A BUILDER OF CANADA.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 214, 24 August 1922, Page 7

A BUILDER OF CANADA.

LIFE OF GENERAL J. MURRAY. , THE CAPTURE OF QUEBEC. THE END OF NEW FRANCE. The British Empire has been built 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 supre- : many. Although Cabot, who first land- ’ ted on the north-east eoast of the Amo-1 rican Continent, sailed from Bristol, | and must be classed with Columbus us a discoverer of the New World, yet the ! earliest colonisation of Canada was the ( work of French adventurers, and it be- i came a British possession by right of I conquest. The facts connected with the I military and naval enterprise which | won for Britain this great dominion are set out in the “Life of the Hon. James Murray,” by Major-General R. H. Mahon, C. 8., C.S.I. (John Murray). The discoveries of the French explorer Champlain had established French sovereignty over the land, and Louis XIV. 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 He encouraged colonisation, and in 1663 superseded the chartered company of New France by an administration of the territory as a royal province protected by the armies and navy of France. Richelieu 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 Island, after the Treaty ot 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. This evil influence affected the army and settlers in Canada. Officials plundered the public treasury, and the French Governor-General was either himself venal or was too incompetent to stop the peculation of his subordinate officers. General Murray, in a report on the Government of Quebec, states that petty clerks receiving six or eight hundred livres a year made fortunes of three or four hundred thousand in three or four years.

CONQUEST OF FRENCH NORTH AMERICA. The prolonged warfare which ended in the Peace of Aix-la-Clmpclle left England ‘‘mistress of the sens.” The peace ’ was merely the result of general exhaustion, and was never really observed. Boscawen and Hawke continued to harry the French fleet, Hawke capturing and conveying to England 300 vessels. A French squadron captured. 'Minorca "rom the British, so that when Britain formally declared war on May 17. 1756, and the country entered upon

a war that was to last seven years, irregular hostilities were merely succeeded by definite military and naval operations. When Pitt returned to office ’.n 1758 an expedition against the French North Amercican possessions was decided on. The first step was the capture qf Louisberg, a strongly fortified post an 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 the fortress was effected with little loss 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. The command ol the force organised to capture Quebec was entrusted by Pitt to James Wolfe who for this purpose had the local rank in America of Major-General. He was promised an army of 12,000 men, but this, in tho end, was reduced to 387 officers and 8241 men, a wholly inadequate force. Delay occurred in starting, with tho result that a French fleet of eighteen transports, convoyed by three frigates, succeeded in reaching Quebec with 340 recruits. 1500 sailors, and much-needed stores. These had been extorted from the French Government with great difficulty. But for the arrival/of thes*. supplies the Quebec garrison would have been on the verge of starvation. Owing to peculation by high officials the colony was bankrupt and the administration in utter confusion. Tho British expedition comprised more than 200 vessels, great and small, many of them queer-looking battered craft. The convoy was divided in three divisions, each with its accompaniment of ships of the line. Thirteen days were occu pied in ascending the St. Lawrence, with its difficult unmarked channels. After the arrival of the expedition 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 was prostrated, by the heat of August. Ha 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 Walfe rejected the recommendation of his officers, and landed 4578 men within a mile and a half of the fortress, wherq they encountered an army estimated at 5400 men, of whom about 21)00 were regulars., but the greater part were illdisciplined militia, who fled precipitately at the first outpouring of ihe British fire. The Highlanders, under Murray, drew their broadswords and repeated the famous rush that won the game at Prestonpans ancr Falkirk. The victory was complete, but Wolfe fell in tho battle. It is said that he was shot by a deserter serving witE 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 and was reassembled at Jacques Cartier, to advance against Quebec in the ensuing spring, under De Levis, the French general commanding the army at Montreal. THE FIRST BRITISH GOVERNOR

The capture of Quebec marked an important stage in the conquest of Canada. But the fruits of victory were almost lost through the withdrawal of the fleet, leaving an inadequate force to endure the rigours ot a Canadian winter and repel the attacks of the French army and fleet, still unconquerod in Canada. At a military conference after the capture of Quebec, Colonel the Hon. James Murray was appointed Governor of Quebec and commandei of the British forces there The garrison consisted of about 6000 officers and men. The fleet was withdrawn because the admiral doubted whether it could be safely wintered at Quebec. Only the Porcupine and Racehorse, sloops of war, and three small schooners were left 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 tho conditions existing. His measures to re press drunkenness were drastic, every man found drunk receiving twenty lashes every morning until he disclosed

where he got the liquor, and to forfeit his allowance of rum for six weeks. A man was hanged for plundering, and a Frenchman received the 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 and the lash were again resorted to. It 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 the 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 militarv force, comprising 6174 in November, had been reduced to 5218 •n May of the following year, of whom 2846 were in hospital. Up 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 time De Levis, the French commander, had an army of 6631, of whom 3610 were regtilar troops and the remainder militia. With the breaking up of the ice in the river in April this army advanced against Quebec from Montreal, supported by the naval forces. Murray resolved to attack the French in front of the town, and his troops filed out of the city gates. The battle took place on ground covered with slushy snow drifts. The French were driven back inta the woods, where they reformed, but unfortunately one section of the British Lifdit 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 achieving some successes, were obliged to give wav before overwhelming numbers and the remnant of the army had to retire uphill into the city, having lost 41 officers and 255 men killed and 89 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 ako sent urgent messages for reinforcements, and especially h r relief by the fleet. A heavy artillery fire was kept up on the enemy’s works, and night surprises were organ cod. The* enemy was delayed in landing guns and organising the siege. Just at the critical moment when he opened fire on the town, the vanguard of the British fleet arrived, ana De Levis, having failed in his attack on Quebec after three weeks# in the trenches, considered it prudent to return to Montreal for the defence of that town, which was threatened by the advance of two Jlritish columns. Ho 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 and file. Three considerable armies advanced on that town along different lines, widely separated, and through hostile country. They arrived at their destination almost simultaneously. Montreal wa» without the resources to resist such a force, and capitulated without a struggle. Thus New France ceased to exist, and Ganado became a British possession, and its Rfl.ono inhabitants subjects of the Kins of England.