To oppose so good an officer the English Government selected the unsatisfactory leaders, Colonel Daniel Webb, dilatory in taking action, General Abercromby, in Wolfe's opinion "a heavy man," and the Earl of Loudoun, who lacked tact in his treatment of the settlers, and quickness in his command of troops. To add to the English errors, the home authorities recalled Shirley, who had given up the best of his life to sturdily resisting French aggrandisement. Fortunately the colonial forces were not without their own leaders, in many instances men of merit, such as William Johnson, friend of the Mohawks, John Winslow, famous for his Acadian experiences, Colonel Brodstreet, a good and dashing soldier, and, above all, that daring and clearheaded Prince of Rangers, Robert Rogers of New Hampshire. The individual settlers were brave and true, but the year 1757 opened with the same petty and local quarrels in the colonial Assemblies, chiefly in Pennsylvania and New York, in the former concerning the everlasting squabble about taxing the proprietors' land, in the latter on the question of billeting. The Earl of Loudoun, though his position had given him some weight and authority in the factious Assembly of New York, failed to win the respect or goodwill of the colonial forces. They doubted his capacity, and blamed him in particular for his mismanagement of what ought to have been the crisis of the war. Ever since the restoration of Louisburg by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the settlers had been anxious to again seize that key of the St Lawrence. Loudoun recognised the importance of such an action, and, in conjunction with Admiral Holborne, in August and September endeavoured either to take the fortification, or at least to tempt the French fleet into a pitched battle. That Loudoun was unsuccessful in both schemes was partly due to those delays that have left deep stains upon colonial history, and partly because the elements warred against the British, and Admiral Holborne's fleet being shattered by storms, the expedition had necessarily to be abandoned.