seem always to have been more desirous to carry on traffic with the Indians, than to fix themselves as agriculturists. By what principles the boundaries of their several possessions were to be ascertained, was a very difficult question; and at the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the subject seems to have been very little thought of. After the completion of this treaty, and previously to the death of Mr. Pelham, some merchants of London, in conjunction with some planters of Virginia, had obtained from the British government a grant of a large tract of land, situated between what had been usually considered as the limit of Virginia and the river Ohio. The proprietors of this grant made some settlements on the land. The French remonstrated, and removed the settlers, but without violence; no blood was shed. The French, however, built a small fort to ascertain and protect their right. Those who were interested in the new grant attacked and destroyed the fort; and in the execution of this measure killed about thirty Frenchmen. Thus began the contest. The London merchants and the planters of Virginia, interested in

supporting the new grant, were loud in their complaints. It does not seem as if it ever occurred to make any enquiry, whether the British government had the right to grant this land; still less was there any examination, whether it was for the interest of Great Britain, that the boundaries of Virginia should be thus extended to the westward. But in compliance with the clamours of those merchants and planters who were interested in the subject, it was assumed as an undoubted truth, that the British government had a right to make the grant, and that the possession of the land in question was of infinite importance to the British nation. Most certainly it was a question which might have admitted of discussion between the two courts; and the pacific character of Louis XV. afforded to the British minister a prospect of terminating the dispute without a war. whole of Louis XV.'s life had sufficiently shown that he had no propensity to military enterprize; nor was he led by vanity, like his predecessor Louis XIV., to the parade and affectation of military glory. Indolent and sensual, Louis XV. desired

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nothing but personal gratification. Such a disposition in the monarch must have afforded the Duke of Newcastle much advantage in negotiation; but these circumstances were overlooked by the British minister. He sincerely wished for peace, for he must have been conscious of his own incapacity as a war minister; but he commenced unjustifiable hostilities. In the autumn, 1754, he sent General Braddock with a military force to Virginia; and in the ensuing summer, without declaring war, he seized the French fishing vessels on the banks of Newfoundland, The French exclaimed against this as an outrageous violation of the law of nations, which it certainly was. I have heard Frenchmen, when mentioning this transaction, and speaking of it as a violation of the law of nations, add, at the same time, that it was a master-stroke of policy; for that by seizing the sailors in their Newfoundland ships, the British minister had crippled the future operations of their navy. But this was not the motive which had actuated the Duke of Newcastle: he had seized their ships, not with a view to cripple the French

navy; but that he might have something to urge in answer to the clamours of those gentlemen in the opposition, who were loudly abusing him in the House of Commons for his helpless imbecility. George II. was as desirous of peace as his minister. A naval war, or military operations in America, could have afforded him no gratification. But the people wished for war.

The feeble mind of the Duke of Newcastle induced him to adopt another measure equally unjust, and more cruel. That part of Nova Scotia which had been settled by the French, had at the treaty of Aix-laChapelle been ceded to Great Britain, under the name of L'Acadie. The inhabitants were become British subjects; and as such, were entitled to the protection of the British government. But the pusillanimous mind of the Duke of Newcastle led him to believe, that in case of a war, these inhabitants would declare for France; so they gave them the name of French Neutrals, and removed them all to England, where, I believe, they soon perished from misery and want. The French remonstrated against these acts of injustice,

but they did not retaliate. They employed themselves in preparing a navy, and industriously spread a report that they would invade England. Frightened at this threat of an invasion, the pusillanimity of the Duke of Newcastle induced him, about the end of the year 1755, or the beginning of the year 1756, to introduce a large body of Hessians and Hanoverians into England, for the defence of the country. These were the principal transactions of 1755, during the whole of which year there was no declaration of war.

The French detached ships of war and land forces to their several foreign colonies. To Quebec, to Louisburgh, to St. Domingo, and Martinico; and early in the spring, 1756, disembarked eleven thousand men in the Island of Minorca, for the purpose of besieging St. Philip's Castle. Although most certain intelligence had been sent to the British ministers of the intended attack on Minorca, many months before the landing in that island took place, and that the French forces would be covered by a fleet of twelve sail of the line, yet such was