In dismissing
Marlborough, Great Britain had lost one of her chief assets. His
name had become a terror to France. To this day, both in France
and in French Canada, is sung the popular ditty "Monsieur
Malbrouck est mort," a song of delight at a report that
Marlborough was dead. When in place of Marlborough leaders of the
type of General Hill were appointed to high command, France could
not be finally beaten. The Treaty of Utrecht was the outcome of
war-weariness. It marks, however, a double check to Louis XIV. He
could not master Europe and he could not master America. France
now ceded to Britain her claim to Acadia, Newfoundland, and
Hudson Bay. She regarded this, however, as only a temporary
setback and was soon planning and plotting great designs far
surpassing the narrower vision of the English colonies.
It was with a wry face, however, that France yielded Acadia. To
retain it she offered to give up all rights in the Newfoundland
fisheries, the nursery of her marine. Britain would not yield
Acadia, dreading chiefly perhaps the wrath of New England which
had conquered Port Royal.
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