should continue to extend their settlements in North America, the possession of Louisburg would be the key-stone in the arch of their power. The conquest of Canada had been planned and undertaken in previous wars, yet it was not till the recapture of Louisburg was made an immediate preliminary that the effort was suc cessful.

The blessings of peace had been enjoyed but five years before war again commenced on this side the Atlantic in 1754, although it was actively prosecuted for two years before it was formally declared between France and Great Britain. The year 1756 became an era in our history from being that in which, with the concurrence and encouragement of the British ministry, a congress was appointed by the colonists to combine the action of the provincial governments. Though this congress proposed that the colonies should take upon themselves the whole charge and responsibility of their own defence, yet the jealousy of the ministry would not suffer them to accept the offer. On the contrary an incompetent British general was made commander-in-chief of all the colonial forces: in consequence, the whole of the year 1756 was lost in endeavoring to fit out expeditions against Niagara and Crown Point, which were finally unable to take the field in season for successful operations. But in 1757 there appeared some prospect of better counsels and more effective efforts. Louisburg was again made the chief object of the campaign. Before the end of July, a powerful fleet and an army composed of 5,000 British regulars and 6,000 provincials sailed for the place. But the French could securely rely for its defence, on 6,000 regular troops, 3,000 colonists, and 1,300 Indians: in the harbor were seventeen ships of the line and three frigates: and the town was abundantly supplied with provisions, ammunition and military stores of every description. The enemy wished for nothing more than an attack. But as was usual with expeditions fitted out by the ministry or their agents, instead of by the colonial governments, the season was now too far advanced for commencing a regular siege, and the troops were not even disembarked. After conveying the transports back, the British admiral strengthened his naval force by a reinforcement of several ships, and again appeared before the harbor, offering battle to the French fleet. But now it was the French commander's turn to be prudent, and he did not venture a battle, the loss of which might expose all the colonies to the attacks of the English. The British fleet was shattered by a terrible storm on these dangerous coasts, and compelled to return to England for repair of damages.

By this time the French had made alarming progress on all our northern and north-western frontiers. But in 1758, the celebrated Pitt, Lord Chatham, became minister, and the prospect of affairs was changed. He sent encouraging and energetic circulars to all the colonial governments, and such was the confidence he excited, that Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire had fifteen

102

impatient o much from house point, prepared to was rapidly liver a combi aged and disc

flag of truce tion.

The terms English; 650 seventy-four, inhabitants of against Great in fourteen ca supposed to h New England and about 30 It was not of the works th ger of the en They were ast especial and r the least amo: ing the forty-r had been rema day after the s intermission fo dysentery, ma had been dela with the great

bells of Bosto night followin tory addresses majesty's armBancroft observ achieved by E was the only a the British na: means of purch gratitude and d Louisburg to F up in exchange captured by the It will be in ultimate fate o. tion will thus } the public of h dertaking, per

It was to her that I then revealed aintive tones, and so at times may all on of Waneonda.

several caverns, and my subterranean at least, have been fully satisfied. But me such an effect as this. It was a to me very strange thoughts. Yet it f Heaven, and it is hallowed by the gone to see if those dreams were true.

gh our sun be in a cloud; ad129

thousand troops ready to take the field as early in the season as May. Upon the recapture of Louisburg the resources of the whole British empire were ready to be lavished. An armament was sent of no less than 151 sail of vessels and 14,000 men. Gen. Wolfe, soon to become the hero of Quebec, was the second in command. The siege was regularly prosecuted, and though the resources of the place were ample, and the resistance vigorous, the city was compelled to capitulate, surrendering 6700 men as prisoners of war. Of eleven men of war which were in the harbor at the commencement of the siege, five ships of the line and four frigates were taken or destroyed. This was the first great triumph of the war, and by giving the English the command of the gulf of St. Lawrence, prepared the way for the reduction of Quebec, which was effected the next season, and the conquest of Canada which soon followed and put an end to the strife.

The rejoicings which took place in England on receiving the news of the second capture of Louisburg, were proportionate to the importance of the event. "By order of the king, eleven pair of colors were carried in joyful parade, escorted by detachments of horse and foot guards, with kettle-drums and trumpets, from the palace of Kensington to St. Paul's Cathedral, where they were deposited as trophies, under a discharge of cannon and other expressions of triumph and exultation. Indeed the public rejoicings were diffused through every part of the British dominions, and congratulations sent to his majesty from various parts of the empire."

The conquest of Canada was followed by the transfer of all the settlements and forts on the lakes and the Ohio to the English. The Indian tribes on all our frontiers then became friendly, and after a period of more than two generations had been passed in ceaseless danger and anxiety, our forefathers had rest in their borders: the midnight war whoop ceased to herald the burning of dwellings and the massacre of women and children. Thus ended the long series of what are popularly called the old French wars. The period in which they were waged constitutes the heroic age of our country. We had already passed from youth to manhood as a nation, when a judicial blindness was inflicted by Providence on the British government and people, the result of which was the establishment of the United States as a nation. Thus only can we account for the madness which suffered them to attempt an insolent and contemptuous tyranny over a people who had so lately proved their title to the respect and esteem of their brethren and of the world.

Louisburg having been so famous, and of such importance and interest in the last century, many of our readers will enquire as to its subsequent fate, and why its name does not appear either in history or geography since the peace of 1763. So great was the fear of the British ministry that it might again become a stronghold of the French, that they caused its fortifications to be dismantled and suffered the place to become a heap of ruins. We

cannot better conclude than by transcribing the following from Martin's Colonial Library. "The entrance to Louisburg harbor is about a quarter of a mile wide, and the basin within, being three miles long by one wide, is one of the finest harbors in the world, and with good watering places on the beach. The ruins of the once formidable batteries, with wide broken gaps, as blown open by gun powder, present a melancholy picture of past energy. A few fishermen's huts form a melancholy contrast to the superb edifices, regular fortifications, naval grandeur, military pomp, and commercial activity of which Louisburg was once the splendid theatre. A few Acadian French fishermen are the chief inhabitants. The strong and capacious magazines, once the deposit of immense quantities of munitions of war, are still nearly entire, but hidden by the accumulation of earth and turf, and now afford a commodious shelter for flocks of peaceful sheep, who feed around the burial ground, where the remains of many a gallant Frenchman and patriotic Briton are deposited; while beneath the clear cold wave may be seen the vast sunken ships of war, whose very bulk indicates the power enjoyed by the Gallic nation, ere England became mistress of her colonies on the shores of the western Atlantic. Desolation now sits with a ghastly smile around the once formidable bastions-all is silent except the loud reverberating ocean, as it rolls in tremendous surges along the rocky beach, or the bleating of the scattered sheep, as, with tinkling bells, they return in the dusky solitude of eve, to their singular folds; while the descendant of some heroic Gaul, whose ancestors fought and bled in endeavoring to prevent the noble fortress of his sovereign being laid prostrate before the prowess of mightier Albion, may be observed wandering along these time-honored ruins, and mentally exclaiming in the language of the Bard of Erin:

On Louisburg's hights where the fisherman strays,
When the clear cold eve is declining,

He sees the war ships of other days

In the wave beneath him shining;

Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,

Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;

And, sighing, look back through the vista of time,

For the long faded glories they cover."

NOTE. Mr. Martin has adapted to his subject, these lines, which constitute the second stanza of one of Moore's Irish Melodies beginning:

"Let Erin remember the days of old."