s that imminent disaster alone will arouse the nation to its
best military effort. In 1757, however, England was thoroughly aroused.
Failure then on her own special element, the sea, touched her vitally.
Admiral Byng--through sheer cowardice, as was charged--had failed to
attack a French fleet aiding in the siege of the island of Minorca which
was held by the English, and Minorca had fallen to the French. Such was
the popular clamor at this disaster that Byng was tried, condemned,
and shot. There was also an upheaval in the government. At no time in
English history were men more eager for the fruits of office; and now,
even in a great crisis, the greed for spoils could not be shaken off.
The nation demanded a conduct of the war which sought efficiency above
all else. The politicians, however, insisted on government favors.

In the end a compromise was reached. At the head of the government
was placed a politician, the Duke of Newcastle, who loved jobbery and
patronage in politics and who doled out offices to his supporters. At
the War Office was placed Pitt with a free hand to carry on military
operations. He was the terrible cornet of horse who had harried Walpole
in the days when that minister was trying to keep out of war. He knew
and even loved war; his fierce national pride had been stirred to
passion by the many humiliations at the hand of France; and now he was
resolved to organize, to spend, and to fight, until Britain trampled
on France. He had the nation behind him. He bullied and frightened the
House of Commons. Members trembled if Pitt turned on them. By his fiery
energy, by making himself a terror to weakness and incompetence, he won
for Britain the Seven Years' War.

Though Pitt became Secretary of State for War in June, 1757, not until
1758 did the tide begin to turn in America. But when it did turn, it
flowed with resistless force. In little more than a year the doom of New
France was certain. The first great French reverse was at a point where
the naval and military power of Britain could unite in attack. Pitt well
understood the need of united action by the two services. Halifax became
the radiating center of British activities. Here, in 1757, before
Pitt was well in the saddle, a fleet and an army gathered to attack
Louisbourg--an enterprise not carried out that year partly because
France had a great fleet on the spot, and partly, too, on account of the
bad quality of British leadership.

Only in th