And I would earnestly desire Your Honour to use your utmost endeavors, that your government might, in all proper ways, without delay, do every thing on their part to answer the present emergency of His Majesty's service, and the expectations of the Right Honourable the Earl of Loudoun, signified in the circular letters to the several governments herein concerned.

I am, with truth and Regard, Sir,

Your Honour's most Obedient humble Servant,
W. SHIRLEY.

To the Hon. Stephen Hopkins, Esq.

SIR,

WILLIAM SHIRLEY TO HENRY FOX1

2

Boston, Septr. 15th, 1756.

In the Letter, which I had the Honour to write you of the 5th Instant, I inclosed a Copy of the Earl of Loudoun's Letter to me dated the 29th Augt., in a Postscript to which his Lordship tells me, he had sent me a Message by Mr. Alexander, my Secretary.'

The purport of this Message I could not learn, 'till Mr. Alexander's arrival; and he now informs me, it was, that his Lordship highly resented a Letter I had wrote to him (meaning one of the 10th Augt.) and that he was determined to shew me marks of it; His Lordship further signified to Mr. Alexander, that he thought I had used him ill in an appointment of an Ensign, concerning which Mr. Pownall wrote a Gentleman of this place by his Lordship's directions (as

1 P. R. O., C. O. 5, 46. Transcripts of this letter are in the Library of Congress and in the Parkman Papers, Mass. Hist. Society. See also Shirley to Fox, Sept. 16, following. A careful reading of these two letters from Shirley to Fox will go far to convince the student that in the words of Parkman the change of command from Shirley to Webb, Abercromby, or Loudoun was a blunder. Certainly these letters lose nothing in dignity or patriotism by comparison with any of Loudoun's statements.

2 Ante, p. 542. The letter of Aug. 29 is on p. 521, and Shirley's letters to Loudoun of Aug. 10 are on pp. 499 and 501.

he inform'd him) a Letter dated the 16th Augt., a Copy of which, and of my Answer are Inclos'd; and his Lordship added to Mr. Alexander, that if I did not very soon quit America, he should send me out of it; upon which subject his Lordship accordingly sent me a Letter, dated the 6th Instant, a Copy of which, and of my Answer is likewise Inclosed.1

These Letters, Sir, contain so evident marks of his Lordship's Acrimony against me, as will leave you no room to doubt of the strong Resentment he harbours; and as I should think myself blameable if I had given his Lordship (with whom his Majesty's Service made it my Duty to Cultivate the best Understanding I could) a just Cause for this displeasure; notwithstanding I have before transmitted you Copies of my Letter of the 10th Augt. to his Lordship, and of my Letter of the same date to Major General Winslow, which is referr'd to in it; yet, as they seem to be the principal Sources of his Lordship's Quarrell with me, I have Inclosed other Copies of them herewith, as also one of my Letter of the 12th Septr.3 to him, excusing those Letters, that you may judge, Sir, of my real Intention in writing them, and whether they contain any thing, which should provoke his Lordship's Resentment.

2

In my said Letter of the 5th Instant to you I mention'd, that the Earl of Loudoun had peremptorily insisted that I should lay his Letter to me of the 29th Augt. before the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay, and that I suspended doing it, 'till I should receive his Lordship's Answer to a Letter I had wrote him upon that Subject, wherein I

1 Loudoun's letter of Sept. 6 is on p. 547, and Shirley's reply of Sept. 13 is on p. 550.

2 See Shirley to Loudoun of Aug. 10, and to Winslow of the same date, ante, pp. 501 and 510.

3 Shirley's letter of Sept. 12, here referred to, is of approximately 1000 words, and consists mainly of regrets for the appointment of an Ensign named Low, an appointment extremely distasteful to Loudoun. The letter is in P. R. O., C. O. 5, 46. Transcripts are in the Library of Congress and in the Parkman Papers in the Mass. Hist. Society.

had represented to him the Impropriety, as I conceiv'd, of such a proceeding. I now Send you, Sir, a Copy of that Letter, to which Lord Loudoun hath not vouchsaf'd to Send me any Answer, but hath chosen to publish his Letter of the 29th of Augt. to the Colonies, through a set of Gentlemen, who are appointed to act as a Standing Committee of War for this Province, and who could not avoid communicating it to the Council. A Copy of his Lordship's Letter to them, which accompanies a Copy of that of the 29th Augt. to me, is, so far as it concerns this matter, also Inclos'd.1

You will see, Sir, how unavoidable the publication of this dispute, and appeal upon it to the Massachusetts Assembly have been on my part; and I hope I shall not be condemn'd for refusing to acquiesce in giving up either to the Earl of Loudoun's Resentment, or to Screen the mistakes of others, not only the Reputation, which I have hitherto maintain'd in his Majesty's Service within the Colonies, but, what I have infinitely more at heart, his Majesty's Royal Approbation of them, which I have had the Honour to receive frequent marks of.

It is with extreme reluctance, Sir, that I trouble you with the foregoing Account, and the Inclos'd Packet of Letters relative to it; but as the detail of the former, and the perusal of the latter seem necessary to shew, how great a Degree of Personal Resentment Lord Loudoun hath mingled with his Representations concerning my Conduct, and how little (as I conceive) I have done to incur it; I hope, Sir, you will excuse it.

Having, Since my Letter of the 5th Septr. more fully inform'd myself of the Circumstances of the loss of Oswego I shall, in my next, lay before you in one view the Causes of that misfortune, and of the failure to prosecute this year to effect, the Expedition against Crown Point; and doubt not but it will appear from thence, that the loss of the former place to the French is wholly owing to measures, which have been taken Since the Expiration of my Command, and the failure in the reduction of the latter to the delays, which 1 See Loudoun to the Committee of War, Sept. 13, ante, p. 561.

have likewise happen'd since that time; that Oswego would, in all human probability, have remain'd safe under the protection of the Land Forces and Naval Armament allotted by me for it's defence, without the Assistance of any further Reinforcement, if it had not been prevented from having the benefit of great part of them, at the time of it's being attack'd by the French; and the reduction of Crown Point been effected by the Troops destin'd by me for that Service, if their march to Ticonderoge had not been retarded by Delays.

I have the honour to be with the highest Respect

Pursuant to the Letter, which I had the Honour to write you, dated the 15th instant, I shall now lay before you, in

1P. R. O., C. O. 5, 46. Transcripts of this letter are in the Library of Congress and in the Parkman Papers in the Mass. Hist. Society.

In this letter Shirley presents his defense against the charges of Loudoun for the loss of Oswego and shows the general hostility of Sir William Johnson and Gov. Charles Hardy of New York. Shirley does not clear himself of the responsibility for leaving Oswego with insufficient support during the spring of 1756, when the breaking up of the winter gave him the opportunity to act before