"The Two Engagements," Says Chauveau, "That Of The 15th September, 1759, And That Of The 28th Of April, 1760, Occupied Nearly All The Plateau Hereinbefore Described.

The first, however, it would seem, was fought chiefly on the St. Louis road, whilst the second took place on the Ste.

Foye road. Each locality has its monument, one erected in the honour of Wolfe, on the identical spot where he fell; the other in 1855, to commemorate the glorious fate of the combatants of 1760, where the carnage was the thickest, viz: on the site where stood Dumont's mill (a few yards to the east of the dwelling of J. W. Dunscomb, Esq.)

"The victory of 1759 was a fitting reward of Wolfe's valour, punished the infamies of the Bigot regime and withdrew Canada from the focus of the terrible chastisement which awaited France soon after - in the Reign of Terror - for her impiety and immorality. The victory of April, 1760, was a comforting incident - a species of compensation to a handful of brave and faithful colonists, for the crushing disaster which had befallen their cause, the preceding September. It was the crowning - though bootless victory - to the recent brilliant, but useless success of the French arms at Carillon, Monongahela, Fort George, Ticonderoga, Beauport Flats. It was, moreover, the last title, added to numerous others, to the esteem and respect of their conquerors."

Of the second battle of the Plains, that of 28th April 1760, called by some writers "The battle of Ste. Foye," by others "The battle of Sillery Wood," so bloody in its results, so protracted in its duration, we have in Garneau's History the first complete account, the historian Smith having glossed over with striking levity this "French victory." The loss of the rival Generals, at the battle of the Plains, of September, 1759, though an unusual incident in warfare, was not without precedent Generals Braddock and DeBeaujeu in 1755, had both sealed on the battlefield their devotion to their country with their blood on the shores of the Monongahela, in Ohio; in this case as in that of Wolfe and Montcalm, he whose arms were to prevail, falling first.

In 1759, everything conspired to transform this conflict into an important historical event. Even after the lapse of a century, one sometimes is fain to believe, it sums up all which Europe recollects of primitive Canada. The fall of Quebec did not merely bring to a close the fierce rivalry of France and England in America. It lent an immense prestige to Great Britain, by consolidating her maritime supremacy over France - a supremacy she then so highly prized. The event, after the discouraging news which had prevailed, was heralded all over England by the ringing of the bells, and public thanksgiving. Bonfires blazed through the length and breadth of the land, it was a national victory which King, Peers and Commons could not sufficiently extol, and still what has been the ultimate result? By removing the French power from Canada - the only counterpoise to keep down the restless and thriving New England colonies, New England, from being strong got to be defiant.

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