[Footnote 108: "But though Pitt desired high office, he desired it only for high and generous ends. He did not seek it for patronage like Newcastle, or for lucre like Fox. Glory was the bright star that ever shone before his eyes, and ever guided him onward--his country's glory and his own. 'My lord!' he once exclaimed to the Duke of Devonshire, 'I am sure that I can save this country, and that no one else can.'"--Lord Mahon's _Hist. of England_, vol. iv., p. 77.] [Footnote 109: At this period commenced the brilliant era justly called MR. PITT'S ADMINISTRATION, in which he became the soul of the British councils, conciliated the good-will of the king, infused a new spirit into the British nation, and curbed the united efforts of the house of Bourbon. The following picture of affairs at the moment when Pitt became secretary of state (29th of June, 1757) is contained in a letter from Lord Chesterfield to Mr. Dayrolles: "Whoever is in or whoever is out, I am sure we are undone both at home and abroad: at home, by our increasing debt and expenses; abroad, by our ill luck and incapacity.... The French are masters to do what they please in America. We are no longer a nation. I never yet saw so dreadful a prospect."--_Correspondence of the Earl of Chatham_, edited by William Stanhope Taylor, Esq., vol. i., _note_, p. 238.] [Footnote 110: "What alarms me most, is the account Lady Hester brought, of some men-of-war, a few, very few, being got into Louisburg; because, upon the issue of that attempt I think the whole salvation of this country and Europe does essentially depend," (Letter of Earl Temple to Mr. Pitt, Stowe, July 3, 1758.)--_Chatham Correspondence_, vol. i., p. 325.] [Footnote 111: See Appendix, No. LXIV.] [Footnote 112: The place where the British troops landed, near Fresh-water Cove, before the successful siege of Louisburg, was called Cormoran Creek.] [Footnote 113: "It may not be amiss to observe that a cavalier, which Admiral Knowles had built, at enormous expense to the nation, while Louisburg remained in the hands of the English during the last war, was in the course of this siege entirely demolished by two or three shots from one of the British batteries; so admirably had this piece of fortification been contrived and executed, under the eye of that profound engineer."--Smollett, vol. iv., p. 303.] [Footnote 114: "The renowned Captain Cook, then serving as a petty officer on board of a British ship of war, co-operated in this exploit, and wrote an account of it to a friend in England. That he had honorably distinguished himself may be inferred from his promotion to the rank of lieutenant in the royal navy, which took place immediately after."--Graham's _United States_, vol. iv., p. 28.]