It was a little before this engagement that he wrote to his
friend Lieutenant-Colonel Rickson: "I have this day signified to Mr.
Pitt that he may dispose of my slight carcass as he pleases, and that I
am ready for any undertaking within the compass of my skill and
cunning. I am in a very bad condition both with the gravel and
rheumatism; but I had much rather die than decline any kind of service
that offers. If I followed my own taste it would lead me into Germany.
However, it is not our part to choose, but to obey. My opinion is that I
shall join the army in America."
Pitt chose him to command the expedition then fitting out against
Quebec; made him a major-general, though, to avoid giving offence to
older officers, he was to hold that rank in America alone; and permitted
him to choose his own staff. Appointments made for merit, and not
through routine and patronage, shocked the Duke of Newcastle, to whom a
man like Wolfe was a hopeless enigma; and he told George II. that Pitt's
new general was mad. "Mad is he?" returned the old King; "then I hope he
will bite some others of my generals."
At the end of January the fleet was almost ready, and Wolfe wrote to his
uncle Walter: "I am to act a greater part in this business than I
wished. The backwardness of some of the older officers has in some
measure forced the Government to come down so low. I shall do my best,
and leave the rest to fortune, as perforce we must when there are not
the most commanding abilities.
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