WOLFE, AND EARLY STRUGGLES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN AMERICA.*

HISTORY presents James Wolfe to our notice as the successor of Sidney, and the precursor of Havelock. Not only did he possess great personal courage—a quality in which few British gentlemen have ever been found wanting—but his strategical sagacity and promptness in devising expedients were of a high order, while his attention to the minor and technical details of his professional duties deserved and ob- tained at a very early age the praise and friendship of his superior officers. At a period of worse than political nepotism and unblushing venality, he neither sought for nor obtained any advantages from patronage, and if his promotion was remarkably rapid he soon found that he was expected to atone for his good fortune by undertaking the lion's share of difficult and often monotonous duties. In a time of coarse profligacy and incipient scepticism, he was a strict though by no means Puritanic moralist; his faith in the essential doctrines of Christianity was fixed and vital, though never obtrusive. If he has not attained to the renown of Clive or Marlborough, we must remember that he was cut off prematurely. He surpassed both of them in generosity and unselfishness, and in a generation when military officers were expected to be—and too often were—ignorant and frivolous men of fashion, he was an energetic student not only of works appertaining to the military art, but of general literature, of which, if we accept a well-authenticated anecdote, he had formed a sound critical judgment. Having obtained his commission in 174'2, being then little over thirteen years of age, he found his regiment consigned to winter quarters in the dull and monotonous city of Ghent, where England was disliked by the proletariat, though he succeeded in making himself acceptable to those of gentler race and habits. -Under fire for the first time at Dettingen, where the chivalry of France was shattered by the shock of British steel, the stripling of sixteen was for some incomprehensible reason obliged to discharge the duty of adjutant to his regiment, and thus won the good opinion of the Duke of Cumberland, to whose personal valour and prudence in civil as well as military affairs posterity has done but scanty justice. He spent nearly two more dreary years in Belgian garrisons, and missed being present on the disastrous field of Fontenoy, the stock-in-trade of French gasconaders and Nationalist patriots. But the landing of Charles Edward in Scot- land led to the recall of the British troops, for the Highlands were in arms, many of the Lowland districts suspected, and the northern counties of England in- tensely Jacobitic,al. Detained at Newcastle with Wade's forces, he was absent from the inglorious fight at Preston Pans, but encountered the fiery onset of the Gael at Falkirk and Culloden. In this campaign he, we may be sure, learned what too many of our officers, even in later times, have failed to recognise,—namely, that the most perfect discipline of the • (1.) Wolfe. By A. G. Bradley. London : Macmillan and 00.—(2.) The Struggle in America between England and France, from 1697 to 1769. By Justin Winsor. London : Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.

most skilful drill-sergeant may fail against the headlong- charge of a semi-civilised horde who have a peculiar mode of fighting which they thoroughly understand. Loyal as he was on principle, and impetuous as well as brave by nature, he must have been disgusted at the torpor and indifference which a large portion of the English public manifested even when the Jacobite host had occupied over a third of our territory, as well as at the slowness and incompetence of many commanders. The following year, we find him again in Belgium, being then but twenty years of age, wounded in the sanguinary but indecisive battle of Lauffeld, and publicly thanked by the Duke of Camber- land. The peace of Aix - la - Chapelle enabled him to return home, having obtained his majority in both the legal and military sense, and having served seven campaigns. His regiment was next kept in Scotland for nearly five years to preserve the peace of the Highlands, then infested by outlawed fugitives from Culloden who, we suspect, sometimes rendered the sporting expeditions of Wolfe and his brother officers somewhat dangerous, and probably gave ground for the Jacobite ballad,—

" Up among the mountains, And down into the glen, We dare not go a-hunting For dread of Charlie's men."

Wolfe does not appear to have formed a very favourable opinion of the manners or morals of the Scotch ; but his disapproval did not extend to their system of education, as he attended lectures at the University of Glasgow, and availed himself of the instruction of tutors there.

But the peace proved merely an unsatisfactory truce, and the aggressions of the French in America brought Wolfe to the front, he having already attracted notice by his suggestion that the Highland clans should be taken into the British service. Washington had already fleshed his maiden sword, and the Virginia riflemen had saved from total extermina- tion the army of the ignorant and foolhardy Braddock. But Pitt had now taken the management of affairs entirely into his own bands, and the timidity of Byng—who was probably no worse than most of the Generals and Admirals of his day —and the failure of the expedition against Rochefort—a ridiculous effort from which no one escaped with honour save Hawke, Howe, and Wolfe—had roused the spirit of the nation (there was no Little England party then, at least in the legislature), and our statesmen began to perceive that France was to be struck at in America. Though Wolfe's means were limited, he refused a valuable appointment, and in feeble health joined the expedition against Cape Breton, which Newcastle had at length, with surprise, learned "was really an island." The hard-fought siege and capture of Louisburgh, though Amherst was commander-in-chief, was almost entirely the work of Wolfe, and when the Governor protested against the English cannonade in the name of humanity, his plea was met by some sarcasms from the British chief which would nowadays be deemed a slanderous imputation on "our old ally." We wish that Mr. Bradley had given us a map of this fortress and the vicinity ; he would thus have rendered his narrative more intelligible to the civilian and interesting to the military reader.

When an attack on Canada was decided on, Wolfe ex- hibited sagacity and patriotism in obstinately insisting that as the responsibility devolved upon him, he should have at least some voice in the selection of the brigadiers who were to serve under him, a concession much opposed by the military etiquette and red-tapism of that day, and even now, we believe, not thoroughly admitted. Thus he secured the co-operation of Monckton, Murray, and Townshend, all tried soldiers, and also brought into notice the valour and skill of the youthful Guy Carleton. We fail to see why Mr. Bradley should tell us that he encountered a "month of disasters," for the failure of his demonstration against the enemy's lines at Beauport is attributable solely to the rash advance of hie van when thoroughly unsupported, and the two attempts of the French to destroy our fleet by fire-ships were ren- dered abortive by the skill and courage of our sailors. Our author has given a clear and even picturesque account of the glorious fight on the Plains of Abraham, where the British hero expired in the moment of victory, as well as of the pre- vious operations and the surrender of Quebec, rendered clear by a, well-executed map of that city and its vicinity. Tablets and monuments have been set up to Wolfe's memory, but perhaps

the most noteworthy is the simple obelisk on the spot where he fell, bearing the modest legend, "Here Wolfe died vic- torious." An American patriot attempted to blow up the monument to Colonel Brock at Niagara, and a Canadian— the son, we believe, of a prominent statesman of that country —that of Nelson. May we hope that Wolfe's memorial will

escape the efforts of seditious Vandals?

Wolfe has been compared by some to Nelson, but there are but few points of resemblance, as Mr. Bradley has shown. Some have deemed his exploits to resemble closely those of the illustrious Spartan Brasidas, and in this view there seems more justice; but he reminds us most frequently of the "Lion of the North," the great and good Gustavus Adolphus. Of each of them we may well say,— " To him, as to the burning levin, Short, bright, resistless course was given, Till burst the bolt on hostile shore, Burned, blazed, destroyed, and was no more."

The readers of this very interesting and well-written biography will, we doubt not, be able to comprehend the full significance of the old mess-room toast, which might well be still retained, "May our officers have the eye of a Hawke and the heart of a Wolfe."

Mr. Winsor's rather too bulky volume exhibits great industry and accuracy, but is too much occupied, especially in the earlier part, with tedious and uninteresting accounts of the early French attempts at exploration and colonisation towards the north-west and in the valley of the Mississippi. Some harsh critics might look on this as an instance of what is termed "bookmaking," a view we are very far from in-

sinuating. We regret also that he should appear to endorse the French charges against our colonists of intriguing with the Indians and exciting them to pillage and massacre, for history testifies to the fact that however successful a Briton (pace Mr. Winsor, who would probably prefer "Britisher ") may be in many important affairs, he rarely, if ever, shines in the fracasseries of diplomacy, indeed he seldom attempts

them. He has, however, shown genuine honesty and sagacity in rejecting Longfellow's calumnies regarding our treatment of the .Acadians, who are now known to have exhibited much disaffection and treachery.

In the early part of the last century France possessed Canada and Louisiana, and had occupied the valleys of the Mississippi and many of its affluents with forts and trading-posts. To Spain, besides the ancient Empire of the Aztecs, had fallen the Floridas, Texas, Colorado, and California; but these they cannot be said to have occupied, having only explored them in the tentative and half-hearted spirit which had seized on Spanish chivalry after the death of the illustrious Cortez.

England, besides some posts on Hudson's Bay, held the States termed the "Old Thirteen," extending in a narrow strip from Vermont to Georgia, and was prevented from getting further inland, not so much by the Alleghany range, or by French or Indian opposition, as by timidity, disunion, and pitiful regard for economy. But much of the interior -territory of the various States had not yet been occupied by permanent settlers, and not only the wooded slopes of the

A lleghany range, but much productive land on each side was held as hunting-ground by the aboriginal tribes. It will thus be seen that the English Colonies held what military writers call a "strangled position," being pent seaward by the Indians,

the mountains, and the French. The frequent disputes between the proprietaries, to whom enormous domains had been granted by the Crown, and the immigrants whom they had settled thereon in some States, and the paltry conten- tions between Governors and Councils in others, must have seriously impeded internal progress and external defence. But the French sphere of influence, though extending from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi, and thus forming a sort of crescent around our possessions, was by no means occupied by permanent settlers, and for a time the Indian tribes served as a buffer between the rival intruders.

The English essayed to conciliate the natives by plenty of rum

in time of peace, and hard blows when disputes occurred ; the French by the agency of the Jesuit missionaries, by their national courtesy, and by presents of valueless trinkets. On all these topics Mr. Winsor's work will be found valuable as a book of reference, being marked by research and im- partiality ; but we are bound strongly to repudiate his assertion that Wolfe's early operations in Canada were in any degree "aimless," or that his ultimate success was

obtained by "treachery." Some British officers, like Brad- dock, failed through ignorance of the localities and unwise contempt for the enemy ; others, like Cope, from being en- countered by a strange and novel mode of fighting ; but they seldom acted "aimlessly," and never "treacherously."

As regards Mr. Winsor's style, we do not purpose to enter on the vexed and vexatious question of American orthography, pronunciation, or even phraseology. But surely an educated man ought to speak and write intelligibly, and what can be the meaning of "segregating all available forces at Montreal," when the context requires "concentrating," and "segregate" certainly means "separate." A "fundament of English policy" strikes us as not in the best taste, and what can be the meaning of a "carry," which is certainly not found in any accepted author ?

Three important events took place nearly contemporane- ously in America about the middle of the last century, which have left their mark on the subsequent history of that country, and seriously affected Europe and perhaps the entire civilised world. The disgraceful collapse of Braddock's force led the colonists to look upon the regular army with aversion and contempt; the capture of Frontenac by Bradstreet with a purely colonial force sanctioned the belief that the farmers of New England could not only fight successfully in the jungle or the open, but assail strong fortresses ; and the subjugation of Canada, by removing the Gallic millstone from the Anglo-Saxon neck, led ere long to the establish- ment of the American Republic. We were disappointed in finding that Mr. Winsor has passed over these attractive and momentous events almost sicco pede.