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.