as soon
hear a 'No' from an old-maid as from the House of Commons." Newcastle
was supremely happy among jobbers and cringing place-hunters under the
full understanding that neither he nor his kind trespassed within the
sphere of foreign politics. The estimates had exceeded all former
limits, and reached for those days the enormous sum of twelve and a half
millions. The struggle with France was vigorously waged, too, upon the
ocean, warships, privateers, and merchantmen grappling to the death with
one another in many a distant sea, while the main fleets of the enemy
were for the most part blockaded in their ports by vigilant British
armaments. Everywhere were exhilaration and a superb feeling of
confidence, engendered by incipient successes and by the consciousness
that the nation was united in purpose and that the leaders of its
enterprises were not chosen because they were "rich in votes or were
related to a duke."

James Wolfe had certainly neither of these qualifications, and he it was
whom Pitt designed to act the leading part in the coming year, "a
greater part," he modestly wrote after receiving his appointment, "than
I wished or desired. The backwardness of some of the older officers has
in some measure forced the Government to come down so low. I shall do my
best and leave the rest to fortune, as perforce we must when there are
not the most commanding abilities."

Pitt's plan for the coming season in America was to strike two great
blows at Canada, and a lesser one, which, if successful, would involve
the conquest of that country. Wolfe, aided by a fleet, was to attack
Quebec; Amherst with another force was to push through by the Lake
Champlain route and unite with him if possible. A further expedition was
to be sent against Niagara under Prideaux; but for the present we are
concerned only with the first and by far the most memorable of the
three.

Wolfe at this time was colonel of the Sixty-seventh regiment. He was to
have local rank only of major-general while in America, since more
substantial elevation would, in the eyes of Newcastle and his friends,
have been almost an outrage on the British Constitution as by them
interpreted. Pitt and his young officers, however, were well content to
waive such trifles for the present, and concede so much of consolation
to the long list of rejected incapables, in return for such honor and
glory as might perchance be theirs.

The land force was to consist of twelve th