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

[71] the entire charge of the colonies. ‘Halifax,’ wrote

chap. III.} 1750.

Pelham, who favored his advancement, ‘amongst the young ones, has the most efficient talents.’¹ ‘He would be more approved by the public,’ thought Hardwicke, ‘than either Holdernesse or Waldegrave.’ ‘He is the last man, except Sandwich, I should think of for secretary of state,’ exclaimed Newcastle. ‘He is so conceited of his parts, he would not be in the cabinet one month without thinking he knew as much or more of business than any one man. He is impracticable;. . . . . .the most odious man in the kingdom. . . . . . A man of his life, spirit, and temper, will think he knows better than any body.’ Newcastle would have none of ‘that young fry.’ But above all, he would be rid of Bedford. ‘I am, I must be an errant cipher of the worst sort,’ said he in his distress, ‘if the Duke of Bedford remains coupled with me as secretary of state.’ To get rid of Bedford was still to him ‘the great point,’ ‘the great point of all,’² more than the designation of the next emperor of Germany, and more than a war with the Bourbons.

The two dukes remained at variance, leaving Cornwallis to ‘get the better in Nova Scotia without previous concert with France.’³ In August a second expedition left Halifax to take possession of Chiegnecto. It succeeded, but not without loss of life. Indians and Acadian refugees, aided, perhaps, by French in disguise, altogether very few in number, had intrenched themselves strongly behind the dikes, and opposed their landing. Nor were they dislodged