assistance to strengthen the Upper Province, cogent reasons from interest, affection, and his means of doing so will be but very virtue, pleaded for an opposite policy, that limited. When we remember, besides all the most intelligent became the most creduthese dispiriting influences, that a numerous lous. That a government professing to be body of settlers from the United States were the friend of man and the great supporter of everywhere disseminating their evil coun- his liberty and independence, should light sels, and that well-founded fears were enter- up the torch of war against the only nation tained that the American intrigues among that stands between itself and destruction, the different Indian tribes, which had been exhibited a degree of infatuation or madness openly carried on, and in the conducting of altogether incomprehensible "it cannot which no expence had been spared, had not be," said the wiser part of our inhabitants failed of success, but that divisions had "the United States will never declare war been sown among our Indian allies, against a nation which has uniformly treated and the minds of many altogether estranged, them with kindness and respect, whose fleets have we not ample grounds on which to protect their commerce, and whose armies base our assertions that the Canadas were support their freedom and independence.” sound to the core, and that all the rash But the men at present ruling the states, and flatulent speeches made in the American infatuated, or, as their more enlightened houses of Legislature were but occasioned countrymen say, "bribed by the tyrant of by the knowledge of their own weakness France," regardless of the best interests of and divided state? Is it possible for any their country and the feelings and affections sane person to credit that the Americans of a great majority of their own people, have were so totally led away by overweening commenced hostilities against our mother vanity as to suppose that, when Great Britain country while treating their vessels with should arise in her might, it would be possi- hospitality, and instead of threatening their ble for them to hope for success in a war of liberties, offering the most equitable terms aggression? Is it not much more likely that of accommodation." French gold it was which originated the idle speculations respecting the Canadas, and not any evidences of discontent or disaffection in those Provinces? The following extracts, however, from an address of the assembly of Upper Canada, to their constituents, put the matters beyond the possibility of doubt and prove to demonstration the loyalty of the Province.

Remarks on the Ad

of Upper Canada, on the Declaration of War.

It happened, most dress of the Assembly opportunely, that the House of Assembly had so nearly completed the business before them, that they were at liberty to take all the steps necessary at this crisis, without neglecting any other important

Here follows a long and spirited appeal to the descendants of the U.E. loyalists, who had been driven from the land of their adoption ; and there is very little doubt but that the spirit which was roused amongst Canadians was attributable, in a great measure, to the unshaken fidelity of these settlers.

"Already have we the joy to remark, that the spirit of loyalty has burst forth in all its ancient splendor. The militia in all parts of the Province have volunteered their services with acclamation, and displayed a degree of energy worthy of the British name. They do not forget the blessings and privileges which they enjoy under the protection and fostering care of the British Empire, "The declaration of war issued against whose government is only felt in this country Great Britain by the United States, when by acts of the purest justice, and most pleasfirst announced, appeared to be an act of such ing and efficacious benevolence. When men astonishing folly and desperation, as to be are called upon to defend every thing they altogether incredible, and not only excited call precious, their wives and children, their the greatest surprise among the inhabitants friends and possessions, they ought to be of this Province, but among the great ma-inspired with the noblest resolutions, and jority of our enemies themselves. So many they will not be easily frightened by menaces,

measures.

or conquered by force. And beholding as we do, the flame of patriotism burning from one end of the Canadas to the other, we cannot but entertain the most pleasing anticipations. Our enemies have indeed said, that they can subdue this country by a proclamation; but it is our parts to prove to them that they are sadly mistaken; that the population is determinately hostile, and that the few who might be otherwise inclined, will find it their safety to be faithful."

proof that internal treachery was not one of the causes which were feared. The exigency of the time would have warranted the adoption of much more stringent measures; and had there been any real grounds to fear the settlers from the United States, whose inclinations, though in the main good, would be naturally with the interests of their native country, could have caused any danger, doubtless effective measures would have been adopted. The Legislature, however, knew

That this part of the address produced their men, and trusted to Canadian loyalty. the most beneficial results, was pretty We shall shortly see the proofs that their clearly proved by the timid and vacillating confidence was not misplaced. measures adopted by General Hull; the more so, as every day afforded fresh proof to that General, after he was fairly on British ground, that he had been grossly deceived by the representations which had induced him to believe that Canada was ripe for a revolt.

"Remember, when you go forth to the combat, that you fight not for yourselves alone, but for the whole world. You are defeating the most formidable conspiracy against the civilization of man that ever was contrived; a conspiracy threatening greater barbarism and misery than followed the downfall of the Roman Empire-that now you have an opportunity of proving your at

for the relief of oppressed nations, the last pillar of true liberty, and the last refuge of oppressed humanity.

"Innumerable attempts will be made by falsehood, to detach you from your allegiance; for our enemies, in imitation of their Eu-tachment to the parent state which contends ropean master, trust more to treachery than to force; and they will, no doubt, make use of many of those lies, which unfortunately for the virtuous part of these states, and the peace and happiness of the world, had too 'much success during the American rebellion: they will tell you that they are come to give freedom-yes, the base slaves of the most contemptible faction that ever distracted the affairs of any nation-the minions of the very sycophants who lick the dust from the feet of Buonaparte, will tell you, that they are come to communicate the blessing of liberty to this Province; but you have only to look at your situation to put such hypocrites to confusion."

"Trusting more to treachery than open hostility, our enemies have already spread their emissaries through the country to seduce our fellow subjects from their allegiance, by promises as false as the principles on which they are founded. A law has therefore been enacted for the speedy detection of such emissaries, and for their condign punishment on conviction--a law which it will not be easy to escape."

The moderation of the different acts which were then passed, for the preservation and defence of the Province, is an additional

"Persevere as you have begun, in your strict obedience to the laws and your attention to military discipline; deem no sacrifice too costly which secures the enjoyment of our happy constitution; follow, with your countrymen in Britain, the paths of virtue, and, like them, you shall triumph over all your unprincipled foes."

Lower Canada.

State of feeling in Having, we think, satisfactorily, though briefly, disposed of any question that may have arisen with respect to the loyalty of Upper Canadians, we will take a glance at the state of parties in Lower Canada, and examine into the reasons why the stain of disaffection should be supposed to rest any more on them, than on their brethren in the Upper Province.

If there were grounds for apprehending that a feeling of disloyalty existed at all in Canada, reason would have at once suggested that in Lower Canada was the evil to be sought. Yet, on examination into this part of our subject, we find, that although Sir George Prevost had at this time a very

delicate card to play with his House of their neighbours. On the 31st December, Assembly, he succeeded in obtaining from 1775, at the siege of Quebec, we find that them a Militia Act, which, though not almost to Lower Canadians alone was the affording all that was required, was still a successful resistance against the combined material point gained. 2,000 men were to attack of Generals Arnold and Montgomery, be balloted, to serve for three months, in attributable. "The party who defended the two successive summers. One reason why principal battery, consisted of CANADIAN more was not gained was, that an appre- MILITIA, with nine British seamen to work hension existed that Canadians might con- the guns." On no one occasion, in point of tract military habits, and enlist into the fact, can we detect the slightest trace of a service. This feeling, however, did not pre-hostile feeling towards the British Governvent the establishment of the Glengarry ment amongst Lower Canadians: in the Light Infantry,* who numbered, by the 1st present instance what is the result of our May, 1812, four hundred rank and file; and examination? we find that "four battalions we find, farther, that on Sir George Pre- of militia were instantly raised, and the vost's issuing orders to recruit for a still voltigeurs were organised and equipped in higher establishment, the officers engaged to the short space of six weeks by the liberality double the number, and did it. This does of the young Canadians: we find the Legisnot look like disaffection; and, whether we lature issuing government papers, bearing go still further east, or south, we trace the interest and payable in bills of Exchange in same spirit. We find two officers dividing England, to prevent specie from going to the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and enlist- United States; and again, are our old friends, ing Acadians, while Lieutenant McDonell the inhabitants of Quebec, found at their is reported as making great progress among post, guarding the citadel, proud of the duty, the Highland settlers on the coast and gulf. and of the consequence reposed on them. When we take all these circumstances, then, We think we need say no more on the head into consideration, we confess that we are of the loyalty of Lower Canada. at a loss to find any sounder reasons for imputing disaffection to Lower Canadians, than stration; 12th July, 1812, the American Ge

First Hostile Demon

1812.

On the 12th July,

we have found to exist among their brethren
of the Upper Province; and although they
were not called on, in the course of the events
which followed, to make such sacrifices, or
give such unequivocal proofs of their loyalty,
as Upper Canadians; yet, we venture to as-bitants to join his standard.
sert, that the animus was there which would
have proved that in both Provinces alike the
same pure spirit of patriotism burned.

neral Hull, with a force of twenty-five hundred men crossed over to Sandwich from Detroit and planted the Amərican standard on Canadian soil, where he issued a proclamation,* inviting the inha

We cannot well see what reasons the rulers of the United States could have adduced for arriving at a different conclusion. So far back as that momentous period, when their fellow colonists threw off their allegiance to the mother country, the French Canadians, though pressingly invited to assist, refused. They were, even then, aware of the blessings which they enjoyed under British Government, and willingly submitted to the Stamp Act, which caused so great a revolt amongst

Although the levies raised for the corps belonged generally to the Lower Province, yet strict geographical justice would assign these troops to the Upper Province.

*

PROCLAMATION.

Head Quarters, Sandwich,

Inhabitants of Canada—

12th July, 1812.

the United States have been driven to arms. After thirty years of peace and prosperity, The injuries and aggressions, the insults and indignities of Great Britain, have once more left them no alternative but manly resistance, or unconditional submission. The army under my command has invaded your country. The standard of the Union now waves over the territory of Canada. To the peaceable, unoffenddifficulty. I come to find enemies, not to make ing inhabitants it brings neither danger nor them. I come to protect, not to injure you.

Separated by an immense ocean and an extensive wilderness from Great Britain, you have no participation in her councils, no interest in her conduct. You have felt her tyranny; you have seen her injustice; but I do not ask you to avenge the one, or to redress the other.

As a foil to General Hull's vaporing gasconade, General Brock's proclamation, which

will be found at length in our notes, may appropriately be placed, the one as remarkablo for firmness and dignity of tone, as the other The United States are sufficiently powerful to was noteworthy for presumption and bombast. afford every security consistent with their rights The artful and threatening language, in which and your expectations. I tender you the invaluable blessing of civil, political, and religious li- Gen. Hull's proclamation was couched, failed, berty, and their necessary result, individual and however, in producing the anticipated effect, general prosperity. That liberty which gave de- and seemed but to nerve, still more keenly for cision to our councils and energy to our conduct, in a struggle for independence, and which con- the contest, the gallant few on whom the suc dacted us safe and triumphantly through the cessful defence of the province depended--even story period of the revolution. That liberty then, in fact, had the foresight and energy of which has raised us to an elevated rank among the British General prepared the first of those disasters which were so shortly to overwhelm the unfortunate Hull. Early in the sp.ing,

the nations of the world, and which afforded us a greater measure of peace and security, of wealth and improvement, than ever fell to the lot of any country.

*The unprovoked declaration of war by the United States of America against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and its dependencies, has been followed by the actual invasion of this Province, in a remote frontier of the western district, by a detachment of the armed force of the United States.

The officer commanding that detachment has thought proper to invite his Majesty's subjects, not merely to a quiet and unresisting submission, but insults them with a call to seek voluntarily the protection of his government.

In the name of my country, and by the authority of government, I promise yon protection to your persons, property and rights; remain at your homes, pursue your peaceful and customary avocations, raise not your hand against your orethren. Many of your fathers fought for the freedon and independence we now enjoy. Being children, therefore, of the same family with us, and heirs to the same heritage, the arrival of an army of friends must be hailed by you with a cordial welcome. You will be emancipated from tyranny and oppression, and restored to the dig. nified station of freemen. Had I any doubt of eventual success, I might ask your assistance, Without condescending to notice the epithets but I do not. I come prepared for every contin- bestowed, in this appeal of the American commangency I have a force which will look down all der to the people of Upper Canada, on the adminopposition. And that force is but the vanguardistration of his Majesty, every inhabitant of the of a much greater. I, contrary to your own Province is desired to seek the confutation of such interest and the just expectation of my country, indecent slander in the review of his own particu you should take part in the approaching contest, ar circumstances. Where is the Canadian subyou will be considered and treated as enemies, ject who can truly affirm to himself that he has and the horrors and calamities of war will stalk been injured by the government, in his person, Where is to be before you. If the barbarous and savage policy is property, or his liberty? of Great Britain be pursued, and the savages be found, in any part of the world, a growth so rapid let loose to murder our citizens, and butcher our in prosperity and wealth, as this colony exhibits? women and children, this war will be a war of Settled, not thirty years, by a band of veterans, extermination. The first stroke of the tomahawk, exiled from their former possessions on account of the first attempt with the scalping knife, will be their loyalty, not a descendant of these brave peothe signal for one indiscriminate scene of desola-ple is to be found, who, under the fostering libetion. No white man found fighting by the side rality of their sovereign, has not acquired a proof an Indian will be taken prisoner; instant desperty and means of enjoyment superior to what traction will be his lot. If the dictates of rea were possessed by their ancestors. son, daty, justice, and humanity, cannot prevent This unequalled prosperity would not have been the employment of a force which respects no attained by the utmost liberality of the govern rights, and knows no wrong, it will be prevented ment, or the persevering industry of the people, by a severe and relentless system of retaliation. had not the maritime power of the mother coun I doubt not your courage and firmness-I wil: try secured to its colonists a safe access to every not doubt your attachment to liberty. The Unit-market, where the produce of their labour was in ed States offer you peace, liberty, and security-request.

your choice lies between these and war, slavery, The unavoidable aud imme liate consequences and destruction. Choose, then, but choose wise-of a separation from Great Britain must be the loss ly; and may He who knows the justice of our of this inestimable advantage; a d what is offered cause, and who holds in his hands the fate of nations, guile you to a result the most compatible with your rights and interests, your peace and happiness.

A. P. HULL,

By the General.
Capt. of the 13th Regt. of U. S. Infantry, and
Aide de Camp, de.

Head Quarters, Sandwich,
July 12, 1812.

you in exchange? To become a territory of the United States, and share with them that exclusion from the ocean which the policy of their government enforces; you are not even flattered with a participation of their boasted independence: and it is but too obvious that, once estranged from the powerful protection of the United Kingdom, you must be re-annexed to the dominion of France, from which the provinces of Canada were wrested

ere events had assumed a decidedly hos-surrendered.-Lieutenant Hancks, the officer tile aspect, General Brock had provided for in command of the Americans, has officially the protection of Fort St. Joseph, a small post stated that the summons to surrender the fort to the north-east of the American island of was the first information he had of the declaMichilimacinac, and one of his first acts, on ration of war. This, however, appears but hearing of the declaration of war, was to send little probable, when we remember that the a notification of it to Captain Roberts, then in Americans had been making preparations* for command at St. Joseph's, with instructions to a decisive attack in this very quarter for nearly make, if practicable, an immediate attack upon six months, and that General Hull's army Michilimacinac. This order was acted upon alone, the fruit of this preparation, exceeded by Captain Roberts with singular promptitude the whole available force in Upper Canada. and decision, and on the 16th July he embarked with forty-five men of the 10th Royal Veteran Battalion, two hundred Militia under the command of Mr. Crawford, and two hundred and fifty Indians, composed principally of Sioux, Ottawas, and Chippewas. This force on the morning of the 17th effected a landing, and, without opposition, this vital post, with a garrison of some sixty regulars, was

by the arms of Great Britain, at a vast expense of blood and treasure, from no other motive than to relieve her ungrateful children from the oppresBion of a cruel neighbour. This restitution of Canada to the empire of France, was the stipulated reward for the aid afforded to the revolted colonies, now the United States; the debt is still due, and there can be no doubt but the pledge has been renewed as a consideration for commercial advantages, or rather for an expected relaxation in the tyranny of France over the commercial world. Are you prepared, inhabitants of Canada, to become willing subjects, or rather slaves, to the despot who rules the nations of continental Europe with a rod of iron? If not, arise in a body, exert your energies, co-operate cordially with the king's regular forces to repel the invader, and do not give cause to your children, when groaning under the oppression of a foreign master, to reproach you with having so easily parted with the richest inheritance of this earth-a participation in the name, character, and freedom of Britons! The same spirit of justice, which will make every reasonable allowance for the unsuccessful efforts of zeal and loyalty, will not fail to punish the defalcation of principle. Every Canadian freeholder is, by deliberate choice, bound by the most Bolemn oaths to defend the monarchy, as well as his own property; to shrink from that engagement is a treason not to be forgiven. Let no man suppose that if, in this unexpected struggle, his Majesty's arms should be compelled to yieid to an overwhelming force, the province will be eventually abandoned; the endeared relations of the first settlers, the intrinsic value of its commerce, and the pretensions of its powerful rival to repossess the Canadas, are pledges that no peace will be established between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland, of which the restoration of these provinces does not make the most prominent condition.

Be not dismayed at the unjustifiable threat of

the commander of the enemy's forces to refuse quarter, should an Indian appear in the ranks. The brave bands of Aborigines which inhabit this colony were, like his Majesty's other subjects, punished for their zeal and fidelity, by the loss of their possessions in the late colonies, and rewarded by his Majesty with lands of superior value in this Province. The faith of the British Government has never yet been violated-the Indians feel that the soil they inherit is to them and their posterity protected from the base arts so frequently devised to over-reach their simplicity. By what new principle are they to be prohibited from defending their property? If their warfare, from being different to that of the white people, be more terrific to the enemy, let him retrace his steps--they seek him not-and cannot expect to find women and children in an invading ariny.But they are men, and have equal rights with all other men to defend themselves and their property when invaded, more especially when they find in the enemy's camp a ferocious and mortal foe, using the same warfare which the American commander affects to reprobate.

This inconsistent and unjustifiable threat of reusing quarter, for such a cause as being found in arms with a brother sufferer, in defence of inva ded rights, must be exercised with the certain assu tions of war in this part of the King's dominions, rance of retaliation, not only in the limited operabut in every quarter of the globe; for the na tional character of Britain is not less distinguished for humanity than strict retributive justice, which will consider the execution of this inhuman threat as deliberate murder, for which every subject of the offending power must make expiation.

Head Quarters,

at

ISAAC BROCK, Major-Gen. and President.

Fort-George, July 22, 1812.
By order of his honor the President.

J. B. GLEGG, Capt. & A.D.C.

We learn from General Armstrong, (Secretary War at that period,) that preparations bad been made along the whole Canadian frontier, in the fall of 1811, and that warlike stores had been sent to Burlington, on Lake Champlain. From the same authority we also learn, that General Hull began his march from Drayton, a frontier town in the State of Ohio, on the 1ST DAY OF JUNE, 1812, twelve days before the declaration of war, to cooperate with such other corps as might be de tined to the invasion of Canada.- E». A. A. M.