CHAPTER III.

General Prevost was the very opposite of Sir James Craig. While the latter considered force the only practical persuasive, the former looked upon persuasion as more practicable than force. He was determined to be conciliatory, to throw aside unjust suspicions, to listen to no tales from interested parties, to redress such grievances as existed, and to create no new causes of discontent if he could avoid it. He was made acquainted with all the steps that had been taken by his predecessor, and he entered on the administration of the government of Lower Canada, with a determination to pursue a very opposite policy. A few weeks after his assumption of office he remodelled, or rather recommended to the Imperial ministry, the expediency of remodelling the Executive Council. He caused seven new members to be added to it, and he further offended the officers of the principalities or departments, by preferring to places of trust and emolument, some of the demagogues persecuted by Sir James Craig. Sir George Prevost met the parliament on the 21st of February, 1812. He congratulated the country on the brilliant achievements of Wellington, in the deliverance of Portugal and the rescue of Spain from France. Notwithstanding the changes, so astonishing, which marked the age, the inhabitants of Canada had witnessed but as remote spectators the awful scenes which had desolated Europe. While Britain, built by nature against the contagious breath of war, had had her political existence involved in the fate of neighboring nations, Canada had hitherto viewed without alarm a distant storm. The storm was now approaching her. The mutterings of the thunder were already within hearing. All was gloomy, still, and lurid. It was necessary to be vigilant. To preserve the province from the dangers of invasion it would be necessary to renew those Acts which experience had proved essential for the preservation of His Majesty's government, and to hold the militia in readiness to repel aggression. The renewal of the "Preservation Acts," was not that which the Assembly very much desired. They had had enough of such "Preservation" of government Acts already. They would much rather have been preserved from them than be preserved with them. On the principle of self preservation, the Assembly would rather be excused from continuing any such Act as that which had been so abused as to have afforded a licence for the imprisonment of three members of the Assembly, on vague charges, which the ingenuity of the public prosecutor could not reduce to particulars. Had it not been from a conviction of the goodness of the new Governor, the Assembly would not have renewed any such Act. Sir George regretted that the Parliament had thought it necessary to revert to any of the proceedings of his predecessor, under one of the "Preservation Acts," and he earnestly advised the gentlemen of the House of Assembly to evince their zeal for the public good, by confining their attention solely to the present situation of affairs. But the House thought it due to the good character of His Majesty's subjects that some measure should be adopted by the House, with the view of acquainting His Majesty of the events which had taken place under the administration of Sir James Craig, its late Governor, together with the causes which such events had originated, so that His Majesty might take such steps as would prevent the recurrence of a similar administration, an administration which tended to misrepresent the good and faithful people of the province, and to deprive them of the confidence and affection of His Majesty, and from feeling the good effects of his government, in the ample manner provided for by law. Nay, this was not all. It was moved that an enquiry be made into the state of the province, under the administration of Sir James Craig, and into the causes that gave rise to it, and the resolution was carried, two members only voting against it. A committee was appointed, but no report was made. The bill for the better preservation of His Majesty's government, and the Alien bill were both lost, not by ill intention, but by awkward management. But the loss of these bills was amply compensated by the militia bill, authorizing the Governor to embody two thousand young, unmarried men, for three months in the year, who, in case of invasion, were to be retained in service for a whole year, when one-half of the embodied would be relieved by fresh drafts. In the event of imminent danger, he was empowered to embody the whole militia force of the country, but no militiaman was to be enlisted into the regular forces. For drilling, training, and other purposes of the militia service, £12,000 were voted, and a further sum of £30,000 was placed at the disposal of the Governor-in-Chief, to be used in the event of a war arising between Great Britain and the United States.

Sir George Prevost prorogued Parliament on the 19th of May, well satisfied with the proofs which had been exhibited to him, of the loyalty of the parliament and people of a country so very shortly before represented to be treasonable, seditious, disaffected, and thoroughly imbued with hatred towards Great Britain. He shortly afterwards re-instated, in their respective ranks in the militia, such officers as had been set aside by Sir James Craig, without just cause, and indeed spared no exertion to make the people his friends, well judging that the office, or place men would, of necessity be so. On the 28th of May, he levied and organised four battalions of embodied militia; and a regiment of voltigeurs was raised, the latter being placed under the command of Major De Salaberry, a French-Canadian, who had served in the 60th regiment of foot.

There was need for this embodiment of troops. Already, dating from the 3rd of April, the American Congress had passed an Act laying an embargo for ninety days on all vessels within the jurisdiction of the United States. The President, Mr. Jefferson, had recommended the embargo. He had long intended to gratify the lower appetites of the worst class of the American people, who were now more numerous than that respectable class of republicans of which that great man, Washington, was himself the type. The measure was preparatory to a war with Great Britain. And war was very soon afterwards declared. On the 4th of June, a bill declaring that war existed between Great Britain and the United States passed the House of Representatives by a majority of seventy-nine to forty-nine. The bill was taken to the Senate, and there it passed only by the narrow majority of six. The vote was nineteen voices in the affirmative and thirteen in the negative. Mr. Jefferson assented to the bill on the 18th of June. The grounds of war were set forth in a message of the President to Congress, on the 1st of June. The impressment of American seamen by British naval officers; the blockade of the ports of the enemies of Great Britain, supported by no adequate force, in consequence of which American commerce had been plundered in every sea, and the great staples of the country cut off from their legitimate markets; and on account of the British Orders in Council. The Committee on Foreign relations believed that the freeborn sons of America were worthy to enjoy the liberty which their fathers had purchased at the price of much blood and treasure. They saw by the measures adopted by Great Britain, a course commenced and persisted in, which might lead to a loss of national character and independence, and they felt no hesitation in advising resistance by force, in which the Americans of that day would prove to the enemy and the world, that they had not only inherited that liberty which their fathers had given them, but had also the will and the power to maintain it. They relied on the patriotism of the nation, and confidently trusted that the Lord of Hosts would go down with the United States to battle, in a righteous cause, and crown American efforts with success. The committee recommended an immediate appeal to arms. The confidential secretary of Sir James Craig was not a little to blame for the terrible state of fermentation into which the representatives of the sovereign people of America had wrought themselves. Without the knowledge of the Imperial government, Mr. Secretary Ryland had received the concurrence of Sir James Craig to a scheme for the annexation of the New England States to Canada. A young man named Henry, of Irish parentage, and a captain in the militia of the American States had come to Montreal with the view of remaining in Canada. He studied law and made considerable proficiency. Indeed, he was a young man possessed of some talent and of great assurance. And as there was another suspicion haunting the minds of Sir James Craig and of Mr. Secretary Ryland, Mr. John Henry, late captain in the American service, and now Barrister-at-law, was introduced to Governor Craig, as a gentleman likely to inform the government of Canada, whether or not, the suspicions of the Governor and of the Governor's Secretary, were correct, these suspicions being that the North Eastern States of the American Republic desired to form a political connection with Great Britain. Mr. Henry appeared to be the very man for such a mission. He was immediately employed as a spy, and went to Boston, where he did endeavour to ascertain the public mind, in those places in which it is most frequently spoken. He lingered about hotels and news rooms. He visited the parks and the saloons. He went to church, or wherever else information was to be obtained, and he sent his experiences regularly to Mr. Ryland, who furnished him with instructions. But Captain Henry required to be paid for all this trouble. He applied to Governor Craig to find that excellent gentleman had no idea of their value. He then memorialized Lord Liverpool, asking for his services only the appointment of Judge Advocate of Lower Canada, to which the salary of £500 a year was attached. The noble Lord, at the head of the government, knew nothing about Captain Henry, and recommended him, if he had any claim upon Canada, to apply to Sir George Prevost, the Governor General. Captain Henry would do no such thing. He went to the United States, and, for the sum of fifty thousand dollars, gave up to the American government a very interesting correspondence between the Secretary of the Governor General of Canada, Mr. Ryland, and himself. Congress was so transported with rage, at the attempted annexation, that a bill was brought into the House of Representatives, and seriously entertained, the object of which was to declare every person a pirate, and punishable with death, who, under a pretence of a commission from any foreign power, should impress upon the high seas any native of the United States; and gave every such impressed seaman a right to attach, in the hands of any British subject, or of any debtor to any British subject, a sum equal to thirty dollars a month, during the whole period of his detention.[16] The federalist Americans were somewhat favourably disposed towards England. The minority in the House of Representatives, among which were found the principal part of the delegation from New England, in an address to their constituents, solemnly protested, on the ground that the wrongs of which the United States complained, although in some respects, grievous, were not of a nature, in the then state of the world, to justify war, nor were they such as war would be likely to remedy. On the subject of impressment they urged that the question between the two countries had once been honorably and satisfactorily settled, in the treaty negotiated with the British Court by Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney, and that although that treaty had not been ratified by Mr. Jefferson, arrangements might probably again be made. In relation to the second cause of war--the blockade of her enemies' ports, without an adequate force, the minority replied that it was not designed to injure the commerce of the United States, but was retaliatory upon France, which had taken the lead in aggressions upon neutral rights. In addition it was said, that as the repeal of the French decrees had been officially announced, it was to be expected that a revocation of the Orders in Council would follow. They could not refrain from asking what the United States were to gain from war? Would the gratification of some privateers-men compensate the nation for that sweep of American legitimate commerce, by the extended marine of Great Britain, which the desperate act of declaring war invited? Would Canada compensate the middle States for New York, or the Western States for New Orleans? They would not be deceived! A war of invasion might invite a retort of invasion. When Americans visited the peaceable, and, to Americans, the innocent colonies of Great Britain, with the horrors of war, could Americans be assured that their own coast would not be visited with like horrors. At such a crisis of the world, and under impressions such as these, the minority could not consider the war into which the United States had, in secret, been precipitated, as necessary, or required by any moral duty, or any political expediency. The country was divided in opinion, respecting either the propriety or the expediency of the war. The friends of the administration were universally in favor of it.

[16] Allison, page 656.

That there was no just cause for a declaration of war on the part of the United States, it may be sufficient to state that the news of the repeal of the obnoxious Order in Council, reached the United States before England was aware of the declaration of war. But the American government wanted a war as an excuse for a filibustering expedition to Canada, which was to be peaceably separated from Great Britain, and quietly annexed to the United States. Then existing differences would have been speedily patched up to the satisfaction of all parties, the Lower Canadians being, in the language of Sir James Craig, treasonable, seditious, and attached to the country with which the United States was in alliance, France. The United States were not prepared for war. While Great Britain had a hundred sail of the line in commission, and a thousand ships of war bore the royal flag, the Americans had only four frigates and eight sloops in commission, and their whole naval force afloat in ordinary, and building for the Ocean and the Canadian Lakes, was eight frigates and twelve sloops. Their military force only amounted to twenty-five thousand men, to be enlisted for the most part, but the President was authorised to call out one hundred thousand militia, for the purpose of defending the sea coast and the Canadian frontiers. The greatest want of all was proper officers. The ablest of the revolutionary heroes had paid the debt of nature, and there was no military officer to whom fame could point as the man fitted for command. With means so lamentably inconsiderable had America declared war against a country whose arms were sweeping from the Spanish Peninsula the disciplined and veteran troops of France. It was marvellous audacity. And it was a marvellous mistake. Canada, it is true, had only 5,454 men of all arms, who could be accounted soldiers, 445 artillery, 3,783 infantry of the line, and 1,226 fencibles. She had only one or two armed brigs and a few gun-boats on the lakes, but the Upper Canadians were not prepared to exchange their dependency on Great Britain for the paltry consideration of being erected into a territory of the United States, and the Superintendent of the Church of Rome, in Lower Canada, hardly thought it possible that a new conquest of Canada would make her peculiar institutions more secure than they were. The militia of both sections of Canada were loyal. They felt that they could, as their enemies had done before, at least defend their own firesides. There was no sympathy with the American character, nor any regard for American institutions then. Those feelings were to be brought about by that commercial selfishness which time was to develop.

The declaration of war by the United States was only known in Quebec on the 24th of June. A notification was immediately given by the police authorities to all American citizens then in Canada, requiring them to leave the province on or before the third of July. But Sir George Prevost afterwards extended the time to fourteen days longer, to suffer American merchants to conclude their business arrangements. Proclamations were issued, imposing an embargo on the shipping in the port of Quebec, and calling the legislature together, for the despatch of business. Parliament met on the 16th of July. The Governor-in-Chief announced the declaration of war, expressed his reliance upon the spirit, the determination, the loyalty and the zeal of the country. With the aid of the militia, His Majesty's regular troops, few in number, as they were, would yet gallantly repel any hostile attempt that might be made upon the colony. It was with concern that he saw the expense to which the organization and drilling of the militia would put the province. But battles must be fought, campaigning had to be endured, and true and lasting liberty was cheap at any cost of life or treasure. The reply was all that could be desired. While the House deplored the hostile declaration that had been made against Great Britain, and seemed to shrink from the miseries which war entails, they assured the Governor that threats would not intimidate, nor persuasions allure them from their duty to their God, to their country, and to their king. They were convinced that the Canadian militia would fight with spirit and determination, against the enemy, and would, with the aid of the tried soldiers of the king, sternly defend the province against any hostile attack. As far as spirit went there was no deficiency, but Canada was worse off for money than the United States was for soldiery. There were forty thousand militia about to rise in arms, but where was the money to come from necessary to keep them moving? Congress intended to raise an immediate loan of ten millions of dollars. It was essential Canada should immediately replenish her exchequer, as those not being the days of steamships, funds from England could not be soon obtained. Sir George Prevost resolved to issue army bills, payable either in cash, or in government bills of exchange, on London. The House of Assembly assented to the circulation of any bills, and granted fifteen thousand pounds annually for five years, to pay the interest that would accrue upon them. Bills to the value of two hundred and fifty thousand were authorised to be put in circulation; they were to be received in the payment of duties; they were to be a legal tender in the market; and they were to be redeemed at the army bill office, in any way, whether in cash or bills, the Governor-in-Chief might signify. Nothing could have been more satisfactory to Sir George Prevost. He prorogued the Parliament on the 1st of August, with every expression of satisfaction. And well he might be satisfied. The men who were, according to the representations of his predecessor, not at all to be depended upon, in a case of emergency, had most readily, liberally, and loyally, met the demands of the public service. The men who feared martial law, and could not tolerate the withholding of the Habeas Corpus, came forward nobly to defend from outward attack the dominions of their king. The whole province was bursting with warlike zeal. A military epidemic seized old and young, carrying off the latter in extraordinary numbers. Montreal, Quebec, and even Kingston and Toronto teemed with men in uniform and in arms. The regular troops were moved to Montreal, and Quebec was garrisoned by the militia. At Montreal, even the militia turned out for garrison duty. And on the 6th of August, the whole militia were commanded to hold themselves in readiness for embodiment. A little of the zeal now began to ooze out. There never yet was a rule without an exception. In the Parish of Ste. Claire, some young men, who had been drafted into the embodied militia, refused to join their battalion. Of these, four were apprehended, but one was rescued, and it was determined by the able-bodied men of Pointe Claire to liberate such others of their friends as had already joined the depot of the embodied militia at Laprairie. Accordingly, on the following day, some three or four hundred persons assembled at Lachine. They had not assembled to pass a series of resolutions censuring the government for illegally and wantonly carrying off some of the best men of the Parish of Pointe Claire, nor did they express any opinion favorable to Mr. Madison and the Americans, but they had assembled to obtain, by force, the liberty of their friends about to be subjected to military discipline. It seemed to have been a misunderstanding, however. The infuriated parishioners of Pointe Claire, who would not be comforted, on being appealed to, to go to their homes, frequently raised the cry of "Vive le Roi." It might be supposed that the Ste. Claire people meant to wish a long and happy reign to His Imperial Majesty Napoleon, as Mr. Ryland shrewdly suspected. But that supposition was not entertainable for any considerable length of time, inasmuch as the people without any prompting intimated that they had been informed that the militia law had not been put into force, but that if the Governor should call for their services they were ready to obey him. The magistrates assured the people that the militia law was really to be enforced, and advised them to disperse. They refused to budge. Two pieces of artillery and a company of the 49th regiment, which had been sent for, to Montreal, now appeared at Lachine. Still the mob would not disperse. Accordingly, the Riot Act was read, and the artillery fired a ball high over the heads of the stubborn crowd, which, of course, whizzing harmlessly along, produced no effect upon the crowd, except that the eighty, who were armed with fusils and fowling pieces, somewhat smartly returned the compliment, proving to the satisfaction of the soldiers the possession of highly military qualities, in a quarter where it was least expected. In reply, the troops fired grape and small arms, but without any intention of doing mischief. The rioters again fired at the troops, but not the slightest harm resulted to the troops. It was a kind of sham battle. The military authorities began, however, to tire of it, and the mob was fired into, when one man having been killed, and another having been dangerously wounded, the mutineers dispersed, leaving some of the most daring among them, to keep up a straggling fire from the bushes! The military made thirteen prisoners and, as night was setting in, left for Montreal. Next day, four hundred and fifty of the Montreal militia marched to Pointe Claire, and from thence to St. Laurent, which is situated in the rear of the Island of Montreal. There, they captured twenty-four of the culprits, and brought them to head quarters. Thus, there were thirty-seven rebels, prisoners in Montreal, when the United States had declared war against Britain, and the first blood shed, in consequence of the declaration of war in Canada, by the troops, was, unfortunately, that of Canadians. But the Pointe Claire _habitants_ bitterly repented the resistance which they had made to the militia law, and many of them came to Montreal, craving the forgiveness of the Governor, which they readily obtained. The ringleaders alone were punished.

Hostilities were commenced in Upper Canada. No sooner had General Brocke learned that war was proclaimed, than he conceived a project of attack. He did not mean to penetrate into the enemy's country, but for the better protection of his own, to secure the enemy's outposts. On the 26th of June, he sent orders to Captain Roberts, who was at St. Joseph's, a small post, or block house, situated on an island in Lake Huron, maintained by thirty soldiers of the line and two artillerymen, in charge of a serjeant of that corps, under the command of the gallant captain, to attack Michillimackinac, an American fort defended by seventy-five men, also under the command of a captain. He was further instructed to retreat upon St. Mary's, one of the trading posts belonging to the North West Fur Company, in the event of St. Joseph's being attacked by the Americans. General Brocke's instructions reached Captain Roberts on the eighth of July, and he lost no time in carrying the first part of them into execution. Communicating the design, the execution of which he had been entrusted with, to Mr. Pothier, in charge of the Company's Post, at St. Joseph's, that gentleman patriotically tendered his services. Mr. Pothier, attended by about a hundred and sixty voyageurs, the greater part of whom were armed with muskets and fowling pieces, joined Captain Roberts with his detachment of three artillerymen and thirty soldiers of the line, and in a flotilla of boats and canoes, accompanied by the North West Company's brig _Caledonia_, laden with stores and provisions, a descent was made upon Michillimackinac. They arrived at the enemy's fort, without having met with the slightest opposition, and summoned it to surrender. The officer in command of the American fort at once complied. He had indeed received no certain information that war had been declared. Very shortly afterwards two vessels, laden with furs, came into the harbour, ignorant of the capture of the fort, and were taken possession of, though subsequently restored to their proprietors, by Major-General DeRottenburgh, the President of the Board of Claims. Unimportant as this achievement was, it yet had the effect of establishing confidence in Upper Canada. It had an excellent effect upon the Indian tribes, with whose aid the struggle with the Americans, was afterwards efficiently maintained.

Upon the declaration of war, the government of the United States despatched as skilful an officer, as they had, to arm the American vessels on Lake Erie, and on Lake Ontario, with the view of gaining, if possible, the ascendancy on those great inland waters, which separate a great portion of Canada from the United States. The American army was distributed in three divisions:--one under General Harrison called "The North Western Army," a second under General Stephen Van Rensellaer, at Lewiston, called "The Army of the Centre," and a third under the Commander-in-Chief, General Dearborn, in the neighbourhood of Plattsburgh and Greenbush. As yet the armies had not been put in motion, but on the 12th of July, General Hull, the Governor of Michigan, who had been sent, at the head of two thousand five hundred men, to Detroit, with the view of putting an end to the hostilities of the Indians in that section of the country, crossed to Sandwich, established his head-quarters there, and issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of Canada. He expressed the most entire confidence of success. The standard of union, he alleged, waved over the territory of Canada. He tendered the invaluable blessings of liberty, civil, political, and religious, to an oppressed people, separated from, and having no share in the Councils of Britain, or interests in her conduct. And he threatened a war of extermination if the Indians were employed in resisting the invasion.

General Brocke met the Parliament of Upper Canada, at York, on the 28th of the same month, and issued a proclamation to the people, in which he ridiculed General Hull's fears of the Indians. He then despatched Colonel Proctor to assume the command at Amherstburgh, from Fort St. George.

So confident was the American General of success that, as yet, he had not a single cannon or mortar mounted, and he did not consider it expedient to attempt to carry Amherstburgh, which was only situated eighteen miles below, by assault. But, as his situation, at Sandwich, became more and more precarious, he, at length, did resolve upon attacking Amherstburgh, if he could get there. He sent detachment after detachment, to cross the Canard, the river on which Amherstburgh stands. The Americans attempted thrice to cross the bridge, situated three miles above Amherstburgh, in vain. Some of the 41st regiment and a few Indians drove them back as often as they tried it. Another rush was made a little higher up. But the attempt to ford the stream was as unsuccessful as the attempts to cross the bridge. Near the ford, some of those Indians, so much dreaded by General Hull, lay concealed in the grass. Not a blade stirred until the whole of the Americans were well in the stream, and some had gained the bank, on the Canadian side, when eighteen or twenty of the red children of the forest, sprang to their feet, and gave a yell, so hideous, that the Americans, stricken with panic, fled with almost ludicrous precipitancy. So terror-stricken, indeed, were the valiant host, that they left arms, accoutrements, and haversacks, behind them. No further attempt was made by General Hull, on Amherstburgh. It would have been captured with great difficulty, if it could have been captured at all. At the mouth of the river Canard, a small tributary of the Detroit, the _Queen Charlotte_, a sloop of war, armed with eighteen twenty-four pounders, lay at anchor, watching every manoeuvre.

On the 3rd of July, Lieutenant Rolette, commanding the armed brig _Hunter_, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, succeeded in capturing the _Cayuga_ packet, bound from the Miami river to Detroit, with troops, and laden with the baggage and hospital stores of the American army. He made a dash at the _Cayuga_ in his barge, and, with only six men, secured her.

Colonel Proctor now assumed the offensive. He sent Captain Tallon, on the 5th of August, with an inconsiderable detachment of the 41st regiment, and a few of the many Indians, who were flocking to his standard, to Brownstown, a village opposite Amherstburgh. Captain Tallon energetically carried out his instructions, by surprising and routing more than two hundred of the Americans, who were under the command of Major Vanhorne. The captured detachment were on their way from Detroit to the river Raisin, in the expectation of meeting there a detachment of volunteers, from Ohio, under Captain Burr, with a convoy of provisions for the army. General Hull's despatches fell into the hands of the captors. The deplorable state of the American army was disclosed, and, without loss of time, Colonel Proctor sent over a reinforcement, consisting of one hundred men, of the 41st regiment, with some militia and four hundred Indians, under the command of Major Muir, their landing being protected by the brig _Hunter_. Nor were the American General's misfortunes yet to be ameliorated. While these things were taking place, a despatch reached him from the officer commanding the Niagara frontier, intimating that his expected co-operation was impossible. On every side, General Hull was being hemmed in. His supplies had been cut off. Defeat had befallen him so far and death, sickness, fatigue and discomfiture had its depressing effect upon his soldiery. There was no insurrection in Canada. The people of the backwoods had not the slightest desire to be territorially annexed to that country over which the standard of union had waved for thirty years. On the contrary, they were bent upon doing it as much mischief as possible. They had no idea of transferring their allegiance to a power who had visited them with the miseries of war, for no fault of theirs. Hull was dismayed. When it was announced that General Brocke was advancing against him, he sounded a retreat. Unwilling that his fears should be communicated to the troops under him, General Hull retreated ostensibly with the view of concentrating the army. After he had re-opened his communications with the rivers Raisin and Miami, through which the whole of his supplies came, he was to resume offensive operations. That time never came. On the 8th of August, Sandwich was evacuated. Two hundred and fifty men only were left behind, in charge of a small fortress, a little below Detroit. When again in Detroit, General Hull sent six hundred men under Colonel Miller, to dislodge the British from Brownston. Major Muir, who commanded at Brownston, instead of waiting for the attack, quixotically went out to meet his adversaries. The two opposing detachments met at Maguago, a kind of half way place, where a fight began. It was of short duration, but, considering the numbers engaged, was sanguinary. Seventy-five of the Americans fell, and the British were compelled, though with inconsiderable loss, to retreat. On the water as on the land, the chief mischief fell upon the Americans. Lieutenant Rolette, with the boats of the _Queen Charlotte_ and _Hunter_, intercepted, attacked, and captured eleven American batteaux and boats, which were _en route_ for Detroit, under the escort of two hundred and fifty American soldiers, marching along the shore, the boats and batteaux having on board fifty-six wounded Americans and two English prisoners.

General Brocke, who had prorogued his Parliament, now appeared at the seat of war. He had collected together a force of seven hundred of British regulars and militia and six hundred auxiliary Indians. And he very coolly determined upon obtaining the surrender of His Excellency, General Hull, and his whole force. Knowing from his absurd proclamation, how much in dread he stood of the Indians, General Brocke intimated that if an attack were made, the Indians would be beyond his control; that if Detroit were instantly surrendered, he would enter into conditions such as would satisfy the most scrupulous sense of honor; and that he had sent Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell and Major Glegg with full authority to conclude any arrangement that might prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood. General Hull replied very courteously in the negative. Captain Dixon, of the Royal Engineers, had thrown up a battery in Sandwich, on the very ground so recently occupied by the Americans, to act upon Detroit. In this battery there were two five and a half inch mortars, and one eighteen and two twelve pounder guns, and it was manned by sailors under the command of Captain Hull. For upwards of an hour the cannonade was terrific, the fire of the enemy being very feebly maintained, from two twenty-four pounders. On the morning of the eighteenth, the cannonade recommenced, and General Brocke crossed the river with his little army, unopposed, at the Spring Wells, three miles below Detroit, the landing being effected under cover of the guns of the _Queen Charlotte_ and _Hunter_. General Brocke formed his troops upon the beach, into four deep, and flanked by the Indians, advanced for about a mile, when he formed this miniature army into line, with its right resting on the river Detroit, and the left supported by the Indians. He then made preparations for assault, and was about to attack, when to the surprise as much, it is said, of the American as of the British regiments, a flag of truce was displayed upon the walls of the fort, and a messenger was seen approaching. It was an intimation that General Hull would capitulate. Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell and Major Glegg were accordingly sent over to the American General's tent where, in a few minutes, the terms of capitulation were signed, sealed, and delivered in duplicate, one copy for the information of His Britannic Majesty, and the other for that of Mr. President Madison, the chief of the authors of the war. To Mr. Madison, the information that General Hull had capitulated to the Governor of Upper Canada, with two thousand five hundred men, and thirty-three pieces of cannon, and that, in consequence, the whole territory of Michigan had been ceded to Great Britain, could only have been as disagreeable as it was animating to the people of Canada. So entirely indeed were the Americans unprepared for a blow of such extraordinary severity, that no one could be brought to believe in it. It seemed an impossible circumstance. It was felt to be a delusion. It seemed as if some one had practised a terrible hoax upon the nation. Until officially made known to the sovereign people, the disaster was looked upon as a lying rumour of the enemy. Another Henry had been at work, tampering with the New England States, or the federalist minority had set it afloat. True it could not be. It was indeed something to excite surprise. The trophy of a British force, consisting of no more than seven hundred men, including militia, and six hundred Indians was the cession of a territory and the surrender of a General-in-Chief, a strong fort, the armed brig _John Adams_, and the two thousand five hundred men, who were designed not to defend their country only, but to wrest Upper Canada from the Crown of Great Britain. To General Hull's fears of the savage ferocity of the Indians, this bloodless victory must, to some extent, however trifling, be attributed. General Hull was evidently superstitiously afraid of an Indian. While asking the inhabitants of Upper Canada to come to him for protection, he could not help entreating, as it were, protection for himself against the Indians. If you will not accept my offer, the General seemed to say, either remain at home or cross bayonets with American soldiers, but turn into the field one of the scalping savages of your forests, and we shall kill, burn and destroy, everything that comes before us. With his regular troops, the unfortunate man was sent a prisoner to Montreal. He was led into that city, at the head of his officers and men, and was at once an object of pity and derision. But the Commander-in-Chief received his prisoner with the courtesy of a gentleman, and with every honor due to his rank. Nay, he even suffered him to return to the United States on parole, without solicitation.

In his official despatch, to the American government, Hull took pains to free his conduct from censure. His reasons for surrender, were the want of provisions to maintain the siege, the expected reinforcements of the enemy, and "the savage ferocity of the Indians," should he ultimately be compelled to capitulate. But the federal government so far from being satisfied with these excuses, ordered a Court Martial to assemble, before which General Hull was tried, on the charges of treason, cowardice, and unofficerlike conduct. On the last charge only was he found guilty and sentenced to death. The Court, nevertheless, strongly recommended him to mercy. He was an old man, and one who, in other times, had done the State some service. He had served honorably during the revolutionary war. The sentence of death was accordingly remitted by the President, but his name was struck off the army list, and this republican hero, who had forgotten the art of war, went in his old age, broken-hearted and disgraced, to a living grave, with a worm in his vitals, gnawing and torturing him, more terribly than thousands of Indians, practising the most unheard of cruelties could have done, until death, so long denied, came to him, naturally, as a relief.

The circumstance is not a little curious that only three days after General Hull had surrendered to Governor Brocke, Captain Dacres, commanding H.M.S. _Guerrière_, had surrendered to Captain Isaac Hull, after a most severe action with the American frigate _Constitution_. The _Constitution_ was most heavily armed for a vessel of that period. On her main deck she carried no less than 30 twenty-four pounders, while on her upper deck she had 24 thirty-two pounders, and two eighteens. In addition to this, for a frigate, unusually heavy armament, there was a piece mounted, under her capstan, resembling seven musket barrels, fixed together with iron bands, the odd concern being discharged by a lock--each barrel threw twenty-five balls, within a few seconds of each other, making 145 from the piece within two minutes. And she was well manned. Her crew consisted of 476 men. The _Guerrière_ mounted only 49 carriage guns, and was manned by only 244 men, and 19 boys. On the 19th of August, the look-out of the _Guerrière_ noticed a sail on the weather beam. The ship was in latitude 40°., 20 N., and in longitude 55°. W., and was steering under a moderate breeze on the starboard tack. The strange sail seemed to be bearing down upon the _Guerrière_, and it was not long before the discovery was made that the stranger was a man-of-war, of great size and largely masted. Her sailing qualities, under the circumstances, were considerably superior to those of the _Guerrière_, and it became consequently necessary to prepare for an action, which it was impossible to avoid. At three o'clock, in the afternoon, Captain Dacres, the commander of the British frigate, beat to quarters. An hour later and the enemy was close at hand. She seemed to stand across the _Guerrière's_ bows and Captain Dacres wore ship to avoid a raking fire. No sooner had this manoeuvre been executed than the _Guerrière_ ran up her colours and fired several shots at her opponent, but they fell short. The stranger soon followed the example set to him, and, hoisting American colours, fired in return. Captain Dacres now fully aware of the size, armament and sailing powers of his opponent, wore repeatedly, broadsides being as repeatedly exchanged. While both ships were keeping up a heavy fire, and steering free, the _Constitution_, at five o'clock, closed on the _Guerrière's_ starboard beam, when the battle raged furiously. Twenty minutes had hardly elapsed when the mizen mast of the _Guerrière_ was shot away, bringing the ship up into the wind, and the carnage on board became terrific. The _Constitution_, during the confusion, caused by the loss of the _Guerrière's_ mast, was laid across the British frigate's bow, and while one or two of the bow guns of the _Guerrière_ could only be brought to bear upon the _Constitution_, that vessel scoured the decks of the British ship, with a stream of metal. "At five minutes before six o'clock, says Captain Hull, when within half pistol shot, we commenced a heavy fire from all our guns, double shotted with round and grape." On board the _Guerrière_, Mr. Grant, who commanded the forecastle, was carried below, the master was shot through the knee; and I, says Captain Dacres, was shot in the back. At twenty minutes past six the fore and mainmasts of the _Guerrière_ went over the side, leaving her an unmanageable wreck. The _Constitution_ ceased firing and shot a-head, her cabin having taken fire from the _Guerrière's_ guns. The _Guerrière_ would have renewed the action, but the wreck of the masts had no sooner been cleared than the spritsail yard went, and the _Constitution_ having no new braces, wore round within pistol shot again to rake her opponent. The crippled ship lay in the trough of the sea, rolling her main deck guns under water. Thirty shots had taken effect in her hull, about five sheets of copper down; the mizen mast, after it fell, had knocked a large hole under her starboard quarter, and she was so completely shattered as to be in a sinking state. The decks were swimming with blood. Fifteen men had been killed and sixty-three had been severely wounded, when Captain Dacres called his officers together and consulted them. Farther waste of life was useless, and the British colours were dropped in submission to those of America. But the result of the contest, though it could not fail to cause great exultation in the United States, reflected no dishonor upon the flag of Britain. A more unequal contest had never before been maintained with such spirit, zeal, skill, or bravery. The battle had lasted for nearly three hours and a half, and the result was the sure effect of size, as all things being otherwise equal, the heavier must overcome the lighter body. When the _Guerrière_ surrendered, it was only to permit her gallant commander, her other officers, and the men, the wounded and the untouched, to be transferred for safety from a watery grave to the _Constitution_. Captain Hull, the conqueror, told his government that the _Guerrière_ had been totally dismasted and otherwise cut to pieces, so as to make her not worth towing into port. With four feet of water in her hold, she was abandoned and blown up. The _Constitution_ had only the Lieutenant of Marines and six seamen killed, and two officers, four seamen, and one marine wounded.

On each side there was now something to be proud of and something to regret. If the British exulted over the fall of Detroit and the surrender of General Hull, and the United States viewed these occurrences with indescribable pain and a sense of humiliation, the Americans could now boast of the success of their arms at sea, while Britain regretted a disaster upon that element, on which she had long held and yet holds the undisputed mastery. There was now no room for the American government, on the ground of having been too much humiliated, to refuse peace if it were offered to her. Yet peace was refused. Soon after these occurrences the news of the repeal of the Orders in Council reached this continent, and the ground of quarrel being removed, peace was expected, and an armistice was agreed to between the British Governor of Canada, Sir George Prevost and General Dearborn, the American commander-in-chief, on the northern frontier. But the American government, bent upon the conquest of this province, disavowed the armistice and determined upon the vigorous prosecution of the contest. It was then that the Northern States of the American Union, who were the most likely to suffer by the war became clamorous for peace. The whole brunt of the battle, by land, was necessarily to be borne by the State of New York, and the interruption of the transatlantic traffic was to fall with overwhelmingly disastrous pressure upon Massachusetts and Connecticut. Addresses to the President were sent in, one after another, from the Northeastern States, expressing dissatisfaction with the war and the utmost abhorrence of the alliance between imperial France and republican America. They would have none of it, and if French troops were introduced into their States, as auxiliaries, New England would look upon them and would treat them as enemies. Nay, the Northern States went still further. Two of the States, Connecticut and Massachusetts, openly refused to send their contingents or to impose the taxes which had been voted by Congress, and "symptoms of a decided intention to break off from the confederacy were already evinced in the four Northern States, comprising New York, and the most opulent and powerful portions of the Union."[17]

[17] Alison's History of Europe, page 662, vol. 10.

General Brocke, ignorant of the armistice, and indeed it did not affect him, for General Hull had acted under the immediate orders of the American Secretary at War, and was consequently irresponsible to General Dearborn, with the aid of the Lilliputian navy of the Lakes, was maintaining the ascendancy of Great Britain in Upper Canada and Michigan. He was about indeed to make an attempt upon Niagara, to be followed by another upon Sackett's Harbour, with that daring, promptitude and judgment, which was characteristic of the man, when he received instructions from the Governor General to rest a little. Following the advice of the Duke of Wellington, Sir George Prevost had wisely determined not to make a war of aggression with the only handful of troops that could be spared to him from the scene of prouder triumphs and of harder and more important struggles. But the American government, indifferent to the menaces of the Northern Provinces of the Union, and mistaking for weakness the conciliatory advances of Sir George Prevost, soon disturbed the rest of the gallant Brocke. Early on the morning of the 13th of October, a detachment of between a thousand and thirteen hundred men, from the American army of the centre, under the immediate command of Colonel Solomon Van Rensellaer,[18] crossed the river Niagara, and attacked the British position of Queenstown. It was when Van Rensellaer having himself crossed, and the British had been driven from their position, that General Brocke, and about six hundred of the 49th regiment, in the grey of the morning, arrived at the scene of conflict. The Americans being about the same time reinforced by the addition of regulars and militia. General Brocke put himself at the head of the 49th's Grenadiers, and while gallantly cheering them on, he fell mortally wounded, and soon after died. His trusty aid-de-camp, the brave Colonel McDonell, fell beside him, almost at the same moment, never again to rise in life. The 49th fought stoutly for a time, but, discouraged by the loss of the General, they fell back and the position was lost. But the fortune of the day was not yet decided, although Van Rensellaer, with the aid of Mr. Totter, his Lieutenant of Engineers, had somewhat strengthened the recently captured position on the heights. Reinforcements, consisting partly of regular troops, partly of militia, and partly of Chippewa Indians, in all about eight or nine hundred men, came up about three in the afternoon, to strengthen and encourage the discomfitted 49th, under General Roger Sheaffe, who now assumed the command. A combined attack was made on the Americans by the English troops and artillery, in front and flank, while Norton, with a considerable body of Indians, menaced their other extremity. It was entirely successful. The Americans were totally defeated, and one General Officer, (Wadsworth, commanding in the room of General Van Rensellaer, who had re-crossed the river to accelerate the embarkation of the militia, which, though urged, entreated, and commanded to embark, remained idle spectators, while their countrymen were, as the American accounts say, struggling for victory,) two Lieutenant-Colonels, five Majors, and a corresponding number of Captains and subalterns, with nine hundred men, were made prisoners; one gun and two colours were taken; and there were four hundred killed and wounded, while the loss on the side of the British did not exceed seventy men. Thus was the battle won. It had cost England an excellent soldier, a man who thoroughly understood his duty, and felt his position in whatever capacity he was placed. He died at the age of 42, and the remains of this gallant defender of Upper Canada were buried at Fort George, together with those of his aid-de-camp, Colonel McDonell. One grave contained both. General Brocke was buried amidst the tears of those whom he had often led to victory, and amidst the sympathetic sorrowing of even those who had caused his death. Minute guns were fired during the funeral, alike from the American as from the British batteries. Thus it was with the Americans on land. It was, as has been seen, very different on the sea. And the first rencontre took place on the latter element. When war was declared it was with the intention of intercepting the homeward bound West India fleet of British merchantmen. Three frigates, one sloop, and one brig of war, under the command of Captain Rogers, of the American frigate _President_, were despatched on that errand. It was about three on the morning of the 23rd of June, that Captain Rogers was informed, by an American brig, bound from Madeira to New York, that four days before a fleet of British merchantmen, were seen under convoy of a frigate and a brig, steering to the eastward. Captain Rogers accordingly shaped his course in pursuit of them. At six o'clock in the morning, a sail was descried, which was soon discovered to be a frigate. The signal was made for a chase, and the squadron made all sail on the starboard tack. This being perceived by Captain Byrn, who commanded the British frigate _Belvidera_, protecting the convoy, he tacked and made all sail, steering northeast by east. It was now eight o'clock in the morning, and the _President_ seemed to be gaining on the _Belvidera_, leaving her consorts, however, far behind her. About half past three in the afternoon, the _President_ fired three guns, the shot from one of which was terribly destructive. Two men were killed, and Lieutenant Bruce and four men were more or less severely wounded. Broadside after broadside was fired by both vessels soon afterwards, and the _President_ at last bore off. Each party lost about twenty-two men, but the British frigate had the advantage. Her guns were pointed with great skill, and produced a surprising effect, as the American squadron failed in taking the single English frigate, and the whole merchantmen escaped untouched. Indeed after a cruise of twenty days and before the declaration of hostilities was known at sea, the American squadron returned to port, having only captured seven merchantmen.

[18] Alison says under the command of General Wadsworth, but Christie speaks of Brigadier-General Van Rensellaer, while the American accounts speak of Colonel Solomon Van Rensellaer. In this case Mr. Christie and the Americans are to be preferred to Alison.

The action between the _Constitution_ and the _Guerrière_ occurred after this event, the result of which has been already stated, somewhat out of place, it is true, but, with the design of exhibiting how a peace might have been effected, had it been desired by the Americans, without loss of honor on either side. The simultaneousness of the advantages gained by the British on the land, and of the advantages gained by the Americans on the sea, is not a little remarkable, nor is it less remarkable that after the tide of battle had slightly turned with the British on land, towards the close of the war, the naval actions at sea were nearly all to the disadvantage of the Americans. It would seem that providence had designed to humble the pride of the unnatural combatants.

About the exact time of the surrender of General Wadsworth, at Queenston, an engagement occurred between the English sloop of war _Frolic_, and the American brig of war _Wasp_, which proved disastrous to the former. As far as the number of guns went, both vessels were equal. Each had eighteen guns, nine to a broadside, but while the sloop had only 92 men and measured only 384 tons, the brig had 135 men and measured 434 tons. The _Frolic_, on the night of the 17th of October, had been overtaken by a most violent gale of wind, in which she carried away her mainyard, lost her topsails, and sprung her maintopmast. It was, while repairing damages, on the morning of the 18th, that Captain Whinyates, of the _Frolic_, was made aware of the presence of a suspicious looking vessel, in chase of the convoy, which the _Frolic_ had in charge. The merchant ships continued their voyage with all sails set, and the _Frolic_, dropping astern, hoisted Spanish colours to decoy the stranger under her guns and give time for the convoy to escape. The vessels soon approached sufficiently to exchange broadsides, and the firing of the _Frolic_ was admirable. But the vessel could not be worked easily, and the gaff braces being shot away, while no sail could be or was placed upon the mainmast, her opponent easily got the advantage of position. To be brief, the storm of the night before had given the _Wasp_ an advantage which, neither nautical skill, nor undaunted resolution could counteract, and the _Frolic_, an unmanageable log upon the ocean, was compelled to strike. Undoubtedly this was another triumph to the United States, although, materially considered, the gain was not much. In only a few hours after this action, both the _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ were surrendered to H.M.S. _Poictiers_, of seventy-four guns.

Seven days afterwards, another naval engagement occurred, more tellingly disastrous to Great Britain. The _United States_, a frigate of fifteen hundred tons burthen, carrying 30 long 24-pounders, on her main deck, and 22 42-pounders, with two long 24-pounders, on quarter deck and forecastle, howitzer guns in her tops, and a travelling carronade on her deck, with a complement of 478 picked men,[19] was perceived by H.M. frigate _Macedonian_, of 1081 tons, carrying 49 guns, and manned by 254 men and 35 boys. The _Macedonian_ approached the enemy and the enemy backed her sails, awaiting the attack, after the firing had continued for about an hour, at long range. When in close battle, Captain Carden perceived that he had no chance of success, but he was determined to fight his ship while she floated and was manageable, hoping for, rather than expecting, some lucky hit, which would so cripple the enemy as to permit the _Macedonian_, if no more could be done, to bear off with honor. But the fortune of war was adverse. Every shot told with deadly and destructive effect upon the _Macedonian_, and even yet, with nearly a hundred shots in her hull, her lower guns under water, in a tempestuous sea, and a third of her crew either killed or wounded, Captain Carden fought his ship. To "conquer or die," was his motto, and the motto of a brave crew, some of whom even stood on deck, after having paid a visit to the cockpit, and submitted to the amputation of an arm, grinning defiance, and anxious to be permitted the chance of boarding with their fellows, when Captain Carden called up his boarders as a _dernier resort_. But boarding was rendered impossible, as the fore brace was shot away, and the yard swinging round, the vessel was thrown upon the wind. The _United States_ made sail ahead and the crew of the _Macedonian_ fancying that she was taking her leave cheered lustily. They were not long deceived. Having refilled her cartridges, the _United States_, at a convenient distance, stood across the bows of her disabled antagonist, and soon compelled her to strike. While the _Macedonian_ had thirty-six killed and sixty-eight wounded, the _United States_ had only five killed and seven _hors de combat_.

It was such advantages as these that induced the Americans to continue the war. The Americans were inflated with pride. In their own estimation they had become a first rate maritime power, and even in the eyes of Europe, it seemed that they were destined to become so. The disparity in force was justly less considered than the result. However bravely the British commanders had fought their ships, the disasters were no less distressing, politically considered, than if they had been the result of positive weakness or of lamentable cowardice. These advantages even compensated in glory to the Northeastern States for the losses which their commerce had sustained, and would, had they continued very much longer, have stimulated them to forget their selfishness, their bankruptcies, and their privations, though perhaps they tended on the other hand, to cause less vigorous efforts to be made for the acquisition of Canada, than otherwise would have been the case, by rivetting the public attention of America more on the successful operations by sea than on their own disastrous operations by land. There was yet another disaster to overtake Great Britain. And it was little wonder. The Lords of the Admiralty, wedded to old notions, unlike the Heads of the Naval Department of the United States, were slow to alter the build or armament of the national ships. They seemed to think that success must ultimately be dependent upon pluck, and that there could be again few instances in which a sloop could be so disabled by a storm as to be unable to cope with a brig, better manned, better armed, and in good sailing trim. They continued to send slow-sailing brigs and ill-armed sloops-of-war, for the protection of large fleets of merchantmen, with valuable cargoes, while the frigates of the enemy, in search of them, whether in the calm or in the storm, were faster than British seventy-fours, and were equal to British ships of the line in armament. It was after the loss of the _Macedonian_ that the British Admiralty commissioned and sent to sea the frigate _Java_, of the same tonnage, with the same deficiency of men, and, worse than all, half of whom were landsmen, and of exactly the same armament as the _Macedonian_, only that her weight of metal was less, to cope with such frigates as the _United States_, the _President_, and the _Constitution_. On the 12th of November, the _Java_ sailed from Spithead, the remonstrances of Captain Lambert against the inadequacy and inexperience of his crew being of no avail with the authorities. He was told, when he insisted that he was no match for an American, even of equal size, that "a voyage to the East Indies and back would make a good crew." The difficulties in the way of getting to the East Indies, to say nothing of coming back again, never entered into the heads of men, who had long been laid up in ordinary, and were dry-rotting to decay. These were the men who sent the water casks to contain the fresh water of His Majesty's vessels afloat on our fresh water lakes. Then, as now, were the wrong men in the wrong places. Men, who should have been in Greenwich Hospital, talking of times gone by, or living in dignified retirement, were entrusted with the management of affairs in a new age, the country rather losing than gaining by their individual experiences. And the British public stung to the quick, were aware of it. The correctness of Captain Lambert's judgment was too soon brought to the test. The _Java_ fell in with the _Constitution_ on the 28th of December, when the latter stood off as the former approached, to gain a first advantage by firing at long range. But as the _Java_ was fast gaining upon her, the _Constitution_ made a virtue of necessity, and shortened sail, placing herself under the lee bow of the _Java_, so that in close action, the crew of the _Constitution_ might fight like men behind a rampart, while the crew of the _Java_ stood at their guns _en barbette_. The action immediately commenced, and the effect of the _Java's_ first broadside, on the enemy's hull, was such that the American wore to get away. Captain Lambert also wore his ship, and a running fight was kept up with great spirit for forty minutes. The _Java_ had, as yet, suffered little, but the vessels coming within pistol shot, a determined action ensued. Captain Lambert had resolved upon boarding his enemy, if it were possible in any measure to effect it. With that view he was closing upon his antagonist, when the foremast of the _Java_ fell suddenly and with a crash so tremendous as to break in the forecastle and cover the deck with the wreck. Only a moment later and the main topmast also fell upon the deck, while Captain Lambert lay weltering in his blood, mortally wounded. Lieutenant Chads, on whom the command now devolved, found the _Java_ perfectly unmanageable. The wreck of the masts hung over the side, next to the enemy, and every discharge of the _Java's_ own guns set her on fire. Yet, Lieutenant Chads continued the action for three hours and a half, until the _Java_ was felt to be going down. It was then that the _Constitution_ assumed a raking position, and it was then only that Lieutenant Chads struck. The _Java_ was no prize to the victors of great value, for her crew were no sooner taken out than the American commander blew her up. In this desperate engagement the _Java_ had twenty-two killed and one hundred and two wounded; the _Constitution_ had ten killed and forty wounded. Captain Lambert's worst fears had been realised, and the death of that gallant and skilful sailor aroused a tongue which, in Great Britain, has a potency and influence, such as official insolence cannot withstand, nor official incapacity escape from. The spirit of the "Times" was up. The voice of the many loudly condemned the incompetency of the few. The conduct of the war had now become a matter of moment, and reforms, in the marine department at least, were imperative.

[19] Captain Carden's despatch to Mr. Croker.

By the fall of Gen'l. Brocke, the civil governorship of the Upper province devolved upon Major Gen'l. Roger Sheaffe, the senior military officer there, and to him, Gen'l. Smyth, the new American commander at Niagara, applied for an armistice, which was granted, and which lasted from the battle of Queenston until the 20th of November. Nothing could have been more silly than this consent to an armistice on the part of a general so very fortunate as General Sheaffe had been. He needed no rest. He could gain nothing by inactivity. Delay necessary to the enemy was of course injurious to him. Without any molestation whatever the Americans were enabled to forward their naval stores from Black Rock to Presque Isle, by water, which, had hostilities been active, would have been impossible. This truce, not to bury the dead, or preparatory to submission, was obtained with the view of gaining time, so that a fleet might be equipped to co-operate with the army, by wresting from the British their previous superiority on the lakes. General Smyth had, with the true trickery of the diplomatist, rather than with the blunt honesty of the soldier, exerted himself during the armistice, in the preparation of boats for another attempt to invade Upper Canada. Alexander Smyth, Brigadier-General, in command of the American army of the centre, though a rogue, in a diplomatic point of view, was not necessarily a fool. He had shrewd notions in a small way. Like a true downeast Yankee, he knew the effect of soft sawder upon human nature. Like the unfortunate Hull, before taking possession of a territory so extensive as Upper Canada, he thought it necessary to assure the stranger that he was, on submitting to be conquered, to become "a fellow citizen." He proclaimed this interesting fact to his own companions in arms. If the stranger citizens behaved peaceably, they were to be secure in their persons, as a matter of course, but only in their properties so far as Alexander's imperious necessities would admit, and how far that would have been, time was to unfold. He strictly forbade private plundering, but whatever was "booty," according to the usages of war--"booty and beauty," doubtless combined,--Alexander's soldiery were to have. Appealing to the trader-instincts of his hordes, he offered two hundred dollars a head for artillery horses, of the enemy, and forty dollars for the arms and spoils of each savage warrior, who should be killed, and every man, who should shrink, in the moment of trial, was to be consigned to "eternal infamy." The watchword of the "patriots," was to be "the cannon lost at Detroit or death."

During the truce, in Upper Canada, there was some skirmishing in Lower Canada. At St. Régis, four hundred Americans surprised the Indian village. Twenty-three men were made prisoners, and Lieutenant Rolette, with Serjeant McGillivray, and six men were slain. But to counterbalance this affair, a month later, some detachments of the 49th regiment, a few artillery, and seventy militiamen from Cornwall and Glengary, surrounded a block house at the Salmon River, and made prisoners of a Captain, two subalterns and forty men; four batteaux and fifty-seven stand of arms, falling also into the hands of the captors.

In no way discouraged, however much they may have been irritated by these repeated failures, which had not even the excuse of inferiority in numbers, or in any want of the materials of war, if the want of vessels on the lake be not considered, the American government energetically exerted itself to augment their naval forces on the lakes and to reinforce General Dearborn. Indeed, that officer was now at the head of ten thousand men, at Plattsburgh, and the American fleet on Lake Ontario was already so much superior to that of the British, as to make it necessary for the latter to remain inactive in harbour. The British ship _Royal George_, was actually chased into Kingston channel, and was there cannonaded for some time. It was only when the American fleet came within range of the Kingston forts that they hauled off to Four Mile Point, and anchored, the commander taking time to reflect upon the expediency of bombarding Kingston. Next morning, having come to an opposite conclusion, he stood out with his fleet into the open lake and fell in with the _Governor Simcoe_. A chase was commenced, and the _Governor Simcoe_ narrowly escaped by running over a reef of rocks, and making for Kingston, which, like the _Royal George_, she reached more hotly pursued than she had bargained for. It was late in the season, and the weather becoming more and more boisterous, the Americans bore away for Sackett's Harbour, in making for which they captured two British schooners, taking from one of them, Captain Brocke, the paymaster of the 49th regiment of the line, who had with him the plate which had belonged to his gallant deceased brother, the late Governor of Upper Canada. But the American Commodore Chancey, generously paroled him, and suffered him to retain the plate.

Unable to remain longer inactive, General Dearborn, in command of the American army of the north, approached Lower Canada. On the 17th of November, Major DeSalaberry, commanding the Canadian Cordon and advanced posts, on the line, received intelligence of Lieutenant Phillips, that the enemy, ten thousand strong, were rapidly advancing upon Odelltown. There was no time to be lost and he set about strengthening his position as speedily as he could. Two companies of Canadian Voltigeurs, three hundred Indians, and a few militia volunteers were obtained from the neighboring parishes, and there was every disposition manifested to give the intruders a warm reception. The enemy, however, halted at the town of Champlain, and nothing of moment occurred until the 20th of November, when the Captain of the day, or rather of the night, as it was only three in the morning, noticed the enemy fording the river Lacolle. Retracing his steps, he had only time to warn the piquet of their danger, when a volley was fired by the Americans, who had surrounded the log guard-house, at so inconsiderable a distance that the burning wads set fire to the birch covering of the roof, until the guard-house was consumed. But long before that happened, the militia and Indians had discharged their guns, and dashed through the enemy's ranks. It was dark, and the position which the Americans had taken, with the view of surrounding the guard-house, contributed somewhat to their own destruction. In a circle, face to face, they mistook each other in the darkness, and fought gallantly and with undoubted obstinacy. Neither side of the circle seemed willing to yield. For half an hour a brisk fire was kept up, men fell, and groaned, and died; and the consequences might have been yet more dreadful had not the moon, hidden until now by clouds, revealed herself to the astonished combatants. The victors and the vanquished returned together to Champlain, leaving behind four killed and five wounded. From the wounded prisoners, whom, with the dead, the Indians picked off the battle field, it was learned that the unsuccessful invaders consisted of fourteen hundred men and a troop of dragoons, commanded by Colonels Pyke and Clarke.

Unfortunate to the Americans as this night attack had been, it was sufficient to lead the Governor General of Canada to the conclusion that it would not be the last. Nay, he was persuaded that a most vigorous attempt at invasion would be made, and having no Parliament to consult, nor any public opinion to fear, he turned out the whole militia of the province for active service, and ordered them to be in readiness to march to the frontier. Lieutenant-Colonel Deschambault was directed to cross the St. Lawrence at Lachine, and from Caughnawaga, to march to the Pointe Claire, Rivière-du-Chène, Vaudreuil, and Longue Pointe. Battalions upon L'Acadie, and volunteers from the foot battalions, with the flank companies of the second and third battalions of the Montreal militia, and a troop of militia dragoons, crossed to Longueil and to Laprairie. Indeed the whole district of Montreal, armed to the teeth, and filled with enthusiasm, simultaneously moved in the direction from whence danger was expected. General Dearborn quietly retreated upon Plattsburgh and Burlington, and, like a sensible man, as he undoubtedly was, abandoned for the winter, all idea of taking possession of Lower Canada.

On the 28th of November, the armistice being at end, General Smyth invaded Upper Canada, at the foot of Lake Erie. With a division of fourteen boats, each containing thirty men, a landing was effected between Fort Erie and Chippewa, not however unopposed. Lieutenant King, of the Royal Artillery, and Lieutenants Lamont and Bartley, each in command of thirty men of the gallant 49th, gave the enemy a reception more warm than welcome. Overwhelmed, however, by numbers, the artillery and the detachment of the 49th, under Lamont gave way, when Lieutenant King had succeeded in spiking his guns. Lamont and King were both wounded, and with thirty men, were overtaken by the enemy and made prisoners. Bartley fought steadily and fiercely. His gallant band was reduced to seventeen, before he even thought of a retreat, which his gallantry and tact enabled him to effect. The American boats had, while Bartley was keeping up the fight, returned to the American shore with the prisoners, and as many Americans as could crowd into them, leaving Captain King, General Smyth's aid-de-camp, to find his way back, as best he might. He moved down the river shore with a few officers and forty men, followed, from Fort Erie, by Major Ormsby, who made them all prisoners with exceedingly little trouble. Unconscious of any disaster, another division of Americans, in eighteen boats, made for the Canada shore. Colonel Bishop had now arrived from Chippewa, and had formed a junction with Major Ormsby, the Commandant of Fort Erie, and with Colonel Clarke and Major Hall, of the militia. There were collected together, under this excellent officer, about eleven hundred men, taking into account detachments of the 41st, 49th, and Royal Newfoundland regiments, and in addition, some Indians. The near approach of the Americans was calmly waited for. A cheer at last burst from the British ranks and a steady and deadly fire of artillery and musketry was opened upon the enemy. The six-pounder, in charge of Captain Kirby, of the Royal Artillery, destroyed two of the boats. The enemy were thrown into confusion, and retired.

General Smyth again tried the effect of diplomacy upon the stubborn British. He displayed his whole force of full six thousand men, upon his own side of the river. Colonel Bishop ordered the guns which had been spiked to be rendered serviceable, and the spikes having been withdrawn, the guns were remounted and about to open fire, with the view of scattering the valiant enemy, when a flag of truce brought a note from General Smyth. It was simply a summons to surrender Fort Erie, with a view of saving the further effusion of blood. He was requested to "come and take it," but did not make another attempt until the 1st of December, when the American troops embarked merely again to disembark and go into winter quarters. Murmur and discontent filled the American camp, disease and death were now so common, and General Smyth's self-confidence was so inconsiderable that the literary hero, who had spoken of the "eternal infamy" that awaits him who "basely shrinks in the moment of trial," literally fled from his own camp, afraid of his own soldiery, who were exasperated at his incapacity. Thus ended the first year of the invasion. The Americans had learned, the not unimportant lesson, that, as a general rule, it is so much more easy successfully to resist aggression, than, as the aggressor, to be successful. The invasion of any country, if only occupied by savages, requires more means than is generally supposed.

Sir George Prevost, somewhat relieved from the anxiety attendant upon anticipated and actual invasions, now summoned his Parliament of Lower Canada, to meet for the despatch of business. He opened the session on the 29th of December, and in his speech from the throne, alluded to the honorable termination of the campaign, without much effusion of blood, any loss of territory, or recourse having been had to martial law. He proudly alluded to the achievements in Upper Canada, and feelingly alluded to the loss sustained by the country, in the death of General Brocke. He spoke of the recent advantages gained over the enemy in both provinces, and recommended fervent acknowledgements to the ruler of the universe, without whose aid the battle is not to the strong nor the race to the swift. And it was not alone for such advantages, great as they were, that the country had to be thankful; the Marquis of Wellington had gained a series of splendid victories in Spain and Portugal. In Spain and Portugal British valour had appeared in its native vigour, encouraging the expectation that these countries would soon be relieved from the miseries which had desolated them. His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, had directed him to thank the House for their loyalty and attachment. His Royal Highness felt not the slightest apprehension of insidious attacks upon the loyalty of a people who had acted so liberally and loyally as the Canadians had done. Sir George spoke of the beneficial effects arising from the Army Bill Act, and recommended it to their further consideration. The militia had been called out and had given him the cheering satisfaction of having been a witness of a public spiritedness, and of a love of country, religion, and the laws, which elsewhere might have been equalled, but could not be anywhere excelled. He recommended a revision of the militia law and urged upon the legislature the expediency of concluding the public business with dispatch.

Sir George had aroused the better feelings of the country. His words fell gratefully upon the ear. The Canadian people and their representatives felt that they were treated with respect and were proud in the knowledge of deserving it. All that the Assembly wanted was the confidence and affection of their sovereign. No longer treated with suspicion and looked upon with aversion they were ready to sacrifice everything for their country, and the reply of the House of Assembly was an assent to his every wish.

As soon as the House had proceeded to business, Mr. James Stuart, one of the members for Montreal, with the view of embarrassing the government, and with no purpose of creating uneasiness in England, moved for an enquiry into the causes and injurious consequences that might have resulted from the delay incurred in the publication of the laws of the Provincial Parliament, passed in the previous session. His assigned object in making the motion was to palliate the conduct of the Pointe Claire rioters. The motion carried and the Clerks and other officers of the Upper House were summoned to attend at the Bar of the Assembly. The Upper House, seemingly, considered that their officers had equal privileges with themselves, and at first refused to allow these gentlemen to attend, but, seeing the Assembly resolute, and being anxious not to throw any obstacle in the way of the speedy despatch of the public business, they permitted their attendance under protest. The result of the enquiry amounted to nothing, and the House proceeded to other business. The subject of appointing an agent to England was again considered, but postponed until a more suiting time, when the propriety of an income tax was discussed. It was indeed resolved in the Assembly to impose a tax upon persons enjoying salaries from the government, of fifteen per cent upon such as had £1,500 a year, twelve per cent upon such as had £1,000 and upwards, ten per cent upon £500 and upwards, and five per cent upon every £250 and upwards. The bill was, of course, rejected by the Council. The Assembly, however, firmly convinced of the loyalty of the people, were neither to be cajoled nor brow-beaten out of their rights, and they proceeded to other business of a singularly unpleasant character to the higher powers. Mr. Stuart, the leader of the opposition, was a man of extraordinary capacity and of great firmness of purpose. Those who had made Sir James Craig do him an injustice still held their appointments, and he was determined to bring about a change without the slightest regard whatever to the consequences of change. He moved for an enquiry into the power and authority exercised by His Majesty's Courts of Law, with a view to put a stop to such trifling with justice as had been exhibited in the arrest and imprisonment of Mr. Bedard and others. It was asserted by Mr. Stuart that under the name of Rules of Practice, the Chief Justice, in league with the government, had subverted the laws of the province, and had assumed legislative authority, to impose illegal burthens and restraints upon His Majesty's subjects, in the exercise of their legal rights, which were altogether inconsistent with the duties of a Court and subversive of the rights and liberties of the subject. The House granted the enquiry sought for, and proceeded to other business. But it is here worthy of note that Mr. Bedard, who had been so unjustly treated by Sir James Craig, in virtue of these Rules of Practice, had now triumphed over his enemies. He, who only two years back, had been presented, at the instance of the government, by the Grand Juries of Quebec and Montreal, was now seated upon the Bench as Provincial Judge for the District of Three Rivers, and thus, says his secret enemy, Mr. Ryland, is he associated with the Chief Justice of the province, who, in his capacity of Executive Councillor, had concurred in his commitment to the gaol of Quebec, on treasonable practices. It was to secure the independence of the judges by freeing them from executive trammels, that Mr. James Stuart himself, afterwards Chief Justice of the province, and a Baronet of the United Kingdom, moved for an enquiry concerning their Rules of Practice, rules obviously incompatible with the liberty of speech and with the freedom of the press. The enquiry had an excellent indirect effect. It seemed to some extent, to have secured the liberty of the press. From the time, says Mr. Ryland, that the Assembly began its attacks on the Courts of Justice, the licentiousness of a press, (the _Gazette_,) recently established at Montreal, has appeared to have no bounds. Every odium that can be imagined, is attempted in that publication, to be thrown on the memory of the late Governor-in-Chief, on the principal officers of government, and on the Legislative Council. The people's minds are poisoned and the disorganizing party encouraged to proceed. Thus is it led to hope that any future Governor may be deterred from exercising that vigor, which the preservation of His Majesty's government may require. A higher tribute to a free press no man ever paid than that. The hope has been realised, the trials have all been passed through, and persecutions for opinion's sake must now be cloaked, at least, by something more than expediency.

The Assembly next proceeded to the consideration of the expediency of legally enlarging the limits and operation of martial law, as recommended in the speech from the throne, and reported that such enlargement was inexpedient. The House then renewed the Army Bill Act, authorised the sum of five hundred pounds to be put in circulation, and commissioners were appointed to ascertain the current rate of exchange on London, which holders were entitled to recover from government. Fifteen thousand pounds were granted for the equipment of the militia, and £1,000 additional for military hospital. Towards the support of the war £25,000 were granted. £400 were granted for the improvement of the communication between Upper and Lower Canada. A duty of two and a half per cent, for the further support of the war was placed upon all imported merchandize, with the exception of provisions, and two and a half per cent additional on imports by merchants or others not having been six months resident. A motion was made by one of the most independent members of the Assembly, for a committee of the whole, to enquire whether or not it was necessary to adopt an address to the King concerning the impropriety of the judges being members of the Legislative Council. But the motion was not pressed. This gentleman, though very desirous of as much liberty as it was possible to obtain for himself, was not particularly disposed to give an undue share to others. He took umbrage at an article communicated to the _Mercury_, ably written, and perhaps, at the time, strikingly true, relative to the conduct which Mr. Stuart had been and was pursuing, since he had been stript of his official situation by the late Governor. It was hinted that the discontented legislator was actuated in his opposition to the government by no unfriendly feeling to the United States. It was asked if he were not determined to be somebody. He was a man not unlike him who fired the temple of Ephesus. He was sowing seeds of embarrassment and delay, and picking out flaws, with the microscope of a lawyer, in the proceedings of the government. And he was prostituting his talents and perverting his energies. The House resolved that the letter of "Juniolus Canadensis," was a libel, and perhaps it was, but if so, Mr. Stuart had the Courts of Law open to him, and therefore the interference of the House was as silly as it was tyrannical. Mr. Cary, the publisher of the _Mercury_, evaded the Sergeant-at-Arms, and laughed at the silliness of the collective wisdom afterwards. The House was prorogued on the 15th of February. The war had not so far produced any injurious effect on the commerce of the country The revenue was £61,193 currency, and the expenditure, which included the extraordinary amount of £55,000 granted towards the support of the militia, was only £98,777. The arrivals at Quebec numbered 399 vessels of 86,437 tons, and in 1812, twenty vessels were built at the port of Quebec.

The first operations of the next campaign, in 1813, were favorable to the British. On the 22nd of January, a severe action was fought at the River Raisin, about twenty-six miles from Detroit, between a detachment from the north-eastern army of the United States, exceeding seven hundred and fifty men, under General Winchester, and a combined force of eleven hundred British and Indians, under Colonel Proctor. General Harrison, in command of the north western army of the United States, was stationed at Franklintown. Anxious, at any cost, to afford the discontented and sickly troops under him, active employment, he detached General Winchester with his seven or eight hundred, or, as it is even said, a thousand men, to take possession of Frenchtown. This, General Winchester had little difficulty in doing, as he was only opposed by a few militiamen and some Indians, under Major Reynolds. The intelligence of the capture of Frenchtown had, however, no sooner reached Colonel Proctor than he collected his men together and marched with great celerity from Brownston to Stoney Creek. Next morning, at the break of day, he resolutely attacked the enemy's camp and a bloody engagement ensued. General Winchester fell into the hands of the chief of the Wyandot Indians, soon after the action began, and was sent a prisoner to Colonel Proctor. The Americans soon retreated, taking refuge behind houses and fences, and, terribly afraid of the Indians, determinedly resisted. The Americans blazed away; every fence and window of the village vomited a flame of fire; but the British, with their auxiliary Indians, were still driving in the enemy, and about to set the houses on fire, when the captured General Winchester, stipulated for a surrender. On condition of being protected from the Indians, he assured Colonel Proctor that the Americans would yield, and this assurance being given, General Winchester caused a flag of truce to be sent to his men, calling upon them to lay down their arms, which they were only too glad to do. The Americans lost between three and four hundred in killed alone; while one brigadier-general, three field officers, nine captains, twenty subalterns, and upwards of five hundred rank and file, were taken prisoners.[20] Comparatively considered, the British loss was trifling. Twenty-four men were killed, and one hundred and fifty-eight were wounded. Colonel Proctor was raised to the rank of Brigadier-General, in reward for his successful gallantry.

[20] Alison mixes up Colonel McDonell's capture of Ogdensburgh, which is below Kingston, and opposite Prescott, the scene of the Wind Mill fight in '37.

As if to counterbalance the effect of this success, another naval engagement occurred at sea, on the 14th of February, between the British sloop of war _Peacock_ and the American brig _Hornet_. The fight was long continued, bloody and destructive. The _Peacock_, after an hour and a half of hard fighting was in a sinking state. The effect of the enemy's fire was tremendous, but the men of the _Peacock_ behaved nobly. Mr. Humble, the boatswain, having had his hand shot away, went to the cockpit, underwent amputation at the wrist, and again voluntarily came upon deck to pipe the boarders. The _Peacock_ was now rapidly settling down, and a signal of distress was consequently hoisted. The signal was at once humanely answered. The firing ceased immediately, the American's boats were launched, and every effort praiseworthily made to save the sinking crew. All were not, however, saved. Three of the _Hornet's_ men and thirteen of the crew of the _Peacock_ went down in the latter vessel together. The _Hornet_ carried twenty guns, while the _Peacock_ had only eighteen, and the tonnage of the former exceeded, by seventy-four tons, that of the latter.

The Americans now gathering up their strength, irritated by their repeated failures on the land, and disheartened, but yet not discouraged by their original weakness on the lakes, were about, in some degree, to be compensated more suitably for their inland losses than by the capture or rather by the negative kind of advantage of destroying at considerable cost and risk, frigates and sloops of war at sea, inferior in every respect, the bravery of the sailors and the skill of the officers excepted, to the huge and properly much esteemed American double-banked frigates and long-gunned brigs. The command of Lake Ontario had devolved on the Americans. New ships of considerable size, and well armed, under the superintendence of experienced naval officers, were built and launched day after day. Troops were being collected at every point for an attack, by sea and land, upon either York or Kingston. It was now exceedingly necessary that some activity of a similar kind should be displayed by the British. The forests abounded in the very best timber; there were able shipbuilders at Quebec; the Canadian naval commanders had distinguished themselves frequently; there was a secure dockyard at Kingston; and, indeed, there existed no reason whatever, for the absence of that industry on the Canadian side of the rivers and lakes, dividing the two countries, but one, and a more fatal one could not have been listened to. It was simply that the British had been hitherto able to repel the invader wherever he had effected a landing, and would be, under any circumstances, quite able, as they were willing, to repel him again. And there was an ignorance about Canada, on the part of both the heads of the naval and of the military departments in England, as disgraceful, as it was inexcusable. It was believed that there were neither artisans to be found in the country nor wood. It seemed to be a prevalent opinion that the country was peopled only by French farmers, a few French gentlemen, and some hundreds of discharged soldiers, with a few lawyers and landed proprietors, styled U.E. Loyalists, besides the few naval officers resident at Kingston, and the troops in the different garrisons. In Upper Canada, during the winter, nothing, or almost nothing, was done in the way of building ships for the lakes. Sir George Prevost, it is true, made a hurried visit to Upper Canada, after having prorogued the Parliament. He was a man admirably adapted for the civil ruler of a country having such an elastic and very acceptable constitution as that which Canada has now had for some years past. He was one of those undecided kind of non-progressive beings, who are always inclined to let well alone. He was well meaning, and he was able too, in some sense. He was cautious to such a degree that caution was a fault. He was not, by any means, deficient in personal courage, but his mind always hovered on worst consequences. If he had hope in him at all, it was the hope that providence, without the aid of Governor Prevost, would order all things for the best. He had a strict sense of duty and a nice sense of honor, but he always considered that it was his duty not to risk much the loss of anything, which he had been charged to keep, and his moral was so much superior to his physical courage, that he never considered it dishonorable to retreat without a struggle, if the resistance promised to be very great. An instance of this occurred while Sir George was on his way to Upper Canada. On the 17th of February, Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson, commanding at Prescott, proposed to him an attack upon Ogdensburgh, which was then slightly fortified, and was a rallying point for the enemy. Indeed, an attack had some days previously been made upon Brockville, by General Brown, at the head of some militia from Ogdensburgh, and Colonel Pearson thought that the sooner an enemy was dislodged from a position exactly opposite his own and only separated by a frozen river, three quarters of a mile in width, the more secure he would have felt himself to be, and the less danger would there have been of the communication between the Upper and Lower provinces of Canada, being interrupted. General Prevost would not consent to an attack, but he allowed a demonstration to be made by Colonel McDonnell, the second in command at Prescott, so that the enemy might exhibit his strength, and his attention be so much engaged that no attempt would be made to waylay the Governor General, on the information of two deserters from Prescott, who would, doubtless, have informed the commandant, at Ogdensburgh, of Sir George's arrival and of his chief errand. Colonel McDonell moved rapidly across the river, and on landing, was met by Captain Forsyth and the American forces under him. A movement designed for a feint, was now converted into a real attack. Colonel McDonell, as he perceived the enemy, still more rapidly pushed forward, and, in a few minutes, was hotly engaged. The Americans were driven from the village, leaving behind them twenty killed and a considerable number wounded. On the side of the British, the loss of Colonel McDonell, seven other officers and seven rank and file had to be deplored, while forty-one men were wounded. The attack was most successful however. Eleven cannons, several hundred stands of arms, and a considerable quantity of stores fell into the hands of the victors, while two small schooners and two gun-boats were destroyed in winter quarters.

Recruiting and drilling were being briskly carried on about Quebec and Montreal. Some troops began to arrive, about the beginning of March, from the Lower Provinces. The 104th regiment had arrived overland from Fredericton, in New Brunswick, by the valley of the St. Johns River, through an impenetrable forest, for hundreds of miles, to Lake Temiscouata, and from thence to River-du-Loup, proceeding upwards along the south shore of the St. Lawrence.

A month later and the Americans were ready to resume the offensive in Upper Canada. The American fleet, consisting of 14 vessels, equipped at Sackett's Harbour, situated at the foot of the lake, and not very far from Kingston, in a direct line across, sailed from the harbour under Commodore Chancey, with seventeen hundred men, commanded by Generals Dearborn and Pike, to attack York, (now Toronto.) In two days the fleet was close in shore, a little to the westward of Gibraltar Strait. A landing was soon effected at the French fort of Toronto, about three miles below York, under cover of the guns of the fleet, but the enemy's advance was afterwards stoutly opposed. Six hundred militia men altogether, including the grenadiers of the 8th regiment of the line, could not long withstand seventeen hundred trained troops. They withdrew and the schooners of the fleet approaching close to the fort, commenced a heavy cannonade, while General Pike pushed forward to the main works, which he intended to carry by storm, through a little wood. As General Sheaffe, in command of the British, retired, and as General Pike, in command of the Americans, advanced, a powder magazine exploded which blew two hundred of the Americans into the air, and killed Pike. Of the British, fully one hundred men were killed, and the walls of the fort were thrown down. The Commodore was now in the harbour. And General Sheaffe seeing that not the remotest chance of saving the capital of Upper Canada, now existed, most wisely determined to retreat upon Kingston. He accordingly directed Colonel Chewett, of the militia, to make arrangement for a capitulation, and set off with his four hundred regulars for Kingston. By the capitulation, private property was to be respected, and public property only surrendered. The gain was not great, if the moral effect of victory be not considered. The victors carried off three hundred prisoners, and the British, before retreating, had considered it expedient to burn a large armed ship upon the stocks, and extensive naval stores.

The Clerk of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, a volunteer, fell during the struggle. In all, the British loss was one hundred and thirty killed and wounded.

It is said that General Sheaffe suffered severely in the public estimation, because he retreated. The public had forgotten that he had killed and destroyed more Americans than had fallen on the side of the British. Nor did it occur to them that had their general not retreated, and capitulated, an armed fleet was in the harbour, which it was impossible to drive out, even had the fort been standing, or had there been great guns, with which earth batteries could have been formed. It had not occurred to the public of Lower Canada that if York had been burned, Sheaffe's retreat to Kingston, would have been no less imperative than it was. He was, however, superseded in the command in chief of Upper Canada by Major General De Rottenburgh.

The American fleet landed the troops at Niagara after this success, and then sailed for Sackett's Harbour for reinforcements. The Commodore, an energetic, clearheaded sailor, sent two of his vessels to cruise off the harbour of Kingston, vigilantly, and then sent vessel after vessel, at his convenience, with troops, up the lake to Michigan. There he concentrated the whole of his ships, including his Kingston cruisers, for an attack upon Fort George, in combination with the land force under General Dearborn. The British were under the command of General Vincent, who could not muster above nine hundred soldiers. It was early on the morning of the 27th of May, that the enemy began the attack. The fort was briskly cannonaded, and during the fire, Colonel Scott, with a body of eight hundred American riflemen, effected a landing. But they were promptly met by the British and compelled to give way, in disorder. The Americans retreated to the beach and crept under cover of the bank, from whence they kept up a galling fire, the British troops being unable to dislodge them, on account of the heavy broadsides of the American fleet, formed in Crescent shape, to protect their soldiers. Indeed, under cover of this fire from the fleet, another body of the enemy, numbering ten thousand men, effected a landing, and the British were reluctantly compelled to retire. General Vincent blew up the fort and fell back upon Burlington Heights, every inch of ground being stoutly contested. Flushed with success, Dearborn, the American General-in-Chief, now confidently anticipated the conquest of the whole of Upper Canada, and pushed forward a body of three thousand infantry, two hundred and fifty horse, and nine guns. But General Vincent having learned of the enemy's advance, sent Colonel Harvey, with eight hundred men, to impede their progress. Harvey, an experienced and brave officer, was not long in discovering that the enemy kept a bad look out. He resolved upon surprising them. Accordingly, he waited for the darkness of night, under cover of which, a sudden attack was made so successfully, that he made prisoners of two generals and a hundred and fifty men, besides capturing four guns. It was now the enemy's turn to retreat, and they did so in admirable confusion. Arrived at Fort George a halt took place, but a fortnight elapsed before General Dearborn had sufficiently recovered from the effect of this surprise to send out an expedition of six hundred men to dislodge a British picquet, posted at Beaver's Dam, near Queenstown. The dislodgement was most indifferently effected, inasmuch as the expedition was waylaid on their passage through the woods, by Captain Kerr, with a few Indians, and by Lieutenant Fitzgibbons, at the head of forty-six of the 49th regiment, in all, less than two hundred men, but so judiciously disposed as to make the Americans believe that they were the light troops of a very superior army, the approach of which was expected, and they, to the number of five hundred, surrendered, with two guns and two standards.

It now became the turn of the British to invade, and early in July, Colonel Bishop set out on an expedition to Black Rock, at the head of a party of militia, aided by detachments of the 8th, 41st, and 49th regiments of the line. He was perfectly successful. The enemies' block-houses, stores, barracks, and dockyard were burned, and seven pieces of ordnance, two hundred stand of arms, and a great quantity of stores were brought away. But it was at great cost. While employed in securing the stores, the British were fired upon, from the woods, by some American militia and Indians, and while Captain Saunders, of the 41st, dropped, severely wounded, Colonel Bishop, who had planned, and so gallantly executed the assault, was killed.

While these things were happening in the Far-Civilised-West of that day, the British flotilla on Lake Champlain, had captured two American schooners, the _Growler_ and _Eagle_, of eleven guns each, off Isle-aux-Noix.

After it had become apparent that the Americans had the command of Lake Ontario, and could visit to burn and destroy every village or unfortified town, held by the British, some slight and very inadequate exertion was made to remedy so distressing a state of affairs. In May, Sir James L. Yeo, with several other naval officers and 450 seamen arrived at Quebec, _en route_ for the lakes. Captains Barclay, Pring, and Finnis, had been some time at Kingston, and were doing something in the way of preparing for service the few, vessels at Kingston, by courtesy called a fleet. Sir George Prevost and Sir James L. Yeo lost little time in reaching Kingston together. The American fleet was off Niagara, bombarding Fort George. It occurred to the two commanders that an attack upon their naval station at Sackett's Harbour would not be amiss, and it was resolved upon. About a thousand men were embarked on board of the _Wolfe_, of 24 guns, the _Royal George_, of 24 guns, the _Earl of Moira_, of 18 guns, and four armed schooners, each carrying from ten to twelve guns, with a number of batteaux. The weather was very fine. Everything was got in readiness for an expeditious landing. The soldiers were transferred from the armed vessels to the batteaux, so that no time might be lost in the debarkation. Two gun-boats were placed in readiness, as a landing escort, The boats were under the direction of Captain Mulcaster, of the Royal Navy, and the landing under the immediate supervision of Sir George Prevost and Sir James L. Yeo. It was expected that, in the absence of the American fleet and army, the growing and formidable naval establishment of the enemy would be temporarily rendered worthless. And the expectation was not an unnatural one. It was, indeed, in a trifling degree, realised. There was some injury done to Sackett's Harbor, but not of such a nature as to produce a strong effect upon either Canadian minds or American nerves. A number of boats, containing troops, from Oswego, were dispersed, while doubling Stoney Point, and twelve of them, with 150 men on board, captured. But the loss to the British was the delay caused by such an unlucky acquisition. The landing was deferred by it. General Brown was put on the alert. He had time to make arrangements and to collect troops. He planted 500 militia on the peninsula of Horse Island, which is a sort of protection wall for the harbour. He ordered them to be still and close, keep their powder dry, and reserve their fire. And they did their best, in accordance with these instructions, until the fleet opened a heavy cannonade to cover the landing of the invaders, when General Brown's militiamen quaked exceedingly. When the troops had landed, and the American militia had lost, by death, their immediate commander, Colonel Mills, they fled with the utmost precipitation. But it was the conduct of these very cowards that afterwards alarmed, the ever suspicious Sir George Prevost, and caused, to a very considerable extent, the almost failure of the expedition. The British columns were advancing somewhat rapidly towards Fort Tomkins, when they were met by Colonel Backus, at the head of 400 regulars, and some militia, hastily assembled from the neighboring towns. A sharp contest ensued. Colonel Backus was mortally wounded. His regulars still maintained their ground, but a serious impression had been made upon his line. On the militia, so strong an impression had been made that before General Brown could bring up, to the assistance of Backus, 100 of the party dispersed at the landing, these irregulars fled by a road leading south westwardly, through a wood. The regulars stood firm. Captain Gray, commanding the British advanced corps fell, and the suspicious mind of Prevost fancied a snare. He saw the regular soldiery of the enemy standing unmoved; he had learned that a regiment of American regulars, under Colonel Tutle, were marching at double step, to the scene of action; and he fancied that the retreating militia were not at all afraid, but brilliantly executing a circuitous march to gain the rear of the British line, and cut off their retreat. It was true Fort Tomkins was about to fall into British hands. Already the officer in charge of Navy Point, agreeably to orders, and supposing the fort to be lost, had set on fire the naval magazine, containing all the stores captured at York; the hospital and barracks were illuminating the lake by their grand conflagration; and a frigate on the stocks had been set on fire, only to be extinguished, when Sir George Prevost's mind became unsettled, concerning the ulterior designs of the enemy. In the very moment of fully accomplishing the purpose of the expedition, he ordered a retreat; the troops were re-embarked without annoyance; the fleet returned safely to Kingston, and the Canadian public suspected that Sir George Prevost, as a military commander, had been weighed in the balance and found wanting. They felt, indeed, most acutely, that Major General Isaac Brock was dead, and that he was not replaced by Sir George Prevost.

In the west, the Americans, under Harrison, exerted themselves to recover Michigan. They were blockaded, it is true, and inactive within Fort George, but, on Lake Erie, the war was vigorously prosecuted. General Proctor was kept particularly busy. The Americans were inconveniently near. They showed no disposition to move. They had settled down and were practicing masterly inactivity at Sandusky. Proctor determined upon disturbing them. He moved rapidly upon Lower Sandusky, and invested it with five hundred regulars and militia, and upwards of three thousand Indians. The Indians were commanded by Tecumseh. Having battered the fort well and made a breach Proctor determined upon carrying the place by assault. The Indians, however, were worthless for the assault of a fortified place. Concealed in the grass of the prairie, or hidden in the trees of the forest, they could fire steadily and watch their opportunity to rush upon the foe, but they had a horror of great guns and stone walls. They kept out of range of the American cannon. Nothing could induce them to consent even to follow their British allies up to the breach. The assault was, nevertheless, determined upon, and Colonel Short led the storming party of regulars and militia. Under cover of the fire of cannon the gallant band reached the summit of the glacis and stood with only the ditch between them and the fort. The heavy fire of the enemy upon men in a position so exposed at first produced some confusion; but the storming party soon rallied and leaped into the ditch. It was then that they were smitten with such a fire of grape and musketry as no men could long withstand. The assailants retreated, leaving Colonel Short, three officers, and fifty-two men dead in the ditch, and having forty-one of their number wounded.

General Proctor, finding his force inadequate to carry the fort by assault, raised the siege and retired to Amherstburgh.

Although it was all important to have and maintain the command of the lakes, very little was done by the British with that view. It was especially necessary to obtain the command of Lakes Erie, Ontario and Champlain. No great aggressive movement could have been easily effected while the British had the command of the lakes. But on Lake Ontario the British fleet was inferior to that of the American, the American Captain Perry had almost established himself on Lake Erie, and on Lake Champlain the British had not a single vessel larger than a gun-boat, and very few of them. The excuse was that every vessel cost a thousand pounds a ton; that timber, nor iron, nor anything required for shipbuilding was obtainable in a province which was even then compensating for the check in the Baltic timber trade, in a province which abounds in iron, and was then quite capable of building large sea-going craft at Quebec. While it was in truth no more difficult for England to cover the lakes with cannon than it was for the United States to do so, England kept sending out, at great expense, timber, pitch, materials in iron, water casks, and such like to Quebec and Kingston, with some thirty or forty shipwrights, and less than a hundred sailors to man the flotillas of three lakes. Neither the Admiralty nor the Ordnance had time to make enquiries concerning Canada, or even to think of the American war. All eyes were upon Wellington in Spain. The attention of the people of England was not directed towards Canada. A wide sea rolled between the two countries, and, besides, there was an indistinct notion that Canada was wholly inhabited by Frenchmen, who might take care of themselves or not, as they pleased. The two first vessels belonging to the British on Lake Champlain, were built by the Americans. The British were contented with their fort at Isle-aux-Noix, and rejoiced in the luxury of two gun-boats. It was on a lovely morning very early in June, that a sail was seen stretching over a point of land, formed by a bed in the river Chambly, and about six miles distant from the fort. Another sail followed closely, and the shrewd suspicion seized upon Colonel Taylor, of the 100th foot, commanding the garrison, that the visitants were vessels of war. He determined to war with the two strangers, _per mare et terram_. He converted some of his soldiery into marines, manned his three gun-boats, and placing three artillerymen in each boat, proceeded towards the enemy. But he took the additional precaution of sending down both shores of the river a few detachments from the fort. The sloops of war came up majestically, the star-spangled banner waved gracefully in the gentle morning air, and the American commanders were guessing the effect of their first broadside upon Isle-aux-Noix, when they were met by a heavy and well directed fire of grape from the gun-boats, and by a steady torrent of bullets from the shore. Still they tacked shortly from shore to shore, and every time they were in stays, a shower of bullets swept the decks, while the grape of the gun-boats whistled through the rigging. From half past four in the morning until half past eight, the battle raged, but then it was necessary to run one of the sloops ashore, to prevent her from sinking, and both surrendered. The _Growler_ and the _Eagle_ were worth the trouble incurred in capturing them. Each mounted eleven guns. They had long eighteens upon their forecastles, and their broadside guns were composed of twelves and sixes. The crew of each vessel consisted of thirty-five men and between the two vessels there was a company of marines, who embarked on the previous evening at Champlain. Nor was the cost to the captors very great. No one was killed and only three men were severely wounded, while the enemy suffered severely in killed and wounded, and a hundred men were made prisoners.

These vessels now called the _Shannon_ and the _Blake_, as forget-me-nots of an action recently fought, but not yet noticed, in Chesapeake Bay, were speedily turned to excellent use. It was conceived expedient to destroy the barracks, hospitals and stores at Plattsburgh, Burlington, Champlain, and Swanton, if possible, and an expedition was accordingly fitted out at Isle-aux-Noix. The two captured sloops of war were repaired and made ready for the lake. Captain Pring, from Lake Ontario, was promoted to the rank of commander and sent to take command, but the sloop of war _Wasp_, having shortly afterwards arrived at Quebec, Captain Everard, with his whole crew, were sent to Isle-aux-Noix, and as senior officer assumed the command of the two vessels and the three gun-boats. The squadron sailed on the 29th of July, with about nine hundred men on board, consisting of detachments of the 13th, 100th, and 103rd regiments of the line, under Lieutenants Colonel Taylor and Smelt, some royal artillery under Captain Gordon, and a few militia, as batteaux men, under Colonel Murray. The expedition was altogether successful. At Plattsburgh, the American General, Moore, made no opposition to the landing of the British, but retired with fifteen hundred soldiers, Murray, meanwhile, destroying the arsenal, public buildings, commissariat stores, and the new barracks, capable of accommodating five thousand men. Neither did the squadron lie idly by. Captains Everard and Pring, in the _Growler_ and _Eagle_, proceeded to Burlington, and threw the place into the utmost consternation. Gen'l. Hampton, who was encamped there with four thousand men, was unable to prevent the capture and destruction of four vessels. And the two ships did not linger there either unnecessarily. They went back to Plattsburgh, re-embarked the troops, and proceeded to Swanton, Colonel Murray sending a detachment to Champlain to destroy the barracks and blockhouse. At Swanton the object of the expedition was accomplished, and the expedition returned without casualty.

Public opinion had its effect upon the Admiralty, notwithstanding the stubborn resistance of the old Lords, who still privately persisted in the notion that an old tub, manned by monkeys, if commanded by an officer in the royal navy, was a match for the best American frigate that ever floated. There had for some time back been considerable activity in the English dockyards. Several vessels were commenced on the model of the American frigates, and the commanders of frigates and sloops of war, on the American coast, were cautioned not to expose themselves to certain destruction by attacking large and heavily armed vessels, only nominally of the same rank or class as themselves. There was to be a real, not an apparent equality. There was to be an equality in tonnage, an equality in the number of guns, an equality in the weight of metal, an equality in the thickness of a ship's sides, and above all an equality in men, so far as such equality could be ascertained. Equality in sailing power was of great importance, but where it was wanting, the superior sailor, if superior in metal and men had an advantage which nothing but a calm or a lucky hit aloft could destroy. The crews of every ship on the North American Station were to be exercised in gunnery. Wisdom had been luckily forced upon the Admiralty. And the result was good. Sir John Borlase, the naval commander, in North America, blockaded every harbour in the United States. American commerce was ruined. The carrying trade of the Atlantic was no longer in American hands. The public revenue sank from twenty-four millions of dollars annually, to eight millions. Even had the Americans possessed the means of building new frigates, the expenditure would have been useless, while Sir John Borlase had the command of the sea. Congress did authorise the commencement of four new seventy-fours, and of four forty-four gun frigates, with six new sloops for the ocean, and as many vessels of every description, as circumstances would show the necessity for, on the lakes.

Admiral Cockburn, at the head of a light squadron, was most annoying to the Americans. Not only did he blockade the Chesapeake and Delaware inlets, but he scoured every creek and river. Every now and then gun-boats were sent on excursions, and marines landed to damage naval stores and arsenals. He was a kind of legalized pirate, who darted in to a harbour, bay, or port, doing every imaginable kind of mischief and running off.

About this time there were cruising off Boston two ships of equal strength, the _Shannon_ and the _Tenedos_. Captain Broke, the commander of the _Shannon_, was the senior officer, and having determined upon a combat, if it were possible to effect it, between the American frigate _Chesapeake_, then in Boston harbour, where she had passed the winter, and his own vessel, he sent the _Tenedos_ to sea, with instructions not to return for three weeks. Captain Broke had laboriously and anxiously drilled his men. He had sighted his guns and used them often. In a word, he had by long continued training brought his crew to the highest state of discipline and subordination. They could fire ball to a nicety. At sea and in harbour he had kept his men at great gun practice. He was in a position to cope with any forty-four gun frigate, belonging to the United States, for, though the _Shannon_ was only pierced for 38 guns, she carried 52. When the _Tenedos_ had put to sea, Captain Broke sent in a challenge to Captain Lawrence, of the _Chesapeake_, entreating him to try the fortunes of their respective flags in _even combat_. The _Chesapeake_ had 49 guns. Captain Broke immediately lay close into Boston Light House, and the _Chesapeake_ was quickly under weigh. It is said that Captain Lawrence had not received the challenge of his opponent when he stood out of the harbour, but, however that may be, the _Chesapeake_ was escorted to sea by a flotilla of barges and pleasure boats. Victory, indeed, was considered certain by the Americans. Nay, so very certain were the inhabitants of Boston that the _Shannon_ would either be sunk or towed into port that, counting their chickens before they were hatched, they prepared a public supper to greet the victors on their return to the harbour, with their prisoners. It was otherwise. Captain Broke saw with delight, from the masthead of the _Shannon_, that his challenge was to be satisfactorily replied to. The _Shannon_ was cleared for action, and waited for the _Chesapeake_. She had not long to wait. The _Chesapeake_ came bowling along with three flags flying, on which were inscribed--"Sailors, rights and free trade." The _Shannon_ had her union jack at the foremast, and a somewhat faded blue ensign at the mizen peak. There were two other ensigns rolled into a ball ready to be fastened to the haulyard and hoisted in case of need. But her guns were well loaded, alternately with two round shot and a hundred and fifty musket balls, and with one round and one double-headed shot in each gun. The enemy hauled up within two hundred yards of the mizen beam and cheered. The _Shannon_ cheered in return, and then the bravest held his breath for a time. A moment more and the _Shannon's_ decks flashed fire. With deliberate aim each gun along her sides was discharged, and the enemy, in passing, fired with good effect his whole broadside. The _Shannon's_ shot, however, told upon the rigging of the _Chesapeake_, and upon her men, and after two or three broad sides, the _Chesapeake_ in attempting to haul her foresail up fell on board the _Shannon_, whose starboard bower anchor locked with the _Shannon's_ mizen chains. The great guns, with the exception of the _Shannon's_ two aftermost guns ceased firing. The _Chesapeake's_ stern was beaten in, and her decks swept. There was now a sharp fire of musketry from both sides, but Captain Broke perceiving that the _Chesapeake's_ men had left their guns, called up his boarders, at the same time ordering the two ships to be lashed together. And Mr. Stevens, the _Shannon's_ boatswain, set about the execution of the latter order. His left arm was hacked off by the enemy's marines, and he was mortally wounded by a shot from the _Chesapeake's_ tops. He proceeded, nevertheless, in fastening the two ships together, and then dropped in death between the vessels. Captain Lawrence was wounded and carried below, when Captain Broke, at the head of his boarders, leapt upon the _Chesapeake's_ quarter-deck. The enemy's crew were soon overpowered and driven below. Forcing his way forward, the _Shannon's_ men shut down the _Chesapeake's_ hatches and kept up a fire on the men in the tops, while the _Shannon's_ men at the same time, under Mr. Smith, forced their way from the foreyard to the _Chesapeake's_ mainyard, and soon cleared the tops. Captain Broke was at this time assailed furiously by three American sailors, who had previously submitted, and was knocked down by the butt end of a musket, but as he rose he had the satisfaction of seeing the American flag hauled down and the proud old British union floating over it in triumph. Fifteen minutes had only elapsed and the _Chesapeake_ was entirely in the hands of the British. There was one lamentable mishap. Lieutenant Watt, who hauled down the enemy's colours was, with two of his men, killed by a discharge of musketry from the _Shannon's_ marines, in the belief that the conflict still continued. The _Chesapeake_ had forty-seven killed and ninety-eight wounded, and the _Shannon_ lost in killed twenty-four, while fifty-nine had been wounded. It was so ascertained that on equal terms England still held the supremacy of the seas, and the exultation in England was so great that every right-minded man went with the government when they made Captain Broke a baronet. The broadside guns of the _Shannon_ were 25, of the _Chesapeake_ 25; the weight of metal in the former was 538 lbs., and of the latter 590 lbs.; while the _Shannon_ had 306 and the _Chesapeake_ 376 men.

The _Chesapeake_ was carried into Halifax, where her gallant, gentlemanly, and ill-starred commander died and was buried, with full military honors, in the presence of all the British officers on the station, who uncovered themselves as they laid into the grave all that was earthly of their noble foe.

The tide of fortune on the sea had now turned in favor of Great Britain. On the 14th of August, the _Argus_, of twenty guns, employed in carrying out Mr. Crawford, the American Minister to France, was met after having landed the minister off St. David's, at the mouth of the Irish channel, by the British brig _Pelican_, of eighteen guns, more heavily armed, though carrying fewer guns, and better manned than the _Argus_, so that, everything considered, the vessels were tolerably well matched. As a matter of course they fought, and the _Pelican_, one of the improved brigs, soon out-manoeuvred and raked her antagonist. Captain Allen, of the _Argus_, fell at the first broadside. The _Argus_ was ultimately obliged to surrender with a loss of six killed and seventeen wounded, her opponent having only three killed and five wounded.

It was not long after this that the British brig _Boxer_, of only fourteen guns and sixty-six men, fell a prize to the American brig _Enterprise_, of sixteen guns and one hundred and twenty men, but afterwards, throughout the war, single combats, where there was even an approach to equality, terminated in favor of the British. Captain Blythe, of the _Boxer_, and the commander of the _Enterprise_, Lieutenant Burrows, were buried in one grave, at Portland in Maine, with military honors.

Thus were the favors of Mars still balanced with tolerable fairness between the combatants.

Between Upper and Lower Canada the communication by either land or water, in summer, was very imperfect, during the war. There was then no Rideau Canal, connecting Kingston with the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence. And there was neither the Lachine, the Beauharnois, the Cornwall nor any other canal by which the dangers and difficulties of the St. Lawrence rapids might be avoided. Only batteaux and canoes plied between Upper and Lower Canada. A kind of flat-bottomed boat, of from 35 to 40 feet in length, and about six feet beam in the centre, carrying from four to four and a half tons, was only available for the transport of passengers, goods, wares, and merchandise. The boat was worked by oars, a mast and sail, drag-ropes for towing, and long poles for pushing them through the rapids, while the bow was kept towards the shore by a tow line held by the boat's crew or attached to horses. From ten to twelve days were occupied in the voyage from Montreal or Lachine to Kingston. To convey stores from Lachine to Kingston, during the war, required some tact. On one side of the river were the British batteries, while exactly opposite was an American fort or earthwork, which as the batteaux poled past Prescott or Brockville, could throw a round shot or two in their immediate vicinity without very much trouble. Indeed the Americans did very quietly send one or two cruisers and privateers to dodge about that marine paradise, the Thousand Islands, forming the delta of Lake Ontario, and covered to this day with timber to the water's edge, islands of all sizes and of all forms, gently rising out of the limpid rippling stream, or boldly standing forth from the deep blue water, presenting a rugged, rocky moss-clad front to the wonderstruck beholder. On the 20th of July, some cruisers from Sackett's Harbour, succeeded in surprising and capturing, at daybreak, a brigade of batteaux laden with provisions, under convoy of a gun-boat. They made off with their prize to Goose Creek, which is not far from Gananoque. At Kingston the loss of the supplies was soon ascertained, and Lieutenant Scott, of the Royal Navy, was despatched with a detachment of the 100th regiment, in gun-boats, to intercept the plunderers. At the lower end of Long Island, he ascertained the retreat of the enemy, and waited patiently for the morning. In the evening, still later, a fourth gun-boat with a detachment of the 41st regiment came up, and having passed the night in bright anticipations of glory, the rescuing gun-boats proceeded at three in the morning to Goose Creek. The enemy had gone well up and had judiciously entrenched themselves behind logs, while they had adopted the Russian plan of blocking up the entrance to their harbor where the Creek became so narrow that the attacking gun-boats found it necessary to pole up even that far. Lieutenant Scott set his men to work, to remove the barriers to his ingress, but a brisk fire soon caused him to desist, and indeed he was very nearly disabled. The only gun-boat that could be brought to bear upon the enemy was already disabled, and the consequences might have been disastrous but for the gallant conduct of the soldiers, who leaped from the sternmost boats, up to their necks, carrying their muskets high overhead, and charged the enemy on landing, causing them to retreat with precipitation behind their entrenchment. While this was being done, the gun-boats were got afloat and put to rights, and the soldiers expeditiously re-embarking the re-capture of the provisions was abandoned. Captain Milnes, a volunteer aid-de-camp to the Commander of the Forces, was killed.

A second boat expedition from Kingston failed, Sir James Yeo, conceived that he might out cut of Sackett's Harbour the new American ship _Pike_, the equipment of which Commodore Chancey was superintending. He arrived at the mouth of the harbor, but the enemy having accidentally heard of his errand, Sir James abandoned a scheme that could only have been effected by surprise. In July, the American fleet appeared on the lake with augmented force. Colonel Scott, with a company of artillery and a considerable number of other soldiers was on board, _en route_ for Burlington Heights. He was most anxious to destroy the British stores there, the more especially as the place was only occupied by Major Maule, at the head of a small detachment of regulars. Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey, the Deputy Adjutant-General of the army, shrewdly suspecting the design of the enemy, despatched Colonel Battersby from York, who arrived in time to re-inforce Maule. Scott made no attack, but with the advice, or at all events, the concurrence of the commodore, did a much wiser thing. The expedition sailed upon York, which Lieutenant-Colonel Battersby had evacuated to save Burlington. A landing was effected at York, of course, without opposition; the storehouses, barracks, and public buildings were burned, and such stores as were worth carrying away, taken. In Lake Champlain, on the same afternoon, Colonel Murray and Captains Everard and Pringle were retaliating at Plattsburgh, Burlington, Champlain, and Swanton. Commodore Chancey having effected his purpose sailed for Niagara, whither he was followed by Sir James Yeo, and looked in upon on the 31st of July. Chancey, without loss of time, raised his anchors and stood out of the bay, bearing down upon the British squadron. Sir James manoeuvred, keeping out of range, and indeed coquetted with the enemy, until he had an opportunity of pouncing upon two of his vessels, the _Julia_ and _Growler_, which he cut off and captured. He still pursued the same tantalizing course of action, and Commodore Chancey became completely disheartened, when the _Scourge_ of eight, and the _Hamilton_ of nine guns, in endeavouring to escape from the British, capsized under a press of sail, and went down, all hands perishing, except sixteen who were picked up by the boats of the opposing squadron. Immediately after this disaster he stood off for Sackett's Harbour, and arrived there on the 13th of August. He merely took in provisions, however, and again sailed for Niagara, arriving there early in September. On the 7th the British fleet appeared off the harbour, and Chancey stood out into the lake. The two fleets manoeuvred as before, avoiding close quarters, and indeed, for full five days, hardly exchanged a shot. But on the 28th of September, the fleets approached each other, and a sharp engagement ensued between the two flag ships. The _Wolfe_, in which Sir James Yeo's pendant was hoisted, lost her main and mizen topmasts, and only that the _Royal George_ ran in between the _Wolfe_ and the _Pike_, enabling the former to haul off and repair, the British flag ship would have been captured. As it was, Sir James Yeo made off with his fleet to take refuge under Burlington Heights.[21] Soon after, the American fleet took troops from Fort George to Sackett's Harbour, from whence an expedition was being fitted out, in the way, capturing five out of seven small vessels, from York, containing 250 men of DeWatteville's regiment, intended to reinforce the garrison at Kingston.

[21] The fleet consisted of the _Wolfe_ 23; the _Royal George_ 22; the _Melville_ 14; the _Earl Moira_ 14; the _Sir Sydney Smith_ 12; and the _Beresford_ 12.

On the lakes of Upper Canada, the fair face of fortune was turned away from the British. As yet the capricious lady had only frowned, but now she was positively sulky. A serious and indeed dreadful disaster, which could not be afterwards repaired, but entailed loss upon loss to the British, occurred on Lake Erie. The British provinces were indeed exposed by it to the most imminent danger. At one blow all the advantages gained by Brocke were lost. On Lake Erie as on Lake Ontario, both the British and the Americans exerted themselves in the construction of war vessels. The great drawback to the British was the want of seamen. Captain Barclay, when appointed to the command on Lake Erie, in May, took with him fifty English seamen, to man two ships, two schooners, a brig and a sloop, the rest of the crews being made up of 240 soldiers and 80 Canadians. Captain Perry, the American commander, had two more vessels, an equal number of guns, double the weight of metal, and was fully manned by experienced seamen. Captain Barclay sailed from Amherstburgh and stretched his little squadron across the entrance to Presque Isle. The American squadron, under Perry, was riding at anchor, unable to put out, because the bar at the entrance of the harbour prevented it from crossing, except with the guns out, an operation not considered perfectly safe when done in the face of an enemy. Captain Barclay was under the necessity of momentarily leaving his station, and his opponent, Perry, crossed the bar. Barclay in turn became the blockaded party. He made with all haste for Amherstburgh and was shut in by Perry. Barclay practiced his soldiers at the guns, and learned his Canadians how to handle the ropes. He was indefatigable in his exertions to render his crew as efficient as such a crew could be made on shipboard. He yet feared to meet Perry and his picked crews, but his provisions fell short, and he was compelled to put out. The result was a battle, the last thing to have been desired, where so much depended on the issue. Victory was stoutly contested for on both sides. At 11 o'clock, on the forenoon of the 10th of September, the American squadron, consisting of nine vessels, and the British squadron, consisting of six vessels, formed in lines of battle. At a quarter before 12, Captain Barclay's ship, the _Queen Charlotte_, opened a tremendous fire upon the _Lawrence_, the flag ship of Commodore Perry. The _Lawrence_ was torn to pieces. She became unmanageable. Except the Commodore and four or five others, every man on board was either killed or wounded. Perry abandoned her, and the colours were hauled down; but he only left one ship to rehoist his flag in another, as yet untouched. He boarded the _Niagara_, of twenty guns, and a breeze springing up behind his ships, which as yet had not been in action, he obtained the weather gage of the British, and made it necessary for them to wear round. It was in the endeavour to execute this manoeuvre that Barclay lost the advantage. His inexperienced and, therefore, somewhat awkward sailors, became flurried, and the vessels fell foul of each other. They were for the most part jammed together, with their bows facing the enemy's broadside. Captain Perry saw his advantage and raked the _Detroit_, the _Queen Charlotte_, and _Lady Prevost_, at pleasure. The _Chippewa_ and _Little Belt_ had been separated from the other ships, and were hotly engaged by the Americans. The British line was, in a word, broken. The carnage was now dreadful, and the result awfully disastrous to the British. Barclay fell, severely wounded. Every officer was either killed or wounded. And two hundred out of three hundred and forty-five men were in a like condition. For three hours the battle raged, but at the end of that time the British squadron was capsized, and Perry, in imitation of Julius Cæsar, sent the message to Washington:--"We have met the enemy, and they are ours." Of the Americans, twenty-seven were killed and ninety-six wounded.

This was a sore blow and terrible discouragement to Canada. Supplies of provisions were no longer obtainable by General Proctor from Kingston, and Michigan was, consequently, untenable. The speedy evacuation of Detroit, and a retreat towards the head of Lake Ontario, became inevitable. Commodore Perry could, at any moment, land a force in General Proctor's rear, and entirely cut him off from Kingston and York, and the lower part of Upper Canada. General Proctor at once retreated, abandoning and destroying all his fortified posts, beyond the Grand River. He dismantled first Detroit and then Amherstburgh, setting fire to the navy yard, barracks, and public stores, of the latter place. And he had just done so in time. As soon after the destruction of the British fleet, as circumstances would permit, Commodore Perry transported the American forces, under General Harrison, from Portage River and Fort Meigs, to Put-in-Bay, from whence they were conveyed to Amherstburgh, which they occupied on the 23rd of December. Proctor retreated through woods and morasses, upon the Thames, hotly pursued by Harrison. The brave Tecumseh, at the head of the Indians, endeavored to cover his retreat. But on the 4th of October, the enemy came so close upon the British rear as to succeed in capturing all their stores and ammunition. Destitute of the means of subsistence, worn down with fatigue, and low-spirited by misfortune, Proctor came to the determination of staking all on the hazard of a die. He resolved upon bringing the enemy to an engagement, and took up a position near the Moravian village upon the Thames. Tecumseh and his Indians assumed a position, well to the British right, in a thicket. Prescott drew out his right in line on a swamp, and supported it by a field piece, while his left stretched along, towards the Thames, supported by another field piece. The ground was not well chosen. Between Proctor and his enemy there was a dry or rather elevated piece of ground, covered with lofty trees, without underbrush. On the following day the enemy came up. Harrison drew up his army in two lines, the cavalry in front, and ordered the Kentucky Riflemen, commanded by Colonel Johnson, to charge the British, which they could not so easily or effectually have done, had the British been either on the summit of the wooded knoll or some distance behind the swamp. The Kentuckians slowly advanced through the wood, receiving two vollies from the British line, before they were out of it. It was then that they dashed forward at full speed, broke the British ranks, and wheeled about. Taken, as it were, suddenly, in the rear, Proctor's men became confused. To resist or to retreat was equally impossible. They could only retreat by forcing the American infantry, in front, and they could only resist by facing the Kentucky Riflemen in the rear, who had already ridden through them and had now raised their rifles to decimate them. The British threw down their arms and the Indians, with the exception of Tecumseh and a chosen few fled, yelling, through the woods. Tecumseh fought desperately, even with the mounted rifles. He sprang upon their leader, Colonel Johnson, wounded him and pulled him to the earth. But, at this moment, Johnson's faithful dragoons spurred to his rescue. Tecumseh was surrounded and pierced with bullets. Raising his hands aloft, to the great Father of all, this faithful ally and courageous savage, gave one last, stern, defiant look, at the foe, and breathed no more. General Proctor and his personal staff, with a few men, had previously sought safety by flight to Ancaster. And this remnant of the right division, including Proctor and seventeen officers, amounting to only two hundred and forty-six men, arrived at Ancaster on the 17th of October.

Harrison was greatly superior in numbers, and had cavalry, which Proctor was entirely without. The Kentucky cavalry were accustomed to fighting in the forest, and were expressly armed for it. Proctor did not exhibit ordinary judgment in his selection of ground. He had hardly time to cut down trees and to entrench himself, and the probability is that he was not aware of the enemy's possession of cavalry, and therefore was less prudent in his choice of ground than otherwise he would have been. Harrison, the American commander, had no less than 3,500 men with him, and as he captured only 25 British officers and 609 rank and file, all that surrendered, while two hundred and forty-six in all only escaped, the mishap to Proctor who was personally a brave officer, as he had repeatedly proved, ought not to have excited surprise. But the disaster following as it did, and as should have been expected, the calamity on Lake Erie, the Governor-in-Chief was highly incensed, and nearly sacrificed Proctor to public opinion. He abused him and his army in no measured terms, in general orders. He contrasted the conduct of the soldiery with that of Tecumseh and his Indians. He charged the Adjutant-General Reiffenstein with gross prevarication. He sneered at the captured, few of whom had been rescued by an honorable death from the ignominy of passing under the American yoke, and whose wounds pleaded little in mitigation of the reproach. The officers in retreating from Detroit, Sandwich and Malden, seemed to have been more anxious about their baggage than they had afterwards been about their honor. The enemy had attacked and defeated Proctor and his right division without a struggle. He could not indeed fully disclose to the British army the full extent of disgrace which had fallen upon a formerly deserving portion of the army. Sir George Prevost who had himself behaved so well at Sackett's Harbour, and who afterwards acted so honorably towards Commodore Downie, at Plattsburgh, did not spare an officer whom he had himself raised to the rank of Brigadier-General for previous gallantry in the field, and for distinguished success. Nay, he brought him to a Court Martial. The Court found that he had not retreated with judgment and had not judiciously disposed of his force, considering the extraordinary difficulties of his situation; but it further found that his personal conduct was neither defective nor reproachable. He was sentenced to be suspended from rank and pay for six months. George the Fourth, then Prince Regent, was still more severe upon the unfortunate Proctor. He confirmed the sentence and censured the Court for mistaken lenity.

There was this difference between Sir George Prevost and General Proctor:--Prevost was excessively cautious: Proctor was incautious to excess.

All Western Canada, with the exception of Michillimackinac, was now lost to the British. The Americans had not only recaptured Michigan, but the issue of one battle had given them a long lost territory, and the garden of Upper Canada. Harrison did not move against Michillimackinac, being persuaded that it would fall for want of provisions, but went to Buffalo and from there went to Niagara and Fort George, abandoned by General Vincent, who had fallen back, on hearing of Proctor's discomfiture, on Burlington Heights. In retreating, Vincent sent his baggage on before him, followed by the main body of his army, some three or four thousand sickly men, and kept his picquets in front of Fort George to deceive the enemy: seven companies of the 100th and the light company of the 8th regiment, and a few Indians, more men than Proctor had altogether, constituted the rear guard, and covered the retreat. The guard was closely pressed by 1,500 of the enemy, under Generals McClure and Porter, from Fort George, but the guard managed to keep them in check and enabled Vincent and Proctor to effect a junction at the heights of Burlington. The rear guard halted at Stoney Creek, but the enemy refused to give battle.

The result of these operations, in the northwest, so flattered the Americans as to induce the government at Washington to attempt a more effectual invasion of Canada. General Dearborn had been replaced, on account of ill-health, in the chief command of the army of the north, by General Wilkinson. The force intended for the contemplated invasion of Canada amounted to twelve thousand men. There were eight thousand stationed at Niagara and four thousand at Plattsburgh, commanded by Hampton, in addition to which, the forces under Harrison, were expected to arrive in time to furnish important assistance. It was in pursuance of this policy that Harrison suddenly left Fort George for Sackett's Harbour. General Wilkinson was concentrating his forces at Grenadier's Island, which is situated between Sackett's Harbour and Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, and the plan was to descend the St. Lawrence, in batteaux and gun-boats, passing by the forts and forming a junction with Hampton, to proceed to the Island of Montreal. The plan was not by any means an injudicious one, and its failure was almost marvellous. The expeditions were checked, and indeed annihilated by petty skirmishes, and that lack of decision, so fatal to military commanders. Hampton advanced on the 20th of September. At Odelltown he surprised the British picquet, and from thence he took the road leading to L'Acadie. He had, therefore, to pass through a swamp, covered with wood, for upwards of five leagues, before reaching the open country. Colonel DeSalaberry had done his best with the aid of his Voltigeurs to make the road a bad one to travel on. In the preceding campaign he had felled trees and laid them across it, and he had dug holes here and there, which soon contained the desired quantity of swampish water and kept the road as moist as could be wished. It was on the advance of Hampton, guarded by a few of the Frontier Light Infantry and some Indians, under the direction of Captain Mailloux. To strengthen Mailloux, Colonel DeSalaberry with his Voltigeurs and the flank companies of a battalion of militia, under Major Perrault, took up a position on both sides of the road among the trees, after the manner of the Indians. Hampton did not like the general appearance of matters and turned off the road, moving with his whole force towards the head of the river Chateauguay. DeSalaberry, with his Voltigeurs, also moved upon the Chateauguay. He was ordered, by the Commander of the Forces, to proceed to the enemy's camp at Four Corners, at the head of Chateauguay, create an alarm, and, if possible, surprise and dislodge him. He had only with him one hundred and fifty Voltigeurs, the light company of the Canadian Fencibles, and a hundred Indians, in charge of Mr. Gaucher. The Four Corners were reached unobserved. But an alarm was instantly given to the camp by the forwardness of an Indian, who discharged his musket without necessity, and without orders. DeSalaberry could now only close up his men and push forward. In a few minutes his brave band were in the midst of the enemy, numbering about four hundred, whom they drove before them, like sheep. His weakness, in numbers, for only fifty men and a few Indians had come up, was, however, soon apparent, and the enemy came to a halt, and another section of the foe made a movement with the view of out-flanking the assailants. DeSalaberry wisely fell back upon the position, from which he had emerged, upon the camp, at the skirt of the wood, and shortly afterwards the Indians having all fallen back, he retired altogether. The loss was very trifling, but the effect was excellent, both upon the enemy and upon the hitherto untried Voltigeurs. The enemy perceived or supposed that he perceived great preparations made to dispute his advance, inch by inch, while the Voltigeurs perceived that men are hardly aware of how much they are capable of doing until they try. DeSalaberry returned to Chateauguay, breaking up the road in his rear, and having ascertained the road by which Hampton was determined to advance, he judiciously took up a position in a thick wood, on the left bank of the river Chateauguay, two leagues above its confluence with English river. Here, he threw up breastworks of logs, and his front and right flanks were covered by extended abattis. His left rested on the river. In his rear the river being fordable, he covered the ford with a strong breastwork, defended by a guard, and kept a strong picquet of Beauharnois militia in advance on the right bank of the river, lest, by any chance, the enemy should mistake the road which DeSalaberry designed him to take, and crossing the ford, under cover of the forest, should dislodge him from his excellent position. Fortune favors the brave, when judicious. Hampton, having detached Colonel Clarke to devastate Missisquoi Bay, prepared to advance. He sent General Izzard, with the light troops and a regiment of the line, to force a militia picquet at the junction of the rivers Outaite and Chateauguay, and there the main body of the Americans arrived on the 22nd. Two days later the enemy repaired DeSalaberry's road and brought forward his ten pieces of artillery to within seven miles of DeSalaberry's position. He had discovered the ford, and the light brigade, and a strong body of infantry of the line, under Colonel Purdy, were sent forward on the evening of the 25th, to fall upon DeSalaberry's rear, while the main body were to assail in front. Purdy's brigade lost themselves in the woods. But Hampton himself appeared in front, with his brigadier, Izzard, and about 3,500 men. A picquet of twenty-five was driven in, but it only fell back upon a second picquet, when a most resolute stand was made. Colonel DeSalaberry heard the firing and advanced to the rescue. He had with him, Ferguson's company of Fencibles, and Chevalier Duchesnay's and Juchereau Duchesnay's companies of Voltigeurs. He posted the Fencibles, in extended order, every man being at an arm's length from his neighbor, in the night, in front of the abattis, the right touching the adjoining woods in which some Abenaquis Indians had distributed themselves. Chevalier Duchesnay's company, in skirmishing order, in line extended from the left of the Fencibles to Chateauguay, and Juchereau Duchesnay's company, and thirty-five militia, under Captain Longtain, were ranged, in close order, along the margin of the river, to prevent a flank fire from the enemy. The Americans advanced steadily, in sections, to within musket shot, and DeSalaberry commenced the action by discharging his rifle. The greatest possible noise was purposely made by buglers, stationed here and there,--on the wings, in the centre, and in the rear. It was indeed difficult to say whether the noise of the bugles or of the firing was the most terrific. The enemy wheeled into line and began to fire in vollies, but threw away their bullets, as the battalions were not fronting the Voltigeurs or Fencibles, but firing needless vollies into the woods, much to their right where they suspected men to be. So hot was the fire of the Voltigeurs, however, that the enemy soon found out his mistake, and brought his vollies to bear, as well as he could, in the right direction. Now, some of the skirmishers, under DeSalaberry retreated, and the enemy cheered and advanced. Again the buglers sounded the advance, and the sound of martial music echoed through the woods, so that it seemed as if 200,000 men were being marshalled for the fight. It was at this crisis that Colonel McDonell arrived with reinforcements, and the ardour of the enemy was checked. Purdy, long lost in the woods, was now guided towards the ford by the firing and the music. He drove in Captain Brugueire's picquet, which was on the opposite side of the river, and was pushing for the ford. DeSalaberry sent Captain Daly with the light company of the 3rd battalion of the embodied militia to cross the river and take up the ground abandoned by the picquet. He did so gallantly, driving back the American advanced guard, but was afterwards compelled to retreat. The enemy, as Daly retreated, appeared on the verge of the river. DeSalaberry gave the word to Juchereau Duchesnay to up and at them, and his men, rising from their place of concealment, poured in a fire upon Purdy's Americans, which was as unexpected as it was effectual. The Americans reeled back and then turned and ran. Hampton seeing Purdy's discomfiture, slowly withdrew, leaving Colonel DeSalaberry, with less than three hundred Canadians, in possession of his position, and with all the honors of victory. The loss was not great on either side. Of the Americans, forty were found dead. The Canadians lost five killed and twenty wounded. For this nicely managed skirmish DeSalaberry was justly loaded with honors, his officers and men were publicly thanked, and five pairs of colours were presented to the five battalions of Canadian embodied militia, by the Prince Regent.

Hampton retired upon Four Corners, and afterwards retreated to Plattsburgh, instead of co-operating with Wilkinson, as intended.

Simultaneously with Hampton's advance upon Chateauguay, or nearly so, Wilkinson proceeded down the St. Lawrence, with a flotilla of upwards of three hundred boats, protected by a division of gun-boats, until he was within three miles of Prescott, when he landed his troops, and marched down with them, by land, to a cove two miles below Fort Prescott, so as to avoid the British batteries. The boats having past during the night, without suffering any material injury from the cannonading of the fort.

So soon as the American movement was ascertained at Kingston, General DeRottenburg sent the 49th regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Prenderleath, the 89th regiment and some Voltigeurs after them. At Prescott, they were reinforced by a party of Canadian Fencibles, and the whole amounting to about eight hundred rank and file, was commanded by Colonel Morrison, of the 49th regiment, aided by the Deputy Adjutant General. Colonel Harvey, Under the escort of a small division of gun-boats, commanded by Captain Mulcaster, R.N. This corps of observation continued in pursuit of the enemy, and on the 8th of November, came up with them at Point Iroquois. Twelve hundred of the enemy, under Colonel Macomb, had landed on the previous day on the British side of the river to drive off the Canadian militia, who were collecting together in considerable numbers, at the head of the Long Sault. On the 18th, General Browne's brigade, with a body of dragoons, also landed on the British shore; and the remainder of Wilkinson's troops were landed at the head of the Sault, under the command of Brigadier-General Boyd.

Colonel Morrison, of the 8th British regiment, had landed at Hamilton, on the American side, on the 10th, took possession of a quantity of provisions and stores for the American army, and also of two field pieces. Nor was Colonel Harvey idle. He kept close upon the heels of the enemy. Seeing them one evening emerging from a wood, he tried the effect of round shot upon them. They did not at all relish it, and went back again. On the same evening, the opposing gun-boats came into collision and some rounds were fired without any important result. Next day Colonel Morrison pressed the American General Boyd, so closely that he was compelled to stand and give battle. Boyd's brigade consisted of between three and four thousand men, and a regiment of cavalry, Morrison's entire force only numbered eight hundred rank and file. At two in the afternoon, the Americans moving from Chrystler's Point, attacked the British advance. The British retired slowly and orderly upon the position which had been marked out for them. The flank companies of the 49th, the detachment of the Canadian with one field piece, somewhat in advance on the road, were on the right; the companies of the 89th, under Captain Barnes, with a gun formed in echelon, with the advance on its left supporting it; the 49th and the 89th thrown more to the rear, with a gun, formed the main body and reserve, extending to the woods, on the left, which were occupied by Voltigeurs and Indians. In half an hour the battle became general. The artillery behaved nobly. They kept up a most steady and destructive fire, and when the American cavalry attempted to charge, they were literally mowed down and were compelled to wheel about. The infantry charged the enemy's guns and captured one at the point of the bayonet. The Americans had not, apparently, room to act. They were too much cooped up. They attempted to turn the British flank, but the Voltigeurs and Indians, secure behind the trees, poured forth a deadly fire and drove them back. The enemy then concentrated his forces with the view of pushing forward in close column, but the royal artillery, concentrating their fire upon the solid mass, the Americans retreated, leaving the British to pass the night without molestation, on Chrystler's Farm. Indeed, the American infantry, after leaving the field, re-embarked in great haste, while the dragoons trotted after General Browne, who was on his way to Cornwall, entirely unconscious of disaster. At the battle of Chrystler's Farm, the enemy lost in killed, Brigadier-General Carrington, who fell at the head of his men, and three other officers, and ninety-nine men, and they had one hundred and twenty-one men wounded.

On the side of the British, Captain Nairne, of the 49th regiment, Lieutenants Lorimier and Armstrong, and twenty-one men were killed, and eight officers and one hundred and thirty-seven men were wounded, while twelve men were missing.

General Wilkinson proceeded down the Sault and joined Browne, near Cornwall. Hampton was confidently expected. The commander-in-chief had positively instructed his general of division to form a junction with the army from Sackett's Harbour at Cornwall, and he had not come. Wilkinson, sick in body, and not a little mortified by the late defeat, did not know very well what to do. To retreat by the way he came was not quite so easy as to advance. The rapids presented innumerable difficulties in the way of ascent, with an enemy lining the banks of the river. And that which was more annoying forced itself strongly upon his mind--the Canadians were both loyal and brave. His agony was most excruciating when he received a letter from Hampton to the effect that the Plattsburgh-Grand-Junction-Invading-Army was marching as expeditiously as circumstances would allow out of Canada; that, in a word it had been defeated and was in full retreat upon Champlain. An anathema was about to be coupled by the worthy and much irritated commander-in-chief with the name of Hampton, when Wilkinson recollected that he too had been checked in the most extraordinary way, in the very outset of a scheme so well calculated to subdue a country, only occupied by three thousand soldiers, scattered over a frontier of upwards of a thousand miles, and numbers of militia, formidable enough in the woods, but no match for a well disciplined, well provided, and numerous army, in the open field. The British regulars, elated with their late success, were in his rear. A kind of highland glen was not far in advance. He was fairly puzzled, and altogether wanting in that energy and decision so necessary for success in war. He called a council of his officers and communicated to them his fears. It was unanimously resolved that, for the present season, the attack on Montreal should be abandoned and that the army should cross the river to the American side and go into winter quarters. And accordingly the attack was abandoned. The Americans embarked again, and were taken to Salmon River. The boats and batteaux were immediately scuttled; the troops were made comfortable in long log huts or barracks, with astonishing celerity, and the camp, at French Mills, was as speedily as possible entrenched. Thus ended a campaign for which the Americans had made extraordinary preparations, and of the success of which high expectations had consequently been formed. The failures of Hampton and Wilkinson were indeed so disgraceful and so humiliating to the Americans that they were only compensated for, in kind, by the no less stupid, disgraceful, and humiliating failures of the British at Plattsburgh and New Orleans, with which the American war was, for both Americans and British, unfortunately concluded. All chance of invasion, on a grand scale, being now completely gone, the Canadian militia were disbanded for the winter.

In December, Lieutenant-General Drummond assumed the command of Upper Canada. He at once proceeded to the head of Ontario, with the view of regaining possession of Fort George. He ordered Colonel Murray to advance, which the gallant colonel did, and the American General, McClure, prepared to evacuate the fort. McClure set the village of Newark, the ancient capital of Upper Canada, on fire, agreeably to his instructions from the American Secretary at War, with the view of depriving the British army of comfortable winter quarters. He was indeed ordered to lay waste the country as he retreated, if retreat became necessary. It was on the 10th of December, a bleak, cold winter day, that McClure fulfilled his instructions. One hundred and fifty houses, composing the flourishing village of Newark, were reduced to ashes, and four hundred women and children were left to wander in the snow or seek the temporary shelter of some Indian wigwam in the woods. On the 12th of December, the British troops occupied Fort George, there being only five hundred men in all, militia and Indians, and not long afterwards the gratification of revenge presented itself to the British and vengeance was taken accordingly. General Drummond followed up the occupancy of Fort George by an attack upon the American fort at Niagara. On the night of the 18th of December, a detachment of the royal artillery, the grenadier company of the 1st Royals, and the flank companies of the 41st and 100th regiments, under Colonel Murray, crossed the river Niagara, and were very quietly put on shore at the Five Mile Meadows, the name of the landing place indicating the distance from the fort. All was still. Every order was conveyed in a whisper. Neither musket clattered nor sabre clinked. The 100th regiment went off in two divisions, one under Captain Fawcett,[22] and the other, under Lieutenant Dawson, stealthily. They seemed to be creeping past the trees, with the softness of a tiger's tread. The wormlike thread of men wound round picquet after picquet, and throttled the sentries on the glacis, and at the gate. The hearts of the sentries sank within them. They had hardly breath enough left, so terror-stricken were they, to reveal the watch-word, or nerve enough to point out the entrance to the fort. But the watch-word was obtained; the entrance was pointed out; and the 100th regiment were inside of Fort Niagara before a single drum had rolled or a bugle sounded. By the time indeed that the garrison were alarmed the whole British force were in the fort, and, after a show of resistance, the Americans surrendered. Only one officer and five men on the part of the British were killed and two officers and three men were wounded in this adroitly managed assault. The enemy lost in killed two officers and sixty-five men, and twelve rank and file were wounded. Three hundred men were made prisoners. In this affair the colonel of the 100th regiment, Hamilton, behaved with distinguished gallantry.

[22] A rather interesting anecdote is told of Captain Fawcett. About the end of the war he had been wounded in the heel, and was staying, in 1815, at Mrs. Matthew's boarding house, in Montreal. At the table d'hôte there was a raw-boned young English merchant, who remarked that Fawcett, to have been wounded in the heel, must have been running away. Fawcett's Irish blood rose to his forehead, and on the spur of the moment he felled the thoughtless Englishman with his crutch.

The rule of General Drummond in Upper Canada had auspiciously commenced. This affair was not only brilliant but well managed. The fort was a prize of no ordinary worth. It contained an immense quantity of commissariat stores, three thousand stand of arms, a number of rifles and several pieces of dismounted ordnance. On the works were twenty-seven heavy guns.

The greatest possible precautions were adopted to secure success. Major-General Riall followed Colonel Murray, with the whole body of Western Indians, stout, athletic, brave men, inured to fighting, the 1st battalion of the Royals, and the 41st regiment to support him, in case of need. Success had been achieved without the general's aid; but instead of resting satisfied with that which had been already accomplished, Riall wisely pushed on before the news of the capture of the fort could be spread about, on Lewiston, where the enemy, in some force, had erected batteries, with the view of destroying Queenston. Seeing Riall coming up in their rear, the enemy were compelled to retreat, and they abandoned their position with such precipitation, that two field pieces, with some small arms and stores fell into the hands of the British. It was now that the burning of Newark was to be revenged. The Indians and the troops were let loose upon the enemy's frontiers and Lewiston, Manchester, and the country around were laid in ruins. Determined to follow up his success, Drummond proceeded to Chippewa. He fixed his head-quarters there on the 28th of December, and on the morning after was within two miles of Fort Erie. Without loss of time, he reconnoitred, and finding the enemy's position at Black Rock assailable, he determined upon a second nocturnal attack. General Riall accordingly crossed the river, with four companies of the King's regiment and the light company of the 89th, under Colonel Ogilvy, and two hundred and fifty men of the 41st regiment, and the grenadiers of the 100th regiment, under Major Frend, together with about fifty militia volunteers and a body of Indians. The landing was effected about midnight. As before the advanced guard proceeded cautiously but were not quite so successful as before in preventing alarm. They surprised a picquet and captured not the whole, but the greater part of it. They did still more. The bridge over the Conguichity Creek was secured in spite of the repeated efforts of the enemy to dislodge the assailants. But all did not yet go well with the British. The boats required to bring over a second division had necessarily to be tracked up the river as high as the foot of the rapids below Fort Erie. Unfortunately they took the ground and could not be got off for a long time. Indeed, morning had dawned before the royals, intended to turn the enemy's position by attacking above Black Rock, while Riall's division attacked below, suffered so severely from the fire of the enemy that a landing was not effected in sufficient time for the full accomplishment of General Drummond's purpose. Riall, nevertheless, moved forward and attacked the Americans. They were strongly posted and in considerable force, but Riall drove them out of their batteries at the point of the bayonet, turning the enemy's one twenty-four, three twelves, and a nine pounder upon the now retreating foe. Riall, following up his successes, pursued the fleeing enemy into Buffalo. There they rallied, but it was only for a moment. They drew out a large body of fresh infantry, exhibited some cavalry, and fired a few rounds from a field piece, unlimbered on a height commanding the road. The British still pushed on and the enemy again gave way. They retreated notwithstanding their reinforcement so hurriedly that the six pounder brass gun on the height, an iron eighteen, and an iron six pounder were left behind. At last they reached the woods and Riall considered that for one day he had done enough, on land. But not yet fully satisfied, he detached Captain Robinson with two companies of the King's regiment to destroy three armed vessels, part of Perry's squadron, and their stores, if it were possible to do so. These vessels were at anchor a short distance below Buffalo, and Captain Robinson did as he was ordered to the letter.

From the time of the landing at Black Rock until the full accomplishment of the object of the expedition, with one, not unimportant, exception, the Americans lost from three to four hundred men in killed and wounded, and one hundred and thirty men taken prisoners, while the British loss was thirty-one men killed, and four officers, sixty-eight men wounded, and nine men missing.

The exception to the full accomplishment of the object of the expedition, that is to say, the burning of private property, was an exception to the general rule of the British army. But as evil, in some cases, must be done that good may follow, the rule, now laid down by General Drummond, was to pillage, burn, and lay waste, in retaliation for Newark. In accordance with this new rule, therefore, General Riall set about doing the only thing which he had left unaccomplished; the destruction of private property. Buffalo and Black Rock, previously deserted by their inhabitants, were set on fire and entirely consumed. Clothing, spirits, flour, public stores, and, indeed, everything which could not be conveniently carried off, fell a prey to the flames.

Thus was the campaign of 1813 terminated.

It might not unnaturally be supposed that during all this fighting, business would have been nearly at a stand. But so far from such being the case, the war had contributed in no small degree to bring Canada and its capabilities into notice. And it could not be otherwise. So large an expenditure as that required for the maintenance of the regular soldiery and militia must have made money plentiful, and such as were engaged in trade, whether in Quebec or Montreal, undoubtedly profitted by an expenditure almost necessarily profligate. On account of the militia alone, the province expended £121,366, and the expenditure of the commissariat department must have been enormous. But the grand source of wealth was the establishment of a kind of National Bank, with specie, to redeem its paper, in the vaults of the Bank of England. The circulation of fifteen hundred thousand pounds worth of army bills, all redeemable in cash, with interest, could not have failed to enrich a country in which there were not more than 350,000 inhabitants, the greater number of whom were actually in the pay of Great Britain, while they had the privilege of attending, unless in extraordinary cases, to their private pursuits. That Canada prospered during the war is undeniable. There was a considerable falling off in the number of vessels cleared at Quebec in 1813, in comparison with the previous year, and which was in some degree attributable to the risk attendant upon crossing the Atlantic, while the great frigates of the United States were permitted to prowl about, but the provincial revenue had, nevertheless, increased in the course of one year to the amount of £30,006, while the provincial expenditure alone was nearly £200,000. Indeed, Montreal, the temporary head-quarters of the commander-in-chief, and literally alive with troops, who all ate and drank heartily, was making rapid progress in the way of commercial advancement. Mr. Molson gave some indication of the general prosperity by placing upon the St. Lawrence a second steamer. On the 4th of May, 1813, the arrival of the _Swiftsure_ is noticed by the Quebec newspapers. The _Swiftsure_ had twenty-eight passengers, besides a serjeant with six privates of the royals, having three Americans, prisoners of war, four deserters from the 100th regiment, and one deserter from the American army, in charge, on board, and had been twenty-two hours and a half in running down. She had a good engine with a safety valve for blowing off surplus steam. The ladies' cabin had eight reposing berths. The gentlemen's cabin was thirty feet in length by twenty-three in breadth, and contained ten berths on each side, and two "forming an angle with the larboard side." The cabin was capable of lodging forty-four persons, and the steerage could accommodate about 150. The _Swiftsure_ was in length of keel 130 feet, her length upon deck was 140 feet, and her breadth of beam was 24 feet.

Lower Canada was then a wheat growing and even wheat exporting country. So early as 1802, Lower Canada exported 1,010,033 bushels of wheat, besides 28,301 barrels of flour, and 22,051 cwt. of biscuit. In 1810, the value of the exports from the St. Lawrence was £1,200,000 sterling. And the farmer of Lower Canada profitted in 1814 by the presence of the floating army population almost to as great an extent as the merchant. Both animal and vegetable foods were largely in demand.

Sir George Prevost, as soon as the temporary cessation of active hostilities, in his immediate neighbourhood, would permit, called a meeting of the Parliament of Lower Canada, for the despatch of business. Two sessions of parliament had been held in Upper Canada, since the commencement of the war, one was opened by Major General Brock, on the 3rd of February, 1812, when eleven Acts were passed, and the other by Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, during which other eleven Acts became law. They show the temper of the times. An Act was passed in General Brock's ruleship, granting a bounty for the apprehension of deserters from the regular forces; another granted £2,000 for the repair of roads and bridges; a third amended the militia law; a fourth regulated the meeting of sleds on the public roads; a fifth allowed £502 for clerks and the contingent expenses of parliament; a sixth granted £5,000 for the purpose of training the militia; a seventh extended an Act granting a certain sum of money to His Majesty; an eighth granted £1,000 for the purchase, sale, and exportation of hemp, and £423 for the purchase of hemp seed and payment of bounties; a ninth afforded relief to certain persons entitled to claim lands; a tenth amended an Act for the laying out of highways; and an eleventh provided for the appointment of returning officers. While General Sheaffe was President of Upper Canada, an Act was passed to facilitate the circulation of the Lower Province Army Bills. They were to be received in payment of duties and at the office of the Receiver General. A second Act was passed to empower Justices of the Peace to fine and, in the event of non-payment, to distress the properties of persons offending against the militia laws; a third Act prohibited the exportation of grain and other provisions and restrained the distillation of spirituous liquors from grain; a fourth gave a pension of £20 a year to such persons disabled in the war, as had wife or child, to be continued to the widow or the fatherless, in the event of the death of such disabled persons, and disabled bachelors were to obtain, so long as they were unable to earn a livelihood, £12 a year; a fifth prevented the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians; a sixth continued the Act to provide means for the defence of the province; a seventh repealed the Hemp Encouragement Acts; an eighth continued the Duties Agreement Act; a ninth amended an Act for the better regulation of town and parish officers; a tenth amended and repealed in part the Act for quartering and billetting the soldiery; and the eleventh granted for the clerks of parliament £88 1s. 9d. The debates of course were neither animated nor of particular interest.

In 1814, the parliament of Lower Canada was opened by the Governor General, on the 13th of January. Sir George could meet the legislature with heartfelt satisfaction and pride. The Canadians had acted nobly, both in the field and out of it, while they entertained for himself, personally, a feeling of respect, which he had done his utmost to win, and which it was his aim to preserve. In the speech from the throne, he congratulated parliament, particularly on the defeat of the enemy at Chateauguay. He alluded triumphantly to the brilliant victory over Wilkinson at Chrystler's Farm. He rejoiced that, notwithstanding the various events of the past summer, by which the enemy had gained a footing in the Upper province, the theatre of war had recently been transferred to American soil, and that Niagara, Black Rock, and Buffalo had been wrested from the enemy by British enterprise and valour. He was proud beyond expression, at the determination manifested by the Canadians to defend to the last extremity one of the most valuable portions of His Majesty's dominions. He trusted to Canadian loyalty and patriotism in the expectation that the sacrifices which the war might yet require would be patiently submitted to. And he would faithfully represent to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, the loyalty, zeal, and unanimity of His Canadian subjects. The Houses trembled with emotion. A thrill of intense satisfaction ran through every vein. Sir George had touched that chord in the human heart, which was never touched in vain. He had spoken of patriotism; he had acknowledged that the brave were brave indeed; and he had admitted that those who had been represented as treasonable were loyal to the core. The House of Assembly expressed their sincere acknowledgements. They felt themselves to have been rescued from most unfounded imputations that had been industriously attempted to be fixed upon them. They were grateful to His Excellency for the good opinion he had formed of them. They would cheerfully co-operate with His Excellency in maintaining the honor and promoting the service of their gracious sovereign. And they further gratefully acknowledged that His Excellency, in his anxious desire to forward the prosperity and to preserve the integrity of the province, had been guided by a just and liberal policy towards His Majesty's Canadian subjects, by which their loyalty, zeal, and unanimity had been cherished and promoted, and they were so impressed with the sense of it that, when His Excellency should withdraw, which they hoped would never be, from the administration of the government of Lower Canada, he would carry with him the good opinion and affection of the people over whom he had ruled so conscientiously, so honorably, and so justly. Sir George Prevost could not be otherwise than well satisfied with the address in reply to his speech. Kindness and conciliation had not been thrown away, but had been met with respect and affectionate regard.

The House proceeded almost immediately to business, and had not been long so employed, when His Excellency sent a secret message, asking for an increased issue of army bills, to meet the public requirements. The House at once authorised an issue to the extent of fifteen hundred thousand pounds. Afterwards the Assembly adopted a bill to amend the militia laws, which the Legislative Council refused to concur in; then a bill was passed to disqualify the judges for sitting or voting in the Legislative Council, which the Council also refused to concur in, on the plea that the bill was an interference with the Prerogative of the Crown, and with their privileges; next a bill was passed in the Assembly and negatived by the Council, to grant His Majesty a duty on the income arising from civil offices, and on pensions, to be applied for the defence of the province, in the war with the United States; again the Assembly adopted a bill for the appointment of a provincial agent in Great Britain, which the Council also set aside. Surprising as so obvious an antagonism between the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly may seem, it is easily accounted for. The Council were, many of them, placemen, and indeed the immaculate and confidential secretary to Sir James Craig, Mr. Witsius Ryland, also Clerk of the Executive Council, had himself a seat in the Upper House, although Mr. Robert Peel, differing in opinion with Sir James Craig, did not think that the situation which Mr. Ryland held was quite compatible with a seat in the Legislative Council. Mr. Ryland has favored the present generation, through the instrumentality of a near relative, with a brief review of the political state of the province of Lower Canada, from which some interesting facts can be gathered. He states that the Assembly knew that their bill for disqualifying the Chief Justice and Justices of the Court of King's Bench from being summoned to the Legislative Council, would be thrown out in the Upper House, but that the introduction of such a bill in the Assembly served the purpose which the party who introduced it had in view: it impressed the mass of the people with a disrespectful idea of the judges, preparatory to a grand attack upon the whole judicature of the province. In the bill for appointing an agent to Great Britain, Mr. Bedard, the person who had been under confinement on a _charge_ of treasonable practices, had been named as such agent, and a salary of £2,000 per annum assigned him. Mr. Ryland knew that the Council would throw out the bill. But, says that gentleman, the Council were thwarted, as Sir George Prevost acceded to a request of the Assembly for the appointment of two such agents, whom he accredited to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, and the Legislative Council passed several resolves expressive of their astonishment. The Council humbly considered His Excellency's acquiescence with the wishes of the Assembly to be an unequivocal abandonment of the "Rights" of the Legislative Council, and a fatal dereliction of the first principles of the constitution. And with regard to the income tax, proposed by the Assembly, Mr. Ryland states that the whole saving that would have been effected by it, would only have been £2,500 a year, and that the officers of the government who had the utmost difficulty in subsisting on their salaries, would have been, by such a measure, reduced to extreme distress! Now, it is a noticeable fact, in connection with this matter, that the Provincial Secretary, at the period alluded to, was an official in the Colonial Office, and had never seen Canada, although he afterwards received from the province a pension of £400 a year, in consideration of his long and valuable services; and it is in a high degree amusing to find Mr. Ryland informing this functionary "decidedly" and "frankly", that he had acted wisely in not asking for an increase of salary, although it was a different thing to solicit additional assistance in an office where the public business was constantly increasing! Mr. Ryland and a few other such cormorants could not tolerate the impertinent interference of the House of Assembly with their means of subsistence. Nay, it will even appear that Mr. Ryland took it upon himself to privately lecture Sir George Prevost's successor upon the impropriety of following a certain course of action, and that he actually succeeded in dissuading the Governor from his original purpose.

The Assembly, thwarted as it had been by the Council, still pursued its reformatory course. Much time, indeed, did not elapse until Mr. Stuart again brought forward his motion to take into consideration the power and authority exercised by the Provincial Courts of Justice, under the denomination of Rules of Practice. His motion was almost unanimously carried. And who this Mr. Stuart was, Mr. Ryland tells. About 1813, says the Clerk of the Executive Council, "Mr. Bedard, the judge, came to Quebec, for the purpose of advising the measures to be pursued, but not having a seat in the Assembly, the principal management was left to an Anglo-American Barrister, named Stuart, who had been a pupil of the present Chief Justice, (Sewell) when he held the situation of Attorney-General. This gentleman obtained from Lieutenant-Governor Milnes the appointment of Solicitor-General, from which he was dismissed by Sir James Craig, in consequence of his pursuing a line of conduct, which the latter considered utterly inconsistent with his duty as a servant of the Crown." What the particular line of conduct pursued by Mr. Stuart was, that so much offended Sir James Craig, even time and Mr. Ryland have not yet revealed. Perhaps "the Anglo-American Barrister" did not bow sufficiently low to confidential Secretaries and Executive Clerks. He would have found such obsequiousness difficult. Mr. Stuart was both vigorous in mind and body, and was very far from being a common man. He stood more than six feet high, and was built in proportion. His shoulders were broad, his chest ample, and his arms long. His head was immoderately large. His countenance was commanding and his bearing dignified. He spoke with great fluency and with astonishing conciseness. His eye was large, his forehead prominent, lofty and broad, with great depth between the brow and the occiput, his nose was long and aquiline, with the nostrils open; his mouth was large, but the lips were thin; and the chin was square and somewhat prominent; viewed, in profile, the whole head was wall-sided. He was no man to be trifled with, and none other than a fool would at any time, have thought of doing so. The Chief Justice Sewell, also an Anglo-American, was also an exceedingly talented man, but still a man quite of another stamp of mind, to that of Mr. Stuart. Mr. Sewell was thoroughly polished. No man could so well bow to power or so well bend an inferior to his will as Mr. Chief Justice Sewell. To see him in the street was to see him in the least, the lowest, and, consequently, the worst point of view. He was knowing, well read, and well bred. He could become sarcastic, but never condescended to be furious. If he was at all sycophantic, it was his will rather than his nature to be so. On the bench, he loomed large, being long in body, and looked stately and agreeable. He could be stern, but sternness was less natural to him than concealment. He never told all he knew, nor did his face ever betray the innermost recesses of his heart. On the whole, Mr. Sewell was a good man, and he was an excellent Chief Justice. Such are the characters of the complainant and the defendant in this cause. Mr. Stuart carried great weight, when on the right side, in a House of Assembly, steadily bent upon fair legislation. Not only did he carry his motion about taking into consideration the power and authority exercised by the Courts of Justice, through the medium of Rules of Practice, at variance with the law and the liberty of the subject, but the House ordered the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and the Prothonotaries of the Courts to produce the Rules of Practice, or certified copies of them, for the immediate use of members. The House went into committee and talked the matter over, then rose, and reported progress. The Rules of Practice had not been very long in use. They were made for the Court of Appeals so recently as 1809, and the example was so excellent that the Court of King's Bench followed it. The Legislative Assembly not only considered the rules an infringement upon their privilege of law-making but an infringement upon the civil rights of His Majesty's subjects and subversive of the laws of the province, rendering the enjoyment of liberty and property altogether insecure and precarious, and giving to the judges an arbitrary authority. And the Assembly without further ceremony proceeded to impeach the Chief Justices of Quebec and Montreal, at the instance of Mr. Stuart, the Anglo-American Barrister. It was said that Jonathan Sewell, Chief Justice, had traitorously and wickedly endeavored to subvert the constitution by the introduction of an arbitrary, tyrannical government against law; that the said Jonathan Sewell had disregarded the authority of Parliament, and usurped its powers by making regulations subversive of the constitution and the laws; that Jonathan Sewell had libellously published such Rules of Practice; that Jonathan Sewell had substituted his own will for the will of the legislature; that Jonathan Sewell being Chief Justice, Speaker of the Legislative Council, and Chairman of the Executive Council, had maliciously slandered the Canadian subjects of the King and the House of Assembly, and had poisoned and incensed the mind of Sir James H. Craig, the Governor-in-Chief, and had so misled and deceived him that he did on the 15th of May, 1809, dissolve the parliament, without any cause whatever to palliate or excuse the measure, the said Governor-in-Chief having been at the same time advised to make a speech in gross violation of the rights of the Assembly, grossly insulting to its members, and misrepresenting their conduct; that to prevent opposition to his tyrannical views the said Jonathan Sewell had counselled and advised Sir James Henry Craig to remove and dismiss divers loyal and deserving subjects, from offices of profit and emolument--now the head and front of Mr. Sewell's offending has come nebulously to light--without the semblance of reason to justify it; that to mark his contempt for the representatives of the people and for the constitution, he had procured the dismissal of Jean Antoine Panet, Esquire, who then was, and for fifteen years preceding had been Speaker of the Assembly, from his rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the militia, without any reason to palliate or excuse the injustice; that he had induced P. E. Desbarats, the law printer, to establish a newspaper styled the "Vrai Canadien," for the purpose of vilifying such members of the Assembly as were obnoxious to him; that with the view of extinguishing the liberty of the press, and destroying, therefore, effectually, the rights, liberty, and security of His Majesty's subjects in the province, and suppressing all complaint of oppression, he had, in March, 1810, advised and approved the sending of an armed force to break open the dwelling house and printing office of one Charles Lefrançois, there to arrest and imprison him, and seize and bring away a printing press, with various private papers, which measure of lawless violence was accordingly executed, the said press and papers being then in the Court House of Quebec, with the knowledge and approbation of the said Jonathan Sewell; that Jonathan Sewell had advised the arrest of Messrs. Bedard, Blanchet and Taschereau, upon an unfounded pretext; that Jonathan Sewell had instigated the oppression of the old and infirm François Corbeil, by which the old man lost his life; that Jonathan Sewell had instigated Sir James Henry Craig to issue a proclamation causing the public to believe that Mr. Bedard had been guilty of treason, and that the province was in a state approaching to open rebellion; that Jonathan Sewell had read the wicked proclamation in the Court House, to influence the Grand and Petty Juries; that Jonathan Sewell had abused his powers simply with the view of paving the way for American predominance in Canada; that with the view of annexing Canada to the United States he had entered into a base and wicked conspiracy with one John Henry, an adventurer of suspicious character, for the purpose of sowing dissension among the subjects of the government of the United States, and producing a dismemberment of the Union; and had given artful advice to Sir James Craig, inducing him to send Henry, the adventurer, on a secret mission, which had exposed His Majesty's government to imputations reflecting on its honor, and that he had labored to promote disunion between the legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, and had fomented dissensions in the province to prevent a reliance on the loyalty and bravery of His Majesty's Canadian subjects. Mr. Chief Justice Monk was impeached as an accessory.

With the view of effectually prosecuting the impeachment, the House appointed Mr. Stuart its agent, and directed him to proceed to England, to press upon His Majesty's ministers the necessity of giving heed to the business. £2,000 were awarded for the payment of the expenses of Mr. Stuart, but the Council expunged the award from the revenue bill, and there was no more about it, until the House went to the Castle with their Speaker, who presented an address to the Governor General, requesting him to transmit the impeachments, and suggested the propriety of the Chief Justices being suspended from the exercise of their powers until the pleasure of the Prince Regent could be ascertained. Sir George Prevost was somewhat taken by surprise. He was in an exceedingly delicate or rather interesting situation. It was an unpleasant, if not a disagreeable part, which he was required to play. It was, in a word, to make complaint to the Prince Regent of his predecessor. Sir George, however, blandly said that he would take an early opportunity of transmitting the address, with the articles of accusation against the Chief Justices, to His Majesty. With regard to the suggestion of the Honorable House of Assembly, concerning the suspension of the Chief Justices, he did not consider it necessary to go to that extreme. The Legislative Council had not even been consulted with regard to the articles of accusation; and he could not think of suspending two officers of such rank, on the complaint of only the third branch of the legislature.

In the Assembly, when the Speaker had returned to the chair, there were murmurs, both loud and deep. Mr. James Stuart, seconded by Louis Joseph Papineau, both determined men, and of consummate ability, moved that the charges exhibited by the Assembly against Jonathan Sewell and James Monk, Esquires, were rightly denominated, Heads of Impeachment; that the House had the right to advise the Governor General without the concurrence of the Legislative Council; that the House in pointing out the existence of gross abuses, had performed the first and most essential of its duties; that in framing and exhibiting the heads of impeachment referred to in the address to His Excellency, the House had exercised a salutary power, vested in it by the constitution; and that His Excellency, the Governor-in-Chief, had violated the constitutional rights and privileges of the House, by his answer to the address. But afterwards, to show that a feeling of respect was yet felt for His Excellency, greater than any of his predecessors had ever experienced, the House resolved, notwithstanding the wicked and perverse advice which he had received, that His Majesty's faithful Commons of Canada had not, in any respect, altered the opinion they had ever entertained of the wisdom of His Excellency's administration, and they were determined to adopt the measures deemed necessary for the support of the government and the defence of the province.

The Governor-in-Chief was, however, not by any means pleased with the pertinacity of the Assembly. There were evidently men in the House, who would neither be forced nor persuaded out of certain measures. He hardly knew how to act in the emergency, and with his usual caution he did nothing. The Chief Justice Sewell went to England for the purpose of repelling the accusations against him, and as he was only the instrument of, not under any circumstance the author of a wrong, English public opinion, of course, went strongly with him. The Executive Councillors, the merchants, and the other principal inhabitants of Quebec presented addresses to His Honor, intimating the high opinion in which he was held, and alluding to his conspicuous ability, comprehensive knowledge, patient candour, liberal respect for the opinion of others, and his equality and gentleness of temper, pointedly and flatteringly. Mr. Chief Justice Monk was similarly treated by the influential inhabitants. The Assembly continued, notwithstanding the war exigencies of the times, in their factiousness, as their persistence in some measures was considered. They again passed a bill appointing a provincial agent to Great Britain, who was to reside in London, after the manner of an ambassador. Mr. Bedard, the Judge of Three Rivers, who had figured somewhat conspicuously in Sir James Craig's time, was named as the agent in the bill. It was sent up to the Legislative Council for concurrence. And it had not been long there when it occurred to the House of Assembly that two agents would be better than one, as the Council, desirous of sending one of their own members to England, would thereby be induced to concur in the expediency of despatching agents to London. But the Council begged that the Assembly would mind its own business and not interfere with any bill before the Upper House, unless a conference was officially asked for by the Legislative Council, when any suggestion from the Assembly would be attended to. The Upper House never encroached upon the privileges of the Lower House. The agent was not appointed. The Houses could not agree upon a messenger, and although the Governor promised to send two messengers to London, at the public expense, if the Assembly desired it, no one is to this hour very certain whether the address of the Legislative Assembly, to the Prince Regent, ever reached his royal fingers. These were the principal matters with which the time of the House was occupied, but the opportunity was not overlooked of voting the thanks of the House to Colonel DeSalaberry and his officers and men under him, for their distinguished conduct at Chateauguay, and to Colonel Morrison, of the 89th regiment, and to the officers and men under him, for their exertions at Chrystler's Farm, in the defeat of Wilkinson.

On the 17th of March, the parliament was prorogued, and so ended the seventh parliament of Lower Canada. Sir George Prevost in his closing speech, was not so flattering in his allusions as in opening the session. He had seen with regret a want of unanimity and despatch, and a want of confidence in himself, which had been attended with serious inconveniences to the public service, in both Houses. He lamented the course of proceeding adopted by the Assembly, which had occasioned the loss of a productive revenue bill, to wit, tacking to the bill the clause for the payment of a London agent, which had caused its rejection by the Upper House, and a consequent misunderstanding by which the bill had been lost. He regretted that in sacrificing the liberal appropriations for the defence of the province they had been swayed by any considerations, which seemed to them of higher importance than the immediate security of the province or the comfort of those engaged in its protection. He earnestly entreated the gentlemen of the Legislative Council, as peace was not obtained, to impress on all around them, by precept and example, a respect for the laws by which they were governed, as well as a just confidence in those who administered them, and to cherish and encourage that spirit which had hitherto proved the firmest barrier against all the attempts of the enemy. And as the parliament was about to expire, and he should avail himself of an early opportunity of appealing to the sense of the people for the election of a new Assembly, he recommended the honorable gentlemen and gentlemen to give the inhabitants of the province a true idea of the nature and value of the constitution which they possessed, so that their choice of representatives might fall on those who would endeavour faithfully to uphold it, and so promote the safety, welfare, and prosperity of the province.

Sir George Prevost evidently threw out some hints to the Legislative Council, which could not have been particularly palatable.

In Sir George's speech there was an allusion to peace not being at hand. Sir George made that reference doubtless in connection with the fact that Russia had offered to mediate between the contending powers, with reference to an amicable settlement of their differences. Indeed commissioners were appointed to negotiate, by the United States. Messrs. Gallatin, Adams, and Bayard were named. But Great Britain declined the proposal, though the Prince Regent offered a direct negotiation either at London or Gottenburg. The offer was accepted, and Messrs. Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin, were added to the commissioners already in Europe, and sailed soon after for Gottenburg. Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and William Adams were appointed on the part of the Court of St. James, to meet them. The place of meeting was subsequently changed to Ghent, in Flanders, and the conference met in August. But while the conference sat the war was carried on.

The first fight of moment in 1814, occurred on the Pacific Coast. The American Commodore Porter had been cruising in the frigate _Essex_, for some time, in the Pacific, with wonderful success. He had with him as a consort, a captured whaleship, which he had armed with twenty guns, and named the _Essex, junior_. Captain Hillyard, in the British frigate _Phoebe_, accompanied by the sloop of war _Cherub_, had been sent in search of the successful cruiser, and on the 9th of February, gained intelligence to the effect that with two of her prizes she had put into Valparaiso. The American was no match, even with the aid of the whale ship, for two such vessels, and kept in port, the British vessels keeping up a strict blockade for six weeks.[23] At length, on the 28th of March, tired of the blockade, Porter attempted to escape, when Captain Hillyard succeeded in bringing her to action, in the roads of Valparaiso, before she could get back, and without the aid of her lesser consort. The American ship, in the hurry to escape, had spread every stitch of canvas, to run past the _Phoebe_, and as she was doubling the point a squall struck her, carrying away the main topmast. Both ships immediately gave chase, and being unable to escape in his crippled state, Porter attempted to regain the harbor. Finding this to be impracticable, he ran into a small bay and anchored within pistol shot of the shore. The contest, which was a most unequal one, now commenced. Both the attacking vessels at first got into raking positions, and did great execution. Nevertheless, Captain Porter fought gallantly. Hillyard's ship having sustained serious damage in her rigging, and having become almost unmanageable, on that account, hauled off to repair damages, leaving the _Cherub_ to continue the action. Hillyard manoeuvred deliberately and warily. He knew that his antagonist was in his power, and his only concern was to succeed with as little loss to himself as possible. Hillyard again attacked, and the _Essex_ hoisting her foresail and lifting her anchor, managed] to run alongside of the _Phoebe_. The firing was now tremendous, and the _Essex's_ decks were strewed with dead. Both attacking ships then edged off, and fired into the _Essex_, at convenient range, until she struck. The _Cherub_ raked the _Essex_, while the _Phoebe_ exchanged broadsides with her. The _Essex_ had twice taken fire during the action. The loss on board the _Essex_ was fifty-eight killed, thirty-nine wounded severely, twenty-seven slightly, and thirty-one missing. On board both British vessels only five were killed and ten wounded. It is said that there were nearly a hundred sailors on board the _Essex_, when the engagement commenced, who jumped overboard, when it was likely she would be taken; that of these forty reached the shore, while thirty-one were drowned, and sixteen picked up when on the point of drowning, by the British. On the other hand it is alleged that when the _Essex_ took fire aft, a quantity of powder exploded, and word was given that the fire was near her magazine. It was then that Captain Porter advised as many as could swim to make for the shore, which they did, or tried to do, while those who could not swim exerted themselves to extinguish the flames, which having done, the action was renewed, until fighting was impossible. When Porter summoned a consultation of his officers, only one appeared--Acting Lieutenant McNight.

[23] So say the Americans. Mr. Alison says three weeks.

Early in February, the American sloop of war _Frolic_, of 22 guns, was captured by the British frigate _Orpheus_, after two shots had been fired. But by way of compensation, the British brig _Epervier_, of 18 guns, towards the close of April, surrendered to the American sloop of war _Peacock_, of 22 guns, and on the 28th of June, a most desperate encounter took place between the British sloop of war _Reindeer_,[24] of 18 guns, and the American sloop, _Wasp_. The preponderance of force was here, in a most extraordinary degree, in favor of the Americans, but, notwithstanding this advantage, Captain Manners, of the _Reindeer_, one of the bravest officers who ever trod a quarter deck, the moment he got sight of the American vessel gave chase, and as soon as it was evident to the American captain that he was pursued by the _Reindeer_ alone, he hove to and the action commenced. Never were vessels more gallantly commanded and fought on both sides. The engagement lasted, yard arm to yard arm, for half an hour, at the end of which time the _Reindeer_ was so disabled, that she fell with her bow against the larboard quarter of the _Wasp_. The latter instantly raked her with dreadful effect; and the American rifles, from the tops, picked off almost all the officers and men on the British deck. But Captain Manners then showed himself indeed a hero. Early in the action the calves of his legs had been shot away, but he still kept the deck; at this time a grape shot passed through his thighs, but though brought for a moment on his knees, he instantly sprang up, and though bleeding profusely, not only refused to quit the deck, but exclaiming, "Follow me, my boys; we must board!" sprang into the rigging of the _Reindeer_, intending to leap into that of the _Wasp_. At this moment two balls from the American tops pierced his skull, and came out below his chin. With dying hand he waved his sword above his head, and exclaiming, "Oh God!" fell lifeless on the deck. The Americans immediately after carried the British vessel by boarding, where hardly an unwounded man remained, and so shattered was she in her hull, that she was immediately after burned by the captors. Never, says Alison, will the British empire be endangered while the spirit of Captain Manners survives in its defenders.

[24] Taken verbatim from Alison. The _Wasp_, whose Captain, Blakeley, was an Irishman, was lost in the same year, during a cruise, and no trace of her gallant captain or crew was ever obtained.

There was some correspondence in the early part of 1814, relative to the prisoners captured at Queenston, supposed to be British subjects, and therefore sent to England to be tried for treason. The American government confined an equal number of British prisoners, who were to be retaliated upon, unless the British government consented to exchange them the same as other prisoners, and the Canadian government confined General Winder and a number of other officers and men, as hostages for the forthcoming of the British prisoners, and in retaliation for their confinement. The whole matter ended in smoke. The traitors were not made examples of, and negotiations and retaliations ceased. During the winter, stores of every kind were forwarded to Kingston, from Quebec and Montreal. In February, the 8th regiment, and two hundred and twenty seamen, arrived overland from Fredericton, New Brunswick. The Indians, Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnees, Delawares, Mohawks, Saiks, Foxes, Kickapoos, and Winebagoes, came to Quebec to inform the Governor General that they were poor and needed arms, but would fight to the last drop of blood for the British against the Americans, who had taken away their lands, General Prevost was, of course, exceedingly glad to hear it, and having expressed his regret for the death of Tecumseh, he loaded them with presents, entertained them for two days, and then sent them off to prepare for the campaign.

The Americans had not by any means been idle during the winter. They too had been making preparations, and when General Macomb crossed Lake Champlain on the ice, with his division, from Plattsburgh, about the end of March, serious doubts began to be entertained in Canada, with regard to the probability of another invasion. The general soon removed all doubts. He crossed to St. Armand and remained there unmolested, while General Wilkinson prepared to assault Odelltown and Lacolle Mills. As soon as Wilkinson was fully prepared for the assault, Macomb joined him, and the Americans, numbering about five thousand men, entered Odelltown. Despatches were immediately sent off by the officer in command of the stone mills at Lacolle, to Isle-aux-Noix for aid, and Captain Broke with a picquet of the 13th regiment, was sent to him. Major Handcock set about making such preparations as he could for the defence of his temporary block-house, or rather stone tower, at Lacolle. Wilkinson did not immediately advance, but halted to reconnoitre. He made a feint too, upon Burtonville, which he suffered a few grenadiers and some light infantry to check. He wanted possession of Lacolle town, and accordingly, early in the afternoon, he determined upon taking it by assault. The Americans got into the woods with the view of surrounding the blockhouse and of simultaneously assaulting it on all sides. Lacolle opened fire, but the Americans only replied by a cheer, and continued to advance. But the cheering was not of long duration, as the effect of Major Handcock's fire was not by any means elevating to the Americans. It was so heavy and so hot, and so well directed that the effect was most depressing, and the enemy retreated, in some confusion, back to the woods, from which they had emerged. Thus repulsed the gallant Americans thought of battering a breach in the tower of Lacolle, with the aid of a naked 12-pounder, or battering gun, unprotected by an earthwork. The result was that the artillerymen being within musket range, were picked off with great facility, and with such marvellous rapidity, that it was no easy matter for the enemy to load and fire. The cannonading was, nevertheless, kept up for two hours and a half, but as little attention was paid to aim, under the exciting circumstances, only four round shot struck the mill, doing no harm at all. It would have been prudent for the gallant Handcock to have kept the enemy for some time longer, in the snow and cold, keeping up so harmless a fire of artillery. But it occurred to him that the gun might be spiked, and he ordered the flank companies of the 13th regiment to charge the enemy, in front. The trees stood still, and the Americans retired a little, pouring a deadly fire upon the 13th, as they advanced in line through deep snow, as well as they could, which was not by any means very well. As the Americans still pertinaciously kept in the woods, the 13th could not, by any possibility, charge. They might have pursued the enemy individually, and the dodging and twining and twirling of the combatants would have been something extraordinary. But the 13th thought better of it and wisely retired, in good order, upon the mill. At this moment, however, the grenadiers of the Fencibles and a company of the Voltigeurs, arrived from Burtonville, and were ordered by Major Handcock to support the retiring 13th, and charge again. The whole now advanced in columns of sections upon the gun, which the Americans had spiked during the first charge, and on which the Americans in the woods were ready to concentrate their fire. The enemy did not pull a trigger until the 13th, Voltigeurs, and Fencibles were within twenty-five yards of their centre, when the further advance of the sortie was checked by the fire of musketry so hotly poured in upon them on all sides. They were instantly recalled. But the Americans being by this time wearied, cold, and hungry, and now deficient in artillery, while they were as unable to carry the mill by storm, as the British were to charge in the woods, retreated about five in the afternoon, unmolested, and afterwards fell back upon Champlain and Plattsburgh. The Americans lost in this attempt to carry a stone tower, bravely defended, 13 in killed, 123 in wounded, and in missing 30. The British lost 10 killed, 4 missing, and 2 officers and 44 men wounded.

The Americans, while they were near Cornwall, under Generals Brown and Boyd, in the autumn previously to re-crossing the river, plundered some merchants of all their goods, wares, and merchandise, found _en route_ for Upper Canada. But the American government had stipulated for their restitution with Colonel Morrison, of the 89th, and Captain Mulcaster, of the Royal Navy. Whether the repeated checks that they had lately received from the British, in consideration of their unwelcome, but not looked for, visits, had soured the authorities, south of 45°., or no, it was now intended to sell the plunder for the benefit of the government of the United States, as British goods being rare in the American market, high prices would undoubtedly have been obtained. To prevent a consummation, not in the least devoutly wished for by the British merchants, Captain Sherwood, of the Quarter Master General's Department, suggested the idea of plundering them back again. Accordingly, Captain Kerr, with a subaltern, twenty rank and file of the marines, and ten militiamen, crossed the ice on the 6th of February, during the night, from Cornwall to Madrid, on Grass River, with horses and sleighs innumerable. The merchandise, or a great part of it, was secured, packed in the sleighs, and carried off. Indeed the inhabitants of Madrid made no opposition to Captain Kerr, but on the contrary, looking upon the expedition as rather smart, were considerably tickled, and positively helped the British to load their sleighs and be gone. Jonathan, fully alive to the ludicrous, chuckled as he thought upon the astonished countenances of the United States' officers, who were charged with the sale of the goods, when they should have ascertained their unlooked for disappearance. The inhabitants were, of course, not molested, and indeed living but a few hundred yards from the British shore, were only very moderate Americans.

There was also, during the winter, a skirmish at Longwood, in which the British, who were the assailants, retired with a loss of two officers and twelve men killed.

The campaign opened with the opening of the navigation, in May. Sir James Yeo, with the co-operation of that talented, skilful, and excellent officer, General Drummond, planned an attack upon Oswego, with the view of destroying the naval stores, sent by way of that town for the equipment of the American fleet in Sackett's Harbour. The British fleet having been strengthened by two additional ships, the _Prince Regent_ and the _Princess Charlotte_, General Drummond sent on board of it six companies of DeWatteville's regiment, the light companies of the Glengary militia, and the second battalion of the Royal Marines, with a detachment of Royal Artillery, and two field pieces, a detachment of a rocket company, and some sappers and miners. This expedition left Kingston on the 4th of May, and arrived off Oswego about noon on the day following. It was then however, blowing a gale of wind, from the northwest, and it was considered expedient to keep off and on the port, until the weather calmed. It was the morning of the 6th, before a landing could be effected, when about one hundred and forty men, under Colonel Fischer, and two hundred seamen, under Captain Mulcaster, Royal Navy, were sent ashore, in the face of a heavy fire of grape and round shot from the enemies' batteries, and of musketry from a detachment of the American army, posted on the brow of a hill and partially sheltered by an adjoining wood. The British, nevertheless, charged the battery and captured it, the enemy leaving about sixty wounded men behind them, in their hurried retreat. The stores in the fort were taken possession of, the fort itself dismantled, and the barracks were destroyed. In this successful assault, Captain Holtaway, of the Marines, was killed, Captain Mulcaster was severely and dangerously wounded in the head, and Captain Popham was wounded severely, two officers of the line and two other naval officers were wounded. Eighteen rank and file of the army and marines were killed, and sixty wounded, and three sailors were killed and seven wounded. The naval stores, however, were not captured, as they had been deposited at the Falls of the Onondago, some miles above Oswego. The troops were re-embarked and the fleet sailed for Kingston on the 7th of May.

Sir James Yeo being still very anxious about the naval stores which the enemy were so industriously collecting at Sackett's Harbour, determined to try if possession of at least a part of them could not be obtained. Accordingly, he blockaded Sackett's Harbour, and on the morning of the 29th of May, a boat belonging to the enemy, laden with a cable large enough for a ship of war, and with two twenty-four pounders, forming one of a flotilla of sixteen boats from Oswego, containing naval and military stores, was intercepted and captured. Captains Popham and Spilsbury, having with them two gun-boats and five barges, were immediately sent in search of the other boats. They soon learned where the missing boats were. Fearing capture, the Americans had taken shelter in Sandy Creek. It was resolved to root them out, if possible, and accordingly the British gun-boats and barges entered the Creek. Captains Popham and Spilsbury immediately looked about them, and found the enterprise to be rather hazardous. The creek was narrow and winding. An attack was, nevertheless, determined upon. For about half a mile the assailants proceeded cautiously up the creek, when, as they turned its elbow, the enemy's boats were in full view. The troops immediately landed on both banks and were advancing when the sixty-eight pounder carronade in the foremost boat was disabled, and it was necessary to bring the twenty-four pounder in the stern of the boat to bear upon the enemy. But no sooner had an effort been made to get the boat round than the enemy took it into their heads that the attacking party designed to make off, and advancing hastily in considerable numbers, rifles, militia, cavalry, regular infantry, and Indians, the British, unable to retreat, were overpowered, the captured being with difficulty rescued by their humane American enemies, from the tomahawks and scalping knives of the Indians.

On Lake Champlain an attempt was made on the 14th of May, to capture or destroy two new American vessels building at Vergennes, by Captain Pring, of the Royal Navy, but finding the enemy prepared to receive him more warmly than courteously, Captain Pring desisted and returned to Isle-aux-Noix.

About the end of June, the Americans concentrated at Buffalo, Black Rock, and other places, on the Niagara frontier, for the invasion of Upper Canada, only waited for the co-operation of the fleet, which had not, as yet, come out of Sackett's Harbour. The army was commanded by General Brown, however, an officer, of considerable judgment, and now not by any means inexperienced in the art of war, who could not remain long inactive. On the 3rd of July, he despatched Brigadiers Scott and Ripley, with their two strong brigades, to effect a landing on the Canada shore. They landed from boats and batteaux, at two different points. One brigadier landed above Fort Erie, and the other below it, the brigades being two miles apart, and the fort in the centre. Captain Buck, of the 8th regiment, was in command of Fort Erie, and, oddly enough, although he had put it in a tolerably good state for defence, he at once surrendered it, and his garrison of seventy men, to the enemy. Scott and Ripley now marched on Chippewa, and were making preparations to carry that post when they were met by General Riall, with fifteen hundred regular troops, and a thousand Indians and militia, and offered battle. The offer was no sooner made than accepted, and at five in the afternoon, a battle was commenced, which proved disastrous to Riall. The enemy were overwhelmingly numerous. Riall's militia and Indians attacked the American light troops vigorously, but they were unable to cope with Kentucky riflemen, sheltered behind trees. Death came with every rifle flash, and the militia and Indians must have given way, had not the light companies of the Royal Scotts and 100th regiments come to their relief. Now came the main and, on the part of Riall, ill-judged attack. He concentrated his whole force, while the Americans stretched out in line. He approached in column, attempting to deploy under a most galling fire, and the result was, as might have been anticipated, fearfully disastrous. With 151 men killed and 320 wounded, among whom was Lieutenant-Colonel, the Marquis of Tweedale, the British were compelled to retire. Riall's object in retiring was to gain his intrenched camp, but General Brown, who now commanded the Americans, discovered a cross road, and Riall, abandoning Queenston, fell back to Twenty Mile Creek. The loss of the Americans was 70 killed and 9 officers and 240 men wounded. This was the most sanguinary of any battle that had been fought during the war, and the enemy, gaining courage, advanced gradually, and made demonstrations upon Forts George and Mississaga. On the 25th of July, Brown, not considering it expedient to advance and, unsafe to stand still, retreated upon Chippewa, the village of St. David's having been previously set on fire, by a Lieutenant-Colonel Stone, whom Brown compelled to retire from the army for his barbarity. General Riall now again advanced, when the enemy wheeled about and endeavoured to cut him off from his expected reinforcement. But he failed in doing so, General Drummond having come up with about three thousand men, of whom eighteen hundred were regulars. The enemy was five thousand strong, but General Drummond seized a commanding eminence which swept the whole field of battle. Nothing daunted, however, by this superiority of position, the Americans resolutely advanced to the charge, and the action, which commenced about six in the evening, soon became general along the whole line, the brunt of the battle falling, nevertheless, upon the British centre and left. General Riall, who commanded the left division of the army was forced back with his division, wounded, and made prisoner. The centre firmly maintained their ground. It was composed of the 89th, the Royals, and the King's regiment, well supported by the artillery, whose guns, worked with prodigious activity, carried great havoc in the enemy's ranks. Brown soon perceived that unless the guns were captured, the battle was lost; and he consequently bent all his energies to the accomplishment of that object. He ordered General Millar to charge up the hill and take the guns. The order was vigorously obeyed and five guns fell into the hands of the Americans, the British artillerymen being positively bayoneted in the act of loading, while the muzzles of the American guns were within a few yards of the English battery. It was now night and extremely dark. During the darkness some extraordinary incidents occurred. The British having, for a moment, been thrust back, some of the British guns remained for a few minutes in the enemy's hands. They were, however, not only quickly recovered, but the two pieces, a six pounder and a five and a half inch howitzer, which the enemy had brought up, were captured by the British, together with several tumbrils; and in limbering up the British guns, at one period, one of the enemy's six-pounders was put, by mistake, upon a British limber, and one of the British six-pounders was limbered on one of the enemy's. So that although American guns had been captured, yet as the Americans had captured one of the British guns, the British only gained, by the dark transaction, one gun. It was now 9 o'clock, and there was a short intermission of firing. Apparently the combatants sank to rest from pure exhaustion. It was a terrible repose. The din of battle had ceased, to be succeeded by the monotonous roar of the Great Falls. The moon had risen and at intervals glanced out of the angry blackish looking clouds, to reveal the pale faces of the dead, with still unrelaxed features, and some even yet, as it were, in an attitude of defiance. The field of strife was one sea of blood, and the groans of the wounded and the dying sent a shudder through the boldest. Occasionally the flash of a gun or a few bright flashes of musketry revealed more strikingly than even the moon's pale rays, the living, the dying, and the dead. Short as was the respite, the enemy was not idle while it lasted. Brown was busily employed in bringing up the whole of his remaining force, and he afterwards renewed the attack with fresh troops, to be everywhere repulsed, with equal gallantry and success. Drummond had not neglected to bring up Riall's wing which had been previously ordered to retire. He placed them in a second line, with the exception of the Royal Scots, with which he prolonged his front line, on the right, where he was apprehensive of being outflanked by the enemy. The enemy's efforts to carry the hill were continued until about midnight, when he had suffered so severely from the superior steadiness and discipline of the British that he gave up the contest and retreated with great precipitation to his camp, beyond the Chippewa, which he abandoned on the following day, throwing the greatest part of his baggage, camp equipage, and provisions, into the rapids. He then set fire to Street's Mills, destroyed the bridge at Chippewa, and, in great disorder, continued his retreat towards Fort Erie. General Drummond detached his light troops, cavalry, and Indians, in pursuit, to harass his rear.

The Americans lost, in this fiercely contested struggle, at least 1,500 men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners: among the wounded were the two generals commanding, Brown and Scott. There were 5,000 Americans engaged, and only 2,800 British. General Drummond received a musket ball in the neck, but, concealing the circumstance from his troops, he remained on the ground until the close of the action. Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison, of the 89th regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson, Captain Robinson, of the King's regiment, in command of the militia, and several other officers were severely wounded. The British loss, in all, was eight hundred and seventy men, including forty-two made prisoners, among whom were General Riall and his staff.

The Americans, now under the command of General Ripley, retreated upon Fort Erie, and intrenched themselves in its neighborhood. Gen'l. Gaines then assumed the command at Fort Erie, having come from Sackett's Harbour, in the fleet which was to have co-operated with the army, now cooped up in Fort Erie and altogether indifferent to such co-operation. The fleet went back again.

Still following up his successes, General Drummond laid siege to Fort Erie and the intrenched camp near it, and while he was doing so, three armed schooners, anchored off the fort, were captured by a body of marines, who pushed off in boats during the night, under Captain Dobbs, of the Royal Navy. General Drummond did not simply sit down before Fort Erie and the entrenchment, he did his best to effect a breach, and with that view kept up a constant fire from the two 24-pounder field guns which had proved more than ordinarily useful at the battle of Chippewa. It was not long indeed before he considered an assault practicable. He made the necessary preparations, and on the fourteenth, three columns, one under Colonel Fischer, consisting of the 8th and DeWatteville's regiment, and the flank companies of the 89th and 100th regiments, with a detachment of artillery, a second under Colonel Drummond, of the 104th regiment, made up of the flank companies of the 41st and 104th regiments, with a few seamen and marines, in charge of Captain Dobbs, and the other under Colonel Scott, consisting of his own regiment, the 103rd, and two companies of the royals. Colonel Fischer's column gained possession of the enemy's batteries at the point assigned for its attack, two hours before daylight, but the other columns were behind time, having got entangled by marching too near the lake, between the rocks and the water, and the enemy being now on the alert, opened a heavy fire upon the leading column of the second division which threw it into confusion. Fischer's column had in the meanwhile almost succeeded in capturing the fort. They had actually crept into the main fort through the embrasures, in spite of every effort to prevent them. Nay, they turned the guns of the fort upon its defenders, who took refuge in a stone building, in the interior, and continued to resist. This desperate work continued for nearly an hour, when a magazine blew up, mangling most horribly nearly all the assailants within the fort. Of course there was a panic. The living, surrounded by the dying and the dead, the victims of accident, believed that they stood upon an infernal machine, to which the match had only to be placed. No effort could rally men impressed with such an idea. There was a rush, as it were, from inevitable death. Persuasion fell on the ears of men who could not hear. Persuasion fell upon the senses of men transfixed with one idea. Persuasion would have been as effectual in moving yonder blackened corpse into healthy life, as in moving to a sense of duty to themselves, men who could see nothing but the deadness around them, and whose minds saw only, under all, the blackness of immediate destruction. Those who were victors, until now, literally rushed from the fort. The reinforcements of the British soon arrived, but the explosion had again given the defenders heart, and they too, having received reinforcements, after some additional straggling, for the mastery, the British withdrew. The British loss amounted to 157 killed, 308 wounded, and 186 prisoners, among the killed being Colonels Scott and Drummond. The American loss was 84 in killed, wounded and missing.

A reinforcement was shortly afterwards obtained from Lower Canada. The 6th and the 82nd regiments came in time to compensate for previous losses, but General Drummond did not consider it expedient to make another attack. His purpose was equally well, and perhaps better obtained by keeping the whole American army of invasion prisoners in a prison selected by themselves, on British territory, and from which it was impossible to escape.

While these things were transpiring in Upper Canada, public attention was irresistibly drawn in another direction. About the middle of August, between fifty and sixty sail of British vessels of war arrived in the Chesapeake, with troops destined for the attack on Washington, the capital of the United States, Britain having now come to the determination of more vigorously prosecuting the war. Three regiments of Wellington's army, the 4th, 44th and 85th, were embarked at Bordeaux on the 2nd of June, on board the _Royal Oak_ seventy-four, and _Dictator_ and _Diadem_, of sixty-four guns each, and, having arrived at Bermuda on the 24th, they were there joined by the fusiliers, and by three regiments, from the Mediterranean, in six frigates, forming altogether a force of three thousand five hundred men. General Ross commanded the troops; Admiral Cockburn the fleet. Tangier's Island was first taken possession of, fortifications being erected, structures built, and the British flag hoisted. The negroes on the plantations adjoining were promised emancipation if they revolted, and fifteen hundred did revolt, were drilled, and formed into a regiment. They were useful but exceedingly costly, for on the conclusion of peace the proprietors of the negroes were indemnified, and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, than whom no one better knew the value of a serf, being the referee, awarded the enormous sum of £250,000, or nearly £150 for each negro that had gained his freedom, as the compensation adequate to the injury which the urgency of war made it necessary to inflict upon the cultivators of human farm stock.

The troops under General Ross were landed at Benedict, on the Pawtuxet river, forty-seven miles from Washington. On the 21st they moved towards Nottingham, and on the following day they reached Marlborough. A flotilla of launches and barges, commanded by Admiral Cockburn, ascended the river at the same time, keeping on the right flank of the army. There are two rivers by which Washington may be approached--the Potomac, which discharges itself into the upper extremity of the bay of Chesapeake, and the Pawtuxet. The object which the British military and naval commanders had in view when the Pawtuxet was decided on for the route by which a dash was to be made on the capital city of the American republic, was greater facility of access, and the destruction of Commodore Barney's powerful flotilla of gun-boats, which had taken refuge in its creeks. This flotilla, snugly moored in a situation only twelve miles from Washington, was fallen in with by Admiral Cockburn, on the 23rd. The Americans then seeing that it must be captured set fire to it and fled. Out of sixteen fine gun-boats, fifteen were totally consumed, but one gun-boat missed destruction and it, with thirteen merchant schooners, was made a prize of. The troops now marched rapidly forward. There were about 3,500 men, with 200 sailors to drag the guns, to oppose General Winder, who, with 16,600 men, had, on the faith of a hint received from Ghent, taken measures to protect the capital. When the British approached, however, General Winder had only 6,500 infantry, 300 cavalry, and 600 sailors to work the guns, which were twenty-six in number, while the British had only two. He took up a position at Bladensburg, six miles from Washington, so as to command the only bridge over the little Potomac, by which it could be crossed, and the highway to Washington being directly through his centre. He directed all his artillery upon the bridge. But the men now opposed to the Americans knew well how to carry bridges. General Ross, having formed his troops into two columns, the one under Colonel Thornton, and the other under Colonel Brooke, ordered the bridge to be crossed. Hardly was the order given, when in spite of artillery and musketry, Thornton's column had dashed across, carried a fortified house at the opposite side, and being quickly followed by the other division, had spread out sharpshooters on either flank. The militia of the United States soon got into confusion, and soon after fled. Indeed Commodore Barney and his sailors made the most gallant resistance, but he was soon overpowered, wounded, and with a great part of the seamen under him fell into the hands of the British. Ten guns were taken, the whole army was totally routed; and the enemy were fleeing past Washington, to the heights of Georgetown, horse and foot, as fast as fear could carry them. The day was oppressively hot, and the British army uninfluenced by fear were not able to continue their advance until the cool of the evening. They had not "suffered" at all. The entire loss was only 61 killed and 185 wounded. By eight at night they were within a mile of Washington, and the main body halted. With only seven hundred men General Ross and Admiral Cockburn were in the capital of a republic numbering eight millions of inhabitants, and proud of having in arms the inconsiderable number of eight hundred thousand men, to do with it as Commodore Chantey and General Dearborn had done to York, the capital of a territory containing ninety-five thousand inhabitants, man, woman, and child! half an hour afterwards, or pay a ransom. The ransom was refused and the torch was applied to arsenals, store-houses, senate house, house of representatives, dockyard, treasury, war office, president's palace, rope walk, and the great bridge across the Potomac. In the arsenal 20,000 stand of arms were consumed. A frigate and a sloop of war, afloat, were burnt, 206 cannon and 100,000 rounds of ball cartridge were taken and destroyed, and General Ross and Admiral Cockburn went back at their leisure to Benedict. In connection with this most extraordinarily successful enterprise reflecting the highest credit on General Ross, there had been some outcry about extending the ravages of war to pacific public buildings. Indeed the barbarity of destroying the legislative buildings, the White House and the public libraries of Washington has been harped upon most sentimentally and injudiciously. The destruction of some books, scraped together by a new country and, therefore, of no very great intrinsic value, is looked upon by the literati of this and of a past age, as a crime, and one of greater magnitude than the destruction of a village in Canada, on the 20th of December, with the thermometer at zero, and the snow two feet in depth upon the ground, women and children even being left to gather food and gather warmth where best they might. It is not considered that a palace or even a church or parliament building may be converted into a barrack or that, in some cases, even the destruction of a city may be necessary. The Americans had burglariously entered upon a war with the view of stealing Canada from its lawful owner, and being caught and stayed in the act, were fined, but refusing to pay, were distressed by the loss of public goods. The Americans, who were the sufferers, very naturally represented an act, which had so humiliated them, as barbarous, but how any other person could object to such a proceeding on the score that it was only worthy of a Goth, is difficult of conjecture. It is certainly a pity that fine edifices should be destroyed, and it is no less a pity that thousands of young men should be destroyed or mutilated, and that hundreds of thousands of their relatives should mourn because of war; but so long as war is possible, and possible it ever will be, until the amalgamation of the different species of the different nations, of the different tribes, and of the different tongues who inhabit the earth takes place, at the millennium; soon after which this great globe itself is to be dissolved with fervent heat, and all its magnificent palaces, gorgeous temples, and stupendous towers are to pass away for ever, will there be a waste and destruction of life and property at which extreme civilisation shudders. Educated men will doubtless mourn the loss of fine libraries and of grand cathedrals. English taste doubtless regrets that churches, the remains of which are yet so striking, should have been destroyed by indiscriminating fanaticism, but the man of sense will recollect the idolatry that has passed away with them, as with the Parthenon, and he will weigh the gain to a people with the loss sustained by merely men of taste. And, beyond question, men of peace can paint the horrors of war vividly, and deny its necessity, but the man of ordinary understanding will not scruple to say that as war in the elements is sometimes necessary for a healthy atmosphere, so war among men is needful for the preservation of even a shadow of liberty to the individual, and that injury to public buildings, to trade and commerce, must result from it, for a time.

Immediately after the capture of Washington, Captain Gordon, in the frigate _Seahorse_, accompanied by the brig _Euryalus_, and several bomb-vessels, entered the Potomac. Without much difficulty he overcame the intricacies of the passage leading by that river to the metropolis, and on the evening of the 27th, the expedition arrived abreast of Fort Washington. The Fort which had been constructed so as to command the river was immediately bombarded, and the powder magazine having exploded, the place was abandoned, and with all its guns, taken possession of by the British. Proceeding next to Alexandria, the bomb-vessels assumed a position which effectually commanded the shipping in the port, and the enemy were compelled to capitulate, when two and twenty vessels, including several armed schooners, fell into the hands of the British, and were brought away in triumph. There was some difficulty, however, in bringing off the prizes. To cut off the retreat of the British squadron, several batteries had been erected by the Americans, and these, now manned by the crews of the Baltimore flotilla, opened fire upon Captain Gordon and his prizes. The expeditionary and the captured vessels were, nevertheless, so skilfully navigated, and the fire from the bomb-vessels was so well directed that not a single ship took the ground, and the Americans were driven from their guns, the whole squadron being thus permitted to emerge from the Potomac, with its prizes, in safety.

An expedition was next fitted out against Baltimore, and the fleet moved in that direction, reaching the mouth of the Patapsco on the 11th September. The troops were landed on the day following the arrival of the fleet, and, while the ships moved up the river, marched upon Baltimore. For the first six miles no opposition was offered, but as Baltimore was approached a detachment of light troops were noticed occupying a thick wood through which the road passed. Impelled by the daring for which he was distinguished, General Ross immediately advanced with the skirmishers to the front, and it was not long before the general received a wound, which so soon proved fatal that he had barely time to recommend his wife and family to the protection of his king and country before he breathed his last. The command, on the death of this energetic officer, devolved upon Colonel Brooke. The British light troops continued to come up and the enemy fell back, still skirmishing from behind the trees, to a fortified position stretching across a narrow neck of land, which separated the Patapsco and the Back Rivers. Here, six thousand infantry, four hundred horse, and six guns were drawn up in line, across the road, with either flank placed in a thick wood, and a strong wooden paling covering their front. The British, however, immediately attacked and with such vigour that in less than fifteen minutes the enemy were routed, and fled in every direction, leaving six hundred killed and wounded on the field of battle, besides three hundred prisoners, and two guns, in the hands of the British. On the following morning, the British were within a mile and a half of Baltimore. There he found fifteen thousand Americans, with a large train of artillery, manned by the crews of the frigates lying at Baltimore, strongly posted on a series of fortified heights which encircle the town. To charge a force of such magnitude with three thousand men would have been extremely hazardous, and Colonel Brooke determined upon a night attack; but, as the night fell, and Brooke was arranging his men for the contemplated assault, he received a letter from Admiral Cockburn, informing him that the enemy, by sinking twenty vessels in the river, (a mode of defence since adopted by Russia,) had prevented all further access to the ships, and rendered naval co-operation impossible. Under such circumstances, Brooke withdrew, without molestation, to his ships.

To the British, the operations on the seaboard, so far, had been as eminently successful as the operations in Upper Canada had been. In the northwest, there was one post which did not fall, and the fall of which was looked upon with indifference by the Americans when Michigan was recovered, after the defeat of the British fleet on Lake Erie. Contrary to the expectation of the enemy, that post, which was at Michillimackinac, had been reinforced early in the spring. Colonel McDonell, with a detachment of troops, arrived there on the 18th of May, with provisions and stores for the relief of the garrison. He did not remain idle when his chief errand was accomplished. In July he sent off Colonel McKay, of the Indian Department, with 650 men, Michigan Fencibles, Canadian Volunteers, Officers of the Indian Department, and Indians, to reduce _Prairie-du-Chien_, on the Mississippi. On the 17th of July, McKay arrived there. The enemy were in possession of a small fort, and two block-houses, armed with six guns, while in front of the fort, in the middle of the river, there was a gun-boat of considerable size, in which there were no less than fourteen pieces of ordnance. McKay was superlatively polite. He sent a message to the commander of the fort, recommending an immediate surrender. But, as McKay had only one gun, the American promptly refused, and was not a little ironical in his refusal. McKay, highlander as he was, could stand anything but irony, and he opened fire with his solitary gun upon the gunboat, by way of returning the compliment. With this only iron in the fire, he soon gave such proof of metal that the gun-boat cut her cable and ran down stream. McKay now threw up a mud battery, and on the evening of the 19th, he was prepared with his one gun to bombard the fort. The enemy seeing the earthworks doubtless imagined that McKay's park of artillery was more considerable than it was, and without waiting for a single round he hoisted a white flag in token of submission, when McKay took possession of the fort. It contained only three officers and seventy-one men, but the exploit was a gallant one, nevertheless, and of essential service in securing British influence over the Indian tribes.

The Americans on being informed that Michillimackinac had been reinforced, and perhaps anticipating that further mischief to them might ensue, sent Colonel Croghan without loss of time to capture it. Croghan dispatched Major Holmes upon Ste. Marie to plunder the North West Company of their stores. The miscreant was only too successful. Not content with plunder only, he set fire to the buildings and reduced them to ashes. He gave further proof of the possession of a cruel and barbarous disposition, by enjoying the unavailing efforts of a poor horse to extricate itself from a burning building to which it had been inhumanly attached, to be burnt to death, after having been employed the greater part of the day in carrying off the plunder from the stores. This wretch, accompanied by nine hundred men, of a stamp similar to himself, effected a landing near Michillimackinac, on the 4th of August. But the reception given to him was of such a nature that he speedily re-embarked, leaving seventeen dead men, besides his own inanimate remains, to be buried by the people in the fort. Michillimackinac was not yet, however, quite safe. There were on the lake two American armed vessels, the _Tigress_ and _Scorpion_, each carrying a long twenty-four pounder gun, on a pivot, and manned by thirty-two men, which intercepted the supplies intended for the garrison. It was most necessary to destroy or get hold of them, and this not unimportant business was entrusted to Lieutenant Worsley, of the Royal Navy, and Lieutenant Bulger, of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. These two gallant officers proceeded to the despatch of business with praiseworthy alacrity. On the evening of the 3rd of September, one vessel was boarded and captured, and on the morning of the 5th the other craft was captured. Michillimackinac was now sufficiently safe.

The war, which was no longer, on the part of the British, a merely defensive one, was now being offensively prosecuted with vigour in several quarters, almost simultaneously. Washington had been taken and Baltimore assailed on one side; and Fort Erie, containing the American army of the West, was closely invested. It was now determined to prosecute hostilities from Nova Scotia, which then included New Brunswick, upon the northeastern States of the American Union. With this view, Sir John Sherbrooke sent Colonel Pilkington in the _Ramilies_, commanded by Sir Thomas Hardy, to take possession of Moose Island, the chief town of which is Eastport, commanded by a strongly situated fort, on an overhanging hill, called Fort Sullivan. The fort was, however, only occupied by Major Putnam, six other officers, and eighty men, and was taken possession of on the 11th of July, without resistance, the garrison being made prisoners of war. As soon as the news of this successful enterprise reached the ears of Sherbrooke, he determined upon personally undertaking another expedition. On the 26th of August, he, accordingly, embarked, at Halifax, the whole of the troops at his disposal, in ten transports, and in company with the squadron, commanded by Admiral Griffiths, sailed for the river Penobscot, on the 1st of September, when the fort at Castine, commanding the entrance to the river, was evacuated and blown up. The American frigate _John Adams_, was in the river and, on the approach of the fleet, she was run up the river as high as Hampden. The better to protect her from capture her guns were taken out and, at some distance below Hampden, batteries or earthworks were erected, in which all the guns of the frigate were placed. The capture or destruction of the _John Adams_ was, however, determined upon, and Captain Barrie, of the _Dragon_, with a party of seamen, accompanied by Colonel John, at the head of six hundred of the 60th regiment, was sent off to effect it. For a short time the batteries resisted, but the attack being well managed the Americans gave way, and, having set fire to the frigate, fled in all directions. The expedition pushed on to Bangor, which surrendered without resistance; and from thence they went to Machias, which surrendered by capitulation, the whole militia of the county of Washington being put on their parole not to serve again during the war. The whole country between the Penobscot and the frontier of that part of Nova Scotia, which is now New Brunswick, was then formally taken possession of, and a provisional government established, to rule it while the war continued.

About this time, the army in Canada was re-inforced by the arrival of several generals and officers who had acquired distinction in Spain, and by the successive arrival of frigates from the army which had been so successfully commanded by the illustrious Wellington, and with which he had invaded France. In August, Sir George Prevost had been re-inforced with sixteen thousand men from the Garonne. There were, consequently, great anticipations. Even General Sir George Prevost dreamed of doing something worthy of immortality. And such expectations were natural. With a mere handful of troops, General Drummond had proved how much an intelligent and decided commander can do, and Sir George Prevost, with some of the best troops in the world, was about to prove, to all the nations in it, how good blood may be spilled, and material and treasure wasted by a commander inadequate to the task either of leading men to victory or of securing their retreat until victory be afterwards obtained. Sir George Prevost determined upon the invasion of the State of New York, and as if naval co-operation was absolutely necessary to transport his troops to Plattsburgh, Sir George Prevost urged upon Commodore Sir James Yeo to equip the Lake Champlain fleet with the greatest expedition. The commodore replied that the squadron was completely equipped and had more than ninety men over the number required to man it. And under the supposition that Captain Fischer, who had prepared the flotilla for active service, had not acted with promptitude in giving the Commander-in-Chief such information as he desired, Sir James sent Captain Downie to supersede him. Sir George, who seemed to have some misgivings about this fleet, and was still most anxious to bring it into active service, finding Sir James Yeo, who knew His Excellency well, quite impracticable, applied to Admiral Otway, who, with the _Ajax_ and _Warspite_, was then in the port of Quebec, for a re-inforcement of sailors from these vessels for the Lake Champlain flotilla. Admiral Otway did as he was requested to do. A large re-inforcement of sailors were immediately sent off to Lake Champlain, and Sir George having sent Major-General Sir James Kempt to Upper Canada, to make an attack upon Sackett's Harbour, if practicable, concentrated his own army, under the immediate command of General DeRottenburg, between Laprairie and Chambly. He then moved forward, towards the United States frontier, with about 11,000 men to oppose 1,500 American regulars and as many militia, under General Macomb, whose force had been weakened by 4,000 men, sent off under General Izzard, from Sackett's Harbour, to re-inforce the troops at Fort Erie. Prevost, who had with him Generals Power, Robinson, and Brisbane, in command of divisions, men inured to fighting, and well accustomed to command, met with so inconsiderable an opposition from the Americans, that General Macomb admits that the invaders "did not deign to fire upon them." His powerful army was before Plattsburgh, only defended by three redoubts and two block-houses; he had been permitted, for three days, to bring up his heavy artillery; he had a force with him ten times greater than that which, under Colonel Murray, took possession of it, in 1813; and yet Sir George Prevost hesitated to attack Plattsburgh, until he could obtain the co-operation of Commodore Downie, commanding the _Confiance_, of 36 guns, the _Linnet_, of 18 guns, the _Chubb_, of 10 guns, the _Finch_, of 10 guns, and 12 gun-boats, containing 16 guns! because the enemy had a squadron consisting of the ship _Saratoga_, of 26 guns, the brig _Eagle_, of 20 guns, the schooner _Ticonderoga_, of 17 guns, and the cutter _Preble_, of 7 guns. The British Commodore Downie was not quite ready for sea. His largest vessel, the _Confiance_, had been recently launched, and was not finished. He could not perceive either the necessity for such excessive haste. He would have taken time and gone coolly into action, but he had received a letter from the Commander of the Forces which made the blood tingle in his cheeks. Sir George Prevost had been in readiness for Commodore Downie's expected arrival all morning, and he hoped that the wind only had delayed the approach of the squadron. The anchors of the _Confiance_ were immediately raised, and with the carpenters still on board, Commodore Downie made all sail. Nay, he seemed to have forgotten that he had a fleet of brigs and boats to manage, so terribly was he excited by Sir George's unfortunate expression in connection with the wind. The _Confiance_ announced her approach on rounding Cumberland Head, by discharging all her guns one after the other. The other vessels were hardly visible in her wake, and still Captain Downie bore down upon the enemy's line, to within two cable's length, without firing a shot, when the _Confiance_ came to anchor, and opened fire upon the enemy. General Prevost had promised to attack the fort as soon as the fleet appeared, but instead of doing so, Sir George very deliberately ordered the army to cook their breakfasts. The troops cooked away while Downie fought desperately with a fleet which, as a whole, was superior in strength to his, and which was rendered eminently superior by the shameful defection of the gun-boats manned by Canadian militia and soldiers of the 39th regiment. Downie kept up a terrific fire, with only his own frigate, a brig and sloop, wholly surrounded as he was, by the American fleet. The brig _Finch_ had taken the ground out of range, and the whole of the gun-boats, except three and one cutter, had deserted him. He was, nevertheless, on the very point of breaking the enemy's line, when the wind failed. As before stated, he cast anchor, and with his first broadside had laid half the crew of the _Saratoga_ low. The _Chubb_ was soon, however, crippled and became unmanageable. She drifted within the enemy's lines and was compelled to surrender. The whole fire of the enemy was now concentrated upon the _Confiance_, and still the latter fired broadside after broadside with much precision and so rapidly that every gun on board of the _Saratoga_ on one side was disabled and silenced, although she lay at such a distance that she could not be taken possession of. But Captain Downie had fallen. The _Confiance_ was now commanded by Lieutenant Robertson, who was entirely surrounded and raked by the brigs and gun-boats of the enemy, while the _Saratoga_, out of range, had cut her cable and wound round so as to bring a new broadside, as it were, to bear upon the _Confiance_. It was in vain that the _Confiance_ attempted to do as the _Saratoga_ had done. Three officers and thirty-eight of her men had been killed, and one officer and thirty-nine men had been wounded. Lieutenant Robertson was at last compelled to strike his colours, and Captain Pring, of the _Linnet_, was reluctantly obliged to follow the example. In all one hundred and twenty men had fallen, and the cheering of the enemy informed the British army that the fleet for the co-operation of which Sir George Prevost had so unnecessarily waited, was annihilated. "You owe it, Sir, to the shameful conduct of your gun-boats and cutters, said the magnanimous American Commodore, McDonough, to Lieutenant Robertson, when that officer was in the act of presenting his sword to him, that you arc performing this office to me; for, had they done their duty, you must have perceived from the situation of the _Saratoga_ that I could hold out no longer; and, indeed, nothing induced me to keep up her colours but my seeing, from the united fire of all the rest of my squadron on the _Confiance_, and her unsupported situation, that she must ultimately surrender." Sir George Prevost had by this time swallowed his breakfast. He had directed the guns of the batteries to open on the American squadron, but ineffectually, as they were too far off. Orders were at length given to attack the fort. General Robinson advanced with the view of fording the Saranac, and attacking the works in front, and General Brisbane had made a circuit for the purpose of attacking the enemy in the rear. Robinson's troops, led astray by the guides, were delayed, and had but reached the point of attack when the shouts from the American works intimated the surrender of the fleet. To have carried the fort would have been a work of easy accomplishment, but the signal for retreat was given; Robinson was ordered to return with his column; and Prevost soon afterwards commenced a retrograde movement, which admits barely of excuse and could not be justified. So indignant indeed was the gallant General Robinson that it is asserted he broke his sword, declaring that he could never serve again. The army indeed went leisurely away in mournful submission to the orders of a superior on whom they could but look with feelings akin to shame. Four hundred men, ashamed to be known at home, in connection with a retreat so unlooked for and so degrading, deserted to the enemy. And it is little to be wondered at, that murmurs in connection with the name of Prevost and Plattsburgh, were long, loud, and deep. Sir George felt the weight of public opinion and was crushed under it. He resigned the government of Canada and demanded a Court Martial, but he had a judge within himself, from whom he could not escape, and whose judgment weighed upon "a mind diseased," in the broad noonday and at the midnight hour, with such overpowering weight that the nervous system became relaxed, and death at last relieved a man, who, only that he wanted decision of purpose, was amiable, kind, well intentioned, and honest, of a load of grief, before even the sentence of a Court Martial could intervene to ameliorate his sorrows. It is extremely to be regretted indeed that so excellent a Civil Governor should have been so indifferent a military commander. But, entirely different qualifications are required in the civilian and in the soldier. It is indeed on record that the Great Duke, who was the idol of the British people as a soldier, was the reverse of being popular as a statesman. He was ever clear-headed and sensible; but his will would never bend to that of the many. Desirous of human applause, he could not court it, though he was yet vain of his celebrity, and studied to be celebrated, knowing the value that attaches to position and to fame. Sir George Prevost was a man of exactly an opposite disposition to that of the Great Duke. To be great, he flattered little prejudices and weak conceits. He never forced any measure or any opinion down another person's throat. He was content to retain his own opinion and ever doubted its correctness. Personally, he was brave, but he was ever apprehensive.

In defence of the retreat of Sir George Prevost, the opinion expressed by Lord Wellington to Lord Bathurst, in 1813, is quoted. Wellington advised the pursuance of a defensive policy, knowing that there were not then men sufficient in Canada for offensive warfare, and because by pursuing a defensive system, the difficulties and risk of offensive operations would be thrown upon the enemy, who would most probably be foiled. This opinion was verified to the letter. On the other hand, the authority of Wellington, who says to Sir George Murray, that after the destruction of the fleet on Lake Champlain, Prevost must have returned to Kingston, sooner or later, is valueless, inasmuch as His Grace in naming Kingston, had evidently mistaken the locality of the disaster, and must have fancied that Plattsburgh was Sackett's Harbour. He says that a naval superiority on the Canadian lakes is a _sine qua non_ in war on the frontier of Canada, even should it be defensive. But Lake Champlain is not one of the Canadian lakes, and, therefore, this justification of a military mistake is somewhat far-fetched. Sir George Prevost failed because he feared to meet the fate of Burgoyne, and he incurred deep and lasting censure because, when it was in his power, he did nothing to retrieve it. Historic truth, says the historian of Europe, compels the expression of an opinion that though proceeding from a laudable motive--the desire of preventing a needless effusion of human blood--the measures of Sir George Prevost were ill-judged and calamitous.

Sir James Yeo accused Sir George Prevost of having unduly hurried the squadron on the lake into action, at a time when the _Confiance_ was unprepared for it; and when the combat did begin, of having neglected to storm the batteries, as had been agreed on, so as to have occasioned the destruction of the flotilla and caused the failure of the expedition.

The result of the Plattsburgh expedition was exhilarating to the Americans. It seemed to be compensation for the misfortunes and disasters of Hull, of Hampton, and of Wilkinson. In the interior of Fort Erie even a kind of contempt was entertained for the British. In their joy at the discomfiture of Downie and the catastrophe of Prevost, they began to look with contempt even upon General Drummond, who had cooped them up where they were. Hardly had the news reached these unfortunate besieged people than a sortie was determined upon, and such is the effect of good fortune that it infuses new spirit, and generally insures further success. In the onset the Americans gained some advantages. During a thick mist and heavy rain, they succeeded in turning the right of the British picquets, and made themselves masters of the batteries, doing great damage to the British works. But no sooner was the alarm given than re-inforcements were obtained, and the besiegers drove the besieged back again into their works, with great slaughter. The loss on each side was about equal. The Americans lost 509 men in killed, wounded, and missing, including 11 officers killed and 23 wounded, while the British loss was 3 officers and 112 men killed, 17 officers and 161 men wounded, and 13 officers and 303 men missing. On the 21st of September, General Drummond, finding the low situation in which his troops were engaged very unhealthy, by reason of continued rain, shifted his quarters to the neighborhood of Chippewa, after in vain endeavoring to provoke the American General to battle. General Izzard had, meanwhile, arrived from Sackett's Harbour with 4,000 troops from Plattsburgh, but General Brown, having heard that Sir James Yeo had completed a new ship, the _St. Lawrence_, of 100 guns, and had sailed from Kingston for the head of the lake, with a re-inforcement of troops and supplies for the army, Commodore Chauncey having previously retired to Sackett's Harbour, instead of prosecuting the advantages which the addition of 4,000 men promised, blew up Fort Erie and withdrew with his whole troops into American territory, realizing the prediction of General Izzard, that his expedition would terminate in disappointment and disgrace.

It indeed seems quite evident that the supremacy, which Sir James Yeo, an officer at once brave, prudent, and persevering, had obtained upon the lakes, contributed, in some measure, to the total evacuation of Upper Canada by the Americans. He did not conceive that with a couple or more of armed schooners he could sail hither and thither, and effect daring feats, but carefully husbanded the means at his disposal, took advantage of circumstances, and obtained the construction of vessels so much superior to those of the Americans that it needed not the test of a battle to decide upon superiority. Indeed had he been afforded sufficient time, two or more such vessels, and even larger, would have been placed on Lake Champlain, and Sir George Prevost might have made such progress in subduing New York that peace might have been dictated on more flattering terms to Great Britain than they were.

The fleet and army, which had been baffled at Baltimore, by the sinking of twenty ships in the Patapsco, to obstruct the navigation of the river, sailed for New Orleans. The squadron arrived off the shoals of the Mississippi on the 8th of December. Six gun-boats of the enemy, manned by two hundred and forty men, were prepared to dispute with the boats of the fleet, the landing of the troops. To settle this difficulty, Admiral Cockburn put a detachment of seamen and marines, under the command of Captain Lockyer, who succeeded in destroying the whole six, after a chase of thirty-six hours. The pursuit, however, had taken the boats thirty miles from their ships; their return was impeded by intricate shoals and a tempestuous sea, and it was not until the 12th that they could get back. It was only on the 15th that the landing of the troops commenced under adverse circumstances. The weather, how extraordinary soever it may seem, was excessively cold and damp, and the troops, the blacks more especially, suffered severely. Four thousand five hundred combatants, and a considerable quantity of heavy guns and stores were landed, and on the same evening an attack, by the American militia, was repulsed. Sir Edward Pakenham arrived next day, when the army advanced to within six miles of New Orleans. New Orleans was then, as it now is, the emporium of the cotton trade of the United States. Comparatively with the present day, the population was inconsiderable. There were not more than 17,000 inhabitants. But it was a place sure to become of importance, from its situation, and was even then a place of considerable wealth, and, from the nature of its chief export, was one of the principal sources of revenue to the American government, in the Union. The defence of this town was entrusted to General Jackson, afterwards President of the United States, and whose elevation to the chief magistracy is as much to be attributed to the skill and heroism displayed by him in the defence of the chief cotton mart as to any other cause. Jackson was a shrewd, obstinate, and energetic man. On ascertaining that the British had landed, he threw every possible obstacle in the way of their advance. The weather was cold and damp, and the soil was low, and wet, and muddy. A few days' delay in such a situation would make nearly one half of an invading force ill and dispirit the other half. Jackson sent out a few hundreds of militia, every now and then, to harass his enemies, and in the meanwhile he stirred up the 12,000 troops under him, to work vigorously in the erection of lines of defence for the city. Indeed, in a short time, he awaited an attack, with confidence, in a fortified position, all but impregnable. His front was a straight line of upwards of a thousand yards, defended by upwards of three thousand infantry and artillery, and stretching from the Mississippi on the right, to a dense and impassable wood on the left. Along the whole front of this fortified line there was a ditch which contained five feet of water, and which was defended by flank bastions, on which a heavy array of cannon was placed. There were also eight distinct batteries, judiciously disposed, mounting in all twelve guns of different calibres, while on the opposite side of the river, about eight hundred yards across, there was a battery of twenty guns, which also flanked the whole of the parapet. The great strength of the American position was strikingly apparent to General Pakenham. It seemed so very strong indeed that he contemplated a siege. But then the ground was so cold and damp, and the climate so unhealthy, that he could not sit very long before a town, likely to be reinforced, and capable of being strengthened by the construction of lines of defence, within lines of defence, to almost any extent, if not completely invested. And more, Pakenham had not guns sufficient for regular approaches. Pakenham was, however, a good officer, a man of energy, judgment, and decision. He set all hands instantly to work to deepen a canal, in the rear of the British position, by which boats might be brought up to the Mississippi, and troops ferried across to carry the battery on the right bank of the river, a work of extraordinary labour, which was not accomplished until the evening of the 6th of January. The boats were immediately brought up and secreted near the river, and dispositions made for an assault at five o'clock on the morning of the 8th of January. Colonel Thornton was to cross the river, in the night, storm the battery, and advance up the right bank till he came abreast of New Orleans; while the main attack, on the intrenchments in front, was to be made in two columns--the first under General Gibbs, the second led by General Keane. There were, in all, about six thousand combatants, including seamen and marines, to attack double their number, intrenched to the teeth, in works bristling with bayonets, and loaded with heavy artillery.[25] When Thornton would have crossed, the downward current of the Mississippi was very strong, so strong indeed that the fifty boats, in which his division was embarked, were prevented from reaching their destination at the hour appointed for a simultaneous attack upon New Orleans, in front and rear. Pakenham, as the day began to dawn, grew exceedingly impatient, and, at last, having lost all patience, as it was now light, revealing to the enemy, in some degree, his plans, he ordered Gibbs' column to advance. A solemn silence pervaded the American lines. There was indeed nothing to be heard but the measured tread of the column, advancing over the plain, in front of the intrenchments. But when the dark mass was perceived to be within range of the American batteries, a tremendous fire of grape and round shot was opened upon it from the bastions at both ends of the long intrenchment, and from the long intrenchment itself. Gibbs' column, however, moved steadily on. The 4th, 21st, and 44th regiments closed up their ranks as fast as they were opened by the fire of the Americans. On the brow of the glacis, these intrepid men stood as erectly and as firmly as if they had been on parade. But, through the carelessness of the colonel commanding the 44th regiment, the scaling ladders had been forgotten, and it was impossible to mount the parapet. The ladders and fascines were sent for, in all haste, but the men, on the summit of the glacis, were, meanwhile, as targets to the enemy. They stood until riddled through and through, when they fell back in disorder. Pakenham, unconscious that Colonel Mullens, of the 44th, had neglected his orders, and only fancying that the troops being fairly in for it, were staggering only under the heaviness of the enemies' fire, rode to the front, rallied the troops again, led them to the slope of the glacis, and was in the act, with his hat off, of cheering on his followers, when he fell mortally wounded, pierced, at the same moment, by two balls. General Gibbs and General Keane also fell. Keane led on the reserve, at the head of which was the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, a thousand strong. Undaunted by the carnage, that noble regiment dashed through the disordered throng, in front, and with such fury pressed the leading files on, that without either fascines or ladders, they fairly found their way by mounting on each other's shoulders into the work. But they were then cut down to a man. The fire from the enemy's rifles was terrific. It was almost at the same moment that Colonel Ranney penetrated the intrenchments on the left only to be mowed down by grape shot. An unforeseen circumstance had too long delayed an attack which could only have been successfully made in the dark, and General Lambert, who had succeeded to the command by the death of Pakenham and the wounds of Gibbs and Keane, finding it impossible to carry the works, and that the slaughter was tremendous, drew off his troops. Thornton had been altogether successful on the left bank of the Mississippi. With fourteen hundred men this able and gallant officer repaired to the point assigned to him on the evening of the 7th, but it was nearly midnight before even such a number of the boats as would suffice to transport a third part of his troops across, were brought up. Anxious to co-operate at the time appointed, he, nevertheless, moved over with a third of his men, and, by a sudden charge, at the head of part of the 85th regiment and a body of seamen, on the flank of the works, he succeeded in making himself master of the redoubt with very little loss, though it was defended by twenty-two guns and seventeen hundred men, and amply provided with supplies. And when daylight broke, he was preparing to turn the guns of the captured battery on the enemy's flank, which lay entirely exposed to their fire, when advices were received from General Lambert of the repulse on the left bank of the river. Thornton was unwilling to retire from the battery, but Colonel Dixon, who had been sent by General Lambert to examine it and report whether it was tenable, having reported that it was untenable unless with a larger force than Lambert could spare, he was required to return to the left bank of the river, and the troops at all points withdrew to their camp.

[25] Alison's History of Europe.

Defeated, far advanced into the enemy's country, an army flushed with success, double their strength in front, and with fifteen miles of desert between the British army and their ships, it was not long before General Lambert came to the conclusion that instead of renewing the attack, retreat was now desirable, and that the sooner he retreated the more safely could it be done. For this, under the circumstances, inevitable retreat, Lambert gathered himself up. He sent forward, during the early part of the night of the 18th, the whole of the field artillery, the ammunition, and the stores of every kind, excepting eight heavy guns, which were destroyed. With the exception of eighty of the worst cases, whom he left to the humanity of General Jackson, who discharged that duty with a zeal and attention worthy of the man, he also removed the whole of the wounded; and, indeed, accomplished his retreat under the most trying circumstances, with such consummate ability, that the whole force under his command, were safely re-embarked on the 27th.

The defeat, which was neither attributable to want of foresight, to incapacity, of any sort, or to lack of bravery, however humiliating it was, but entirely to the accident which delayed a night attack until daybreak, was in some degree compensated for by the capture of Fort Boyer, near Mobile, commanding one of the mouths of the Mississippi. Fort Boyer was attacked by the land and sea forces on the 12th of February, and, with its garrison of 360 men and 22 guns, was compelled to yield, when further operations were stayed by the receipt, on the very next day, of intelligence that peace between Great Britain and the United States had been concluded at Ghent.

It is asserted, with regard to the storming of New Orleans, that Pakenham displayed imprudent hardihood, in the attempt to achieve by force, what might have been gained by combination; and that the whole mischief might have been avoided by throwing the whole troops instead of only Thornton's division, on the right bank of the river, and so have rendered unavailing all Jackson's formidable arrangements. Pakenham's disaster was, however, not the result of imprudent hardihood, but purely the result of accident in the time of attack, and in the neglect of Colonel Mullens, to whom the duty of bringing up the fascines and ladders was entrusted. Pakenham well considered the difficulties which he had to encounter. He would have carried the American entrenchments by a _coup de main_, had he not perceived that the operation would have been extremely hazardous. He would have sat down before the city and have advanced under cover of first one parallel and then another, had he not perceived that as he approached so the enemy could have retired within successive lines of entrenchment. Nay, he saw that the most probable mode of speedy and successful assault was by a simultaneous attack upon the enemy during the night, in the front and in the rear of their intrenched lines. He further knew that the attack in rear would depend for success, in a very great measure, upon the skill and intrepidity of the officer entrusted with its execution, and he accordingly selected an officer possessed of both these essentials in the person of Colonel Thornton. And with respect to the effect of having landed his whole force, on the right bank of the river, where success, though too late, did attend the efforts of Thornton, it is to be remembered that Colonel Dixon reported to General Lambert, when the battery on that side was in Thornton's possession, that it could not be retained even, without more men than Lambert could spare to re-inforce him. The defeat at New Orleans was only humiliating to Great Britain in the result, not in the conception, and it cannot fairly be laid to the charge of Pakenham that he only exhibited heroic valour, coupled with imprudent hardihood, or that he despised his enemy.

However the heroic defence of New Orleans and the disastrous retreat from Plattsburgh may have elated the Americans and may yet gratify their natural vanity, there are men in the United States, fully alive to the consequences which could not have failed to have resulted from the defeat of Pakenham, had the war continued. The British government had able generals without number, well-trained and experienced soldiers, and ships also without number, to bring to bear upon a country almost pecuniarily exhausted, and suffering from internal dissensions, on the conclusion of a war which had, as it were, brought out the immense resources for war, which were almost latent in England during the American war of independence. That the United States was on the very verge of destruction is evident from the fact that during the continuance of the war, the general government of the United States and the States governments were at variance. There was an apprehension that the affairs of the general government were mismanaged, and, to many, it appeared that a crisis was forming, which, unless seasonably provided against, would involve the country in ruin. That apprehension particularly prevailed throughout New England. Indeed, Massachusetts proposed that measures should be taken for procuring a convention of delegates from all the United States to revise the constitution, and more effectually to secure the support and attachment of all the people, by placing all upon the basis of fair representation. Such a convention actually did meet at Hartford. After a session of three weeks, a report in which several alterations of the federal constitution were suggested, was adopted. Representatives and direct taxes were to be apportioned to the number of free persons; no new State was to be admitted into the Union without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses; Congress was not to have the power of laying an embargo for more than sixty days; Congress was not to interdict commercial intercourse, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses; war was not to be declared without the concurrence of a similar majority; no person to be thereafter naturalised was to be eligible as a member of the Senate or House of Representatives, or hold any civil office under the authority of the United States; and no person was to be twice elected to the presidency, nor was the President to be elected from the same State two terms in succession. The report was a direct censure of the government, who with the alliance of France only contemplated to annex Canada to the United States. It was so understood. The Hartford convention was looked upon by the democrats of the Union as a treasonable combination of ambitious individuals, who sought to sever the Union, and were only prevented from doing so by the somewhat unexpected conclusion of peace, which disembarrassed the administration, and swept away all grounds upon which to prosecute their designs. But the positive truth was that the public mind was excited to a pitch bordering on insurrection by the situation of the country. The war had been singularly disastrous; the recruiting service languished; the national treasury was almost penniless; the national credit was shaken, and loans were effected at a ruinous discount; the New England seaboard was left exposed to the enemy; and the officers under the general government, both civil and military, were filled by men contemned by a vast majority of the people in the north eastern States. Before the war, the foreign trade of the United States was flourishing. The exports amounted to £22,000,000, and the imports to £28,000,000, carried on in 1,300,000 tons of shipping. After the war, the exports had sunk to £1,000,000, and the imports to less than £3,000,000, to say nothing of the losses by capture. This too was the case in America, while the sinews of war were increasing instead of drying up in Great Britain. Yet England was not wholly unaffected by the war. There were great distresses in England, consequent upon the American Embargo Act, in 1811, and it was not until commerce had discovered some new channels in the markets of Russia, Germany, and Italy, that these great distresses were fully abated, while the war had the further and lasting effect of producing manufactures in the United States, to permanently compete with those of Birmingham and Manchester. The treaty of peace which was signed at Ghent, on the 24th of December, 1814, was ratified by the President and Senate of the United States, on the 17th of February, 1815. It was silent upon the subject for which the war had "professedly" been declared. It provided only for the suspension of hostilities; for the exchange of prisoners; for the restoration of territories and possessions obtained by the contending powers, during the war; for the adjustment of unsettled boundaries and for _a combined effort to effect the entire abolition of the traffic in slaves_.

All parties in the United States, welcomed the return of peace. It was somewhat otherwise in Canada. The army bills had enriched the latter country; and the expenditure of the military departments had benefitted both town and country, without cost. When peace came, this extra expenditure rapidly declined. But the war had further and permanently proved of advantage to Canada, inasmuch as it drew public attention in Europe, to the country, and showed to the residents of the United Kingdom that there was still in America a considerable spot of earth, possessed of at least semi-monarchical institutions, with a good soil and great growing capacity, which could be defended and preserved, as British property, for a time, notwithstanding the assertions made, previous to the war, that the country was in a state of dormant insurrection. The war restored confidence and promoted emigration to Canada.

The Canadian Militia, Voltigeurs, Chasseurs, Drivers, Voyageurs, Dorchester Dragoons, and the Battalion Militia, in both provinces, were, by a General Order, issued on the 1st of March, to be disbanded on the 24th of that month, not a little proud of Detroit and the River Raisin exploits, of the battles of Queenston, Stoney Creek, Chateauguay, Chrystler's Farm, Lacolle, and Lundy's Lane, and of the capture of Michillimackinac, Ogdensburgh, Oswego, and Niagara, by assault.

The eighth parliament of Lower Canada was summoned for the despatch of business, on the 21st of January. In this new parliament, there were James and Andrew Stuart, and for the county of Gaspé, a George Brown,[26] and in all there were fifteen members of British extraction--not much less than one half of the entire House, which, in all, numbered fifty members. After the opening speech from the throne, the House proceeded to the election of a Speaker. The Honorable Jean Antoine Panet, was no longer eligible for election, having been removed to the Legislative Council, and the chair of the Assembly fell upon Louis Joseph Papineau, a man of superior manners, of considerable independence of character, of fluent tongue and impassioned utterance, of extraordinary persuasive powers, and of commanding aspect. He was accepted by Sir Gorge Prevost, and business began. A vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to Mr. Panet for his steady, impartial, and faithful discharge of the speakership for twenty-two years, during the whole of which time he had upheld the honor and dignity of the House, and the rights and privileges of the people. One of the first measures which occupied attention was the militia law. An Act was introduced by which it was so far amended and revised that substitutes were permitted to persons drafted for service. A grant of new duties upon tea, spirits, and on goods, sold at auction, was made; one thousand pounds granted for the promotion of vaccination as a preventative of small pox; £25,000 was granted for the construction of a canal between Montreal and Lachine; a bill was introduced granting the Speaker of the House an annual salary of £1,000; and another was passed granting a similar salary to the Speaker of the Upper House. Of these bills all were finally adopted or sanctioned with the exception of those granting salaries to the two Speakers. That conferring a salary upon the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, was reserved for the royal sanction, but was afterwards confirmed, while that conferring a salary upon the Speaker of the Upper House, was lost in the Legislative Council, because the members of that body considered it _infra dignitate_, to receive any direct remuneration for their legislative services, the more especially as, with few exceptions, the Speaker and members were already salaried, either as Judges, Bishops, or Clerks of the Executive Council. In the course of the session the expediency of sending to London a kind of agent or ambassador for the country, was again discussed, and its expediency determined upon by the Assembly, but the Legislative Council impressed with the idea that the Governor General should be the only channel of communication with the imperial authorities, refused to concur in any bill framed with the view of securing the services of any such agent, who could not be more than a delegate from the Assembly, and whose acts could not be considered binding on the government of the province. The matter was then referred to a select committee of the Assembly, who reported that the necessity for an agent appeared evident, each branch of the legislature having a right to petition the King, the Lords, and the Commons of England; that although the Governor could transmit such petitions to the foot of the throne, he could neither transmit nor support such petitions when transmitted before the House of Lords or before the House of Commons, solicit the passing of laws, nor conduct many affairs which might be conducted by a person resident in Great Britain. Without an agent the Assembly would be deprived of the right of petition. An agent was especially necessary to the people of the province, because endeavours were even then being made to prejudice the imperial government, and the British nation against Canada, and endeavours were being made to effect a change in the free constitution which had been conferred upon Lower Canada, by means of a union of the two Canadas, the language, laws, and usages of the two provinces being entirely distinct. It was further urged that uneasiness would cease whenever a resident agent was appointed, and as an additional reason for the appointment of such an agent, accredited to the Court of St. James by the province. Such an agent would have all the weight of a foreign ambassador, and his representations could not fail to meet with attention. But the agent to have such weight could not merely have been the representative of one branch of the legislature, but of the three branches. He must have been the authorised governmental agent of the province, the government of the province being in the confidence of the country. Unfortunately such a state of things did not prevail. The colonists had neither voice nor shared in the government of the country. The Legislative Assembly nearly compensated for the lack of newspapers. It poured into the ear of the governing party the complaints of the people, suggested reforms, and insisted upon the obtainment of them. And the Assembly might have better obtained a hearing for themselves in England, by the establishment and maintenance of a single newspaper in London, than by the nomination either of a Hume or a Roebuck, to represent Canadian grievances to the representatives of a people who were ignorant of the exact nature of such grievances, and could not, therefore, press them upon parliamentary attention. The pertinacity with which the House of Assembly of Lower Canada adhered to the idea of an agent for the people of Lower Canada, is not matter of surprise, for, it is beyond all dispute that the government of the province stood between the people of Canada and the people and government of England, to the great prejudice and injury of the country. In this case, an address, founded on the Assembly's report, was drawn up to be transmitted by the Governor-in-Chief to the Prince Regent, praying that His Royal Highness might give instructions to his Governor of Canada to recommend the appointment of a provincial agent to the imperial legislature. The Assembly persisted in the heads of impeachment exhibited by the Commons of Canada against the Chief Justices Sewell and Monk, and persisted in nominating James Stuart, Esquire, one of the members of the House, to be the agent of the House, in conducting and managing the prosecutions to be instituted against them, if His Royal Highness the Prince Regent permitted these impeachments to be submitted to a tribunal, competent to adjudge upon them, after hearing the matter on the part of the impeachments, and on the part of the accused. It was while these things were being done in the Assembly that the treaty of peace was officially announced to the House. The Assembly granted eight days' pay to the officers of the militia, after the time already noticed as determined upon for the disbandment of the provincial corps; an annuity of six pounds was provided for such rank and file as had been rendered incapable of earning a living; a gratuity was made to the widow and the orphan; and it was recommended that grants of land should be made by His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, to such militiamen as had served in defence of the province during the war. And more, the House, entertaining the highest veneration and respect for the character of His Excellency, Sir George Prevost, whose administration, under circumstances of peculiar novelty and difficulty, stood highly distinguished for energy, wisdom and ability, and who had rescued the province from the danger of subjugation to her implacable foe, unanimously granted and gave a service of plate not exceeding £5,000 sterling value, to His Excellency, in testimony of the country's sense of distinguished talents, wisdom, and ability. Sir George Prevost felt strongly the high compliment which had been paid to him as a civil ruler. And he deserved it. Surrounded as he was by the selfishness of officials, the sycophants of the colonial office, and the scandalizers of himself and the country, and tormented by the suspicions of the Assembly, which were the result of such sycophancy and scandal, Sir George pursued a most straightforward and honorable course as a Governor-in-Chief, expressed his gratitude, and would transmit the address to the Prince Regent, to be governed by His commands. The Regent approved of the donation and was rejoiced that Sir George had deserved it; but the Legislative Council would not assent to the bill![27] The House afterwards resolved that on the opening of the next session of parliament it would take into consideration the expediency of granting a pecuniary compensation to the Honorable Jean Antoine Panet, for his long and meritorious services as Speaker; and an Act was passed granting £500 to the Surveyor General, Joseph Bouchette, Esquire, to assist him in publishing his geographical and topographical maps of Upper and Lower Canada. At the prorogation, Mr. Speaker Papineau intimated to the Governor that the House had bestowed their most serious attention on the recommendations submitted to them. A great part of the expenses occasioned by a state of war had been continued by the Revenue Act which they had adopted. They had indemnified such of the citizens whom the love of their king and country had induced to accept commissions in the provincial corps, until they should be advantageously enabled to resume their civil professions, which they had abandoned on the declaration of war. They had afforded relief to the families of such of their countrymen as had fallen, and to those whose sufferings for life, from honorable wounds, furnished living evidence of the zeal which had animated His Majesty's Canadian subjects, in the defence of the rights of that empire to which it was their glory to belong. The events of the war had drawn closer the bonds which connected Great Britain with the Canadas. Although at the epoch of the declaration of war the country was destitute both of troops and money, yet from the devotion of a brave and loyal, yet unjustly calumniated people, resources sufficient for disconcerting the plans of conquest devised by a foe, at once numerous and elate with confidence, had been derived. The blood of the sons of Canada had flowed mingled with that of the brave soldiers sent for its defence, when re-inforcements were afterwards received. The multiplied proofs of the efficacious and powerful protection of the mother country and of the inviolable loyalty of the people of Canada strengthened their claim to the free exercise and preservation of all the benefits secured to them by their existing constitution and laws. The pursuits of war were about to be succeeded by those of peace, and it was by the increase of population, agriculture and commerce, that the possession of the colony might become of importance to Great Britain. It was with lively satisfaction, therefore, that the House heard His Excellency recommend to their consideration the improvement of internal communications, and they were only too proud to second His Excellency's enlightened views by large appropriations to facilitate the opening of a canal from Montreal to Lachine, to assist in the opening up of new roads, and to acquire such information as might enable them afterwards to follow up and extend that plan of improvement.

[26] This was the father of the celebrated Felicia Hemans.

[27] It is here worthy of note that the late Lord Raglan, then Fitzroy Somerset--sometime between the abdication of Napoleon and Waterloo, and before his lordship had lost his arm--was in Quebec, having been sent to Canada, it was supposed, privately to ascertain how matters were, and especially as a spy upon Sir George Prevost, against whom many complaints had been made by the _reigning_ officials.

A lady, still living, well remembers the late Commander-in-Chief, of the British army in the Crimea, being in Quebec. She saw him in Mountain street, and the object of his visit was no secret.

Sir George Prevost then closed the session. He praised the liberality with which the public service had been provided for; alluded to the benefits promised by peace; informed parliament that he had been summoned to return to England for the purpose of repelling accusations affecting his military character, which had been preferred by the late naval commander-in-chief, on the lakes, in Canada, and while he would leave the province with regret, he eagerly embraced the opportunity afforded him of justifying his reputation; and yet, however intent he might be on the subject which so unexpectedly summoned his attention, he would bear with him a lively recollection of the firm support he had derived from the Legislature of Canada, and should be gratified to represent personally to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, the zeal and loyalty evinced by every class of His Majesty's subjects in British America, during his administration.

There were one or two measures introduced into the Assembly during the session just closed worth mentioning, _en passant_; as showing the progress really made by a "factious" Assembly. A bill was introduced, by Mr. Lee, for the appointment of commissioners to examine the accounts of the Receiver General, though, apparently, because Mr. Caldwell presented a petition to the Assembly, complaining of the insufficiency of his salary. Mr. Lee also introduced a bill to establish turnpike roads in the vicinity of Quebec, but was unable to carry it because of the outcry made by the farmers and the population of the parishes around Quebec.

There were 1,727 marriages, 7,707 baptisms, and 4,601 burials in Montreal; 653 marriages, 4,045 baptisms, and 2,318 burials in Quebec; and 260 marriages, 1,565 baptisms, and 976 burials in Three Rivers, during the year 1814. The revenue amounted to £204,550 currency, the expenditure to £162,125 sterling; and 184 vessels were cleared at Quebec.

On the 3rd of April, Sir George Prevost left Canada for England, through New Brunswick, by way of the River St. John. He received several valedictory addresses speaking of him in the highest terms, from the French Canadian population, but the British who were annoyed about Plattsburgh stood aloof, while the office holders secretly rejoiced that his rule had terminated. Lieut.-General Sir Gordon Drummond succeeded Sir George Prevost in the government of Lower Canada, the Lieutenant-Governorship of Upper Canada being again in the hands of His Excellency, Francis Gore, Esquire. General Drummond convened the parliament of Upper Canada on the 15th of February, 1814. The first Act of that parliament was one to repeal part of the laws in force for raising and training the militia. All the male inhabitants of the province, from 16 to 60 years of age, were liable to militia duty, but no person over 50 years of age was to be called out except on occasions of emergency. The militia were not to be ordered out of the province unless for the assistance of Lower Canada, when actually invaded, or in a state of insurrection, or except in pursuit of an enemy who had invaded the province, or for the destruction of any vessel either built or building, or for the destruction of any depot or magazine, formed or forming, or for the attack of any enemy invading the province, or for the attack of any fortress in the course of erection or already erected, to cover such invasion of the province. Justices of the Peace were authorised to impress carriages and horses; twenty shillings a day to be paid for every carriage with two horses, or oxen with a driver; fifteen shillings to be paid for every carriage and two horses or oxen; and for every horse employed singly, seven shillings and six pence was to be paid a day, on a certificate from the officer employing them, to the Collector of Customs, and received by the Receiver General of the province. A penalty was imposed on persons using traitorous or disrespectful words against His Majesty or against any member of the royal family, or for behaving with contempt or disrespect to the Governor while on duty. Death was to be the punishment for exciting to sedition or mutiny; and either death or such other punishment as a Court Martial might award, was the punishment to be awarded for being present at any meeting without endeavoring to suppress it, or give information, or for deserting to the enemy. And Quakers, Menonists, and Tunkers, were to pay £10 for their exemption from militia servitude, the Act to be continued until the next session of parliament. An Act was passed providing for the circulation of army bills; £6,000 was appropriated for the construction and repair of roads and bridges; an Act was passed to ascertain the eligibility of persons to be returned to the House of Assembly; an Act was passed to continue the Act granting to His Majesty duties on licenses to hawkers, pedlars, petty chapmen, and other trading persons; every traveller on foot was to pay £5 for his license, and for every boat £2 10s.; for every decked vessel £25 was to be paid; for every boat £10; and for every non-resident £20; the Act to be in force for two years; an Act was passed to detain such persons as might be suspected of a treasonable adherence to the enemy; an Act was passed imposing a duty of 3s. 9d. per gallon on the contents of licensed stills; and the Act to prohibit the exportation of grain and restraining the distillation of grain from spirits was continued.

General Drummond again met the parliament of Upper Canada, on the 1st of February, 1815. There were much the same kind of wranglings in the Assembly of Upper Canada that distinguished the parliament of Lower Canada. There were two parties, one highly conservative and another violently radical. In Upper Canada the conservatives had the majority. In 1808, Mr. Joseph Wilcocks, a member of the Assembly, was imprisoned for having libellously alleged that every member of the first provincial parliament had received a bribe of twelve hundred acres of land. The "slanderous" accusation first appeared in a newspaper styled the _Upper Canada Guardian_ or _Freeman's Journal_, edited by the Joseph Wilcocks, who was a member of the Assembly. Mr. Wilcocks grievously complained of the Messrs. Boulton and Sherwood, who were ever on the watch to prevent any questions being put that would draw forth either inaccuracy or inconsistency from the witnesses. Mr. Sherwood attacked that great blessing of the people, the freedom of the press and, being a good tory, called it, to the great horror of Mr. Wilcocks, a pestilence in the land. Indeed, Mr. Wilcocks was deeply and painfully sensible that Little York abounded in meanness, corruption, and sycophancy, and notified his constituents accordingly. Such a condition of things was only natural in a small community, having all the paraphernalia of "constitutional" government.

In 1815, the progress of Upper Canada is indicated by the first bill of the session--an Act granting £25,000 for amending and repairing the public highways of the province, and awarding £25 to each road commissioner in compensation for his services. There were in all eighteen Acts passed. Provision was made for proceeding to outlawry in certain cases. An Act was passed for the relief of Barristers and Attornies, and to provide for the admission of Law Students within the Province; £100 was granted to Mr. Sheriff Merritt, of the Niagara District; a new Assessment Act was passed; the Act to provide for the maintenance of persons disabled, and for the widows and children of persons killed in action was explained and amended. Isaac Swayze, Esquire, having been robbed of £178 5s. 8d., was exonerated from the payment of it; £6,000 was granted for the rebuilding and repair of gaols and Court Houses in the Western, London and Niagara Districts, each £2,000; an Act was passed to remove doubts with respect to the authority under which the Courts of General Quarter Sessions had been erected and holden; an Act to license practitioners in physic and surgery throughout the province, providing for the appointment of a Board of Surgeons to examine applicants, and imposing a penalty of £100 for practicing without license, but excepting from the application of the Act such as had taken a degree at any University in His Majesty's dominions, was passed; £292 was granted to repay advances on team-work, and for the apprehension of deserters by certain Inspectors of Districts; £1,500 was granted to provide for the accommodation of the legislature at its next session; £6,090 was granted for the uses of the incorporated militia; £111 11s. 7d. was granted for the Clerks of Parliament; £1,700 was appropriated to the erection of a monument to the memory of the late Major-General Sir Isaac Brock; the Quarter Sessions Act was again amended; £400 was repaid to the Honorable James Bayley, which he had paid for hemp delivered to him as a commissioner for the purchase of that commodity; and an Act incorporating the Midland District School Society. On the 25th of April, Lieutenant-General Sir George Murray, Baronet, superseded Sir Gordon Drummond, K.C.B., in the command, civil and military, of Upper Canada, and on the 1st of July, in the same year, the civil and military command of the Upper Province devolved upon Major-General Sir Frederick P. Robinson, K.C.B., who held the reins of government until the return of His Excellency Francis Gore, who had been absent in England during the war, on the 25th of September, 1815.