[139] The six new regiments of marines, 15th and 24th of the Line.

[140] Cathcart to Newcastle, 14th September, 12th October 1740.

[141] The disease was induced, according to his secretary, by an overdose of Epsom salts.

[142] Blakeney to Newcastle, 14th December; Gooch to Newcastle, 8th December 1740.

[143] Wentworth to Newcastle, 9th and 20th January 1741.

[144] Ibid., 20th January 1741.

[145] Vernon to the Admiralty, 24th February 1741.

[146] Vernon and Ogle to Wentworth, 11th to 22nd March 1741.

[147] Wentworth to Newcastle, 31st March 1741.

[148] Vernon to Newcastle, 26th April 1741 (enclosures).

[149] A French buccaneer who captured Carthagena in 1697.

[150] Wentworth to Newcastle, 26th April 1741.

[151] Vernon to Newcastle, 30th May 1741.

[152] Wentworth to Newcastle, 26th April 1741.

[153] Return of 30th May 1741.

[154] Wentworth to Newcastle, 20th December 1741.

[155] Ibid., 1st March 1742. Return of 20th January to 23rd February: Dead, of the four old regiments 109, of the three new regiments 165, of the Americans 99.

[156] Wentworth to Newcastle, 31st March 1742.

[157] Of Wolfe's regiment only ninety-six officers and men returned to England, these representing the survivors not of that regiment only, but of another that had been drafted into it.

[158] Carlyle, Frederick the Great, vol. iii. p. 396.

[159] Stair to Carteret, May 14 25 , 18 29 ; June 1 12 , 4 15 , 12 23 , 19 30 , 1742.

[160] Stair to Carteret, July 23 August 3.

[161] Carteret to Stair, July 30 August 10, August 10 21 .

[162] Stair to Carteret, October 20 31 ; Carteret to Stair, August 7 18 , 8 19 .

[163] Stair to Carteret, September 6 17 , 10 21 , 14 25 .

[164] Ibid., October 1 12 .

[165] Ibid., November 3 14 , 13 24 , November 23 December 4.

[166] Stair to Carteret, December 4 15 , 9 20 .

[167] Ibid., December 4 15 , 1742; January 5 16 , 1743.

[168] Ibid., January 19 30 , January 22 February 2.

[169] Ibid., February 9 20 .

[170] Ibid., February 16 27 . The Guards set the example.

[171] Carteret to Stair, March 11 22 .

[172] Ibid., March 29 April 9.

[173] Stair to Carteret, May 4 15 .

[174] Carteret to Stair, May 18 29 , May 23 June 3 , May 27 June 7 , May 30 June 10 ; Stair to Carteret, May 23 June 3 , May 27 June 7 , May 31 June 11 , June 2 13 . I have entered into some detail over Stair's part in the campaign, since he is charged, even by Lord Mahon, with the responsibility for the situation of the army just before Dettingen. "Lord Stair, whose military genius, never very bright, was rusted with age, appears to have committed blunder on blunder." Vol. iii. p. 218.

[175] Maison du Roi.

[176] Mémoires de Noailles.

[177] Honeywood to Carteret, Jan. 7 18 , Ligonier to Carteret, March 21 April 1 , 1744.

[178] Ligonier to Carteret, April 29 May 10.

[179] Wade to Carteret, May 30 June 10 , June 25 July 6.

[180] Carteret to Wade, May 25 June 5.

[181] Carteret to Wade, July 13 24 , 17 28 .

[182] Ibid., July 31 Aug. 11, Aug. 14 25 , 17 28 .

[183] Wade to Carteret, Aug. 26 Sept. 6.

[184] Ibid., Aug. 19 Sept. 30, Aug. 25 Sept. 9, Sept. 16 27 , Sept. 22 Oct. 3, Oct. 1 12 , 10 21 .

[185] Ligonier to Carteret, July 31 Aug. 11, 1744.

[186] Ligonier to Harrington, Jan. 29 Feb. 9, Feb. 6 17 , 1745.

[187] Gazette, Feb. 23 March 6, March 1 12 , 1745.

[188] Cumberland to Harrington, April 1 12 , 12 23 .

[189] The ground immediately before Fontenoy presents for fully eight hundred yards a gentle and unbroken slope. An officer who went over the ground with me assured me that Mars la Tour itself does not offer a more perfect natural glacis for modern rifle-fire.

[190] Every one knows the legend of "Messieurs les Gardes Françaises, tirez les premiers." "Non, messieurs, nous ne tirons jamais les premiers." But every English account agrees that the French fired first, long before the question had been raised, and I take the authority of Ligonier (who drew up the official account) as final. He says distinctly, "We received their fire."

[191] Campagnes des Pays Bas.

[192] Ligonier to Harrington, May 5 16 . Cumberland to Harrington, May 11 22 .

[193] Fawkener to Harrington, July 19 30 .

[194] General Bligh to Cumberland, June 28 July 9.

[195] Cumberland to Harrington, July 2 13 .

[196] Ibid., July 14 25 .

[197] Ligonier to Harrington, July 14 25 .

[198] Harrington to Cumberland, Sept. 4 15 ; Oct. 1 12 , 19 30 .

[199] Cope's letters, July 3 13 , 9 20 ; Aug. 3 17 1745.

[200] Ibid., Aug. 11 22 1745.

[201] Ibid., Aug. 13 24 .

[202] Cope to Guise, Aug. 17 Sept. 7 1745.

[203] Cope, Aug. 31 Sept. 11 1745.

[204] The garrison consisted of twelve men under Sergeant Mulloy. The sergeant's despatch to Cope, dated August 30, is still extant, and worthy of a place in a military museum, were there such an institution.

[205] The carelessness in breaking horses to fire-arms at that time was remarkable. The first charge of the Blues at Dettingen was said to have failed because the horses were uncontrollable; and both the King's and the Duke of Cumberland's chargers ran away with them.

[206] Miscellaneous Orders, 25th September 1745.

[207] Ibid., 6th September 1745.

[208] These words were printed in the margins of the newspapers for weeks.

[209] H.O.M.E.B., 8th November; Secretary's Common Letter Book, 28th September, 27th November 1745.

[210] Secretary's Common Letter Book, 9th October 1745.

[211] It consisted of the 13th, 27th, 34th Foot, 2nd and 3rd Dragoon Guards, 8th Dragoons. Miscellaneous Orders, 25th September 1745.

[212] The whole of the letters written at this time were intercepted, and lie in a confused bundle in the Record Office. The most remarkable among them are those of Grant of Glenmoriston to his wife, bidding her double the rents of all deserters who had returned home, and to oust them from their holdings. There is also a love-letter from a sergeant, whom I take to have been a deserter from the English garrison at Fort Augustus, which I print as a curiosity:—

"Muslebrogh, Oct. 30 1745. Dr Love I received your letter which I was vary glad to hear that you was in good health. I sa[w] Janet my ant and I did not get the letter you sent with Allan Royson. Alexander McLean your ant['s] son was asking the letter to read it but I wold not give hime it for fear that if (sic) he wold go soonner home and that he wold be casting it up to you as to a foole. It is a thing that is impossible to me to get because we are in oppinion every day to marge [march] on to England and [I] being a serjant and having the truble of the company—And God know how soon I can present my love to you, and nevertheless my love is as constant to you as it was formerly, and being in a bade [bad] condition every night and day, minding [remembering] you and your kindness and pleasant company. And I am in very good health since I wrott the last letter and nothing els [ails] me but the wanting of you, and I hope in God we shall make all things complete if I shall ever return. I am your most obedient love Duncan McGillise. Give my service to your children." Addressed, "Margrat McDonell in the cantain within the baraks of Fortugustus [Fort Augustus]."

I have preserved the spelling of the sergeant, but have perforce added punctuation, which is absolutely wanting in the original.

[213] Gray's (the poet's) letters, 3rd Feb. 1746.

[214] Hawley's letter, 7th January 1746.

[215] "Everything I have looked into appears more like jobs, than to be properly disposed." Handasyde's letter, 21st November 1745.

[216] Hawley to Harrington, 10th, 11th, 13th January 1746.

[217] Hawley to Newcastle, 19th January 1746.

[218] I take it that the effect of Prestonpans on the troops was much the same as that of the disaster of Isandhlwana in 1879, when most of the reinforcements sent out after the action were very young troops. Compare the case of Braddock's disaster. Post.

[219] Hawley to Newcastle, 29th January 1746.

[220] Cumberland to Newcastle, 3rd February. "I thought it best to let the soldiers a little loose, with proper precautions, that they might have some sweets after all their fatigue. I have posted twenty dragoons on lady Perth and threatened to burn down the Castle unless Perth releases our officers."

[221] Lord Stair to Cumberland, 10th March 1746.

[222] Dunmore to Harrington, Jan. 20 31 , Jan. 27 Feb. 7, Feb. 12 23 .

[223] Ligonier to Harrington, July 1 12 1746.

[224] Ligonier to Harrington, July 9 20 , 13 24 , 16 27 .

[225] Ibid., July 23 Aug. 3, Aug. 2 13 .

[226] Ligonier to Harrington, Aug. 9 20 , 19 30 , Aug. 26 Sept. 6, Sept. 4 15 .

[227] Ligonier to Harrington, Sept. 24 Oct. 5, Sept. 28 Oct. 9.

[228] Ligonier to Harrington, Sept. 28 Oct. 9, Oct. 20 31 .

[229] 1st, 15th, 28th, 30th, 39th, and 42nd Foot.

[230] Cumberland to Harrington, Feb. 6 17 , March 20 31 , March 24 April 4.

[231] Cumberland to Chesterfield, May 1 12 , 9 20 .

[232] Cumberland blamed the Austrian General, Baroney, and his irregulars for supine negligence on the march. Cumberland to Chesterfield, July 6 17 1747.

[233] The regiments present at Lauffeld were the Greys, 4th Hussars, Inniskillings, 7th Hussars, and Cumberland's dragoons, one battalion each of the 1st and 3rd Guards, 3rd, 4th, 13th, 19th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 32nd, 33rd, 36th, 37th, 48th Foot. The two last had no casualties.

[234] Cumberland to Newcastle, March 18 29 , March 22 April 2, March 25 April 6.

[235] Bruce's Annals of the East India Company, vol. ii. pp. 125, 129, 152, 153, 156.

[236] Colonel Malleson (French in India, p. 306), commenting on this action, says that Clive "allowed his dislike of the great French statesman to stifle his more generous instincts." Surely if Dupleix erected this city (as undoubtedly was the case) as much for the impression that it would create in the native mind as for gratification of his personal vanity, Clive would have been wrong if he had not razed it. If it was French policy to build such a city, it was undoubtedly English policy to pull it down, and generosity has no place in the question. It is absurd to treat Dupleix Futtehabad as though it were a bridge of Jena or a column of Rossbach.

[237] Acadia is, and always was, a vague geographical term. The name when first used comprised the territory between latitude 40° and 46°.

[238] Cal. S. P., Col., 1632, p. 139.

[239] Acadia included Nova Scotia and more.

[240] The boundaries of New England were defined by the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude.

[241] Massachusetts, New Haven, Plymouth, Connecticut.

[242] The English always laid claim to the country as far north as the St Croix; the French, on the other hand, claimed it as far south as the Kennebec. This difference as to the true boundary of Acadia was one of the many points of friction between the two nations.

[243] It was recaptured by the Dutch in 1673 but restored to England by the treaty of 1674.

[244] The reader may also recall the case of Whalley the regicide, who fled to Massachusetts after the Restoration. See the Note to Scott's Peveril of the Peak, chap. xiv.

[245] Palfrey. History of New England, vol. iii. p. 434.

[246] The contingents were Massachusetts, 350 men; Virginia, 250; Maryland, 160; Connecticut, 120; Rhode Island, 48; Pennsylvania, 80; Virginia and Maryland commuted their obligations for a sum of money. Parkman. Frontenac, p. 408.

[247] Quoted by Parkman. Half a Century of Conflict, vol. i. p. 155.

[248] The narrative, told with admirable vividness and humour, may be found in Parkman, Half a Century of Conflict, vol. ii.

[249] Warren's letter, 4th July 1745.

[250] 900 men were buried out of 2500.

[251] Holderness to Dinwiddie, 18th January 1754. Parkman, vol. i. p. 162.

[252] Holderness to Dinwiddie, 5th July 1754.

[253] Order of 30th September 1754. Record Office, America and W. I., vol. lxxiv.

[254] Horace Walpole's instances of Braddock's rough manners are well known, but the following, I think, is new. An officer had been foisted upon Braddock on his appointment to the command, whom (in order to be rid of him) he placed in command of a small provincial fort at Cape Fear. Governor Dobbs of Carolina having complained of this officer, Braddock replied "that the man had been imposed upon him, that he would not trust him with the building of a hog-sty, and that the best thing Dobbs could do would be to hang him on the first tree he could find." The story is told in a letter of Governor Dobbs to General Amherst of 28th August 1762. Record Office, W. O., Original Correspondence, vol. xiii.

[255] These, while they lasted, ranked as 51st and 52nd of the Line.

[256] Braddock to Robinson, 18th March 1755.

[257] Parkman.