"with still more disposition to ridicule, had promised once or twice to make a good speaker". "To Wolfe was "associated George Townshend whose proud and sullen and contemptuous temper, never suffered him to wait for thwarting his superiors till risen to a level with them "... "The haughtiness of the Duke of Cumberland, the talent (( or blemishes of Fox, the ardour of Wolfe, the virtue of Conway, all were alike the objects of Townshend's spleen or contradiction; but Wolfe was not a man to waive pre-eminence from fear of caricatures." (1) When Townshend's appointment was known, the same writer declared that "George Townshend has thrust himself again into the service; and, as far as wrongheadedness "will go is very proper for a hero."

Junius whose pen portraits are always painted in striking colours has spoken of him as "a boaster without spirit, and a pretender to wit, without a grain of sense; in a word a vain-glorious idler without one single good quality of head or heart"... "Is it not universally known that the ignorance, presumption, and incapacity of that man have "ruined the King's affairs in Ireland"?

So far as we are concerned with Townshend and the siege of Quebec these judgments require some revision. He cer

(1) Possibly this has reference to an incident which occurred during the progress of the siege. At mess one night Townshend made a ridiculous and insulting sketch of his commander in chief and passed it down the table to his brother officers. It finally reached the hands of Wolfe who quietly observed "If we live, this shall be enquired into; but we must first beat the enemy." Probably, however, it is an allusion to the clever but coarse caricatures which Townshend made at the expense of the Duke of Cumberland, whose party he had deserted for that of the Prince of Wales.