A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, Vol. V: Canada—Part I, HistoricalLucas, Charles Prestwood, Sir
History
A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, Vol. V: Canada—Part I, Historical
Lucas, Charles Prestwood, Sir
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France)
[Sidenote: _Wolfe's body brought to England._]
Wolfe's body was brought to England, and buried where his father had
been laid earlier in the year, in the vaults of Greenwich parish
church. A monument to him, voted by Parliament, stands in Westminster
Abbey, and his name lives, and will for ever live, in the hearts of
men.
[Sidenote: _Cotton's letters to Grenville._]
The news of his victory and death, and of the fall of Quebec, reached
England on October 17. It came but two or three days after his latest
dispatches, which gave little hope of success. There are two
interesting letters among the _Grenville Papers_, written to
Grenville by the Rev. Nathaniel Cotton, from on board the _Princess
Amelia_ at Île Madame in the St. Lawrence. The first is dated August
27 to September 6; the second bears the date of September 20. The
first, repeating former letters, is not hopeful. It points out the
insufficiency of Wolfe's force, the necessity of co-operation on the
part of Amherst; and it refers to 'unrevealed causes' militating
against the enterprise, {312} which may be taken to mean want of
harmony between Wolfe and Townshend. The later letter begins with the
following words: 'I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that
through the smiles of Providence we are in safe and quiet possession
of Quebec.'[23]
[Footnote 23: _Grenville Papers_, vol. i, pp. 318-26.]
[Sidenote: _Reception of the news in England._]
Very dramatic was the revulsion of feeling in England, when all was
known. No submarine cables then told the story of the war from day to
day. Only a few dispatches and letters at long intervals were brought
over the Atlantic, recording at first slow progress, then reverse,
disappointment, and the General's sickness and despondency. The rock
of Quebec seemed still impregnable; and, as the bright summer waned
into autumn, public confidence gave place to gloom. Then in
mid-October, when to North American lands the Indian summer gives a
second brightness, tidings came from over the sea that the victory
was won, and that the price paid for it was the life of Wolfe. There
followed, as Burke well said, a 'mourning triumph.'[24] Joy was
sobered by the sense of loss, and the picture of a desolate home
appealed, as it always appeals, to Englishmen's minds. They thought
of the mother, lately widowed, now childless, whose sickly son had
been her joy and pride; and many, we may not doubt, thought also of
the French home, whose master had gone out and came not again.
[Footnote 24: _Annual Register_ for 1759, p. 43.]
[Sidenote: _Was Wolfe's attack a great military feat?_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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