r his robust impulsion.
"Nobody ever entered his closet," said Colonel Barre, "who did not come
out of it a braver man." That inspiration was felt wherever the British
flag waved. Zeal awakened with the assurance that conspicuous merit was
sure of its reward, and that no officer who did his duty would now be
made a sacrifice, like Admiral Byng, to appease public indignation at
ministerial failures. As Nature, languishing in chill vapors and dull
smothering fogs, revives at the touch of the sun, so did England spring
into fresh life under the kindling influence of one great man.

With the opening of the year 1758 her course of Continental victories
began. The Duke of Cumberland, the King's son, was recalled in disgrace,
and a general of another stamp, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, was
placed in command of the Germans in British pay, with the contingent of
English troops now added to them. The French, too, changed commanders.
The Duke of Richelieu, a dissolute old beau, returned to Paris to spend
in heartless gallantries the wealth he had gained by plunder; and a
young soldier-churchman, the Comte de Clermont, took his place. Prince
Ferdinand pushed him hard with an inferior force, drove him out of
Hanover, and captured eleven thousand of his soldiers. Clermont was
recalled, and was succeeded by Contades, another incapable. One of his
subordinates won for him the battle; of Lutterberg; but the generalship
of Ferdinand made it a barren victory, and the campaign remained a
success for the English. They made descents on the French coasts,
captured; St.-Servan, a suburb of St.-Malo, and burned three ships of
the line, twenty-four privateers, and sixty merchantmen; then entered
Cherbourg, destroyed the forts, carried off or spiked the cannon, and
burned twenty-seven vessels,--a success partially offset by a failure on
the coast of Brittany, where they were repulsed with some loss. In
Africa they drove the French from the Guinea coast, and seized their
establishment at Senegal.

It was towards America that Pitt turned his heartiest efforts. His first
aim was to take Louisbourg, as a step towards taking Quebec; then
Ticonderoga, that thorn in the side of the northern colonies; and lastly
Fort Duquesne, the Key of the Great West. He recalled Loudon, for whom
he had a fierce contempt; but there were influences which he could not
disregard, and Major-General Abercromby, who was next in order of rank,
an indifferent soldier, thoug