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

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

Thus was the campaign of 1813 terminated.

It might not unnaturally be supposed that during all this fighting, business would have been nearly at a stand. But so far from such being the case, the war had contributed in no small degree to bring Canada and its capabilities into notice. And it could not be otherwise. So large an expenditure as that required for the maintenance of the regular soldiery and militia must have made money plentiful, and such as were engaged in trade, whether in Quebec or Montreal, undoubtedly profitted by an expenditure almost necessarily profligate. On account of the militia alone, the province expended L121,366, and the expenditure of the commissariat department must have been enormous. But the grand source of wealth was the establishment of a kind of National Bank, with specie, to redeem its paper, in the vaults of the Bank of England. The circulation of fifteen hundred thousand pounds worth of army bills, all redeemable in cash, with interest, could not have failed to enrich a country in which there were not more than 350,000 inhabitants, the greater number of whom were actually in the pay of Great Britain, while they had the privilege of attending, unless in extraordinary cases, to their private pursuits. That Canada prospered during the war is undeniable. There was a considerable falling off in the number of vessels cleared at Quebec in 1813, in comparison with the previous year, and which was in some degree attributable to the risk attendant upon crossing the Atlantic, while the great frigates of the United States were permitted to prowl about, but the provincial revenue had, nevertheless, increased in the course of one year to the amount of L30,006, while the provincial expenditure alone was nearly L200,000. Indeed, Montreal, the temporary head-quarters of the commander-in-chief, and literally alive with troops, who all ate and drank heartily, was making rapid progress in the way of commercial advancement. Mr. Molson gave some indication of the general prosperity by placing upon the St. Lawrence a second steamer. On the 4th of May, 1813, the arrival of the Swiftsure is noticed by the Quebec newspapers. The Swiftsure had twenty-eight passengers, besides a serjeant with six privates of the royals, having three Americans, prisoners of war, four deserters from the 100th regiment, and one deserter from the American army, in charge, on board, and had been twenty-two hours and a half in running down. She had a good engine with a safety valve for blowing off surplus steam. The ladies' cabin had eight reposing berths. The gentlemen's cabin was thirty feet in length by twenty-three in breadth, and contained ten berths on each side, and two "forming an angle with the larboard side." The cabin was capable of lodging forty-four persons, and the steerage could accommodate about 150. The Swiftsure was in length of keel 130 feet, her length upon deck was 140 feet, and her breadth of beam was 24 feet.

Lower Canada was then a wheat growing and even wheat exporting country. So early as 1802, Lower Canada exported 1,010,033 bushels of wheat, besides 28,301 barrels of flour, and 22,051 cwt. of biscuit. In 1810, the value of the exports from the St. Lawrence was L1,200,000 sterling. And the farmer of Lower Canada profitted in 1814 by the presence of the floating army population almost to as great an extent as the merchant. Both animal and vegetable foods were largely in demand.

Sir George Prevost, as soon as the temporary cessation of active hostilities, in his immediate neighbourhood, would permit, called a meeting of the Parliament of Lower Canada, for the despatch of business. Two sessions of parliament had been held in Upper Canada, since the commencement of the war, one was opened by Major General Brock, on the 3rd of February, 1812, when eleven Acts were passed, and the other by Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, during which other eleven Acts became law. They show the temper of the times. An Act was passed in General Brock's ruleship, granting a bounty for the apprehension of deserters from the regular forces; another granted L2,000 for the repair of roads and bridges; a third amended the militia law; a fourth regulated the meeting of sleds on the public roads; a fifth allowed L502 for clerks and the contingent expenses of parliament; a sixth granted L5,000 for the purpose of training the militia; a seventh extended an Act granting a certain sum of money to His Majesty; an eighth granted L1,000 for the purchase, sale, and exportation of hemp, and L423 for the purchase of hemp seed and payment of bounties; a ninth afforded relief to certain persons entitled to claim lands; a tenth amended an Act for the laying out of highways; and an eleventh provided for the appointment of returning officers. While General Sheaffe was President of Upper Canada, an Act was passed to facilitate the circulation of the Lower Province Army Bills. They were to be received in payment of duties and at the office of the Receiver General. A second Act was passed to empower Justices of the Peace to fine and, in the event of non-payment, to distress the properties of persons offending against the militia laws; a third Act prohibited the exportation of grain and other provisions and restrained the distillation of spirituous liquors from grain; a fourth gave a pension of L20 a year to such persons disabled in the war, as had wife or child, to be continued to the widow or the fatherless, in the event of the death of such disabled persons, and disabled bachelors were to obtain, so long as they were unable to earn a livelihood, L12 a year; a fifth prevented the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians; a sixth continued the Act to provide means for the defence of the province; a seventh repealed the Hemp Encouragement Acts; an eighth continued the Duties Agreement Act; a ninth amended an Act for the better regulation of town and parish officers; a tenth amended and repealed in part the Act for quartering and billetting the soldiery; and the eleventh granted for the clerks of parliament L88 1s. 9d. The debates of course were neither animated nor of particular interest.

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

The House proceeded almost immediately to business, and had not been long so employed, when His Excellency sent a secret message, asking for an increased issue of army bills, to meet the public requirements. The House at once authorised an issue to the extent of fifteen hundred thousand pounds. Afterwards the Assembly adopted a bill to amend the militia laws, which the Legislative Council refused to concur in; then a bill was passed to disqualify the judges for sitting or voting in the Legislative Council, which the Council also refused to concur in, on the plea that the bill was an interference with the Prerogative of the Crown, and with their privileges; next a bill was passed in the Assembly and negatived by the Council, to grant His Majesty a duty on the income arising from civil offices, and on pensions, to be applied for the defence of the province, in the war with the United States; again the Assembly adopted a bill for the appointment of a provincial agent in Great Britain, which the Council also set aside. Surprising as so obvious an antagonism between the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly may seem, it is easily accounted for. The Council were, many of them, placemen, and indeed the immaculate and confidential secretary to Sir James Craig, Mr. Witsius Ryland, also Clerk of the Executive Council, had himself a seat in the Upper House, although Mr. Robert Peel, differing in opinion with Sir James Craig, did not think that the situation which Mr. Ryland held was quite compatible with a seat in the Legislative Council. Mr. Ryland has favored the present generation, through the instrumentality of a near relative, with a brief review of the political state of the province of Lower Canada, from which some interesting facts can be gathered. He states that the Assembly knew that their bill for disqualifying the Chief Justice and Justices of the Court of King's Bench from being summoned to the Legislative Council, would be thrown out in the Upper House, but that the introduction of such a bill in the Assembly served the purpose which the party who introduced it had in view: it impressed the mass of the people with a disrespectful idea of the judges, preparatory to a grand attack upon the whole judicature of the province. In the bill for appointing an agent to Great Britain, Mr. Bedard, the person who had been under confinement on a charge of treasonable practices, had been named as such agent, and a salary of L2,000 per annum assigned him. Mr. Ryland knew that the Council would throw out the bill. But, says that gentleman, the Council were thwarted, as Sir George Prevost acceded to a request of the Assembly for the appointment of two such agents, whom he accredited to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, and the Legislative Council passed several resolves expressive of their astonishment. The Council humbly considered His Excellency's acquiescence with the wishes of the Assembly to be an unequivocal abandonment of the "Rights" of the Legislative Council, and a fatal dereliction of the first principles of the constitution. And with regard to the income tax, proposed by the Assembly, Mr. Ryland states that the whole saving that would have been effected by it, would only have been L2,500 a year, and that the officers of the government who had the utmost difficulty in subsisting on their salaries, would have been, by such a measure, reduced to extreme distress! Now, it is a noticeable fact, in connection with this matter, that the Provincial Secretary, at the period alluded to, was an official in the Colonial Office, and had never seen Canada, although he afterwards received from the province a pension of L400 a year, in consideration of his long and valuable services; and it is in a high degree amusing to find Mr. Ryland informing this functionary "decidedly" and "frankly", that he had acted wisely in not asking for an increase of salary, although it was a different thing to solicit additional assistance in an office where the public business was constantly increasing! Mr. Ryland and a few other such cormorants could not tolerate the impertinent interference of the House of Assembly with their means of subsistence. Nay, it will even appear that Mr. Ryland took it upon himself to privately lecture Sir George Prevost's successor upon the impropriety of following a certain course of action, and that he actually succeeded in dissuading the Governor from his original purpose.

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

With the view of effectually prosecuting the impeachment, the House appointed Mr. Stuart its agent, and directed him to proceed to England, to press upon His Majesty's ministers the necessity of giving heed to the business. L2,000 were awarded for the payment of the expenses of Mr. Stuart, but the Council expunged the award from the revenue bill, and there was no more about it, until the House went to the Castle with their Speaker, who presented an address to the Governor General, requesting him to transmit the impeachments, and suggested the propriety of the Chief Justices being suspended from the exercise of their powers until the pleasure of the Prince Regent could be ascertained. Sir George Prevost was somewhat taken by surprise. He was in an exceedingly delicate or rather interesting situation. It was an unpleasant, if not a disagreeable part, which he was required to play. It was, in a word, to make complaint to the Prince Regent of his predecessor. Sir George, however, blandly said that he would take an early opportunity of transmitting the address, with the articles of accusation against the Chief Justices, to His Majesty. With regard to the suggestion of the Honorable House of Assembly, concerning the suspension of the Chief Justices, he did not consider it necessary to go to that extreme. The Legislative Council had not even been consulted with regard to the articles of accusation; and he could not think of suspending two officers of such rank, on the complaint of only the third branch of the legislature.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Americans, while they were near Cornwall, under Generals Brown and Boyd, in the autumn previously to re-crossing the river, plundered some merchants of all their goods, wares, and merchandise, found en route for Upper Canada. But the American government had stipulated for their restitution with Colonel Morrison, of the 89th, and Captain Mulcaster, of the Royal Navy. Whether the repeated checks that they had lately received from the British, in consideration of their unwelcome, but not looked for, visits, had soured the authorities, south of 45 deg.., 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 L250,000, or nearly L150 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.