sure upon the riotors, and upon the press-gang; but ordered all the officers who had been arrested by the mob, to be set at liberty; and the militia gave the governor their protection, and escorted him back in triumph to his house. The commodore dismissed all the men that had been impressed; order was again restored, and the squadron departed.

The people now began to feel the pressure of their affairs; a flood of paper money had been issued to support the exigencies of the war, taxes had multiplied, and to crown all, a general depreciation had sunk the money almost to a cypher; this opened the door for such a system of fraud, as threatened the ruin of trade and of morals. Great efforts were made to abolish the paper money, and to obtain a grant from parliament, to indemnify the expenses of the Louisburg expedition, and thus redeem the paper currency at 6s. the dollar. The grant was finally made, and the paper currency redeemed with gold and silver, and the currency of the Colony of Massachusetts thus became permanent. New-Hampshire, Connecticut, and RhodeIsland, finally fell in with the plan of Massachusetts, and abolished paper money, after a few years."

*

The next season the French fitted out two fleets against the British settlements in India and America; the latter under the command of M. De la Jonqueire, governor of Quebec. These fleets sailed from Rochelle early in the spring; but they were overtaken on the 3d of May, by a British fleet, under the command of Admirals Anson and Warren; a warm action commenced, the French were

* The trade of Connecticut, from her first settlement, had been carried on with Boston, where they obtained all their English goods; but when the colony of Massachusetts had abolished their paper money, they rejected the paper bills of Connecticut, and turned the trade of that colony to New-York, where her bills were yet current, and thus by an artful policy, New-York obtained the trade of Connecticut, which she has never lost; and Boston lost a trade she has never fully regained.

overpowered, De la Jonqueire, with four ships of the line, and six Indiamen were taken, together with 4 or 5,000 men, and large sums of money and bullion, and the colonies were again preserved by the special interposition of Divine Providence.

The depredations of the Indians and French from Canada, were carried on through the war, and into the year 1749, upon the frontier towns; but principally against the western frontier bordering upon Connecticut River, where many persons were killed, wounded, or carried away captive to Canada; but the settlements were not burnt, nor the people butchered nor tortured as in former wars ; the ferocity of the savage had softened into a partial degree of humanity. Even this humanity the enemy turned to his own advantage, by extorting large sums of money, as the ransom for their captives, which rendered New-England tributary to Canada. This spirited the colonies to raise their full quotas of men, for the grand expedition against Canada, contemplated in the year 1746.

When the two grand armaments of France against New-England had failed, the rebellion in Scotland had been quelled, and the pretender driven back to France; all prospects of success in the war on the part of France, appeared to have failed, and from that time the war languished, until April 30th, 1743, when hostilities ceased, under the preliminaries of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and all conquests were restored and things remained in statu quo. In October following, peace was ratified and confirmed.

The Indian wars in New-England had proved a good military school, in which her sons were trained to arms, in defence of all that they held dear, and prepared the way for the grand expedition which gave them po-session of the strong fortress of Louisburg. The expedition against Louisburg gave strength and confidence, both in Europe and America, which opened the way for the future conquest of

Canada, in 1759, and next, the successes of this war, opened the way for the triumph of the colonies in the revolutionary war, and the glorious establishment of their national independence, 1783. Although these triumphs weren the successes, and results of future wars, yet they depended very much upon the confidence which the successes of this war had inspired, and the measures which this war had taught them to adopt. The heroes of this war were enrolled in the ranks of their country, in the war of 1756, and many of them lived to enter the lists with Britain, in the revolutionary war of 1775. Thus the French war of 1745, became the military school of America, that trained up her sons to establish her national independence. At the close of this war, the colonies complained that they had sustained heavy losses, in men,* money, and property, from the ravages of the enemy, and that the indemnification from the British government for the expences of the capture of Louisburg, ought not to satisfy their claims, especially since Louisburg was restored to France at the close of the war. They also urged the losses they sustained from the depreciation of their paper money, which they were obliged to emit for the support of the war; but the governor could not be persuaded to exceed the grant they had made, and the colonies were obliged to rest satisfied.

REMARKS.

The same principles which formerly led to the confederacy of the Catholic League in France, and fitted out the armada in Spain, were revived in this war. France hoped to restore Great Britain to the Papal See, by restoring the

*New-England lost in the war 3 or 4000 of her sons; and the wars of the last century have occasioned to New-England the loss of about 200,000 souls. The loss was felt by New-York as well as New-England, though not in an equal ratio.-Hutchinson's History.

pretender, (who was a Papist,) to the British throne, and to spread the Papal religion in America, by a conquest of New-England, and thus at a blow, exterminate the reformation from the British dominions. To accomplish this great object, the powers of France and Spain were united; and they put forth all their efforts in the war; but the God of our fathers defeated all the machinations of the powers of darkness, and overruled all events to the glory of his great name, and the good of his church.

CHAPTER XXXI.

NEW-LAMPSHIRE CONTINUED.-MASON'S CLAIM REVIVED.

In our last chapter upon New-Hampshire, we left her with an independent government, under the administration ⚫ of Governor Wentworth, and as was then supposed, free (by purchase) from the vexatious claims of the Masons; but to our astonishment, this devoted country, which had so long been harrassed with savage wars, and contested claims, was not yet prepared to enjoy her own privileges.

The long contested boundary with Massachusetts, had been happily settled, by the purchase of Mason's claim; but the assembly did not accept this purchase, which had been made in their favour; and during the period of their long and contentious delay, a company of speculators stepped in, purchased Mason's claim of the heir at law, and took his quitclaim; and the better to secure their purchase, they filed in the recorder's office, a quitclaim of all the townships that had been settled and granted, within the limits of their purchase, reserving to themselves all their own claims, which they previously possessed, in common, or severalty, to all such lands, or buildings, and This act improvements thereunto belonging, 1746. threw the colony into a new ferment; the assembly appointed a committee to wait on the purchasers, and buy out their claims, and a negotiation ensued, which was spun out until it became certain that the parties could not agree'; and then in 1748, the speculators began to grant townships, and settle their lands, quietly. They required of the grantees, within a limited time, to erect mills, build meeting-houses, clear out roads, and settle ministers; reserving one right in each township for the first settled minister, a second for a parsonage, and a third for a school