History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

The French and Eng-
CHAPTER XIX.
FOURTH FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
DURING tllG sllOl't interval of peaCG wllich
lish extend their followed the closB of "King George's
Conquests in all ___ ,, . ^ . t n i
Directions. War, m 1749, and wJiicli continued but
half a dozen years, both French and Eng-
lish endeavored to push their conquests to the utmost. The
boundaries between the contestants for American soil were
left undetermined by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, but were
to be arranged by a commission. A conference settled
nothing, and negotiations only protracted the uncertainty.
While the French penetrated the wilderness to the west
and established posts down the Ohio, claiming jurisdiction
to the Gulf of Mexico, the English were pressing to the
eastward in Acadia, to the Northward in New York, New
Hampshire and Vermont, and to the westward in Pennsylvania.
The governments of both countries were engaged
in negotiations concerning the movements of their subjects
on the American continent, the negative results of which
it was apparent must inevitably end in war. Expecting,
indeed with little prospect of avoiding such an outcome,
and in preparation for it, both nations dispatched armies of
observation across the Atlantic : — The English to Virginia
under Braddock, and the French under Dieskau to Canada.
Union of the Colo- In the meantime the question of taxing
uies Discussed. America was under discussion in Parlia-
ment. Many plans for the union of the
colonies among themselves, as well as for closer connection
with Great Britain, were suggested. A conference of del-
egates from the colonies was held at Albany, a system of
union decided upon and referred to the several legislatures
and to Parliament ; but it failed to meet the views of either
and nothing was accomplished.