Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/18

 lived at Riverhead, and was buried with his wife at Sevenoaks, was the father of Jeffery, the first Lord Amherst. Another son, William, the father of the statesman whose Indian administration we have here to sketch, was also a soldier.

At Riverhead the Amherst property was close to Knole, and in 1731 the Duke of Dorset procured for Jeffery Amherst, the son of his friend the bencher, an ensigncy in the Guards. This led to service in the Continental wars, and acquaintanceship with the great Captains of the day; and so good a use did the young soldier make of his opportunities, that Pitt recognized in him a heaven-sent agent for work that in the prescient mind of the statesman was of critical importance. It was the period when Montcalm was maturing his plans for connecting the French possessions in Louisiana with the French possessions in Canada. Jeffery Amherst was appointed to the chief command of the operations necessary to defeat this well-laid plan for shouldering the English out of North America. His first exploit was to capture Louisburg, the fortress on Cape Breton which had hitherto mocked the efforts of the British assailants. In the general operations which followed Amherst commanded one of the three forces employed. While Wolfe has obtained unfading renown by the glorious capture of Quebec, Amherst did no less solid service by reducing Ticonderoga. Finally in 1760 the united forces took Montreal, and General Jeffery Amherst was appointed Governor-General of British North America.