There were many instances in the history of these colonies, while they were still under the British flag, of the Imperial Government promising assistance which was never sent, or only sent after months of delay: there were instances of gross incapacity on the part of leaders of expeditions sent out from home, notably in the case of Walker and Hill, who commanded the disgracefully abortive enterprise against Quebec in 1711. The state of Acadia, when nominally in British keeping after the Treaty of Utrecht, was a glaring illustration of English supineness and procrastination. There was, at any rate, one notable instance of the mother country depriving the colonies of a great result of their own brilliant enterprise, viz. when Louisbourg, taken by the New Englanders in 1745, was restored by Great Britain to France under the terms of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle in 1748. Undoubtedly Great Britain on many occasions disappointed and disheartened the colonies, and especially the most patriotic of the colonies, the New England states. On the other hand, it is beyond question that the colonies were never seriously attacked by sea. They were threatened, sometimes badly threatened, as by d’Anville’s fleet in 1746; they were liable to the raids of daring partisan leaders, such as d’Iberville; but either good fortune or the British fleet, supplemented no doubt by a wholesome respect for the energy and activity of the New England sailors themselves, kept the coasts and seaports of the American colonies in comparative security through all the years of war. It must be noted too that, while the colonies suffered because Great Britain had interests elsewhere than in America; while, for instance, a fleet designed for the benefit of the colonies in 1709 was sent off to Portugal, and the New Englanders’ prize of Louisbourg was forfeited in order to secure Madras for the British Empire, the colonies at the same time shared in the results of victories won in other parts of the world than America. The Peace of Utrecht, with what it gave to the English in America, was entirely the outcome of Marlborough’s victories on the continent of Europe. Nothing that was done in America contributed to it. The failures of England were under the colonies’ eyes; her successes, the fruits of which they shared, were often achieved at the other side of the world. [Sidenote: The conquest of Canada was mainly due to the mother country.]