[Footnote 435:  Review of Military Operations, 187, 189 (Dublin, 1757).]

The Earl, in search of a scapegoat for the loss of Oswego, naturally chose Shirley, attacked him savagely, told him that he was of no use in America, and ordered him to go home to England without delay.[436] Shirley, who was then in Boston, answered this indecency with dignity and effect.[437] The chief fault was with Loudon himself, whose late arrival in America had caused a change of command and of plans in the crisis of the campaign.  Shirley well knew the weakness of Oswego; and in early spring had sent two engineers to make it defensible, with particular instructions to strengthen Fort Ontario.[438] But they, thinking that the chief danger lay on the west and south, turned all their attention thither, and neglected Ontario till it was too late.  Shirley was about to reinforce Oswego with a strong body of troops when the arrival of Abercromby took the control out of his hands and caused ruinous delay.  He cannot, however, be acquitted of mismanagement in failing to supply the place with wholesome provisions in the preceding autumn, before the streams were stopped with ice.  Hence came the ravages of disease and famine which, before spring, reduced the garrison to a hundred and forty effective men.  Yet there can be no doubt that the change of command was a blunder.  This is the view of Franklin, who knew Shirley well, and thus speaks of him:  “He would in my opinion, if continued in place, have made a much better campaign than that of Loudon, which was frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our nation beyond conception.  For though Shirley was not bred a soldier, he was sensible and sagacious in himself, and attentive to good advice from others, capable of forming judicious plans, and quick and active in carrying them into execution."[439] He sailed for England in the autumn, disappointed and poor; the bull-headed Duke of Cumberland had been deeply prejudiced against him, and it was only after long waiting that this strenuous champion of British interests was rewarded in his old age with the petty government of the Bahamas.

[Footnote 436:  Loudon to Shirley, 6 Sept. 1756.]

[Footnote 437:  The correspondence on both sides is before me, copied from the originals in the Public Record Office.]

[Footnote 438:  “The principal thing for which I sent Mr. Mackellar to Oswego was to strengthen Fort Ontario as much as he possibly could.” Shirley to Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756.]

[Footnote 439:  Works of Franklin, I. 220.]

Loudon had now about ten thousand men at his command, though not all fit for duty.  They were posted from Albany to Lake George.  The Earl himself was at Fort Edward, while about three thousand of the provincials still lay, under Winslow, at the lake.  Montcalm faced them at Ticonderoga, with five thousand three hundred regulars and Canadians, in a position where they could defy three times their number.[440]