gained the heights, to beach and our boats. to advance briskly in desist, and the third battalion of Royal Americans was then detached to the first ground we had formed on after we preserve the communication with the About ten o'clock the enemy began three columns, with loud shouts and recovered arms, two of them inclining to the left of our army, and the third towards our right, firing obliquely at the two extremities of our line, from the distance of one hundred and thirty until they came within forty yards; which our troops withstood with the greatest intrepidity and firmness, still reserving their fire, and paying the strictest obedience to their Officers: this uncommon steadiness, together with the havoc which the grape-shot from our field-pieces made among them, threw them into some disorder, and was most critically maintained by a well-timed, regular, and heavy discharge of our small arms, such as they could no longer oppose; hereupon they gave way, and fled with precipitation, so that, by the time the cloud of smoke was vanished, our men were again loaded, and, profiting by the advantage we had over them, pursued them almost to the gates of the town, and the bridge over the little river, redoubling our fire with great eagerness, making many Officers and men prisoners. The weather cleared up, with a comfortably warm sun-shine: the Highlanders chaced. them vigorously towards Charles's river, and the fifty-eighth to the suburb close to John's gate, until they were checked by the cannon from the two hulks; at the same time a gun, which the town had brought to bear upon us with grapeshot, galled the progress of the regiments to the right, who were likewise pursuing with equal ardour, while Colonel Hunt Walsh, by a very judicious movement, wheeled the battalions of Bragg and Kennedy to the left, and flanked the coppice where a body of the enemy made a stand, as if willing to renew the action; but a few platoons from these corps completed our victory. Then it was that Brigadier Townshend came up, called off the pursuers, ordered the whole line to dress, and recover their former ground. Our joy at this success is inexpressibly damped by the loss we sustained of one of the greatest heroes which this or any other age can boast of,- GENERAL JAMES WOLFE, who received his mortal wound, as he was exerting himself at the head of the grenadiers of Louisbourg. . . . The Sieur de Montcalm died late last night; when his wound was dressed, and he settled in bed, the Surgeons who attended him were desired to acquaint him ingenuously with their sentiments of him, and being answered that his wound was mortal, he calmly replied, 'he was glad of it:' his Excellency then demanded, whether he could survive it long, and how long? He was told about a dozen hours, perhaps more, peradventure less.' 'So much the better,' rejoined this eminent warrior; 'I am happy I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec.' After our late worthy General, of renowned memory, was carried off wounded to the rear of the front line, he desired those who were about him to lay him down; being asked if he would have a Surgeon he replied, 'it is needless; it is all over with me.' One of them cried out, 'They run, see how they run.' 'Who runs?' demanded our hero with great earnestness, like a person aroused from sleep. The Officer answered,' The Enemy, Sir; Egad, they give way everywhere.' Thereupon the General rejoined, 'Go one of you, my lads, to Colonel Burton —; tell him to march Webb's regiment with all speed down to Charles's river, to cut off the retreat of the fugitives from the bridge. Then, turning on his side, he added, Now, God be praised, I will die in peace;' and thus expired. Captain John Knox, Historical Journal (London, 1769), II, 66-79. By WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM (1708-1778), statesman. In 1735 Pitt entered Par liament, representing the family borough of Old Sarum, and at once joined the opposition to Seven Years' front, and he est war min ister that England had ever had. 119. A Word of Warning (1775) "But his Majesty is advised, that the union in America cannot last! Ministers have more eyes than I, and should have more ears; but with all the information I have been able to procure, I can pronounce it an union, solid, permanent, and effectual. Ministers may satisfy themselves, and delude the public, with the report of what they call commercial bodies in America. They are not commercial; they are your packers and factors: they live upon nothing-for I call commission nothing. I mean the ministerial authority for this American intelligence; the runners for government, who are paid for their intelligence. But these are not the men, nor this the influence, to be considered in America, when we estimate the firmness of their union. Even to extend the question, and to take in the really mercantile circle, will be totally inadequate to the consideration. Trade indeed increases the wealth and glory of a country; but its real strength and stamina are to be looked for among the cultivators of the land: in their simplicity of life is found the simpleness of virtue - the integrity and courage of freedom. These true genuine sons of the earth are invincible: and they surround and hem in the mercantile bodies; even if these bodies, which supposition I totally disclaim, could be supposed disaffected to the cause of liberty. Of by his efforts this general spirit existing in the British nation (for so I wish to prevent by to distinguish the real and genuine Americans from the the dismem- pseudo-traders I have described) — of this spirit of independence, animating the nation of America, I have the most authentic information. It is not new among them; it is, and has ever been, their established principle, their confirmed persuasion : it is their nature, and their doctrine. The great Commoner was the first Englishman of his time, and he made England.the first country in the world." Macaulay. His last years were marked conciliation berment of the empire which he, more than any other man, had helped es tablish. This extract is from a 66 "I remember, some years ago, when the repeal of the stamp-act was in agitation, conversing in a friendly confi in the House of Lords on the 20th of January in support of a motion for dence with a person of undoubted respect and authenticity speech made on that subject; and he assured me with a certainty which his judgment and opportunity gave him, that these were the prevalent and steady principles of America - that you might destroy their towns, and cut them off from the superfluities, perhaps the conveniences, of life; but that they were prepared to despise your power, and would not lament their loss, whilst they have what, my Lords? — their woods and their liberty. The name of my authority if I am called upon, will authenticate the opinion irrefragably. "If illegal violences have been, as it is said, committed in America, prepare the way, open the door of possibility, for acknowledgment and satisfaction: but proceed not to such coercion, such proscription; cease your indiscriminate inflictions; amerce not thirty thousand; oppress not three millions, for the fault of forty or fifty individuals. Such severity of injustice must for ever render incurable the wounds you have already given your colonies; you irritate them to unappeasable rancour. What though you march from town to town, and from province to province; though you should be able to enforce a temporary and local submission, which I only suppose, not admit—how shall you be able to secure the obedience of the country you leave behind you in your progress, to grasp the dominion of eighteen hundred miles of continent, populous in numbers, possessing valour, liberty, and resistance? "This resistance to your arbitrary system of taxation might have been foreseen: it was obvious from the nature of things, and of mankind, above all, from the Whiggish spirit flourishing in that country. The spirit which now resists your taxation in America is the same which formerly opposed loans, benevolences, and ship-money, in England: the same spirit which called all England on its legs, and by the Bill of Rights vindicated the English constitution: the same spirit which established the great fundamental, essen the removal of General Gage's forces from Boston as a first step ciliation. towards con On Chatham see Macau lay, Essays. It was Dr. Franklin. tial maxim of your liberties, that no subject of England shall be taxed but by his own consent. "This glorious spirit of Whiggism animates three millions in America; who prefer poverty with liberty, to gilded chains and sordid affluence; and who will die in defence of their rights as men, as freemen. What shall oppose this spirit, aided by the congenial flame glowing in the breasts of every Whig in England, to the amount, I hope, of double the American numbers? Ireland they have to a man. In that country, joined as it is with the cause of the colonies, and placed at their head, the distinction I contend for is and must be observed. This country superintends and controls their trade and navigation; but they tax themselves. And this distinction between external and internal control is sacred and insurmountable; it is involved in the abstract nature of things. Property is private, individual, absolute. Trade is an extended and complicated consideration: it reaches as far as ships can sail or winds can blow: it is a great and various machine. To regulate the numberless movements of its several parts, and combine them into effect, for the good of the whole, requires the superintending wisdom and energy of the supreme power in the empire. But this supreme power has no effect towards internal taxation; for it does not exist in that relation; there is no such thing, no such idea in this constitution, as a supreme power operating upon property. Let this distinction then remain for ever ascertained; taxation is theirs, commercial regulation is ours. As an American, I would recognise to England her supreme right of regulating commerce and navigation : as an Englishman by birth and principle, I recognise to the Americans their supreme unalienable right in their property; a right which they are justified in the defence of to the last extremity. To maintain this principle is the common cause of the Whigs on the other side of the Atlantic, and on this. "Tis liberty to liberty engaged,' that they will defend them |