In
this quarrel England had no vital interest. France had occupied
the Austrian Netherlands and had refused to hand back to Austria
this territory unless she received Cape Breton in return. Britain
might have kept Cape Breton if she would have allowed France to
keep Belgium. This, in loyalty to Austria, she would not do.
Accordingly peace was made at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 on the
agreement that each side should restore to the other its
conquests, not merely in Europe but also in America and Asia.
Thus it happened that the British flag went up again at Madras
while it came down at Louisbourg.
Boston was of course angry at the terms of the treaty. What
sacrifices had Massachusetts not made! The least of them was the
great burden of debt which she had piled up. Her sons had borne
what Pepperrell called "almost incredible hardships." They had
landed cannon on a lee shore when the great waves pounded to
pieces their boats and when men wading breast high were crushed
by the weight of iron. Harnessed two and three hundred to a gun,
they had dragged the pieces one after the other over rocks and
through bog and slime, and had then served them in the open under
the fire of the enemy.
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