understood the flotilla to be, and directed the troops to attack on the land side, to draw off the attention of such of the enemy's forces as might be stationed there for its defence: he himself proceeded with his boats, and soon descried the broad pendant of commodore Barney in the head-most vessel, and the remainder of the flotilla extending in a long line astern of her. The British boats advanced to them as rapidly as possible; but on approaching them commodore Barney's vessel was discovered to be on fire, and she very soon afterwards blew up. In fact, they were all abandoned, and on fire, with trains to their magazines; so that, out of the 17 vessels which composed the flotilla, 16 were blown to atoms, and the 17th was captured. The British also burnt 13 merchant vessels that had been lying under the protection of the flotilla, and brought off a considerable quantity of tobacco.

As soon as this success was accomplished, major-general Ross and admiral Cochrane resolved to proceed against Washington, the capital of the United States, from which they were distant only 16 miles. They accordingly reached a village about five miles from this city without meeting with the enemy. At this place, however, they discovered the enemy strongly posted on the opposite side of the river, on very commanding heights, and formed in two lines, his advance occupy ing a fortified house, which, with artillery, covered the bridge over the eastern branch of the river, across which it was necessary for our troops to pass. The position of the enemy was defended by artillery and riflemen, and a wide road leading to Washington ran through it. The attack was made with so much impetuosity that the fortified house was shortly carried, the enemy retiring to the higher grounds. The American left was next attacked, and the fourth regiment pressing on their right at the same time, they abandoned their guns. Their first line afterwards giving way was driven on the second, which, yielding to the irresistible attack of the bayonet, and the well directed discharge of the musketry, fled in disorder, leaving the British masters of the field. Few prisoners were made, as the retreat was precipitate, and the fatigue of the British troops excessive; but

the whole of the artillery was captured, together with its commander, commodore Barron, who had formerly conducted the flotilla.

After this complete success General Ross halted his army for a short time, and then marched upon Washington. This city had been selected for the seat of the American government; but the number of its houses does not exceed nine hundred, spread over an extensive scite. The whole number of its inhabitants does not exceed 8000, and the adjacent country is thinly peopled. Although the necessary precautions were ordered, to assemble the militia for the protection of the city, a variety of causes combined to render the defence unsuccessful, and the English took possession of Washington on the evening of the 24th of August. "The commanders of the British force held at that time," says Mr. Madison, “ a letter of admiral Cochrane, dated the 18th, but not received till the 31st of August, in which it was announced that the towns and districts upon the coast were to be destroyed and laid waste, in revenge for unspecified and unknown acts of destruction, which were charged against the American troops in Upper Canada.Conscious, however, of the danger of a distant separation from the British fleet, and desirous, by every plausible artifice, to deter the citizens from flying to arms against their invaders, they disavowed all design of injuring private persons and property, and gave assurances of protection wherever there was submission.” General Ross and admiral Cockburn then proceeded in person to direct and superintend the business of conflagration, in a place which had yielded to their arms, which was unfortified, and by which no hostility was threatened. They set fire to the capital, in whose walls were contained the halls of the congress of the United States, the hall of their highest tribunal for the administration of justice, the archives of the legisla ture, and the national library. They set fire to the edifice which the United States had erected for the residence of their chief ma. gistrate, and to the costly and extensive buildings erected for the accommodation of the principal officers of the government, in the transactions of the public business. These magnificent monuments of the progress of

the arts, which America had borrowed from her parent Europe, with all the testimonials of taste and literature which they contained, were, on the memorable night of the 24th of August, consigned to the flames, while British officers of high rank and command united with their troops in riotous carousal by the light of the burning pile.

The arsenal, the dock-yard, the rope-walk, and the bridge across the Potowmack, a frigate on the stocks, and a sloop of war, were consumed; and the two bridges leading to the city, over the eastern branch of the river, had been destroyed by the Americans, under the apprehension of an attack in that direction. Yet in the eagerness of the commanders to insult and injure their enemy, they left many military objects entirely unaccomplished. A great portion of the munitions of war, which had not been consumed when the navy yard was ordered, by the American government, to be destroyed, were left untouched; and an extensive foundery of cannon, adjoining the city of Washington, was left uninjured: when, in the night of the 25th of August, the army suddenly decamped, and returning with evident marks of precipitation and alarm to their ships, left the interment of their dead, and the care of their wounded, to the enemy whom they had thus injured and insulted, in violation of the laws of civilized war,

The destruction of Washington exasperated the enmity of the American people, and excited a sensation of malignant surprise in the states of Europe. In England, howIn England, how ever, the intelligence was at first received with great exultation: the capital of America had been destroyed: Mr. Madison had witnessed, it was said, the prowess of British troops we had taught the Americans, by just retaliation, that they would not be suffered to ravage and destroy with impunity: and the unpopularity of the president would be extended by so signal a disgrace. These hopes were disappointed, and the feelings of the nation subsided into despondency when it was found that the president disavowed, or defended, on plausible grounds, the burning of York and other places in Canada, and that the cause of Mr. Madison was now supported by a union of all parties in his favour,

against what they were pleased to term the atrocities of Britain.

The counterpart of the scene exhibited by the British army was next exhibited by the British navy. Soon after the midnight flight of General Ross from Washington, a squadron of British ships of war ascended the Potowmack, and reached the town of Alexandria on the 27th of August, 1814. The magistrates presuming that the general destruction of the town was intended, asked on what terms it might be saved. The naval commander, captain Gordon, declared "that the only conditions in his power to offer, were such as not only required a surrender of all naval stores, public and private, but of all the shipping and all the merchandize in the city, as well as such as had been removed since the 19th of August." The conditions, therefore, amounted to the entire plunder of Alexandria, an unfortified and unresisting town, in order to save the buildings from destruction. The capitulation was made, and we bore away the fruits of our severity in triumph!

After the destruction of Washington, the troops and vessels employed on that service moved into the Potapsco; and the former were landed about 13 miles from Baltimore. On the 12th of September they advanced along a peninsula which was strongly protected, but the entrenchments were immediately forced. At this moment General Ross, in the dangers of the field ever active and foremost, and in his devotion to the honour of his country, and to the reputation of his troops, unfortunately too heedless of his personal security, exposed himself to the fire of the enemy's riflemen, and fell glorious and lamented. As soon as he perceived that he was wounded he fell into the arms of a brother officer, crying, ther officer, crying, "send immediately for Colonel Brooke". The Colonel attended and received his instructions: and the general having discharged this last duty to his country exclaimed "my dear wife," and dropped lifeless. Colonel Brooke having arrived, pushed on the advance to within five miles of Baltimore, where he encountered 6000 infantry and several hundred cavalry, To attack them at all points, to break and disperse them in every direction, to take two pieces

of cannon and a considerable number of prisoners-all this was but the work of fifteen minutes. A complete and glorious victory was thus obtained, and our little army slept on the field of battle. The next morning, September 13, it advanced within a mile and a half of Baltimore. The town was strongly defended by art and nature: between 15,000 and 18,000 men, with a large train of artillery, were ranged in the redoubts which covered it and the enemy had so blocked the entrance to the harbour, by sinking ships in the channel, that our squadron was unable to advance to support the military. Under these circumstances it was thought prudent to desist from any attack on the town. By retiring leisurely, it was hoped that the enemy would be drawn from his entrenchments, and on the 14th and 15th, therefore, the troops marched gently to their place of embarkation. But the Americans remained under the protection of their redoubts, and the British army taking with it 200 prisoners, chiefly persons of the best families in the city, reembarked without the smallest molestation. This expedition was the theme of much exultation to the English. With the exception of general Ross, the victory of the 13th was obtained with trifling loss, while that of the Americans, though entrenched, amounted to 1000 men. They were compelled to sink upwards of 20 vessels in various parts of the harbour, to remove the greater part of the private property from the town, to burn a valuable rope-walk and several public buildings, and alarm the whole surrounding country.

The successes before Baltimore were counterbalanced in a tenfold degree by the deplorable occurrences before New Orleans.Upon the subject, however, of this unfortunate expedition, we have yet received no intelligence but such as is derived from the statements of the British officers themselves, which, though clear, and apparently impartial, are brief and unsatisfactory. The following are the most important and most interesting of these documents, from which it will appear that, in addition to the death of our gallant commander, our military enterprizes in America terminated with a loss of nearly 2000 men!

66

Camp, in front of the enemy's lines, below New Orleans, Jan. 10, 1815. "MY LORD,-It becomes my duty to lay before your lordship the proceedings of the force lately employed on the coast of Louisiana, under the command of major-general the hon. sir E. M. Pakenham, K.B. and acting in concert with vice-admiral the hon. sir A. Cochrane, K.B.

"The report which I inclose from majorgeneral Keane, will put your lordship in possession of the occurrences which took place until the arrival of major-general the hon. sir E. Pakenham, to assume the command; from that period I send an extract of the journal of major Forrest, assistant-quarter-master-general, up to the time of the joining the troops (which sailed on the 26th of October last under my command), and which was on the 6th January; and from that period I shall detail, as well as I am able, the subsequent events.

"I found the army in position, in a flat country, with the Mississippi on its left, and a thick extensive wood on its right, and open to its front, from which the enemy's line was quite distinguishable.

"It seems sir E. Pakenham had waited for the arrival of the fusileers and 43d regiment, in order to make a general attack upon the enemy's line; and on the 8th the army was formed for that object.

"In order to give your lordship as clear a view as I can, I shall state the position of the enemy. On the left bank of the river it was simply a straight line of about a front of one thousand yards with a parapet, the right resting on the river, and the left on a wood which had been made impracticable for any body of troops to pass. This line was strengthened by flank works, and had a canal of about four feet deep generally, but not altogether of an equal width; it was supposed to narrow towards their left: about eight heavy guns were in position on this line. Mississippi is here about eight hundred yards across, and they had on the right bank a heavy battery of twelve guns, which enfiladed the whole front of the position on the left bank.

The

"Preparations were made on our side, by very considerable labour, to clear out and widen a canal that communicated with a

M