George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[258] the New World, the amiable young heir to the

chap. XI.} 1757.

throne sent over a hundred pounds' worth of answers to deistical writers. But in America, free inquiry, which dwelt with the people, far from being of a destructive tendency, was conducting them towards firm institutions, and religious faith was not a historical tradition, encumbered with the abuses of centuries, but a living principle.

Loudoun found himself in Halifax at the head of an admirable army of ten thousand men, with a fleet of sixteen ships of the line, besides frigates. There he landed, levelled the uneven ground for a parade, planted a vegetable garden as a precaution against the scurvy, exercised the men in mock battles, and sieges, and stormings of fortresses, and, when August came, and the spirit of the army was broken, and Hay, a major-general, expressed contempt so loudly as to be arrested, the troops were embarked, as if for Louisburg. But ere the ships sailed, the reconnoitring vessels came with news that the French at Cape Breton had one ship more than the English, and the plan of the campaign was changed. Part of the soldiers landed again at Halifax, and the Earl of Loudoun, leaving his garden to weeds, and his place of arms to briers, sailed for New York. He had been but two days out, when he was met by an express, with such tidings as were to have been expected.

How peacefully rest the waters of Lake George between their ramparts of highlands! In their pellucid depths, the cliffs, and the hills, and the trees trace their image, and the beautiful region speaks to