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Shakespeare, Smythe, White, Kane,
Worseley, Serocold, Glendonwyn.
So far, it has been our task to
sketch the career of Scotch-men
in Canada, placed in subordinate positions; we will now, with your leave,
view them in those exalted offices to which their sovereign may call them.
We shall therefore point out a few
only of our rulers of Scotch nationality; the first was
General James Murray, fourth son of Lord Elibank, and first British
Governor of Quebec by the departure of the Marquis of Townshend.
General Murray, by his cool bravery,
had won the respect of all parties. If the check his impetuous valor at
the battle of Ste. Foye, subjected him to, for a time earned for him the
epithet of "rash," * it never cast a slur, either on his courage in
action, or his wisdom as an able and humane administrator. Murray seems to
have made the same mistake as Montcalm had done; rushing out with inferior
forces to meet the enemy, not trusting to the fortifications of Quebec.
Though he was much outnumbered on the 28th April, 1760, it must not be
forgotten that he occupied a good position on the Ste. Foye and St. Louis
heights, with an excellent park of artillery, in all twenty-two
gulls,
while the French had but two. Here again, Fraser’s
Highlanders previously decimated by famine and scurvy, but unsubdued, shed
liberally their life-blood. For the French it was a brilliant, but
bootless victory, and one which merely allowed them, on leaving the
country, to shake hands as equals with their brave opponents.
Murray held his own in the city,
despite the pursuit of a valiant foe flushed with victory. Relief came
early in May following; and with Lord Amherst, on the 8th Sep tember
1760, he completed the
subjugation of Canada by the capitulation of Montreal.
See Appendix Letter E. |
