the
public safety.

EARL OF LOUDON APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN AMERICA.

As the ministry were determined to make their chief efforts against the
enemy in North America, where the first hostilities had been committed,
and where the strongest impression could be made, a detachment of two
regiments was sent thither under the conduct of general Abercrombie,
appointed as successor to general Shirley, whom they recalled, as a
person nowise qualified to conduct military operations; nor, indeed,
could any success in war be expected from a man who had not been trained
to arms, nor ever acted but in a civil capacity. But the command in
chief of all the forces in America was conferred upon the earl
of Loudon, a nobleman of an amiable character, who had already
distinguished himself in the service of his country. Over and above this
command, he was now appointed governor of Virginia, and colonel of a
royal American regiment, consisting of four battalions, to be raised
in that country, and disciplined by officers of experience invited from
foreign service. Mr. Abercrombie set sail for America in March; but the
earl of Loudon, who directed in chief the plan of operations, and was
vested with power and authority-little inferior to those of a viceroy,
did not embark till the latter end of May.

HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S DECLARATION OF WAR.

All these previous measures being taken, his majesty, in the course of
the same month, thought proper to publish a declaration of war [378]
_[See note 3 A, at the end of this Vol.]_ against the French king,
importing, that since the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the usurpations and
encroachments made upon the British territories, in America, had
been notorious; that his Britannic majesty had, in divers serious
representations to the court of Versailles, complained of these repeated
acts of violence, and demanded satisfaction; but notwithstanding the
repeated assurances given by the French king, that every thing should be
settled agreeably to the treaties subsisting between the two crowns, and
particularly that the evacuation of the four neutral islands in the West
Indies should be effected, the execution of these assurances, and of
the treaties on which they were founded, had been evaded under the most
frivolous pretences; that the unjustifiable practices of the French
governors, and officers acting under their authority, were still
continued, until they broke out in open acts of hos