A BUILDER OF CANADA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 196, 19 August 1922, Page 17

A BUILDER OF CANADA.

LIFE OF GENERAL J. MURRAY. THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. THE END OF NEW FRANCE. The British Empire lias been bui't up in diverse ways. Adventurers and discoverers have had a good deal to do with it. Sea rovers laid its foundations, and it has been preserved from disintegration by Britain's naval supremacy. Although Cabot, who first landed on the north-east coast of the American Continent, sailed from Bristol, and must be classed with Columbus as a discoverer of the New World, yet the earliest colonisation of Canada was the work of French adventurers, and it became a British possession by right of conquest. The facts connected with the military and naval enterprise which won for Britain this great dominion are set out ia the "Life of the Hon. James Murray," by Major-C.enera] R. H. Mahon. C.8., C.S.T. (John Murray). The discoveries of the French explorer Champlain hart established French sovereignty over the land, and Louis XTV. realised the possibilities which it offered for creating an empire beyond the seas, to rival the conquests of Spain. He encouraged colonisation, and in 1663 superseded the chartered company of New France by an administration of the territory as a royal province protected by the armies and navy of France. Kichelieu and Colbert gave support to the traders who extended their operations along the St. Lawrence and inland up the great lakes. To protect the Gulf of St. Lawrence a fortress was established at Louisburg, on Cape Breton Tsland. after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which confirmed French sovereignty over Canada. The vigorous administration of Louis XIV was succeeded by the feebleness of Louis XV.. who was dominated by his mistress the Pompadour, a frivolous woman wholly indifferent to the wellbeing of French possessions over the seas. Corruption and favouritism at the Court of Versailles extended throughout, the administration. Thi3 evil influence affected the army and settlers in Canada. Officials plundered the public treasury, and the French GovernorGeneral was either himself venal or was too incompetent to stop the peculation of his subordinate officers. General Murray, in a report en the Government of Quebec, states that petty clerks receiving six or eight hundred livres a year made fortunes of three or four hundred I thousand in three or four years. CONQUEST OF FRENCH NORTH AMERICA. The prolonged warfare which ended in the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelfe left England '■'mistrese of the eeas." The peace was merely the result of general exhaustion, and was ntver really observed. Boscawen and Hawke continued to harry the French fleet, Hawke capturing and conveying to England 300 vessels. A French squadron captured Minorca from the British, so that when Britain formally declared war on May 17, 175 C, and the country entered upon a war that was to laet seven years, irregular hostilities were merely succeeded by definite military and naval operations. When Pitt returned to office in 1758 an expedition against the French North American possessions was decided on. The first step was the capture of Louisberg, a strongly fortified poet at the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. For this enterprise a force of about 14,800 men was assembled with a powerful fleet. The capture of I the fortress was effected with little loss I of life, the garrison offering such a feeble resistance that treachery on the part of some of the leaders has been suspected. The capture of this stronghold and the blockade of the St. Lawrence by the British fleet prepared the way for the advance on Quebec and Montreal. THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. Tire command of the force organised to capture Quebec was entrusted by Pitt to James Wolfe, who for thie purpose had the local rank in America of Major-General. He wae promised an army of 12.000 men, but this, in the end," was reduced to 387 officers and 8241 men, a wholly inadequate force. Delay occurred in starting, with the result that a French fleet of eighteen I transports, convoyed by three frigates, j succeeded in reaching Quebec with 340 j recruits, 1500 sailors, and much-needed I stores. These had been extorted from the French Government with great difficulty. But for the arrival of these sup-1 plies the Quebec garrison would haw been on the verge of starvation. Owing to peculation by high officials the colony was bankrupt and the administration in utter confusion. The British expedition comprised more than 200 vessels, great and small, many of them queer-looking battered cra,ft. The convoy was divided in three divisions, each with tte accompaniment of ships of the line. Thirteen days wore occupied in ascending the St. Lawrence, with its difficult unmarked channels. After the arrival of the expedition off Quebec a long delay took place in deciding upon the mode of attack. Wolfe vacillated a good deal between the plans submitted for his consideration. His health was very bad. and he wae prostrated by the heat of August. He invited the brigadiers to submit a plan of assault. This recommended landing at a point that would have cut off the retreat of the French army. For some unexplained reason Wolfe rejected the recommendation of his officers, arid landed 4578 men within a mile and a half of the fortress, where they encountered an army estimated at 5400 men. of whom about 2000 were regulars, but the greater part were 111----di.sciplined militia, who fled precipitately at the first outpouring of the British fire. The Highlanders, under Murray, drew their broadswords and repeated the famous ruei that won the game at Prestonpane «vi Falkirk. The victory

was complete, but Wolfe fell in the i battle. It is said that he was shot by a deserter swrvinj; with the French ranks. Montcalm, the French general, was also killed. The town capitulated five days later without any further engagement, but a considerable part of the army escaped ar.d were reassembled at Jaoquws Cartier. to advance against Quebec in the ensuing spring, under De Lcvis, the ! French general commanding the army at | Montreal. THE FIRST BRITISH GOVERNOR. | The capture of Quebec marked an im- ! pOrtant stage in the conquest of Canada. But the fruits of victory wore almost I lost through th<> withdrawal of the licet.' leaving an inadequate force to endure ; the rigours of a Canadian winter, and | repel the attacks of the French Army and fleet, still uneonquered in Canada. At a military conference after the capture of Quebec, Colonel the Hon. .lames Murray »■>« appointed Governor of Quebec and commander of the British! forces there. The garrison consisted of! about 600 officers ami men. The fleet j was withdrawn because the admiral doubted whether it muld ho safely; wintered at Quebec. Only the Porcupine i and Racehorse, sloops of war, and three small schooners were loft to oppose the French squadron, which lay intact in the upper river. Murray at once instituted vigorous measures to strengthen the fortifications and enforce discipline, which was liable to become lax under the conditions existing. His measures to repress drunkenness were drastic, every man found drunk receiving twenty lashes every morning until he disclosed where he got the liquor, anil to forfeit his allowance of rum for six weeks. A man was hanged for plundering, and a Frenchman received tlie same fate for inducing men to desert. Two soldiers received 1000 lashes each for inciting to mutiny and endeavouring to desert. The intense cold, combined with the use of salt provisions, which -were alone procurable induced scorbutic disorders with fever and dysentery. The men became demoralised by their sufferings, and the death sentence md the lash were again resorted to. I is recorded that two men having been sentenced to death for robbery, the Governor agreed to pardon one. They threw dice for life, and the lucky number fell to tlie lot of a soldier of the 43rd Regiment, who, however, did not show any satisfaction with his good fortune, such was the abject misery prevailing among the men, weak, poorly clad and badly housed, enduring the severity of a Canadian winter. These brutal sentences were imposed by courts-martial, and were in keeping with the barbarous penalties generally current 150 years ago. The military force, comprising 6174 in November, had been reduced to 5218 in May of the following year, of whom 2846 were in hospital. l"p to the end of April 700 men had died from disease. Of the total effective strength only 3140 were available for action outside the town. At this timo De. Lcvis, the French commander, had an armynf 6C31, of whom 3CIO were regular troops and the remainder militia. With the breaking up the ice in the river in April this army advanced against Quebec from Montreal, supported by the naval forces. Murray resolved to attack th« French in front of the town, and his troops fi'lod out of the city gates. The battle took place On ground covered with slushy snow drifts. The French were driven back into the woods, where they reformed, but unfortunately one section of the British Light Infantry were drawn on too far, and were almost annihilated by the French Grenadiers from their vantage point in the wood. On the right of the battle, also, the British, after to give way before- overwhelming numbers, and the remnant of the army had to retire uphill into the city, having lost 41 officers and 25.3 mra killed and 8!) officers and 724 men wounded out of the 3000 troops engaged. The French general admitted a loss of 933 in killed and wounded. Murray immediately adopted measures to inspire confidence in his dispirited troops and strengthen the city defences. He also sent urgent messages for reinforcements, and especially for relief by the fleet. A heavy artillery fire was kept up on the enemy's works, and night surprises were organised. The enemy was delayed in landing guns and organising the siege. .lust at the critical moment when he opened fire on the ' town, the vanguard of the British fleet I arrived, and De Levis, having failed in his attaclc on Quebec after three weeks in the trenches, considered it prudent to ■ return to Montreal for the defence of 1 that town, which was threatened by the . advance of two British columns. He I left behind all his baggage, stores and , thirty-four pieces of cannon. Murray , at once organised all his effective troops ' for the pursuit, and mustered 2470 rank 1 and file. Three considerable armies 1 advanced on that town along different I lines, widely separated, and through hos- , tile country. They arrived at their . destination almost simultaneously. Mon- • treal was without thp resources to resist such a force, and capitulated without a • struggle. Thus New France ceased to I exist, and Canada became a British pos- ; session, and its 80,000 inhabitants sub- ', jects of tie King pi England.