedition.  George  Whiten" eld,  the  Methodist 
preacher,  was  at  that  time  stirring  New  England  by  his  eloquence, 
and  he  furnished,  on  request,  a  motto  for  one  of  the  regimental 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  2O/ 

flags,  in  the  words  Nil  desperandum,  Christo  duce.  The  Puritan 
soldiers  who  went  forth  against  the  French  were,  in  their  own 
eyes,  engaged  in  a  warfare  against  the  "  image-worship "  of  the 
Catholics. 

The  approaches  to  Louisbourg  by  sea  were  well  known  to 
many  of  the  mariners  of  Massachusetts,  and  good  hopes  of  success 
were  aroused.  The  fortress  was  placed  at  the  eastern  side  of  the 
island,  on  a  point  of  land  which  commanded  the  harbour  lying  to 
the  north  and  east.  The  works  were  more  than  thirty  feet  in 
height,  surrounded  by  a  ditch  of  eighty  feet  in  width,  and  mounted 
with  over  one  hundred  and  seventy  cannon  and  mortars.  The 
harbour  was  further  protected  by  an  island-battery  of  thirty  heavy 
guns,  and  the  land-side  of  the  fortress  was  defended  by  a  tract  of 
low  marshy  ground  which  could  be  swept  by  shot  from  the  enemy's 
ramparts.  The  men  of  Massachusetts  are,  to  this  day,  justly 
proud  of  their  sires  who,  in  the  existing  condition  of  the  colony  as 
regarded  warlike  resources,  could  even  conceive  the  idea  of  attack- 
ing such  a  formidable  stronghold.  In  truth,  however,  the  New 
England  colonists  were  forced  to  the  enterprise.  Their  fisheries 
and  their  commerce  were  at  stake;  their  lives  and  property  on  the 
seaboard  were  ever  open  to  attack  and  destruction.  The  represen- 
tations made  by  Shirley  to  the  government  at  home  were  not 
without  effect,  and  in  January,  1745,  orders  were  despatched  to 
the  naval  officer  on  the  West  Indian  station,  Commodore  Warren, 
to  sail  with  his  fleet  to  the  scene  of  action,  and  co-operate  with  the 
troops.  The  colony  of  New  York  furnished  supplies  of  provisions, 
with  a  battery  of  ten  eighteen -pounder  guns.  The  colonies 
supplied  a  fleet  of  transports,  with  thirteen  armed  brigs  and  sloops, 
and  this  part  of  the  armament  started  for  Gabarus  Bay,  to  the 
south  of  Louisbourg,  in  the  last  week  of  March,  without  awaiting 
the  arrival  of  Warren.  The  ships  were  detained,  at  that  early 
part  of  the  season,  for  some  weeks  by  the  thick  ice  found  off  Cape 
Canso,  at  the  eastern  point  of  Nova  Scotia.  A  landing  was  there 
made,  and  the  time  of  delay  was  well  employed  in  drilling  the 
militia,  and  in  rebuilding  and  arming  a  small  fort  which  had  been 
destroyed  by  the  French.  At  the  end  of  April,  when  the  sea  was 
clear,  Warren  arrived  with  four  men-of-war,  and  was  afterwards 
joined  by  six  others  from  England  and  Newfoundland,  with  which 
fleet  of  ten  sail,  carrying  from  forty  to  sixty  guns  each,  he  cruised 


2O8  OUR    EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

oft"  Louisbourg  to  intercept  supplies  and  to  prevent  intelligence 
from  reaching  the  fortress.  The  French  garrison  consisted  of  six 
hundred  regulars  and  one  thousand  colonial  militia.  Their  com- 
mander, Duchambon,  was  devoid  alike  of  energy  and  skill,  a 
circumstance  much  in  favour  of  assailants  who,  however  zealous, 
knew  nothing  of  scientific  siege. 

On  April  3Oth,  a  landing  was  made  on  the  shore  beyond  the 
harbour,  to  the  north-east  of  the  fortress,  the  invaders  charging 
through  the  surf  and  driving  off  the  French.  The  first  success 
obtained  was  the  ignition  of  some  warehouses  filled  with  turpentine, 
pitch,  and  tar,  the  suffocating  smoke  of  which  drove  off  the  garrison 
of  a  battery  mounting  thirty  heavy  guns.  The  enemy  spiked  the 
cannon,  but  the  touch-holes  were  redrilled  by  the  English,  and  a 
destructive  fire  was  opened  on  the  foe.  The  landing  of  the  British 
artillery  and  stores  was  the  severe  work  of  fourteen  days,  and  on 
fourteen  nights  afterwards  the  siege-guns  and  ammunition  were 
being  dragged  by  the  sailors  on  sledges  over  the  marshy  ground, 
to  be  placed  in  battery  on  the  landward  (westward)  or  weaker  side 
of  the  fortress.  On  May  i8th,  the  French  ship  Le  Vigilant  of  64 
guns,  laden  with  military  stores  much  needed  by  the  garrison,  was 
captured  by  the  British  fleet,  in  view  of  the  besiegers'  camp.  Two 
days  later,  the  British  were  repulsed  in  a  boat  attack  on  the  island- 
battery  at  the  centre  of  the  harbour  entrance,  but  the  bombardment 
was  maintained  with  vigour,  and  the  island-battery  was  silenced  by 
fire  from  the  northern  shore.  By  the  middle  of  June  the  fortress 
was  becoming  indefensible.  Many  of  the  guns  were  dismounted, 
works  were  destroyed,  the  town  was  utterly  ruined.  On  June 
i  yth,  after  seven  weeks'  siege,  the  French  commandant  surren- 
dered on  the  usual  honourable  terms;  the  garrison,  after  the  loss 
of  about  300  men,  being  conveyed  to  France  on  British  ships.  It 
is  impossible  not  to  quote,  from  Kingsford,  the  able  historian  of 
Canada,  the  "grace  before  meat"  uttered  by  Mr.  Moody,  a 
regimental  chaplain,  on  occasion  of  a  banquet  to  the  officers  of  the 
expedition.  His  sermons,  like  those  of  many  Puritan  preachers, 
were  extremely  lengthy,  and  the  guests  had  some  reason  to  dread 
'his  use  of  the  opportunity  now  afforded.  He  was  an  aged  man, 
selected  to  say  grace  as  the  uncle  of  Mrs.  Pepperell,  wife  of  the 
victorious  commander  who  was  presiding  at  the  feast.  The 
singularity  and  shortness  of  the  utterance  took  all  hearers  by 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  209 

surprise,  and  caused  its  preservation :  "  Good  Lord,  we  have  so 
many  things  to  thank  Thee  for  that  time  will  be  infinitely  too 
short  to  do  it.  We  must,  therefore,  leave  it  for  the  work  of 
eternity.  Bless  our  food  and  fellowship  upon  this  joyful  occasion, 
for  the  sake  of  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen  ".  The  non-combatants, 
numbering  over  two  thousand  people,  were  taken  to  France  along 
with  the  troops. 

The  news  of  this  great  success,  the  capture  of  Louisbourg,  was 
received  at  Boston  with  exultant  joy.  The  tidings  arrived  at  one 
in  the  morning  of  July  3rd,  and  the  citizens  were  awoke,  at  the 
early  dawn  of  a  midsummer  day,  by  the  peals  of  bells  that  were 
ringing  around.  The  success  of  the  men  of  Massachusetts  was 
not  ended  even  with  the  capture  of  the  fortress.  The  French 
colours  were  craftily  kept  flying  on  the  ramparts,  and  three  richly- 
laden  vessels  from  the  Eastern  seas  were  decoyed  into  harbour  and 
taken,  with  cargoes  worth  more  than  half-a-million  pounds  sterling. 
The  account  of  the  exploit  was  also  greatly  welcome  in  London, 
and  brought  promotion  to  the  men  in  command.  Warren  became 
rear-admiral  of  the  blue.  Pepperell  was  made  a  baronet,  and  both 
he  and  Shirley,  receiving  commissions  as  colonels  in  the  line,  were 
allowed  to  raise  regiments  for  service  in  the  royal  forces.  The 
governor  of  Massachusetts  enrolled  the  men  who  formed  the  5oth 
Regiment,  now  the  Queen's  Own  or  Royal  West  Kent,  whose 
colours,  with  the  inscription,  Quo  Fas  et  Gloria  ducunt,  were 
thereafter  to  be  seen  on  the  Peninsular  fields  of  Corunna  and 
Vittoria;  waving  in  front  of  the  Sikhs  at  Aliwal  and  Sobraon; 
torn  with  shot  at  Alma  and  at  Inkerman;  victorious  over  mutineers 
and  rebels  at  Lucknow.  Pepperell's  recruits  were  the  origin  of 
the  5ist  Regiment,  the  King's  Own  or  Yorkshire  Light  Infantry, 
whose  flags,  with  the  injunction,  Cede  nullis,  were  seen  at 
Minden  and  Salamanca,  Vittoria  and  Waterloo,  with  Roberts  in 
Afghanistan,  and  at  the  completion  of  the  British  possession  of 
Burma. 

In  May,  1746,  the  new  acquisition  was  garrisoned  by  the  two 
regiments  raised  by  Pepperell  and  Shirley,  and  by  two  other 
regiments  brought  from  Gibraltar.  The  fisheries  and  the  trade  of 
the  British  colonies  were,  for  the  time,  secured,  and  our  country- 
men, so  far  as  their  exertions  could  avail  them,  had  become 
supreme  on  the  North  Atlantic.  It  seems  certain  also  that,  from 

VOL.  I.  14 


210  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

this  time  forward,  the  men  of  New  England  were  animated  by 
that  consciousness  of  strength  which  caused  them,  in  the  next 
generation,  to  assume  so  bold  an  attitude  against  the  mother- 
country. 

The  loss  of  Louisbourg  caused  dismay  and  indignation  in 
France.  The  government,  intent  to  recover  both  Cape  Breton 
and  Nova  Scotia,  fitted  out  a  powerful  fleet  of  about  forty  ships  of 
war  at  La  Rochelle,  and  placed  more  than  three  thousand  troops 
on  board  the  transports.  It  was  an  armada  which  was  expected 
not  only  to  effect  the  retrieval  of  losses,  but  to  inflict  condign 
punishment  on  the  audacious  New  Englanders  by  the  capture  or 
destruction  of  Boston,  and  by  the  ravaging  of  the  coast  settle- 
ments. The  expedition  was  placed  under  the  command  of  the 
Due  d'Anville,  and  sailed  from  France  towards  the  end  of  June, 
1 746.  The  enterprise  ended  in  total  failure.  The  squadron  was 
delayed  by  foul  weather  in  crossing  the  Atlantic,  and  then,  at  the 
beginning  of  September,  the  ships  were  dispersed  by  a  severe 
storm  off  Sable  Island,  on  the  east  of  Nova  Scotia.  Some  were 
wrecked  on  the  reefs;  two,  driven  back  to  the  coast  of  France, 
were  taken  by  British  cruisers.  Many  hundreds  of  men  perished 
on  shipboard  from  disease;  D'Anville  died  of  apoplexy,  and  the 
Marquis  de  la  Jonquiere,  who  was  going  out  as  the  new  governor 
of  Canada,  ordered  the  remnant  of  the  fleet  to  return  to  France. 
The  Canadian  French  who  had  been  dispatched  to  co-operate  with 
their  countrymen  by  the  overland  route  to  Nova  Scotia,  effected 
nothing  beyond  successful  attacks  upon  the  British  posts  at  Sara- 
toga and  other  frontier  points,  with  the  usual  cruel  raids  upon 
isolated  and  defenceless  settlers.  The  British  losses  of  this 
character,  largely  due  to  the  neglect  of  the  New  York  authorities, 
were  partly  avenged  by  our  Iroquois  allies. 

Early  in  1747,  however,  while  the  snow  lay  deep  on  the  ground, 
a  Canadian  force  effected  a  brilliant  surprise  of  a  body  of  Massa- 
chusetts troops  stationed  at  Grand  Pre  in  Nova  Scotia.  About 
five  hundred  officers  and  men  were  quartered  among  the  people, 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Noble.  In  spite  of  warnings  from 
friendly  Acadians,  little  precaution  was  taken.  At  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning  of  February  nth,  while  it  was  yet  dark,  and  a  fierce 
storm  of  snow  was  raging,  a  body  of  about  250  French,  aided  by 
sixty  Indians,  all  of  whom  had  marched,  with  wonderful  hardihood, 


CANADA — TILL  CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  211 

for  seventeen  days  in  the  depth  of  winter,  burst  upon  the  place, 
and  caught  the  men  of  Massachusetts  in  their  beds.  Colonel 
Noble  was  killed  early  in  the  fight,  and,  with  the  loss  of  but 
twenty  men,  the  enemy  killed  and  wounded  about  one  hundred 
and  forty  Englishmen,  and  carried  away  nearly  sixty  prisoners. 
The  rest  of  the  New  England  troops  were  in  a  stone-built  house, 
which  could  not  be  forced  open  or  fired,  and  this  body  might  have 
greatly  damaged  the  exhausted  Canadians  in  their  retreat,  but  for 
the  want  of  snow-shoes,  without  which  it  was  impossible  to  keep 
pace  with  men  duly  equipped  for  winter  travel. 

The  French  government,  undeterred  by  the  disastrous  fate  of 
D'Anville's  expedition,  prepared  two  squadrons  to  act  against  the 
British  West  Indies,  and  in  Canadian  waters,  but  both  were 
defeated  off  Cape  Finisterre  by  Admirals  Anson  and  Warren,  with 
the  loss  of  six  French  men-of-war,  six  large  Indiamen,  several 
transports,  great  store  of  arms,  accoutrements,  and  money,  and  the 
unlucky  De  la  Jonquiere,  who  was  again  attempting  to  reach 
Canada  and  take  up  his  duties  as  governor,  but  was  now  carried 
prisoner  to  England.  The  rule  of  Canada  was,  in  June,  1747, 
intrusted  to  M.  de  la  Galissonniere,  and,  in  the  following  year, 
the  war  was  brought  to  a  temporary  close  by  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle.  The  New  England  colonies  were  disgusted  and  dis- 
mayed by  the  restoration  of  Louisbourg  to  France,  in  exchange 
for  Madras,  which  had  been  taken  from  Britain  by  the  French  and 
their  native  allies  in  the  Carnatic.  The  public  opinion  of  Great 
Britain  regarded  the  retrocession  of  the  Cape  Breton  fortress  as  a 
sacrifice  of  the  national  honour,  but  the  truth  was  that  this  country 
had  been  drawn  into  a  continental  war  with  which  her  interests 
were  little  concerned.  In  that  war  her  troops  had  been,  in  the 
main,  unsuccessful,  and  the  government  were  eager  for  peace  on 
any  endurable  terms.  Louisbourg  was  not  destined  to  remain 
much  longer  a  menace  to  British  subjects  in  North  America. 

The  British  and  French  colonists  regarded  the  peace  as  nothing 
but  a  truce  which  delayed  an  inevitable  and  decisive  struggle. 
The  new  French  governor,  a  bold  and  sagacious  man,  had 
ambitious  views  for  his  country's  future  in  North  America,  and 
did  not  fail  to  assert  them  against  British  claims.  In  March, 
1 749,  a  charter  was  granted  by  George  the  Second  to  an  "  Ohio 
Company",  formed  in  Virginia,  with  a  large  assignment  of  land  in 


212  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

that  river-basin.  The  company  intended  to  establish  a  settlement 
at  the  junction  of  the  rivers  Alleghany  and  Monongahela,  and  a 
battalion  of  troops  was  raised  under  the  command  of  a  man  whom 
Carlyle  calls  "a  steady-going,  considerate,  close-mouthed,  young 
gentleman ".  The  name  of  this  personage  was  Mr.  George 
Washington,  of  Virginia.  La  Galissonniere,  getting  wind  of  this 
Ohio  project,  sent  an  officer  with  300  men  to  occupy  the  region  by 
burying  plates  of  lead  up  and  down,  claiming  the  whole  of  the 
land,  "  from  the  farthest  ridge,  whence  water  trickled  towards  the 
Ohio",  for  France;  by  nailing  the  Bourbon  lilies,  in  metallic  form, 
to  the  forest  trees;  by  forbidding  the  Indians  to  trade  with  the 
English,  and  calling  upon  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania  to  prevent 
intrusion  into  French  territory.  It  was  well  for  Great  Britain  that 
a  certain  man  named  William  Pitt  was  making  his  way  at  this 
season  in  political  affairs.  La  Jonquiere,  released  from  England 
at  the  peace,  superseded  Galissonniere  as  governor,  but  he  and 
his  intendant,  Bigot,  were  men  of  evil  repute,  the  former  for  the 
meanest  avarice  and  the  most  miserly  habits,  the  latter  for  gross 
extortion  and  dishonesty,  combined  with  a  profligate  and  wasteful 
mode  of  life  worthy  of  a  courtier  of  the  fifteenth  Louis. 

A  better  prospect  for  the  French-Canadians  came  with  the 
arrival  at  Quebec,  in  July,  1752,  of  M.  Duquesne  as  ruler.  He 
came  out  with  instructions  from  his  government  to  make  a  firm 
stand  against  British  movements  towards  the  west.  The  agents 
of  the  Ohio  Company  had  begun  to  erect  a  fort  at  the  junction  of 
the  two  rivers  forming  the  Ohio,  when,  in  February,  1754,  a 
French  commander,  with  five  hundred  men,  appeared  and  took  the 
place.  They  then  completed  the  work  under  the  name  of  Fort 
Duquesne.  The  French  governor  had  established  a  post  at 
Presqu'ile  (now  Erie)  on  Lake  Erie;  a  work  called  Fort  le  Boeuf, 
on  the  site  of  Waterford;  and  a  third,  Fort  Venango,  southwards, 
on  French  Creek.  The  most  active  and  observant  of  the  British 
colonial  governors  did  not  fail  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  home- 
government  to  these  menacing  preparations.  Shirley  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Dinwiddie  of  Virginia,  induced  the  "  Lords  of 
Trade"  in  London  to  send  out  a  circular  letter  to  the  American 
colonies,  recommending  the  adoption  of  a  joint  policy  of  defensive 
and  offensive  action.  Governor  Dinwiddie  employed  the  services 
of  young  Mr.  Washington,  who  erected  a  work  called  Fort 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  213 

Necessity,  and  strove  in  vain,  with  an  inferior  force,  to  resist 
the  French  encroachments.  In  July,  1754,  he  was  obliged  to 
surrender  on  honourable  terms,  he  and  his  men  being  allowed  to 
return  to  Virginia.  The  French  were,  for  the  moment,  victorious 
on  the  Ohio. 

At  the  close  of  this  year,  two  regiments  of  the  line  were 
ordered  from  England,  under  the  command  of  General  Braddock, 
a  name  of  sinister  sound  in  the  history  of  those  times.  In  January, 
1755,  the  44th  and  48th  Regiments,  each  five  hundred  strong,  took 
ship  at  Cork  for  Virginia,  with  the  purpose  of  "protecting  the 
trade  of  the  English  possessions,  as  one  of  the  sources  of  national 
wealth".  The  French  government  responded  by  the  dispatch  of 
three  thousand  men,  on  board  of  eighteen  ships  of  war,  most  of 
which  arrived  safely  at  Louisbourg  or  Quebec.  The  two  countries 
were  on  the  eve  of  the  great  struggle  known  as  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  but  no  declaration  of  hostilities  had  been  formally  made. 

There  were  five  chief  objects  in  view  of  the  British  colonists 
and  the  home-government.  In  the  first  place,  Fort  Duquesne  was 
the  key  to  the  region  lying  west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  and, 
so  long  as  that  post  was  held  by  the  French,  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 
vania were  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  them  and  their  Indian  allies. 
The  possession  of  Louisbourg  was  a  constant  threat,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  New  England,  and  gave  to  the  French  the  control  of  the 
Newfoundland  fisheries.  The  forts  of  Crown  Point  and  Ticon- 
deroga,  on  Lakes  Champlain  and  George,  covered  the  road  to 
Canada,  and  afforded  to  the  enemy  a  base  for  operations  against 
New  York  and  other  colonies.  Fort  Niagara,  lying  between 
Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  commanded  the  trade  in  furs  with  the 
Indians  of  the  upper  lakes  and  the  north-west.  The  fortress  of 
Quebec  was  the  stronghold  which  commanded  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  mainly  decided  the  possession  of  Canada. 

The  government  in  Great  Britain  had  made  an  unwise  choice 
in  appointing  Braddock  to  the  chief  command  in  North  America. 
The  Duke  of  Cumberland,  himself  a  general  not  renowned  for  the 
victorious  issue  of  his  campaigns,  save  against  Highland  rebels, 
believed  in  the  capacity  of  Braddock,  who  was,  in  1755,  over  sixty 
years  of  age,  with  forty-five  years  of  service.  This  luckless  man's 
character  has  been  harshly  treated  by  Franklin  and  other  writers, 
and  justice  demands  abatement  of  some  of  their  strictures.  The 


214  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

British  general's  plan  of  operations,  formed  in  council  with  Shirley, 
Dinwiddie,  and  other  colonial  governors,  was  comprehensive  and 
intelligent.  The  doings  of  the  colonial  troops  against  the  French 
in  Nova  Scotia  will  be  afterwards  recorded.  Apart  from  that 
province,  a  body  of  Mohawk  Indians  was  to  be  enrolled  by 
William  Johnson,  a  colonist  of  New  York  province,  who  had 
married  the  sister  of  a  famous  Mchawk  chief,  known  in  border- 
warfare  by  the  English  name  of  Joseph  Brant.  Johnson's  skill  in 
dealing  with  the  natives  was  remarkable  in  a  British  subject,  and 
he  was  adopted  into  the  Mohawk  tribe,  becoming  one  of  their 
great  sachems  or  chiefs.  His  presence  on  the  frontier  was  a 
bulwark  of  strength  for  the  cause  of  his  countrymen.  He  was  now 
appointed  to  lead  the  forces  against  Crown  Point,  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain.  Governor  Shirley  was  to  advance  against  Fort  Niagara. 
Braddock  himself  undertook  the  task  of  mastering  the  Ohio  valley 
and  the  road  to  the  north-west.  The  first  step  towards  this 
achievement  would  be  the  reduction  of  Fort  Duquesne. 

All  these  operations  were  to  be  simultaneous,  with  a  view  to 
the  distraction  of  the  French  forces  in  various  directions.  Brad- 
dock's  fault  was  one  which  has  often  betrayed  the  commanders  of 
regular  troops  in  campaigns  against  an  enemy  wholly  or  partly 
composed  of  natives  skilled  in  guerilla  warfare.  He  was  over- 
confident, and,  being  warned  both  by  Franklin  and  by  Washington 
of  the  dexterity  and  prowess  of  the  Indian  warriors,  he  expressed, 
along  with  some  contempt  for  the  "raw  American  militia",  a 
perfect  reliance  upon  "the  king's  regulars  and  disciplined  troops  ". 
The  British  general  was,  however,  ill-supported  by  the  colonial 
authorities,  especially  those  of  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  who 
withheld  supplies  of  food,  and  failed  to  furnish  the  Indian  rein- 
forcements who  would  have  been  invaluable  as  scouts.  At  this 
time,  the  Governor  of  Canada,  in  succession  to  Duquesne,  was  the 
Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  a  native  of  Quebec,  and  son  of  the  former 
ruler.  The  veteran  troops  recently  arrived  from  France  were 
commanded  by  Baron  Dieskau,  an  officer  of  distinguished  service 
under  Marshal  Saxe,  one  of  the  foremost  generals  of  that  age, 
victorious  over  the  British  and  their  allies  at  Fontenoy  and 
Laufeldt.  Washington,  commanding  some  companies  of  Virginian 
militia,  was  on  Braddock's  staff. 

Early  in  June,  1755,  the  British  force  of  about  two  thousand 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  21 5 

three  hundred  men  started  from  Fort  Cumberland,  on  the  River 
Potomac,  for  a  march  of  120  miles,  through  a  rocky  and  woody 
country,  to  Fort  Duquesne.  A  hundred  pioneers  cleared  away  the 
forest  for  the  advance,  during  which  the  troops  encountered  great 
toil,  and  had  to  protect  a  train  of  artillery  and  baggage,  straggling 
over  several  miles  of  ground.  A  few  men  were  picked  up  by  the 
French  and  Indians  who  hovered  around,  but  no  serious  attack  was 
made  for  many  days.  The  French  commander  at  Fort  Duquesne, 
M.  de  Contrecceur,  had  no  hope  of  making  a  successful  defence, 
when  one  of  his  captains,  M.  de  Beaujeu,  proposed  to  waylay  the 
invaders  in  the  woods,  with  a  strong  party  of  Indians  and  a  few 
French.  A  force  of  about  640  Indians,  with  159  French- 
Canadians,  and  70  regular  troops,  was  put  under  his  command, 
and  he  sallied  forth  to  execute  the  plan  which  he  had  formed.  On 
June  gth,  Braddock,  who  had  pressed  forward  with  the  lighter 
artillery  and  baggage,  and  a  force  of  nearly  fifteen  hundred  of  his 
best  men,  was  within  eight  miles  of  Fort  Duquesne,  when  heavy 
firing  was  heard  in  front,  on  ground  covered  with  dense  forest  and 
thick  bushes,  and  intersected  by  ravines.  An  incessant  fire,  from 
unseen  marksmen,  was  poured  into  the  column,  and  confusion  soon 
prevailed.  The  front,  both  flanks,  and  rear  were  assailed.  Many 
officers  had  fallen,  as  they  strove  to  extricate  their  men,  and  form 
a  front  this  way  or  that;  and  Braddock,  after  having  five  horses 
shot  under  him,  and  giving  the  order  for  retreat  which  was 
absolutely  needful,  received  a  shot  in  the  lungs,  and  fell  to  the 
ground.  He  bade  those  around  him  to  let  him  die  where  he  lay, 
but  was  placed  on  a  fresh  horse  and  taken  off  the  field.  He 
expired  four  days  later,  on  the  retreat  to  Fort  Cumberland.  This 
terrible  affair,  in  the  space  of  two  hours,  cost  the  British  26 
officers  and  430  soldiers  killed,  and  37  officers  and  380  rank  and 
file  wounded.  All  was  lost  except  the  clothes  worn  by  the 
survivors,  26  officers  and  557  soldiers  of  the  advance-column.  All 
the  cannon,  baggage,  and  stores,  with  the  military  chest  containing 
^25,000,  became  the  prize  of  the  victors.  Washington,  with  the 
colonial  troops,  who  displayed  both  steadiness  and  skill  in  the 
encounter,  was  in  the  thick  of  the  fighting,  but  escaped  unhurt. 
One  evil  result  of  this  disaster  was  the  renewal  of  the  savage 
border-warfare,  in  which  the  tomahawk  and  torch  wrought  fearful 
havoc  amongst  the  outlying  settlers  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania. 


2l6  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

A  military  consequence  was  the  failure  of  the  expedition  sent 
against  Fort  Niagara.  The  militia,  dispirited  by  the  news  con- 
cerning Braddock,  deserted  their  colours;  the  Iroquois  turned 
against  the  British  cause,  and  Shirley,  the  commander,  after 
leaving  a  strong  garrison  at  Oswego,  was  obliged  to  retire  again 
to  Albany. 

The  honour  of  our  arms,  discredited  for  once  in  a  defeat  of 
regular  troops,  was  somewhat  retrieved  by  Johnson  at  the  head  of 
the  colonial  militia.  In  July,  1755,  more  than  six  thousand  men, 
chiefly  from  Massachusetts,  with  contingents  from  New  York, 
New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode  Island,  were  assembled  at  Albany. 
Colonel  Lyman  led  the  troops  for  forty  miles  up  the  Hudson,  and 
there  erected  Fort  Edward  as  a  base  for  future  operations.  At 
the  end  of  August,  Johnson  joined  the  force,  which  was  wholly 
untrained,  save  in  the  use  of  firearms.  Only  one  regiment  was  in 
uniform,  and  all  the  men,  in  lieu  of  bayonets,  carried  tomahawks 
in  their  belts.  The  expedition  then  in  part  advanced  to  Lac  du 
Sacrament,  which  now  received  its  name  of  Lake  George.  Near 
the  southern  point,  Fort  William  Henry  was  constructed,  and 
preparations  were  made  for  an  advance  on  the  strong  French 
position  at  Crown  Point,  on  Lake  Champlain. 

Meanwhile,  Baron  Dieskau,  despatched  from  Quebec  against 
the  British  fort  at  Oswego,  was  diverted  by  De  Vaudreuil  to  meet 
the  invaders.  He  advanced  to  the  place  called  Carillon,  afterwards 
Ticonderoga,  nine  miles  south  of  Crown  Point.  There  a  column 
was  formed,  consisting  of  about  200  French  regulars,  700  Cana- 
dians, and  600  Indians,  for  the  purpose  of  surprising  Fort  Edward, 
where  Dieskau's  scouts  had  led  him  to  believe  that  only  five 
hundred  men  lay.  On  September  8th,  Johnson  detached  a 
thousand  men  to  intercept  the  enemy,  but,  marching  without  pre- 
cautions, they  fell  into  an  ambush  prepared  by  Dieskau,  and  were 
roughly  handled,  driven  back  in  flight,  and  hotly  pursued.  Johnson 
made  ready  his  men  for  defence,  showing  great  skill  in  barricading 
his  camp  with  waggons  and  boats  placed  on  their  sides,  in  addition 
to  a  screen  of  felled  trees  in  front.  Some  cannon  were  in  position 
to  sweep  the  road.  Dieskau  advanced  bravely  to  the  attack  with 
his  handful  of  regular  troops,  expecting  to  be  supported  by  the 
Canadian  militia  and  the  Indians,  but  these  irregulars  dispersed 
themselves  into  the  bush,  whence  they  maintained  a  fire  on  the 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  2 1/ 

British.  The  New  Englanders,  who  were  expert  marksmen, 
behaved  with  the  utmost  steadiness,  and,  after  a  fight  of  four 
hours,  the  attack  was  severely  repulsed.  Dieskau,  disabled  by 
three  shots,  was  taken  prisoner;  Johnson  was  also  wounded  and 
carried  from  the  field.  The  chief  loss  of  the  French  was  in  their 
regular  troops,  who  were  almost  destroyed;  and  the  British 
government,  professing  to  regard  the  event  as  a  counterpoise  to 
Braddock's  disaster,  somewhat  magnified  its  importance  in  bestow- 
ing upon  Johnson  a  baronetcy,  along  with  a  grant  of  five  thousand 
pounds.  He  was  to  prove  afterwards,  through  his  ability  and 
determination,  of  valuable  service  during  the  war.  At  the  close  of 
1755,  the  French  held  a  very  strong  position  in  the  command  of 
the  Ohio  valley,  in  the  possession  of  Forts  Frontenac,  Niagara, 
and  Toronto,  on  or  near  Lake  Ontario,  and  of  Crown  Point  and 
Ticonderoga,  on  Lake  Champlain.  During  the  winter,  much 
suffering  was  caused  by  the  scarcity  of  food,  due  to  the  suspension 
of  trade  and  tillage  in  time  of  war. 

An  important  event  occurred  in  the  arrival  from  France,  in  the 
spring  of  1756,  of  the  Marquis  de  Montcalm  as  commander  of  the 
Canadian  forces.  He  reached  Quebec  in  May,  along  with  a  fleet 
conveying  two  battalions  of  royal  troops,  and  large,  much-needed 
supplies  of  provisions  and  warlike  stores.  Montcalm,  a  man  now 
in  his  forty-sixth  year,  had  won,  in  long  military  service,  a  high 
reputation  for  courage  and  skill,  and  he  was  now  to  be  ably 
seconded  by  the  Chevalier  de  LeVis,  an  officer  of  twenty  years' 
service,  who  had  fought  at  Dettingen  in  1743,  and  was  also 
marked  by  his  sound  training  in  war,  energy,  and  courage.  De 
Vaudreuil,  the  governor,  had  already  provided  work  for  his  military 
assistants,  in  the  resolve,  if  it  were  possible,  to  possess  himself  of 
Oswego,  and  thus  obtain  the  complete  command  of  Lake  Ontario, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  to  keep  a  firm  hold  of  Lake  Champlain  and 
to  acquire  full  possession  of  Lake  George. 

The  strength  of  France  in  North  America  lay  in  the  skill  of 
her  officers,  in  the  presence  of  three  thousand  regular  troops  in 
Canada  proper,  and  of  nearly  half  that  number  at  Louisbourg,  with 
two  thousand  well-trained  men  of  the  marine  corps.  The  militia 
were  excellent  for  guerilla  warfare,  and  distinguished  by  endurance, 
patience,  and  courage  in  that  form  of  service.  The  Indians,  save 
the  tribes  won  over  by  Johnson,  were  devoted  to  French  interests, 


2l8  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

a  result  due  to  the  tact  and  forbearance  long  displayed  in  French 
dealings  with  the  natives.  The  Indians  were  also  impressed, 
through  Braddock's  defeat,  with  a  belief  in  British  incapacity  to  con- 
tend with  success  against  the  French  and  their  native  allies.  The 
British  government,  on  their  part,  sent  out,  as  commander  of  all  the 
troops  in  America,  the  Earl  of  Loudon,  a  painstaking  man  of  small 
ability  and  despondent  nature,  quite  unfitted  for  the  work  in  hand. 
Montcalm  was  not  long  in  making  his  presence  felt  by  his  foes. 
While  the  colonial  governors,  in  council  at  New  York,  were 
planning  attacks  on  the  chief  French  positions,  the  Frenchman 
was  laying  his  plans  against  Oswego.  Prior  to  his  appearance  in 
the  field,  a  British  success  was  obtained  by  Colonel  Bradstreet, 
who  had  seen  service  in  the  first  capture  of  Louisbourg,  and  had 
then  become  a  captain  in  Sir  William  Pepperell's  new  regiment. 
This  officer  was  sent  in  June  with  a  large  supply  of  provisions  and 
other  stores  for  Oswego.  After  delivering  his  charge  in  safety,  he 
was  attacked  on  his  return  by  seven  hundred  French  and  Indians 
from  Fort  Frontenac,  but  he  repulsed  them  with  severe  loss,  and 
made  his  way  back  to  Albany.  Montcalm,  after  strengthening  the 
works  at  Ticonderoga,  and  placing  De  Levis  there  in  command  of 
three  thousand  men,  of  whom  half  were  regular  troops,  gathered 
at  Fort  Frontenac  a  force  for  special  service.  On  August  4th,  he 
set  out  with  three  thousand  royal  troops,  militia,  and  Indians,  for 
Oswego.  The  British  forts  had  been  neglected,  and  were  feebly 
garrisoned  by  a  few  hundred  raw  recruits  of  Pepperell's  regiment, 
and  a  thousand  colonial  militia.  No  guard  was  kept,  and  at  mid- 
night on  the  loth,  the  formidable  French  force  landed  near  the 
place.  Two  days  later  a  formal  siege  was  begun,  and  one  of  the 
forts,  quite  untenable  against  heavy  cannon,  was  promptly  aban- 
doned by  the  British.  The  commandant,  Colonel  Mercer,  was 
shot  dead  on  the  i4th,  the  chief  artillery  officer  was  also  killed,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  garrison  thereupon  succumbed.  The  surrender 
of  Oswego  gave  the  French  over  1600  prisoners,  including  120 
women  and  children.  The  great  booty  taken  comprised  seven 
armed  ships,  two  hundred  bateaux  or  barges,  more  than  a  hundred 
cannon,  and  a  large  supply  of  provisions,  with  the  military  chest 
containing  nearly  twenty  thousand  pounds.  Five  flags  were  placed 
in  the  churches  at  Montreal,  where  they  remained  until  they  fell 
again,  by  conquest,  into  British  hands. 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  2 19 

This  reverse,  disgraceful  to  the  British  colonial  authorities,  who 
had  ample  forces  at  their  disposal,  greatly  raised  the  reputation  of 
Montcalm,  and  caused  the  abandonment,  on  the  part  of  his  spiritless 
opponents,  of  all  the  intended  expeditions  against  French  posts. 
A  man  was  clearly  wanted  to  bring  new  energy  into  the  colonial 
war,  and,  happily  for  Great  Britain,  he  was  not  long  in  appearing. 
In  November,  1756,  the  feeble,  ignorant,  and  selfish  Duke  of 
Newcastle  ceased  to  be  prime  minister,  and  in  June,  1757,  with 
the  same  man  as  nominal  head,  William  Pitt,  as  secretary  of  state, 
assumed  the  real  power  in  controlling  affairs. 

During  the  winter  which  followed  the  capture  of  Oswego, 
where  all  the  works  were  utterly  destroyed,  the  French  and 
Indians  ravaged  the  British  frontiers,  and  burnt  four  armed  vessels, 
hundreds  of  boats,  and  large  stores  of  supplies,  almost  under  the 
guns  of  Fort  William  Henry.  A  gallant  defence  of  the  fort,  with 
a  feeble  garrison,  by  Major  Eyre,  against  a  powerful  force,  some- 
what retrieved  the  diminished  credit  of  British  arms.  Early  in 
1757,  a  strong  armament  left  England,  to  co-operate  with  the 
colonial  forces  in  an  attack  on  Quebec.  There  were  fifteen  sail  of 
the  line  and  some  frigates,  under  an  admiral  named  Holbourne, 
escorting  fifty  transports  carrying  more  than  six  thousand  troops 
under  a  General  Hopson.  The  expedition,  one  with  which  Pitt 
had  nothing  to  do,  arrived  at  Halifax  early  in  July,  and  broke  up 
in  the  autumn  without  producing  any  effect  except  a  general 
impression  of  the  imbecile  mismanagement  of  British  naval  and 
military  affairs.  In  August,  Loudon  sailed  off  to  New  York, 
with  most  of  the  regiments,  leaving  some  to  garrison  Halifax,  and 
other  points  in  Nova  Scotia.  Holbourne,  with  his  men-of-war, 
went  to  Louisbourg,  thought  the  French  fleet  there  too  strong  to 
attack,  and  returned  to  Halifax.  Reinforced  from  England,  the 
admiral  resorted  again  to  Louisbourg,  and  challenged  the  French, 
but  could  not  tempt  them  out  of  range  of  the  fortress  guns.  The 
British  fleet  was  then  severely  treated  by  a  storm.  Eleven  vessels 
were  dismasted;  hundreds  of  cannon  were  heaved  overboard;  a 
frigate  was  wrecked,  with  the  loss  of  many  lives;  and  the  squadron 
was  scattered,  in  a  crippled  state,  to  New  York,  Halifax,  and 
England. 

The  patience  of  the  British  public  at  home  was  destined  to  be 
severely  tried,  not  only  by  this  ignominious  failure,  but  by  another 


220  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

French  success  due  to  the  skill  and  energy  of  Montcalm.  Fort 
William  Henry,  at  the  southern  end  of  Lake  George,  was  garri- 
soned by  six  companies  of  the  35th  Regiment,  under  Colonel 
Monroe.  Webb,  the  commander  at  Fort  Edward,  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  Hudson,  nearer  to  the  British  frontier,  heard  that 
French  troops  were  being  massed  at  Ticonderoga,  and  despatched 
a  reinforcement  of  one  thousand  men,  mostly  provincial  troops, 
with  four  guns,  to  the  threatened  post.  On  July  i8th,  1757, 
Montcalm  arrived  at  Ticonderoga,  and  assumed  command  of  the 
troops.  A  British  force  of  300  men,  moving  in  boats  up  Lake 
George,  fell  into  an  ambush  of  Indians  in  canoes,  and  was  dis- 
persed with  the  loss  of  two-thirds  of  the  number  by  killing, 
drowning,  or  capture.  This  disaster  was  due  solely  to  the  want  of 
due  order  and  precaution. 

On  July  28th,  De  Levis,  Montcalm's  second  in  command, 
advanced  in  charge  of  nearly  3000  men,  followed  by  his  chief  with 
a  second  and  larger  force.  On  August  3rd,  Fort  William  Henry 
was  summoned  to  surrender,  but  Monroe  declared  that  he  would 
hold  the  post  while  he  had  life,  and  at  the  same  time  sent  off 
pressing  messages  to  General  Webb,  who  lay  at  Fort  Edward, 
fifteen  miles  distant,  with  nearly  two  thousand  men.  The  French 
had  with  them  36  cannon  and  4  mortars,  and,  though  the  walls  of 
the  British  fort  were  thirty  feet  thick,  composed  of  timber  filled  in 
with  gravel  and  stones,  the  works  could  not  resist  heavy  guns  in 
a  regular  siege.  The  real  weakness  of  the  British  position  lay  in 
the  fact  that  the  country  had  been  stripped  of  forces  for  Loudon's 
expedition  to  Halifax,  and  it  was  impossible  for  Webb  to  march, 
in  the  face  of  De  Levis's  powerful  body  of  men,  to  the  relief  of  his 
colleague  at  Fort  William  Henry.  There  could  be  only  one  end 
to  Montcalm's  attack.  Trenches  were  opened  on  August  5th, 
and  a  severe  fire  was  maintained  from  the  French  heavy  guns, 
howitzers  or  shell-guns,  and  mortars.  The  fire  was  steadily 
returned  from  the  fort  until  many  of  the  guns  had  burst  and  the 
two  mortars  were  useless.  The  ammunition  was  nearly  spent,  and 
more  than  350  men  were  killed  and  wounded.  On  August  9th  an 
honourable  capitulation  was  made,  and  over  two  thousand  British 
soldiers,  with  their  arms  and  colours,  marched  out,  not  as  prisoners 
of  war  in  the  strict  sense,  but  on  the  undertaking  not  to  serve 
against  the  French  for  eighteen  months  to  come. 


CANADA — TILL  CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  221 

In  explanation  of  the  tragical  scene  which  ensued,  it  must  be 
observed  that  the  British  had  no  ammunition,  and  only  the  sur- 
vivors of  the  35th  Regiment  were  armed  with  bayonets.  There 
were  nearly  two  thousand  Indians  present  with  the  victors,  and 
the  savages,  after  plundering  the  fort,  were  eager  for  blood, 
prisoners,  and  the  seizure  of  the  personal  effects  which  the  surren- 
dered troops  were  carrying  off,  according  to  agreement,  to  Fort 
Edward.  The  savages  forced  their  way  into  the  hospital,  and 
murdered  and  scalped  the  wounded,  who  were  in  charge  of  a 
French  surgeon.  The  departing  column  was  assailed  by  Indians 
drunk  with  the  rum  found  within  the  fort.  Women  and  children 
were  seized  before  the  faces  of  the  French  escort,  and  many  were 
killed.  Fifty  of  the  troops,  by  De  Levis's  account,  were  murdered, 
and  numbers  were  plundered  of  their  dress  and  accoutrements. 
The  mulattoes,  negroes,  and  Indians  in  the  British  ranks  were  at 
once  killed  and  scalped,  and  all  the  efforts  of  De  Levis  and  Mont- 
calm,  with  other  French  officers,  were  insufficient  to  allay  the 
tumult.  Some  hundreds  of  fugitives,  in  a  half-naked  state,  arrived 
at  Fort  Edward,  followed  by  four  hundred  more  men,  under  the 
protection  of  a  strong  French  escort.  Of  the  personal  humanity  of 
Montcalm  there  can  be  no  doubt,  but  it  does  not  appear  why  the 
weapons  of  his  three  thousand  regular  troops  were  not  ruthlessly 
employed  to  save  the  Europeans  from  his  Indian  allies.  His 
position  was  a  difficult  one:  the  use  of  extreme  force  against  his 
native  assistants  would  have  had  serious  results  for  French 
interests.  The  fault  lay  in  the  employment,  on  both  sides,  of  the 
services  of  those  whom,  in  the  interests  of  civilization,  both  nations 
should  have  combined  to  keep  down  with  an  iron  hand.  Fort 
William  Henry  was  razed  to  the  ground,  and  the  guns  and  stores, 
with  provisions  enough  to  feed  6000  men  for  six  weeks,  were  taken 
to  Montreal. 

The  news  of  this  disaster  made  the  British  colonists  of  the 
north  fear  for  the  safety  of  New  York,  and  the  succession  of 
failures  excited  great  indignation  at  home.  A  splendid  fleet,  and 
an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men  in  all,  regulars  and  colonial 
militia,  had  effected  less  than  nothing,  and  Great  Britain  was 
shown  forth  to  the  world  as  likely  to  succumb,  on  the  North 
American  continent,  to  the  superior  skill  and  energy  of  her 
historical  European  foe.  The  hour  was,  however,  but  the  dark- 


222  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

ness  before  dawn.  A  noble  patriot  was  in  power,  whose  mission  it 
was,  not  only  to  "  bid  Britain  hurl  defiance  at  her  foes ",  but  to 
choose  the  right  men  to  do  the  serious  work  that  lay  before  them; 
to  fire  the  whole  kingdom  with  the  ardour  of  his  soul;  to  breathe 
into  every  officer  and  man  a  portion  of  his  own  brave,  lofty,  and 
commanding  spirit;  to  teach  commanders  to  risk  everything  in  order 
to  win;  to  make  his  name  a  terror  to  the  fops  and  intriguers  of 
Versailles;  to  secure  complete  victory  for  his  country  on  the  scene 
of  her  late  discredits  and  discomfitures.  William  Pitt  the  elder, 
in  a  word,  had  resolved  to  annihilate  the  French  power  in  America. 
Their  resources  in  Canada,  during  the  winter  of  1757-58,  were  at 
a  very  low  ebb.  Lack  of  due  tillage  had  brought  scarcity  of  food. 
Soldiers  and  citizens  alike  were  on  a  short  allowance  of  horse-flesh 
and  bread.  In  April,  1758,  the  bread  ration  had  sunk  to  a  daily 
two  ounces.  Hundreds  of  the  Acadian  refugees  died  of  sheer 
hunger.  France,  the  mother-country,  was  exhausted  by  war  and 
by  the  vilest  civil  administration  that  ever  showed  the  way  to 
armed  revolution.  The  British  cruisers  swept  the  seas,  and  cut  off 
the  food-laden  vessels  sailing  from  France  to  Canada. 

While  Montcalm  and  De  Levis  were  planning  an  advance  upon 
Albany,  Pitt  was  preparing  for  an  attack  upon  Louisbourg.  Lord 
Loudon  was  recalled  from  America,  and  Major-General  Amherst 
received  the  command-in-chief.  He  was  now  forty-two  years  of 
age,  and  had  served  at  Dettingen,  Fontenoy,  and  other  continental 
battles,  earning  the  confidence  of  his  superiors  by  ability  and 
coolness.  A  man  who  had  been  but  two  years  a  colonel  was  thus 
made  to  supersede  all  the  generals  on  the  army -roll.  The 
brigadier-generals  appointed  to  serve  under  Amherst  were  Law- 
rence, Wentworth,  and  Wolfe.  James  Wolfe,  a  native  of  Wester- 
ham,  near  Sevenoaks,  was  the  son  of  a  colonel  who  had  served 
with  distinction  under  Marlborough.  His  mother,  Henrietta 
Thompson,  came  of  a  Yorkshire  family  of  good  position.  James, 
the  elder  of  two  sons,  entered  his  father's  regiment  of  marines 
before  he  had  completed  his  fifteenth  year.  He  had  little  school- 
learning,  but  the  constant  weakness  of  his  health  never  stayed  his 
efforts  for  self-improvement.  He  studied  his  profession  with  the 
utmost  care,  and,  in  the  improved  drill  of  his  light  infantry,  which 
excited  the  admiration  of  good  judges,  he  acknowledged  his  debt 
to  hints  obtained  from  the  reading  of  Xenophon's  tactics  against 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  22$ 

the  Armenian  mountaineers.  Wolfe  fought  at  Dettingen,  at 
Culloden,  and  again  in  the  continental  warfare,  and  became  com- 
mander of  the  2Oth  Regiment  of  the  line  in  1749.  He  soon  made 
his  mark  as  an  officer  equally  attentive  to  military  efficiency  and 
to  the  physical  and  moral  welfare  of  his  men,  and  such  young  men 
of  rank  as  the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  the  Marquis  of  Blandford 
sought  commissions  under  Wolfe  as  their  immediate  chief.  When 
the  battle  of  Minden  was  fought  on  August  ist,  1759,  Wolfe  was 
beyond  the  Atlantic,  but  the  splendid  conduct  of  the  regiment  on 
that  day  was  justly  attributed  to  the  admirable  training  of  their 
former  colonel.  In  his  appointment  to  a  command  in  the  American 
expedition,  he  was  receiving,  as  one  yet  only  in  his  thirty-second 
year,  the  opportunity  of  winning  imperishable  fame. 

Pitt  was  resolved  not  to  fail  for  lack  of  sufficient  force.  The 
American  colonies  were  requested  to  furnish  20,000  men,  and 
more  than  1 2,000  regular  troops  were  placed  on  board  the  trans- 
ports, escorted  by  a  fleet  of  twenty-three  sail  of  the  line,  and 
eighteen  frigates.  The  ships  were  under  the  command  of  Admiral 
Boscawen,  now  forty-seven  years  of  age,  who  bore,  from  one  of 
the  ships  which  he  had  commanded,  the  honourable  nickname  of 
"  Old  Dreadnought ",  and  had  done  good  service  under  Anson 
and  other  admirals. 

The  fortress  of  Louisbourg  has  been  already  described,  in 
connection  with  the  successful  British  siege  of  1745.  The  works, 
nearly  two  miles  in  circuit,  now  mounted  more  than  400  guns  and 
mortars,  the  fire  of  which  was  supported  by  five  ships  of  the  line 
and  seven  frigates,  carrying  nearly  550  guns  and  3000  seamen. 
The  garrison  consisted  of  about  3500  men,  including  three 
battalions  of  royal  troops,  two  companies  of  artillery,  and  a 
disciplined  force  of  French  Canadians.  The  commandant  was 
the  Chevalier  de  Drucour,  and  the  works  had  been  lately  restored 
from  an  almost  ruinous  condition. 

The  British  armament  sailed  from  St.  Helen's,  on  the  east 
coast  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  towards  the  end  of  February,  1758,  but, 
after  a  brief  stay  at  Halifax,  did  not  appear  before  Louisbourg 
until  the  first  days  of  June.  On  the  8th,  with  some  loss  from  the 
surf  and  the  French  fire,  a  landing  was  made  to  the  west  of  the 
fortress,  and  a  regular  siege  was  soon  begun.  The  place  was 
attacked  on  all  sides  by  land  batteries  and  the  guns  of  the  fleet, 


224  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

though  entrance  to  the  harbour  was  hampered  by  the  sinking  of 
five  ships.  The  operations  were  distinguished  by  the  perfect 
harmony  prevailing  between  the  two  services,  officers  and  men 
alike  displaying  the  utmost  zeal  and  patience.  Every  sortie  was 
repulsed,  and  on  July  i6th,  the  British  troops  stormed  some 
heights,  armed  with  four  batteries,  to  the  west  of  the  town.  Three 
of  the  French  men-of-war  were  burned :  the  works  were  shattered 
by  bombardment.  On  the  early  morning  of  the  26th,  two  French 
vessels  were  captured  in  the  harbour  by  British  boat  parties,  and 
the  fine  fleet  of  the  enemy  had  ceased  to  exist.  The  place  had 
become  incapable  of  defence,  and  on  July  27th  the  renowned 
fortress  of  Louisbourg,  and  with  it  the  island  of  Cape  Breton, 
came,  by  surrender,  into  British  hands.  Two  years  later,  the 
works  were  demolished,  and  the  place  which  once  threatened  the 
very  existence  of  Boston  and  the  welfare  of  the  New  England 
colonies  became  a  deserted  ruin.  Halifax  was  henceforth  the  naval 
and  military  stronghold  of  the  north-east  American  coast.  The 
trophies  of  the  British  success  consisted  of  more  than  two  hundred 
cannon,  vast  quantities  of  stores,  and  eleven  standards.  The 
captured  flags  were  first  presented  to  the  king,  and  then  placed 
in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  The  townspeople  of  Louisbourg  were 
conveyed  to  France:  five  thousand  soldiers  and  sailors  went  to 
England  as  prisoners  of  war. 

The  plan  of  campaign  included  attacks  on  the  other  chief 
French  posts,  Ticonderoga,  Fort  Frontenac,  and  Fort  Duquesne. 
After  the  surrender  of  Louisbourg,  Wolfe  and  other  commanders 
had  been  sent  to  attack  the  Acadian  settlements  at  Miramichi,  the 
Bay  of  Chaleurs,  Gasp6,  and  other  points,  and  the  ravages  per- 
petrated on  the  British  frontier  by  the  Indian  allies  of  the  enemy 
and  by  the  Canadian  militia  were  sternly  avenged  in  the  burning 
of  villages,  the  expulsion  of  hundreds  of  French  subjects  from  their 
homes,  and  the  destruction  of  vast  stores  of  grain  and  fish  which 
might  have  been  used  for  the  victualling  of  Quebec. 

In  the  other  operations  of  the  campaign  of  1757,  the  French 
were  to  obtain  a  last  success  but  one  against  the  British  arms  in 
North  America.  Early  in  July,  General  Abercrombie  advanced 
against  Ticonderoga  from  Albany,  at  the  head  of  the  largest  army 
which  had  ever  been  gathered  in  America.  The  force  consisted 
of  more  than  six  thousand  troops  of  the  line,  including  the  42nd 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION    TO   BRITAIN.  22$ 

Regiment,  or  Royal  Highlanders,  since  renowned  as  the  "  Black 
Watch",  with  nearly  as  many  of  the  New  England  and  New  York 
militia.  Abercrombie  was  a  stubborn  and  intelligent,  but  hardly 
a  skilful  and  circumspect  commander,  and  he  failed  entirely  to 
understand  the  nature  of  the  stronghold  which  he  was  about  to 
assail.  Hence  came  his  fatal  mistake  of  marching  without  a  due 
provision  of  artillery.  It  was  by  means  of  his  cannon  that  Mont- 
calm  had  won  the  day  at  Oswego  and  at  Fort  William  Henry, 
which  were  far  inferior  in  strength  to  the  French  position  at 
Ticonderoga,  on  the  south-western  shore  of  Lake  Champlain, 
where  Montcalm  himself  was  in  command  of  3500  men,  nearly  all 
royal  troops.  As  Abercrombie  proceeded,  his  advance-guard, 
under  General  Bradstreet,  came  upon  a  French  party  of  300  men, 
most  of  whom  were  slain  or  captured,  but  the  British  army  had  to 
deplore  the  loss  of  the  brave  young  Lord  Howe,  who  was  shot 
dead  at  the  first  fire.  This  officer,  who  commanded  the  55th 
Regiment,  was  of  the  same  age  and  character  as  Wolfe,  upright, 
chivalrous,  courteous  to  all  ranks,  devoted  to  duty  and  to  the  study 
of  the  military  art.  His  name  is,  to  this  day,  remembered  with 
high  esteem  in  New  England,  and  the  men  of  Massachusetts 
honoured  themselves  by  placing,  in  the  south  aisle  of  the  nave  of 
Westminster  Abbey,  a  memorial  tablet  which  records  their  sense 
"of  his  services  and  military  virtues,  and  of  the  affection  their 
officers  and  soldiers  bore  to  his  command ".  The  death  of  this 
young  hero  spread  a  gloom  throughout  the  force,  and  was  of  evil 
omen  for  what  was  to  come. 

On  July  7th,  the  British  troops  arrived  at  Ticonderoga,  and 
found  themselves  in  front  of  entrenchments  protected  by  a  six-gun 
battery,  and  by  a  mass  of  felled  trees  placed  with  the  branches 
outward,  in  row  after  row  behind  each  other,  making  an  abattis  of 
the  most  formidable  character.  A  few  heavy  guns  would  soon 
have  made  the  ground  untenable  by  its  defenders  from  the  showers 
of  splinters  driven  inwards  by  the  balls,  and  infantry  could  then 
have  made  their  way.  Without  this  preparatory  work,  it  was 
mere  suicide  for  troops  to  attempt  to  storm  under  a  heavy  con- 
tinuous fire  from  sheltered  musketeers.  Montcalm  had  just  been 
joined  by  De  Levis  with  400  men,  and  they  both  awaited  attack 
with  just  confidence  in  their  position.  On  the  morning  of  July 
8th,  under  a  burning  sun,  the  British  regulars  were  formed  into 

VOL.  I.  IB 


226  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

three  columns  of  assault,  and  rushed  upon  their  fate  with  a 
gallantry  that  has  never  been  surpassed  in  war.  Entangled  in  a 
labyrinth  of  branches,  they  strove,  amid  a  shower  of  lead,  to  pull 
away  the  trees.  The  active  Highlanders,  in  many  cases,  succeeded 
in  cutting  a  way  with  their  heavy  claymores,  or  two-handed, 
double-edged  swords,  or  in  clambering  over  the  obstacles,  but  it 
was  only  to  die,  in  combats  of  single  men  against  a  score,  on  the 
ramparts  in  the  rear  of  the  trees.  Montcalm  exposed  his  person 
with  the  utmost  daring,  and  the  defenders  lost  nearly  four  hundred 
men.  The  attacks,  however,  had  never  the  least  chance  of  success, 
and,  after  a  display  of  desperate  courage  for  more  than  four  hours, 
the  shattered  columns  were  withdrawn,  with  a  loss  of  close  upon 
two  thousand  men.  The  42nd  Regiment  had  gone  into  action 
with  nearly  eleven  hundred  men,  of  whom  five  hundred  were  left 
behind.  This  defeat,  which  occurred  nineteen  days  before  the 
capture  of  Louisbourg,  caused  much  grief  in  Great  Britain  for  the 
loss  of  brave  men,  but  it  was  felt  that  the  event  could  have  no 
serious  effect  upon  the  general  issue. 

The  disaster  was  soon  to  be  retrieved  in  other  quarters.  Brad- 
street,  a  capable  and  energetic  man,  proposed  to  Abercrombie  an 
attack  upon  Fort  Frontenac,  on  the  north-east  shore  of  Lake 
Ontario,  and  his  superior,  eager  for  any  chance  of  a  success, 
intrusted  him  with  three  thousand  men  for  the  enterprise.  The 
French,  by  a  strange  neglect,  had  left  this  important  post  with  a 
garrison  of  less  than  two  hundred  men.  Bradstreet,  crossing  the 
lake  in  boats  from  Oswego,  invested  the  fort,  and  forced  a  sur- 
render after  a  brief  bombardment.  The  loss  to  the  French  was 
very  serious.  Fort  Frontenac,  with  seven  armed  vessels,  was 
burned.  Sixty  guns  were  taken,  and  the  destruction  of  large  stores 
of  food  and  ammunition  greatly  crippled  the  enemy  in  supplying 
their  chain  of  posts  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  The  French  naval 
supremacy  on  Lake  Ontario  was  ended,  and  a  French  writer  of 
the  time  describes  the  destruction  of  Fort  Frontenac  as  more 
hurtful  to  the  colony  of  Canada  than  the  loss  of  a  battle.  During 
these  events,  much  loss  on  both  sides  occurred  in  the  petty  warfare 
of  attacks  on  stragglers  and  convoys. 

The  border-districts  of  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  had  been 
devastated  by  the  Canadians  and  Indians,  and  the  attention  of  Pitt 
was  directed  towards  efforts  for  the  mastery  of  the  valley  of  the 


CANADA— TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN. 

Ohio.  For  this  end,  the  main  achievement  would  be  the  capture 
of  Fort  Duquesne,  the  name  of  which  had  an  evil  sound  in  connec- 
tion with  Braddock's  disastrous  expedition.  The  enterprise  was 
committed  to  Brigadier  Forbes,  a  man  too  little  known  in  his 
country's  history.  A  native  of  Fifeshire,  now  in  his  sixty-fourth 
year,  John  Forbes,  after  forty  years'  service,  had  become  in  1750 
colonel  of  the  Scots  Greys.  He  shared,  seven  years  later,  as 
colonel  of  the  lyth  Foot,  in  Holbourne  and  Hopson's  abortive 
expedition  against  Louisbourg,  and  had  remained  on  duty  in  the 
colonies.  Forbes  was  a  man  of  rare  gifts  both  as  a  diplomatist 
and  a  soldier,  and  at  this  time,  though  he  was  fast  sinking  under  a 
mortal  disease,  he  showed  undiminished  zeal,  judgment,  and  resolu- 
tion in  the  discharge  of  his  duty. 

For  an  advance  upon  Fort  Duquesne,  it  was  needful  to  march 
two  hundred  miles  through  uninhabited  territory,  and  to  provide 
stores  for  three  months  to  feed  six  thousand  men,  of  whom  the 
greater  part  were  provincial  troops,  the  regulars  consisting  mainly 
of  13  companies  of  Highlanders.  Forbes  was  carried  in  a  litter 
across  the  Alleghanies,  and  then,  selecting  a  different  route  from 
that  followed  by  Braddock,  he  caused  the  construction  of  a  new 
road  through  the  wilderness  to  a  point  within  striking  distance  of 
the  French  position.  The  young  Colonel  Washington  was  in 
charge  of  a  Virginian  regiment,  and  his  men  assisted  in  making 
the  new  road.  The  work  was  long  and  toilsome,  and,  though  the 
expedition  had  been  projected  in  the  spring,  the  autumn  was  far 
advanced  before  the  end  in  view  was  reached.  One  misadventure 
occurred  in  the  middle  of  September  through  the  indiscretion  of 
Colonel  Bouquet,  one  of  Forbes'  officers  sent  in  advance.  Major 
Grant  was  detached,  with  about  800  men,  including  300  High- 
landers, to  reconnoitre  the  fort,  and  endeavour  to  cause  a  sortie 
which  should  end  in  a  British  ambuscade.  The  result  was  a  con- 
fused conflict,  in  which  1500  French  and  Indians  cut  up  their  enemy 
with  the  loss  of  nearly  300  men,  and  the  capture  of  Grant  and  nine 
other  officers.  The  position  of  the  French  was,  however,  most 
precarious.  The  destruction  of  Fort  Frontenac,  on  which  De 
Ligneris,  the  commandant  at  Duquesne,  was  dependent  for  his 
supplies,  had  left  the  garrison  almost  without  food,  and  the  Indians 
were  transferring  their  allegiance  to  the  British.  In  the  middle  of 
October,  Forbes,  still  many  miles  from  Duquesne,  was  prostrate 


228  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

with  sickness,  and  had  to  be  carried  on  a  hurdle  suspended  between 
two  led  horses.  The  brave  and  devoted  Scot  needed  absolute  rest, 
and  freedom  from  all  care,  in  order  to  have  a  chance  of  recovery, 
but  he  never  faltered  in  his  purpose  of  destroying  the  fortress 
whence  hostile  bands  had  issued  to  devastate  the  British  frontier, 
and  so  cause  much  of  the  reclaimed  forest  to  relapse  into  wilderness. 

On  November  i8th,  the  general  resolved  on  a  rush  for  the 
object  in  his  view.  Three  columns  were  formed  of  2500  picked 
men,  with  Washington  in  command  on  the  right,  Forbes,  still  on 
his  hurdle,  in  the  centre,  and  Bouquet  on  the  left.  There  were 
regular  flanking  parties,  and  every  precaution  was  taken  against 
surprise.  By  the  evening  of  the  23rd,  the  troops  had  arrived 
within  twelve  miles  of  their  destined  prey,  and  the  Indian  scouts 
reported  that  thick  smoke  was  ascending  in  the  distance.  At  early 
morning  on  the  25th,  the  British  found  Fort  Duquesne  a  blackened 
ruin,  abandoned  in  despair  by  the  French,  after  blowing  up  most 
of  the  works.  The  French  had  ceased  to  rule  in  the  Ohio  valley, 
and,  in  honour  of  the  great  minister,  the  name  of  Duquesne  was 
changed  to  Fort  Pitt,  on  the  site  of  the  now  great  and  flourishing 
town  of  Pittsburg,  a  centre  of  railway  and  river  communication,  and 
the  chief  seat  of  the  American  iron,  steel,  and  glass  industry.  The 
victor,  Forbes,  returned  in  the  depth  of  winter,  reaching  Philadelphia 
in  the  middle  of  January,  and  dying  on  March  loth,  1759,  in  that 
chief  town  of  the  colony  which  he  had  for  ever  freed  from  all  dread 
of  hostile  inroads. 

No  monument  was  ever  erected  to  his  memory,  either  in  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  where  his  remains  lie  buried,  or  in  any  other 
place  in  the  empire  which  he  served.  It  is  the  more  incumbent  on 
the  historian  of  these  events  to  lay  a  grateful  wreath  of  honour  on 
a  hero's  grave.  The  new  garrison  of  Fort  Pitt  visited  the  scene 
of  Braddock's  disaster  three  years  before,  and  beheld  the  whitening 
bones  of  the  dead,  which  now  were  buried  in  a  common  grave, 
amid  the  gloom  of  the  wintry  forest-scene.  The  grief  of  the  son 
of  Sir  Peter  Halket,  the  remains  of  whose  father  and  brother,  lying 
close  together  under  the  leaves,  were  recognized  through  certain 
relics  of  their  dress,  was  the  only  special  tribute  that  could  be  paid 
to  any  of  the  victims.  These  two  had  been  seen  to  fall  side  by 
side  on  the  fatal  day,  and  were  now  wrapped  in  a  Highland  plaid 
and  laid  in  one  tomb.  The  changes  wrought  by  time  are  strikingly 


CANADA — TILL  CESSION   TO  BRITAIN.  229 

displayed  upon  the  stage  of  that  tragic  event.  The  banks  of  the 
Monongahela  are  bright  with  gardens,  orchards,  corn-fields,  and 
villas.  The  victories  of  peace  have  wholly  effaced  the  memorials 
of  war,  and  a  railroad  takes  the  cars  in  swift  passage  over  the 
ground  where  the  musket  and  the  tomahawk  were  most  effective 
in  the  work  of  slaughter. 

When  the  year  1759  opened,  it  was  clear  that  the  tide  of  success 
had  turned,  and  that  the  period  of  French  dominion  in  America 
was  drawing  to  a  close.  Canada  was  falling  into  a  desperate  con- 
dition. Montcalm's  appeals  to  the  government  at  home  for  men, 
money,  and  supplies  were  almost  fruitless,  in  the  exhausted  condi- 
tion of  France,  and  the  colonists  were  left  to  make  a  final  effort  in 
their  own  defence.  A  levy  en  'masse  of  all  the  males  from  sixteen 
years  of  age  to  sixty  produced  less  than  fifteen  thousand  effective 
men,  who  could  be  supported  by  only  a  few  weak  regiments  of 
royal  troops.  The  British  Parliament,  on  the  other  hand,  under 
the  influence  of  Pitt,  voted  twelve  millions  of  money  for  the  support 
of  the  struggle,  and  there  were  on  American  soil  more  than  fifty 
thousand  well-appointed  troops,  of  whom  one-quarter  were  furnished 
by  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  The  colonists  were  resolved 
to  strike  a  blow  to  the  heart  of  the  enemy  by  the  capture  of  Quebec, 
and  Pitt  was  equally  determined  to  assist  them.  The  plan  of 
campaign  included  the  reduction  of  all  the  western  forts,  beyond 
Pittsburg  and  towards  Lake  Erie,  and  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga 
and  Crown  Point. 

In  June,  General  Amherst  succeeded  Abercrombie  in  the  chief 
American  command,  and  lost  no  time  in  taking  the  field.  The 
work  before  him  was  that  of  driving  the  French  from  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  thus  securing  the  frontier  of  New  York.  On  July  2Oth 
he  left  Fort  Edward,  on  the  Hudson  river,  conducting  a  force  of 
nearly  12,000  men,  including  eight  regiments  of  the  line.  No 
resistance  could  be  made  to  their  progress,  and  on  the  23rd  it  was 
found  that  the  formidable  entrenchments  at  Ticonderoga,  the  scene 
of  Abercrombie's  sanguinary  repulse,  had  been  abandoned  by  the 
enemy,  who  were  aware  of  the  British  strength,  and  of  the  fact  that 
the  present  force  was  possessed  of  adequate  artillery.  Fort  Carillon, 
however,  was  still  held  by  the  French,  and  it  was  at  once  assailed 
by  regular  batteries.  On  the  night  of  the  26th,  the  work  was 
abandoned  by  its  defenders,  after  being  mined  and  set  on  fire.  The 


230  OUR   EMPIRE   AT    HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

explosion  and  conflagration  half-destroyed  the  place,  the  garrison 
escaping  by  their  armed  sloops  on  Lake  Champlain.  An  immediate 
advance  was  made  to  Crown  Point,  and  that  fort  also  was  abandoned 
and  destroyed.  This  last  post  was  restored  in  a  stronger  form,  and 
gave  to  the  British  a  firm  hold  on  the  lake.  In  the  course  of  the 
autumn,  armed  vessels  and  rafts,  constructed  by  Amherst,  destroyed 
some  of  the  French  craft.  As  winter  came  on,  Amherst  returned 
to  Albany,  leaving  strong  garrisons  at  Ticonderoga  and  Crown 
Point. 

During  the  same  summer,  a  heavy  blow  was  dealt  at  French 
power  in  the  west.  Their  Fort  Niagara,  strongly  defended  both 
by  garrison  and  guns,  commanded  the  passage  from  Lake  Ontario 
to  Lake  Erie,  and  was  a  constant  menace  to  Oswego,  which  the 
British  designed  to  re-establish.  The  man  selected  for  the  attack 
on  Niagara  was  Brigadier  Prideaux,  in  command  of  two  regiments 
of  the  line,  with  about  2500  New  York  militia,  assisted  by  Indians 
under  Sir  William  Johnson.  Prideaux  marched  from  Schenectady, 
on  the  Mohawk  river,  at  the  end  of  May,  and,  on  arrival  at  Oswego, 
left  an  officer  there  with  a  thousand  men,  to  rebuild  the  fort  with 
timber  to  be  cut  in  the  neighbouring  woods.  An  entrenchment 
was  made,  with  a  barricade  composed  of  tiers  of  casks  filled  with 
flour  and  pork,  until  the  new  works  should  provide  some  defence. 
An  attack  of  Canadian  militia  and  Indians  was  repulsed,  and  this 
was  the  last  blow  ever  struck  by  the  French  on  Lake  Ontario. 

On  July  ist,  Prideaux  quitted  Oswego,  for  a  march  of  seventy 
miles,  along  the  southern  coast  of  Lake  Ontario,  to  Fort  Niagara, 
which  was  defended  by  a  garrison  of  about  500  men,  royal  troops 
and  colonials,  under  Captain  Pouchot,  an  able  and  experienced 
officer,  of  the  regiment  of  Beam.  The  lake-side  of  the  work  had 
bastions,  with  guns  en  barbette  for  firing  over  the  parapet  from  a 
bank  of  earth  placed  in  the  rear;  on  the  land-side  the  fort  was  more 
strongly  constructed  of  casks  filled  with  earth.  The  place  was 
invested  by  Prideaux,  and  batteries  were  erected,  the  fire  of  which 
soon  proved  serious  for  the  French.  On  July  2oth,  the  British 
.commander  was  killed  by  the  splinter  of  a  shell  which  burst  on 
leaving  the  muzzle  of  one  of  his  own  guns,  and  the  siege  came  into 
the  hands  of  Johnson,  who  directed  affairs  with  his  usual  vigour. 
Pouchot  had  summoned  to  his  aid  soldiers  from  the  Ohio  forts,  and 
a  body  of  1200  men,  with  Indian  allies,  hastened  to  the  relief  of 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION    TO   BRITAIN.  231 

the  beleaguered  fort.  Johnson  was  on  his  guard,  and  formed  a 
plan  for  intercepting  them  on  the  march.  By  attacks  in  front  and 
flank,  after  an  hour's  fierce  conflict,  the  enemy  were  completely 
beaten,  with  the  loss  of  hundreds  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  the 
capture  of  nine  officers,  including  D'Aubry,  the  commander.  The 
war-whoop  of  the  Indians  had  no  longer  any  terrors  for  the  British 
grenadiers,  who  stood  in  firm  ranks,  steady  as  on  parade,  and  swept 
away  the  foe  with  successive  volleys.  The  Iroquois  gathered  by 
Johnson  wrought  havoc  among  the  foe  scattered  by  the  bayonet- 
charges  of  the  regular  troops,  and  this  last  battle  for  the  control  of 
the  lakes,  the  Ohio  valley,  and  the  western  region  brought  with  it 
the  inevitable  fall  of  Fort  Niagara.  On  July  26th  the  garrison 
surrendered  with  the  honours  of  war,  and  all  the  western  forts  held 
by  the  French  were  speedily  captured  by  Colonel  Bouquet,  with 
the  single  exception  of  Detroit. 

Our  narrative  now  turns  to  the  key  of  French  power  in  North 
America,  the  town  and  fortress  of  Quebec.  Montcalm,  in  the 
absence  of  substantial  aid  from  France,  had  no  hope  of  maintaining 
the  French  position  in  Canada,  but  at  his  sovereign's  request  he 
consented  to  remain  and  to  do  his  utmost  against  enormous  odds. 
All  possible  preparations  were  made  for  the  defence  of  the  capital. 
The  town  of  Quebec  is  so  placed  on  a  peninsula  in  the  river  St. 
Lawrence  that  it  directly  faces  the  voyager  who  ascends  the 
stream.  The  river  is  divided,  on  approaching  the  town,  by  the 
large  He  d'Orleans,  lying  almost  in  the  centre  of  the  waterway. 
To  the  north  of  the  town,  the  river  St.  Charles,  with  a  winding 
course,  and  with  one  great  loop,  enters  the  St.  Lawrence.  To 
the  south  of  Quebec,  the  mainland  projects,  west  of  Point  Levis,  so 
as  to  approach  the  town,  on  its  eastern  side,  within  less  than  a 
mile.  On  the  northern  shore,  the  Beauport  Shoal,  left  dry  at  low 
water,  extends  for  about  eight  miles,  from  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Charles  to  the  little  river  Montmorency,  ending  its  course  with 
the  famous  Falls,  nearly  three  hundred  feet  in  depth.  The  whole 
of  this  ground  on  the  north  was  occupied  by  the  French  troops, 
with  intrenchrnents  and  batteries  facing  the  river  to  the  south, 
near  to  Quebec,  and  looking  landwards  lower  down  to  the  east, 
where  the  river-side,  above  Beauport  Shoal,  is  protected  by  lofty 
and  precipitous  cliffs.  De  Vaudreuil,  the  governor,  had  charge  of 
the  encampment  on  the  west,  near  to  the  St.  Charles;  Montcalm 


232  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

was  in  the  centre,  at  the  little  village  of  Beauport;  De  Levis  held 
the  east,  facing  the  western  end  of  He  d'Orleans,  and  protected, 
on  his  left,  by  the  river  Montmorency.  Fire-ships  and  rafts  were 
prepared  by  the  French,  with  a  floating  battery  for  heavy  guns,  as 
guns  were  then,  from  eighteen-pounders  to  twenty-four.  The 
garrison  consisted  of  thirteen  thousand  men  of  every  age,  by  no 
means  all  efficient  troops,  but  including  five  royal  regiments.  The 
few  French  ships  of  war  were  sent  up  the  river,  the  crews  being 
landed  to  aid  the  defence,  chiefly  in  the  way  of  working  the  guns. 

The  preparations  made  by  Pitt  for  the  great  enterprise  were  of 
the  most  formidable  kind.  The  chief  command  of  the  military 
force  was  intrusted,  as  all  the  world  knows,  to  Wolfe,  who  had 
returned  to  England,  and,  by  the  usage  of  the  time,  was  again  a 
simple  regimental  colonel.  His  health  was  bad,  and  it  was  at 
Bath,  where  he  was  drinking  the  waters,  that  the  hero,  doomed  to 
death  and  to  lasting  fame,  received  the  great  minister's  letter 
which  summoned  him  to  London  with  the  offer  of  the  command, 
and  the  local  rank  of  major-general,  subordinate  to  Amherst  as 
commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  in  America.  The  young  officer 
had  just  become  engaged  for  marriage  with  Katharine  Lowther, 
niece  of  Sir  James  Lowther,  first  Lord  Lonsdale.  The  death  of 
her  accepted  lover  was  to  leave  her  to  attain  the  highest  rank 
as  Duchess  of  Bolton.  The  officers  chosen  by  Wolfe  as  his 
brigadiers  were  the  Hon.  Robert  Monckton,  the  Hon.  George 
Townshend,  and  the  Hon.  James  Murray.  Monckton  had  served 
for  some  years  in  America,  having  taken  Fort  Beausejour,  in 
Nova  Scotia,  and  been  present  as  colonel  of  the  second  battalion 
of  the  6oth  Regiment,  or  Royal  Americans,  afterwards  the  Royal 
Rifle  Corps,  at  the  siege  of  Louisbourg.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
ability,  and  gave  a  hearty  support  to  his  chief  throughout  the 
campaign.  Townshend,  afterwards  Marquis,  was  a  man  of  mainly 
social  note,  and  rendered  little  service  in  the  siege  of  Quebec. 
Murray  enjoyed  the  highest  esteem  of  Wolfe  for  bravery  and  skill, 
and  had  served  with  Monckton  at  the  taking  of  Louisbourg.  He 
was  soon  to  become  the  first  governor-general  of  Canada. 

The  army  consisted  of  about  eight  thousand  men,  including  the 
1 5th  Regiment,  which  fought  in  Marlborough's  four  battles;  the 
28th,  which  had  been  present  on  the  glorious  day  of  Ramillies; 
the  35th,  the  47th,  and  the  48th,  all  bearing  "Louisbourg"  on 


. .  i H    briL    : 

flfi  Z\ 
"10    li 

I 

i  hnu 

. 


•  '_  adJ    ni 

^ 

• 


VIEW  OF  THE  TOWN  AND  FORTRESS  OF  QUEBEC, 

A.D.    1759. 

In  this  illustration  there  is  an  accurate  presentment  of  the  town  and 
fortress  of  Quebec  in  the  year  1759,  when  France  and  Britain  were 
struggling  for  supremacy  in  North  America.  A  bold,  rocky  peninsula  juts 
out  into  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  on  the  shore  of  which  lies  the  town,  while 
the  massive  citadel  crowns  the  height.  Some  distance  above  Quebec  is  an 
inlet  known  as  Wolfe's  Cove,  where  a  British  force,  under  the  general  of 
that  name,  landed  during  the  early  morning,  scaled  the  cliffs,  and  defeated 
the  French  army  which  sought  to  oppose  its  advance  upon  the  fortress. 
As  the  result  of  this  success  the  garrison  of  Quebec  found  itself  in  a  help- 
less position,  and  surrendered  on  the  i8th  September,  1759.  In  this  fashion, 
therefore,  the  Gibraltar  of  North  America  came  into  the  possession  of  Great 
Britain. 

(7) 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION    TO   BRITAIN. 


233 


their  colours;  the  43rd,  whose  first  title  to  fame  was  about  to  be 
won;  the  second  and  third  battalions  of  the  6oth  Regiment,  and 
the  ySth,  or  Simon  Eraser's  Highlanders.  To  these  were  added 
some  companies  of  the  Louisbourg  Grenadiers,  some  hundreds  of 
"  Rangers  ",  over  three  hundred  of  the  Royal  Artillery,  and  a  body 
of  engineers.  The  fleet  was  of  overwhelming  strength,  numbering 
22  ships  of  the  line  of  battle,  and  as  many  more  frigates  and 
smaller  ships  of  war.  The  right  man  was  selected  for  command  in 


QUEBEC 

AND     ITS    NEIGHBOURHOOD 

to  illustrate   tt.e  Operations    of 


one  who  has  been,  to  a  large  extent,  unjustly  treated  in  the  scant 
remembrance  of  posterity.  It  is  owing  to  the  number  of  great 
reputations  won  in  later  years  by  British  seamen  that  Admiral 
Saunders  has  been  well-nigh  forgotten.  His  whole  life  was  spent 
on  active  service;  on  every  occasion  he  showed  eminent  ability; 
and  of  his  work  at  Quebec  no  higher  eulogy  can  be  pronounced 
than  that  he  proved  himself  in  all  ways  a  worthy  colleague  of 
Wolfe.  Throughout  the  operations  his  professional  skill,  his 
regard  for  duty,  his  loyal  and  hearty  aid  to  the  military  chief,  were 
never  found  wanting  in  the  hour  of  trial.  A  subordinate  of 
Anson's,  as  lieutenant  of  the  Centurion,  when  he  started  on  the 
four-years'  voyage  round  the  world,  Saunders  ended  his  career  as 
Admiral  of  the  Fleet,  and  lies,  fitly  enough,  in  Westminster  Abbey, 


234  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

near  to  the  monument  of  General  Wolfe.  Among  the  officers  on 
board  the  fleet  were  John  Jervis,  who  became  Earl  St.  Vincent, 
and  James  Cook,  known  in  the  southern  seas.  A  squadron  under 
Admiral  Durell  was  sent  on  ahead  to  secure  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  and  to  intercept  possible  French  supplies,  and 
Saunders,  with  the  prevision  of  a  man  who  would  succeed  by 
avoiding  the  disgraceful  blunders  of  previous  expeditions,  wrote  to 
the  governor  of  New  York  for  a  supply  of  pilots  knowing  every 
current,  shoal,  and  rock  in  the  river  which  the  fleet  was  to  ascend. 

The  advance-fleet  arrived  at  Halifax  in  the  last  days  of  April, 
1759,  and  was,  even  then,  delayed  by  the  yet  unmelted  ice.  The 
arrival  of  Durell  in  the  St.  Lawrence  early  in  June  prevented  the 
French  from  obstructing  approach  to  Quebec  by  the  construction 
of  batteries  on  the  islands  below  the  He  d'Orleans,  but  he  was  only 
in  time  to  capture  two  vessels  of  the  transport-fleet  from  France. 
His  presence,  as  the  forerunner  of  a  larger  force,  caused  much 
alarm  at  Quebec,  while  the  British  seamen  were  engaged  in 
sounding  and  surveying,  as  a  preparation  for  the  coming  of 
Saunders  with  the  main  body  of  the  armament.  The  coast  of 
Newfoundland,  with  the  snow  still  lying  upon  the  hills,  was 
sighted  on  June  2nd,  and  the  23rd  saw  the  vessels  at  the  He  aux 
Coudres,  thirty-six  miles  below  the  He  d'Orleans.  Signal-fires 
from  height  to  height  carried  the  tidings  to  Quebec,  as  the  ships 
slowly  and  carefully  made  their  way  upwards,  in  the  rear  of  boats 
sounding  ahead,  and  marking  out  the  channel  with  coloured  flags. 
On  June  27th  a  landing  was  made  on  lie  d'Orleans,  twenty  miles 
in  length  and  six  in  its  greatest  breadth;  it  was  found  to  be 
wholly  deserted  by  the  people. 

On  the  night  of  the  28th,  the  enemy  made  their  first  attempt 
against  the  British  in  sending  down  seven  fire-ships  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  three  frigates  lying  in  advance,  and  of  sixty  transports  off 
the  island.  The  total  failure  of  this  movement  excited  from  the 
British  sailors  shouts  of  laughter  and  cheers  which  were  heard  at 
Quebec.  The  boats  of  the  frigates  towed  away  one  to  the  shore 
seven  miles  below.  Two  caught  fire  as  they  left  Quebec,  one 
exploded  when  the  match  was  lighted,  three  only  made  their  way 
to  the  island,  where  they  went  ashore  and  did  no  harm.  The 
admiral,  Saunders,  warned  by  some  damage  from  a  violent  storm, 
anchored  his  ships  in  the  basin  of  Quebec,  to  the  north  of  Point 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  235 

Levis,  and,  by  his  advice,  Wolfe  caused  Monckton  to  occupy  with 
three  regiments  the  southern  shore  near  the  Point,  facing  the 
town.  Batteries  were  erected  there,  and  on  the  western  front  of 
the  He  d'Orleans,  and  a  firm  hold  was  thus  taken  on  the  southern 
side  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

The  British  general  had  issued  a  proclamation  assuring 
civilians  of  protection  for  property  and  person,  with  freedom  of 
religion,  provided  they  took  no  part  in  the  war.  The  people, 
however,  were  induced  by  their  priests  to  resist  in  every  way  those 
who  came,  it  was  declared,  as  foes  of  their  religion  and  their  race, 
and  the  savage  warfare  usual  in  the  contests  of  the  past  was  seen 
in  full  play.  Stragglers  were  cut  off,  the  wounded  were  murdered, 
the  dead  were  mutilated,  and  Wolfe,  after  vain  remonstrance,  was 
driven  to  retaliate  by  burning  the  villages  above  and  below 
Quebec.  His  attention  was  soon  drawn  to  the  French  position 
on  the  north  shore,  and  on  July  8th  a  landing  was  effected  by 
Townshend's  brigade  to  the  east  of  the  Montmorency.  Four 
days  later,  the  French  wholly  failed  in  a  night-attack  by  boats  on 
the  British  at  Point  Levis.  The  defenders  were  warned  by  some 
premature  shots,  and  a  panic  and  flight  were  caused  by  the  mere 
alarm  of  "  cavalry  ". 

On  July  1 2th  the  batteries  at  Point  Levis  opened  fire  on 
Quebec,  and  the  bombardment  thence  and  from  the  guns  of  the 
fleet,  maintained  at  intervals  for  the  next  two  months,  laid  most  of 
both  upper  and  lower  towns  in  ruins.  The  cathedral  and  chief 
buildings  were  shattered;  churches,  convents,  and  hundreds  of  the 
best  houses  were  destroyed  by  incendiary  bombs.  This,  however, 
was  not  the  capture  of  Quebec.  The  citadel,  on  its  towering 
rock,  with  massive  ramparts  that  bristled  with  guns,  rose  frowning 
in  unconquerable  strength,  beyond  the  reach  of  shot  or  shell  from 
the  heaviest  cannon  known  in  that  age.  Amidst  the  daily  roar  of 
the  cannon  aimed  at  the  town,  Wolfe  had  been  striving  to  deal 
with  the  foe  encamped  on  the  northern  shore.  After  losses  had 
been  incurred,  from  Indian  parties  lying  in  the  woods,  by  troops 
sent  out  to  discover  places  to  ford  the  Montmorency,  an  attack 
was  made  on  the  French  lines  to  the  west  of  that  river,  where 
De  Levis  was  in  command.  On  the  evening  of  July  3ist,  after 
some  hours'  bombardment  of  the  French  redoubt  on  the  shore 
near  the  Montmorency  Falls,  from  the  Centurion  frigate,  and 


236  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

a  hot  cannonade  on  the  French  lines  from  the  British  batteries 
east  of  that  river,  thirteen  companies  of  grenadiers,  with  200 
of  the  6oth  Regiment,  were  landed  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff  on 
the  west  of  the  falls.  The  movement  was  to  be  supported  by 
Monckton's  brigade,  coming  on  in  another  flotilla  of  boats,  and  by 
Townshend's  force,  crossing  the  ford  below  the  falls,  which  was 
passable  at  low  tide.  The  grenadiers  took  the  redoubt  at  a  rush, 
and  should  there  have  remained  to  await  the  arrival  of  their 
comrades.  Either  from  the  rash  impulse  caused  by  a  first  success, 
or  by  a  mistaken  order,  the  troops  went  forward  to  ascend  the 
heights  crowned  by  the  French  intrenchments  and  batteries.  The 
enemy  were  mustered  there  in  great  force,  with  three  thousand 
men  for  immediate  defence,  and  double  the  number  reserved  in 
the  rear.  No  courage  could  stand  against  the  crushing  fire 
coming  from  above,  and  the  men  slipped  down  the  banks  of  clay 
on  the  side  of  the  hill.  A  violent  storm  burst  on  those  who 
regained  the  redoubt;  their  ammunition  was  ruined;  all  unity  of 
action  with  the  other  troops  had  been  spoiled  by  a  hasty  move- 
ment, and  Wolfe,  who  was  in  command  at  this  point,  could  do 
nothing  but  cover,  with  his  steady  reserves,  the  re-embarkation  of 
the  defeated  grenadiers.  Nearly  five  hundred  officers  and  men 
had  fallen  in  this  disastrous  affair.  The  spirit  of  the  garrison  and 
townsmen  of  Quebec  was  not  much  elated  by  this  success,  which 
followed  close  upon  the  tidings  of  the  loss  of  Ticonderoga  and 
Crown  Point,  and  was  succeeded,  in  a  few  days,  by  news  of  the 
surrender  of  Fort  Niagara. 

The  advancing  season  caused  anxiety  to  Wolfe,  since  the  lapse 
of  a  few  weeks  must  cause  the  retirement  of  the  fleet,  on  pain  of 
being  blockaded  by  the  ice.  There  was  much  sickness  among  the 
troops,  and,  in  spite  of  raids  upon  the  colonial  cattle,  rations  of 
beef  were  becoming  a  luxury.  It  is  remarkable  that  no  aid  was 
furnished  to  the  enterprise  from  the  large  and  well-supplied  armies 
of  Amherst  at  Crown  Point  and  of  Johnson  at  Niagara.  The 
military  work  and  the  soldier's  fame,  to  be  done  and  acquired 
before  Quebec,  were,  on  the  British  side,  to  be  Wolfe's  alone.  His 
attention  was  turned,  after  the  failure  near  the  Montmorency  Falls, 
to  the  employment  of  his  men  against  the  enemy  above  Quebec. 
Wolfe's  object,  in  the  first  instance,  seems  to  have  been  that  of 
not  suffering  the  spirit  of  the  troops  to  sink  through  inactivity, 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  237 

rather  than  the  attainment  of  any  decisive  issue.  The  French 
ships  lay  above  the  town,  near  the  Richelieu  rapids,  and  Admiral 
Holmes  was  sent  up  to  make  an  attack  on  them.  The  matter 
ended,  however,  in  the  landing  of  a  large  body  of  men,  under 
Brigadier  Murray,  at  Saint  Antoine  on  the  south  bank  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  the  devastation  of  the  adjacent  country. 

Towards  the  end  of  August,  anxiety  and  toil,  with  the  season's 
heat,  had  thrown  Wolfe  into  a  fever,  and  he  called  his  three 
brigadiers  into  council.  He  had  resolved  that  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember was  the  furthest  possible  limit  of  time  for  operations 
involving  the  stay  of  the  fleet,  and  early  action  was  absolutely 
needed  if  success  was  to  be  obtained  in  the  present  year.  The 
decision  reached  was  for  a  landing  in  force  above  the  town,  in  the 
hope  of  drawing  Montcalm,  hitherto  strictly  defensive  in  his  tactics 
with  the  main  force,  to  a  battle  involving  the  fate  of  Quebec.  On 
September  3rd,  the  British  camp  east  of  the  Montmorency  was 
abandoned,  and  the  whole  of  the  troops  were  gathered  at  He 
d'Orleans  and  Point  LeVis.  The  British  fleet  was  then  kept 
moving  about,  accompanied  by  many  boats  with  troops,  up  and 
down  the  river  above  Quebec,  distracting  the  French  commanders 
with  doubts  as  to  the  point  to  be  chosen  for  a  landing.  The  guns 
from  Point  Levis  were  still  kept  thundering  across  at  the  town, 
and  a  large  French  force  on  the  northern  shore  was  harassed  by 
the  need  of  following  the  movements  of  the  hostile  craft.  By 
September  6th,  the  bulk  of  the  army  and  many  of  the  fleet  were 
above  Quebec,  and  Wolfe  had  selected  his  place  of  attack. 

At  this  critical  time,  the  army  had  just  been  greatly  depressed 
by  the  tidings  that  their  general  was  again  confined  to  his  quarters 
by  illness.  His  heroic  spirit  lorded  it  over  the  weakness  of  his 
bodily  frame,  and,  with  his  future  at  stake,  and  with  probable 
failure  as  certain  ruin  to  a  promising  career,  he  rose  from  his  bed 
to  complete  the  arrangements  for  the  work  in  hand.  On  the  i2th 
of  September,  the  men  were  employed  in  cleaning  their  arms,  and 
each  soldier  received  two  days'  rations,  with  an  extra  allowance  of 
rum  and  water  for  the  prospective  work  by  night.  At  early 
morning  on  the  I3th,  under  a  moonless  sky,  the  ships,  with  troops 
on  board,  dropped  down  the  river  on  the  ebbing  tide,  with  thirty 
barges  containing  sixteen  hundred  men.  The  oars  were  muffled, 
and  not  a  man  spake  a  word,  as  the  large  boats  crept  along  the 


238  OUR   EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

northern  shore.  Wolfe  had  issued  his  last  order  of  the  day,  calling 
on  "  a  determined  body  of  soldiers,  inured  to  war "  to  do  all  that 
their  country  expected  "against  five  weak  French  battalions, 
mingled  with  disorderly  peasantry".  On  the  evening  of  the  i2th, 
a  demonstration  in  force  had  been  made  to  the  east  of  Quebec,  off 
the  Beauport  shoals.  The  ships  of  the  line  came  as  near  to  the 
shore  as  safety  allowed,  and  boats  full  of  soldiers,  sailors,  and 
marines  quitted  their  sides  as  if  for  a  landing.  When  darkness 
came  on,  the  remaining  detachments  at  He  d'Orleans  and  Point 
Levis  were  taken  on  board  the  ships  to  the  rendezvous  up  the 
river.  The  general,  with  a  presentiment  of  his  coming  end,  had 
sent  for  his  old  schoolfellow,  John  Jervis,  then  commanding  a 
vessel  of  the  fleet.  To  him  was  handed  Miss  Lowther's  portrait, 
a  miniature  painting,  for  transmission  to  her  in  case  of  need.  The 
will  of  Wolfe  had  been  prepared,  leaving  his  plate  to  his  staunch 
naval  colleague,  Saunders,  and  his  camp-equipage  to  loyal  Brigadier 
Monckton.  The  books  and  papers  were  committed  to  Colonel 
Guy  Carleton,  known  in  Canadian  history  as  Lord  Dorchester. 

About  three  miles  above  Quebec,  at  an  inlet  since  known  as 
Wolfe's  Cove,  a  path  led  up  a  precipitous  height,  with  bushes 
scattered  to  right  and  left.  The  French  had  not  dreamed  that  an 
army  could  ascend  at  such  a  place,  and  the  top  of  the  cliff,  where 
a  climber  would  come  on  the  ground  above  the  town  called  The 
Plains  of  Abraham,  was  guarded  only  by  an  outpost  of  one 
hundred  men.  The  first  to  mount  were  the  Highlanders,  and 
their  leader,  Captain  M' Donald,  gave  the  correct  countersign,  "  La 
France  ",  learned  from  a  deserter,  to  the  sentry's  challenge.  The 
scanty  guard  was  thus  surprised  and  overpowered,  and  the  rest  of 
the  troops  made  the  ascent.  A  single  field-piece,  with  its  ammuni- 
tion, was  by  great  exertion  dragged  up  the  cliff.  WTith  the  rising 
of  the  sun,  about  3700  British  troops  were  ranked  in  order,  with 
their  right  towards  the  town,  under  Monckton's  command.  Murray 
had  the  centre,  and  Townshend  the  left,  with  Wolfe  observing  the 
whole  position.  The  French  army  in  the  Beauport  lines,  below 
the  town,  had  been  kept  on  the  alert  throughout  the  night,  in 
weary  expectation  of  attempts  to  land.  Montcalm  had  remained 
there  until  one  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  1 3th,  the  fatal  day, 
and  it  was  between  six  and  seven  that,  at  De  Vaudreuil's  quarters, 
nearer  to  the  town,  he  heard  the  astounding  news  from  the  coming 


CANADA — TILL  CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  239 

scene  of  conflict.  The  bulk  of  his  force,  in  a  hurried  march  of  six 
miles,  was  brought  by  the  bridge  across  the  St.  Charles,  and  about 
nine  o'clock  his  army,  consisting  of  about  seven  thousand  men,  half 
of  them  worthless  against  good  troops,  was  in  some  sort  of  order 
facing  the  British.  A  thousand  Indians  and  Canadians  were  on 
the  flanks,  who,  with  the  skirmishers  in  front,  delivered  a  some- 
what galling  fire.  The  one  British  cannon  was  beautifully  served 
against  two  French  guns,  and  the  musketry  fire  was  steadily 
returned.  Nothing  but  immediate  success  could  save  Montcalm, 
for  the  British,  each  minute,  were  growing  stronger.  Their 
seamen  were  dragging  guns  and  ammunition  up  the  cliff,  and  many 
more  troops  could  be  landed  from  the  ships.  The  French 
commander  led  a  gallant  attack  on  the  centre  and  right  of  his 
foe,  but  his  men  became  disordered  from  lack  of  discipline  or  want 
of  room,  and  the  British  advanced  with  steady  pace,  reserving 
their  fire,  by  Wolfe's  special  orders,  until  they  arrived  within  forty 
yards.  Two  volleys,  aimed  from  low-levelled  muskets  firmly  held, 
tore  to  pieces  the  line  of  the  foe,  and  a  rush  with  the  bayonet  soon 
decided  the  day.  At  this  moment,  Wolfe,  as  he  led  the  Louis- 
bourg  grenadiers,  with  a  handkerchief  tied  round  a  wrist  that  was 
wounded  at  the  opening  of  the  fight,  was  struck  by  a  musket-ball 
in  the  breast.  Staggering  into  an  officer's  arms,  he  begged  him 
to  hide  the  fact  from  the  men,  and  was  carried  to  a  captured 
redoubt  in  the  rear,  where  he  heard  the  cry  "They  run!  they 
run!"  and  learned  that  victory  had  been  gained  by  his  men. 
Giving  orders  for  retreat  to  be  cut  off  from  the  bridge  over  the 
river  St.  Charles,  the  conqueror  of  Canada  turned  on  his  side,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  uttered  his  final  words,  "God  be  praised!  I  die 
in  peace".  He  left  his  countrymen  to  mourn  his  death  before  he 
had  completed  his  thirty-third  year. 

The  brief  contest  dealt  hardly  with  other  leaders  than  Wolfe. 
The  aide-de-camp  who  carried  the  tidings  of  the  general's  fall  to 
Monckton,  found  the  brigadier  himself  laid  low  by  a  shot  through 
the  right  of  the  breast.  Montcalm  received  a  mortal  bullet-wound 
in  the  abdomen;  his  second  in  command  was  struck  down,  and 
taken  prisoner,  only  to  die  on  board  ship;  the  next  officer  in  rank 
was  also  slain.  The  whole  battle  did  not  last  half-an-hour,  costing 
the  victors  about  60  killed,  and  ten  times  the  number  wounded. 
The  French,  of  whom  250,  including  16  officers,  became  prisoners 


240  OUR   EMPIRE   AT  .HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

on  the  field,  suffered  a  loss  of  about  1200  in  slain  or  disabled 
men.  The  enemy,  pursued  to  the  walls  of  the  town,  had  many 
killed  on  the  glacis  and  in  the  ditch,  the  Highlanders,  with  their 
broadswords,  being  specially  effective.  The  British  troops,  now 
under  the  command  of  Townshend,  then  proceeded  to  intrench 
themselves  on  the  ground  which  had  been  won,  while  the  path 
up  the  cliff  was  widened  and  made  more  practicable,  and  tents, 
cannon,  ammunition,  and  food  were  brought  up  from  the  ships. 
The  French  general,  carried  into  Quebec,  expired  early  in  the 
morning  after  the  battle. 

There  was  one  personage  engaged  on  the  French  side  at 
Quebec  to  whom  some  notice  is  due.  The  troops  nominally  under 
the  command  of  the  governor,  De  Vaudreuil,  were  practically  in 
charge  of  M.  de  Bougainville,  who  had  come  out  to  Canada  in 
1756  as  chief  aide  to  Montcalm,  and  had,  after  return  to  France, 
arrived  with  the  reinforcements  in  May,  1759.  It  was  he  who 
had  been  detached,  with  1500  men,  to  watch  the  movements  of  the 
ships  and  boats  above  Quebec,  and  to  follow  them  in  their  per- 
plexing shifts  of  position  prior  to  the  men's  ascent  to  the  field 
of  battle.  He  was  approaching  the  Plains  of  Abraham  when  he 
heard  that  all  was  lost,  and  the  advance  of  the  victors  compelled 
him  to  retreat.  This  man  of  distinction,  both  in  science  and  in 
practical  life,  entered  the  naval  service  of  France  in  1763,  and  from 
1766  to  1769  was  engaged  in  the  first  French  circumnavigation  of 
the  globe.  He  served  as  admiral  in  the  French  war  prior  to  the 
Revolution,  and,  on  the  outbreak  of  that  political  convulsion,  he 
retired  into  private  life  as  one  devoted  to  scientific  pursuits. 
Napoleon  I.  created  him  a  senator  and  a  member  of  the  Legion 
of  Honour,  and  he  died  in  181 1. 

Great  preparations  were  being  made  for  the  siege  of  the  town 
from  the  western  side,  and  more  than  a  hundred  guns  and  mortars 
were  soon  in  position.  Their  services,  however,  were  not  required. 
De  Vaudreuil  had  already  abandoned  the  lines  at  Beauport,  and 
written  to  De  Levis,  who  was  now  at  Montreal,  with  a  summons 
to  assume  command  of  the  troops  at  Quebec.  The  commandant, 
de  Ramezay,  son  of  a  former  governor  of  Montreal,  knew  that 
nothing  but  capitulation  could  be  thought  of.  The  town  was 
almost  destitute  of  provisions;  the  troops  were  utterly  disheartened. 
A  council  of  fourteen  officers,  meeting  on  September  I5th,  voted, 


GENERAL  WOLFE  IS  MORTALLY  WOUNDED  AS  HE  LEADS 
THE   CHARGE   ON   THE   PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM. 

At  early  morning  on  the  i3th  September,  1759,  under  a  moonless  sky, 
and  with  every  precaution  taken  against  detection,  General  Wolfe  silently 
landed  his  forces  above  Quebec.  Then  the  Highlanders  led  the  way  up 
the  Heights  of  Abraham,  and  the  French  picket  on  the  Plains  above  was 
promptly  captured.  The  French  army,  however,  hurried  up  to  oppose  the 
British  advance,  and  when  the  sun  rose  the  battle  began.  The  Frenchmen 
charged,  but  were  met  with  two  musket  volleys  at  close  quarters.  Then 
the  gallant  Wolfe  called  upon  his  men  to  give  them  the  bayonet,  and  him- 
self led  the  charge  of  the  Louisbourgh  Grenadiers.  Alas!  just  at  that 
moment  he  was  struck  by  a  musket-ball;  and  when,  a  few  minutes  after- 
wards, he  heard  that  the  enemy  were  running,  he  exclaimed:  "God  be 
praised !  I  die  in  peace." 


W.   H.   OVEREND. 


GENERAL  WOLFE    IS   MORTALLY  WOUNDED   AS   HE   LEADS 
THE  CHARGE  ON   THE  PLAINS  OF  ABRAHAM. 


Vol.  i.  p.  239. 


CANADA — TILL   CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  241 

with  one  exception,  for  surrender,  and  the  white  flag  was  hoisted 
two  days  later.  The  honours  of  war  were  granted  to  the  troops, 
who  were  to  be  landed  in  France :  the  persons  and  property  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  the  exercise  of  religion,  were  to  be  unmolested. 
On  the  evening  of  September  i8th,  1759,  the  Louisbourg  grena- 
diers and  some  light  infantry  took  charge  of  the  gates,  and  the 
city  and  fortress  of  Quebec,  the  Gibraltar  of  North  America, 
passed  into  the  possession  of  Great  Britain.  The  hungry  towns- 
folk were  amply  fed  from  the  stores  of  their  conquerors.  Brigadier 
Murray  became  acting-governor,  and  Admiral  Safinders,  after  his 
excellent  service  throughout  the  operations  which  had  obtained  so 
glorious  an  issue  of  war,  sailed  with  his  fleet,  save  two  frigates,  for 
home.  The  troops  in  the  French  lines  at  Beauport  had  retreated, 
under  De  Vaudreuil,  to  Jacques  Cartier,  where  they  were  met  by 
De  Levis,  who,  unaware  of  the  real  state  of  affairs,  vainly  urged 
the  governor  to  advance  and  endeavour  to  rescue  the  town.  De 
Levis  went  forward  within  13  miles  of  Quebec,  and  then  retired 
to  Jacques  Cartier  and  intrenched  his  forces.  De  Bougainville 
was  posted  at  Point  aux  Trembles,  above  Quebec,  and  De 
Vaudreuil  took  charge  of  affairs  at  Montreal. 

The  news  of  success  was  received  in  Great  Britain  with  a  joy 
much  tempered  by  sorrow  for  the  price  paid  in  the  death  of  the 
good,  chivalrous,  devoted,  and  very  able  commander,  who  forfeited 
his  life,  in  his  country's  cause,  in  the  moment  of  a  brilliant  success 
attained  by  a  stroke  of  daring  that  combined  genius  of  a  high  order 
with  a  moral  courage  and  decision  of  character  worthy  of  the 
greatest  man  in  history.  Wolfe's  name  lives  for  ever  in  the 
memory  of  his  countrymen,  the  poorest  of  whom  wore  a  scrap  of 
mourning  for  the  man  whose  victory  came  with  startling  effect 
upon  the  public  mind  which  the  previous  events  of  the  siege  had 
prepared  for  a  failure.  The  young  hero's  body  was  laid  by  his 
father's  side  in  the  vaults  of  Greenwich  church.  It  was  by  a 
unanimous  vote  of  the  House  of  Commons  that  the  memorial  was 
placed  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The  declaration  of  Pitt  that  Wolfe, 
"  with  a  handful  of  men,  had  added  an  empire  to  English  rule", 
was  a  semi-prophetic  utterance  to  which  events  were  to  furnish  a 
speedy  fulfilment.  Nor  must  a  tribute  be  lacking  to  the  memory  of 
the  gallant  and  noble-minded  Montcalm,  a  man  skilled  in  war,  and 
a  patriot  of  incorruptible  spirit  at  a  time  when  the  civil  servants  of 

VOL.  I.  16 


242  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

the  French  crown  were  preying  upon  the  resources  of  the  colony 
with  the  utmost  baseness  and  greed.  His  remains  were  buried  in 
the  garden  of  the  Ursuline  Convent  at  Quebec,  where  the  enemy 
had  already  prepared  his  grave  in  an  excavation  made  by  the  burst- 
ing of  a  shell  from  one  of  the  British  batteries  at  Point  Levis.  His 
skull  is  preserved  in  the  chaplain's  parlour  at  the  Convent.  The 
spot  where  Wolfe  died  in  the  redoubt  was  marked  by  a  monument 
in  1835,  erected  by  the  governor-general,  Lord  Aylmer.  This 
memorial  was,  in  course  of  time,  destroyed  by  tourists  who  chipped 
off  pieces  to  carry  away.  In  1849  its  remains  were  replaced  by  a 
column  erected  at  the  cost  of  the  officers  of  the  army  in  Canada, 
bearing  the  former  inscription  Here  died  Wolfe  victorious.  Turning 
to  Montcalm,  we  find  that  Lord  Aylmer,  also  in  1835,  placed  a 
slab  to  his  memory  in  the  Ursuline  Convent,  with  the  words: — 
"  Honneur  a  Montcalm:  \  le  destin  en  lui  dtrobant  \  la  Victoire  \ 
L'a  recompense"  par  Une  Mort  Glorieuse.  With  a  most  appro- 
priate conjunction  of  two  great  names,  a  public  subscription  in  the 
province  of  Quebec  caused  the  erection,  in  1827,  of  an  obelisk,  in 
the  public  garden  overlooking  the  river,  to  the  memory  of  both 
gallant  men  who,  by  an  event  very  rare  in  the  history  of  war, 
perished  in  the  same  battle  as  leaders  of  contending  armies.  The 
pillar,  sixty-five  feet  in  height,  bears  the  inscription:  Wolfe  .  .  . 
Montcalm.  Mortem  Virtus  Communem  Famam  Historia  \ 
Monumentum  Posteritas  \  Dedit.  \  ,  which,  in  almost  literal  transla- 
tion, means,  Valour  gave  union  in  death:  Fame  History  awards: 
A  monument  posterity  (Here  gratefully]  accords. 

The  death  of  Montcalm  gave  De  Levis  the  chief  position  in 
Canada,  and  he  displayed  much  ability  and  energy  in  meeting  the 
difficulties  of  what  the  capture  of  Quebec  had  rendered  a  desperate 
condition  of  affairs.  The  Indian  allies  of  France  began  to  waver 
in  their  friendship  and  support.  There  was  severe  distress  alike 
among  the  French  troops  and  civilians  from  lack  of  supplies  of  food. 
Nor  were  the  conquerors  of  Quebec  without  their  troubles.  The 
winter  of  1759-60  was  intensely  cold,  and  it  was  needful  to  procure 
food  and  fuel  by  foraging  conducted  to  a  distance  of  many  miles 
from  the  town.  The  garrison  of  seven  thousand  men,  under 
General  Murray,  lost  nearly  half  its  effective  strength  by  death,  by 
disease,  and  by  cold  which  disabled  the  hands  and  feet. 

Meanwhile,   the  brave   French    commander  was  planning  no 


CANADA — TILL  CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  243 

smaller  an  enterprise  than  the  recapture  of  Quebec.  Troops  and 
supplies  were  gathered  at  Montreal,  and  when  the  middle  of  April, 
1 760,  saw  the  navigation  opened,  a  force  of  7000  men,  including 
3000  Canadian  militia,  was  ready  to  take  the  field.  Vessels  loaded 
with  stores,  artillery,  and  ammunition,  and  escorted  by  two  frigates, 
started  down  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  soldiers  under  De  Levis 
made  their  way  partly  by  land.  Special  prayers  had  been  offered 
at  the  Cathedral,  and  both  the  national  and  the  religious  feelings  of 
the  soldiers  had  been  diligently  stirred  against  the  successful  heretics 
who  held  the  hateful  doctrines  of  Luther  and  Calvin.  A  French 
force  of  one  thousand  men  was  repulsed  near  Point  Le"vis  early  in 
March,  and  Murray  took  measures  to  fortify  the  Plains  of  Abraham, 
when  he  heard  of  the  extensive  preparations  of  the  foe.  In  the  last 
week  of  April,  Murray  was  daily  expecting  the  arrival  of  his  anta- 
gonist, and  on  the  27th  he  retired  from  Saint  Foy  within  the  walls 
of  the  town,  in  presence  of  a  great  and  increasing  hostile  force. 
Prudence  would  have  dictated  a  defence  of  the  works,  an  attack 
upon  which  would  have  certainly  ended  in  severe  disaster  for  the 
French  assailants.  Murray,  however,  as  the  successor  in  command 
of  the  victorious  Wolfe,  and  justly  relying  on  the  courage  of  his 
men,  heeded  too  little  his  inferiority  of  numbers.  On  the  early 
morning  of  April  28th  he  marched  out  with  but  three  thousand 
men,  massed  in  two  columns,  with  a  few  field-guns,  to  attack  De 
Levis.  A  desperate  fight  of  nearly  two  hours'  duration  ended  in 
the  retreat  of  the  British,  outflanked  and  overcome  by  superior 
forces.  They  were  not  pursued  by  the  foe,  but  left  six  cannon 
behind  them,  with  nearly  three  hundred  men  killed,  and  about 
thrice  that  number  disabled.  The  victorious  French,  ten  thousand 
strong,  lost  about  one-fifth  of  their  numbers. 

De  Levis  then  entrenched  his  men  before  the  ramparts  of 
Quebec,  and  began  a  kind  of  siege,  vigorously  met  by  Murray  with 
the  fire  of  more  than  a  hundred  heavy  guns.  A  letter  was  dis- 
patched to  Amherst  at  Halifax,  detailing  the  position  of  affairs. 
Both  parties  were  eagerly  looking  for  help  in  the  shape  of  a  naval 
squadron,  when  on  May  gth,  a  vessel  of  war  appeared  rounding 
Point  LeVis.  Loud  cheers  from  the  British  hailed  the  running-up 
of  the  glorious  Union  Jack  to  the  peak  of  the  Lowestoft  frigate, 
freshly  come  from  England.  A  few  days  later,  the  arrival  of 
Admiral  Lord  Colville's  fleet  caused  the  hasty  retreat  of  De  Levis, 


244  °UR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

with  the  abandonment  of  his  siege-train  and  baggage.  The  two 
French  frigates  lying  off  the  town  were  pursued  up  the  river,  run 
aground,  and  taken.  The  Lowestoft  was  lost,  ten  leagues  above 
Quebec,  on  some  uncharted  rocks  in  the  middle  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence. The  retirement  of  the  French  leader  to  Montreal  with  a 
dispirited  and  fast  melting  army  left  Quebec  finally,  without  further 
menace,  in  British  hands,  and  was  the  sign  of  the  swiftly-approach- 
ing close  of  all  French  dominion  in  North  America. 

During  the  winter  and  early  spring,  Amherst,  the  commander- 
in-chief,  had  followed  the  instructions  of  Pitt  in  preparing  for  the 
complete  effacement  of  French  power.  Three  different  British 
armies  converged  upon  Montreal.  Colonel  Haviland,  with  three 
thousand  men,  went  from  Crown  Point,  by  Lake  Champlain  and 
the  river  Richelieu,  ousting  the  enemy  from  He  aux  Noix,  and  then 
marching  to  the  south  side  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  facing  the  town. 
Murray  ascended  the  river  from  Quebec.  Amherst,  with  ten  thou- 
sand men,  and  a  body  of  Indians  under  Sir  William  Johnson, 
proceeded  from  Albany,  on  the  Hudson,  by  way  of  the  Mohawk 
and  Oswego  rivers,  and  Lake  Ontario,  for  a  descent  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  upon  the  last  stronghold  of  French  rule.  Amherst 
started  on  August  loth,  1760,  and  on  the  25th  captured  the  strong 
French  fort  near  La  Presentation  (afterwards,  Ogdensburg),  below 
the  Thousand  Islands  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  after  a  brisk  defence, 
ending  in  the  surrender  of  Pouchot,  the  brave  holder  of  Fort 
Niagara  in  the  previous  year.  After  the  loss  of  some  dozens  of 
boats  and  men  in  the  Cedars  and  Cascade  rapids,  with  many  guns 
and  stores,  on  September  4th,  the  general,  two  days  later,  landed 
his  men  at  Lachine,  eight  miles  above  Montreal.  Murray,  leaving 
Quebec  on  July  i4th  with  over  two  thousand  picked  men,  and 
escorted  up  the  St.  Lawrence  by  gun-boats  and  frigates,  arrived 
on  August  24th  at  Contrecceur,  eighteen  miles  below  Montreal. 
Haviland,  quitting  Crown  Point  on  August  i6th,  took  He  aux  Noix 
by  surrender  on  the  28th,  and  early  in  September  was  on  the  south 
shore  of  the  great  river,  within  four  hours'  march  of  the  object  of 
all  the  movements  of  the  troops. 

The  position  of  the  French  was  hopeless.  On  September  8th 
sixteen  thousand  men  were  on  or  close  to  the  island  of  Montreal, 
menacing  a  weak  place  defended  by  little  more  than  two  thousand 
disheartened  troops.  In  spite  of  objections  made  by  De  Levis,  the 


CANADA — TILL  CESSION   TO   BRITAIN.  245 

Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  Governor  of  Canada,  at  once  surrendered, 
with  the  honours  of  war,  to  overwhelming  force,  and  signed  articles 
of  capitulation  which  provided  that  all  the  regular  French  troops 
in  Canada,  four  thousand  men,  should  become  prisoners  of  war  for 
conveyance  to  France,  not  to  serve  again  during  the  struggle;  that 
the  militia  should  disperse  to  their  homes ;  that  the  exercise  of  reli- 
gion should  be  free;  and  that  the  Canadians  should  become  subjects 
of  the  British  crown.  A  census  taken  by  Amherst  found  the 
population  of  the  colony  just  exceeding  76,000.  A  month  later, 
on  October  25th,  1760,  George  the  Third  came  to  the  throne. 

Amherst  soon  returned  to  New  York,  after  making  due  arrange- 
ments for  the  government  of  the  new  province.  For  nearly  four 
years,  until  October,  1764,  a  system  of  rule  prevailed  which  has 
become  known  as  le  regne  militaire,  a  designation  which  tends  to 
disguise  the  fact  that  the  government  was  conducted  entirely  in 
accordance  with  the  old  French  laws  and  customs  of  the  colony, 
and  with  the  earnest  desire  to  promote  the  welfare  and  contentment 
of  the  conquered  people.  Justice  was  administered  by  military 
officers,  but  the  courts  had  nothing  military  about  them  save  the 
name.  The  French  captains  of  militia,  retaining  authority  in  their 
own  parishes,  decided  civil  questions,  with  an  appeal  to  the  British 
commander  of  the  district,  and,  further,  to  the  governor  with  a 
council  of  captains.  Criminal  matters  were  decided  by  military 
law.  The  governor  was  assisted  in  his  administration  of  affairs 
by  a  council  of  field-officers.  General  Gage  became  governor  of 
Montreal  and  district;  Brigadier  Burton  at  Three  Rivers;  and 
Murray  continued  in  authority  at  Quebec. 

Apart  from  the  differences  of  nationality,  language,  and  religious 
faith,  and  from  the  natural  feeling  as  regards  rulers  imposed  by 
force  of  arms,  the  Canadians  had  the  strongest  reasons  for  satis- 
faction with  the  change  of  masters.  A  despotic  mediaeval  form  of 
governmeat  was  superseded  by  a  free  modern  system  which  pro- 
vided the  blessings  of  local  self-government,  Habeas  Corpus,  and 
trial  by  jury,  to  be  followed,  in  due  season,  by  education  and  free- 
dom of  the  press  in  place  of  gross  ignorance  and  harsh  repression; 
by  freedom  of  trade  replacing  monopoly ;  by  the  restriction  of  feudal 
power  in  the  seigneur  over  the  serf.  A  host  of  extortionate  officials 
was  deported  to  France  along  with  the  conquered  troops,  and  the  ces- 
sation of  international  warfare  ended,  with  one  brief  exception,  the 


246  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

frontier- feuds,  and  the  Indian  massacres  and  devastations,  which 
had  for  so  long  a  period  brought  terror  and  ruin  to  the  tillers  of 
the  soil.  In  May,  1763,  Governor  Gage  was  able  to  announce 
the  cession  of  Canada  to  Great  Britain  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris, 
and,  a  few  months  later,  he  replaced  Amherst  at  New  York,  being 
succeeded  at  Montreal  by  Burton,  whom  Haldimand  replaced  at 
Three  Rivers. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
CANADA  UNDER  BRITISH  RULE  (1763-1801). 

War  with  the  Indians — Pontiac  the  Ottawa  chief— Major  Gladwin's  gallant  defence 
of  Fort  Detroit — Indian  cunning  and  cruelty — British  forts  captured — Colonel 
Bouquet's  expedition  to  relieve  Fort  Pitt — Sir  William  Johnson's  negotiations  with 
the  Indians — Submission  of  Pontiac  and  the  tribes — The  French  Canadians  under 
the  new  rule — General  Murray  becomes  governor — Able  administration  of  his 
successor,  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  Lord  Dorchester — Quebec  Act  of  1774 — The  country 
threatened  by  the  revolted  American  colonists — Surrender  of  St.  John's — Quebec 
besieged  by  the  Americans — Loyalty  of  the  Canadians  —  Province  of  Ontario 
created  and  colonized — Constitutional  Act  of  1791 — Upper  and  Lower  Canada 
formed — Their  constitution  defined — Slavery  prohibited — Characteristics  of  the 
French  Canadian. 

The  change  of  masters  in  Canada  brought  with  it  one  last 
great  Indian  war,  arising  from  the  attachment  of  native  tribes  to 
the  French  who  were  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy 
of  Great  Britain.  The  traders  and  missionaries  of  the  defeated 
European  power  had,  as  we  have  seen,  been  successful  in  winning 
the  adhesion  of  most  of  the  Indian  tribes,  and  many  of  the  savages 
were  resolved  that,  if  their  old  friends  were  to  go,  no  other  Euro- 
peans should  rule  in  their  stead.  The  land  must  be  cleared  of 
"those  dogs  dressed  in  red",  and  a  leader  was  found  in  Pontiac, 
a  bold  and  skilful  chieftain  of  the  Ottawas.  When  Major  Rogers, 
with  two  hundred  of  his  "  Rangers",  went  from  Montreal,  after  the 
capitulation,  to  receive  the  submission  of  the  French  commanders  at 
the  western  forts,  the  Indian  potentate  gave  him  a  haughty  recep- 
tion, and  insisted  on  being  treated  with  due  deference  as  a  condition 
of  allowing  the  troops  to  remain  in  his  country.  This  remarkable 
man  has  been  represented  as  the  chief  organizer  of  a  wide-spread 
conspiracy  for  the  extermination  of  the  British  conquerors,  but 
he  was  rather  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  French  traders  on 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  247 

the  Mississippi  who  were  eager  to  divert  the  fur-trade  of  the 
lakes  to  the  great  western  river,  and  to  make  New  Orleans  the 
outlet  for  the  profitable  traffic  which  they  sought  to  keep  in 
French  hands.  For  this  end,  it  was  needful  to  destroy  the 
garrisons  at  the  forts  which  protected  the  trade  on  the  great  lakes, 
and  so  to  deter  British  enterprise  from  using  Canada  and  the 
adjacent  colonies  to  the  south  as  starting-points  of  a  commercial 
rivalry  in  furs. 

At  this  time,  Montreal  was  almost  the  western  limit  of 
European  settlement.  No  French  Canadian  was  to  be  found  in 
what  is  now  the  province  of  Ontario.  Six  hundred  miles  of 
navigation  up  the  St.  Lawrence  and  through  Lakes  Ontario  and 
Erie  was  needful  to  reach  the  settlement  at  Detroit,  where  a 
few  hundreds  of  people  were,  for  five  months  of  the  year,  cut  off 
from  all  communications  with  civilization  except  by  means  of 
snow-shoes.  Chains  of  military  posts  connected  Canada  and  the 
State  of  New  York  with  the  west.  Fort  William  Augustus  was  at 
the  head  of  the  rapids  on  the  St.  Lawrence;  Oswego,  as  we  have 
seen,  lay  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Ontario.  Fort  Niagara, 
with  two  smaller  posts,  maintained  the  connection  between  lakes 
Ontario  and  Erie.  Fort  Pitt,  formerly  Duquesne,  lying  at  the 
junction  of  the  Alleghany  and  Monongahela  rivers  which  form  the 
Ohio,  was  connected  with  the  north  by  Forts  Presqu'ile,  on  the 
southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  Le  Bceuf,  and  Venango  (or  Mac- 
hault).  Fort  Miami  lay  near  the  south-west  corner  of  Lake  Erie, 
and  other  posts  lay  on  the  river  Wabash.  Fort  Detroit,  on  the 
river  joining  Lake  Saint  Claire  to  Lake  Erie,  was  a  strong  post 
connected  with  the  scattered  settlement  mentioned  above.  Out- 
lying posts  were  found  on  or  near  Lake  Michigan.  The  French, 
in  1763,  still  held  Fort  Vincennes,  on  the  Wabash,  and  Fort 
Chartres,  on  the  Mississippi.  These  posts,  of  which  Fort 
Chartres  was  a  strong  stone  work,  mounting  twenty  cannon  and 
capable  of  holding  a  garrison  of  three  hundred  men,  were  the 
head-quarters  of  the  conspiracy  which  roused  the  Indians  to 
hostility  against  the  British. 

The  only  man  on  the  side  of  the  conquerors  of  Canada  who 
had  ever  succeeded,  as  we  have  seen,  in  conciliating  the  Indians 
was  Sir  William  Johnson.  In  1761,  he  conferred  at  Detroit  with 
the  chiefs  of  the  Ottawa  confederacy,  and  had  some  success  in 


248  OUR  EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

winning  their  goodwill.  The  natives  in  other  quarters  missed  the 
courteous  treatment  and  the  welcome  presents  which  they  had 
been  wont  to  receive  from  the  French.  The  cold  and  haughty 
British  commandants  treated  the  chiefs  and  their  tribes  as  of  small 
account,  and  withheld  the  military  honours,  the  flattering  words, 
the  showy  bribes  of  medals  and  orders,  and  the  lavish  hospitality 
with  which  the  French  had  welcomed  Indian  leaders  who  visited 
their  forts.  The  traders  on  the  Mississippi,  aided  by  the  persua- 
sive tongues  of  the  missionaries,  spread  reports  that  the  British,  in 
the  occupation  of  the  old  military  posts  and  the  erection  of  new 
ones,  were  intent  on  the  extirpation  of  the  natives.  The 
slanderous  fable  won  a  wide  belief,  and  its  effect  was  seen  in 
a  great  confederacy  which  included  the  Senecas,  Miamis,  Wyan- 
dots,  Shawnees,  Delawares,  and  other  tribes  spread  over  the 
country  from  Niagara  and  the  Alleghanies  to  Lake  Superior  and 
the  Mississippi.  Sir  William  Johnson  sent  warnings  both  to  the 
Lords  of  Trade  at  home,  and  to  the  authorities  at  Albany  and  New 
York,  but  his  words  were  treated  with  the  ignorant  neglect  which, 
in  British  affairs,  has  too  often  been  the  precursor  of  disastrous 
events.  The  Indians  were  also  encouraged  to  rise  against  the 
British  by  an  absurd  fiction,  uttered  with  the  utmost  confidence  by 
their  French  friends,  that  an  army  and  fleet  would  soon  arrive  in 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  recover  Canada  from  the  hands  of  her  new 
possessors. 

The  plot  was  being  matured  for  two  years  before  its  outbreak 
into  action  on  May  Qth,  1763.  Major  Gladwin,  the  brave,  able, 
and  prudent  commander  at  Fort  Detroit,  had  discerned  the  coming 
danger,  and  had  dispatched  warnings  to  his  comrades  at  Forts 
Pitt,  Presqu'ile,  and  elsewhere.  Gladwin,  as  a  lieutenant  in  the 
48th  Regiment,  had  been  wounded  in  Braddock's  defeat  of  1755; 
he  was  present  at  the  capitulation  of  Montreal  five  years  later,  and 
he  was  now  to  win  fame  by  a  gallant  defence  during  the  longest 
siege  in  the  annals  of  Indian  warfare  against  European  foes.  On 
May  ist,  Pontiac,  who  is  described  as  prone  to  take  offence,  and 
as  a  man  of  vindictive  character,  presented  himself  at  Fort 
Detroit,  with  forty  of  his  fellow  Ottawas,  and  proposed  that  he  and 
other  chiefs  should  perform  their  dance  as  a  token  of  peace  and 
friendship.  They  were  admitted  for  this  purpose,  and  then  took 
their  leave.  Gladwin  had  received  a  friendly  warning  of  what  was 


CANADA  UNDER  BRITISH  RULE.  249 

to  come,  and  was  quite  prepared  for  Pontiac's  arrival  a  few  days 
later.  The  chief,  with  fifty  warriors,  paid  another  visit,  each  man 
carrying  beneath  his  blanket  a  loaded  musket  with  barrel  short- 
ened by  filing  off  the  top  for  readier  concealment.  They  were 
again  admitted  within  the  fort,  only  to  find  the  garrison,  about  120 
men  of  the  39th  Regiment,  drawn  up  in  arms  on  parade,  as  if  for 
drilling.  The  disconcerted  plotter  contrived  to  make  a  friendly 
speech,  and  was  allowed  to  retire,  after  a  calm  reply  from  Glad- 
win,  and  the  bestowal  of  some  presents.  The  British  commander 
knew  the  full  extent  of  the  danger  involved  in  a  combined  Indian 
war,  and  he  did  not  choose  to  provoke  an  immediate  outbreak  by 
the  seizure  of  Pontiac  in  the  commission  of  detected  treachery. 
He  may  have  hoped  that  the  failure  to  surprise  one  of  the  chief 
British  posts  would  be  a  damper  to  the  whole  undertaking. 

On  May  gth,  however,  during  a  church-festival,  Pontiac  came 
again  with  a  large  number  of  Ottawas,  and  found  the  front  gate  of 
the  fort  closed  against  him.  On  his  demand  for  admittance, 
permission  was  granted  to  himself  and  a  few  chiefs,  but  to  none  of 
their  followers.  Pontiac  went  away  in  a  rage,  and  his  men  outside, 
starting  from  ambush,  with  loud  yells,  rushed  to  a  neighbouring 
house,  slew  and  scalped  an  Englishwoman  and  her  family,  and 
seized  and  murdered  two  officers,  Sir  Robert  Danvers  and  Lieu- 
tenant Robinson,  who  were  on  duty  above  Detroit.  A  regular 
siege  of  Fort  Detroit  began  at  the  dawn  of  f;he  next  day, 
hundreds  of  savages  surrounding  the  place  and  maintaining  a 
continual  fire  from  the  cover  of  barns,  fences,  and  bush.  A 
six  hours'  fight  ended  in  a  repulse  of  the  assailants,  who  then 
resorted  to  a  blockade  of  five  months'  duration,  enlivened  by 
renewals  of  attack  by  fusillade.  Gladwin,  the  commandant, 
had  provisions  in  store  for  only  three  weeks,  but  supplies  were 
obtained  from  friendly  French  settlers,  and  he  and  his  men  were 
resolved  to  defend  the  post  to  the  death. 

The  attack  on  Detroit  was  the  signal  for  assaults  on  the  other 
western  posts.  Sandusky,  on  an  arm  of  Lake  Erie,  a  block-house 
with  an  inclosure,  was  seized  by  Indians  on  a  pretence  of  friendly 
conference.  The  few  men  in  garrison  were  murdered.  The  com- 
mandant was  carried  a  prisoner  to  the  Indian  camp  before  Detroit, 
where  he  was  beaten  by  the  squaws  and  children,  compelled  to 
dance  and  sing  for  their  diversion,  and  only  saved  from  death  by 


250  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

torture  through  the  affection  which  he  inspired  in  an  elderly 
Indian  widow,  who  claimed  him  as  a  substitute  for  her  deceased 
mate.  From  her  embraces  Paulli  managed,  in  time,  to  escape  to 
Gladwin  within  the  fort.  Fort  Saint  Joseph,  on  the  river  of  that 
name,  was  surprised,  with  the  murder  of  nearly  all  the  garrison  of 
fourteen  men.  On  June  27th  Fort  Miami,  with  a  dozen  men,  was 
taken,  when  Holmes,  the  officer  in  charge,  had  been  lured  forth 
on  pretence  of  his  help  as  an  amateur  doctor  being  needed  by  a 
sick  Indian  woman.  He  was  shot  dead  through  the  treachery  of 
a  young  squaw  acting  the  part  of  his  Delilah.  Misfortune  dogged 
the  steps  of  the  British  at  every  turn.  Lieutenant  Cuyler,  of  the 
Queen's  Rangers,  with  nearly  a  hundred  men,  was  in  charge  of  ten 
bateaux,  or  barges,  conveying  stores  from  Fort  Schlosser,  above 
Niagara  Falls,  for  Detroit  and  other  western  forts.  On  the 
northern  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  he  was  attacked  by  a  large  force  of 
ambushed  Indians.  A  panic  ensued,  and  he  was  driven  back  to 
whence  he  came  with  the  loss  of  nearly  all  the  boats  and  supplies, 
and  three-fifths  of  his  men.  Of  these,  fifty  became  prisoners,  and, 
being  conducted  to  Pontiac's  camp  before  Detroit,  they  were 
mostly  killed  by  burning,  after  the  most  atrocious  tortures  and 
mutilation.  It  was  on  May  3Oth  that  the  beleaguered  garrison  saw 
with  joy  the  approach  up  the  river  of  the  expected  boats,  only  to 
find  that  the  vessels  were  in  the  hands  of  foes,  with  the  British 
escort  as  captives  on  board. 

A  cunning  stratagem  was  employed  in  the  surprise  of  the 
important  post  called  Michillimackinac,  a  fort  on  Lake  Michigan. 
The  Indians  of  the  vicinity  were  Ojibeways  and  Ottawas.  The 
garrison  was  under  the  command  of  Captain  Etherington,  a  man 
who  had  lived  on  friendly  terms  with  the  natives,  and  had  no 
reason  to  apprehend  hostility.  On  June  4th,  the  officers  and  men 
were  invited  by  some  Ojibeway  chiefs  to  witness  a  game  of  La 
Crosse  between  two  teams  of  native  players.  The  fort  gates  were 
left  open,  and  the  soldiers  were  mostly  on  the  ground  outside  as 
spectators.  The  squaws,  in  their  blankets,  strolled  in  and  out, 
hiding  the  weapons  of  the  men,  their  brothers  and  husbands,  who 
were  engaged  in  play.  The  ball  was  driven  up  near  to  the  fort, 
and  the  rush  of  the  players,  with  eager  cries,  was  suddenly  changed 
to  an  attack  on  the  troops  with  the  whoop  of  war,  the  savages 
wielding  with  dire  effect  the  tomahawks  handed  to  them  by  the 


CANADA  UNDER  BRITISH   RULE.  2$  I 

women.  Etherington  and  Lieutenant  Leslie  were  made  prisoners, 
another  subaltern  and  twenty  men  were  killed.  Some  of  the 
British  captives  were  rescued  by  friendly  Ottawas.  The  chief 
booty  taken  by  the  Indians  was  fifty  barrels  of  gunpowder.  Fort 
Presqu'ile,  with  a  small  garrison,  was  surrendered,  on  threats  of 
massacre  for  continued  defence,  to  an  Indian  force  of  Pontiac's 
from  Detroit.  Fort  Le  Bceuf  was  set  in  flames  after  the  men  had 
escaped  to  the  woods.  Venango  was  utterly  destroyed  by  fire, 
without  a  man  left  alive  to  tell  the  tale.  The  British  traders  were 
everywhere  attacked,  and  Fort  Ligonier,  between  Bedford  and  the 
Ohio,  was  assailed  by  parties  who  were  beaten  off.  The  works  at 
Fort  Pitt  were  efficiently  repaired  by  the  commandant,  Captain 
Ecuyer,  who,  on  July  26th,  refused  in  the  boldest  terms  a  summons 
to  surrender  to  a  body  of  Delawares,  threatening  to  blow  to  atoms 
any  Indian  who  dared  to  appear  in  hostile  guise  before  the  post. 
There  alone,  and  at  Detroit,  the  honour  of  the  British  flag  was 
well  supported.  The  Indians,  elated  by  the  capture  of  so  many 
forts,  resumed  the  savage  frontier-warfare,  wasting  the  borders  of 
Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  by  the  burning  of  homesteads,  the 
slaughter  and  scalping  of  the  males,  and  the  carrying  of  women 
and  children  into  slavery.  Hundreds  of  lives  were  lost  in  this  last 
paroxysm  of  Indian  cruelty  and  rage,  and  the  surviving  settlers 
hurried  to  the  eastern  towns  for  safety. 

General  Amherst,  at  New  York,  after  long  neglect  of  warnings 
received  from  Gladwin  and  Sir  William  Johnson,  was  forced  by 
the  logic  of  disastrous  facts  to  recognize  the  serious  danger  of  the 
time.  The  first  duty  was  the  relief  of  Fort  Detroit.  An  expedi- 
tion of  nearly  300  men  was  placed  under  the  command  of  Captain 
Dalzell,  an  aide-de-camp  of  Amherst,  and  a  young  officer  of  good 
repute  and  promise.  The  force  left  Fort  Schlosser,  near  Niagara, 
in  a  number  of  barges,  and,  coasting  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Erie,  arrived  on  July  26th  at  Sandusky.  Two  days  later,  during 
a  thick  fog,  they  were  in  the  river  Detroit,  and  the  2Qth  saw  them 
safe  at  the  fort.  A  night-sortie  on  Pontiac's  camp  was  suggested 
by  Dalzell,  and  Gladwin,  with  a  reluctant  assent,  placed  the  troops 
under  that  brave  man's  command.  The  senior  officer  had  little 
faith  in  the  chance  of  outwitting  the  Indian  besiegers.  At  half- 
past  two  in  the  morning  of  July  3ist,  a  picked  body  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men  quitted  the  fort  for  a  march  of  over  two 


252  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

miles  to  the  enemy's  position.  Their  every  step  was  watched  by 
Indian  scouts,  and  it  is  said  that  the  plan  had  been  betrayed  to 
Pontiac  by  French  Canadians  within  the  works.  At  two  miles 
from  the  fort  a  severe  fire  was  opened  at  a  spot,  still  known  as 
"  Bloody  Run",  where  a  narrow  bridge  then  crossed  a  stream. 
Confusion  ensued  in  the  British  ranks;  Dalzell  was  killed  after 
brave  and  skilful  efforts  to  secure  a  retreat,  and  the  detachment 
reached  the  fort  at  eight  o'clock  with  the  loss  of  over  sixty  men 
killed  and  wounded.  The  siege,  conducted  by  more  than  a 
thousand  Indians,  was  continued  during  August  and  September, 
but  no  serious  assault  was  attempted.  Events  in  other  quarters, 
to  be  soon  related,  had  shaken  the  confidence  of  Pontiac's 
followers,  and  the  intervention  of  French  officers  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi, hinting  at  the  uselessness  of  further  efforts  against  the 
British,  caused  the  chief,  at  the  end  of  October,  to  send  a  letter  of 
submission  to  Gladwin.  That  officer  replied  in  cautious  terms, 
referring  the  matter  to  his  superior,  Amherst,  and  the  blockade  of 
Fort  Detroit,  as  winter  approached,  ended  with  the  dispersal  of 
the  Indians  to  their  homes.  Gladwin  then  prepared  himself  for 
future  defence,  in  case  of  need,  with  the  persuasion  that  lasting 
peace  with  the  Indians  could  only  be  secured  by  the  use  of  stern 
measures  of  chastisement  and  repression. 

We  now  turn  to  events  connected  with  Fort  Pitt.  The  gallant 
commander,  Ecuyer,  of  Swiss  origin,  had  a  garrison  of  over  three 
hundred  men  when  he  was  attacked,  at  the  end  of  May,  1763,  by 
some  hundreds  of  Indians  who  burrowed  in  the  river-banks,  and 
kept  up  a  constant  fire  which  did  no  serious  harm.  In  June,  an 
expedition  of  relief  was  dispatched  by  Amherst  from  Philadelphia, 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Bouquet.  The  force  comprised 
about  400  Highlanders  of  the  42nd  and  77th  Regiments,  with  a 
small  number  of  provincials  from  Virginia.  On  July  25th  he 
arrived  at  Bedford,  after  a  most  toilsome  march  over  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  through  the  wilderness,  with  a  heavy  baggage-train  of 
stores,  and  sheep  and  cattle  for  the  supply  of  his  troops.  Deserted 
farms,  where  the  fields  were  waving  with  ripened  grain,  proved 
the  terror  caused  by  the  Indian  war,  and  the  troops,  as  they 
advanced,  learnt  the  capture  or  destruction  of  Forts  Presqu'ile,  Le 
Boeuf,  and  Venango,  which  left  more  foemen  free  to  oppose  their 
progress  to  the  rescue  of  Fort  Pitt. 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE. 

At  Fort  Ligonier,  fifty-five  miles  from  the  beleaguered  post, 
the  waggons  and  stores  were  left  behind,  and  Bouquet  pressed 
forward,  taking  some  hundreds  of  pack-horses  laden  with  flour. 
He  was  well  acquainted  with  the  road,  from  the  part  which  he  had 
played,  four  years  previously,  in  the  expedition  led  by  Forbes,  and 
this  knowledge  of  every  dangerous  spot,  suited  for  ambush  and 
surprise,  was  of  signal  service  to  him  in  his  perilous  undertaking. 
On  August  5th,  amidst  intense  heat,  with  mosquitoes  swarming  in 
the  bush,  and  when  the  troops,  at  one  o'clock  after  noon,  had 
already  marched  seventeen  miles  since  the  morning's  start,  the 
advance-guard  was  briskly  attacked  near  a  creek  called  Bushy 
Run,  twenty-six  miles  from  Fort  Pitt.  Two  companies  of  the 
42nd  drove  the  Indians  from  their  ambuscade,  and  then  the  front 
and  both  flanks  were  assailed  by  large  numbers  of  Shawnees  and 
Delawares.  A  desperate  conflict  ensued,  in  which  the  British 
troops  displayed  the  most  noble  resolution,  endurance,  and  valour. 
The  enemy,  driven  off  at  this  point  and  that  with  the  bayonet, 
constantly  reappeared,  and  reinforcements,  arriving  from  the 
besiegers  of  Fort  Pitt,  enabled  them  to  surround  the  column  on 
all  sides.  After  seven  hours  of  incessant  strife,  the  hard-pressed 
Britons  formed  in  a  circular  phalanx  round  a  space  which  contained 
the  wounded,  protected  from  chance  shots  by  the  bags  of  flour, 
with  the  horses  of  the  convoy  as  a  further  barrier.  The  brief 
darkness  of  the  summer  night  gave  a  respite,  during  which  the 
soldiers  lay  beside  their  weapons.  Sixty  men  and  officers  had 
fallen,  and  at  daylight  the  troops,  harassed  by  the  want  of  water, 
which  Bouquet,  in  his  dispatch  to  Amherst,  describes  as  "  much 
more  intolerable  than  the  enemy's  fire  ",  were  again  forced  to  stand 
and  face  hosts  of  furious  foes.  The  value  of  discipline  and  of  the 
steady  self-reliance  and  mutual  trust  of  civilized  troops  was  never 
more  finely  displayed  than  in  this  arduous  struggle,  at  great  odds 
of  numerical  force,  with  savages  fighting  on  ground  selected  as  the 
best  arena  for  the  employment  of  their  special  modes  of  warfare. 
Hour  after  hour,  as  the  sun  rose  higher  in  the  heavens  towards 
noon,  the  weaned  British,  half-wild  with  thirst,  kept  an  unbroken 
front  to  the  foe,  repelling  with  the  bayonet  many  a  wild  rush,  and 
steadily  replying  to  the  fire  from  the  woods.  A  clever  device  of 
Bouquet's  at  last  brought  relief  to  men  who  appeared  doomed  to 
destruction  from  the  mere  iteration  of  attacks  ever  repulsed  and 


254  OUR   EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

ever  renewed.  No  courage  could  cope  with  the  exhaustion  due  to 
interminable  strife  with  enemies  who  could  not  be  wearied  into 
withdrawal,  or  forced  from  the  field.  Two  companies  were  recalled 
from  the  outer  circle  towards  the  centre,  as  if  beginning  a  move- 
ment of  retreat.  The  Indians,  giving  an  exultant  yell,  rushed 
forward  in  a  mass,  with  a  heavy  fire.  They  were  firmly  met,  and, 
in  the  midst  of  the  new  conflict,  their  flank  was  assailed  by  the 
nimble  Highlanders  who  had  retired,  and  made  a  compass  unseen 
to  a  point  fit  for  a  sudden  and  effective  charge.  The  savages  were 
taken  wholly  by  surprise.  They  broke  and  fled,  receiving  on  the 
open  ground  the  close  fire  of  two  other  companies  moved  forward 
in  support,  and  pursued  with  the  bayonet  by  men  as  swift-footed 
and  active  as  themselves.  The  battle  was  won.  Water  was  soon 
obtained  at  Bushy  Run,  where  a  camp  was  formed  for  the  special 
protection  of  the  wounded  men.  The  total  loss  amounted  to  115, 
of  whom  50,  with  three  officers,  were  killed. 

The  expedition  reached  Fort  Pitt  on  August  nth,  after  a 
victory  memorable  both  as  the  issue  of  the  last  great  conflict  with 
the  Indians  during  British  rule,  and  for  the  decisive  effect  wrought 
upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  our  uncivilised  foes.  The  siege  of 
the  fort  had  been  already  raised,  and  the  tribes  there  engaged 
never  recovered  from  the  blow  inflicted  by  Bouquet  and  his  men. 
A  few  weeks  after  this  success,  the  careless  marching  of  some 
British  troops  near  Fort  Niagara  permitted  a  surprise  by  a  large 
body  of  Seneca  Indians,  in  which  nearly  ninety  officers  and  men 
were  killed. 

In  November,  1763,  Amherst  took  his  departure  for  England, 
transferring  the  North  American  command  to  General  Gage.  In 
the  same  month,  a  storm  on  Lake  Erie  wrecked  some  bateaux  on 
their  way  to  Detroit,  with  the  loss  of  seventy  officers  and  men. 
The  new  commander-in-chief  took  measures,  in  accordance  with 
Amherst's  advice  and  with  instructions  from  home,  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  lasting  peace  with  the  Indians.  The  northern 
colonies,  still  loyal  to  the  British  crown,  but  often  strangely  back- 
ward in  taking  a  due  part  in  efforts  for  their  own  welfare,  were 
called  upon  to  furnish  militia.  In  April,  1764,  a  body  of  two 
thousand  men,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Bradstreet,  was 
ready  to  march  from  Albany  for  Detroit,  with  a  view  to  chastise 
the  Indians  in  that  quarter,  and  to  re-establish  the  garrisons  at  the 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  255 

forts  on  and  beyond  Lake  Erie.  Bradstreet's  force  included  the 
1 7th  Regiment,  four  companies  of  the  8oth,  1000  militia  from  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  and  Connecticut,  50  men  of  the  Royal  Artillery, 
and  ten  light  field-guns.  A  contingent  of  300  French  Canadians, 
new  subjects  of  the  British  sovereign,  was  added  with  the  reason- 
able view  of  destroying  the  illusive  belief,  entertained  by  many  of 
the  Indians,  that  France  was  likely  to  resume  possession  of 
Canada. 

A  second  expedition,  under  Bouquet,  was  organized  at  Fort 
Pitt,  for  the  main  purpose  of  reducing  the  hostile  Indians  of  the 
Ohio  valley.  At  the  same  time,  Sir  William  Johnson  was 
employed  in  negotiations  which  were  likely  to  prove  quite  as 
effective,  in  his  hands,  as  any  use  of  armed  force.  In  July,  this 
able  man,  so  well  acquainted  with  the  Indian  mind,  met  more 
than  two  thousand  natives  at  Niagara.  There  were  warrior- 
deputies  from  many  tribes  of  the  west — Hurons  and  Ottawas, 
Chippewas,  Foxes,  and  Sakis,  with  delegates  even  from  Lake 
Superior  and  Hudson's  Bay.  Of  these,  the  Hurons  were  the 
chief,  and  in  July  and  August  treaties  of  peace  were  made  with 
them  and  the  other  tribes,  including  some  of  the  Seneca  Indians. 
The  Shawnees  and  Delawares  held  aloof.  Pontiac  sent  a  mes- 
senger expressing  his  desire  for  peace.  Johnson,  in  his  report  to 
the  Lords  of  Trade,  strongly  urged  the  conciliation  of  the  Indians 
by  a  policy  of  generous  treatment,  including  the  bestowal  of  the 
periodical  gifts  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed  in  their  dealings 
with  the  French. 

It  was  not  until  the  close  of  the  conference  that  Bradstreet's 
force,  on  August  6th,  commenced  their  journey,  and,  embarking  on 
Lake  Erie,  reached  Presqu'ile  on  the  i2th.  There  Bradstreet  was 
met  by  a  number  of  Shawnees  and  Delawares,  and  with  these 
men,  in  the  absence  of  authority  on  either  side,  he  was  entrapped 
into  making  a  truce  which  debarred  him  from  using  force  for 
nearly  a  month.  The  two  tribes  were  those  who  had  just  declined 
to  meet  Sir  William  Johnson,  and  the  brethren  of  these  self-made 
deputies  were  at  that  moment  engaged  in  murdering  helpless 
British  settlers  on  the  borders  of  Pennsylvania.  The  arrangement 
was  promptly  disavowed  by  General  Gage  and  Bouquet,  and 
Bradstreet  was  ordered  to  proceed  to  Sandusky,  and  there  attack 
the  tribes  who  had  not  made  terms  with  Johnson.  He  allowed 


2$6  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

himself  again  to  be  cajoled  by  the  Indians,  but  he  did  perform  the 
service  of  relieving  the  garrison  at  Detroit,  and  enabling  the 
soldiers  to  return  for  rest  to  the  civilized  world,  after  fifteen  months 
of  anxious  service,  including  five  of  continuous  siege.  He  then 
returned  from  his  inglorious  expedition,  which  will  be  found  in 
strong  contrast  with  the  proceedings  of  the  gallant  and  able 
Bouquet.  That  officer  put  aside  the  tricks  and  evasions  of  Indian 
deputies  by  a  plain  threat  of  war  without  quarter,  to  be  averted 
only  by  complete,  unconditional,  and  immediate  submission. 

This  resolute  tone  had  its  due  effect  on  some  of  the  tribes,  but 
others  held  out  or  strove  for  delay,  and  on  October  3rd  the  troops 
under  Bouquet  marched  out  of  Fort  Pitt.  The  column  consisted 
of  500  men  from  the  42nd  Highlanders,  the  6oth  Royal  Americans, 
and  the  77th  or  Montgomery's  Highlanders,  most  of  whom  had 
been  present  in  the  previous  year  at  Bushy  Run,  and  of  about  1000 
Pennsylvanian  and  Virginian  militia  and  volunteers.  The  route 
lay  through  a  region  hitherto  untraversed  save  by  the  Indians  and 
a  few  fur-traders,  and  the  trail  was  familiar  to  none  but  the 
commander's  Indian  guides.  Supplies  of  food  needed  to  be 
carried  on  pack-horses  and  mules,  and  the  advance,  as  a  precaution 
against  surprise,  was  preceded  by  three  scouting  parties,  in  the 
centre  and  to  right  and  left.  The  soldiers  marched  in  readiness  to 
form  at  short  notice  a  hollow  square,  in  which  each  company 
already  knew  its  place,  and  could  form  with  speed  round  the 
baggage,  tents,  oxen,  sheep,  and  pack-animals  placed  in  the  middle 
of  the  marching  column.  Strict  silence  on  the  march  was  enjoined, 
and  every  man  was  to  keep  at  two  yards'  distance  from  the  one 
preceding  him.  On  a  halt,  all  were  to  face  outwards,  in  instant 
readiness  to  meet  attack.  The  prudence  of  these  arrangements 
was  proved,  on  the  fourth  day  of  march,  by  the  statement  of  a 
British  prisoner  who  had  escaped  from  the  clutches  of  the  Indians. 
This  man  declared  that  the  natives  whom  he  had  lately  quitted 
had  been  reconnoitring  the  force,  and  had  been  deterred  from 
attack,  not  merely  by  it's  numbers,  but  by  the  perfect  order 
and  discipline  which  they  observed  to  prevail. 

On  the  twelfth  day,  Bouquet  and  his  men,  after  passing  through 
a  splendid  rolling  country,  having  valleys  and  hills  clothed  with 
noble  trees,  and  richly  watered  by  brooks  and  rivers,  were  at 
nearly  a  hundred  miles  from  Fort  Pitt.  They  had  arrived  without 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  257 

opposition  near  to  the  villages  of  the  Mingoes,  the  Shawnees,  and 
the  Delawares.     A  few  days'  rest  was  granted,  during  which  two 
men  sent  out  by  Bouquet  arrived  with  news  that  the  Delawares 
were  anxious  to  submit.     The  commander  made  arrangements  to 
meet  their  chiefs  on  a  clear  spot  of  his  own  choice,  free  from  all 
chance  of  surprise,  with  his  troops  drawn   up  in  imposing  array. 
Chiefs  of  the  Senecas  and  Delawares  presented  themselves  with 
the  wampum-belts  that,  in  Indian  affairs,  were  the  indispensable 
guarantee  of  peaceful  intentions,  and  a  further  proof  of  sincerity 
was  given  in  the  present  surrender  of  eighteen  prisoners.    Bouquet, 
in   reply,  declared   his  intention  of  not  leaving  the  country  until 
every  condition  made  prior  to  a  treaty  had  been  fulfilled,  and  he 
appointed  a  place,  forty  miles  distant,  in  the  very  centre  of  their 
villages,  where  they  were  to  deliver  up  every  English  and  French 
man,  woman,  and  child,  with  all  negroes,  held  in  captivity  among 
the  tribes,  or  incorporated  with  them  by  adoption,  marriage,  or  any 
other  means.      The  firmness  of  his  demeanour,  backed  by  irre- 
sistible  force,   achieved   the    end   in   view.     Hundreds   of  white 
captives  were  given  up  for  restoration  to  their  friends,  and  were 
welcomed  in  the  British  settlements  with  many  an  affecting  scene. 
Bouquet  returned  to   Fort    Pitt  on   November   28th,  and   in 
January,    1765,  his  valuable  service  in  procuring  a  stable  peace 
with  the  Indians  received  an  unanimous  vote  of  thanks  from  the 
General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania.     The  vile  home-administration 
headed  by  George  Grenville,  a  man  "  whose  public  acts  may  be 
classed  under  two  heads,  outrages  on  the  liberty  of  the  people,  and 
outrages  on  the  dignity  of  the  crown",  deemed  Bouquet  worthy  of 
no  higher  reward  than  promotion  to  the  rank  of  brigadier.     The 
Virginian  house  of  burgesses  voted  to  this  distinguished  soldier  an 
honour  like  to  that  paid  by  the  Pennsylvanian  legislature.     The 
frontiers  of  these  two  leading  states  had  been  by  him  secured 
against  the  molestation  so  long  suffered  from  the  Indians.     Pontiac, 
discredited  with   the  natives   by  his  utter  failure  in  the  siege  of 
Detroit,  vainly  strove  for  some  time  to  stir  further  hostility  to  the 
British  power,  and  in  August,  1765,  he  felt  compelled  to  make  a 
complete  and  final  submission.     The  Indian  war  incited  and  en- 
couraged by  the  French,  which  had  begun  with  the  attack  on 
Detroit,  ended  on  October  roth,  1765,  after  two  years  and  a  half 
duration,  with  the  surrender  of  Fort  Chartres,  on  the  Mississippi. 


VOL.  I. 


258  OUR   EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

The  flag  of  France  then  and  there  vanished,  as  the  symbol  of  rule, 
from  the  western  continent,  save  for  her  brief  tenure,  at  a  later 
period,  of  Louisiana. 

The  conquest  of  Canada  by  Great  Britain  was  the  dawn  of 
political  education  for  the  French  Canadians.  They  were  hence- 
forth to  be  treated  as  free  men,  not  as  feudal  vassals,  subject 
to  the  personal  and  financial  exactions  of  impressment  for 
service  without  pay,  the  forced  labour  of  corvfos,  and  other  inci- 
dents of  seigneurial  rule.  The  backward  condition  of  the  country 
in  the  means  of  mental  enlightenment  is  proved  by  the  fact  that, 
prior  to  British  rule,  Canada  had  no  printing-press.  This  bulwark 
of  free  institutions  was  first  introduced  in  1764,  and  on  June  2ist, 
the  pioneers  of  Canadian  journalism,  William  Brown  and  Thomas 
Gilmore,  of  Philadelphia,  issued  the  first  number  of  the  still-existing 
Quebec  Gazette.  From  the  first,  the  new  rulers  had  dealt  on  new 
principles  with  those  confided  to  their  charge.  The  people  were 
treated  as  reasonable  beings  by  the  publication,  in  the  French 
tongue,  of  the  duties  which  they  were  required  to  perform,  and  of 
events  which  were  held  to  concern  them  as  subjects  of  a  British 
sovereign.  The  death  of  George  II.,  the  summons  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  his  successor,  the  marriage  of  George  III.,  the 
birth  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  peace, 
had  all  been  duly  proclaimed,  and  the  French  were  thus  admitted 
to  a  knowledge  of  these  and  other  political  events  which  were 
occurring  in  distant  quarters  of  the  globe  throughout  the  empire, 
instead  of  being  narrowed,  in  their  mental  horizon,  to  the  transac- 
tions of  their  own  parishes  and  their  own  households.  The  grand 
blessing  to  the  cultivator  of  the  soil  was  the  advent  of  peace,  and 
that  time  for  the  resumption  of  profitable  labour  was  heralded  by 
changes  which  first  aroused  the  French  Canadians  of  the  rural 
districts  to  the  conscious  possession  of  a  new  independence  in  their 
social  life.  The  trade-monopolies  were  also  abolished,  and  restric- 
tions on  the  dealings  in  furs  were  removed. 

In  August,  1764,  came  the  actual  establishment  of  the  new  rule, 
when  General  Murray  assumed  his  duties  as  "  captain-general  and 
governor  of  the  province  of  Quebec  ".  A  royal  proclamation  had 
promised  the  establishment  of  a  representative  assembly,  and  of 
courts  of  judicature  for  civil  and  criminal  affairs  "  as  near  as  may 
be  according  to  the  law  of  England,  with  liberty  to  appeal  to  the 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  259 

Privy  Council".  It  was  many  years  before  the  first  of  these  pledges 
was  redeemed,  but  the  prospect  of  government  under  English 
law  caused  a  steady  flow  of  immigration  from  the  neighbouring 
colonies  of  North  America,  and  from  the  mother-country.  Many 
military  settlers  were  attracted  by  liberal  grants  of  land,  according 
to  the  rank  of  the  holders,  from  private  soldiers  up  to  field-officers, 
on  payment  of  a  small  quit-rent,  or  annual  tax,  after  ten  years' 
occupation. 

The  "  new  subjects  ",  or  French  Canadians,  soon  began  to  com- 
plain of  their  position  as  regarded  the  "  old  subjects  "  or  British  set- 
tlers. About  five  hundred  half-pay  officers,  merchants,  and  disbanded 
soldiers  formed  at  first  a  dominant  minority,  engrossing  public 
offices,  and  excluding  from  power,  under  the  law  existing  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  all  holders  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  The 
privilege  of  trial  by  jury  made  law  more  expensive,  and  inconven- 
ience was  found  in  processes  being  conducted  in  a  foreign  language. 
The  pride  of  the  seigneurs,  or  old  French  gentry,  shrank  from  the 
submission  of  causes  concerning  gentlemen  to  the  arbitrament  of 
juries  which  might  and  often  did  include  peasants  and  artisans. 
The  small  dominant  minority,  for  their  parts,  rendered  unintended 
honour  to  General  Murray  by  jealous  complaints  of  the  equitable 
treatment  by  which  he  sought  to  conciliate  the  French  Canadians 
in  restraining  the  action  of  mercenary  and  corrupt  place-holders 
and  place-hunters  among  the  British  section.  He  was,  however, 
upheld  by  the  authorities  at  home  against  petitions  for  his  recall. 
An  important  royal  provision,  which  did  much  to  secure  the  colony, 
in  time  to  come,  from  Indian  troubles,  forbade  all  grants  of  land 
within  the  fixed  bounds  of  the  Indian  territory,  and  all  private 
purchase  of  territory  from  the  Indians  themselves.  The  natives 
were  thus  guarded  against  the  greed  of  settlers  and  of  land-specu- 
lators, and  the  principle  of  imperial  control  in  this  matter  has  been 
acted  on  down  to  the  present  day,  and  is  still  enforced  in  the  north- 
west of  the  Dominion. 

In  the  autumn  of  1766,  Murray  was  succeeded  in  the  governor- 
ship by  Sir  Guy  Carleton.  The  future  career  of  the  former  high- 
minded  and  distinguished  man  was  to  include  a  noble,  though 
unavailing,  defence  of  Minorca,  in  1781-2,  against  an  overwhelming 
French  and  Spanish  force,  during  which  he  rejected,  with  defiance 
and  indignation,  the  Due  de  Crillon's  offer  of  ,£100,000,  with  a 


26O  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

general's  commission  in  the  French  or  Spanish  service,  for  a  betrayal 
of  his  trust  by  a  premature  surrender  of  the  fortress,  St.  Philip's 
castle,  at  Port  Mahon. 

The  new  governor,  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  who  afterwards  became 
Lord  Dorchester,  has  a  reputation  of  the  highest  rank  in  Canadian 
history.  His  character,  during  a  long  and  chequered  public  career, 
was  without  a  stain,  or  even  a  semblance  of  reason  for  reproach. 
His  military  merits  are  far  transcended  by  those  which  belong  to 
a  ruler  marked  by  moderation,  ability,  and  justice,  and  by  the 
unobtrusive  work  which  develops  the  resources  of  a  country,  and 
applies  with  effect  the  laws  which  are  intended  to  secure  personal 
freedom  and  to  maintain  the  rights  of  property.  The  public  life 
which  exercises  the  strongest  influence  on  human  happiness  and 
prosperity  is  not  always  conducive  to  the  personal  distinction 
acquired  by  successful  and  striking  achievements  in  war,  and  it  is 
owing  to  this  fact  that  the  fame  of  Guy,  Lord  Dorchester,  has  been 
somewhat  obscured  by  that  of  some  far  inferior  men.  As  a  subaltern 
in  the  72nd  Foot,  Carleton,  son  of  General  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  of 
county  Down,  did  gallant  service  in  Germany  during  the  War  of 
the  Austrian  Succession,  and  became  a  trusted  friend  of  Wolfe, 
under  whom  he  acted  as  quartermaster-general  during  the  siege  of 
Quebec.  He  was  also  the  chief  officer  of  engineers,  in  default  of 
suitable  men  in  that  branch,  and  was  wounded  on  the  memorable 
1 3th  of  September,  which  saw  the  glorious  death  of  his  beloved 
commander.  After  fighting  with  Murray  against  De  L£vis  in  April, 
1760,  Carleton  took  part  in  the  expedition  against  Belleisle,  on  the 
French  coast,  and  was  severely  wounded,  in  1762,  at  the  siege  of 
Havanna.  Soon  after  assuming  office  in  October,  1766,  Carleton, 
in  reply  to  addresses,  declared  his  intention  of  making  no  class- 
distinctions,  "  the  one  difference  being  between  good  men  and  bad". 
He  took  from  the  first  a  high  tone  towards  recalcitrant  members  of 
the  Council,  and  stated  that  he  should  not  only  apply  for  advice  in 
special  cases  to  such  members  of  the  Council  as  were  best  qualified 
to  inform  him,  but  also  ask  the  opinion  of  persons  of  good  judgment 
and  character  outside  that  body. 

In  respect  of  the  administration  of  justice,  the  complaints  of 
French  Canadians  caused  the  governor  to  introduce  an  important 
change.  A  judicious  compromise  allowed  the  old  French  laws 
and  procedures  to  prevail  in  civil  cases  which  dealt  with  property 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  26l 

and  inheritance,  while  criminal  matters  were  decided  under  British 
forms  and  with  jury-trial.  It  was  Carleton's  strong  conviction, 
expressed  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  Lord  Hillsborough,  that,  in 
order  to  remove  secret  feelings  of  attachment  to  France  and  to 
reconcile  the  new  subjects  to  British  rule,  the  French  Canadians 
should  not  be  excluded  from  all  public  employment,  and  that  in  this 
and  other  ways  it  should  be  made  expedient  for  them  to  become 
and  remain  devoted  to  the  new  order  of  things.  A  report  of  his 
on  Canadian  manufactures  in  1769  makes  known  to  us  a  large 
growth  of  flax,  made  up  into  coarse  linen,  and  some  working  in 
wool,  with  a  general  estimate  that  one-third  of  the  population, 
numbering  about  ninety  thousand,  wore  clothes  of  home  manufac- 
ture. There  were  a  few  tanneries,  producing  an  inferior  leather, 
and  the  forges  of  Saint  Maurice  made  much  bar-iron,  from  which 
edged  tools,  axes,  and  tomahawks  were  manufactured.  In  August, 
1770,  the  governor  returned  to  England  for  four  years,  to  find 
Lord  North  in  power  as  chief  minister.  During  his  absence,  a 
Swiss  Protestant  named  Cramahe,  senior  member  of  the  Council, 
was  lieutenant-governor.  He  was  a  man  of  good  ability  and 
character,  who  maintained  order  in  the  colony  during  an  uneventful 
period. 

In  February,  1774,  a  petition  from  some  French  Canadians 
was  presented  to  George  III.,  in  which  they  acknowledged  the 
kindly  treatment  which  they  had  met  with  since  the  conquest,  but 
desired  to  receive  complete  restoration  of  their  ancient  laws, 
privileges,  and  customs,  with  the  full  rights  of  British  subjects, 
including  a  share  in  civil  and  military  employment.  Partly  in 
consequence  of  this,  but  rather  from  the  long-felt  need  of  a  definite 
form  of  government  for  Canada,  the  Quebec  Act  of  1774  was 
passed.  This  measure  was  carried  in  the  face  of  a  very  strong 
opposition  from  some  leading  members  of  both  Houses,  including 
Burke  and  Lord  Chatham,  and  from  the  Corporation  of  London. 
The  province  of  Quebec,  or  Canada,  was  now  made  to  include  the 
whole  country  west  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia;  southwards, 
from  Lake  Erie  to  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  until  that  river  joined 
the  Mississippi;  northwards,  to  the  boundary  of  the  lands  held 
under  the  charter  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company;  and  eastwards, 
to  the  coast,  including  the  territories  and  islands  lately  attached  to 
Newfoundland.  Free  exercise  of  their  religion,  without  civil 


262  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

disabilities,  was  secured  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  or  French 
Canadians,  with  the  payment  of  the  dues  and  tithes,  by  members 
of  their  own  church,  to  the  Catholic  clergy.  The  French  law 
known  as  "  The  Custom  of  Paris  "  was  henceforth  to  be  the  civil 
law  concerning  property.  The  English  law  was  established  for 
criminal  matters.  The  property  of  religious  orders  was  specially 
excepted  from  the  provision  which  secured  all  classes  in  full 
possession  of  their  landed  and  personal  estates.  The  exclusion  of 
juries  from  all  civil  cases,  and  the  subjection  of  civil  rights  to  the 
operation  of  a  foreign  code  of  law,  was  greatly  resented  by  the 
small  British  minority,  and  the  king  and  government  were  accused 
of  seeking  safety  for  the  Crown's  Canadian  possessions,  by  undue 
favour  to  the  new  subjects,  in  face  of  the  now  formidable  discon- 
tent of  the  old  American  colonies.  A  legislative  council,  not  to 
exceed  twenty-three  members,  and  to  be  composed  of  at  least 
seventeen,  was  appointed  to  frame  legal  ordinances,  without  the 
power  of  levying  taxes  beyond  the  local  and  municipal  payments. 
The  council  was  to  be  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  its  ordinances 
were  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  king  in  council.  Such,  for 
seventeen  years,  was  the  form  of  government  in  the  great  new 
colony  of  North  America.  The  representative  assembly  promised 
in  1763  was  still  withheld,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the 
royal  proclamation,  which  made  the  grant  of  this  body  subject  to 
such  time  "as  the  state  and  circumstances  of  the  colonies  will 
admit".  The  concessions  to  French  Canadian  feeling  in  the 
Quebec  Act  of  1774  have  been  generally,  and,  perhaps,  with  some 
justice,  regarded  as  due  to  a  desire  for  securing  the  sympathy  and 
aid  of  men  devoted  to  monarchy  and  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith, 
against  the  republican  spirit  of  the  mainly  Protestant  colonies 
about  to  break  into  open  revolt.  However  that  may  be,  we  shall 
soon  see  that  the  Canadian  colonists  did  remain  faithful  to  the 
British  crown. 

In  September,  1774,  Carleton  resumed  his  duties  as  governor 
of  Canada,  and  was  soon  called  upon  to  face  a  serious  condition 
.of  affairs  in  intrigues  directed  from  the  neighbouring  colonies, 
followed  by  armed  attack.  On  May  ist,  1775,  the  Quebec  Act 
came  into  operation,  and,  within  a  few  weeks,  news  arrived  at 
Montreal,  where  the  governor  was  awaiting  events,  that  forts 
Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point,  on  Lake  Champlain,  had  been 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  263 

seized  by  the  troops  of  the  revolted  colonies.  At  this  critical 
moment,  Canada  was  almost  destitute  of  the  means  of  defence,  the 
province  not  containing  as  many  as  a  thousand  regular  troops,  or 
having  at  disposal  a  single  armed  vessel.  It  was  well  for  the 
British  crown  that  the  helm  of  rule  was  in  such  hands  as  those  of 
Sir  Guy  Carleton.  To  the  energy  and  wisdom  of  his  measures, 
and  to  the  calm  courage  and  self-devotion  which  he  himself 
possessed,  and,  in  no  small  degree,  inspired  in  those  around  him, 
the  safety  of  Canada  was  due  when  the  storm  of  war  began  to 
beat  upon  her  ill-guarded  frontier. 

In  1774,  the  "General  Congress"  of  the  American  colonies 
issued  an  "Address  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Province  of  Quebec", 
calling  upon  the  French  Canadians  to  join  their  confederation  in 
resistance  to  the  tyranny  of  the  home  government.  The  address 
pointed  out  that  the  conquered  people  had  not  received,  under 
their  established  form  of  government,  the  rights  of  British  subjects, 
in  the  withholding  of  representative  government,  with  the  power 
of  self-taxation;  of  trial  by  jury  in  all  cases;  of  the  personal 
freedom  secured  by  Habeas  Corpus;  and  in  being  subject  to  the 
power  of  the  governor  and  council,  conferred  by  the  Quebec  Act, 
to  vary  the  existing  laws  by  the  issue  of  ordinances.  There  was 
much  quotation  from  the  Frenchmen's  "countryman,  the  immortal 
Montesquieu",  and  it  was  averred  that  the  legislative,  executive, 
and  judicial  powers  in  Canada  were  all,  in  fact,  "  moved  by  the 
nods  of  a  minister". 

The  Canadians  did  not  respond  to  this  appeal,  declining  to 
attend  secret  conferences,  and  declaring  that  their  oath  not  to  bear 
arms  against  the  British  bound  them  to  remain  neutral.  Most  of 
the  very  small  Canadian  minority,  the  English-speaking  population, 
were  on  the  side  of  the  revolted  colonists.  The  prospect  of 
neutrality  among  the  French  Canadians  was  welcome  to  the 
congress,  and  an  invasion  of  Canada  was  planned.  Carleton  in 
vain  called  on  the  French  Canadians  to  serve  as  volunteers,  but 
raised  some  troops,  both  British  and  French,  under  the  old  militia 
Act,  and  Sir  William  Johnson  induced  some  hundreds  of  Indians 
to  serve.  The  danger  was  serious.  Montreal,  with  but  a  hundred 
regular  soldiers  in  garrison,  contained  many  disaffected  people,  and 
most  of  the  troops  at  Quebec  had  been  dispatched  to  meet  invasion 
of  the  province  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain.  No  help  could  be 


264  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

obtained  from  General  Gage  at  Boston,  and  the  government  at 
home  wholly  failed  to  understand  the  importance  of  maintaining 
a  strong  hold  on  the  country  newly  conquered  from  France.  A 
thousand  men  were  marching,  in  September,  against  Montreal, 
under  Colonel  Montgomery,  but  they  were  held  in  check  at  Fort 
Saint  John's,  on  the  river  Richelieu,  by  about  five  hundred  British 
regulars.  In  the  same  month,  a  small  force  under  Colonel  Allen 
was  defeated  at  Montreal  by  Carleton,  and  Allen  went  to  England 
as  a  rebel  prisoner.  The  siege  of  Saint  John's  was  vigorously 
carried  on  by  Montgomery,  a  brave  Irishman,  and  the  place  was 
stoutly  defended  by  Major  Preston.  As  winter  approached,  how- 
ever, the  disgraceful  surrender  of  Chambly  furnished  Montgomery 
with  a  fresh  supply  of  cannon,  powder,  and  provisions,  and  enabled 
him  to  continue  the  blockade  of  Saint  John's,  where  the  people 
were  already  on  half-rations,  and  were  looking  for  help  from 
Carleton.  The  governor  made  an  earnest  attempt  to  raise  the 
siege  with  a  body  of  militia,  and  a  few  regulars  and  Indians.  On 
October  3Oth,  his  effort  to  land  on  the  south  shore  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  near  Longueil,  was  repulsed  by  the  sharp  fire  of 
Vermont  troops  under  Colonel  Seth  Warner,  and  Saint  John's, 
after  a  violent  cannonade,  and  when  food  and  ammunition  had 
almost  failed,  was  forced  to  surrender  on  November  3rd.  Nearly 
seven  hundred  men,  including  militia,  thus  became  prisoners  of 
war  to  the  Congress  troops,  and  Canada  was  left  almost  devoid  of 
regular  defence. 

Montgomery's  march  on  Montreal  compelled  the  departure  of 
Carleton,  with  General  Prescott,  the  staff,  and  the  few  soldiers  in 
garrison,  and  the  town  was,  on  November  i3th,  occupied  by  the 
enemy.  The  governor  contrived  to  reach  Quebec,  while  Prescott, 
intercepted  by  some  American  troops,  went  as  a  prisoner  to 
Chambly.  The  capital  of  Canada  was  at  this  time  threatened  by 
Colonel  Benedict  Arnold,  the  officer  who  was  to  become  infamous,  at 
a  later  day,  by  his  attempt  to  betray  West  Point  to  the  British  troops, 
the  enterprise  which  involved  the  tragic  and  cruel  fate  of  Major 
Andre\  Arnold  was  in  command  of  about  1 100  men,  chiefly  from 
New  England,  with  some  companies  of  riflemen  from  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania.  By  way  of  the  Kennebec,  the  wilderness,  the  Chau- 
diere,  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  he  arrived  on  November  8th,  after 
severe  toil  for  the  men,  at  Point  Levis,  opposite  Quebec.  His  force 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  265 

was  now  reduced  to  about  800,  and  he  found  that  all  boats  had 
been  removed  from  his  side  of  the  river  and  from  He  d'Orleans. 
Cramahe,  the  lieutenant-governor  of  Quebec,  had  done  what  was 
possible  to  strengthen  the  defences,  and  Colonel  Maclean  had  just 
arrived  with  some  new  levies,  but  the  whole  number  of  soldiers 
was  less  than  three  hundred  men.  Two  war-ships  were  at 
Quebec,  and  a  council  of  war  resolved  to  keep  the  vessels  during 
the  winter,  to  land  the  crews  for  the  reinforcement  of  the  garrison, 
and  to  defend  the  place  to  the  last  extremity.  An  embargo  was 
also  laid  on  some  merchantmen  in  port  about  to  sail,  and  their 
crews  were  enrolled  among  the  defenders.  About  350  volunteers, 
British  and  French  Canadians,  answered  an  appeal  to  take  up  arms. 
On  November  I4th,  Arnold  and  his  men  crossed  the  river  in 
canoes  made  for  the  purpose,  and  ascended  the  cliff  by  the 
historical  pathway  at  Wolfe's  Cove.  His  demand  for  a  surrender 
was  treated  with  contempt,  and,  being  without  artillery  and  almost 
destitute  of  ammunition,  he  could  not  risk  an  assault,  and  retired 
to  Pointe-aux-Trembles,  20  miles  west  of  Quebec,  and  awaited  the 
junction  of  Montgomery's  forces. 

When  Carleton  arrived  at  Quebec  on  November  2Oth,  the  city 
and  fortress  were  the  only  part  of  Canada  that  remained  under 
British  rule.  The  governor  took  prompt  and  vigorous  measures. 
All  suspected  persons  were  driven  from  the  town,  the  entire 
population  of  which  was  then  about  five  thousand.  The  garrison, 
with  provisions  for  eight  months,  amounted  in  all  to  about  1800 
men,  who  were  now  to  hold  the  place  during  a  fourth  siege  in  its 
history.  The  possession  of  Quebec  during  the  winter  was  of  vital 
importance  to  the  British  hold  on  Canada,  and  would  determine 
the  future  mastery  of  the  whole  country. 

On  December  4th,  Arnold  and  Montgomery,  with  twelve 
hundred  men,  advanced  to  the  siege,  and  encamped  in  the  snow 
before  the  walls.  Carleton  paid  no  heed  to  any  messages.  The 
poor  artillery  of  the  foe  was  a  mere  mockery  to  those  who  manned 
the  ramparts  of  Quebec,  and  the  besiegers  were  wasted  by  cold 
and  consequent  disease,  with  the  additional  scourge  of  small-pox. 
On  December  3ist,  at  four  in  the  morning,  while  a  snow-storm 
raged,  Montgomery,  at  the  head  of  five  hundred  men,  tried  an 
assault  of  the  lower  town,  where  a  battery  and  block-house  defended 
the  western  approach.  The  garrison  were  on  the  alert,  and  a 


266  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

volley  of  grape,  killing  Montgomery  and  two  other  officers,  with  a 
few  men,  at  once  swept  away  for  the  revolted  colonists  the  hope 
of  mastering  Canada.  The  assailants  retreated,  leaving  the  bodies 
of  their  comrades  to  be  covered  with  a  thickening  shroud  of  snow. 

The  road  taken  by  Montgomery  had  been  from  Wolfe's  Cove 
along  the  narrow  pass  between  the  heights  and  the  river,  now 
known  as  Champlain  Street.  His  body  was  afterwards  taken  to 
a  small  log-house  in  St.  Louis  Street,  which  is  now  an  Indian 
curiosity  shop,  and  one  of  the  Quebec  sights  for  strangers.  It 
was  buried  at  the  foot  of  Citadel  Hill,  but  afterwards  removed  to 
New  York.  Montgomery  was  one  of  the  most  gallant  soldiers  of 
the  Revolutionary  War,  and  his  fall  was  fatal  to  the  whole  enter- 
prise. Arnold,  at  the  same  time,  with  six  hundred  men,  came  from 
the  opposite  direction,  round  by  the  part  now  known  as  St.  Roch's 
suburbs,  below  the  ramparts,  with  the  intention  of  meeting  Mont- 
gomery at  the  foot  of  Mountain  Hill,  and  joining  in  an  assault  of 
the  upper  town.  This  plan  also  met  with  utter  failure.  The  first 
barriers  were  carried  at  a  rush,  but  the  alarm-bells  and  the  drums 
soon  brought  up  the  garrison,  and  a  fight  in  the  narrow  streets, 
amid  darkness  and  snow,  ended  in  the  assailants  being  surrounded 
on  all  sides,  with  a  pitiless  fire  of  musketry  raining  on  them  from 
the  houses.  Four  hundred  men  laid  down  their  arms,  and  Arnold 
was  left,  with  a  greatly  diminished  force,  daily  wasting  from 
privation  and  disease,  to  continue  a  perfectly  useless  siege.  An 
attack  on  his  lines  by  French  Canadians  was  repulsed,  but  this 
could  not  affect  the  issue,  and  the  feelings  of  the  habitans,  or  main 
body  of  the  French  people  outside  Quebec,  were  sorely  offended 
by  the  harsh  conduct  of  the  invaders.  The  New  England  militia, 
in  their  Protestant  bigotry,  were  the  objects  of  religious  aversion 
to  the  simple  and  devoted  Catholics,  and  the  produce  of  the  people 
was  taken  in  exchange  for  worthless  "  bills  of  credit ". 

The  ranks  of  the  besiegers  were  reinforced  to  the  number  of 
two  thousand  men,  and  in  April,  1776,  the  American  Congress 
ordered  the  raising  of  a  strong  force,  with  abundant  supplies  of 
stores,  for  the  conquest  of  Canada.  The  effort  came  too  late. 
General  Thomas,  of  Massachusetts,  arrived  before  Quebec  on 
May  ist,  and  found  so  deplorable  a  state  of  things  in  the  besiegers' 
camp,  from  sickness  and  lack  of  supplies,  that  he  resolved  to  retire 
at  once  to  Three  Rivers.  On  the  following  day,  British  ships 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  26/ 

arrived  in  the  harbour,  and  the  Quebec  garrison,  with  a  thousand 
men  under  arms,  made  a  fierce  sortie  on  the  American  camp. 
The  besiegers  fled  in  haste,  leaving  guns,  their  few  stores,  and  all 
the  sick,  to  the  care  of  the  victors.  Thus  ended  the  last  attempt 
on  the  stately  fortress  of  Quebec. 

During  this  time  Franklin  and  other  commissioners  had 
arrived  at  Montreal,  urging  the  Canadians  to  join  the  revolt.  A 
Jesuit  named  John  Carroll,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Baltimore, 
used  his  influence  with  the  Canadian  clergy,  but  all  was  in  vain. 
The  Canadians  would  not  stir  without  the  help  of  a  large  force, 
and  good  pay,  in  hard  cash,  for  their  services.  Above  Montreal,  at 
Cedar  Rapids,  an  American  force  was  defeated  by  the  British,  and, 
on  the  following  day,  another  body  of  invaders,  at  the  same  place, 
was  surprised  by  the  Indians  and  French  Canadians. 

In  June,  an  army  of  nearly  10,000  men,  under  General 
Burgoyne,  arrived  at  Quebec,  and  General  Frazer,  marching  at 
once  to  Three  Rivers,  attacked  and  routed  1500  American  militia. 
The  whole  of  the  invaders  were  soon  glad  to  quit  the  country,  and 
Carleton  then  took  steps  to  clear  the  enemy  from  Lake  Champlain. 
A  fleet  of  twenty  ships,  with  many  transports,  was  constructed, 
partly  with  materials  brought  out  from  England,  and  was  conveyed 
with  great  toil  to  the  shores  of  the  lake.  On  October  iQth,  the 
American  flotilla,  under  Arnold,  was  utterly  defeated  near  Crown 
Point,  the  vessels  that  were  not  captured  by  the  British  being 
beached  and  fired  by  the  discomfited  enemy. 

The  events  of  the  American  revolutionary  war  have  been  dealt 
with  in  previous  pages  of  this  history.  Carleton  had  resigned  his 
commission  when  General  Burgoyne,  who  afterwards  laid  down  his 
arms  at  Saratoga,  had  been  placed  in  command  over  himself,  and 
he  was  succeeded  in  the  governorship  of  Canada  by  General 
Haldimand,  a  man  of  Swiss  extraction,  who  maintained  a  very 
stern  and  unpopular  sway.  There  were  many  both  French  and 
British  sympathizers  with  the  revolted  colonists,  and  Haldimand, 
in  his  zeal  to  repress  all  disaffection,  indulged  in  arbitrary  arrests 
and  imprisonments,  for  some  of  which  the  British  government, 
after  actions  at  law,  was  compelled  to  pay  damages.  By  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles,  in  1783,  Canada  lost  the  fine  country  lying 
between  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  the  boundary  between  her 
territory  and  that  of  the  new  "  United  States"  being  fixed  by  the 


268  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

Great  Lakes,  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  45th  parallel  of  north  latitude, 
"  the  highlands  'dividing  the  waters  falling  into  the  Atlantic  from 
those  emptying  themselves  into  the  St.  Lawrence",  and  the  river 
St.  Croix.  Serious  disputes  were  afterwards  occasioned  by  the 
vagueness  of  the  words  which  applied  to  the  watershed  of  the 
Atlantic  and  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  Americans  also  received 
rights  of  fishing  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  on  the  bank  and 
coasts  of  Newfoundland,  and  of  landing  to  cure  the  fish  taken. 
Thus  arose  the  perplexing  and  annoying  "  fishery-question  "  which 
has  not  ceased  to  harass  the  negotiators  of  Great  Britain,  Canada, 
and  the  United  States. 

In  the  history  of  Nova  Scotia,  we  shall  see  the  settlement, 
after  the  Peace  of  Versailles,  of  the  people  known  as  "  United 
Empire  Loyalists".  The  just  claims  of  these  supporters  of  the 
British  monarchy  now  caused  the  creation  in  Canada  of  the  new 
province  of  Ontario.  To  the  west  of  the  river  Ottawa  lay  a  rich 
and  extensive  territory  which,  at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  had  scarcely  begun  to  be  settled.  The  great  region  inclosed 
by  the  lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence  had  less  than  two  thousand 
European  dwellers,  gathered  round  the  fortified  posts  on  the  rivers 
St.  Lawrence,  Niagara,  and  St.  Clair.  With  a  view  to  separating 
the  Loyalist  refugees  from  the  old  French  population,  the  home 
authorities  caused  Haldimand,  the  Governor  of  Canada,  to  have 
surveys  made  along  the  upper  course  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  on  the 
northern  shore  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  on  the  rivers  Niagara  and 
St.  Clair.  During  the  year  1784  about  ten  thousand  new  colonists 
were  planted  in  what  was  soon  to  become  officially  known  as 
Upper  Canada  or  Ontario,  on  grants  of  land  awarded  in  the 
proportions  of  from  5000  acres  for  a  field-officer  to  200  for  a 
private  soldier.  A  large  vote  of  public  money  supplied  food, 
implements,  and  clothing  in  liberal  measure  to  those  who  were 
thus  started  on  a  new  career,  and  immigrants  from  Great  Britain 
were  also  attracted  to  the  new  province  by  good  allotments  of 
land. 

.  Large  numbers  of  disbanded  officers  and  soldiers,  with  civilians 
who  were  quitting  the  United  States  as  British  loyalists,  thus 
became  the  pioneers  of  civilization  and  the  founders  of  a  new 
colony. 

In    1785,    Governor    Haldimand    was    recalled,    and    in    the 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  269 

following  year  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  under  his  new  title  as  Lord 
Dorchester,  became  governor-general  and  commander-in-chief  of 
British  North  America.  In  1788,  the  newly-settled  territory  was 
divided  into  four  districts,  each  provided  with  a  judge  and  sheriff, 
and  justice  was  administered  in  Courts  of  Common  Pleas.  The 
new  settlers  soon  gave  great  additional  force  to  a  movement 
among  the  British  Canadians  for  the  repeal  of  the  Quebec  Act  of 
1774.  They  had  strong  objections  to  the  existing  French  law, 
and  they  yearned  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  constitutional  rights,  in 
representative  government,  which  belonged  to  their  countrymen  in 
the  maritime  provinces,  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick.  The 
government  at  home,  at  this  time  directed  by  William  Pitt,  accord- 
ingly made  a  full  inquiry,  by  means  of  special  committees,  into  the 
existing  state  of  Canadian  affairs.  Commerce,  agriculture,  educa- 
tion, the  militia,  the  law  courts  and  the  administration  of  justice, 
were  exhaustively  treated  by  commissions  working  under  the 
presidency  of  Lord  Dorchester.  It  appeared  to  Pitt  needful  to 
guard  against  the  danger  of  further  colonial  rebellion  by  the 
continued  existence  of  separate  provinces,  containing  populations 
mainly  of  different  nationalities,  religions,  languages,  and  feelings. 
A  French  province  would,  it  was  believed,  be  a  check  upon  the 
aspirations  for  independence  which  might  be  indulged  by  the 
British.  The  British  province  would  be  ready,  it  was  supposed, 
to  act  against  possible  French  attempts  at  revolt  from  their  recent 
conquerors.  This  miserable  policy  of  securing  practical  loyalty, 
not  by  affection,  but  by  jealous  counterpoise  and  check,  belonged 
to  an  age  which  had  formed  no  idea  of  colonies  which  should 
remain  loyally  subject  to  the  British  crown,  in  possession  of  their 
own  representative  system  and  executive  government.  Pitt's 
plan,  however,  in  limiting  the  areas  of  provincial  action,  and 
creating  separate  provinces,  did  in  a  sense  originate  a  future 
federal  form  of  rule. 

The  Constitutional  Act  of  1791  divided  Canada  into  two 
provinces  separated  by  a  line  drawn  from  a  point  on  Lake  St. 
Francis,  a  little  west  of  Montreal,  to  Point  Fortune,  on  the 
Ottawa,  and  thence  along  the  course  of  that  river.  The  official 
names  of  the  two  territories  were  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  with 
reference  to  their  positions  on  the  course  of  the  St.  Lawrence;  the 
former  province  (afterwards  Ontario)  was  also  popularly  known  as 


270  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

Canada  West.  The  whole  of  the  country  at  this  time  contained 
about  150,000  people,  of  whom  less  than  one-seventh  were  found 
in  Upper  Canada.  Each  province  had  its  own  governor,  and  a 
Parliament  of  two  Houses,  a  Legislative  Assembly  elected  by  the 
people,  and  a  Legislative  Council  nominated  by  the  Crown.  The 
governor  had  the  power  of  summoning,  proroguing,  and  dissolving 
the  Houses  "whenever  he  deemed  such  a  course  expedient",  but 
Parliament  was  to  be  convoked  at  least  once  in  every  twelve 
months,  and  the  elected  Assembly,  unless  it  were  dissolved  by  the 
governor,  was  chosen  for  a  term  of  four  years'  existence.  The 
governor  could  give  or  withhold  the  royal  assent  in  regard  to  bills 
passed  by  the  Houses,  with  a  power  reserved  to  the  Crown  of 
disallowing,  within  two  years  after  their  receipt  by  the  Secretary 
of  State,  any  bills  to  which  the  royal  assent  had  thus  been  given. 
Only  subjects  of  the  Crown  by  birth,  naturalization,  or  conquest 
could  be  members  of  the  Legislative  Assembly,  and  all  Legislative 
Councillors,  clergymen  of  the  Churches  of  England  or  Rome,  and 
ministers  of  any  other  religious  profession,  were  ineligible  for  that 
body.  The  Assembly  could  raise  by  taxation  a  revenue  for  roads, 
bridges,  schools,  and  other  public  objects,  but  the  British  Parlia- 
ment alone  could  impose,  levy,  and  collect  customs-duties  for  the 
regulation  of  trade  between  the  two  provinces  or  between  either  of 
them  and  any  other  part  of  the  king's  dominions,  or  any  foreign 
country.  The  appropriation  of  moneys  so  levied  was,  however, 
left  to  the  Legislature  of  each  province.  The  control  of  all  naviga- 
tion and  trade  lay  with  the  British  Parliament.  For  the  support 
of  a  Protestant  clergy  an  allotment  of  Crown-lands  was  made  in 
each  province  to  the  extent  of  one-seventh  of  the  value  of  such 
lands.  The  assignment  of  these  "Clergy  Reserves",  as  the  lands 
were  called,  became  in  aftertime  the  cause  of  much  trouble  and 
discontent.  The  governors  were  empowered  to  erect  and  endow 
parsonages,  and  to  present  incumbents,  subject  to  the  spiritual  and 
ecclesiastical  rights  of  the  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia. 

We  must  here  notice  the  important  provision  of  the  Act 
concerning  the  tenure  of  land  in  the  new  province,  or  Upper 
Canada.  The  old,  or  seigneurial,  system  of  land-holding,  which 
was  retained  after  the  conquest,  was  ill-suited  to  the  British 
immigrant,  who  wished  to  be  the  absolute  owner  in  freehold  of  his 
farm-lands  and  buildings,  and  specially  objected  to  making  feudal 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  2/1 

payments  to  a  Catholic  seigneur,  or  lord  of  the  soil.  The  new 
law,  therefore,  enacted  that  all  lands  in  Upper  Canada,  and  in 
Lower  Canada,  at  the  desire  of  the  grantee,  should  be  henceforth 
assigned  "in  free  and  common  socage",  a  virtually  freehold  tenure 
dependent  on  the  performance  of  some  certain,  definite,  and 
honourable  service. 

The  Legislative  Council  was  to  consist,  in  Upper  Canada,  of 
not  fewer  than  seven,  and  in  Lower  Canada,  of  at  least  fifteen 
members,  appointed  by  the  Crown  for  life.  For  the  election  of 
members  to  the  Legislative  Assembly  each  province  was  to  be 
divided  into  districts  or  counties,  with  limits  fixed  by  the  governor, 
and  from  these  districts,  and  from  certain  cities  or  towns,  at  least 
sixteen  members  in  Upper  Canada,  and  not  fewer  than  fifty  in  the 
French  province,  were  to  be  chosen  under  defined  franchises. 
The  county-members  were  elected  by  owners  of  land  to  the  net 
annual  value  of  forty  shillings,  and  the  borough-members  by  free- 
holders to  the  annual  value  of  five  pounds,  or  tenants  of  houses  at 
the  annual  rent  of  ten  pounds  and  upwards. 

Such  was  the  constitution  under  which  Canada  existed  for  half 
a  century,  ending  in  1841.  One  of  its  chief  provisions,  the 
nomination  of  the  Legislative  Council  by  the  Crown,  was  strongly 
opposed  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  Charles  James  Fox,  as 
inconsistent  with  popular  rights.  After  the  inauguration,  in  1792,  of 
the  new  form  of  rule,  an  Executive  Council  came  into  existence, 
composed  of  judges  and  other  salaried  officials,  acting  as  private 
advisers  of  the  governor,  holding  seats,  as  a  rule,  in  the  Legisla- 
tive Council,  and  not  responsible  either  to  the  governor  or  to  the 
Legislative  Assembly.  Their  influence  and  action  gave  rise  to 
much  popular  jealousy  and  discontent. 

In  Lower  Canada,  the  first  Legislative  Assembly,  meeting  at 
Quebec  in  December,  1792,  contained  15  British  members  out  of 
fifty,  and  it  was  decided  that  debates  should  be  conducted,  and  that 
the  Journals  of  the  House  and  other  official  documents  should  be 
printed,  in  both  languages,  English  and  French.  The  first  Lieu- 
tenant-governor of  Upper  Canada  was  Mr.  Simcoe,  who  had  sat 
in  the  British  House  of  Commons,  and  had  commanded  a  royal 
regiment  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  proved  himself  to 
be  an  energetic,  wise,  and  honourable  man,  with  a  real  concern  for 
the  welfare  of  the  province.  The  seat  of  government  was  placed 


2/2  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

at  Newark,  a  village  at  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara  river,  and  the 
first  session  of  Parliament,  lasting  five  weeks  from  September  1 7th, 
1792,  saw  the  passing  of  bills  which  established  English  civil  law 
and  trial  by  jury,  and  introduced  methods  for  the  easy  recovery  of 
small  debts,  and  plans  for  the  erection  of  court-houses  and  prisons 
in  each  of  the  four  districts  of  the  province.  The  Newark  Gazette 
inaugurated  the  newspaper-press  of  Upper  Canada.  Kingston,  at 
the  north-east  corner  of  Lake  Ontario,  founded  on  the  site  once 
occupied  by  Fort  Frontenac,  became  the  chief  naval  and  military 
station,  and  in  1797  the  seat  of  government  was  removed  from 
Newark  to  York,  afterwards  the  flourishing  city  of  Toronto,  on  the 
north-west  coast  of  the  same  great  inland  water. 

The  removal  of  Governor  Simcoe,  in  1796,  to  the  charge  of 
San  Domingo  was  a  misfortune  for  Upper  Canada,  in  causing  the 
lapse  or  the  retardation  of  sound  and  vigorous  schemes  which  he 
had  formed  for  the  promotion  of  the  fisheries,  agriculture,  and  other 
means  of  colonial  development.  It  is  interesting  to  note,  as  a  sign 
of  the  condition  of  Upper  Canada  at  this  period,  the  offer  of  rewards 
for  the  heads  of  bears  and  wolves.  The  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century  saw  the  new  colony  rapidly  progressing  in  population,  trade, 
and  wealth  won  through  labour  directed  to  the  natural  resources 
of  the  region.  Many  immigrants  from  Ireland  were  sent  thither 
by  the  troubles  of  1 798,  and  a  brisk  commerce  arose  with  Albany 
and  New  York  by  way  of  the  lakes  and  rivers,  as  the  rapids  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  hampered  communication  with  Montreal  and  Quebec. 
The  introduction  of  slaves  into  the  province  was  forbidden,  and  a 
limit  was  placed  on  the  duration  of  servitude  for  those  who  were 
held  as  property  by  masters. 

In  1797,  Lord  Dorchester,  after  many  years'  valuable  service 
rendered  to  Canada,  resigned  his  post  as  governor-general,  and 
returned  to  England  after  receiving  from  those  whom  he  had  ruled 
many  warm  expressions  of  regretful  esteem.  He  was  succeeded  in 
his  office  by  General  Prescott,  an  able  and  courteous  man  of  firm 
and  kindly  character,  under  whose  administration  the  commerce  of 
the  country  had  a  rapid  growth,  and  the  defences  of  Quebec  received 
a  great  accession  of  strength.  Passing  for  a  moment  into  the 
nineteenth  century,  we  may  record  that  a  decision  of  Chief  Justice 
Osgoode  of  Montreal,  in  1803,  rendered  slavery  illegal  in  Lower 
Canada,  and  the  few  slaves  surviving  from  the  old  French  dominion 


CANADA   UNDER   BRITISH   RULE.  273 

were  thereby  emancipated.  From  that  day  forward  Canada  had 
the  glory  of  affording  a  place  of  refuge,  an  asylum  of  freedom,  for 
slaves  who  escaped  from  bondage  in  the  southern  states  of  the 
American  Union. 

Thus  was  the  great  British  colony  in  North  America  fairly 
started  on  her  career.  The  most  important  fact  in  her  political 
and  social  system  was  the  existence,  through  conquest,  of  two 
European  nationalities  side  by  side.  The  British  and  Protestant 
element  of  the  people  was  vastly  outnumbered  by  the  Catholic 
French,  and  the  diversities  of  race  and  religious  faith  were,  as  we  have 
seen,  fully  recognized  in  the  Constitutional  Act  of  1 79 1 .  The  French 
dream  of  forming  a  great  empire  beyond  the  Atlantic  had  faded 
away,  and  the  combined  feudal  and  ecclesiastical  sway  inaugurated 
and  fostered  by  the  court  of  Versailles  had  been  superseded  by  a 
system  of  rule  in  which  personal,  political,  commercial,  and  religious 
freedom  was  to  be  the  main  agent  in  developing  a  vigorous  and 
flourishing  national  life.  The  French  Canadian  was  then,  as  he 
remains,  a  most  picturesque  and  interesting  portion  of  the  new 
community.  With  him,  feudalism  slowly  died  away,  but  in  all  other 
points  of  social  character  and  life  the  French  colonists  have  con- 
tinued to  display  an  innate  and  strong  conservative  tone.  Neither 
in  politics  nor  in  religion  were  these  sturdy  colonists  affected  by 
the  vast  changes  wrought  in  the  country  of  their  forefathers  by  the 
first  and  greatest  French  Revolution.  Their  devoted  attachment 
to  the  Catholic  faith  and  to  monarchical  rule  made  a  gulf  between 
them  and  the  Jacobins  of  Paris  and  the  other  great  towns  of  France, 
and  to  this  day  a  marked  diversity  exists  between  the  Frenchmen 
of  Canada  and  of  the  valley  of  the  Seine.  The  existing  loyalty  of 
the  French  Canadians  to  the  British  Crown  had  its  origin  in  the 
worldly-wise  rather  than  generous  policy  which  caused  British 
rulers,  on  the  revolt  of  the  American  colonies,  to  use  the  most 
considerate  and  kindly  methods  of  government  with  those  who  had 
so  recently  been  forced  into  allegiance  to  hereditary  foes.  The 
issue  was  good  both  for  rulers  and  ruled.  The  French  Canadians 
stood  firm  amid  temptations  to  rebel,  and  they  came,  in  due  season, 
to  enjoy  in  return  a  liberty  in  all  ways  as  complete,  as  secure,  and 
as  much  to  be  desired,  as  any  that  republics  provide  for  their  citizens. 
The  French  of  Canada  are  also  a  solitary  example  of  real  French 
success  in  colonial  life,  and  their  position  at  this  moment  is  a 

VOL.  I.  18 


2/4  °UR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

vindication  of  the  aspirations  and  efforts  of  Cartier  and  La  Salle, 
of  Richelieu  and  Colbert.  The  superior  energy  and  resources,  for 
a  trans-Atlantic  struggle,  of  the  great  European  enemy  of  France 
did,  indeed,  reduce  to  a  very  limited  scale  the  magnificent  plans  of 
the  explorers  and  statesmen  who  hoped  to  see  their  country  supreme 
in  the  whole  vast  region  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  and  from 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific  shores.  The  people  whose 
ancestors  were  subdued  by  the  genius  of  Wolfe  and  by  the  valour 
of  his  men  form  a  very  attractive  and  valuable  relic  of  a  state  of 
things  which  has  passed  away.  Their  conquered  progenitors 
quickly  settled  down  into  a  quiet  and  contented  life  in  the  village 
and  the  town,  in  clearings  by  river  and  lake,  and  amid  forest- 
wilds,  while  Europe  was  convulsed  by  the  longest,  most  destructive, 
and  most  costly  war  of  modern  days. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

NEWFOUNDLAND— NOVA  SCOTIA — NEW  BRUNSWICK — PRINCE  EDWARD 

ISLAND. 

Discovery  of  Newfoundland— Visits  of  English  and  foreign  voyagers — Customs  regulating 
the  fisheries — The  English  flag  planted  on  its  coast — Importance  of  the  cod-fishery 
— Neglect  of  mining  and  agriculture — Attempts  to  colonize  by  the  English — Lord 
Baltimore's  colony — Wise  rule  of  Sir  David  Kirke — Claims  of  the  French  to  part  of 
the  island — Contests  with  the  French  —  Newfoundland  finally  ceded  to  Britain — 
Captain  Osborn  its  first  regular  governor — St.  John's  seized  by  the  French,  but 
recaptured — After-history  of  the  island — Nova  Scotia  or  Acadia — A  Scottish  settle- 
ment at  Port  Royal — The  country  restored  to  France — Strife  among  the  French 
settlers — Cromwell's  expedition  to  Port  Royal — Joint  occupation  by  English  and 
French  —  Acadia  ceded  to  France  —  Contests  between  the  English  and  French 
settlers — Sir  William  Phipps'  expedition  against  Port  Royal — The  place  surrenders 
to  a  British  force — The  colony  becomes  a  British  possession — Difficulties  with  the 
French  inhabitants — Governorship  of  Paul  Mascarene — Arrival  of  English  emigrants 
— Difficulties  with  the  Acadians — Their  expatriation — Representative  government 
established — The  colonies  of  New  Brunswick  and  Prince  Edward  Island. 

Newfoundland  takes  a  just  pride  in  ranking  herself  as  the  oldest 
of  the  British  colonies.  The  island,  according  to  the  best  evidence 
now  attainable,  was  discovered  in  the  summer  of  1497,  either  on 
May  6th,  Saint  John  Evangelist's  day,  or  on  June  24th,  the  day 
assigned  in  the  calendar  to  Saint  John  Baptist.  In  either  case,  we 
have  here  the  source  of  the  name  afterwards  given  to  the  chief 


NEWFOUNDLAND.  275 

town.  The  discoverer  was,  as  we  have  seen,  either  John  Cabot 
or  Sebastian  Cabot,  one  of  his  sons,  it  being  uncertain  whether  or 
not  the  father  accompanied  his  son  on  this  and  some  succeeding 
voyages.  John  Cabot,  the  Italian  form  of  whose  name  was  Cabotto 
or  Gabota,  appears  to  have  been  by  birth  a  Genoese,  who  became 
a  citizen  of  Venice,  and  settled  about  1472  at  the  flourishing  port 
of  Bristol.  He  was  an  enterprising  merchant,  and  a  good 
geographer  for  that  age,  and  his  aims  included  both  the  obtaining 
of  fish  from  the  coasts  of  North  America,  so  as  to  share  in  the 
Icelandic  trade  to  Italy,  and  arrival  at  the  East  by  a  new  route, 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  spices  in  the  wondrous  country  called 
"Cipango",  or,  by  Marco  Polo,  "Zipangu",  afterwards  altered 
to  "  Japan  ".  This  region  at  that  time  was  regarded  as  a  place  of 
the  greatest  wealth  in  spices,  gems,  and  gold,  and  had  great  charms 
for  explorers  in  that  epoch  of  the  world's  awakening  to  the  existence 
of  new  lands  beyond  the  seas.  It  was  a  haunt  of  fish  and  fogs, 
instead  of  mines  of  gems  and  gold,  that  was  to  be  reached  by  the 
Cabots.  The  news  of  the  discovery  made  by  Columbus  was  a 
great  incitement  to  these  adventurous  spirits,  and  they  gladly 
received  from  Henry  the  Seventh  a  patent  conferring  certain  privi- 
leges, on  condition  of  the  king's  sharing  profits  which  might  accrue, 
and  empowering  them  to  go  forth  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  and 
colonization. 

In  the  spring  of  1497,  Sebastian  Cabot,  with  or  without  his 
father,  sailed  from  Bristol  in  the  Mathew,  on  the  way  to  "  Zipangu". 
The  voyagers  really  reached  the  coast  of  Labrador,  and  were  thus 
the  first  discoverers,  in  that  age,  of  the  continent  of  North  America, 
fourteen  months  before  Columbus,  in  his  third  voyage,  arrived  at 
the  mainland.  They  may  have  planted  the  English  flag  on  the 
coast,  and,  two  days  later,  they  sighted  the  region  afterwards  called 
Newfoundland.  It  is  useless  now  to  strive  to  ascertain  the  part  of 
the  coast  first  seen.  Sebastian  returned  with  his  ship  to  Bristol, 
after  sailing  for  some  hundreds  of  miles  down  the  American  shore, 
and  in  Henry  the  Seventh's  "  Privy  Purse  expenses  "  we  have  the 
entry,  under  "August  loth,  1497",  "To  him  that  found  the  new 
Isle,  ^10".  In  justice,  the  name  of  Cabot  would  have  been 
bestowed  on  some  large  part  of  the  North  American  mainland,  but 
the  place  of  Sebastian's  burial  is  unknown,  nor  has  he  any  memorial 
on  the  map  save  the  name  recently  given,  by  the  Newfoundland 


2/6  OUR  EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

Legislature,  to  a  group  of  barren  islands  lying  on  the  east 
coast. 

The  fishermen  of  Europe  were  soon  to  discover  that  the  seas 
around  the  new-found  region  were  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  wealth, 
far  transcending  all  that  comes  from  natural  deposits  of  gold  or 
precious  stones.  The  name  of  "  Bacalaos",  or,  land  of  codfish, 
was  soon  bestowed  on  the  island,  surviving  in  Bacalhao  Island  of 
Notre  Dame  Bay.  The  natives  are  described  by  an  old  writer  as 
clad  in  skins  of  bear,  marten,  and  sable,  living  on  flesh,  fish,  and 
other  things,  all  eaten  raw,  white  in  complexion,  and  worshipping 
the  sun,  and  moon,  and  many  idols.  The  subsequent  voyages  of 
Sebastian  Cabot  were  chiefly  in  search  of  the  "north-west  passage" 
to  eastern  Asia,  and  do  not  concern  the  present  narrative. 

In  1501,  Caspar  de  Cortereal,  a  Portuguese  navigator,  being 
sent  forth  to  find  a  westward  route  to  India,  visited  Newfoundland 
and  some  adjacent  parts.  Little  heed,  for  nearly  a  hundred  years, 
was  paid  by  England  to  the  island  which  had  been  discovered  for 
an  English  king,  and  the  cod-fishery  was  largely  carried  on  by 
mariners  from  Portugal,  France,  and  Spain,  before  English  vessels, 
in  any  great  number,  appeared  in  those  waters.  In  1517,  about 
fifty  ships  from  those  European  countries  were  engaged  in  the 
industry,  supplying  a  grateful  addition  to  the  Lenten  fare  of  those 
who  faithfully  observed  the  injunctions  of  the  Church.  It  was 
under  Henry  the  Eighth  that  English  voyagers  again  arrived  at 
Newfoundland.  An  expedition,  supported  by  Wolsey,  and  com- 
posed of  two  ships  under  the  command  of  Captain  Rut,  sailed 
forth  "to  seek  out  the  land  of  the  great  Cham",  a  title  bestowed 
on  the  ruler  of  Tartary.  Albert  de  Prado,  a  Canon  of  St.  Paul's, 
was  on  board,  for  the  purpose  of  making  report  to  the  cardinal  and 
the  king.  One  of  the  ships  was  sunk  in  a  storm;  the  other,  carry- 
ing De  Prado  and  Rut,  reached  St.  John's  Harbour,  Newfoundland, 
where  they  found  lying  for  the  fishery  eleven  Norman,  one  Breton, 
and  two  Portuguese  vessels.  This  occurred  in  1527. 

Nine  years  later,  two  ships,  fitted  out  at  the  expense  of 
Mr.  Hore,  a  London  merchant,  sailed  from  Gravesend,  and 
reached  the  great  island,  where  the  crews  were  nearly  starved  to 
death,  and  were  saved  only  in  the  last  extremity  by  the  coming  of 
a  well-found  French  vessel.  In  1542,  Roberval,  the  Picard  noble 
whom  we  have  seen  as  Viceroy  of  "New  France",  thought  that  he 


NEWFOUNDLAND.  277 

had  found  on  the  coast  of  Newfoundland  gold  and  diamonds  in 
substances  which  proved  to  be  iron-pyrites  and  glittering  quartz. 
The  development  of  the  fisheries  was  such  that  in  1578  there  were 
four  hundred  European  vessels  engaged,  including  150  French, 
and  200  English,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese.  According  to  this 
informant,  Hakluyt,  only  forty  or  fifty  of  the  number  were  English, 
but  our  masterful  countrymen  are  declared  to  have  then  been 
"commonly  lords  of  the  harbours  where  they  fish",  and  to  have 
"  helped  themselves  to  boat-loads  of  salt  and  such",  in  payment  for 
protecting  the  other  European  vessels  against  "rovers"  of  the  sea. 
It  is  curious  to  note  the  customary  law  existing  among  the  New- 
foundland fishers  of  those  times.  Whatsoever  ship  first  arrived 
from  England,  Wales,  or  Berwick  in  the  spring,  her  captain  became 
"fishing-admiral"  for  the  season,  and  exercised  authority  in  dis- 
putes as  a  governor.  The  English  merchants  showed  much 
jealousy  as  to  the  profits  of  the  cod-fishing,  and,  in  their  desire  for 
monopoly,  they  checked  attempts  at  settlement  by  procuring  Orders 
in  Council  which  forbade  anyone  to  dwell  within  six  miles  of  the 
coast,  and  compelled  the  captains  of  fishing-ships  to  leave  none  of 
their  crew  behind  on  sailing  for  the  English  shores. 

In  the  later  days  of  Elizabeth,  Newfoundland  was,  at  last, 
formally  occupied  for  the  British  Crown.  The  gallant  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert,  elder  half-brother  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
was  a  native  of  Dartmouth,  and  educated  at  Eton  and  Oxford. 
Intended  for  law,  he  chose  arms  as  his  tools,  and  fought  with  good  . 
success  against  rebels  in  Ireland,  and  for  the  Protestant  cause  in 
the  Netherlands.  After  losing  his  own  and  his  wife's  fortune,  in  a 
fruitless  western  voyage  with  Raleigh,  he  sailed  from  Plymouth  in 
June,  1583,  and,  under  a  charter  granted  by  Elizabeth  five  years 
before,  for  the  discovery  and  occupation  of  "heathen  lands  not 
actually  possessed  of  any  Christian  prince  or  people",  he  went 
ashore  in  Newfoundland,  and,  receiving  feudal  symbols  of  turf  and 
twig,  raising  the  English  flag,  and  erecting  a  wooden  pillar,  with 
the  English  arms  engraved  on  lead,  he  assumed  possession  of  St. 
John's  and  the  neighbouring  coast  for  200  leagues.  Various  pro- 
clamations were  made  in  the  queen's  name,  and  then  the  little 
squadron,  now  composed  of  three  vessels  left  out  of  five,  sailed 
away  to  the  south.  The  fate  of  Sir  Humphrey  is  an  oft-told  tale. 
The  largest  of  the  ships  was  lost  off  Cape  Breton,  and  the  leader, 


278  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

with  the  Golden  Hind,  steered  for  home,  himself  on  board  the 
Squirrel,  a  tiny  craft  of  but  ten  tons  burden.  The  master  of  the 
Golden  Hind,  Captain  Hayes,  tells  us  that  "on  Monday,  September 
9th,  the  Squirrel  was  near  cast  away,  yet  at  that  time  recovered  ". 
A  heavy  sea  was  running,  as  Gilbert  sat  astern,  book  in  hand,  and 
he  called  out  to  his  comrades  of  the  other  ship  to  "be  of  good 
heart ",  since  "  we  are  as  near  to  heaven  by  sea  as  by  land ". 
These  were  the  hero's  last-recorded  words.  On  that  same  night, 
the  men  on  board  the  Hind  saw  the  lights  on  the  Squirrel  suddenly 
vanish,  as  she  was  "devoured  and  swallowed  up  by  the  sea". 

Under  James  the  First,  Sir  Francis  Bacon  was  a  patentee  with 
John  Guy,  a  Bristol  merchant,  in  1610,  and  other  "adventurers",  in 
an  attempt  to  form  a  settlement  at  Conception  Bay,  but  the  enter- 
prise came  to  nought.  Five  years  later,  the  English  Admiralty 
appointed  Captain  Whitburne,  of  Exmouth,  who  was  one  of 
Gilbert's  comrades,  to  hold  courts  at  the  island  for  the  people  who 
went  to  fish.  The  "banks"  and  the  coasts  at  this  time  were  the 
resort  of  about  three  hundred  English  vessels,  and  the  industry,  as 
a  whole,  had  become  one  of  vast  importance.  Whitburne  waxes 
enthusiastic  in  his  praises  of  Newfoundland,  declaring  that  the 
region  produces  "  all  that  the  world  can  yield  to  the  sustentation  of 
man  ".  Wholesome  air,  abundant  fish,  fresh  and  sweet  water,  are 
the  matters  that  he  specifies.  It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  to  this 
day  the  island  has  not  been  largely  tilled,  nor  even  fully  explored. 
The  one  great  and  most  profitable  industry  drew  men  away  from 
attempts  at  mining  and  agriculture.  The  land  had,  as  will  be  seen, 
its  periods  of  strife,  on  its  rocky  coasts  and  in  its  countless  bays 
and  creeks,  from  the  days  when  the  French  and  English  began  to 
contest  the  mastery  of  the  eastern  part  of  North  America.  The 
position  of  Newfoundland  made  it  in  those  days  of  great  value,  in 
commanding  the  entrance  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  in  being 
flanked  by  the  seas  which,  in  the  hardy  fishermen,  nurtured  and 
trained  sailors  for  the  home  and  colonial  navies. 

At  last,  in  1624,  a  regular  attempt  was  made  for  the  coloniza- 
tion of  Newfoundland.  Sir  George  Calvert,  afterwards  Lord 
Baltimore,  received  from  James  the  First  a  patent  granting  him 
the  southern  part  of  the  island,  and  proceeding  thither  with  the 
needful  equipment,  he  established  himself  in  the  peninsula  called 
Avalon.  The  name  was  taken  from  the  earthly  paradise  of  Celtic 


NEWFOUNDLAND.  2/Q 

mythology,  a  mysterious  green  islet  in  the  region  of  the  setting 
sun,  where  the  magical  apples  grew,  and  Arthur  and  other  heroes 
rested  happy  after  death.  Calvert  built  a  mansion  for  himself  and 
household  at  a  place  called  Feryland,  about  forty  miles  from  Cape 
Race,  and,  erecting  granaries  and  other  needful  buildings,  with 
a  fort  for  protection,  he  embraced  the  life  of  a  true  colonist.  The 
settlement  was,  however,  exposed  to  French  attacks,  one  of  which 
failed  in  1627,  and  the  people  of  some  small  settlements  of  Puritans 
were  hostile  to  Lord  Baltimore  because  he  was  a  Catholic.  These 
were  the  causes  of  his  subsequent  migration  to  the  colony  which  he 
founded,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  name  of  Maryland.  In  1629  he 
had  already  written  to  Charles  the  First  that  the  climate  and  the 
Puritans  combined  were  trying  the  patience  of  his  followers  and 
himself,  and  it  was  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  that  they  left  the 
island.  Eight  years  later,  Sir  David  Kirke  succeeded  Lord  Balti- 
more as  the  king's  grantee,  and  during  the  Civil  War  he  offered  to 
provide  there  a  refuge  for  his  sovereign.  The  Commonwealth 
deprived  Kirke  of  his  property  on  the  ground  that  "Charles 
Stuart's"  grant  was  null  and  void.  Kirke  died,  still  a  devoted 
Royalist,  in  1656.  The  period  of  his  possession  and  rule  were, 
upon  the  whole,  a  time  of  great  prosperity  for  the  British  fisheries, 
which  were  protected  from  piracy,  with  a  revenue  derived  from  a 
tax  levied  on  the  use  of  the  apparatus  called  "the  stages",  which 
was  employed  to  dry  the  fish.  The  heirs  of  Kirke  were  victims  of 
the  ingratitude  of  a  Stuart  king.  Two  of  Kirke's  younger  brothers 
bore  arms  for  Charles  the  First  in  the  Civil  War,  one  being  killed 
in  a  cavalry-fight  at  Edgehill,  and  the  other,  at  a  later  time, 
knighted  for  his  valour.  At  the  Restoration,  the  deceased  Sir 
David  Kirke's  property  was  claimed  by  Lord  Baltimore,  son  of  the 
original  grantee,  and,  this  claim  being  recognized,  the  Kirke  family 
lost  the  estate.  They  then  justly  claimed  the  payment  of  sums 
expended  by  their  father  on  forts  in  Nova  Scotia  and  elsewhere, 
and  in  the  improvement  of  the  "plantations"  and  trade.  The 
money  had  been  guaranteed  by  the  Treaty  of  Saint  Germain-en- 
Laye,  in  1632,  and  reached  the  formidable  amount,  in  those  days, 
of  sixty  thousand  pounds.  Not  a  penny  of  this  was  received 
through  the  sovereign  who  was  devoted  mainly  to  two  objects,  his 
own  pleasures  and  the  friendship  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  the 
person  responsible  for  the  execution  of  the  terms  of  the  treaty. 


280  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

We  find  that  in  1674  the  British  fisheries  were  employing 
nearly  three  hundred  ships  and  more  than  ten  thousand  seamen. 
Twelve  years  before  this,  the  French  had  made  their  appearance 
in  Newfoundland,  by  arriving  at  Placentia  on  the  south  coast, 
where  M.  Dumont  claimed  possession  for  France,  and  established 
a  post  for  the  protection  of  her  fisheries.  We  have  here  the 
sinister  origin  of  the  French  claims  in  Newfoundland,  which  have 
long  given  such  trouble  to  colonial  and  British  ministers.  The 
apathy  of  Charles  the  Second  was  a  prelude  to  the  betrayal  of 
British  interests  in  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  by  the  government  of 
Queen  Anne,  and,  half  a  century  later,  by  Lord  Bute. 

The  progress  of  the  colony  was  greatly  retarded,  during  the 
eighteenth  century,  by  contests  between  those  who  wished  to  settle 
for  tillage,  as  true  colonists,  and  the  dominant  merchants  and 
fishermen,  who  were  intent  upon  nothing  but  the  capture  and  sale 
of  cod.  At  one  time  the  government  forbade  all  "plantations", 
and,  when  this  absolute  decree  was  relaxed  in  1696,  the  whole 
number  of  residents  was  restricted  to  one  thousand.  The  authori- 
ties in  England  regarded  Newfoundland  as  a  training-place  for 
seamen  to  furnish  the  navy,  and  emigration  for  agricultural  pur- 
poses was  persistently  discouraged.  The  "fishing-admirals"  who 
have  been  referred  to  above  were  expressly  recognized  in  an  Act 
of  William  and  Mary,  and  these  ignorant  men,  who  were  mere 
agents  of  the  capitalists  in  England  investing  money  in  the 
fisheries,  exercised  a  tyrannical  sway  over  the  residents.  The 
colonists  were  also  greatly  troubled  by  attacks  from  the  French  of 
Acadia,  Canada,  and  Cape  Breton,  and,  during  the  war  between 
William  the  Third  and  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  they  made  deter- 
mined attempts  at  the  conquest  of  the  island.  The  English,  for 
their  part,  assailed  the  French  settlement  at  Placentia  in  1692,  but 
failed  to  oust  their  rivals,  and  a  French  naval  force  from  Europe 
was  repulsed  by  our  people  in  1694.  In  the  spring  of  1697,  the 
French  commander,  d'Iberville,  dispatched  from  Quebec  by  De 
Frontenac,  appeared  off  the  south  coast  of  Newfoundland,  where 
.some  privateers  from  Placentia  had  already  burnt,  after  a  fierce 
fight,  an  English  man-of-war,  and  had  taken  thirty  fishing-ships. 
St.  John's  was  now  captured,  burnt,  and  left  in  ruins.  The  little 
settlements  were  ravaged,  with  the  slaughter  of  many  fishermen, 
and  the  prospects  of  Newfoundland  were  very  dark,  when  the 


NEWFOUNDLAND.  28 1 

Treaty  of  Ryswick  brought  a  brief  period  of  peace.  The  sove- 
reignty of  the  island  remained  in  our  hands,  but  the  French 
retained  possession  of  Placentia  and  some  other  points  on  the 
south  coast. 

The  shores  of  the  country  became  again  the  scene  of  petty  con- 
flicts during  the  great  war  of  Queen  Anne's  reign.  The  struggle 
had  its  alternations  of  success.  Early  in  the  war,  a  British  squadron 
drove  out  all  the  French  save  from  Placentia.  The  enemy,  in  their 
turn,  with  privateers  from  St.  Malo  and  other  ports,  harassed  the 
English  on  the  coasts,  and  made  two  failures  in  attacks  on  St.  John's. 
In  1708,  St.  John's  was  again  attacked  and  taken  by  surprise,  and 
the  French  were  practically  masters  of  the  island  until  five  years 
later.  Then  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  finally  conceded  Newfoundland 
to  British  sovereignty,  including  Placentia,  but  the  unfortunate  I3th 
Article  of  that  famous  arrangement  opened  a  source  of  continual 
dispute  and  difficulty.  The  French  fishermen  were  thereby  per- 
mitted to  catch  fish,  and  to  dry  them  on  land  in  that  part  of  the 
coast  which  lies  between  Cape  Bonavista  and  Cape  Riche,  taking 
the  line  round  the  northern  point  of  the  island.  British  settle- 
ments were  also  excluded  from  that  part  of  the  country,  and  thus 
it  came  to  pass  that  the  best  lands  in  the  west  of  the  island  remained 
untilled,  and  no  profit  could  be  made  from  the  metallic  treasures 
lying  beneath  the  soil. 

In  order  to  complete  this  subject,  we  pass  to  the  Treaty  of  Paris 
concluded  in  1763.  In  that  diplomatic  instrument,  the  British 
government,  then  headed  by  Lord  Bute,  most  unwisely  conceded 
to  France  the  possession  of  the  islands  of  St.  Pierre  and  Miquelon. 
The  true  policy  was,  in  the  triumphant  position  which  had  been 
won  by  British  arms,  not  to  extend,  but  to  annul,  the  rights  granted 
by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  In  the  Treaty  of  Versailles,  which 
ended  in  1783  the  great  war  that  had  cost  Britain  her  American 
colonies  on  the  mainland  south  of  Canada,  the  welfare  of  New- 
foundland and  the  honour  of  the  country  were  again  neglected. 
The  boundaries  of  the  coast  on  which  the  French  might  catch  and 
dry  their  fish  were  made  to  extend  from  Cape  St.  John  on  the  east 
to  Cape  Raye  on  the  west,  and  they  were  also  secured  in  "  freedom 
from  interruption  by  the  competition  of  the  British  ",  a  provision 
which  has  been  by  them  interpreted  to-  mean  British  exclusion  from 
the  use  of  the  soil  adjacent  to  that  part  of  the  coast.  The  colonists 


282  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

were,  at  the  same  time,  under  this  treaty,  removed  from  the  settle- 
ments which  had  been  made  on  the  part  of  the  coast  reserved  for 
the  French  fisheries. 

In  1728,  for  the  first  time,  a  regular  governor,  Captain  Osborn, 
was  sent  out  to  Newfoundland,  where  he  soon  had  trouble  with  the 
capitalists  who  controlled  the  fisheries,  and  with  their  agents,  the 
"  admirals  "  who  have  been  already  mentioned  as  exercising  a  some- 
what arbitrary  rule.  When  the  governor  appointed  magistrates 
with  jurisdiction  in  affairs  unconnected  with  the  fisheries,  the 
"  admirals  "  and  their  supporters  claimed  that  the  Act  of  William 
and  Mary  ousted  the  Order  in  Council  which  set  up  civil  authorities, 
but  the  home-government  did  not  admit  this  view,  and,  after  con- 
tests spread  over  more  than  fifty  years,  the  civil  powers  named  by 
the  Crown  were  in  full  exercise  of  their  legitimate  jurisdiction.  In 
1750,  the  first  assize-court  was  established:  up  to  that  time,  all 
persons  charged  with  felony  had  been  sent  to  the  mother-country 
for  trial.  The  settlers  derived,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  a  pleasant 
feeling  of  security  from  the  transfer  of  Canada  to  British  possession, 
by  events  which  have  been  already  narrated. 

The  French,  however,  made  a  fierce  attempt  on  Newfoundland 
before  the  conclusion  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  In  May,  1762,  a 
squadron  composed  of  two  seventy-fours  and  two  frigates,  carrying 
fifteen  hundred  troops,  sailed  from  Brest  for  the  region  of  the  cod- 
fishers.  Sir  Edward  Hawke,  with  seven  ships  of  the  line,  was 
detached  in  pursuit,  but  he  failed  to  encounter  the  enemy,  who 
landed,  on  June  24th,  at  a  bay  twenty  miles  to  the  south  of  St. 
John's.  The  garrison  of  the  capital,  which  consisted  of  a  bare 
sixty  men,  through  the  gross  neglect  of  the  home-government,  were 
taken  by  surprise,  and  became  prisoners  of  war,  along  with  the 
crew  of  a  war-sloop  in  the  harbour.  The  place  was  seized,  with 
all  the  merchant-ships  and  supplies,  and  the  captors  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  work  at  the  fortifications,  with  a  view  to  a  permanent 
hold  on  their  prize.  A  convoy  of  merchantmen  from  England  was 
due,  and  would  have  entered  St.  John's  harbour  to  become  a  further 
prey,  but  for  the  vigilance  of  Captain  Douglas,  who  was  cruising 
in  those  waters,  and,  hearing  of  the  French  arrival,  took  measures 
to  intercept  and  warn  the  British  vessels.  The  news  reached 
Halifax,  and  Lord  Colville,  without  delay,  sailed  with  his  squadron 
for  Newfoundland,  where  he  was  joined,  in  September,  by  some 


NOVA  SCOTIA.  283 

eight  hundred  regulars  and  a  force  of  provincial  troops  under 
Colonel  Amherst.  The  enemy  strove  to  oppose  their  landing  at 
a  point  seven  miles  to  the  north  of  St.  John's,  but  our  men  made 
their  way  towards  that  harbour  and  stormed  a  hill  commanding  the 
town.  The  port  was  then  blockaded  by  Lord  Colville,  but  the 
weather  came  to  the  relief  of  the  foe.  A  heavy  gale  off  shore 
drove  away  the  British  ships,  and  the  hostile  vessels,  escaping  in 
a  thick  fog,  obtained  too  great  a  start  for  successful  pursuit. 
Amherst  attacked  the  town  with  heavy  guns,  and,  on  the  third  day, 
brought  the  garrison  to  terms.  A  frigate  from  France,  with  large 
supplies  of  food  and  military  stores,  was  captured  near  the  island 
by  a  British  cruiser,  and,  in  a  possession  of  three  months,  causing 
severe  loss  and  privation  to  the  people,  the  French  had  made  their 
last  serious  endeavour  at  the  mastery  of  the  island. 

A  census  taken  in  1763  found  the  whole  population  a  little 
exceeding  thirteen  thousand.  The  governor,  at  this  time,  received 
an  accession  of  dignity  and  power,  when,  with  the  additional  title 
of  "commander-in-chief",  he  had  jurisdiction  and  control  over 
Labrador,  Anticosti,  and  the  Magdalen  Isles.  In  the  year  follow- 
ing, Newfoundland  was  placed  fully  under  Crown-rule,  as  one  of 
the  royal  "  plantations ",  and  this  change  was  marked  by  the 
appointment  of  a  collector  of  customs.  The  old  fishery-interest 
viewed  these  matters  with  great  disgust,  not  lessened  by  the  Act  of 
1775,  which  further  remedied  the  abuses  based  on  the  statute  of 
William  and  Mary.  During  the  war  of  American  Independence, 
the  island  suffered  much  under  loss  of  trade.  In  1785,  religious 
needs  were  recognized  by  the  inclusion  of  Newfoundland  in  the 
diocese  of  the  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia.  During  the  war  of  the 
French  Revolution,  the  republicans  sent  a  force  against  the  island, 
but  St.  John's  was  found  too  strong  for  attack,  and  the  expedition 
ended  in  some  plundering  and  burning  at  the  Bay  of  Bulls.  The 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century  found  the  colony  under  the  rule  of 
Admiral  Waldegrave,  a  man  described  as  humane  and  enlightened 
to  a  high  degree,  and  devoted  wholly  to  the  improvement  and 
welfare  of  the  people. 

The  history  of  Nova  Scotia  or  Acadia,  which  has  been  traced 
down  to  the  year  1614,  was  of  a  very  chequered  character.  We 
saw  that  at  that  period  the  French  settlement  of  Port  Royal  was 
ruined  by  an  attack  made  from  Virginia.  A  few  years  later,  the 


284  OUR  EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

task  of  colonization  was  taken  up  by  an  enterprising  Scottish  knight, 
Sir  William  Alexander,  afterwards  Earl  of  Stirling,  who  received 
from  James  the  First  a  charter  bestowing  the  whole  of  the  peninsula 
which  included  the  Cape  Gaspe  district,  New  Brunswick,  and 
"  Nova  Scotia ",  a  name  then  first  used  in  place  of  the  French 
"  Acadie ".  At  this  time,  the  French  had,  to  a  slight  extent, 
resumed  possession,  but  a  small  Scottish  settlement  was  formed, 
and  a  fort  was  built  at  Port  Royal,  near  the  former  French  town. 
In  1625,  Charles  the  First  confirmed  his  father's  grant  to  Alex- 
ander, and  established  a  new  order  of  petty  nobility  called  the 
"Knights-Baronets  of  Nova-Scotia",  composed  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  members,  who  were  to  receive  grants  of  land,  on  condition  of 
planting  emigrants  thereon.  The  scheme  came  to  nothing,  owing 
to  arrangements  made  in  Europe  between  England  and  France, 
which  restored  the  country  to  the  latter  power  in  1632,  under  the 
Treaty  of  Saint  Germain-en-Laye.  M.  de  Charnisay  arrived  from 
France  with  forty  families,  who  settled  at  Port  Royal,  and  the  few 
Scots  who  had  remained  were,  in  one  generation,  absorbed  in  the 
French  population. 

The  country  was  divided  into  three  provinces,  each  under  a 
proprietary  governor,  obtaining  a  revenue  from  the  fur-trade  and 
fisheries.  De  Razilly,  the  commandant,  took  the  southern  district, 
and,  with  the  building  of  a  fort  and  a  residence  for  himself  as  ruler, 
made  a  settlement  on  the  beautiful  and  convenient  harbour  of  La 
Heve,  in  the  south-east.  Charnisay  and  De  la  Tour  had  the  rest 
of  the  land,  and,  on  the  death  of  Razilly,  the  Sieur  de  Fronsac 
became  commandant  and  chief  ruler.  Bitter  strife,  amounting  to 
civil  war,  arose  between  De  la  Tour  and  Charnisay,  during  which 
the  former's  wife,  whose  name  is  still  venerated  in  Nova  Scotia, 
won  renown  by  her  heroic  defence  of  her  husband's  fort,  leading 
her  troops  sword  in  hand,  like  an  Acadian  Jeanne  Dare.  In  the 
end  De  Charnisay  was  victorious,  but  he  died  in  1650,  and,  four 
years  later,  the  French  were  dispossessed  by  an  expedition  sent 
out  by  Cromwell  at  the  request  of  the  New  England  colonists,  who 
had  long  suffered  from  the  depredations  of  Acadian  privateers. 
Once  more  the  British  flag  floated  at  Port  Royal,  and  the  country 
was  held  by  a  joint-occupation  of  English  and  French  until  1667. 
In  that  year,  the  whole  of  "  Acadia",  in  its  extended  sense,  was 
ceded  to  France  by  the  Treaty  of  Breda.  For  many  years  there 


NOVA   SCOTIA.  285 

was  petty  strife  between  the  British  and  the  French  settlers,  who 
quarrelled  about  the  fish  and  the  furs,  intrigued  with  the  Indians, 
and  took  part  in  the  contests  ever  waging  between  their  countrymen 
of  Canada,  on  the  one  part,  and  of  New  England  and  New  York, 
on  the  other.  The  French  occupation  lasted  for  forty-three  years, 
but  the  colony  made  little  progress,  and  in  1686  there  were  fewer 
than  a  thousand  people,  and  not  a  thousand  acres  brought  under 
tillage,  the  chief  occupation  being  that  of  the  fisheries,  combined 
with  piratical  attacks  on  the  commerce  of  New  England. 

The  war  in  Europe  between  Louis  XIV.  of  France  and  William 
the  Third  would  have  involved  in  any  case  the  settlers  beyond  the 
Atlantic,  but  they  needed  no  stimulus  to  hostile  movements.  The 
men  of  New  England  and  of  New  York  were  provoked  by  the 
treacherous  and  cruel  attacks  of  Frenchmen  and  Indians,  and  in 
1690  Sir  William  Phipps  was  sent  from  Massachusetts  to  attack 
Port  Royal.  This  brave  man  and  skilful  mariner,  who  had  risen 
by  sheer  merit  from  the  position  of  a  farm-labourer,  had  a  frigate 
and  two  sloops  of  war,  with  some  smaller  craft,  carrying  nearly 
three  hundred  seamen  and  four  hundred  colonial  militia.  The 
capital  of  Nova  Scotia  could  not  be  defended,  and  the  place  was 
given  up,  to  be  subjected  to  a  plundering  which  violated,  with  or 
without  the  British  leader's  consent,  the  terms  of  capitulation. 
The  people  were  compelled  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  British  sove- 
reigns, and  the  territory  was  formally,  under  a  charter,  incorporated 
with  Massachusetts,  greatly  to  the  annoyance  of  the  colonial  govern- 
ment, who  wished  for  no  fresh  burdens.  They  desired  William  the 
Third  to  garrison  Port  Royal  with  regular  troops,  but  a  French 
expedition  arrived  at  this  juncture  to  relieve  their  minds  of  all 
responsibility  by  the  recapture  of  the  town.  The  Treaty  of  Ryswick, 
in  1697,  formally  restored  Acadia  to  the  French  possession  which 
had  not  really  ceased,  save  for  a  brief  space  at  the  capital,  Port 
Royal.  During  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  the  colonists 
of  New  England, in  1 704  and  1 706-7,  harassed  the  French  Acadians, 
and,  at  the  latter  time,  failed  in  a  siege  of  Port  Royal. 

The  French  governor  was  now  a  veteran  named  De  Subercase, 
who  had  long  served  his  country  with  fidelity  and  courage  in  Canada 
under  De  Vaudreuil  and  De  Frontenac.  This  last  French  ruler 
of  Acadia  assumed  power  in  October,  1705,  and  at  once  devoted 
his  attention  to  the  needs  of  the  colony,  which  was  in  a  grievous 


286  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

condition  from  poverty  and  from  the  lack  of  all  means  of  defence 
against  the  people  of  New  England.  Like  other  French  governors 
in  America,  he  was  also  troubled  by  priestly  meddling  with  temporal 
affairs.  He  was  destined  to  be  charged  with  the  final  struggle  for 
French  retention  of  the  colony.  The  men  of  Massachusetts  had 
resolved  to  make  an  end,  if  they  could,  of  the  dangerous  presence 
of  the  privateers  lurking  in  the  inlets  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  or  seek- 
ing refuge  under  the  guns  of  Port  Royal,  and  preying  upon  the 
fast-growing  trade  of  Boston.  Some  damage  had  been  done  to 
property  during  the  invasion  made  in  1 707,  but  the  lack  of  skill  in 
the  officers,  and  of  discipline  in  the  men,  had  caused  the  expedition 
to  withdraw  before  the  energetic  defence  made  by  the  French 
commander. 

In  1710,  however,  the  British  government  took  the  matter  in 
hand,  and  a  strong  armament,  under  Colonel  Nicholson,  went  forth 
from  Boston.  The  ships  carried  a  regiment  of  marines  from 
England,  and  four  regiments  of  the  colonial  militia,  clothed  and 
armed  at  the  expense  of  the  crown.  Four  men-of-war  and  a 
bomb-vessel  accompanied  the  fleet  of  transports  which  appeared 
before  Port  Royal.  The  place  was  ill-armed,  and  had  a  garrison 
of  only  three  hundred  and  fifty  men,  discontented  from  want  of 
proper  supplies.  The  invading  force  was  landed  to  the  north  and 
south  of  the  town,  and  a  brief  bombardment,  with  the  repulse  of  a 
sortie,  compelled  a  surrender,  after  a  week's  siege,  on  honourable 
terms.  The  French  troops  marched  out  with  drums  beating  and 
colours  flying,  to  be  conveyed  to  France  on  British  vessels.  The 
name  of  "  Port  Royal"  was  changed  to  "Annapolis",  in  honour  of 
the  queen.  The  people  at  Port  Royal  and  "within  cannon-shot  of 
the  fort "  were,  by  the  fifth  clause  of  the  capitulation,  to  remain 
upon  their  estates,  in  secure  possession  of  all  their  property,  for 
the  space  of  two  years,  unless  they  desired  to  leave  the  country 
before  that  lapse  of  time,  and  they  were,  thereafter,  either  to  quit 
the  country  or  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  sovereign  of  Great 
Britain.  It  is  important  to  remember  this  condition,  in  view  of 
coming  events.  Thus  did  the  colony  of  Nova  Scotia  finally  come 
to  the  British  crown,  its  possession  being  confirmed,  three  years 
later,  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  Henceforth,  the  French  made 
the  stronghold  of  their  power,  in  that  part  of  America,  at  Cape 
Breton,  where  they  built  and  fortified  the  town  of  Louisbourg,  to 


NOVA   SCOTIA.  287 

which  many  of  their  colonists  from  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland 
resorted  as  a  place  of  safe  abode.  We  have  seen  that  the  new 
settlement  became  a  fresh  peril  to  New  England,  worse  than  that 
which  had  existed  at  Port  Royal. 

The  "  Acadians"  who  remained  in  Nova  Scotia  proved  to  be 
troublesome  subjects  to  their  British  rulers.  They  numbered  less 
than  eighteen  hundred,  and  had  no  patriotic  regret  for  the  loss  of 
their  French  political  ties,  but  they  were  very  ignorant,  very 
litigious,  and  very  submissive  to  the  priests  who  taught  them  that 
the  British  were  atheists  or  worse,  and  that  recognition  of  their 
rule  meant  the  destruction  of  their  own  religious  faith.  In  some 
parts  of  the  country,  small  parties  of  British  troops  were  attacked 
and  a  general  spirit  of  disaffection  and  sullen  hostility  was  mani- 
fested. In  1715,  after  the  accession  of  George  the  First,  the  oath 
of  allegiance  was  tendered  to  the  French  population,  but  they 
generally  refused  either  to  take  the  oath  or  quit  the  country,  and 
the  British  government,  with  rare  moderation,  allowed  the  matter 
to  rest,  in  the  hope  that  time  would  work  a  change  in  "  Acadian  " 
feeling,  or  that  a  new  generation  would  be  more  reasonable  under 
just  and  generous  treatment.  In  1720,  the  oath  of  allegiance  was 
again  proposed,  and  again  declined,  but  in  submissive  terms  which 
promised  to  refrain  from  all  practical  hostility  to  their  de  facto 
rulers.  The  people  were,  in  fact,  under  the  influence  of  a  religious 
terrorism,  and  British  abstinence  from  the  adoption  of  strong 
measures  was  largely  due  to  indifference.  The  priests  in  the 
country  were  political  agents  and  incendiaries,  and  the  government 
at  home,  under  George  the  First,  failed  to  furnish  a  garrison  of 
sufficient  strength  to  exercise  a  just  and  needful  degree  of  coercive 
power.  The  politicians  in  England  at  that  day  failed  to  see,  or 
did  not  care  to  recognize  the  fact,  that  a  strong  government  in 
Nova  Scotia  would  have  promoted  prosperity  by  attracting  settlers 
from  New  England  to  the  rich  pastures  and  the  valuable  mines. 
Year  after  year  passed  away,  while  the  French,  at  Louisbourg, 
were  constantly  extending  and  perfecting  their  fortifications,  under 
the  direction  and  with  the  aid  of  a  government  in  Europe  which 
foresaw  the  value  of  such  a  stronghold  in  operations  of  re-conquest. 
In  1726,  some  of  the  French  in  Nova  Scotia  took  the  oath  of 
allegiance  at  Annapolis,  but  it  was  still  refused  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.  The  people  in  no  way  contributed  to  the  expenses  of 


288  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

government,  though  they  did  not  fail,  in  the  absence  of  all  law 
courts,  to  harass  the  council  for  decisions  in  their  endless  disputes. 
British  ministers — Stanhope,  Walpole,  Pelham,  Newcastle — all 
neglected  American  affairs,  and  so  provided  work  for  the  coming 
man,  William  Pitt  the  elder. 

The  best  period  of  Nova  Scotian  history  in  that  age  was  the 
time  which  included  the  tenure  of  power  by  Paul  Mascarene  as 
acting-governor.  This  distinguished  Nova  Scotian,  who  has  left  a 
record  of  early  British  days  at  Port  Royal  (Annapolis),  was  born 
of  a  Huguenot  family  that  quitted  France  after  the  Revocation, 
in  1685,  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  He  entered  the  British  army, 
and  rapidly  rose  through  the  exercise  of  high  ability  and  spotless 
integrity.  As  captain,  he  was  in  charge  of  the  first  guard  mounted 
at  Port  Royal  Fort,  after  its  surrender  in  1710.  He  rendered  good 
service  during  the  initial  difficulties  of  British  possession,  and 
under  the  nominal  governorship  of  Richard  Philipps,  who  was  in 
England  for  long  periods,  Mascarene  became  ruler  as  lieutenant- 
governor  in  1736.  The  peace  of  the  community  was  preserved, 
and  while  the  government  at  home  disregarded  colonial  matters,  a 
vigilant  eye  was  kept  upon  perils  from  within  and  from  without. 

A  time  of  trial  came  with  the  outbreak,  in  1 744,  of  the  war  of 
the  Austrian  Succession.  A  Catholic  missionary,  Joseph  le  Loutre, 
who  had  been  sent  out  to  work  among  the  Micmac  Indians  of 
Acadia,  proved  to  be  a  thoroughly  false,  unscrupulous,  and  cowardly 
intriguer  against  British  rule,  a  man  who  first  led  the  French 
inhabitants  into  mischief  by  spiritual  terrors,  and  then  abandoned 
them  in  the  day  of  trial.  Outward  attack  had  its  origin  in  the 
French  stronghold  at  Cape  Breton.  When  news  of  the  declaration 
of  war  reached  Annapolis  in  June,  1744,  Mascarene  put  the  fort  in 
a  defensible  condition,  being  aided  therein  by  some  of  the  French 
Acadians  both  with  material  and  with  labour.  An  attack  upon 
the  workers  was  made  by  some  Indians,  believed  to  be  instigated 
by  Le  Loutre,  but  they  were  beaten  off,  and  the  scanty  garrison  of 
one  hundred  men  received  a  timely  re-inforcement  of  about  half 
that  number,  including  some  officers.  At  the  end  of  August,  an 
invading  force  of  nearly  eight  hundred  troops,  chiefly  militia  and 
Indians,  arrived  from  Louisbourg.  Its  operations  were  those  of 
mere  petty  warfare,  of  so  constant  recurrence  in  the  North  American 
history  of  those  and  of  earlier  days,  and  were  devoid  of  military 


NOVA   SCOTIA.  289 

combination  and  skill.  The  invaders  had  no  cannon,  and  could 
not  inflict  any  damage  on  the  works,  but  their  superior  numbers 
enabled  them  to  harass  the  defenders  by  frequent  night  attacks. 
The  garrison  were  worn  by  want  of  sleep,  and  the  French  com- 
mander sent  a  letter  demanding  a  surrender,  with  the  assurance 
that  he  expected  the  arrival  of  three  powerful  men-of-war,  with 
additional  troops,  and  an  intimation  that  he  already  had  men 
enough  for  a  successful  assault.  Mascarene,  in  reply,  declined  to 
consider  the  question  of  surrender  until  he  saw  the  French  ships 
in  the  bay.  Most  of  his  own  officers  desired  a  capitulation,  but  he 
managed  to  persuade  them  that  the  Frenchman's  aim  was  to  create 
division  and  discontent.  A  truce  which  had  been  made  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  offered  terms  was  ended  amidst  the  hearty 
cheers  of  the  men,  and  Mascarene's  courage,  energy,  and  tact  sent 
all  with  renewed  spirit  to  the  defence  of  the  works.  The  French 
leader's  plan  had  thoroughly  failed,  and  he  soon  abandoned  the 
enterprise  and  returned  to  Louisbourg. 

The  popularity  of  Mascarene's  rule  was  proved  at  this  time  by 
the  declaration  of  the  French  settled  away  from  Annapolis,  in 
reply  to  agents  from  Cape  Breton  who  required  aid  against  the 
British,  that  "  they  lived  under  a  mild  and  tranquil  government, 
and  had  good  reason  to  be  faithful  thereto  ".  This  favourable  state 
of  feeling  was  soon  to  be  changed  by  the  spiritual  menaces  and  the 
misrepresentations  as  to  temporal  affairs  diligently  used  by  Le 
Loutre  and  other  missionaries.  The  safety  of  Nova  Scotia  for  its 
British  possessors  was  for  the  time  secured  by  our  capture  of  Louis- 
bourg, in  a  series  of  events  which  have  been  related.  The  French 
Acadians  showed  a  renewed  spirit  of  hostility  by  refusing,  with 
their  own  pecuniary  loss,  to  supply  provisions  to  the  British 
garrison  in  Cape  Breton  Island.  The  British  ministry,  at  the 
peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  1 748,  displayed  the  fatuity  so  common 
among  our  rulers  in  the  eighteenth  century  by  restoring  to  the 
French  the  stronghold  of  Louisbourg,  so  lately  obtained  at  the 
cost  of  British  lives  and  treasure,  and  a  standing  menace,  in  French 
hands,  to  British  colonists  in  North  America.  The  attention  of 
the  mother-country  was,  however,  drawn  by  this  very  act  to  the 
position  and  the  needs  of  Nova  Scotia.  The  retrocession  of  Cape 
Breton  Island,  and  the  consequent  exposure  of  our  possessions  to 
fresh  attack,  rendered  necessary  the  creation  of  a  counterpoise, 

VOL.  I.  19 


2QO  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

in  the  Acadian  peninsula,  to  the  strong  position  held  by  France  in 
the  neighbouring  island. 

The  fortress  of  Louisbourg  was  evacuated  by  the  British 
troops  in  July,  1749.  A  few  days  later,  an  important  event 
occurred  in  Nova  Scotia.  Colonel  the  Hon.  Edward  Cornwallis, 
who  had  been  appointed  governor,  arrived  at  Chebucto,  on  the 
east  coast,  with  more  than  two  thousand  five  hundred  emigrants, 
who  were  chiefly  soldiers  and  sailors,  discharged  from  the  service 
in  consequence  of  the  peace,  and  artificers  of  good  character  and 
skill  in  their  various  callings.  Parliament  had  voted  forty  thousand 
pounds  for  the  expenses  of  the  enterprise.  The  new  settlers 
received  a  free  passage,  with  provisions  for  the  voyage;  allowance 
of  food  for  a  year  after  landing;  arms,  ammunition,  household 
utensils  and  tools  for  tillage;  with  free  grants  of  land  for  settlement 
under  civil  rule,  in  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights  then  possessed  by 
British  colonists.  The  name  of  "  Chebucto "  was  changed  to 
"  Halifax",  in  honour  of  the  peer  who  was  then  president  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations.  Cornwallis,  who  was  assisted  by 
a  new  council,  formed  a  good  opinion  of  the  capabilities  of  the 
country  which  he  was  charged  to  rule.  His  address  to  the  French 
Acadians  reminded  them  of  the  good  treatment  received  by  them 
at  British  hands,  in  the  quiet  possession  of  their  property  and  the 
free  exercise  of  their  religion;  gently  reproached  them  with  their 
hostile  demeanour; .and,  promising  them  a  full  amnesty,  called  on 
them  to  assist  the  new  settlers,  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance, 
and  in  all  respects  to  conform  to  their  actual  position  as  British 
subjects. 

The  French  settlements  were  at  Annapolis,  Grand  Pre,  Mines 
(now  Horton),  Truro,  and  other  points  found  along  the  Bay  of 
Fundy  from  Annapolis  to  the  basin  of  Mines.  There  were  some 
others  to  the  northwards,  and  the  Micmac  Indians,  a  tribe  of  the 
Algonquins,  a  few  thousand  of  whom  are  still  found  in  Nova 
Scotia,  Newfoundland,  and  New  Brunswick,  were  scattered  across 
the  country  from  near  Halifax  to  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  The  French 
population,  at  this  time,  numbered  over  twelve  thousand,  but  within 
the  next  few  years  about  one-fourth  of  these  were  induced  by 
their  priests  and  by  French  agents  to  leave  their  lands,  and  to 
resort  to  He  Saint  Jean  (afterwards  Prince  Edward's  Island),  and 
to  Cape  Breton  colony.  The  Acadians  demurred  to  taking  the 


NOVA   SCOTIA.  291 

oath  of  allegiance,  and  were  then  required,  by  proclamation,  to  do 
so  before  October  26th,  or  to  forfeit  their  possessions  and  rights  in 
the  province.  In  reply,  the  Acadian  deputies  professed  to  be  in 
mortal  fear  of  the  "  savages  "  if  they  became  full  British  subjects, 
and  refused  to  take  the  oath,  except  with  an  exemption  from  bearing 
arms  against  the  enemies  of  Great  Britain.  They  also  stated  that 
the  French  population  objected  to  the  coming  of  the  English  to 
live  among  them. 

Cornwallis  declined  to  admit  any  conditions;  warned  them 
against  deceivers ;  pointed  out  that  it  is  not  an  oath  of  allegiance 
which  makes  men  subjects  of  a  king,  but  that,  being  so  already, 
they  were  required  to  furnish  a  sacred  bond  of  fidelity;  and  that  it 
was  only  from  regard  to  their  position  and  their  inexperience  that 
the  government  condescended  to  reason  with  them  at  all.  He 
ended  by  demanding  the  services  of  fifty  men  to  assist  the  new 
settlers  in  building  houses  for  protection  against  the  coming 
winter.  The  French  population  then  resorted  to  a  series  of 
outrages  on  the  British  settlers  and  troops.  In  these  proceedings, 
they  were  encouraged  by  emissaries  both  from  France  and  from 
Canada,  where  the  authorities  regarded  with  extreme  jealousy  the 
new  establishment  at  Halifax,  as  giving  to  Great  Britain  a  firm 
hold  on  Nova  Scotia,  enabling  her  people  to  block  approach  by 
land  from  Canada  to  Cape  Breton,  and  supplying  her  with  a  check 
on  Louisbourg. 

The  chief  difficulty  with  which  Cornwallis  had  to  deal  lay  in 
the  extreme  ignorance  of  the  Acadians.  There  were  no  schools 
and  few  books,  and  an  intellectual  condition  which  made  the 
French  settlers  ready  victims  of  the  political  priests  who  worked 
both  with  religious  and  temporal  weapons  of  terrorism.  Le 
Loutre  was  at  Louisbourg,  spreading  false  stories  to  the  prejudice 
of  the  British  rulers  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  resolving,  as  he  avowed, 
to  go  thither  and  stir  up  the  Micmacs  to  war.  The  Indians  were 
supplied  with  powder  and  bullets,  with  the  full  knowledge  and 
approval  of  the  French  government  at  home,  and  the  missionaries 
were  ordered  to  incite  the  natives  to  robbery  and  murder.  Twenty 
Englishmen  were  seized  at  Canso,  and  an  English  vessel  was 
captured.  Then  two  British  craft  were  attacked  with  the  loss  of 
three  lives;  four  of  the  new  settlers  were  killed  near  Halifax  while 
they  were  cutting  wood  for  the  saw-mill.  Cornwallis  and  the 


2Q2  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

council  properly  declined  to  dignify  the  Indians  by  declaring  war, 
and,  treating  them  as  a  mere  "  banditti  of  ruffians",  they  offered  a 
reward  of  ten  guineas  for  any  Micmac  alive  or  dead,  or  for  his 
scalp.  A  company  of  volunteers  was  formed,  provided  with  snow- 
shoes,  and  the  woods  round  the  new  capital  were  scoured.  Some 
of  the  French,  daunted  by  this  firm  conduct,  then  came  forward 
and  helped  to  construct  a  road  from  the  sea  to  the  town.  As  the 
Indian  outrages  continued,  the  men  at  Halifax  were  formed  into  a 
militia,  and  a  regular  guard  was  posted  at  night.  Through  all 
these  matters,  Cornwallis  acted  with  the  firmness  and  moderation 
proper  to  his  position. 

On  the  frontier,  where  the  peninsula  joins  the  mainland, 
French  Canadian  troops  were  driven  off  in  1750  by  a  British  force 
under  Colonel  Lawrence,  an  able  and  energetic  officer,  who  built 
a  fort  and  barracks  at  Chignecto,  where  Howe,  a  member  of  the 
council,  was  placed  in  command.  He  was  a  kindly  and  courteous 
man,  who  was  winning  his  way  to  a  peaceful  settlement  with  the 
Indians  when  he  was  shot  dead  from  ambush  in  advancing  from 
the  fort  to  meet  a  flag  of  truce.  This  foul  act  of  treachery  was 
perpetrated  by  some  of  the  savages,  incited  by  Le  Loutre.  The 
French  officers,  of  course,  regarded  his  conduct  with  horror  and 
indignation,  and  Cornwallis  described  it  as  an  instance  of  barbarity 
and  treachery  without  a  parallel  in  history.  In  1751,  people  were 
killed  and  carried  off  by  Indians  near  Halifax,  Le  Loutre  paying  a 
reward  for  every  English  scalp.  In  1752,  Cornwallis,  on  resigning 
his  office,  returned  to  England,  leaving  Nova  Scotia  as  a  colony 
firmly  established,  not  indeed  in  the  acceptance  of  British  rule  by 
the  Acadians,  but  with  a  capital  of  four  thousand  people  at  Halifax, 
and  with  the  country  secured,  in  a  military  sense,  by  forts  erected 
at  Mines,  Windsor,  and  Chignecto. 

It  was  a  point  of  gross  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  British 
government  and  the  Church,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  quite  consonant 
with  the  moral  and  religious  condition  of  England  at  that  period, 
that  there  was  no  religious  instruction  for  the  colonists,  and  no 
clergyman,  save  the  regimental  chaplains,  was  sent  out  to  Nova 
Scotia.  This  disregard  of  duty  was  in  marked  and  painful  con- 
trast to  what  has  been  related  concerning  the  care  of  French 
Catholics  for  the  spiritual  welfare  both  of  their  own  countrymen 
and  of  the  natives  in  America.  As  late  as  1782,  we  find  a 


NOVA   SCOTIA.  293 

Methodist  preacher  who  visited  Halifax  strongly  remarking  on  the 
wickedness  of  the  town,  and  the  mockery  with  which  his  ministra- 
tions were  received.  It  is  quite  in  accordance  with  the  lack  of 
zeal  for  the  saving  of  souls  that  an  order  existed  forbidding  any 
Catholic  to  become  a  new  settler,  and  restricting  to  Protestants  all 
transfer  of  landed  property. 

Colonel  Hopson,  the  successor  of  Cornwallis,  used  every  means 
to  conciliate  both  the  Indians  and  the  French  Acadians,  but  it 
became  clear  that  the  latter,  constantly  worked  on  by  the  mission- 
aries and  by  emissaries  from  Canada  and  from  Cape  Breton,  would 
not  settle  down  as  loyal  and  contented  subjects  under  British  rule. 
In  November,  1753,  Colonel  the  Hon.  Charles  Lawrence  became 
virtual  ruler,  with  appointment  as  lieutenant-governor  in  the 
following  year.  He  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  man  of  ability  and 
resolution,  and,  until  his  death  in  1760,  he  strove  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  colony.  A  body  of  two  thousand  Germans  had 
settled,  in  1753,  at  Lunenburg,  near  Halifax,  and  the  town  of 
Dartmouth  had  also  been  founded. 

The  year  1755  is  the  one  marked  in  Nova  Scotian  history  by 
the  expatriation,  or  forcible  removal,  of  about  seven  thousand  of 
the  French  population,  or  nearly  three-quarters  of  the  whole 
number  of  "  Acadians",  in  the  old  sense.  Few  historical  transac- 
tions have  been  more  misunderstood  and  misrepresented  than  this. 
It  has  been  denounced  as  a  piece  of  wanton  and  tyrannical  cruelty 
exercised  against  an  innocent,  simple,  virtuous,  and  prosperous 
community,  living  a  life  worthy  of  the  Golden  Age  among  the 
meadows  of  Grand  Pre,  fenced  from  the  sea  by  dykes  of  their  own 
construction,  and  kept  in  comfort  by  abundant  cattle,  crops  of 
grain,  and  orchard-fruits.  The  aid  of  poetry  has  been  used  in 
their  behalf,  and  most  readers  have  formed  their  conception  of  the 
people  and  of  their  treatment  by  their  British  rulers  from  Long- 
fellow's Evangeline,  which  has  invested  the  story  with  a  glamour  of 
romance,  amidst  much  true  as  well  as  picturesque  description  of 
"thatched  roofs  with  dormer  windows  and  projecting  gables", 
vanes  on  chimneys,  gilded  by  the  evening-sun,  and  "  matrons  and 
maids  in  snow-white  caps  and  in  kirtles  Scarlet  and  blue  and  green, 
with  distaffs  spinning  the  golden  Flax  for  the  gossiping  looms". 

Hexameters,  however,  are  not,  in  this  case,  history,  nor  is  the 
pathos  of  poetry  the  same  as  prosaic  fact.  The  Acadians,  after 


294  °UR   EMPIRE   AT    HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

forty  years  of  pleading,  plain  threatening,  and  forbearance  un- 
equalled in  history,  chose  to  commit  political  suicide.  Their 
presence,  as  passive  opponents  of  British  rule,  often  turned  into 
the  active  tools  of  French  intrigue,  was  a  positive  danger  to  the 
very  existence  of  Nova  Scotia  as  a  British  colony.  The  day  of 
final  and  desperate  struggle  for  ascendency  in  North  America  had 
arrived,  and  a  British  governor  who  had  acted  otherwise  than 
Lawrence,  in  expelling  the  hostile  element  from  the  land  which  he 
ruled,  would  have  betrayed  his  duty  to  his  sovereign  and  his 
country.  Those  who  complain  of  the  removal  of  the  Acadians 
forget  that  some  thousands,  with  great  loss  and  ultimate  suffering, 
had  already  passed  into  exile  from  Nova  Scotia  under  the  persua- 
sions or  threats  of  Le  Loutre  and  other  French  agents.  Those 
Acadians  who  showed  a  desire  to  become  fully  reconciled  to 
British  rule  by  taking  the  unconditional  oath  of  allegiance  were 
menaced  with  the  tomahawks  of  the  savage  Micmacs.  The 
British  rulers,  in  their  conduct,  are  defended  by  the  unassailable 
reason  of  self-preservation,  and  the  fate  of  the  exiles  was  due,  not 
to  the  sins  of  Lawrence  and  the  council,  but  to  those  of  their  own 
countrymen,  who  deceived  them  and  betrayed  them  to  ruin  from 
sheer  hatred  and  jealousy  of  the  British  conquerors  of  Nova 
Scotia.  One  of  the  avowed  defenders  of  this  "innocent"  people 
admits  "continued  and  frequent  violations  of  their  professed 
neutrality"  in  the  struggle  between  French  and  British  in  North 
America,  and  allows  that  "  three  hundred  of  them  had  been  found 
in  arms  against  the  British". 

With  this  admission  we  pass  from  the  region  of  needless 
further  argument  to  that  of  narration,  and  proceed  to  record  the 
circumstances  of  the  somewhat  tragical  event.  The  first  step 
taken  by  Lawrence  was  to  place  himself  in  a  position  to  enforce 
any  order  that  might  be  issued  by  the  government.  The  safety  of 
Nova  Scotia,  as  a  British  possession,  was  in  1754  very  precarious. 
It  was  certain  that  the  French  in  Canada  and  Cape  Breton  Island 
would  attack  the  country  at  the  first  opportunity,  and,  in  the 
absence  of  a  British  fleet,  there  was  no  means  of  resisting  a 
powerful  armament  sent  from  Louisbourg  or  Quebec.  One  point 
of  danger  was  the  French  fort  at  Beausejour,  on  the  isthmus  con- 
necting peninsular  Acadia  with  the  continental  portion  which  was 
later  called  New  Brunswick.  A  large  hostile  force  of  Acadians 


NOVA   SCOTIA.  295 

could  quickly  be  gathered  there,  and  swoop  down  upon  the  feeble 
garrisons  at  Fort  Lawrence,  Annapolis,  and  other  points.  Halifax 
might  be  invested  by  the  foe,  and  forced  to  surrender  from  want  of 
supplies,  and,  Nova  Scotia  once  recovered  by  France,  the  people 
of  New  England  would  be  again  exposed  to  incessant  danger  and 
loss.  Shirley,  the  active  and  able  governor  of  Massachusetts,  took 
the  matter  in  hand  with  vigour,  and  assembled  at  Boston  a  force  of 
two  thousand  men,  with  a  fleet  of  transports,  and  three  frigates. 
In  May,  1755,  the  expedition  sailed,  and  anchored  on  June  ist 
twelve  miles  from  Beausejour.  The  fort  there  was  ill-armed,  and 
at  this  time  had  a  garrison  of  but  one  hundred  and  fifty  men.  The 
New  England  troops,  marching  to  the  attack,  quickly  routed  four 
hundred  French  and  Indians  who  strove  to  bar  the  road,  and  the 
siege  was  begun  by  the  planting  of  artillery  within  seven  hundred 
feet  of  the  works.  The  bombardment  and  the  reply  were  both  at 
first  equally  feeble,  but  the  non-arrival  of  help  from  Louisbourg, 
and  the  bursting  of  shells  within  the  fort  compelled  a  surrender  on 
honourable  terms.  This  success  was  followed  by  the  surrender  of 
Fort  Gaspereau  on  Bay  Verte,  and  the  French  were  thus  driven 
from  the  threatening  position  which  they  had  long  held  in  the  north 
of  Nova  Scotia. 

The  garrison  at  Beausejour  had  included  Le  Loutre,  who,  after 
talking  of  burying  himself  under  the  ruins  of  the  walls,  fled  in 
disguise  before  the  surrender,  was  received  at  Quebec  with  con- 
tempt both  from  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  died 
many  years  afterwards  in  France  in  utter  obscurity.  A  remark- 
able episode  of  his  ignoble  career  occurred  at  Jersey.  The  ship  on 
which  he  sailed  from  Quebec  for  France  was  captured  by  an 
English  frigate,  and  Le  Loutre,  fearing  punishment  for  his  evil 
deeds  against  the  British,  took  the  name  of  Duprez.  He  was  sent 
to  Jersey  Castle,  where  he  remained  as  a  prisoner  of  war  until  the 
peace  of  1763.  One  day  he  was  recognized  by  a  soldier  on  guard, 
who  had  served  with  the  British  troops  in  America,  and  identified 
Le  Loutre  as  having  ordered  him  to  be  scalped.  It  was  with 
difficulty  that  the  man  could  be  restrained  from  bayoneting  the 
Frenchman  on  the  spot,  and  so  determined  was  the  spirit  of 
vengeance  that  he  displayed,  that  he  was  transferred  to  another 
post  of  duty. 

After  the  capture  of  Beausejour,  and  with  the  successful  force 


296  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

at  hand,  Lawrence  was  able  to  deal  with  the  recalcitrant  Acadians. 
Their  deputies  were  summoned  before  the  council,  and  a  last 
demand  was  made  for  the  taking  of  the  unconditional  oath  of 
allegiance,  on  pain  of  quitting  the  country  in  case  of  refusal.  In 
every  case  the  deputies  declined  to  take  the  oath,  and  the  govern- 
ment at  once  provided  transports  for  the  removal  of  the  main  body 
of  French  Acadians.  At  Annapolis,  Grand  Pre",  and  other  points, 
the  people  were  gathered  in  by  bodies  of  soldiers,  and  informed  by 
the  officer  in  command  that  their  lands,  tenements,  cattle,  and 
stock  were  forfeited  to  the  crown,  with  all  other  effects,  except 
money  and  household  goods,  which  they  were  at  liberty  to  convey 
on  board  ship  so  far  as  room  sufficed.  Little  or  no  resistance  was 
attempted,  and  the  people  were  marched  on  board  the  vessels, 
every  effort  being  made  to  perform  a  painful  duty  with  the  utmost 
possible  humanity.  At  one  place  it  was  needful  to  burn  a  large 
number  of  houses  in  order  to  enforce  the  order  of  expulsion.  Over 
six  thousand  persons  in  all  were  removed,  nearly  one-third  of 
whom  were  taken  from  the  village  of  Grand  Pre,  the  scene  of 
Longfellow's  poem.  The  exiles  were  landed  on  the  coasts  of  the 
British  colonies  from  Massachusetts  to  Georgia,  some  being  thence 
sent  over  to  England,  and  the  rest  gradually  absorbed  among  the 
colonial  population.  Besides  those  who  were  deported,  there 
were  many  Acadians  that  made  their  way  to  Quebec,  where  they 
received  poor  treatment  from  those  who  had  encouraged  them  to 
refuse  submission  to  British  rule.  Some  died  of  want,  and,  on  the 
whole,  a  large  amount  of  misery  arose  from  the  expatriation  caused, 
on  a  just  review  of  the  facts,  by  the  ignorance,  obstinacy,  and  per- 
versity of  victims  led  astray  by  selfish  intriguers,  and  taught  to 
maintain  an  unrelenting  enmity  to  the  British  authority  which,  for 
more  than  forty  years,  had  extended  to  a  conquered  people  a  for- 
bearance alike  unequalled  and  undeserved. 

Three  years  after  this  event,  when  the  feeling  caused  by  the 
removal  of  most  of  the  Acadians  had  somewhat  subsided  among 
the  remaining  French  population,  it  was  deemed  proper  to 
.establish  a  representative  form  of  government  which  should  lend 
the  authority  of  popular  sanction  to  the  proceedings  of  the 
governor  and  council.  The  first  Assembly  that  was  ever  held 
within  the  limits  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  consisted  of 
twenty-two  members,  elected  by  the  people.  They  met  in 


NOVA   SCOTIA.  297 

the  court-house  at  Halifax,  in  October,  1758.  The  Anglican 
Church  was  the  legal  form  of  religion,  with  perfect  toleration 
for  all  other  sects.  Emigration  was  encouraged  by  liberal 
grants  of  land,  which,  in  the  course  of  1759,  drew  nearly  nine 
hundred  settlers  from  New  England  and  from  Ireland.  The  safety 
of  Nova  Scotia  was  fully  assured  by  the  conquest  of  Canada,  as 
already  related,  but  the  joy  of  the  British  colonists  was  damped  by 
the  death  of  the  excellent  Governor  Lawrence,  who  expired  from 
the  effects  of  a  cold  caught  at  the  ball  which  he  gave  to  celebrate 
the  capture  of  Montreal.  When  the  power  of  France  in  North 
America  had  come  to  an  end,  there  were  many  French  settlers,  out- 
side Canada  proper,  that  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  George  the 
Third,  and  a  source  of  trouble  was  removed  when  the  Micmac  Indians 
of  Nova  Scotia  made  a  treaty  of  peace  at  Halifax,  solemnly  burying 
the  hatchet  in  presence  of  the  governor,  council,  and  high  officials. 

The  province  now  enjoyed  a  rapid  increase  of  population  and 
prosperity,  through  the  establishment  of  peace  and  order,  along 
with  a  steady  flow  of  immigration.  During  the  disputes  of  the 
adjacent  colonies  with  the  home-country  concerning  the  Stamp  Act 
and  the  other  matters  which  led,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  the  people  of  Massachusetts  in  vain  strove  for 
support  from  the  colonists  of  Nova  Scotia,  who  remained,  with 
rare  exceptions,  loyal  to  Great  Britain  throughout  the  unhappy 
struggle,  in  spite  of  the  consequent  loss  of  trade  and  of  mischief 
done  to  the  coast-settlements  by  the  attacks  of  privateers.  The 
Micmac  Indians  gave  signs  of  joining  the  revolted  colonists,  but 
Were  kept  faithful  by  diplomacy  which  included  feasting,  flattery, 
and  the  bestowal  of  gifts. 

A  great  impetus  was  given  to  the  progress  of  Nova  Scotia  at 
the  close,  in  1783,  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  colonists  in  the 
new  "  United  States"  who  had  remained  faithful  to  Great  Britain 
were  a  source  of  anxiety  to  both  countries.  There  were  many 
thousands  of  "Loyalists",  who,  in  many  cases  at  the  cost  of  the 
rupture  of  family-ties  between  brother  and  brother,  father  and  son, 
as  well  as  of  many  friendships,  had  remained  faithful  to  the  old  flag. 
When  the  cause  of  that  flag  was  lost,  they  were  treated  with  due 
consideration  by  the  victors,  after  much  suffering  from  insult  and 
suspicion,  and  sometimes  from  open  violence,  during  the  war. 
Large  numbers,  including  many  men  of  high  character,  position, 


298  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

and  ability,  felt  it  impossible  to  become  citizens  of  the  Republic. 
The  government  of  Great  Britain  made  it  a  duty  to  provide  for 
their  future  welfare  on  American  soil,  and  they  were  invited  to 
emigrate  to  Canada  and  the  adjacent  colonies  on  the  eastern  sea- 
board. The  "United  Empire  Loyalists"  received  above  three 
millions  of  money  from  the  British  Parliament  by  way  of  indemnity 
for  the  loss  of  estates,  and  in  aid  of  emigration,  and  above  thirty 
thousand  people  sought  new  homes  from  all  parts  of  the  States, 
but  mainly  from  New  England  and  New  York.  It  is  supposed 
that  about  twenty  thousand  of  these  settled  in  Nova  Scotia,  including 
in  that  term  the  continental  territory  to  the  north-west.  Several 
thousand  settled  near  Halifax  and  on  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  John  river,  where  they  founded  the  town  of  St. 
John,  which  was  long  called  Parrtown,  in  honour  of  Governor  Parr, 
who  then  ruled  the  colony. 

It  was  in  May,  1783,  that  these  refugees  came  to  find  new 
homes  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  St.  John.  The  place  was 
then  covered  with  pines  and  spruce-firs,  and  nothing  else  was  to  be 
seen  but  a  block-house,  a  few  fishermen's  huts,  a  sprinkling  of  other 
houses  and  stores  for  fish  and  fur,  and  the  blackened  ruins  of  Fort 
Frederick,  taken  and  burnt  during  the  war  by  assailants  from  the 
revolted  colonies.  Here  they  began  to  live  on  grants  of  land,  and 
their  arrival  was  the  cause  of  the  foundation  of  New  Brunswick  as 
a  separate  colony.  They  desired  to  send  a  member  to  represent 
them  in  the  Nova  Scotian  Assembly  at  Halifax,  but  the  governor 
was  unable,  under  his  powers,  to  grant  this  request,  and  they  accord- 
ingly petitioned  the  Crown  for  a  separate  establishment.  The  high 
character  and  intelligence  of  the  five  thousand  new  settlers  caused 
a  ready  assent,  and  in  1784  New  Brunswick,  deriving  her  name 
from  the  reigning  dynasty  of  Great  Britain,  was  started  on  her  career. 
The  colony  already  had,  as  settlers  on  the  upper  course  of  the  St. 
John  and  on  the  eastern  coast,  many  of  the  expelled  Acadians,  as 
well  as  emigrants  from  Scotland  who,  in  1 764,  settled  on  the  river 
Miramichi.  Many  of  the  Loyalist  emigrants  from  the  States  settled 
at  Annapolis,  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  to  them  also  the  town  of  Shel- 
burne,  on  the  south  coast,  owes  its  rise,  with  a  name  derived  from 
the  British  statesman,  the  Earl  of  Shelburne,  who  became  the  first 
Marquis  of  Lansdowne.  His  descendant,  a  century  later  (1883), 
was  made  governor-general  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 


NOVA  SCOTIA. 


299 


During  the  great  war  with  France  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  Halifax  was  a  naval  and  military  post  of  high  importance, 
and  became  the  residence  of  many  persons  of  distinction  from  the 
mother-country,  who  gave  a  conservative  and  aristocratic  tone  to 
the  colony,  and,  by  the  free  expenditure  of  money  incident  to  their 
position,  caused  much  commercial  advance.  Edward,  Duke  of 
Kent,  who  became,  many  years  later,  father  of  Queen  Victoria,  held 
the  post  of  commander-in-chief  from  1794  to  1799,  and  acquired 
much  well-earned  popularity  by  his  excellent  conduct  and  his 
bounteous  hospitality.  The  democratic  aspirations  of  the  body  of 
colonists,  who  now  amounted  to  over  fifty  thousand,  were  repressed 
by  the  governor,  backed  by  the  council,  but  there  was  no  breach 
of  the  public  peace,  and  Nova  Scotia  continued  in  the  path  of 
steady  progress  through  industry. 

In  New  Brunswick,  the  first  governor  was  Colonel  Carleton,  a 
brother  of  Lord  Dorchester.  He  had  commanded  a  regiment 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  was  justly  popular  with  the 
"Loyalist"  population  of  whom,  in  November,  1784,  he  assumed 
the  rule.  A  council  of  twelve  members  assisted  in  executive  and 
legislative  duties,  and  there  was  a  popular  House  of  Assembly, 
composed  of  twenty-six  representatives.  The  first  council  included 
several  men  of  high  distinction  among  the  new  colonists,  as  Ludlow, 
formerly  chief  judge  at  New  York,  three  other  judges  who  had 
served  as  colonels  in  the  war,  James  Putnam,  one  of  the  ablest 
lawyers  on  that  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  men  formerly  great  land- 
owners, who  had  lost  all  for  the  sake  of  adherence  to  the  cause  of 
the  mother-country.  In  1788,  the  seat  of  government  was  removed 
from  St.  John,  which  was  for  many  years  the  only  incorporated 
"  city  "  in  British  North  America,  to  the  present  capital,  Fredericton, 
situated  about  ninety  miles  up  the  St.  John  river.  The  place  was 
selected  as  being  more  central,  as  less  exposed  to  hostile  attacks, 
and  less  subject  to  the  democratic  influences  which  might  arise  in 
a  prosperous  and  populous  commercial  town. 

The  new  colony  did  not,  however,  escape  conflict  on  constitu- 
tional points  between  the  aristocratic  governor  and  council  and 
the  popular  assembly.  One  dispute  arose  on  the  question  of  pay- 
ment for  public  service  to  members  of  the  House.  That  body  had 
voted  the  modest  sum  of  seven-and-sixpence  per  day,  during  the 
session,  to  each  of  the  representatives.  The  governor  and  council 


3OO  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

vetoed  this,  as  unworthy  of  the  Assembly,  and  thus  came  a  struggle, 
quite  in  the  old-country  fashion,  on  a  money-bill,  or  question  of 
revenue.  The  Assembly,  like  the  House  of  Commons  in  Stuart 
days,  maintained  its  right  to  control  the  appropriation  of  supplies, 
and  resorted  to  the  device  of  "  tacking  "  this  particular  vote  to  the 
bill  for  the  general  expenses  of  administration.  It  is  amusing  to 
observe  Britons,  in  the  very  inception  of  a  new  colonial  parliament, 
mimicking,  in  earnest  and  sturdy  fashion,  the  precise  methods  by 
which  their  sires  beyond  the  sea  had  held  their  rights  against  those 
who  would  fain  have  ruled  with  absolute  sway.  Such  men  as  these 
were  they  who,  at  a  later  day,  caused  British  governments,  in  their 
dealings  with  British  colonies,  to  abandon  in  despair  the  old  colonial 
system,  and  to  leave  full  rights  of  self-government  to  new  com- 
munities of  British  people  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  The 
Assembly  of  New  Brunswick  had  to  contend,  not  only  with  the 
governor  and  council  on  the  spot,  but  with  the  secretary  of  state 
in  London,  who,  on  appeal  to  his  decision,  condemned  their  conduct 
in  "  tacking  ".  The  people's  representatives  maintained  their  atti- 
tude, and  for  three  years,  from  1 796  to  1 799,  passed  no  money-bills 
at  all.  The  difficulty  was  at  last  removed,  again  in  the  true  British 
fashion  which  has  so  well  served  British  interests,  by  concessions 
on  both  sides.  The  Assembly  voted  all  the  money  which  the 
council  wanted  for  general  purposes,  and  the  council  agreed  to  the 
pocket-money  for  the  members.  In  this  auspicious  state  of  affairs, 
with  the  excellent  Colonel  Carleton,  in  a  tenure  of  office  for  nearly 
twenty  years,  governing  the  province  with  admirable  skill,  we  leave 
New  Brunswick  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Trade 
was  in  rapid  growth.  In  1778,  British  enterprise  and  capital  had 
been  drawn  to  the  vast  supply  of  fine  timber  growing  on  the  banks 
of  the  St.  John  and  Miramichi.  Three  years  later,  the  beginning 
of  a  great  commerce  in  "  lumber  "  or  sawn  timber  was  followed  by 
the  launching,  at  St.  John,  of  the  first  of  a  great  fleet  of  ships  that 
bore  the  colours  of  New  Brunswick.  The  noble  pines  of  her  forests 
furnished  masts  to  many  of  the  magnificent  vessels  which,  in  line 
of  battle,  under  Nelson  and  Collingwood,  Howe  and  Duncan,  and 
many  a  sea-captain,  were  to  raise  the  renown  of  the  British  navy 
to  the  highest  point. 

Prince  Edward  Island  was  discovered  by  the  Cabots  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  but  no  claim  to  its  possession  was 


PRINCE   EDWARD   ISLAND.  301 

then  set  up  by  the  English  crown.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
it  was  occupied  by  French  subjects,  Acadians  from  Cape  Breton, 
as  the  He  St.  Jean.  They  were  attracted  by  the  fertile  soil,  and 
other  Acadians  had  gone  thither  on  the  cession,  in  1713,  of  Nova 
Scotia  to  Great  Britain  by  the  Peace  of  Utrecht.  Many  of  the 
Acadians  expelled  in  1755  swelled  the  number  of  settlers,  and  in 
1763  the  island  finally  came  into  British  possession,  when  the  popu- 
lation somewhat  exceeded  four  thousand  souls.  There  was  a  fair 
growth  of  wheat,  and  the  settlers  then  possessed  about  ten  thousand 
horned  cattle.  When  the  British  troops,  under  Lord  Rollo,  took 
possession  in  1 758,  they  found  the  French  governor's  house  adorned 
by  the  scalps  of  Nova  Scotian  colonists,  and  of  British  troops  taken 
as  stragglers  from  Nova  Scotian  garrisons  by  the  Micmac  Indians, 
and  by  some  of  the  "  peaceful  and  innocent "  Acadians  who,  in  the 
disguise  of  savages,  had  shared  in  their  raids.  A  fort  for  defence 
was  erected,  and  the  island  was  attached  to  the  government  of 
Nova  Scotia,  but  was  made  a  separate  province  in  1768.  The 
population  had  then  been  greatly  reduced  by  emigration  to  that 
part  of  the  mainland  which  afterwards  became  New  Brunswick. 
Many  of  the  settlers  in  the  island  were  at  first  former  officers  of 
the  army  and  navy,  dwelling  on  lands  granted  by  the  "  Lords  of 
Trade  and  Plantations  ".  These  persons  mostly  sold  their  estates, 
and  the  land  thus  came  into  the  hands  of  a  few  proprietors,  chiefly 
absentees.  A  governor  was  appointed  in  1770,  and  a  first  parlia- 
ment was  held  at  Charlottetown,  the  capital,  three  years  later. 
The  representative  assembly  had  eighteen  members,  and  there 
was  the  usual  executive  and  legislative  council. 

The  new  colony  had  its  external  and  internal  troubles.  In 
1775  the  little  capital  was  plundered  by  two  American  cruisers, 
and  several  officials  were  carried  off,  but  were  soon  restored,  with 
the  other  booty,  by  Washington.  There  were  difficulties  concern- 
ing the  non-payment  of  quit-rents  for  lands,  on  which  the  govern- 
ment chiefly  relied  for  revenue,  and  many  estates  were  sold,  in  a 
time  of  war  and  of  consequent  uncertainty  for  the  investment 
of  capital,  at  almost  nominal  prices.  Forfeited  lands,  to  a  large 
acreage,  came  into  the  possession  of  the  governor  and  his  friends, 
but  these  were  restored,  by  the  home-government,  to  former 
owners  on  the  payment  of  expenses.  The  governor,  Captain 
Patterson,  then  defied  the  colonial  authorities  in  London,  twice 


302  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

dissolved  the  popular  assembly,  and,  in  1786,  with  a  House  packed 
by  his  supporters,  he  confirmed  the  forced  sales  which  had  been 
disallowed.  He  was  promptly  recalled,  but  maintained  his  ground 
for  six  months,  with  ignoble  persistence,  against  his  successor, 
Colonel  Fanning.  A  peremptory  order  from  home  then  withdrew 
him  into  obscurity,  and  the  land  question  was  finally  set  at  rest  by 
the  return  of  the  estates  to  the  original  proprietors.  The  colony 
grew  but  slowly  In  numbers,  and  the  only  other  noteworthy 
circumstance  in  the  eighteenth  century  is  the  change  of  name  from 
Island  of  St.  John  to  Prince  Edward  Island,  in  compliment  to  the 
Duke  of  Kent,  whose  life  at  Halifax  was  noticed  above. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

HUDSON'S  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  NORTH-WEST. 

Early  history  of  Hudson's  Bay  territory — The  Hudson's  Bay  Company — Rupert's  Land — 
Troubles  with  the  French  traders — Claims  by  France  to  the  territory — Assigned  to 
Britain  at  the  Peace  of  Versailles — Exploration  of  the  Great  North-western  regions 
— The  Verendryes — Their  important  discoveries — Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie — He 
crosses  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  reaches  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

"Hudson's  Bay  Territory"  was  the  former  name  of  a  vast, 
vague  region  lying  north  and  north-west  of  Canada  proper,  and 
now,  under  various  titles,  included  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 
The  English  have  the  plainest  claim  to  priority  of  discovery  and 
settlement  in  that  part  of  North  America.  The  great  inland  sea, 
Hudson's  Bay,  has  its  name  from  the  distinguished  navigator, 
Henry  Hudson,  who  first  sailed  on  its  waters  in  1610,  and  took 
possession  of  the  bay  and  straits  by  authority  of  James  the  First. 
Two  years  later,  Sir  Thomas  Button  erected  a  cross  at  the  mouth 
of  a  river  entering  the  Bay  on  the  west,  and,  claiming  the  region 
for  England,  called  the  place  Port  Nelson,  after  the  commander  of 
his  ship.  In  1631,  Captain  Luke  Fox,  exploring  under  orders 
from  Charles  the  First,  visited  Hudson's  Bay,  and  restored  the 
cross  at  Port  Nelson,  which  he  found  to  have  been  defaced  and 
mutilated,  either  by  the  action  of  the  weather  or  by  the  hands  of 
natives.  In  1667,  Captain  Zachariah  (or  Zachary)  Gilham  (or 
Gillam)  entered  the  Bay,  and  erected  Fort  Charles  at  the  mouth 


HUDSON'S  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  NORTH-WEST.  303 

of  a  river  named  by  him  after  Prince  Rupert,  cousin  of  the  English 
sovereign:  the  modern  names  of  these  are  Fort  Rupert  and  River 
Nemiskau.  Gillam  appears  to  have  done  some  trade  in  furs  with 
the  natives,  and  from  this  source  came  the  famous  "  Hudson's  Bay 
Company".  Prince  Rupert  and  his  friends  subscribed  a  capital  of 
,£10,500,  and  obtained  a  charter  from  Charles  the  Second,  incor- 
porating them  as  the  "  Governor  and  Company  of  Merchant 
Adventurers  trading  to  Hudson  Bay".  The  associates  hereby 
received  the  grant  of  an  undefined  territory  "  from  Lake  Superior 
westwards ",  with  exclusive  rights  of  trade.  This  vast  region, 
named  "  Rupert's  Land",  appears  to  have  been  taken  to  include 
all  the  lands  discovered,  or  to  be  discovered,  within  the  entrance  of 
Hudson  Strait,  or,  as  otherwise  explained,  all  territory  whose 
waters  drained  into  the  Bay  or  Strait.  The  commercial  object 
was  mainly  that  of  importing  into  Great  Britain  furs  and  skins 
obtained  from  the  Indians  by  barter,  and  the  erection  of  armed 
posts,  for  the  protection  of  the  European  traders,  shortly  followed. 
Fort  Rupert  was  erected  on  the  east  side  of  the  Bay;  Fort  Hayes 
on  the  west  coast,  at  the  entrance  of  Moose  River;  and  Fort 
Albany  at  some  distance  to  the  north,  at  the  mouth  of  Albany 
River. 

The  Company's  agents  and  servants  were  soon  involved  in 
trouble  with  French  traders  who  claimed  the  same  region  under  a 
grant  made  long  before,  by  Louis  the  Thirteenth,  to  the  "Company 
of  New  France".  In  1680,  Captain  Draper  was  sent  to  the 
Nelson  River  for  the  purpose  of  starting  a  trade  in  furs,  but,  two 
years  later,  two  French  vessels  drove  away  the  Company's  ship, 
and  ended  their  project  of  establishing  a  "factory"  at  Port  Nelson. 
After  other  aggressive  acts,  a  French  force  from  Montreal,  com- 
manded by  De  Troyes  and  D'Iberville,  captured  in  the  summer 
of  1686  all  the  British  trading  posts  and  forts  on  the  shores  of  the 
Bay.  This  conduct  appears  to  have  been  dictated  by  a  policy 
wider  and  deeper  than  a  mere  desire  to  obtain  commercial  advan- 
tages. The  French  seem  to  have  held  that  their  position  in 
Canada  was  endangered  by  a  British  hold  on  Hudson's  Bay  to  the 
north  of  their  dominion,  at  the  same  time  that  Massachusetts  was 
encroaching  on  Acadia  to  the  east,  and  New  York,  on  the  south, 
was  claiming  possession  of  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Ontario. 
The  two  countries  in  Europe  were  at  peace,  but  this  fact  was 


304  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

regarded  by  the  assailants  as  simply  affording  them  an  opportunity 
for  surprise.  Fort  Hayes  was  taken  on  the  evening  of  June  iQth, 
while  its  four  eight-pounder  guns  were  unloaded,  and  after  its 
garrison  of  fifteen  men  had  resisted  for  two  hours,  in  their  block- 
house of  logs,  the  fire  of  nearly  six  times  their  number.  A  few 
days  later,  a  British  vessel  moored  in  front  of  Fort  Rupert  was 
boarded  and  seized  while  nearly  all  the  crew  were  asleep  below, 
and  the  fort  itself,  with  its  feeble  garrison,  of  whom  five  out  of 
fifteen  were  killed  or  disabled,  was  soon  in  French  hands.  In  the 
last  days  of  August,  the  invaders  arrived  with  an  armed  vessel  in 
front  of  Fort  Albany,  containing  a  garrison  of  thirty  men.  No 
defence  was  possible  against  a  great  superiority  in  cannon  and 
troops,  and  the  French,  for  more  than  twenty  years,  became  virtual 
masters  on  most  of  Hudson's  Bay. 

The  French  king,  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  having  long  enjoyed 
the  subservience  of  England  under  Charles  the  Second,  had  rightly 
judged  that  no  retaliation  need  be  feared  from  his  brother  and 
successor,  James.  The  seizure  of  territory  on  Hudson's  Bay  had 
been  made  by  France  but  three  months  before  a  treaty  of  neutrality 
and  amity  was  signed  in  London,  providing  that  "the  domain  each 
power  held  in  America  should  be  maintained  in  its  full  extent". 
The  "domain"  of  France  now  included  the  Hudson's  Bay 
territory,  and,  a  few  days  after  the  treaty  was  concluded,  the 
released  British  prisoners  of  Forts  Hayes,  Rupert,  and  Albany 
brought  the  news  to  London.  The  tidings  was  received  with 
great  indignation.  The  Company  was  now  an  important  body, 
distinguished  by  its  loyalty  to  the  Crown,  and  a  petition  was  at 
once  presented  to  James,  bearing  amongst  other  signatures  that 
of  "  Governor  Churchill ",  the  man  who  was  to  become  the  first 
Duke  of  Marlborough.  The  document  referred  to  the  "  Piraticall 
manner"  in  which  the  French  had  "taken  and  totally  despoiled 
the  Petitioners  of  three  of  their  Forts  and  Factories,  three  of  their 
ships,  Fifty  Thousand  Beaver  Skinns,  and  a  great  quantity  of 
Provisions,  Stores  and  Merchandizes  laid  in  for  many  Yeares 
Trade".  The  king  was  placed  in  an  awkward  position.  He 
depended  on  Louis  for  support  in  his  schemes  of  ruling  England 
independently  of  parliaments,  and  of  establishing  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  most  desirable  not 
to  offend,  by  neglect  of  just  complaints,  the  powerful  mercantile 


HUDSON'S  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  NORTH-WEST.  305 

interest  of  the  city  of  London.  Cromwell  would  have  at  once 
demanded  justice  and  reparation  in  a  tone  that  would  have  brought 
speedy  satisfaction  for  those  who  had  been  wronged.  What  James 
the  Second  did  was  to  submit  the  case  to  a  conference  of  five 
commissioners,  including  the  artful  and  heartless  Sunderland,  the 
Scottish  Earl  of  Middleton,  and  Sydney,  Earl  of  Godolphin,  on 
the  English  side,  with  the  French  ambassador  Barillon  and  his 
colleague  Bonrepaux,  acting  for  the  French.  It  was  not  till 
December,  1687,  that  a  report  was  made,  with  the  result  of  leaving 
the  French  in  possession  of  Hudson's  Bay.  A  year  later,  James 
the  Second  was  a  dethroned  exile. 

The  accession  of  William  the  Third  brought  war  with  France, 
and  for  some  years  affairs  in  Europe  prevented  any  active  assertion 
of  British  rights  in  the  disputed  region  of  North  America.  In 
1693  an  expedition  recovered  the  three  forts,  but  at  the  close  of 
1695  they  were  again  in  French  possession,  along  with  Fort  York, 
a  strong  work  of  recent  erection.  In  1696,  two  British  men-of-war 
regained  possession  of  every  post  on  the  Bay,  but  the  holders  were 
not  long  left  undisturbed.  I  n  the  next  year,  a  strong  naval  force 
arrived  from  France,  and  joined  at  Newfoundland  the  brave  and 
able  D'Iberville,  who  had  been  sent  out  by  De  Frontenac,  the 
governor  of  Canada,  for  the  uprooting  of  British  settlements  in 
every  quarter.  In  July  he  started  for  Hudson's  Bay  with  four 
men-of-war,  but  one  of  the  vessels  was  crushed  in  the  ice,  and,  as 
the  rest  were  detached  by  the  weather,  the  French  commander, 
early  in  September,  found  himself  near  Fort  York  with  only  his 
own  5O-gun  ship,  Le  Pelican.  Three  British  vessels  soon  appeared 
in  the  offing,  and  D'Iberville  boldly  advanced  to  the  attack.  One 
of  the  ships  was  the  Hampshire,  of  fifty  guns:  it  is  now  unknown 
whether  her  consorts  were  men-of-war  or  armed  merchantmen. 
In  any  case,  the  Hampshire  speedily  sank.  As  the  French  state, 
she  was  ruined  by  a  single  broadside,  an  effect  which  every  naval 
man  knows  to  be  impossible  for  the  guns  of  that  period  to  produce 
on  a  vessel  of  her  size  and  scantling.  The  sea  was  very  rough, 
and  it  is  most  likely  that  the  Hampshire  succumbed  by  capsizing 
through  a  sudden  squall.  No  boat  could  be  lowered,  and  every 
man  on  board  went  down.  One  of  the  other  British  ships 
surrendered,  and  the  other  escaped  to  tell  the  tale.  Two  days 
later,  the  Pelican  and  her  prize  were  driven  ashore,  with  some  loss 

VOL.  I.  20 


306  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

of  life  among  the  crews,  but  the  arrival  of  the  other  ships  of  the 
French  squadron  decided  the  possession  of  Fort  York.  After 
three  days'  bombardment,  the  place  was  given  up  with  the  honours 
of  war. 

The  Treaty  of  Ryswick,  signed  in  September,  1697,  kft  Fort 
Albany  alone  in  British  possession,  but  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  in 
1713,  again  made  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  masters  of  the  whole 
coast,  and  the  French  flag  disappeared  from  those  waters  until  the 
war  which  ended  in  1783.  In  1782,  some  French  ships  under  the 
famous  and  ill-fated  La  Pe>ouse,  whom  we  saw  in  the  Pacific  at 
Botany  Bay,  captured  Forts  York  and  Churchill,  to  be  shortly 
restored  at  the  Peace  of  Versailles.  The  Company,  at  this  date, 
had  increased  their  capital  and  extended  their  operations  by  the 
erection  of  many  new  stations  for  the  trade  in  furs.  The  explora- 
tions to  the  north-west  will  be  shortly  dealt  with,  and  we  may  here 
refer  to  the  formidable  opposition  started  in  1783  by  the  North- 
west Fur  Company  established  at  Montreal.  This  energetic  body, 
in  its  commercial  warfare  with  the  old  monopoly,  aroused  feeling 
which  was  vented  in  contests  between  traders,  servants,  and  agents 
on  both  sides,  not  without  loss  of  property  and  life. 

The  vast  region  of  lakes,  rivers,  and  woods,  long  sacred  to  the 
beaver,  buffalo,  moose,  wolf,  bear,  and  other  creatures  hunted  as 
beasts  of  prey  or  as  objects  of  value  for  skin  and  fur,  was  by 
degrees  opened  up  in  the  adventurous  and  arduous  toils  of  both 
British  and  French  explorers.  Trappers,  voyageurs,  and  coureurs 
de  bois,  scurrying  on  snow-shoes  in  the  wintry  woods,  or  paddling 
along  the  numberless  streams  and  lakes  in  the  light  canoes  which 
could  be  carried  on  the  back  over  the  portages  connecting  the 
different  waters,  made  their  way,  greatly  daring  in  the  greed  for 
gain,  from  point  to  point  of  the  huge  domain.  The  hardiest  men 
of  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  were  engaged  in  the  work  of 
gathering,  trading  in,  and  storing  furs.  The  Hebrides  and 
Orkneys  sent  forth  their  sons,  and  Frenchmen  of  Canada,  Indians 
of  divers  tribes,  half-breeds,  and  adventurers  from  every  clime, 
•were  to  be  found  at  the  widely-scattered  posts  of  the  Company. 
By  a  regular  tariff  of  barter,  the  skins  of  the  beaver,  the  marten, 
the  musk-rat,  and  the  valuable  silver-fox  were  obtained  from  the 
natives  who  trapped  them  or  hunted  them  down. 

The   great   names    in    the   exploration    of    the    north-western 


HUDSON'S  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  NORTH-WEST.  307 

regions  are  those  of  the  French  Les  Verendryes,  father  and  sons, 
and  of  the  Scottish  trader  and  traveller,  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie. 
The  elder  La  Verendrye,  a  man  of  nearly  fifty  years,  was  in  1728 
in  command,  under  De  Beauharnois,  as  Governor  of  Canada,  at 
Fort  Nepigon,  on  Lake  Superior.  He  had  heard  from  the 
Indians  of  great  lakes  to  the  north,  and  he  applied  to  Beauharnois 
for  permission  and  help  to  establish  French  influence  on  the  inland 
waters  afterwards  known  as  Lake  of  the  Woods  and  Lake  Winni- 
peg. His  avowed  object  was  to  secure  the  territory  beforehand 
against  the  English,  who  had  not  yet  passed  far  inland  from  the 
shores  of  Hudson's  Bay.  In  June,  1732,  with  non-official  counten- 
ance from  his  friend,  the  governor,  and  in  connection  with  a 
company  of  Montreal  merchants,  the  explorer  started  with  two  of 
his  sons,  his  nephew,  some  Indians,  and  a  Jesuit  missionary, 
Father  Messaiger.  By  canoe-route  and  portage,  along  Rainy 
Lake  and  River,  the  travellers  reached  the  inland  sea  called  by 
their  leader  Lac  des  Bois,  on  the  west  shore  of  which  they  erected 
Fort  St.  Charles.  After  wintering  there,  the  explorer  was  delayed 
by  want  of  funds  for  needful  supplies,  and  in  1734  he  returned  to 
Montreal,  after  sending  forward  his  eldest  son  to  construct  Fort 
Maurepas  at  the  point  where  the  river  Winnipeg  enters  the  lake 
of  that  name. 

Between  June,  1735,  and  the  spring  of  1743,  with  various 
adventures  and  mishaps,  La  Verendrye  and  his  sons  made  many 
important  geographical  discoveries.  In  1736,  the  eldest  son,  a 
missionary  named  Pere  Auneau,  and  a  party  of  men,  were  attacked 
and  all  massacred  by  Sioux  Indians.  In  1738,  the  elder  La 
Verendrye  entered  the  Red  River  by  canoe  from  Lake  Winnipeg, 
and  thence,  by  the  Assiniboine  and  by  portage,  he  arrived  at  Lake 
Manitoba,  but  was  soon  forced  to  make  a  long  halt  by  severe 
illness.  In  the  course  of  1739,  a  younger  son  of  the  French 
traveller  passed  up  Lake  Winnipegosis  and  pressed  on  by  land 
towards  the  Saskatchewan.  In  1740,  the  father  returned  to 
Canada,  and  was  received  with  distinction  at  Quebec  by  the 
governor.  In  the  autumn  of  the  following  year  he  was  again  at 
Fort  St.  Charles,  whence  he  reached  Fort  de  la  Reine,  on  the 
Assiniboine,  and  thence  dispatched  one  of  his  sons  to  the  upper 
part  of  Lake  Winnipeg,  where  the  river  Saskatchewan  discharges 
its  waters.  In  the  course  of  1742,  the  Chevalier  de  la  Verendrye 


308  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

and  one  of  his  brothers  reached  the  upper  waters  of  the  Missouri 
and  Yellowstone  rivers,  but  there  is  no  good  evidence  to  show  that 
they  ever  arrived,  as  has  been  asserted  by  modern  writers,  at  the 
foot  of,  or  even  within  sight  of,  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
geographical  achievements  of  the  La  Verendrye  family  are  notable 
enough  when  they  include,  as  we  have  shown,  the  exploration,  if 
not  the  first  discovery,  of  Lakes  Winnipeg  and  Manitoba,  of  the 
rivers  Assiniboine  and  Saskatchewan,  and  of  a  vast  extent  of 
country  many  hundreds  of  miles  west  and  north  of  Lake  Superior. 
For  British  explorers,  a  free  course  was  opened,  so  far  as 
French  opposition  was  concerned,  by  the  sequel  of  Wolfe's  exploit 
in  1759.  Ten  years  after  that  date,  Samuel  Hearne  started  from 
Prince  of  Wales  Fort,  on  Hudson's  Bay,  for  the  north  and  west. 
He  was  a  servant  of  the  Company,  despatched  by  them  for  the 
discovery  of  copper  mines.  In  the  course  of  four  years'  travel, 
ending  in  1772,  Hearne  reached  the  Great  Slave  Lake,  called  by 
him  "  Lake  Athapuscon ",  and,  making  his  way  to  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  there  discovered  the  mouth  of  the  Copper-mine  river,  and 
proved  the  existence  of  the  straits  to  the  north  of  the  American 
continent.  Alexander  Mackenzie,  a  native  of  the  Highlands,  went 
out  to  Canada  to  enter  the  service  of  the  North-west  Fur  Com- 
pany. He  was  a  born  explorer,  endued  with  an  inquiring  mind 
and  an  adventurous  spirit,  with  a  healthy  and  very  hardy  frame. 
His  eager  desire  was  to  make  a  new  route  across  the  great  conti- 
nent to  the  western  ocean.  During  the  earlier  years  of  his  sojourn 
in  the  wilds,  he  was  engaged  on  and  around  Lake  Superior,  and 
his  qualities  rapidly  gained  him  a  leadership  among  the  boldest 
souls  of  his  comrades.  The  dangers  and  discomforts  of  the  waters 
and  the  woods,  from  the  fierce  and  cunning  native,  from  heat  and 
cold,  from  hunger  and  thirst,  were  to  Mackenzie  matters  of  enjoy- 
ment and  ease.  A  ruler  of  men,  he  was  successful  in  swaying  the 
spirits  of  his  followers,  in  subduing  their  fears,  appeasing  their  dis- 
contents, and  stirring  faint  hearts  and  weary  bodies  to  new  hopes 
and  efforts  towards  the  goal.  Such  was  the  man  that  in  1 789  left 
'Fort  Chepewyan,  a  fur-traders'  post  on  the  south  side  of  the  Lake 
of  the  Hills,  now  called  Lake  Athabasca.  On  June  3rd,  he  started 
in  a  birch-bark  canoe,  and,  following  the  Slave  River  into  the 
Great  Slave  Lake,  went  northwards  by  the  river  that  bears  his 
name  until,  in  the  latest  days  of  July,  he  reached  the  point  where 


HUDSON'S  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  NORTH-WEST.  309 

its  waters  enter  the  Polar  Sea.  On  September  i2th  he  was  back 
at  the  fort  with  the  four  canoes  that  made  the  expedition,  after  a 
journey  of  more  than  two  thousand  miles. 

The  determined  and  practical  character  of  this  great  traveller 
was  now  made  manifest  in  another  line.  From  lack  of  scientific 
lore,  he  had  failed,  in  his  journey  towards  the  Arctic  Ocean,  to 
know  his  exact  position  on  the  globe.  He  started  for  London, 
and  there  remained  until  he  had  gained  the  requisite  mathematical 
knowledge,  and  then  returned  to  Canada  eager  for  fresh  geo- 
graphical fame.  In  the  autumn  of  1792,  we  find  Mackenzie  again 
at  Fort  Chepewyan,  now  with  his  face  and  his  purpose  turned 
towards  the  west.  On  October  loth,  he  began  the  new  journey, 
and  passing  down  the  Elk  into  the  Peace  River,  he  wintered  at  a 
place  called  Deer  Mountain  from  November  ist  till  May  9th, 
1793.  His  party  was  composed  of  seven  picked  men,  including 
two  French  voyageitrs  of  the  former  expedition,  besides  two 
Indians.  One  of  the  party,  Fra^ois  Beaulieu,  died  nearly  eighty 
years  afterwards,  in  1872,  at  the  age  of  nearly  a  hundred.  The 
Rocky  Mountains,  with  their  summits  covered  with  snow,  came  in 
view  to  the  south-west  on  May  1 7th,  and,  after  great  difficulty  and 
toil  in  crossing  the  range,  the  Pacific  Ocean  was  reached  near  the 
mouth  of  what  is  now  called  Simpson's  River,  in  British  Columbia. 
This  issue  of  the  labours  of  Mackenzie  and  his  men  was  attained 
on  July  22nd,  as  recorded  by  themselves  on  a  rock  by  the  shore  in 
huge  letters  of  vermilion  mixed  with  melted  grease.  On  August 
24th  the  hardy  and  daring  travellers  were  again  at  their  starting- 
point  in  Peace  River.  Mackenzie  had  thus  surpassed  all  previous 
travellers  in  North  America  by  reaching  both  the  Arctic  and 
Pacific  Oceans  along  routes  which  had  before  been  wholly 
unknown  to  white  men. 


3IO  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

CHAPTER    X. 

COLONIAL  POSSESSIONS  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES. 

Geographical  division  and  history  of  the  islands— Barbados — Its  flourishing  condition  in 
early  times — Introduction  of  negro  labour  into  the  island — Enterprising  spirit  of  the 
Barbadians — The  Bermudas  or  Somers'  Islands — Leeward  Islands — St.  Kitts— Nevis 
— Antigua — Montserrat — Dominica — Virgin  Islands  —Windward  Islands — Tobago — 
St.  Lucia  —  Grenada  and  the  Grenadines  —  St.  Vincent  —  The  Bahamas  —  British 
Honduras  or  Belize — Trinidad — Jamaica. 

The  groups  of  islands  called  the  West  Indies  were  first 
discovered,  as  all  the  world  knows,  by  the  Spaniards  under  the 
leadership  of  the  Genoese  navigator,  Christopher  Columbus.  The 
title  bestowed  by  the  great  mariner  bears  witness,  of  course,  to  his 
belief  that  he  had,  when  he  landed  in  the  Bahamas,  reached  a 
portion  of  the  Indian  territory  in  Asia.  Geological  investigation 
makes  it  probable  that,  in  early  ages,  the  great  archipelago  which 
sweeps  in  a  grand  curve  from  North  to  South  America,  inclosing 
the  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Caribbean  Sea,  was 
continuous  land  with  the  two  great  masses.  In  the  year  after 
their  discovery,  the  West  Indies  received  the  existing  name  of 
Antilles,  applied  to  the  whole  of  the  islands  save  the  Bahamas. 
The  name  was  given  by  the  historian,  Peter  Martyr  d'Anghera,  a 
native  of  Italy  who  was  well  received  at  the  court  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  and  became  in  due  time  Bishop  of  Jamaica.  His 
work  entitled  De  Orbe  Novo,  published  in  1516,  contained  the  first 
account  of  the  discovery,  or  re-discovery,  of  America,  and  the  word 
"Antilles"  has  reference  to  a  supposed  island,  or  submerged 
continent,  in  those  regions,  marked  on  very  early  charts  as 
Antiglia.  The  Greater  Antilles  are  Cuba,  Jamaica,  Hayti,  and 
Porto  Rico,  the  other  islands  being  known  as  the  Lesser  Antilles. 
The  northern  isles  of  the  Lesser  Antilles,  including  Antigua,  are 
called  the  Leeward  Islands,  from  their  lying,  for  the  most  part, 
more  to  the  west,  and  thus  farther  from  the  source  of  the  north- 
east trade,  the  prevailing  wind  of  the  West  Indies.  The  native  or 
aboriginal  population  of  the  islands  consisted  of  a  race  of  American 
Indians  named  Caribs,  long  since  exterminated,  or  expelled  from 
those  shores,  with  few  exceptions,  to  the  neighbouring  coasts  of 
the  mainland  of  Central  and  South  America. 

At  an  early  date,  the  lack  of  labour  for  the  production  of  sugar, 


COLONIAL   POSSESSIONS   IN   THE   WEST   INDIES.  311 

tobacco,  and  other  special  growths  of  the  West  Indies  caused  the 
importation  of  the  negro-slaves  whose  descendants  still  form  so 
large  a  part  of  the  population.  The  tropical  climate  and  the 
fertility  of  soil  were,  from  the  first,  attractive  to  Spaniards  as 
natives  of  the  warm  region  of  southern  Europe  and  as  the  pos- 
sessors of  dominion  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  at  a  time  when 
monopoly  and  aggrandisement  were  becoming,  in  the  new  states- 
system  of  Europe,  the  supreme  objects  of  desire  and  effort.  The 
rapid  rise  of  Spain  to  predominance  in  Europe  was  followed  by  as 
swift  and  remarkable  a  decline  to  inferior  rank,  and  after  less  than 
a  century  of  her  supremacy  among  the  nations,  the  English, 
French,  and  Dutch,  in  our  Stuart  age,  began  to  appear  as  settlers 
in  the  sunny  islands  fringing  the  east  of  the  great  inter-continental 
sea.  The  history  will  show  that  the  struggle  for  possession  of 
the  Lesser  Antilles  was  at  last  mainly  one  between  the  chief 
European  rivals  and  maritime  powers,  Great  Britain  and  France. 

In  the  vast  development  of  our  colonial  empire  during  the 
nineteenth  century  the  importance  and  interest  of  the  West  Indian 
Isles  have  in  a  great  degree  declined,  but  their  history  has  its 
phases  of  sentiment  and  romance,  as  well  as  its  serious  and  stirring 
records  of  combat  and  of  commerce,  of  lengthy  and  hot  debate  in 
parliament  at  home,  succeeded  by  legislation  most  momentous  for 
all  who  were  concerned.  West  India  sugar  is  a  phrase  that,  at  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  of  the  highest  commercial  and 
political  import  in  the  cities  of  London  and  Bristol.  Havana  cigars, 
the  most  valuable  product  of  the  "  Queen  of  the  Antilles",  have 
ever  been  the  highest  form  of  the  "  noxious  "  weed  denounced  by 
James  the  First.  Jamaica  rum  cannot  be  named  without  raising 
the  view  of  British  tars,  bare  to  the  waist,  and  begrimed  with  the 
smoke  of  exploded  powder,  working  between  decks,  with  dire  effect 
upon  French,  Dutch,  or  Spanish  foes,  the  shotted  guns  of  the 
towering  ship  in  line  of  battle,  or  the  lively  frigate  in  chase  or 
duel.  The  negro  slave  combines,  as  a  subject  of  thought  and 
discourse,  the  opposite  elements  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  of  the 
deepest  feeling  and  the  broadest  fun.  The  freeing  of  the  negro  in 
the  West  Indian  Isles  under  British  sway  was  a  grand  national 
act  of  repentance  and  reparation  for  a  wrong  which,  to  our  shame, 
had  its  origin  with  the  commercial  greed  of  an  Englishman  in  the 
Elizabethan  age. 


312  OUR   EMPIRE   AT    HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

The  heroes  of  our  most  adventurous  time  come  before  us  in 
the  mention  of  the  "  Spanish  Main  ",  or  the  Caribbean  Sea  and 
its  coasts,  where  the  "sea-dogs"  of  Elizabeth  harassed  the  foes 
of  their  land  and  their  faith,  and  showed  in  themselves  a  curious 
mingling  of  patriot  and  pirate,  as  Puritans  plundering  for  plunder's 
sake,  and  yet  doing  all  "in  the  name  of  the  Lord".  The  seas  of 
that  region,  alive  with  sharks,  have  been  reddened  with  the  blood 
of  many  a  victim  to  the  seaman's  greatest  foe  in  tropical  climes. 
West  Indian  waters  had  an  evil  name  in  the  seventeenth  and 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century  for  the  wretches  who  flew  the  black 
flag  at  the  main,  and,  themselves  the  offscouring  of  every  people, 
boarded  and  sacked  the  peaceful  trade-ship,  and  made  all  her  crew 
"  walk  the  plank  "  into  the  sea.  The  stories  of  the  time  are  rife 
with  accounts  of  pirates'  bodies  hung  in  chains  at  Kingston  and 
other  West  Indian  ports,  of  treasure  buried  in  secret  spots  by 
the  captains  of  piratical  craft,  and  of  the  "  buccaneers  "  who,  up  to 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  waged  war  against  the 
Spanish  monopoly  of  trade.  These  renowned  adventurers  from 
every  European  maritime  people  had  their  strongholds  in  the 
Caribbean  seas,  first  at  Tortuga  in  1630,  and  a  generation  later  at 
Jamaica,  and  formed  a  confederacy  of  men  full  of  courage  and 
skill  in  their  hazardous  calling,  of  hatred  for  the  Spaniard,  and  of 
cruelty  for  those  who  resisted  their  will.  The  greatest  of  the 
leaders  of  men  in  this  wild  and  lawless  career  were  the  terrible 
Frenchmen,  Montbars  and  Peter  of  Dieppe,  and  the  Welshman, 
Henry  Morgan,  a  man  of  distinguished  valour  and  ability,  who 
was  knighted  by  Charles  the  Second,  and  became  deputy-governor 
of  Jamaica.  The  worst  of  the  buccaneers,  and  the  degenerate 
successors  of  the  more  chivalrous  and  gallant  of  the  number,  were 
the  men  that,  as  mere  pirates,  were  hated  and  hunted  down  by  all 
honest  mariners. 

Barbados  is,  socially  and  historically,  the  most  English  of  all 
our  West  Indian  colonies.  From  the  date  of  its  first  occupation 
by  our  settlers,  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  island  has 
never  changed  hands,  and,  bearing  once  the  name  "Little  England", 
it  was,  prior  to  the  detrimental  influence  of  the  Navigation  Act, 
and  the  competition  of  Jamaica,  one  of  the  richest,  most  populous, 
and  most  industrious  regions  in  the  world.  The  date  of  discovery 
is  unknown,  but  the  name  (derived  from  "  Los  Barbados  ",  banyans 


COLONIAL   POSSESSIONS   IN   THE   WEST   INDIES.  313 

or  "bearded"  fig-trees)  points  to  Portuguese  navigators  as  the 
first  European  visitors  who  noted  that  feature  of  its  luxuriant 
vegetation.  It  was  in  1605  that  the  crew  of  the  English  ship 
Olive  touched  there,  and  took  nominal  possession  by  carving  on  a 
tree  the  words  "  James,  King  of  England,  and  of  this  island ". 
The  place  was  almost  devoid  of  native  inhabitants,  a  fact  attributed 
to  the  ruthless  cruelty  of  the  Spanish  in  the  West  Indies. 

In  1625  Sir  William  Courteen,  a  London  merchant,  sent  out  a 
small  party  of  settlers,  who  landed  on  the  west  coast  and  erected 
some  buildings,  with  defences,  called  by  them  James'  Town. 
Two  years  later  Charles  I.  granted  "all  the  Caribbee  Isles"  to 
the  Earl  of  Carlisle,  who  appointed  a  governor,  and  turned  his 
new  possession  to  profitable  use  by  the  sale  of  some  ten  thousand 
acres  of  land  to  London  merchants.  These  men  of  capital  and 
enterprise  lost  no  time,  for  in  1628  more  than  sixty  settlers,  under 
their  auspices,  landed  on  the  shore  of  Carlisle  Bay,  and  founded 
Bridgetown,  the  present  capital,  by  the  erection  of  timber-dwellings, 
and  the  construction  of  a  bridge  spanning  the  river  which  crossed 
the  ground.  The  fertile  soil  was  soon  producing  cotton,  indigo, 
and  tobacco,  with  the  sugar-cane  (a  native  of  southern  Asia)  as  a 
plant  from  which  those  earlier  Barbadians  merely  brewed  a  rude 
form  of  rum.  The  prosperity  of  the  island  began  when  a  Dutch- 
man, arriving  from  Brazil,  brought  to  the  planters  the  process  of 
boiling  down  the  juice  of  the  canes  when  they  were  fully  ripe. 
The  making  of  sugar  was  soon  the  staple  industry,  creating  great 
and  rapid  wealth,  and  establishing  in  full  force  the  labour  of  negro- 
slaves. 

It  was  in  1645  that  the  blacks  from  Africa  were  introduced. 
The  heat  of  the  climate  was  such  as  to  unfit  Europeans  for  field- 
work,  and  the  negro  was  stronger,  in  a  muscular  sense,  than  the 
native  race  of  the  West  Indies.  It  has  been  urged  that  the  first 
motive  for  the  employment  of  negroes  was  the  humane  purpose  of 
saving  the  weak  from  toil  under  tropical  suns,  but  the  history  of 
England  in  the  seventeenth  and  earlier  part  of  the  eighteenth 
centuries  informs  us  that  large  numbers  of  whites,  guilty  of  political, 
religious,  or  social  offence  to  the  ruling  powers,  were  dispatched 
from  the  British  Isles  to  forced  labour  in  the  "plantations".  It 
must  be  remembered  that  this  term  includes  the  colonies  in  North 
America,  where  the  climate  was  well  suited  to  the  labour  of 


314  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND  ABROAD. 

Europeans;  but  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  under 
the  "  Cromwellian  Settlement"  in  Ireland,  we  find  thousands  of 
women,  girls,  and  boys  sent  out  as  slaves  to  Jamaica  and  Barbados, 
and  the  Bristol  merchants  had  regular  agents  who  treated  with  the 
Irish  government  for  slaves  to  work  in  the  sugar-fields.  A  brisk 
trade  in  sugar  was  soon  being  carried  on  with  Bristol,  and  large 
supplies  of  English  goods  were  sent  out  thence  and  from  the  port 
of  London.  Within  twenty  years  from  the  introduction  of  the 
sugar  manufacture  the  island,  no  larger  than  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
contained  50,000  people,  and  the  planters  were  making  enormous 
fortunes. 

At  an  early  date  in  the  history  of  Barbados,  the  English  settlers 
found  themselves  living  under  the  political  conditions  which  pre- 
vailed at  home.  In  1645  the  island  was  already  divided  into  n 
parishes,  each  sending  two  representatives  to  a  General  Assembly. 
The  Civil  War  then  raging  in  Great  Britain  promoted  the  pros- 
perity of  our  then  chief  West  Indian  possession  by  the  emigration 
of  many  Royalists  of  ample  means,  who  also  gave  a  decided  tone 
to  the  politics  of  the  Barbadian  planters.  In  1649,  when  the  Com- 
monwealth was  proclaimed  in  England,  Lord  Willoughby,  the 
governor,  declared  his  unchanged  allegiance  to  monarchy,  as 
represented  by  the  young  king,  Charles  II.  The  notice  taken  of 
this  attitude  by  the  republican  rulers  of  the  British  Isles  proves 
the  importance  of  the  position  held  by  Barbados.  Sir  George 
Ayscue  (or  Ayscough)  was  sent  out  in  1651  with  a  force  that  took 
possession  of  the  island,  and  the  Commonwealth  officer  banished 
Lord  Willoughby,  when  he  persisted  in  refusal  to  recognize  the 
new  government  at  home.  No  harm  ensued  to  the  people  or  their 
property,  and  a  charter  of  1652  confirmed  their  constitutional 
system  of  rule,  including  the  right  of  self-taxation.  Ten  years 
later,  as  a  consequence  of  the  Restoration,  Willoughby  returned, 
not  only  as  governor,  but  as  proprietor  of  the  island,  under  con- 
veyance from  Lord  Carlisle,  son  of  the  first  grantee.  Certain 
claims  on  the  settlers  were  then  made  by  the  heirs  of  the  Carlisles, 
and,  to  the  great  discontent  of  the  people,  a  duty  of  4^  per  cent 
on  all  exports  was  imposed.  In  1663  Charles  II.  caused  the 
dissolution  of  proprietary  rule,  and  assumed  sovereign  rights  over 
Barbados,  with  a  regular  revenue  for  himself  and  his  heirs,  amount- 
ing in  1684  to  about  ^7000  per  annum.  The  export  duties,  in 


COLONIAL   POSSESSIONS   IN   THE   WEST   INDIES.  $15 

spite  of  all  remonstrances,  continued  to  be  paid  until  the  beginning 
of  Victoria's  reign. 

The  general  history  of  the  island,  apart  from  the  rivalry  of 
Jamaica  in  sugar  and  rum,  and  until  the  commercially  disastrous 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  nineteenth  century,  has  been  one  of 
almost  uneventful,  unchecked,  and  uniform  prosperity.  A  census 
taken  in  1684  showed  a  white  population  of  20,000,  with  more 
than  double  that  number  of  negroes.  The  Barbadians  from  time 
to  time  displayed  an  enterprising  spirit  which  could  not  rest  satisfied 
with  the  limits  of  their  own  territory.  Soon  after  the  Restoration 
some  of  the  planters  went  in  arms,  and  expelled  the  French  for  a 
time  from  the  island  of  St.  Lucia.  In  1665  we  see  them  founding 
a  new  settlement  in  Carolina.  In  1690  General  Codrington,  with 
a  force  from  Barbados,  drove  out  the  French  from  the  island  of  St. 
Kitts.  The  same  gentleman,  a  native  of  the  island,  showed  a  truly 
patriotic  and  philanthropic  spirit  in  bequeathing  his  two  estates  of 
land,  sugar-works,  negroes,  and  cattle  to  the  Society  for  the  Pro- 
pagation of  the  Gospel,  for  the  foundation  of  a  college.  The  pro- 
perty thus  left  in  1710  was  afterwards  turned  to  most  profitable 
use  in  the  education  of  clergymen  for  service  in  the  West  Indies. 
Among  the  incidents  of  Barbadian  history  prior  to  the  present 
century  we  may  note  that  in  1778,  when  Great  Britain  was  at  war 
with  France,  and  with  the  revolted  colonies  of  North  America,  the 
people  of  the  island,  from  loss  of  trade  and  the  interruption  of 
communication,  were  severely  distressed,  and  received  a  grant  in 
relief  from  parliament.  The  victory  of  Rodney  over  the  Count  de 
Grasse  in  1782  saved  Barbados,  along  with  Jamaica  and  other 
West  India  Islands,  from  capture  by  the  French.  In  that  same 
year  the  ravages  wrought  by  a  fearful  hurricane  were  such  as  to 
need,  in  partial  relief,  the  grant  of  ,£80,000  from  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  Bermudas  or  Somers  Islands,  not  strictly  of  the 
"West  Indies",  are  almost  as  old  a  British  possession  as  Barbados, 
and  in  date  of  settlement  rank  before  that  island.  The  first  and 
official  name  is  taken  from  that  of  the  Spanish  navigator  Juan 
Bermudes,  who  first  sighted  them  in  1515.  The  second  title  is 
derived  from  Sir  George  Somers,  a  native  of  Lyme  Regis.  His 
ship,  the  Sea  Venture,  which  also  bore  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  was 
wrecked  on  an  island  of  the  group  in  1609,  as  she  sailed  for  Virginia, 
then  lately  colonized  from  England.  The  stormy  waters  of  that 


316  OUR   EMPIRE  AT    HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

region  of  the  North  Atlantic,  if  not  the  actual  incident  of  the  wreck, 
caused  the  well-known  allusion  in  Shakespeare's  Tempest  (Act  i. 
scene  2)  to  the  "still-vex'd  (i.e.  constantly  tormented)  Bermoothes". 
The  play  was  first  produced  in  161 1,  and  we  find  similar  references 
in  other  writers  of  the  time.  Thus  Webster,  in  the  Duchess  of  Malfi 
(Act  iii.  scene  2),  makes  one  of  his  characters  declare  that  he  "would 
sooner  swim  to  the  Bermootha's  on  Two  politicians'  rotten  bladders", 
and  Fletcher,  in  Women  Pleased  (h&\.  i.  scene  2),  writes  of  "purchas- 
ing that  egg-shell,  To  victual  out  a  witch  for  the  Burmoothes". 
From  Stow's  Annals  we  learn  that  the  islands  had  an  evil  name 
as  being  "  said  and  supposed  to  bee  inchanted  and  inhabited  with 
witches,  and  deuills,  which  grew  by  reason  of  accustomed  monstrous 
Thunder,  storme,  and  tempest,  neere  vnto  those  Hands,  also  for 
that  the  whole  'coast  is  so  wonderous  dangerous,  of  Rockes,  that 
few  can  approach  them,  but  with  vnspeakable  hazard  of  shipwrack". 
We  shall  see  hereafter  that  the  "dreadful  coast  of  the  Bermodes", 
as  Stow  calls  it  in  the  same  passage,  has  not  deterred  modern  visitors. 
Sir  George  was,  at  the  time  of  his  mishap,  the  admiral  of  a  fleet 
sent  out  by  the  South  Virginia  Company  of  London.  The  other 
eight  vessels  reached  their  destination,  while  Somers  took  posses- 
sion of  the  group  in  the  name  of  James  I.,  and  in  the  following 
year  the  shipwrecked  persons  built  a  small  vessel,  and  made  their 
way  to  the  Virginian  settlement  at  James  Town.  The  islands  were 
yet  destined  to  prove  fatal  to  Somers.  He  found  the  Virginian 
colonists  suffering  from  lack  of  food,  and  in  search  thereof  he  made 
a  voyage  to  the  islands  where  the  sunken  reef  on  which  his  ship 
had  been  driven  still  bears  the  name  of  Sea  Venture  Flat.  There 
were  herds  of  wild  pigs  descended  from  animals  put  ashore  by 
some  previous  voyagers,  and  in  November,  1611,  we  find  that  he 
"dyed  of  a  surfeit  in  eating  of  a  pig".  The  evil  reputation  of  the 
group  which  had  been  libelled  by  the  writers  of  the  age  vanished 
at  the  touch  of  personal  experience,  and  Captain  Matthew  Somers, 
nephew  of  the  admiral,  conveyed  to  England  a  faithful  and  fair 
report  concerning  the  picturesque,  healthful,  and  to  some  extent 
•fertile  islands.  The  Virginia  Company,  under  an  extension  of 
their  charter  granted  by  the  Crown,  annexed  the  group  to  their 
territory  on  the  mainland,  and  soon  disposed  of  their  new  posses- 
sion to  another  body  of  "  adventurers "  or  speculators,  entitled 
"  The  Company  of  the  City  of  London  for  the  Plantation  of  the 


COLONIAL   POSSESSIONS   IN   THE   WEST   INDIES.  317 

Somers'  Islands ".  For  many  years  the  islands  bore  the  name 
thus  attached,  until  the  justice  of  history  recognized  the  claim  of 
the  first  discoverer.  The  soil  was  found  suitable  for  the  growth 

o 

of  tobacco,  and  as  early  as  the  year  1621,  James  I.,  no  lover  of 
"the  weed",  and  a  monarch  desirous  to  avoid  offence  to  Spain  in 
her  Cuba  trade,  issued  a  proclamation  limiting  the  export  from 
Virginia  and  the  Bermudas.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  mention,  in 
this  age  of  smokers,  that  the  herb  was  introduced  into  England 
about  1585,  and  that  the  taste  for  it  grew  so  rapidly  that  tobacco 
shops  in  London  soon  became  as  common  as  taverns.  In  1620 
the  value  of  the  annual  imports  was  estimated  at  ,£120,000,  and 
the  royal  proclamation  concerning  Virginia  and  the  Bermudas 
named  nearly  half  that  sum  as  the  limit  for  value  exported  from 
these  new  British  colonies.  The  product  became  a  good  source 
of  revenue  in  the  heavy  duty  which  was  imposed,  and  was  soon 
appropriated  as  a  Crown  monopoly.  A  representative  form  of 
government  was  established  before  the  end  of  James  I.'s  reign, 
but  the  charter  of  the  company  in  London  was  annulled  in  1684, 
and  governors  were  henceforth  appointed  by  the  Crown. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Bermudas  rank  amongst  those  happy 
communities  who  have  little  or  no  history.  Devoted  to  the  tillage 
of  the  soil  and  to  peaceful  trade,  they  knew  naught  by  experience 
of  the  horrors  of  war.  They  were  largely  engaged  in  maritime 
pursuits,  for  which  they  built,  from  the  cedar  of  their  islands,  many 
small  vessels  up  to  300  tons  burden,  sailing  to  the  West  Indies, 
Demerara,  the  United  States,  and  the  British  colonies  in  North 
America.  At  a  later  period  a  carrying  trade  arose  in  salt  fish  from 
Newfoundland  for  the  church  fasts  of  Italy  and  Portugal,  with 
return  cargoes  of  the  port  wine  well  suited  for  consumption  by  the 
dwellers  in  that  bleak  and  foggy  region.  The  more  enterprising 
traders  would  sail  to  Ascension  or  Madeira,  and  there  trans-ship, 
from  the  stately  vessels  of  the  Indian  fleet,  the  teas  of  China,  the 
silks  and  drugs  of  India,  and  other  Eastern  produce  for  sale  in  the 
ports  on  the  American  coast.  Not  wholly  exempt  from  the  tro- 
pical storms  which  superstition  laid  to  the  charge  of  "  witches  and 
devils  ",  the  islands  were,  in  October,  1 780,  ravaged  by  a  fearful 
hurricane.  The  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  time  of  war  with 
France  and  Spain,  gave  Bermuda  a  new  value  as  a  naval  station, 
defended  by  the  dangerous  reefs  that  surround  the  shores,  and  by 


318  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

the  intricate  channel  which  requires,  for  access  to  land,  most  skilful 
and  careful  pilotage. 

Of  the  group  known  as  the  Leeward  Islands,  Dominica,  Mont- 
serrat,  St.  Kitts,  Antigua,  and  some  of  the  Virgin  Isles,  were 
discovered  in  1493  by  Columbus.  The  British  possession  of 
nearly  all  the  islands  now  held  by  us  in  this  part  of  the  archipelago 
dates  from  the  seventeenth  century,  and,  apart  from  Dominica, 
they  have  been  from  the  time  of  settlement  under  a  common  form 
of  rule.  The  grant  of  "all  the  Caribee  Isles"  to  the  Earl  of 
Carlisle  by  Charles  I.,  as  delivered  above  with  respect  to  Barbados, 
included  the  islands  now  under  review,  and  under  William  and 
Mary  the  colonists  were  provided  with  a  legislature  which  passed 
measures  that  are  still,  in  some  instances,  in  beneficial  action.  One 
statute,  dealing  with  methods  of  settling  estate  in  land,  showed  the 
wisdom  of  the  colonial  debaters  in  effecting  a  reform  which  the 
home  country  did  not  obtain  until  nearly  the  beginning  of  Victoria's 
reign.  One  of  the  last  Acts  of  the  General  Assembly  before  its 
virtual  extinction  in  1 798  was  a  statute  which  greatly  bettered  the 
condition  of  the  slaves.  The  enlightenment  as  well  as  the  humanity 
of  the  Leeward  Islands'  legislators  was  displayed  in  the  same  year 
by  measures  for  freedom  of  trade  and  for  Catholic  emancipation 
from  political  disabilities.  Neither  of  these  Acts  was  allowed  by 
the  home  government,  still  lagging  far  in  the  rear  of  its  subjects  in 
the  West  Indies. 

To  St.  Kitts,  as  the  centre  to  which  the  rest  owed  their  colon- 
ization, the  place  of  honour  is  due  in  the  ensuing  record.  St.  Kitts, 
thus  commonly  named  for  "  St.  Christopher",  was  called  by  the 
natives  "  the  fertile  island ",  and  received  its  designation  from 
Columbus  probably  in  honour  of  his  patron  saint.  He  found  there 
a  dense  population  of  Caribs,  who  long  remained  possessors  of 
their  homes  and  lands.  The  history  of  the  island,  after  the  first 
establishment  of  Europeans,  was  chequered  by  conflicts  between 
the  English  and  French.  The  first  attempt  at  European  settle- 
ment was  made  in  1623  by  Mr.  Thomas  Warner,  but  his  first  crops 
'were  ruined  by  a  violent  storm,  and  he  then  applied  for  help  from 
the  patentee,  the  Earl  of  Carlisle.  The  appointment  of  Warner  as 
"  King's  Lieutenant"  over  St.  Kitts,  Nevis,  Barbados,  and  Mont- 
serrat  sent  him  back  to  the  island  in  1625  as  the  founder  of  a 
permanent  colony.  On  the  day  of  his  landing  a  small  body  of 


COLONIAL   POSSESSIONS   IN    THE   WEST   INDIES.  319 

Frenchmen  also  came  ashore,  and  the  European  rivals  found  it 
well  to  combine  against  the  common  and  more  numerous  foe,  the 
Caribs.  In  May,  1627,  a  league  was  made,  by  the  terms  of  which 
the  English  took  the  central  part,  while  the  French  settled  down 
at  the  two  ends  of  the  island.  Two  years  later,  a  Spanish  attack 
wrought  much  damage  to  the  new-comers,  but  a  stream  of  West 
Indian  emigration  set  in  from  Europe,  and  French  and  English 
colonists  rapidly  spread  to  the  neighbouring  islands.  In  a  few 
years'  time  the  terms  of  the  league  were  broken  through  jealousies 
which  led  to  violence  and  bloodshed,  and  the  outbreak  of  war 
between  the  nations  in  Europe  led  to  the  surrender  of  the  English 
at  St.  Kitts  in  1666.  The  Treaty  of  Breda,  in  the  following  year, 
restored  the  English  settlers  to  the  possession  of  their  lands,  and 
for  more  than  twenty  years  the  two  parties  lived  at  peace. 

The  accession  of  William  III.  to  the  British  throne  in  1689, 
and  the  subsequent  outbreak  of  war  with  France,  brought  new 
trouble  to  the  English  settlers.  The  French  planters  were  in 
greater  force,  and  our  people  were  forced  to  flee  or  perish.  In 
1690  General  Codrington  came  to  the  rescue  from  Barbados,  and, 
with  a  powerful  body  of  militia  at  his  command,  drove  out  the 
French,  deporting  nearly  a  thousand  to  other  islands,  and  taking 
sole  possession  for  his  countrymen.  The  Treaty  of  Ryswick  in 
1697  restored  the  French  to  their  former  share  of  St.  Christopher's, 
but  in  1702,  when  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  began,  they 
were  ousted  again  by  their  English  foes,  and  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht 
in  1713  gave  the  island  wholly  into  English  hands.  In  the  great 
European  war  which  arose  when  France  embraced  the  cause  of 
our  revolted  colonies  in  North  America,  the  British  navy  was 
for  a  time  overmatched  by  the  united  maritime  forces  of  France, 
Holland,  and  Spain,  and  St.  Kitts  again  fell  for  a  time  into  French 
possession,  but  was  recovered  after  Rodney's  grand  achievement 
against  the  Comte  de  Grasse  in  the  spring  of  1782. 

Nevis,  noted  for  its  hurricanes  and  earthquakes,  which  have 
wrought  at  times  great  destruction  of  property  and  life,  had  an 
evil  name  in  the  slavery  days,  as  one  of  the  chief  West  Indian 
markets  for  the  sale  of  "  black  ivory".  It  was  named  by  Columbus 
from  a  snow-capped  mountain  near  Barcelona.  Its  first  settlers 
came  from  Thomas  Warner's  party  of  colonists  at  St.  Kitts  in 
1628,  and  apart  from  two  French  invasions,  at  times  of  European 


320  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

war  between  the  rival  nations,  the  island  has  remained  uncontested 
in  British  hands.  About  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Nevis  was  maintaining  a  population  of  20,000,  or  above  half  as 
many  more  than  its  actual  inhabitants. 

Antigua,  on  its  discovery  by  Columbus,  was  named  by  him 
after  Santa  Maria  la  Antigua,  an  old  church  in  Seville.  A  few 
Caribs,  of  warlike  and  cannibal  tastes,  were  the  sole  population, 
and  the  island,  which  is  poorly  supplied  with  water,  was  left  un- 
noticed by  Europeans  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half.  The  grant 
to  Lord  Carlisle  in  1627  led  to  the  arrival  of  a  few  English  settlers, 
five  years  later,  from  St.  Kitts.  In  1663  Charles  II.  bestowed  the 
island  by  patent  on  Lord  Willoughby,  who  sent  out  a  large  number 
of  colonists.  They  soon  suffered  much  from  French  interference. 
An  expedition  from  Martinique  took  possession  early  in  1667,  but 
the  Treaty  of  Breda  restored  it  in  the  same  year  to  British  occu- 
pation, in  which  it  has  ever  since  remained,  amid  all  the  changes 
that  occurred  to  neighbouring  islands  during  our  lengthy  maritime 
contests  with  France  and  Spain.  The  trade,  from  time  to  time,  was 
exposed  to  the  attacks  of  pirates  and  privateers,  and  the  planters 
may  have  suffered  loss  from  occasional  raids.  The  rich  soil  soon 
produced  wealth  in  sugar,  with  its  extracts,  molasses  and  rum,  and 
the  history  of  the  island  has  been  mainly  one  of  uneventful  pro- 
sperity, chequered  by  the  damage  due  to  hurricanes  and  earthquakes, 
of  which  this  island  has  had  her  full  share.  In  1706  an  insurrection, 
caused  by  the  tyrannical  conduct  of  the  governor,  Colonel  Parke, 
ended  in  his  violent  death,  but  the  home  government  granted  a 
full  pardon  to  all  who  were  engaged  in  the  outbreak. 

Montserrat,  the  gem  of  the  Lesser  Antilles  for  salubrity  of 
climate  and  beauty  of  scenery,  was  named  by  Columbus  "  Mon- 
serrado",  from  the  saw-like  outline  of  its  pinnacles.  In  these  he 
saw  a  resemblance  to  the  Catalonian  mountain  of  that  name,  on 
which  stands  the  famous  Benedictine  abbey  where  Ignatius  Loyola 
was  living  when  he  planned  the  institution  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
Colonized  by  the  English  from  St.  Kitts  in  1632,  it  was  captured 
in  1664  by  the  French,  who  laid  heavy  imposts  on  the  British 
settlers;  four  years  later,  under  the  Treaty  of  Breda,  it  was  left  in 
our  hands,  in  which  it  has  since  remained,  save  for  an  occupation 
by  the  French  for  two  years  prior  to  the  Treaty  of  Versailles 
concluded  in  1783.  In  1668  the  people,  by  royal  charter,  received 


COLONIAL   POSSESSIONS   IN   THE   WEST   INDIES.  321 

a  legislative  council  and  assembly,  which  bodies,  with  various 
changes  of  form  and  system,  directed  local  affairs  down  to  a  recent 
date. 

The  name  of  Dominica  was  assigned  by  its  great  discoverer  from 
the  fact  of  his  arrival  on  its  shores  on  Sunday  (Dies  Dominica,  in 
the  Latin  calendar),  November  3rd,  1493,  while  he  was  sailing 
between  Martinique  and  Guadeloupe.  The  island  was  included  in 
the  grant  made  by  Charles  I.  to  Lord  Carlisle,  but  it  was  long  left 
without  colonists,  and  several  attempts  at  occupation  were  thwarted 
by  the  French  in  those  waters.  The  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in 
1748,  declared  Dominica  and  some  other  islands  to  be  neutral 
ground  for  European  nations,  and  left  to  the  occupation  of  the 
aboriginal  Caribs.  Within  a  few  years,  however,  a  number  of 
French  planters  were  found  in  possession.  An  English  attack  in 
1756  was  successful,  and  our  right  by  conquest  was  confirmed 
seven  years  later  under  the  Treaty  of  Paris.  French  jealousy  was 
aroused,  and  the  Dominican  landowners  invited  aid  from  their 
countrymen  at  Martinique,  though  they  had  been  left  undisturbed 
in  1763,  on  becoming  subjects  of  the  British  crown,  and  undertak- 
ing to  pay  a  small  quit-rent  for  their  estates. 

The  hostility  of  feeling  between  the  two  nations  in  matters  of 
colonial  possession  and  trade,  both  in  the  East  and  West  Indies, 
has  been  referred  to  in  previous  pages  of  this  work.  It  was  a 
spirit  which  ever  disregarded  the  existence  of  peace  between  the 
Powers  in  Europe,  and  aimed  only  at  aggrandisement  on  the  scenes 
of  rivalry  in  other  quarters  of  the  world.  It  was  therefore  certain 
that,  on  the  outbreak  of  war  in  1778,  the  French  in  the  West 
Indies  would  assail  the  British  islands.  A  man  of  exceptional 
ability  and  energy  had  become,  in  1768,  governor  of  the  French 
island  of  Guadeloupe,  and  afterwards  commander-in-chief  of  all  the 
French  forces  in  the  West  Indies.  This  was  Frangois  Claude 
Amour,  Marquis  de  Bouille,  a  fiery  native  of  Auvergne,  who  had 
done  distinguished  service  in  Germany  during  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  and  was  to  become  famous  for  courage  and  decision  in  his 
command  at  Metz  when  the  throne  of  Louis  XVI.  was  tottering 
to  its  fall.  Carlyle  alludes  to  his  "  swift,  sharp  operation  on  the 
English  Leeward  Islands"  at  this  epoch,  and  describes  him  as  "a 
quick,  choleric,  sharply  discerning,  stubbornly  endeavouring  man 
.  with  valour,  nay,  headlong  audacity  .  .  .  with  military 

VOL.  I.  21 


322  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

tiger-spring,  clutching  Nevis  and  Montserrat  from  the  English". 
Such  was  he  who  now  made  his  presence  strongly  feh  by  the 
British  in  the  West  Indies.  A  powerful  naval  and  military  expe- 
dition was  prepared  at  Martinique,  and  in  September,  1778,  after 
a  stout  resistance,  Dominica  fell  into  the  power  of  De  Bouille\  A 
harsh  governor  was  appointed,  and  there  was  much  distress  among 
the  people  from  the  utter  failure  of  trade.  Tobago,  St.  Kitts, 
Nevis  and  other  islands  were  also  conquered,  but  Dominica,  with 
some  others,  was  restored  to  Great  Britain  in  the  treaty  of  1783. 

Of  the  Virgin  Islands,  a  group  numbering  about  fifty,  some 
thirty-two  belong  to  Great  Britain,  the  chief  of  these  being  Tortola, 
Virgin  Gorda,  and  Anegada.  The  name,  assigned  by  Columbus 
in  1493,  has  reference  to  St.  Ursula  and  her  legendary  pious 
maidens  of  martyr  memory  at  Cologne.  Some  islets  of  the  archi- 
pelago were  first  colonized  in  1666  by  British  settlers  from  Anguilla, 
who  took  the  place  of  buccaneers  that  had  infested  the  seas  in  that 
part  of  the  Antilles.  The  colonists,  in  1773,  were  furnished  with 
a  separate  civil  government  and  courts  of  law,  and  their  history 
has  been  throughout  one  of  peace,  obscurity,  and  honest  toil, 
resulting  in  no  wealth  beyond  the  comforts  of  a  life  devoted  to 
rude  tillage,  pasturage,  and  fishing. 

Of  the  Windward  group,  Barbados  has  been  already  noticed, 
and  Trinidad,  as  also  a  separate  colony,  finds  its  own  place  else- 
where. Tobago,  St.  Lucia,  St.  Vincent,  Grenada,  and  the  Grena- 
dines present  a  record  diversified  by  frequent  interchanges  of 
possession  during  the  West  Indian  conflicts  of  the  two  great 
European  rivals. 

The  island  of  Tobago,  the  name  of  which  has  been  connected 
with  the  free  use  of  tobacco  by  its  earliest  known  inhabitants,  the 
Caribs,  was  entitled  "Assumption"  by  Columbus  in  1498,  when  he 
arrived  there  on  his  third  voyage,  ending  in  his  discovery  of  the 
mainland  of  South  America.  Some  English  mariners,  in  1580, 
found  the  place  void  of  all  dwellers,  probably  owing  to  Spanish 
extermination  of  the  natives,  and  planted  there  the  flag  of  the  great 
•Tudor  queen.  In  1608  James  I.  formally  claimed  the  sovereignty, 
but  some  time  elapsed  before  any  attempt  at  settlement  was  made. 
In  the  last  year  of  his  reign  a  party  of  Barbadians  reached  the 
island,  but  they  were  unable  to  cope  with  the  Caribs  who  had  now 
made  it  their  abode,  and  only  a  few  escaped  to  tell  the  tale  of 


COLONIAL    POSSESSIONS   IN    THE   WEST   INDIES.  323 

failure.  In  1632  a  Dutch  company  despatched  some  hundreds  of 
settlers  from  Zealand,  who  occupied  the  place  as  "New  Walcheren". 
The  Spaniards  and  Caribs,  in  two  years'  time,  came  in  force  from 
Trinidad,  and  expelled  or  slew  all  the  European  intruders.  In  1641 
Charles  I.  made  a  grant  of  Tobago  to  James,  Duke  of  Courland, 
a  province  on  the  south-east  Baltic  coast.  The  new  possessor 
thereupon  dispatched  a  number  of  his  own  people  as  colonists,  and 
they  were  joined,  in  1654,  by  a  fresh  body  of  Dutchmen,  who  at 
first  made  a  friendly  division  of  the  territory  with  the  Courlanders. 
The  new-comers,  however,  with  the  greed  of  their  race  in  that 
age,  were  not  content  with  a  partial  possession,  and  in  1658  rose 
upon  the  Poles  and  drove  them  out.  The  early  days  of  Tobago 
were  a  time  of  singular  unrest,  for  in  1662,  when  the  Dutch 
company  resigned  their  claim,  probably  under  threats  from  the 
aggressive  Louis  XIV.,  that  monarch  created  a  certain  Cornelius 
Lampsis  "  Baron  of  Tobago",  and  made  him  proprietor  under  the 
French  crown.  In  1664  Charles  II.,  then  hostile  to  the  Dutch, 
made  a  new  grant  of  the  much-contested  territory  to  the  Duke 
of  Courland,  but  the  Hollanders  disdained  to  recognize  his  title, 
and,  as  English  history  disgracefully  proves,  our  sovereign  was 
then  in  no  condition  to  enforce  his  claims.  The  growing  maritime 
power  of  the  French  monarch,  at  war  with  Holland  in  1677, 
enabled  him  to  intervene  with  effect,  and  his  fleet,  defeating  a 
Dutch  squadron  in  those  waters,  caused  the  restoration  of  Tobago 
to  the  Duke  of  Courland,  only  to  be  sold  by  him,  in  1681,  to  a 
London  company  of  merchants.  The  island,  by  arrangement 
between  the  three  chief  countries,  Great  Britain,  France,  and 
Holland,  was  then  declared  to  be  neutral  ground,  where  all 
Europeans  might  live  as  colonists  or  carry  on  trade,  but  no  nation 
was  to  plant  a  garrison  or  attempt  an  exclusive  tenure.  At  last, 
in  1763,  the  Treaty  of  Paris  formally  ceded  Tobago  to  Great 
Britain.  The  "government  of  Grenada"  was  then  established 
under  the  Great  Seal,  and  included  the  rule  of  Dominica,  St. 
Vincent,  and  the  newly -ceded  territory,  with  Grenada  and  its 
dependency,  the  Grenadines. 

The  troubles  of  Tobago  were  not  yet  over.  In  1781  the 
Marquis  de  Bouille,  noticed  above  as  the  captor  of  Dominica,  took 
possession  of  the  island  after  a  brave  defence  by  its  British 
inhabitants,  and  the  Treaty  of  Versailles,  two  years  later,  sur- 


324  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME   AND   ABROAD. 

rendered  the  place  to  France.  In  April,  1793,  during  the  long 
war  caused  by  the  French  Revolution,  a  British  squadron  in  the 
West  Indies,  under  Admiral  Lefroy,  with  a  body  of  troops  under 
General  Cuyler,  retook  the  island,  which  again  became  French  by 
the  short-lived  Peace  of  Amiens  in  1802.  To  make  an  end  of  a 
somewhat  tedious  tale,  Tobago  was  again  seized  by  a  British  force 
in  1803,  and  was  finally  ceded  to  our  possession  by  the  treaty 
concluded  in  1814. 

The  history  of  St.  Lucia,  in  its  varied  character,  closely 
resembles  that  of  Tobago.  This  loveliest  and  largest  of  the  Wind- 
ward Isles  proper  was  constantly  regarded  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  as  well  worthy  of  warlike  efforts  to  conquer 
and  retain.  Discovered  by  Columbus  in  June,  1502,  when  he  was 
prosecuting  his  fourth  voyage,  the  island  was  then  peopled  by 
Caribs,  who  remained  in  possession  until  1639,  when  some  English 
settlers  arrived,  only  to  be  destroyed  or  driven  out  in  the  next 
year  by  the  natives.  France  had  already  claimed  dominion,  in  a 
grant  made  by  Louis  XIII.,  in  1635,  to  two  French  gentlemen, 
MM.  de  1'Olive  and  Duplessis.  French  settlers  from  Martinique 
were  the  next  persons  that  undertook  to  colonize,  while  the  French 
monarch  still  claimed  the  sovereignty,  and  granted  the  island  in 
1642  to  a  West  Indian  company,  who  sold  it  to  two  private 
gentlemen.  The  English  claim,  from  the  first,  rested  on  priority  of 
settlement:  the  French  put  forward  the  original  grant  made  by 
their  sovereign.  The  Caribs  fiercely  struggled  against  French 
possession,  but  a  treaty  between  the  natives  and  the  foreign 
intruders  was  concluded  in  1660.  The  next  trouble  arose  from 
the  English  of  Barbados,  who  came  under  the  command  of  Mr. 
Warner,  son  of  the  governor  at  St.  Kitts,  and,  after  a  severe 
contest  with  the  French  holders,  they  became  masters  of  St.  Lucia 
in  1665.  Two  years  later  the  Treaty  of  Breda  restored  it  to  the 
French,  and  in  1674  it  was  formally  subjected  to  the  French  crown 
as  a  dependency  of  Martinique. 

Soon  after  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  we  find  St.  Lucia  again  made 
a  matter  of  contention  between  the  two  powers.  The  Regent 
d'Orleans,  ruling  in  the  minority  of  Louis  XV.,  made  a  grant  of 
the  island  to  a  French  noble,  and  George  I.  retorted  by  the  same 
step  in  favour  of  the  Duke  of  Montagu.  Some  English  colonists 
were  settled  there,  when  a  body  of  troops  in  1723  arrived  from 


COLONIAL  POSSESSIONS   IN   THE  WEST  INDIES.  325 

Martinique  and  forced  them  away.  The  two  governments  then 
agreed  to  consider  St.  Lucia  neutral  ground.  The  outbreak  of  the 
War  of  the  Austrian  Succession  in  1 744  led  to  another  seizure  by 
the  French,  but  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  four  years  later, 
made  neutrality  again  the  political  condition  of  the  much  disputed 
territory.  The  Seven  Years'  War,  beginning  in  1756,  gave  the 
French  government  occasion  to  erect  works  of  defence,  and  to  pro- 
vide a  garrison,  as  sole  possessors.  Then  the  British  arms  were 
called  into  service,  and  a  naval  expedition  under  Admiral  Rodney, 
commander-in-chief  on  the  Leeward  Islands  station,  with  troops 
commanded  by  General  Monckton,  the  distinguished  colleague  of 
Wolfe  at  Quebec,  captured  the  island,  along  with  Grenada  and 
Martinique.  The  Treaty  of  Paris,  concluded  by  the  Bute  ministry 
in  1763,  has  already  been  denounced  in  these  pages  for  its  imbecile 
arrangements  in  connection  with  North  American  affairs.  In  truth, 
no  diplomatic  instrument  in  our  modern  history  is  more  disgraceful 
than  that  treaty,  for  the  weakness  displayed  in  surrendering  terri- 
torial prizes  of  war  obtained  by  British  skill  and  valour.  The 
cession  of  St.  Lucia  to  France  was  now  perpetrated  in  defiance  of 
the  fact  that  Lord  Chatham,  who  had  lately  raised  Great  Britain 
to  the  height  of  fame,  had  positively  refused  its  surrender  in  pre- 
vious negotiations.  Rodney  also,  a  man  of  the  highest  ability  and 
the  soundest  judgment,  had  formed  a  strong  opinion  of  the  value 
of  St.  Lucia  to  our  dominion  in  the  West  Indies,  but  he  in  vain 
urged  its  retention.  The  French  accordingly  remained  in  posses- 
sion until  1778,  when,  after  a  severe  contest,  British  tars  and  troops 
again  proved  victorious.  The  great  victory  of  Rodney  and  Hood 
in  1782  had  given  Great  Britain  a  complete  mastery  in  the  region 
of  the  Leeward  Islands,  and  yet,  at  the  Peace  of  Versailles,  in  the 
following  year,  the  island  was  again  ceded  to  the  French  crown. 

The  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War  in  1793  caused  a 
renewal  of  hostilities  by  sea  and  land  in  the  West  Indies,  and  in 
April  of  the  following  year  St.  Lucia  was  once  more  in  our  hands. 
In  1796,  our  government  was  compelled  to  take  action  against 
insurrectionary  movements  in  some  of  the  West  Indian  islands 
which  contained  a  French  population  sympathizing  with  the  revolu- 
tionary change  of  French  affairs  in  Europe.  Formidable  risings  in 
St.  Lucia  and  St.  Vincent  caused  the  despatch  of  a  powerful  naval 
and  military  armament  under  Admiral  Christian  and  Sir  Ralph 


326  OUR  EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

Abercrombie.  It  needed  the  operations  of  a  month,  from  the  last 
week  of  April  until  nearly  the  end  of  May,  before  the  republicans, 
aided  by  revolted  slaves,  and  fighting  with  great  determination  and 
severe  loss  to  both  sides,  were  finally  subdued.  Sir  John  Moore 
for  a  short  time  became  governor  of  the  island.  Even  then  the 
contests  which  had  so  long  hindered  progress  and  prosperity  at  St. 
Lucia  were  not  at  an  end.  The  Peace  of  Amiens,  with  a  fatuity 
almost  incredible,  restored  the  island  to  French  possession,  and 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  which  followed  that  brief  suspension  saw 
the  final  transfer  to  British  rule,  after  a  surrender  to  forces  under 
General  Greenfield  of  the  territory  which  had  cost  this  country, 
through  the  folly  of  her  ministers,  so  much  vain  expenditure  of  life 
and  treasure.  The  population  had  been  greatly  diminished  both 
in  foreign  and  in  civil  war,  the  latter  of  which  was  due  to  the 
French  Revolution,  and  many  a  year  was  to  pass  before  a  return 
of  prosperity.  The  mode  of  government  up  to,  and  long  after,  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  in  accordance  with  French 
law. 

Grenada,  another  of  the  Windward  Islands,  discovered  by 
Columbus  on  his  third  voyage,  in  1498,  and  by  him  named 
"Ascension",  was  at  that  time,  and  long  remained,  the  abode  of 
ferocious  man-eating  Caribs.  The  French  were  the  first  Euro- 
peans who  sought  to  disturb  the  native  occupation,  but  the 
intending  settlers  who  went  thither  in  1638,  under  a  leader  named 
Poincy,  were  beaten  off  by  the  aborigines,  who  were  attracted  to 
this  island,  as  it  seems,  in  large  numbers,  by  the  fertile  soil. 
Grenada  had  been  included,  in  1627,  in  Charles  I.'s  grant  of  "the 
Carib  isles"  to  the  Earl  of  Carlisle,  but  no  attempt  at  English 
settlement  was  made.  In  1650,  Du  Parquet,  the  French  governor 
of  Martinique,  bought  Grenada  from  a  trading  company,  and 
prepared  an  expedition  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  possession  of 
his  property.  A  body  of  200  men  accompanied  Du  Parquet,  who 
is  said  to  have  at  first  appeased  the  savages  by  the  bestowal 
of  knives  and  toys,  and  even  to  have  gained  the  cession  of 
sovereignty  from  the  resident  chief  in  return  for  knives,  hatchets, 
and  glass  beads,  aided  by  the  potent  persuasion  of  some  bottles 
of  choice  brandy.  The  governor  of  Martinique  then  returned  to 
his  post,  leaving  a  kinsman,  Le  Compte,  in  charge  of  Grenada. 
Dissensions  soon  arose  between  the  natives  and  the  new  pos- 


COLONIAL  POSSESSIONS   IN   THE  WEST  INDIES.  327 

sessors,  and  a  body  of  three  hundred  men  was  despatched  from 
Martinique  with  orders  to  make  short  work  of  all  who  gave 
trouble.  An  internecine  struggle  was  soon  afoot,  in  which  the 
Caribs,  quickly  beaten  in  the  open  field  by  the  superior  weapons 
and  skill  of  their  civilized  foes,  resorted  to  guerilla  warfare,  and  to 
the  slaughter  of  every  Frenchman  who  fell  into  their  hands.  The 
contest  could  have  but  one  termination,  and  that  involved  a  scene 
most  tragic  and  pitiful.  As  their  numbers  were  reduced,  the 
Caribs  were  forced  away  to  the  northern  end  of  the  island,  where 
they  found  themselves  caught  between  advancing  irresistible  foes 
and  the  edge  of  a  tall  cliff  that  overlooked  the  sea.  A  final  and 
desperate  rally  took  place,  in  which  the  natives  were  diminished  to 
some  forty  men,  and  these  survivors,  preferring  death  to  submis- 
sion, leapt  down  into  the  sea,  to  be  mangled  on  the  rocks  or  stifled 
by  the  waves.  The  summit  of  the  cliff  to  this  day  bears  the  name 
Le  Morne  des  Sauleurs,  or  "  Leapers'  Hill". 

The  conquerors  were  soon  at  issue  among  themselves,  and  Du 
Parquet,  in  disgust  at  the  expense  of  maintaining  order,  sold  the 
island,  in  1657,  to  the  Comte  de  Cerillac.  The  ruler  appointed  by 
the  new  proprietor  of  Grenada  was  a  brutal  tyrant,  whom  his 
countrymen  tried,  condemned,  and  shot.  A  few  years  later,  the 
island  was  sold  to  the  French  West  Indian  Company,  and,  on  the 
annulling  of  their  charter  in  1674,  it  fell  to  the  possession  of  the 
French  crown.  The  vicissitudes  and  troubles  of  the  territory  had 
been  such,  that  in  1700  there  were  but  251  European  dwellers, 
with  about  double  the  number  of  negroes,  employed  in  the  culture 
of  indigo,  sugar,  and  tobacco.  The  planters  were  hampered  in  the 
pursuit  of  wealth  by  the  exactions  of  the  tax-farmers,  to  whose 
tender  mercies,  too  well  known  to  their  countrymen  in  Europe, 
they  were  committed  by  the  ruinous  fiscal  system  of  French  rule 
before  the  Revolution.  In  1762,  as  we  have  seen,  the  island  was 
captured,  along  with  St.  Lucia  and  Martinique,  by  the  armament 
under  Rodney  and  Monckton,  and  in  the  following  year,  by  the 
Treaty  of  Paris,  Grenada  was  formally  ceded  to  Great  Britain. 
The  produce  in  sugar  and  indigo  had  at  that  time  become  very 
large  and  valuable.  An  important  case  arose  in  constitutional  law 
when  the  government  imposed  a  duty  of  4^  per  cent  upon  all  the 
exports  of  the  new  acquisition,  and,  in  the  end,  abolition  of  the 
impost  came  by  judgment  of  Lord  Mansfield  against  the  Crown. 


328  OUR   EMPIRE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

A  political  contest  was  also  occasioned  by  the  terms  on  which  a 
representative  legislature,  in  1765,  was  granted  by  Great  Britain  to 
Grenada.  The  new  subjects,  or  French  planters,  adherents  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  then  received  political  rights  which  were  withheld 
from  British-born  inhabitants  of  the  same  faith.  Great  discontent 
was  thereby  caused,  which  had  evil  results  for  the  favoured  French 
at  a  later  day. 

In  1779,  another  transfer  of  possession  took  place.  The  war 
of  the  American  revolution  was  at  its  height,  when  the  Comte 
d'Estaing  arrived  off  the  coast,  in  the  summer  season,  with  a 
powerful  fleet,  carrying  a  military  force  of  3000  men.  It  was 
impossible  for  the  British  to  offer  any  effective  resistance.  The 
governor,  Sir  George  Macartney  (afterwards  Governor  of  Madras, 
and,  as  Lord  Macartney,  the  first  British  envoy  ever  sent  to 
China),  took  a  brave  personal  part  in  the  defence  made  by  a 
garrison  composed  of  a  company  of  the  48th  foot,  300  militia,  and 
150  seamen.  They  were  overpowered  by  the  numbers  of  the  foe, 
and  were  obliged  to  capitulate,  after  inflicting  on  the  besiegers  a 
loss  of  nearly  400  men.  The  new  rulers  of  Grenada  displayed 
much  harshness  and  injustice  towards  the  British  inhabitants,  but 
the  French  government  interfered  in  their  behalf,  and  the  peace  of 
1783  finally  placed  the  island  under  the  rule  of  Great  Britain.  The 
political  trouble  was  revived,  however,  when  the  Catholic  French 
received  their  former  exclusive  privileges,  and  a  struggle  arose 
between  the  British  and  French  parties,  ending,  after  seven  years, 
in  the  latter  being  deprived  of  all  their  powers  as  sharers  in  the 
government. 

The  revolutionary  movement  which  has  been  referred  to  in  the 
history  of  St.  Lucia  had  dire  effects  in  Grenada.  In  March,  1795, 
the  anarchists  caused  an  insurrection,  and  the  island  became  the 
scene  of  bloodshed  accompanied  by  cruelties  disgraceful  to  men 
who  claimed  to  be  civilized  beings.  The  two  towns  of  Grenville 
and  Gonyave,  or  Charlotte  Town,  at  opposite  ends  of  Grenada, 
were  the  chief  places  implicated  in  the  tragedies  which  took  place. 
The  British  rulers  were  wanting  in  the  needful  firmness  and 
judgment  in  forming  and  applying  plans  of  repression,  and,  outside 
the  capital,  the  whole  island  for  more  than  a  year  was  in  the  hands 
of  insurgents  displaying  all  the  ferocity  of  the  worst  of  brigands. 
The  plantations  were  laid  waste,  the  houses  burnt,  the  loyalists 


COLONIAL  POSSESSIONS  IN   THE  WEST   INDIES.  329 

murdered  on  every  side.  The  two  parties,  actuated  by  the  utmost 
fury  of  political  and  religious  or,  on  one  side,  anti-religious 
hostility,  waged  a  war  without  quarter.  The  governor,  and  the 
Hon.  Alexander  Campbell,  a  leading  colonist  of  much  ability,  were 
taken  prisoners  by  the  rebels  and  conducted  to  their  mountain- 
camp.  In  April,  1795,  after  the  failure  of  a  weak  attempt  on  that 
stronghold,  they  and  nearly  50  other  British  subjects,  including 
some  of  the  chief  planters  and  merchants,  were  deliberately  shot. 
The  ministry  at  home  was  slow  to  send  relief,  and  it  was  not  till 
June,  1796,  that  a  strong  force  under  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie 
landed  on  the  shores  of  Grenada  and  began  to  restore  order. 
That  brave  and  able  Scot  was  no  man  for  half-measures  or  ill-done 
work.  Within  ten  days  of  his  landing,  the  rebels  had  been  hunted 
down  in  every  fastness  of  the  hills,  and  from  that  time  the  island 
of  Grenada  has  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  peace.  The  Grenadines, 
a  cluster  of  small  islands,  have  always  followed  the  fortunes  of  their 
neighbours,  Grenada  and  St.  Vincent. 

The  history  of  St.  Vincent  in  some  respects  resembles  that  of 
her  sister-islands  in  the  Windward  group,  but  she  was  more  closely 
concerned  than  any  of  those  with  the  aboriginal  race,  or  Caribs. 
At  the  time  of  her  discovery  by  Columbus  in  January,  1498, 
aborigines  of  the  lighter  or  yellow  variety  were  found  in  posses- 
sion, and  they  remained  undisturbed  for  nearly  two  centuries, 
while  the  island  was  granted,  in  1627,  to  Lord  Carlisle,  declared 
neutral  ground  in  1660,  and,  in  1672,  given  by  Charles  II.,  in 
titular  possession,  to  Lord  Willoughby.  No  attempt  at  European 
settlement  was  made  during  all  this  period,  the  English  and 
French  governments  having  arranged,  it  seems,  to  leave  Dominica 
and  St.  Vincent  to  the  Caribs,  on  their  abandoning  all  claims  to 
other  islands.  In  1675,  savages  of  the  black  race  of  Caribs,  if 
indeed  they  were  Caribs,  were  found  upon  the  island.  English 
and  French  colonists  landed  at  this  time,  and,  in  1722,  George  I. 
made  a  grant  of  the  territory  to  the  Duke  of  Montagu.  About 
twenty  years  later,  there  were  nearly  a  thousand  white  inhabitants, 
and  about  thrice  the  number  of  negro  slaves,  whose  labours 
raised  tropical  produce  to  the  annual  value  of  over  ,£60,000. 

In  1748,  St.  Vincent  was  declared  "neutral"  by  the  Treaty  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  but  the  outbreak  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  caused 
its  possession  to  be  contested  between  France  and  Great  Britain, 


33O  OUR  EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

and,  in  1762,  the  island  was  taken  by  forces  under  General 
Monckton,  and  ceded  to  British  rule  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  the 
following  year.  In  1773  the  Caribs  dwelling  there,  after  a  display 
of  rebellion  for  several  years,  received  the  grant  of  an  extensive 
district,  on  condition  of  laying  down  their  arms  and  acknowledging 
the  rule  of  the  British  sovereign.  Six  years  later,  as  we  have  seen, 
St.  Vincent  was  taken  possession  of  by  the  French  under  the  Comte 
d'Estaing.  In  1780,  the  island  was  ravaged  by  the  most  violent 
hurricane  ever  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  West  Indies.  Three 
years  later  St.  Vincent  was  restored  to  British  rule  by  the  Treaty 
of  Versailles.  Her  history  then,  for  many  years,  runs  parallel  to 
that  of  Grenada. 

The  returning  prosperity  due  to  peace  was  rudely  interrupted, 
after  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  by  the  Caribs  and 
by  French  anarchists.  The  country  was  overrun  by  native  and 
European  savages;  the  plantations  were  made  desolate;  the  houses 
burnt,  and  many  of  the  British  colonists  murdered.  After  a  terrible 
time  of  violence  and  disorder,  the  expedition  headed  by  Sir  Ralph 
Abercrombie  restored  peace  to  the  island  in  1796.  The  British 
government  then  adopted  the  wise  and  necessary  measure  of 
removing  the  Caribs  from  St.  Vincent,  and  in  March,  1797,  a  fleet 
of  transports  conveyed  away  the  natives,  to  the  number  of  over 
5000,  to  the  island  of  Rattan,  in  the  Bay  of  Honduras.  The 
British  colonists  were  thereafter  left  to  the  peaceable  possession 
and  tillage  of  the  soil,  under  the  rule  of  a  governor,  a  council,  and 
a  representative  assembly. 

The  extensive  group  called  Bahamas  are  of  the  highest  interest 
in  connection  with  Columbus'  discovery  of  the  West  Indies.  At 
one  of  these  islands,  that  called  by  the  natives  "  Guanahari ",  by 
him  "  San  Salvador ",  he  first  planted  his  foot  within  the  New 
World.  The  island  was  long  identified  with  Cat  Island,  or  San 
Salvador,  but  recent  researches  have  made  it  more  probable  that 
the  great  navigator's  first  place  of  landing  was  Watling  Island,  at 
a  little  distance  to  the  east.  On  his  arrival  in  October,  1492,  he 
found  natives  in  possession,  who  believed  him  and  his  followers  to 
be  angelic  visitors  from  another  sphere;  but  the  Europeans  only 
remained  a  few  hours,  and  then  sailed  away  to  other  and  more 
important  discoveries. 

The  unhappy  aborigines  had  soon  bitter  cause  to  regret  that 


COLONIAL  POSSESSIONS  IN   THE  WEST  INDIES.  331 

the  people  from  beyond  the  seas  had  become  aware  of  their 
existence.  In  his  first  letter  to  the  Catholic  sovereigns,  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  Columbus,  amongst  many  other  high-flown  promises 
of  wealth  to  be  gathered  on  the  scene  of  his  discovery,  had  given 
hope  of  abundance  of  slaves  for  the  uses  of  European  masters. 
The  hint  was  acted  on,  and,  by  some  of  the  worst  cruelty  and 
wickedness  due  to  the  presence  of  Spaniards  in  the  West  Indies, 
the  Bahamas  were,  in  course  of  time,  stripped  of  all  their  native 
population.  Greed  for  gold,  in  working  the  mines  of  the  first 
European  conquerors  in  the  New  World,  caused  rapid  mortality, 
through  hardship  and  ill-usage,  among  the  natives  employed  at 
San  Domingo  and  elsewhere.  The  Spaniards  then  resorted  for 
fresh  supplies  of  labour  to  the  people  of  the  Bahamas.  The  kid- 
nappers, with  cruel  craft,  worked  on  the  superstition  of  the  natives 
by  promises  to  convey  them  to  the  "  happy  islands  "  where,  as  they 
believed,  their  dead  relatives  and  ancestors  dwelt  in  bliss;  and  they 
were  induced  to  believe  that  those  regions  lay  within  a  few  days' 
sail.  About  50,000  people  were  thus  entrapped  on  board  the  ships, 
and  the  greater  number  were  conveyed  to  San  Domingo,  and  set  to 
the  toil  in  which  so  many  thousands  had  already  perished.  Many, 
in  despair,  refused  to  eat,  and  fled  away  to  die  in  secret  places. 
Others,  making  their  way  to  the  northern  coast  of  the  island  of 
their  captivity,  stood  inhaling  the  breeze  which  they  thought  was 
blowing  from  their  former  home,  and  stretched  out  arms  of  longing 
for  the  wives  and  children  left  behind.  The  most  part  died  deaths 
of  lingering  torture,  from  overwork,  whipping,  and  unfit  or  in- 
sufficient food. 

For  many  a  year  the  Bahamas  remained  all  devoid  of  human 
dwellers,  as  the  few  males,  and  the  women  and  children,  left  there 
by  the  Spanish  stealers  of  human  flesh,  made  their  way  for  safety 
to  other  regions.  The  group  was  almost  forgotten  in  Europe  when 
Queen  Elizabeth,  in  1578,  conveyed  the  islands  by  charter  to  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert.  No  attempt,  however,  at  settlement  was 
made  until  after  the  colonization  of  Virginia.  About  1632  some 
British  settlers  arrived,  but  they  were  soon  destroyed  or  driven  out 
by  the  Spaniards.  In  1646  a  good  number  of  colonists  landed 
from  the  Bermudas,  and  the  islands  began  to  attract  attention 
from  lawless  adventurers  as  a  convenient  haunt  for  pouncing  on 
Spanish  galleons,  for  the  profits  to  be  gained  by  plundering  wrecks, 


332  OUR   EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

and,  in  general,  for  irregular  maritime  gains.  Grants  of  the  island 
of  New  Providence,  of  others  among  the  group,  and  of  the  Bahamas 
as  a  whole,  were  made  by  Charles  II.  to  various  proprietors  or 
proprietary  bodies,  and  in  1671  a  governor  was  appointed.  There 
was,  however,  no  law  or  order  established,  and  New  Providence, 
one  of  the  chief  islands,  began  to  be  a  resort  of  pirates  and 
bucaneers.  Spanish  jealousy  was  aroused  by  the  presence  of 
their  hereditary  foes,  the  British,  and  the  settlement  at  New 
Providence  was  laid  waste  in  1682.  We  hear  of  so-called  "go- 
vernors" being,  from  time  to  time,  made  prisoners  by  the  people 
whom  they  endeavoured  to  rule,  and,  in  1 702,  one  of  these  officials, 
a  scoundrel  named  Elias  Hasket,  was  expelled  by  the  people  with 
ignominious  treatment. 

In  1704,  the  British  settlers  at  New  Providence,  left  by  their 
new  ruler,  Mr.  Lightwood,  wholly  without  defence  in  a  garrison  for 
the  fort,  were  attacked  by  the  French  and  Spaniards.  The  fort 
was  blown  up,  the  town  was  plundered,  and  all  the  chief  people 
were  carried  off  to  Havannah  as  prisoners  of  war.  The  Spaniards, 
in  another  descent,  utterly  wrecked  what  had  been  left  unharmed 
or  unseized  in  the  former  raid,  and  the  island  of  New  Providence 
remained  desolate  for  some  years.  Then  came  a  new  "  governor  ", 
a  Mr.  Birch,  appointed  by  the  "  Lords  Proprietors",  who  were  not 
aware,  as  it  seems,  that  there  was  nobody  to  govern.  The  new 
ruler  found  himself  alone  among  the  ruins  of  the  town,  and,  after 
camping  out  for  a  few  days  in  the  woods,  wisely  took  notice  to  quit 
from  the  mosquitos.  The  island  was  then  left  to  the  occasional 
visits  or  temporary  occupation  of  pirates,  Spaniards,  and  bucaneers. 
One  of  these  adventurers,  John  Tench,  or  "  Blackbeard  ",  was  a 
name  of  terror  to  mariners  on  the  American  coast-line  from  Nassau 
to  Boston,  and  on  the  Atlantic  waters  between  the  Bahamas  and 
Great  Britain.  This  bold  pirate  was  the  king  of  the  whole  group 
and  adjacent  seas,  until  his  death  in  a  sea-fight,  in  1718,  off  the 
coast  of  North  Carolina.  About  that  time  the  government  of 
George  I.  was  requested  to  take  measures  for  the  establishment  of 
order,  and  British  rulers  then  took  firm  possession.  Respectable 
settlers,  many  of  German  origin,  arrived  in  New  Providence,  and 
that  and  other  islands  received  new  vegetable  stock  in  the  shape  of 
cocoa-nut  palms,  pine-apples,  and  other  valuable  plants  and  trees. 
In  1781,  the  Spaniards,  then  at  war  with  Great  Britain,  captured 


COLONIAL   POSSESSIONS   IN   THE   WEST   INDIES.  333 

New  Providence,  but  they  were  soon  driven  out,  and  the  islands 
were  confirmed  as  a  British  possession  by  the  Peace  of  Versailles 
in  1783. 

The  country  in  Central  America  known  as  Honduras  has  its 
name  from  the  Spanish  word  for  "  depths  ",  owing  to  the  difficulty 
Columbus  had  in  anchoring  off  the  coast.  His  discovery  of  this 
region  was  made  in  1502,  when  he  was  engaged  on  his  fourth 
voyage.  The  land  lying  round  the  Bay  of  Honduras  was  visited 
by  Pinzon,  a  Spanish  explorer,  in  1509,  and  by  Cortez  in  1519, 
when  he  was  on  his  way  to  Mexico.  It  is  likely  that,  early  in  the 
1 7th  century,  British  bucaneers  from  the  West  Indian  islands 
resorted  to  this  coast,  and  the  second  designation  of  British 
Honduras  is  said  to  be  the  Spanish  corruption  of  the  name  of 
Wallis  or  Wallace,  one  of  these  adventurers  who  preyed  on 
commerce  in  those  waters,  and  sought  safety  from  the  Spanish 
cruisers  in  the  many  creeks  or  inlets  of  the  Bay  of  Honduras. 
The  fine  trees  producing  the  valuable  timber  called  logwood  and 
mahogany  seem  to  have  first  attracted  lawful  trade,  and  about 
1638  some  settlers  began  to  colonize  the  district  now  in  British 
possession.  The  obscurity  of  the  early  history  is  shown  in  the 
fact  that  some  accounts  make  Wallis  one  of  these  timber  traders, 
and  describe  him  as  founder  of  the  British  colony.  The  Spanish 
were  jealous  of  the  profits  made,  but  the  new-comers  and  their 
successors  held  their  ground  against  many  occasional  attacks,  and 
the  region  was  a  kind  of  informal,  permissive,  British  settlement, 
ruled  by  magistrates  annually  chosen  at  public  meeting.  These 
officials  were  invested  with  executive  and  judicial  powers,  and  the 
laws  of  the  community  were  resolutions  carried  at  public  meetings 
of  the  citizens. 

An  impulse  to  British  settlement  near  the  mouth  of  the  Belize 
river  had  been  given  by  the  conquest  of  Jamaica,  in  1655,  and,  a 
few  years  after  that  event,  wood-cutters  arrived  from  the  new  colony, 
and  the  demand  for  the  special  timber  of  Honduras  in  the  European 
markets  brought  many  competitors  in  a  lucrative  trade.  In  1765, 
Vice-admiral  Sir  William  Burnaby  was  sent  out  from  England  to 
visit  the  settlement,  in  order  to  secure  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity under  the  Treaty  of  Paris.  He  drew  up  a  code  of  local 
regulations,  which  continued  in  force  until  1840,  and  soon  after  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles  (1783),  an  executive  officer,  called  "  Superin- 


334  OUR   EMPIRE   AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

tendent ",  was  regularly  named  by  the  home  government.  British 
Honduras  long  remained,  in  a  sense,  a  dependency  of  Jamaica  for 
protection  and  supervision,  but  the  people,  under  the  "constitution" 
granted  by  George  III.  through  Sir  William  Burnaby,  retained 
their  powers  of  legislation  at  public  meeting,  and  of  choosing 
magistrates  by  free  and  open  vote. 

The  hostility  of  Spain  had  needed  constant  vigilance,  and  in 
1779-81  we  find  Horatio  Nelson,  as  commander  of  the  brig 
Badger,  and  then  as  post-captain,  in  charge  of  the  Hinchinbrook, 
engaged  on  the  coasts  of  British  and  of  Spanish  Honduras,  where 
his  health  suffered  severely  from  the  effects  of  the  climate.  In 
1786,  by  a  treaty  with  Spain,  Great  Britain  agreed  to  withdraw 
from  certain  settlements  to  the  south,  on  what  was  known  as  the 
"  Mosquito  coast ",  on  condition  of  our  people  in  British  Honduras 
being  permitted  to  cut  mahogany  as  well  as  logwood,  and  of  our 
not  erecting  fortifications  in  the  country.  This  weak  and  ill-judged 
concession  was  a  sort  of  admission  of  Spanish  control  which  soon 
caused  serious  trouble.  The  British  colonists  were  subjected  to 
constant  hostile  threats  and  demonstrations.  In  1797,  Colonel 
Barrow  arrived  from  home  as  "  Superintendent ",  invested  with  full 
civil  and  military  powers,  and  he  took  prompt  measures  for  the 
defence  of  the  capital,  Belize.  This  activity,  well  backed  by  that 
of  the  community,  had  its  reward  in  September,  1798,  when  the 
Spaniards  came  in  great  force.  A  fleet  of  14  sail  of  the  line 
appeared  off  the  harbour  of  Belize,  and  met  with  a  most  determined 
resistance.  A  severe  conflict,  of  two  days'  duration,  known  as  the 
"battle  of  St.  George's  Cay"  (or  islet),  ended  in  the  victorious 
repulse  of  the  foe,  finally  and  fully  securing  British  possession  of 
the  territory  by  right  of  conquest. 

The  fine  island  of  Trinidad,  discovered  by  Columbus,  on  his 
third  voyage,  in  July,  1498,  received  its  name,  according  to  one 
account,  in  pursuance  of  a  vow  made  by  him,  under  severe  stress 
of  weather,  that  the  first  new  land  sighted  should  be  called  in 
honour  of  the  Trinity.  Some  authorities,  however,  give  Trinity 
Sunday,  1496,  as  the  date  of  discovery.  The  territory  was  claimed 
by  Columbus  for  the  Spanish  crown,  and  a  governor  was  appointed 
in  1532,  but  it  was  many  years  before  the  Spaniards  were  in  firm 
possession  against  hostile  attacks.  About  1584  the  town  of  San 
Jose  (St.  Joseph),  which  remained  the  capital  for  more  than  two 


COLONIAL   POSSESSIONS   IN    THE   WEST   INDIES.  335 

centuries,  was  founded  by  a  Spanish  governor,  but  the  place  was 
scarcely  finished  when,  in  1595,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  burnt  it. 
During  the  iyth  century  the  island  was  ravaged  several  times 
by  the  Dutch  and  the  French.  Early  in  the  i8th  century  cocoa 
was  becoming  an  extensive  and  valuable  article  of  tillage  and  trade, 
but  in  1725  a  mysterious  blight  attacked  the  plantations,  and  stayed 
prosperity  for  Trinidad  during  more  than  half  acentury.  The  Spanish 
government  were  then  induced  to  make  an  extraordinary  effort  for 
her  revival,  when  an  intelligent  French  planter  from  Grenada, 
M.  de  St.  Laurent,  who  had  visited  the  island  and  noted  its 
wonderful  fertility,  made  strong  representations  to  the  officials 
at  Madrid,  and  sought  permission  to  carry  out  his  scheme  of 
immigration.  In  1783,  he  obtained  a  royal  proclamation  admitting 
foreign  settlers  to  the  island,  provided  they  were  of  the  Catholic 
faith.  Don  Jose  Maria  Chacon,  who  proved  to  be  the  last  Spanish 
governor  of  Trinidad,  was  appointed  to  carry  out  the  new  measure, 
and  under  his  auspices  a  large  number  of  colonists  arrived  from 
the  French  West  Indies,  with  great  additions  after  the  events  due 
to  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution.  In  1789  the  population 
amounted  to  over  10,000,  by  a  tenfold  increase  in  the  space  of  five 
years;  and  to  the  movement  inaugurated  through  the  energy  and 
wisdom  of  M.  de  St.  Laurent,  is  due  the  fact  that  so  large  a  French 
element  of  race  is  found  in  a  colony  which  was  never  a  possession 
of  the  French  crown. 

The  British  right  is  due  to  conquest  pure  and  simple.  In 
February,  1797,  at  a  time  of  war  with  Spain,  a  powerful  expedition 
sailed  from  Martinique,  then  in  our  possession,  and  the  head- 
quarters of  British  power  in  the  Lesser  Antilles.  Four  line-of- 
battle  ships,  a  64-gun  ship,  two  frigates,  and  five  sloops  of  war, 
under  Rear-admiral  Harvey,  carried  nearly  7000  troops  com- 
manded by  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie,  fresh  from  the  reduction  of  the 
insurgents  at  St.  Lucia  and  St.  Vincent.  The  Spaniards,  helpless 
against  so  formidable  an  armament,  set  fire  to  their  own  fleet  of 
four  sail  of  the  line  and  a  frigate,  all  of  which  perished  in  the 
flames,  save  a  74-gun  ship,  captured  by  the  British  boats.  A  few 
shots  fired  between  the  forts  and  the  hostile  vessels  were  followed 
by  a  capitulation  to  overwhelming  force.  Colonel  Picton,  after- 
wards to  become  the  famous  Peninsular  and  Waterloo  warrior,  was 
appointed  by  Abercrombie  to  be  the  first  British  governor  of 


336  OUR    EMPIRE  AT   HOME  AND   ABROAD. 

Trinidad,  and  for  six  years  the  colony  derived  much  benefit  from 
his  firmness  in  a  post  of  difficulty  and  risk.  The  Treaty  of  Amiens, 
in  1802,  finally  ceded  the  island  to  Great  Britain. 

The  island  of  Jamaica,  which  has  always  been  the  chief  British 
possession  in  the  West  Indies,  derives  its  name  from  an  aboriginal 
term  Xaymaca,  signifying  "  land  of  springs ".  Discovered  by 
Columbus,  in  May,  1494,  and  by  him  styled  St.  Jago,  after  the 
patron  saint  of  Spain,  it  was  not  again  visited  by  Europeans,  so 
far  as  is  known,  for  about  nine  years.  In  1503,  the  great  Genoese 
navigator  was  engaged  on  his  fourth  voyage  of  exploration,  when 
the  state  of  his  ships  compelled  him  to  put  in  at  Jamaica,  where  he 
remained  for  nearly  eighteen  months,  until  the  close  of  the  follow- 
ing year. 


END   OF   VOL.   I. 


SOME  WORKS  PUBLISHED   BY 

BLACKIE  &  SON,  Limited, 

LONDON,   GLASGOW,   EDINBURGH,   AND   DUBLIN. 


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(13) 


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NEW  AND  REVISED  EDITION. 


The  Casquet  of  Literature: 

A  SELECTION  IN  PROSE  AND  POETRY  from  the  works  of  the  best  Authors.  Edited,  with  Bio- 
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OF  UNIVERSAL  INFORMATION.  A  Handy-book  of  Reference  on  all  subjects  and  for  all 
readers.  Edited  by  CHARLES  ANNANDALE,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Editor  of  "Ogilvie's  Imperial  Dictionary", 
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A  FAMILY  GUIDE  TO  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  HEALTH  AND  TO  THE  DOMESTIC  TREATMENT  OF 
AILMENTS  AND  DISEASE.  By  J.  M'GREGOR- ROBERTSON,  M.B.,  C.M.  (Hon.).  With  an  Introduction 
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THE  HENRY  IRVING  SHAKESPEARE.— SUBSCRIPTION  EDITION. 

The  Works  of  Shakespeare. 

EDITED    BY 
HENRY    IRVING    AND    FRANK    A.    MARSHALL. 

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The  universal  popularity  of  the  works  of  our  GREAT  DRAMATIST  has  induced  the  publishers  to  issue  a  sumptuous 
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***  Every  subscriber  for  this  edition  of  Shakespeare's  Works  will  be  presented,  on  the  completion  of  his  copy  of 
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"  On  the  care  with  which  the  text  itself  of  the  plays  has  been  prepared  -we  have  nothing  but  praise  to  bestow.  ,  .  . 
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particular  we  must  congratulate  the  publishers  of  the  work  on  one  especial  feature  which  could  hardly  fail  to  ensure  its 
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facsimile,  give  it  an  artistic  value  superior,  in  our  judgment,  to  any  illustrated  edition  of  Shakespeare  with  which  we 
are  acquainted." — The  Athenrcum. 

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and  serviceable  qualities." — The  Spectator. 

/ 

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Burns,  by  THOMAS  CARLYLE  and  PROFESSOR  WILSON.  Edited  by  CHARLES  ANNANDALE,  M.A.,  LL.D., 
editor  of  the  "Imperial  Dictionary",  &c. 

In  this  edition  of  Burns  his  writings  are  presented  in  two  Sections,  the  one  containing  the  poetry,  the  other  the  prose. 
Marginal  explanations  of  Scottish  words  accompany  each  piece  that  require  such  aid,  enabling  anyone  at  a  glance  to 
apprehend  the  meaning  of  even  the  most  difficult  passages. 

The  Pictorial  Illustrations,  which  consist  of  Fifty -six  beautiful  Landscapes  and  Portraits,  engraved  on  steel  in  the  most 
finished  manner,  form  a  very  distinctive  feature  of  this  edition.  The  Landscapes  embrace  the  principal  scenes  identified 
with  the  Life  and  Writings  of  the  Poet,  and  are  from  pictures  painted  by  D.  O.  HILL,  R.S.A. 

Altogether  in  no  other  edition  is  so  much  light  thrown  from  all  points  of  view  upon  Burns  the  poet  and  Burns  the  man, 
and  it  may  therefore  be  said  to  be  complete  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 

In  1 8  parts,  super-royal  410,  at  2s.  each ;  in  6  divisions  at  6j.  each  ;  and  also  in  2  volumes,  large  4to, 
elegantly  bound  in  cloth,  gilt  edges,  price  24^.  each. 

The  Natural  History  of  Animals 

(CLASS  MAMMALIA— ANIMALS  WHICH  SUCKLE  THEIR  YOUNG),  In  Word  and  Picture.  By 
CARL  VOGT,  Professor  of  Natural  History,  Geneva,  and  FRIEDRICH  SPECHT,  Stuttgart.  Translated 
and  Edited  by  GEO.  G.  CHISHOLM,  M.A.,  B.SC.  Illustrated  by  above  300  fine  Engravings  on  wood. 

This  account  of  the  animals  comprised  in  the  class  Mammalia  has  a  decidedly  popular  character — not  through  lack  of 
scientific  value,  but  because  the  author  presents  the  facts  in  an  attractive  form,  and  studies  to  smooth  the  path  of  those 
who  can  give  only  their  leisure  hours  to  learning  the  results  of  scientific  research.  The  author's  style  is  above  all  things 
clear,  simple,  and  direct,  and,  where  occasion  offers,  lively  and  animated. 

The  artist  has  portrayed  in  the  most  spirited  manner  the  animals  as  they  appear  in  the  varied  circumstances  of  real 
life,  in  quest  of  their  prey,  caressing  their  young  ones,  or  sporting  with  their  fellows.  The  engravings  have  been  executed 
in  the  most  careful  and  finished  manner,  under  Mr.  Specht's  own  direction. 


Blackie  &  Son's  Publications. 


The  work  will  be  completed  in  16  parts  imperial  8vo,  published  monthly,  at  2s.  6d.  each; 
or  6  volumes,  beautifully  bound,  at  9*.  each. 

The  Natural  History  of  Plants 

THEIR  FORMS,  GROWTH,  REPRODUCTION,  AND  DISTRIBUTION.  Translated  from 
the  German  of  ANTON  KERNER  VON  MARILAUN,  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of  Vienna, 
by  F.  W.  OLIVER,  M.A.,  D.Sc.,  Quain  Professor  of  Botany  in  University  College,  London,  with  the 
assistance  of  MARIAN  BUSK,  B.SC.,  and  MARY  EWART,  B.SC.  With  about  1000  Original  Woodcut 
Illustrations  and  Sixteen  Plates  in  Colours. 

KERNER'S  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  PLANTS,  now  for  the  first  time  presented  to  English  readers,  is  one  of  the  greatest 
works  on  Botany  ever  issued  from  the  press.  Its  province  is  the  whole  realm  of  Plant  Life,  and  its  purpose,  as  conceived 
by  the  author,  Professor  Kerner,  of  Vienna  University,  is  to  provide  "a  book  not  only  for  specialists  and  scholars,  but  also 
for  the  many  ".  That  plants,  like  animals,  are  possessed  of  instinct  and  endowed  with  sensation ;  that  in  fact  no  marked 
boundary-line  exists  between  the  world  of  plants  and  the  world  of  animals,  are  curious  truths,  of  which  the  fewest  of  us 
were  aware,  but  which  are  here  made  plain.  The  reader  will  indeed  find  matter  of  novel  and  entrancing  interest  on  every 
page.  He  will  read  of  rootless  plants  free  to  move  from  place  to  place,  of  plants  whose  roots  hang  suspended  in  mid-air,  of 
strange  carnivorous  plants  that  capture  their  prey  in  traps  and  pitfalls  of  cunning  device,  of  parasitic  plants  that  live  and 
are  nourished,  some  on  fellow-plants,  others  on  animals.  He  will  find  described,  not  merely  our  own  familiar  vegetation, 
but  the  whole  world's  flora,  in  its  relation  to  the  Science  of  Biology. 

ORIGINAL — WELL  WRITTEN — WELL  TRANSLATED — BEAUTIFULLY  ILLUSTRATED. 
In  19  parts,  2s.  each ;  or  6  divisional  volumes,  super-royal  8vo,  cloth  elegant,  8.r.  6d.  each. 

A   History  of  the  Scottish   People 

From  the  Earliest  to  the  Latest  Times.  By  REV.  THOMAS  THOMSON  and  CHARLES  ANNANDALE, 
M.A.,  LL.D.  With  40  Original  Designs  by  W.  H.  MARGETSON,  ALFRED  PEARSE,  WALTER  PAGET, 
GORDON  BROWNE,  and  other  eminent  artists. 

It  is  a  full  and  detailed  History  of  Scotland  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Latest. 

It  is  a  History  of  the  Scottish  People,  their  manners,  customs,  and  modes  of  living  at  the  various  successive  periods. 

It  is  a  History  of  Religion  and  Ecclesiastical  Affairs  in  Scotland. 

It  is  a  History  of  Scotland's  progress  in  Commerce,  Industry,  Arts,  Science,  and  Literature. 

In  14  parts,  2s.  each;  or  4  vols.,  super- royal  8vo,  cloth  elegant,  8s.  6d.  each. 

The  Cabinet  of  Irish  Literature. 

A  Selection  from  the  Works  of  the  chief  Poets,  Orators,  and  Prose  Writers  of  Ireland.  Edited,  with 
biographical  sketches  and  literary  notices,  by  CHARLES  A.  READ,  F.R.H.S.,  author  of  "Tales  and 
Stories  of  Irish  Life",  "  Stories  from  the  Ancient  Classics",  &c.  Illustrated  by  a  series  of  32  admirable 
Portraits  in  mesochrome,  specially  prepared  for  this  work. 

The  Publishers  aim  in  this  Work  to  supply  a  standard  work  in  which  the  genius,  the  fire,  the  pathos,  the  humour,  and 
the  eloquence  of  Irish  Literature  are  adequately  represented.  The  specimens  selected,  which  are  arranged  chronologically 
from  the  earliest  to  the  present  time,  will  both  present  a  historical  view  of  Irish  Literature,  and  enable  the  reader  to  judge 
of  the  individual  style  and  particular  merit  of  each  author,  while  to  those  not  critically  disposed  the  infinite  variety  presented 
in  this  convenient  collective  form  will  afford  both  instruction  and  amusement. 

In  15  parts,  2s.  each;  or  two  handsome  vols.,  super-royal  8vo,  cloth,  36*. 

The  Works  of  the  Ettrick  Shepherd, 

IN  POETRY  AND  PROSE.  Centenary  Edition.  With  a  Biographical  Memoir  by  the  Rev. 
THOMAS  THOMSON.  Illustrated  by  Forty-four  fine  Engravings  on  steel,  from  Original  Drawings  by 
D.  O.  HILL,  R.S.A.,  K.  HALSEWELLE,  A.R.S.A.,  W.  SMALL,  and  J.  LAWSON. 

Hogg's  Works  comprise  Tales  in  Prase,  illustrative  of  Border  history  and  superstitions.  They  comprise  likewise 
Poems  of  great  imaginative  power  and  descriptive  beauty ;  Ballads  full  of  humour  and  touches  of  tender  pathos ;  and  Songs 
which,  besides  being  universally  popular  when  first  made  public,  are  still  cherished  as  among  the  finest  productions  of  our 
native  lyric  muse. 


Blackie  &  Sons  Publications. 


To  be  compkted  in  four  half- volumes,  super-royal  8vo,  at  12s.  6d.  each;  or  in 
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The  Steam  Engine: 


A  TREATISE  ON  STEAM  ENGINES  AND  BOILERS.  Comprising  the  Principles  and  Practice  of  the 
Combustion  of  Fuel,  the  Economical  Generation  of  Steam,  the  Construction  of  Steam  Boilers ;  and  the 
Principles,  Construction,  and  Performance  of  Steam  Engines — Stationary,  Portable,  Locomotive,  and 
Marine,  exemplified  in  Engines  and  Boilers  of  Recent  Date.  By  DANIEL  KINNEAR  CLARK, 
M.inst.  C.E.,  M.I.M.E.  ;  Author  of  "Railway  Machinery";  "A  Manual  of  Rules,  Tables,  and  Data  for 
Mechanical  Engineers";  &c.  &c.  Illustrated  by  above  1300  Figures  in  the  Text,  and  a  Series  of 
Folding  Plates  drawn  to  Scale. 

This  work  provides  a  comprehensive,  accurate,  and  clearly  written  text-book,  fully  abreast  of  all  the  recent  developments 
in  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  Steam  Engine. 

Written  in  full  view  of  the  great  advances  of  modern  times,  it  expounds  the  principles  and  describes  the  practice 
exemplified  in  the  construction  and  use  of  Steam  Engines  and  Boilers,  in  all  their  varieties. 

In  20  parts,  2s.  each;  or  5  divisions,  royal  410,  8.r.  each;  or  one  vol.,  cloth,  gilt  edges,  42^. 

Suggestions  in   Design; 

A  comprehensive  series  of  Original  Sketches  in  various  Styles  of  Ornament,  arranged  for  application  in 
the  Decorative  and  Constructive  Arts,  comprising  102  plates,  containing  more  than  I  loo  distinct  and 
separate  "suggestions",  by  JOHN  LEIGHTON,  F.S.A.  To  which  is  added  descriptive  and  historical 
letterpress,  with  above  200  explanatory  engravings,  by  JAMES  KELLAWAY  COLLING,  F.R.I. B.A. 

These  suggestions  are  throughout  original,  designed  in  the  spirit,  and  with  the  proper  art  feeling  of  the  various  styles 
to  which  they  severally  belong,  and  are  the  accumulated  result  of  long  and  arduous  studies,  extending  over  many  years 
of  investigation  and  thought 

This  work  will  be  found  to  be  eminently  suited  to  the  wants  of  nearly  every  one  who  has  occasion  for  decoration  in 
whatever  form  ; — to  the  worker  in  stone,  wood,  metal,  ivory,  glass,  and  leather — to  the  house-painter,  decorator,  &c.  &c. 

In  20  parts,  super-royal  quarto,  2s.  each ;  or  8  divisions,  55.  each. 

The  Carpenter  and  Joiner's  Assistant. 

By  JAMES  NEWLANDS,  late  Borough  Engineer  of  Liverpool.  New  and  Improved  Edition,  Being  a 
Comprehensive  Treatise  on  the  selection,  preparation,  and  strength  of  Materials,  and  the  Mechanical 
principles  of  Framing,  with  their  applications  in  Carpentry,  Joinery,  and  Hand  Railing ;  also,  a  com- 
plete treatise  on  Lines ;  and  an  Illustrated  Glossary  of  Terms  used  in  Architecture  and  Building. 
Illustrated  by  above  One  Hundred  Engraved  Plates,  containing  above  Nine  Hundred  Figures;  and 
above  Seven  Hundred  Geometric,  Constructive,  and  Descriptive  Figures  interspersed  throughout  the  text 

"  We  know  of  no  treatise  on  Carpentry  and  Joinery  which  at  all  approaches  this  in  merit.  .  .  .  We  strongly 
urge  our  practical  mechanics  to  obtain  and  study  it."— Mechanics'  Magazine. 

In  24  parts,  demy  4to,  at  2s.  each ;  or  in  6  volumes,  artistically  bound  in  cloth  extra, 
with  olivine  edges,  at  loj.  each. 

The  Works  of  Shakspeare, 

Revised  from  the  best  Authorities;  with  a  Memoir  and  Essay  on  his  Genius  by  BRYAN  W.  PROCTER 
(Barry  Cornwall),  Annotations  and  Introductory  Remarks  on  the  Plays  by  distinguished  Writers,  and 
numerous  Illustrative  Engravings  from  Designs  by  KENNY  MEADOWS  and  T.  H.  NICHOLSON. 

The  most  distinctive,  as  well  as  the  most  attractive  feature  of  this  edition  of  the  Works  of  Shakspeare  consists  in  the 
pictorial  illustrations  with  which  it  is  so  copiously  enriched.  These  are  upwards  of  730  in  number,  and  bring  most  vividly 
before  the  reader  the  scenes  and  incidents  occurring  in  the  different  plays. 

By  far  the  greater  number  are  by  the  well-known  artist  KENNY  MEADOWS,  and  so  important  are  these  illustrations 
that  the  edition  of  which  they  form  a  part  has  been  appropriately  named  the  Kenny  Meadows  Shakspeare. 

Each  play  is  accompanied  by  an  original  introduction,  and  explanatory  notes  from  the  pens  of  various  writers  dis- 
tinguished for  their  critical  acumen  and  their  wide  knowledge  and  high  appreciation  of  Shakspeare's  writings.  Altogether 
this  work  will  be  found  not  unworthy  of  him  who  "  was  not  of  an  age,  but  for  all  time  ". 


Blackie  &  Sons  Publications. 


In  12  parts,  small  410  size,  price  2s.  each;  or  4  volumes,  cloth  elegant,  gilt  edges,  9.?.  each. 

Our  Sovereign   Lady  Queen  Victoria: 

HER  LIFE  AND  JUBILEE.  By  THOMAS  ARCHER,  F.R.H.S.,  Author  of  "Pictures  and  Royal 
Portraits";  "Fifty  Years  of  Social  and  Political  Progress";  &c.  Illustrated  by  a  series  of  28  highly- 
finished  Etchings. 

It  is  believed  that  for  the  multitudes  of  men  and  women  who  regard  the  Queen  with  a  sentiment  that  may  be  spoken 
of  as  that  of  personal  regard  and  affection,  no  more  fitting  memorial  can  be  provided  than  a.  complete  and  worthy  Life  of 
our  Sovereign  Lady — a  "Life"  such  as  that  which  is  here  announced.  The  narrative  presents  a  biographical  rather  than 
a  historical  record:  a  record,  faithful,  interesting,  and  well  illustrated,  of  the  Royal  Family  and  of  the  Queen  as  Sovereign 
Lady  rather  than  as  Sovereign  Ruler. 

The  ILLUSTRATIONS  consist  of  a  series  of  twenty-eight  highly-finished  etchings,  including  portraits  of  Her  Majesty, 
the  late  Prince  Consort,  and  all  the  members  of  their  Family;  also  scenes  and  events  in  which  the  Queen  has  personally 
taken  part. 

The  Life  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ, 

And  the  Lives  of  the  Apostles  and  Evangelists.  By  Rev.  JOHN  FLEETWOOD,  D.D.  With  Copious 
Illustrative  and  Explanatory  Notes,  selected  from  the  Works  of  the  most  eminent  modern  writers  on 
New  Testament  History.  Illustrated  by  Two  Hundred  and  Fifty  Engravings  printed  in  the  Text,  and 
Thirty-three  highly-finished  Engravings  on  steel.  A  handsome  royal  410  volume,  gilt  edges,  40^. 

The  attractiveness  and  value  of  this  edition  of  the  Life  of  our  Saviour  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  addition  of  a  large 
number  of  illustrative  and  supplementary  notes  from  the  works  of  recent  writers,  among  whom  may  be  named  Archbishop 
TRENCH,  Dean  ALFORD,  Dean  STANLEY,  WEBSTER  and  WILKINSON,  VINET,  NEANDER,  LANGE,  BEN&EL,  ANGUS,  STIER, 
WESTCOTT,  JAMES  HAMILTON,  FAIRBAIRN,  Dr.  WILLIAM  SMITH,  &c. 

To  be  completed  in  15  parts,  folio  (size  16^  x  n^  inches),  price  5^.  each. 

The  Practical  Decorator  and  Ornamentist. 

For  the  use  of  ARCHITECTS,  PAINTERS,  DECORATORS,  and  DESIGNERS.  Containing  one  hundred 
Plates  in  colours  and  gold.  With  Descriptive  Notices,  and  an  Introductory  Essay  on  Artistic  and 
Practical  Decoration.  By  GEORGE  ASHDOWN  AUDSLEY,  LL.D.,  F.R.I.B.A.,  and  MAURICE  ASHDOWN 
AUDSLEY,  Architect. 

The  highly  practical  and  useful  character  of  this  important  Work  will  at  once  commend  it  to  those  interested  in 
decorative  art,  to  whom  it  is  more  immediately  addressed. 

It  will  be  found  useful  to  the  Modeller,  the  Plasterer,  the  Stone  Carver,  the  Wood  Carver,  the  Fret  Cutter,  the  Inlayer, 
the  Cabinetmaker,  the  Potter,  the  Engraver,  the  Lithographer,  the  House  Painter,  the  Architect,  the  Interior  Decorator, 
and,  indeed,  to  every  workman  who  has  anything  to  do  with  ornament  and  design.  To  the  student  in  drawing  and  orna- 
mental design  it  presents  a  wide  field  of  suggestive  study. 

Fourth  Edition.     Large  8vo  (1000  pp.),  cloth,  i6j.,  or  half-morocco,  zos. 

A  Manual  of  Rules,  Tables,  and  Data 

FOR  MECHANICAL  ENGINEERS,  based  on  the  most  recent  investigations.  By  DANIEL  KINNEAR 
CLARK,  author  of  "Railway  Machinery",  &c.  &c.  Illustrated  with  numerous  Diagrams. 

This  book  comprises  the  leading  rules  and  data,  with  numerous  tables,  of  constant  use  in  calculations  and  estimates 
relating  to  Practical  Mechanics  :— presented  in  a  reliable,  clear,  and  handy  form,  with  an  extent  of  range  and  completeness 
of  detail  that  has  not  been  attempted  hitherto.  This  (the  fourth)  edition  has  been  carefully  revised,  and  in  its  preparation 
advantage  has  been  taken  of  many  suggestions  made  by  those  using  the  former  editions. 

"Mr.  Clark  writes  with  great  clearness,  and  he  has  a  great  power  of  condensing  and  summarizing  facts,  and 
he  has  thus  been  enabled  to  embody  in  his  volume  a  collection  of  data  relating  to  mechanical  engineering,  such  as  has 
certainly  never  before  been  brought  together.  We  regard  the  book  as  one  which  no  mechanical  engineer  in  regular 
practice  can  afford  to  be  without." — Engineering. 


Blackie  &  Sons  Publications. 


To  be  completed  in  21  parts,  super- royal  8vo,  2s.  each;  or  in  6  volumes,  cloth  extra,  gs.  6d.  each. 

NEW  ISSUE. 

The  Imperial   Bible-Dictionary, 

HISTORICAL,  BIOGRAPHICAL,  GEOGRAPHICAL,  AND  DOCTRINAL.  Edited  by  Rev.  PATRICK 
FAIRBAIRN,  D.D.,  author  of  "Typology  of  Scripture";  &c.  With  Introductions  by  the  Right  Rev. 
J.  C.  RYLE,  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Liverpool,  and  Rev.  C.  H.  WALLER,  M.A.  Illustrated  by  about 
Seven  Hundred  Engravings. 

This  Edition  will  be  augmented  by  an  interesting  discussion  on  the  subject  of  INSPIRATION,  by  the  Rev.  C.  H. 
WALLER,  Principal  of  the  London  College  of  Divinity.  To  this  is  prefixed  a  luminous  introduction  on  the  same  subject 
by  the  Right  Rev.  JOHN  CHARLES  RYLE,  Lord  Bishop  of  Liverpool. 

The  Work  takes  up  in  alphabetical  order  all  the  subjects  which  enter  into  the  contents  of  the  Bible,  while  the  several 
books  of  which  the  Bible  is  composed  in  every  case  receive  careful  and  attentive  consideration.  In  the  treatment  of  the 
different  topics,  full  advantage  is  taken  of  the  materials  which  modern  criticism  and  research  have  accumulated. 

The  Pictorial  Illustrations  include  representations  of  the  plants  and  animals  mentioned  in  Scripture,  notable  scenes  and 
places,  manners  of  social  life,  and  the  manifold  productions  of  human  skill.  In  addition  to  these  illustrations,  a  Series  of 
Views  engraved  on  steel  in  the  most  finished  manner  accompany  the  work. 

New  Issue,  to  be  completed  in  6  half-volumes,  imperial  8vo,  cloth  extra,  gs.  6d.  each. 


Accurately  reprinted  from  the  Author's  own  editions.  Collected  and  edited,  with  an  introduction  to 
each  Treatise,  numerous  illustrative  and  explanatory  notes,  and  a  memoir  of  Bunyan,  by  GEORGE  OFFOR. 
Illustrated  by  engravings  on  steel  and  on  wood. 

Among  the  Illustrative  Engravings  will  be  found  the  Portrait  of  Bunyan  after  Sadler;  and  a  careful  copy  of  the  inter- 
esting Portrait  by  R.  White,  now  in  the  British  Museum;  Views  of  Bedford,  and  Prison  on  Bedford  Bridge;  of  Bunyan's 
Cottage,  the  Market-house  and  Church,  Elstow;  and  of  Bunyan's  Tomb  in  Bunhill  Fields.  Also,  a  Series  of  beautiful 
Illustrations  of  The  Pilgrim  from  Stothard's  elegant  designs;  with  Facsimiles  of  Bunyan's  Writing,  and  of  the  earliest 
wood-cut  illustrations  to  The  Pilgrim,  and  to  the  Life  of  'Bad-man. 

All  the  excellencies  of  this  much  admired  and  highly  valued  edition  of  Bunyan's  Whole  Works  (of  which  over  twenty 
thousand  copies  have  been  sold)  are  retained,  the  work  being  simply  reprinted  with  occasional  improvements  in  typography. 

Eleven  vols.,  post  8vo,  cloth,  red  edges,  3-r.  6d.  each;    or  in  handsome  case,  £2,  is. 

Commentary  on  the  New  Testament, 

Explanatory  and  Practical.  With  Questions  for  Bible-classes  and  Sunday-schools.  By  ALBERT 
BARNES.  Edited  by  the  Rev.  ROBERT  FREW,  D.D.  With  numerous  additional  Notes,  and  an  ex- 
tensive series  of  beautiful  Engravings  and  Maps,  not  in  any  other  edition. 

Shortly  before  his  decease  the  Author  completed  a  revision  of  his  Notes  on  the  New  Testament,  to  the  end  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  the  only  section  of  the  New  Testament  respecting  the  exposition  and  illustration  of  which  modern  research 
had  accumulated  new  and  important  materials. 

In  making  this  new  issue  the  first  three  volumes  have  been  re-set  so  as  to  embody  the  author's  latest  corrections  and 
additions,  and  they  are  now  presented  for  the  first  time  to  readers  in  this  country.  This  issue  will  consequently  be  the  most 
complete  and  perfect  of  any  published  in  Great  Britain. 


In  royal  410,  cloth,  gilt  edges,  y>s. 

Family    Worship: 


A  Series  of  Devotional  Services  for  every  Morning  and  Evening  throughout  the  Year,  adapted  to  the 
purposes  of  Domestic  Worship;  Prayers  for  Particular  Occasions,  and  Prayers  suitable  for  Children,  &c. 
By  above  Two  HUNDRED  EVANGELICAL  MINISTERS.  Illustrated  by  Twenty-six  fine  Engravings  on 
steel.  New  and  Improved  Edition. 

The  work  comprises  732  Services,  adapted  to  be  used  in  the  family,  being  a  service  for  every  MORNING  and  EVENING 
throughout  the  year,  with  Special  Services  for  the  Morning  and  Evening  of  New-year's  Day.  Each  Service  is  composed 
of  Praise,  Prayer,  and  Scriptural  Exposition.  Thus  it  points  out  a  suitable  psalm  or  hymn  to  be  sung;  next  it  refers 
to  a  portion  of  Scripture  to  be  read  from  the  Bible  itself,  and  adds  some  brief  explanatory  and  practical  remarks ;  and  the 
whole  closes  with  a  plain  and  earnest  Prayer. 


LONDON:   BLACKIE   &   SON,   LIMITED;   GLASGOW   AND   EDINBURGH. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  LIBRARY 


DA  Sanderson,   Edgar 

16  The  British  Empire  in   the 

336  nineteenth  century  ...