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

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

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256 FORT MASSACHUSETTS. [1748.tend<strong>in</strong>g powers <strong>in</strong> Europe had come to terms <strong>of</strong>agreement, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> the next October the Peace <strong>of</strong>Aix-la-Chapelle was signed. Both nations were tired<strong>of</strong> the weary <strong>and</strong> barren <strong>conflict</strong>, with its enormouscost <strong>and</strong> its vast entail <strong>of</strong> debt. It was agreed thatconquests should be mutually restored. The chiefconquest <strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong> was Louisbourg, with the isl<strong>and</strong><strong>of</strong> Cape Breton, — won for her by the farmers <strong>and</strong>fishermen <strong>of</strong> New Engl<strong>and</strong>. When the prelim<strong>in</strong>aries<strong>of</strong> peace were under discussion, Louis XV. haddem<strong>and</strong>ed the restitution <strong>of</strong> the lost fortress; <strong>and</strong>George II. is said to have replied that it was not histo give, hav<strong>in</strong>g been captured by the people <strong>of</strong>Boston.^ But his sense <strong>of</strong> justice was forced to yieldto diplomatic necessity, for Louisbourg was the <strong>in</strong>dispensableprice <strong>of</strong> peace. To the <strong>in</strong>dignation <strong>of</strong> thenorthern prov<strong>in</strong>ces, it was restored to its former owners."The British m<strong>in</strong>isters," says Smollett, "gaveup the important isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Cape Breton <strong>in</strong> exchangefor a petty factory <strong>in</strong> the East Indies " (Madras),<strong>and</strong> the K<strong>in</strong>g deigned to send two English noblemento the French court as security for the barga<strong>in</strong>.Peace returned to the tormented borders ; the settlementsadvanced aga<strong>in</strong>, <strong>and</strong> the colonists found a shortbreath<strong>in</strong>g space aga<strong>in</strong>st the great conclusive struggle<strong>of</strong> the Seven Years' War.1 N. Y. Col. Docs., X. 147.

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