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

[293] shillings on every male over sixteen. Once, in

chap. XIII.} 1758.

1759, a colonial stamp-tax was imposed by their legislature. The burden cheerfully borne by Connecticut was similarly heavy.

The Americans, powerful in themselves, were further strengthened by an unbroken communication with England. The unhappy Canadians, who had not enjoyed repose enough to fill their garners by cultivating their lands, were cut off from regular intercourse with France. ‘I shudder,’ said Montcalm, in February, 1758, ‘when I think of provisions. The famine is very great.’ ‘For all our success,’ thus he appealed to the minister, ‘New France needs peace, or sooner or later it must fall; such are the numbers of the English, such the difficulty of our receiving supplies.’ The Canadian war-parties were on the alert; in March a body of Iroquois and other Indians waylaid a detachment of about two hundred rangers in the forests near Fort Carillon, as the French called Ticonderoga, and brought back one hundred and forty-six scalps, with three prisoners, as ‘living messages.’ But what availed such small successes? In the general dearth, the soldiers could receive but a half-pound of bread daily; the inhabitants of Quebec but two ounces daily. Words could not describe the misery of the people. The whole country was almost bare of vegetables, poultry, sheep, and cattle. In the want of bread and beef and other necessaries, twelve or fifteen hundred horses were distributed for food. Artisans and daylaborers became too weak for toil.

On the recall of Loudoun, Henry Seymour Conway desired to be employed in America, but was refused by the king. Lord George Sackville was