d with her cousin Harley about the share
which this lady of High Church principles was to receive out of the
profits of the infamous trade.

Surely, the country that made so much profit out of the slave-trade is
bound to compensate Newfoundland for the losses caused by its weakness
in the French shore question rather than that France which in 1713
abandoned the infamous traffic to the British Tories.

The next treaty between France and England, that of Aix-la-Chapelle,
in 1748, made no alteration in the Newfoundland question; but the
government of England, in returning Louisbourg to the French, gave
another of those proofs of the selfish indifference of the home
government to the rights of the colonies which was one of the most
potent causes that led the New Englanders, with the aid of France, to
achieve their independence.

At the south-eastern extremity of Cape Breton Island the strong
fortress of Louisbourg, which it was once the fashion to call the
Gibraltar of America, threatened the safety of the New England and
Newfoundland fisheries alike. Governor Shirley of Massachusetts
induced the legislature to undertake an expedition against this
fortress, and intrusted its command to Colonel William Pepperell. The
New England forces, raw troops, commanded by untrained officers,
astonished the world by capturing a fortress which was deemed
impregnable. This was the most brilliant and decisive achievement of
nine years of otherwise useless bloodshed and treachery.

It is well that the people of the United States propose to celebrate
its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary this year; for, more than any
other event in their colonial history, it gave them confidence in the
power of untrained men of spirit to overcome the hireling soldiers of
the European governments.

But the action of the British government at the Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle, in restoring this fortress to the French, gave the
colonists an equally necessary lesson. What did England get in
exchange? The already mentioned Assiento, that famous compact which
gave to England the right to ship slaves to the Spanish colonies, was
confirmed for the four years it still had to run; and the fortress of
Madras, which had been taken by the French in 1746, was restored to
England in 1748 by the treaty. Even the most selfish and heartless of
British politicians may doubt whether the true interests of his
country were served by abandoning the American fortress for that