with the independence of a judge. a fellow as ever filled the chair! high respects. Oh! he is as vile [The Honorable James Cuthbert, the father of James and Ross Cuthbert, Esqs., mentioned in this volume, served in early life in the navy as lieutenant in the flag ship at the siege of Carthagena, and carried home the intelligence of its fall; he was afterwards appointed to the command of one of the Independent Companies at Inverness, called the Highland Watch, and was appointed to the 42d at its formation. He was present, in the 15th regiment, at the capture of Louisburg, and served under Wolfe at Quebec, conveying to England the dispatches of Brigadier Murray, to whom he was aide-de-camp. He was appointed by Lord Dorchester one of the members of the first legislative council after the conquest, having left the army and become a settler in Canada. During the American revolutionary war, he was particularly active, visiting the enemy's camp at Sorel to obtain information, and in consequence he was seized upon at Berthier by the Americans, who sent him in irons to Albany, burnt the manor house, and destroyed his property to a considerable amount.] THE LAUREL OF GLORY. Elegiac Stanza, on the Death of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock. The laurel of glory eternal shall bloom, Nor climate, nor season, nor time's iron hand, E'er injure or sap it, in Britain's proud land; O'er the manes of the soldier, for ever shall wave The laurel of glory, the meed of the brave! Nor envy, nor faction's fell venom be seen, To wither a leaf of its beautiful green! Like the life buds of spring shall new verdure e'er find, Tho' age after age may moulder away, The fame of the patriot can never decay; Like the oak of the forest, each tempest can brave, And the laurel of glory wave over his grave. CHAPTER XVIII. (JUSTIFICATORY, &c.) SIR GEORGE PREVOST, BART. While the first sheet of this, the second, edition was in the press, I accidentally met with "Some Account of the Public Life of the late Sir George Prevost," published by his family in the year 1823, in reply to the strictures on his military character, contained in the Quarterly Review for July, 1822. Of the existence of this volume I was previously ignorant, and I think that it successfully refutes some of those strictures, the vituperative spirit of which is much to be regretted, the more so as that spirit has been copied by later writers with increased acrimony, one dismissing this unfortunate officer with the following cruel malediction: "Disease and a natural death saved him from the vengeance of military law; but as a warning and example may shame and infamy rest upon his grave!"* It is true that, unhappily for his fame as a soldier, he sought to oppose the vis inertiæ, to the enemy's insatiable thirst for the conquest of the Canadas, a mode of defence only suited to arid deserts or a pestilential climate; but the Quarterly and its copyists do not appear to have been aware that the British government approved of Sir George Prevost's pacific policy at the commencement of the war, as on the 1st of October, 1812, or before the refusal of the American president to ratify the * Pictorial History of England. armistice was known in England, Earl Bathurst wrote to the governor-general: "The desire which you have unceasingly manifested to avoid hostilities with the subjects of the United States, is not more in conformity with your own feelings than with the wishes and intentions of his majesty's government, and therefore your correspondence with General Dearborn cannot fail to receive their cordial concurrence.' Giving, however, Sir George Prevost every benefit of this approval, my opinion, as expressed in this memoir, of his defensive course after the rejection of the armistice, and while the British were in the ascendant on the lakes, remains unchanged. That he was an able provincial governor, as well as an amiable man in private life, and that in his military station he anxiously exerted himself to the best of his ability, I see reason to believe; but although I think that his friend's labour in vain in attempting to convince the public that he was either a skilful or an energetic commander, or that the deplorable affairs of Sackett's Harbour and Plattsburg were not disgraceful to the British arms, yet they may justly urge his early services, his limited force at the outset of the American war, and his redeeming qualities in a civil capacity, as entitling him to the indulgent, if not to the favorable, judgment of posterity.-F. B. T. SIR ROGER HALE SHEAFFE, BART. Having ascertained from this officer himself, after the sheet containing the account of the afternoon conflict at Queenstown had been struck off, that his force on that occasion amounted to only 740 men, including less than 50 Indians, his evidence as to this disputed point would of course be quite conclusive, if unfortunately he had not forgotten whether the officers are included in this number, so that he evidently is not in possession of the official returns. I therefore feel called upon, in my own justification, to cite the authorities on which I have stated that force as 66 rather exceeding 1,000 men of all grades, of whom nearly 600 were regulars," (see page 333,) not thinking it just to enumerate the entire force on the American side, and to deduct a tithe on that of the British, by including rank and file only. 1.-Major-General Sheaffe's own dispatch, as quoted in foot note at page 333. He moreover mentions twelve officers as commanding flank companies of the Lincoln and York militia, which, at only 35 men per company, would give 420 militia. 2.-James, the celebrated naval historian-who, in his "Military Occurrences" of the second American war, appears to be singularly accurate in his statements, although often minute to tediousness after mentioning that about 50 Indians, under the chief Norton, attacked the Americans, and that they retired, after a sharp conflict, "towards the reinforcement of regulars and militia, under Major-General Sheaffe, which had just arrived from Fort George, adds: "This reinforcement, consisting of about 380 rank and file of the 41st regiment, under Captain Derenzy, and about 300 militia, accompanied by one 3-pounder, joined the remnant of the 49th flank companies; and the whole proceeded to the heights, by a route through the enclosures; the Indians pointing out to the troops the best track for ascending the mountain. As soon as the British column had reached a field adjoining the road to the falls, about 60 of the 41st, under Captain Bullock, and a party of militia, arrived from Chippawah. The whole British and Indian force, thus assembled, did not amount to 1,000 rank and file, of whom about 560 were regular troops." 3.- General Sheaffe soon came up with a reinforcement of 300 men of the 41st regiment, two companies of militia, and 250 Indians. Reinforcements having also arrived from Chippawah, the British gene ral collected his whole force, amounting to upwards of 800 men," &c.-Christie's Memoirs. 4. A militia officer, in a MS. copy of a long letter before me, dated Brown's Point, Niagara, October 15, 1812, after describing both the morning and afternoon conflicts at Queenstown, in the former of which he was wounded, says: "But General Sheaffe arriving from Niagara with a detachment of the 41st of about 300 men, some militia, and about 250 Indians, and being joined by all that he could collect of the troops who were originally engaged, they ascended the mountain some distance to the right of the Americans," &c. 5.-A correspondent in the United Service Magazine for March, 1846, page 441, who was serving in Canada with the 41st regiment when the battle of Queenstown was fought, remarks: "It is no disparagement to the gallantry of the 49th regiment to say, that they were beaten at Queenstown, but it is nevertheless true that, unable to keep their ground, they were driven down the mountain, and did not resume the offensive until, when the enemy were in full possession of the heights, the 41st (400 strong) made their appearance from Fort George, under Captain Derenzy, and the grenadier company, mustering nearly 100 bayonets, under Captain Bullock, from Chippawah." With these authorities before me, I estimated, and I think reasonably, Major-General Sheaffe's total force as follows: From Fort George, 41st foot Militia... .... Remnants of 49th flank companies. 400 250 90 40 100 of militia, engaged in the morning 100 Exclusive of the Indians...... 980 |