While yet a boy, JAMES WOLFE had received the thanks of his general, the Duke of Cumberland, on the field of La Feldt; rapid promotion had followed this distinction. As lieutenant-colonel of a regiment, the young officer had justified the notice of his superiors. He was appointed to the staff in the inglorious expedition against Rochefort, and gathered laurels where all was barren to his associates. At the siege of Louisburg his transcendent merit shone in the strong light of opportunity and success, and when still in early manhood he had gained a fair maturity of fame. In him ambition was exalted by patriotism and purified by religion. Modest in manners and conversation, he nevertheless possessed in action self-reliance almost to presumption. With the prize of honorable distinction in view, his daring courage foiled every danger and difficulty, and "obstacles were but the stepping stones to his success." He commanded the confidence and respect of the rude soldiers, in spite of an almost feminine sensibility. When reverses for a moment damped his hope, they at the same time served to brace his energy. Ardent and laborious, daring and provident, practical and studious, pertinacious yet reasonable, he was dignified in command and docile in obedience. Gifted, gentle, and generous, earnest in life and devoted in death, history may grace her page with the name of no greater hero when she records the deeds of many a greater general. Wolfe returned to England from Louisburg in the end of the year 1758. He suffered severely from an illness, for which repose offered the only chance of relief, and an early prospect of the realization of a long and dearly-cherished hope drew him to home. But his aspiring spirit would not yield either to the weakness of his frame or to the strength of his affection, and almost immediately after landing from America, he addressed Mr. Pitt in a modest and manly letter, and offered his services for the next American campaign. Wolfe's name stood high in the esteem of all who were qualified to judge, but, at the same time, it stood low in the column of colonels in the Army List. The great minister thought that the former counterbalanced the latter. With instinctive genius, he discerned that the young soldier possessed the peculiar qualifications suited for his purpose, and, throwing aside the obstacles presented by official routine, he recommended the gallant brigadier of Louisburg to the especial notice of the king. One of the last gazettes in the year 1758 announced the promotion of Colonel James Wolfe to the rank of major-general, and his appointment to the chief command of the expedition against Quebec.