m seeing
one another; and part of the French squadron escaped up the River St.
Lawrence, while some of them went round and got into the same river by
the Straits of Belleisle, by a way which had never been attempted before
by ships of war. While Boscawen's fleet, however, lay before Cape Race,
on the banks of Newfoundland, which was thought to be the proper station
for intercepting the enemy, two French ships--the _Alcide_, of 60 guns
and 480 men; and the _Lys_, pierced for 64 guns, but mounting only 22,
and having eight companies of land forces on board--fell in with the
_Dunkirk_, Captain Howe, and the _Defiance_, Captain Andrews, two 60-gun
ships of the English squadron, and were, both of them, after a smart
engagement, in which Captain (afterwards Lord) Howe behaved with the
greatest skill and intrepidity, taken, with about L8,000 on board.
Though this action was far from answering the grand destination of the
fleet, yet when the news reached England it was of infinite service to
the public credit of every kind; as the manner in which it was conducted
was a plain proof that the English Government was resolved to observe no
further measures with the French, but to take or destroy their ships
wherever they could be met with."--_Ib._, pp. 525, 526.

Yet, in the face of these facts, that the French Government had been
encroaching upon the colonies for six years--ever since the treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle; had been transporting soldiers and all the munitions of
war to America to exterminate the English colonies; had put to death
British subjects; and that complaints of these outrages had been made to
England year after year by the Governors and representatives of the
Colonies, and that the French Government had at this time, by fair words
and false pretences, deceived the Government of England, which had
warned the French Government that the English admirals had orders to
attack and take all the French ships, public and private, that should be
met with at sea; yet, in the face of such facts, Mr. Bancroft, with his
habitual hostility to England and endless perversions of historical
facts, says in 1755: "France and England were still at peace, and their
commerce was mutually protected by the sanctity of treaties. _Of a
sudden_, hostile orders were issued to all British vessels of war to
take all French vessels, private as well as public," and "eight thousand
French seamen were held in captivity. All France resented the perfid