The issue of the war hung more on events that occurred in Europe than in America, and France had made gains as well as suffered losses.It was on the sea that she had sustained her chief defeats.In India she had gained by taking the English factory at Madras; and in the Low Countries she was still aggressive.
Indeed, during the war England had been more hostile to Spain than to France.She had not taken very seriously her support of the colonies in their attack on Louisbourg and she had failed them utterly in their designs on Canada.It is true that in Europe England had grave problems to solve.Austria, with which she was allied, desired her to fight until Frederick of Prussia should give up the province of Silesia seized by him in 1740.In this quarrel England had no vital interest.France had occupied the Austrian Netherlands and had refused to hand back to Austria this territory unless she received Cape Breton in return.Britain might have kept Cape Breton if she would have allowed France to keep Belgium.This, in loyalty to Austria, she would not do.
Accordingly peace was made at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 on the agreement that each side should restore to the other its conquests, not merely in Europe but also in America and Asia.
Thus it happened that the British flag went up again at Madras while it came down at Louisbourg.
Boston was of course angry at the terms of the treaty.What sacrifices had Massachusetts not made! The least of them was the great burden of debt which she had piled up.Her sons had borne what Pepperrell called "almost incredible hardships." They had landed cannon on a lee shore when the great waves pounded to pieces their boats and when men wading breast high were crushed by the weight of iron.Harnessed two and three hundred to a gun, they had dragged the pieces one after the other over rocks and through bog and slime, and had then served them in the open under the fire of the enemy.New Englanders had died like "rotten sheep" in Louisbourg.The graves of nearly a thousand of them lay on the bleak point outside the wall.What they had gained by this sacrifice must now be abandoned.A spirit of discontent with the mother country went abroad and, after this sacrifice of colonial interests, never wholly died out.It is not without interest to note in passing that Gridley, the engineer who drew the plan of the defenses of Louisbourg, thirty years later drew those of Bunker Hill to protect men of the English race who fought against England.
Every one knew that the peace of 1748 was only a truce and Britain began promptly new defenses.Into the spacious harbor of Chebucto, which three years earlier had been the scene of the sorrows of d'Anville's fleet, there sailed in June, 1749, a considerable British squadron bent on a momentous errand.It carried some thousands of settlers, Edward Cornwallis, a governor clothed with adequate authority, and a force sufficient for the defense of the new foundation.Cornwallis was delighted with the prospect."All the officers agree the harbour is the finest they have ever seen"--this, of Halifax harbor with the great Bedford Basin, opening beyond it, spacious enough to contain the fleets of the world."The Country is one continuous Wood, no clear spot to be seen or heard of.D'Anville's fleet...cleared no ground; they encamped their men on the beach." The garrison was withdrawn from Louisbourg and soon arrived at Halifax, with a vast quantity of stores.A town was marked out; lots were drawn for sites; and every one knew where he might build his house.
There were prodigious digging, chopping, hammering."I shall be able to get them all Houses before winter," wrote Cornwallis cheerily.Firm military discipline, indeed, did wonders.Before winter came, a town had been created, and with the town a fortress which from that time has remained the chief naval and military stronghold of Great Britain in North America.At Louisbourg some two hundred miles farther east on the coast, France could reestablish her military strength, but now Louisbourg had a rival and each was resolved to yield nothing to the other.The founding of Halifax was in truth the symbol of the renewal of the struggle for a continent.
