tion, which greatly affected his general capacity for business. (1751.) History can record in his administration, no event more important than the building of a theatre at Williamsburg, by a company of comedians from New York, who felt a laudable desire to present some of the charms of the drama to the dull burgesses of Virginia Plantations.b His In 1752, Robert Dinwiddie arrived in the colony, with a full commission to preside over her counsels as her Lieutenant-Governor. Originally a clerk in a custom-house in one of the British West India Islands, he had powerfully commended himself to favour, by discovering a vast system of fraud, which had long been practised by his superiors. For this, he was rewarded by an appointment to Virginia, and immediately took possession of his novel honours. But it would be premature farther to speak of his character or his conduct. name will instantly recall to our minds a period pregnant with important deeds and grand developements. A new era opens to our view; great names are now to be recorded, and great events are to attend upon them. A hero is to appear, to whom the centuries of the past had produced no prototype; and, as he enters upon the stage of being, we are not surprised to find him surrounded by the light of a purer civilization—a more exalted philanthropy! Burk, iii. 141. b Ibid., iii. 140. 101. Burk, iii. 222; Outline, in Howe, CHAPTER VIII. Improvement in the colonies-Progress of knowledge-Benjamin Franklin -French and English possessions in America-Encroachments of the French-Ohio Company-French Fort on the River Le Bœuf-George Washington-Sent by Governor Dinwiddie to the French commander on the Ohio-His danger-His return-Preparations for war-Fort Duquesne-Washington advances-Defeat and death of M. JumonvilleThe Great Meadows-Fort Necessity attacked by French and Indians -Gallant defence-Honourable capitulation-Dinwiddie's wild plansLa Force, the prisoner-Major-General Edward Braddock-His army marches from Fort Cumberland-Difficulties of the way-Washington's advice-Braddock's confidence-Passage of the Monongahela-A battle in the forest-Total defeat of the English army-Danger of Washington -Death of General Braddock-Colonel Dunbar retires to Philadelphia-Indian cruelties on the frontier of Virginia-Prowess of Samuel Bingaman-Washington's distress-Lord Loudon commander-in-chief-Governor Dinwiddie leaves the colony-His character-Francis FauquierWilliam Pitt Prime Minister of England-General Forbes marches against Fort Duquesne-Defeat of Major Grant-Heroism of Captain Bullet and his men-Capture of Fort Duquesne-Burial of the remains of Braddock's army-Campaigns of 1758, 1759-Successes of England -Peace of Paris in 1763. As the English colonies in America increased in importance to the mother country, they began also to feel the glowing impulses which were at work in their own bosoms. Within the past century Europe had made enormous strides in the march of science and civilization. Star after star had appeared above her horizon, to add brilliancy to her intellectual heavens, until it seemed at length as though all minor lights had been quenched in the blaze of a sun that had risen never to decline. For many years America had felt but feebly the beams that were darting from every point of her mother's countenance. She had not improved in mind as she had expanded in body. But now a change, natural, but rapid and wondrous, was to be developed. The sun of learning did not, indeed, recede from the east, but as he ascended higher in the heavens his rays began to illumine the western world. The time of infancy had passed; the struggle for existence was happily over; the great battle with the spirit of the wilderness had been fought, and the victory was won. America did not pause in her onward course, but she had now secured the necessary and the useful, and she turned with the eagerness of new desire to the comforts and elegancies of social life. The arts grew in strength as though born upon her soil. Men of science successively arose, and already one was breathing her air before whom succeeding ages have rejoiced to kneel and be instructed. Printing presses began to send forth the thoughts of her own children, not drawn from the mind of the old world, but engendered by the inspiration of a life more fresh, more vigorous, and more free. In the great science which teaches the rights of man and the method of securing them, she was already far beyond the fettered sages of the best and wisest governments then known to European kingdoms. As the colonies thus grew in general intelligence, they approached nearer to each other, and encouraged each co-attractive principle acting upon them. 1752.] FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 439 More than a century before, the northern settlements had formed a sisterhood that had tended powerfully to increase their influence, their welfare, and moral power. A plan for a more extended union had been proposed by Daniel Coxe, in 1741, and twelve years afterwards, Benjamin Franklin presented to a convention at Albany, a scheme which, if carried out, would have drawn into the closest embrace, all the sisters now so rapidly developing their charms upon the soil of America. But the time for this measure, although approaching, had not yet arrived. They were to feel a more powerful motive than that furnished by mutual love and a common country. They did not yet confederate, but the causes binding them to each other were already sufficiently strong to array them in a united front against the enemy who first assailed them. This foe was France. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, so inglorious to England, so favourable to her opponents, had settled none of the disputed points between herself and her hereditary enemy. It had left undefined the boundaries of Nova Scotia, the limits of English jurisdiction west of the Alleghanies, the right of maritime seizure and search, the operation of international law upon the claims of both parties in the valley of the Ohio and a In 1643. Grahame's Colon. scheme is well known under the Hist., iii. 321. name of "The Albany Plan of ↳ Grahame, iii, 377, 378. This Union." Mississippi Rivers. It had indeed done nothing definite, except surrender Cape Breton to the enemy, and send two English freemen into France as hostages for England's good behaviour. It could not have been expected that such a peace could be long continued. It held out to both parties temptations to its rupture. To France it furnished stimulus to farther encroachment; to England it gave constant cause for disgust and dis content. He who will accompany his review of the history of this period by a glance at the map of North America, as it was then divided, will see the critical state of affairs between the French and British interests, and the moral necessity urging them to a conflict. Along the whole Atlantic coast, from Halifax to Florida, the Anglo-American colonies were spread, and from the sea they extended to an indefinite and advancing line, that made yearly approaches to the Mississippi River. They were already powerful in population, in energy, in courage, and intelligence. They looked upon the land as their heritage, and were ready to contest the claims of all who should oppose their progress. The French held settlements upon the St. Lawrence to its mouth. They claimed a few bleak points on the coast of Acadia or Nova Scotia; and on the great lakes which now bound the English a Smollett's Continuation, viii. 384, 385, 387; Grahame, iii. 305, 306; Sparks's Life of Washington, i. 22, 23; Bancroft, iii. 466, 467; |