A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

1746, 1747.] BROKEN PROMISES. 155within six weeks, and Shirley, eager and impatient,waited in vain for the squadron from England andthe promised eight battalions of regulars. They didnot come ;and in August he wrote to Newcastle thatit would now be impossible to reach Quebec beforeOctober, which would be too late.^ The eight battalionshad been sent to Portsmouth for embarkation,ordered on board the transports, then ordered ashoreagain, and finally sent on an abortive expeditionagainst the coast of France. There were those whothought that this had been their destination from thefirst, and that the proposed attack on Canada wasonly a pretence to deceive the enemy. It was nottill the next spring that Newcastle tried to explainthe miscarriage to Shirley. He wrote that the troopshad been detained by head-winds till General Saint-Clair and Admiral Lestock thought it too late; towhich he added that the demands of the Europeanwar made the Canadian expedition impracticable, andthat Shirley was to stand on the defensive andattempt no further conquests. As for the provincialsoldiers, who this time were in the pay of the Crown,he says that they were "very expensive," and ordersthe governor to get rid of them "as cheap as possible."^ Thus, not for the first time, the hopes ofthe colonies were brought to nought by the failure ofthe British ministers to keep their promises.When, in the autumn of 1746, Shirley said that for1 Shirley to Newcastle, 22 Axigust, 1746.2 Nexccastle to Shirley, 30 May, 1747.