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

[221] Soame Jenyns for a Lord of Trade; and when Bed-

chap IX.} 1755.

ford was propitiated by the appointment of his partisan, Richard Rigby, to a seat at the same Board. The administration proceeded, possessing the vote but not the respect of parliament; at variance with the people of England and with the colonies; beaten from the Ohio valley, and in Europe squandering English money to engage armies which were to be used only against England and her allies. The treaty was hardly concluded, before the ministry yielded to the impulse given by Pitt; and, after subsidizing Russia to obtain the use of the Russian troops against Frederic, it negotiated an alliance with Frederic himself, not to permit the entrance of Russian or any other foreign troops into Germany.

At the head of the American forces this ministry had placed Shirley, a worn-out barrister, who knew nothing of war. In the security of a congress of governors at New York, he in December planned a splendid campaign for the following year. Quebec was to be menaced by way of the Kennebec and the Chaudiere; Frontenac and Toronto and Niagara were to be taken; and then Fort. Duquesne and Detroit and Michilimackinac, deprived of their communications, were of course to surrender. Sharpe, of Maryland, thought all efforts vain, unless parliament should interfere; and this opinion he enforced in many letters to his correspondents.¹ His colleagues and the officers of the army were equally importunate. ‘If

1756

they expect success at home,’ wrote Gage, in January, 1756, echoing the common opinion of those around