GENERAL WOLFE.
(Vol. v., pp. 185. 398. &c.)
Since my last communication relative to this celebrated soldier, I have fallen in with a volume of the London Chronicle for the first half of the year 1760, and from it I send the following extracts: although there is more information relative to the battle, these only I thought worth insertion in "N. & Q." The first is entitled:
"A CALL TO THE POETS, ON THE TAKING OF QUEBEC.
"While to brave Wolfe such clouds of incense rise,
And waft his glory to his native skies;
Shall yet no altar blaze to Moncton's name,
And consecrate his glorious wound to fame;
Shall Townshend's deeds, o'er Canada renown'd,
So faint in British eulogies resound!
No grateful bard in some exalted lay
Brave Townshend's worth to future times convey
Who, for his country, and great George's cause,
Forsook the fulness of domestic joys,
To crush 'midst dangers of a world unknown,
The savage insults on the British crown.
See him return'd triumphant to his king,
Wafted on Vict'ry's, and on Glory's wing:
Hast thou, great patroness of martial fire,
No fav'rite genius, Clio, to inspire?
Shall worth, like his, unnotic'd pass away
But with the pageant of a short-liv'd day?
No; Soul of numbers, tune the votive strings
On which thou sing'st of heroes and of kings;
Rouse from ungrateful silence some lov'd name
Or from the banks of Isis, or of Cam;
Bid him, tho' grateful to the dead, rehearse
The living hero in immortal verse:
So shall each warlike Briton strive to raise,
Like him, a monument of deathless praise;
So shall each patriot heart his merit move
By the warm glow of sympathy of love."—T. D.
P. 71. Jan. 19.
At p. 120., June 31st, is "A New Song, entitled and called, Britain's Remembrancer for the Years 1758 and 1759." The fourth verse runs as follows:
"Quebec we have taken, and taken Breton;
Tho' the coast was so steep, that a man might as soon,
As the Frenchmen imagin'd, have taken the moon,
Which nobody can deny."
May 10th, p. 449.: "Capt. Bell, late Aide-de-Camp to the great Gen. Wolfe, is appointed captain in the fifth regiment," &c. Under the date of June 28th is Gen. Murray's despatch.
Among the advertisements are, "A Discourse delivered at Quebec," &c., by the Rev. Eli Dawson (dedicated to Mrs. Wolfe); "Two Discourses by Jonathan Mayhew, D.D. of Boston;" and "Quebec, a Poetical Essay, in imitation of the Miltonic Style, composed by a Volunteer in the service; with Notes entertaining and explanatory."
A notice of the death of Sir Harry Smith, Bart., aide-de-camp to Wolfe, appears in the Examiner for October 22nd, 1811.
Among other instances of the name is a notice of Major J. Wolfe in Gentleman's Magazine for 1836, p. 334.
H. G. D.