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*While in the early part of December, 1812, the United States' frigate Constitution, Commodore Bainbridge, and ship-sloop Hornet, of eighteen 32-pounder carronades and two long 12-pounders, Captain James Lawrence, were waiting at St. Salvador, to be joined by the Essex, an occur rence happened, which the characteristic cunning of Americans turned greatly to their advantage. In the middle of November the British 20-gun ship Bonne-Citoyenne, of eighteen 32-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounders, Captain Pitt Barnaby Greene, having, while coming from Riode-la-plate, with half a million sterling on board, damaged herself greatly by running on shore, entered the port of St. Salvador, to land her cargo

we shall now show. The English had in their individual honor of the captains and crews of possession, the late French corvette "Bonne the new twenty-gun vessels, the press gave Citoyenne," '—a very fine vessel. After placing rather an exaggerated account of their force the force of the Bonne Citoyenne in juxta and size, and held them up to view as much position with that of the Frolic, the reader more formidable than they really were. The will be able to judge how far the action of consequence was that the Wasp, Frolic, PeaGovernment was judicious: Bonne Citoyenne cock, and Hornet avoided every three-masted -length of main deck, one hundred and man-of-war they saw. Relative to the boasting twenty feet; breadth, thirty-one feet; tons, that took place in the case of the Hornet and five hundred and eleven; guns, twenty; men, Bonne Citoyenne, we shall now speak, and shall one hundred and thirty-five. Frolic, length,one establish, with Mr. James' help, the fact that hundred and twenty feet: breadth, thirty-two the behavior of the Americans on the occasion feet; tons, five hundred and forty; guns, was nothing but braggadocio of the most twenty-two; men, one hundred and seventy- despicable character.* five. Now, surely the easiest mode of encountering the Americans, would appear to have been, to have built vessels of some twenty-five tons burthen larger than the Bonne Citoyenne, and to have added thirty men, at least, to her complement. The Lords of the Admiralty thought otherwise, so, as the surest means of producing the effect they desired to bring about, the vessels, built from the lines of the Bonne Citoyenne, were shortened five feet, and instead of increasing, the burthen was decreased fifty-five tons,-two extra guns were put on board a smaller vessel, and to work the extra guns no extra men were considered necessary-the complement of one hundred and thirty-five being considered sufficient. Sir Jos. Yorke had the merit of sending his improved vessels to sca-the improvement consisting in diminishing a vessel's capacity to carry, and at the same time increasing her armament. Let us take Mr. James' testimony: 'Scarcely were the twenty thirty-pounder carronades, and two long nines brought on board, than two of the carronades were sent on shore again, as having no proper ports fitted Without making the unpleasant avowal, that government upon this occasion, had reduced to receive them already the remaining twenty the vessel he commanded from a king's cruiser to guns were too close together, to render the a merchant-ship, Captain Greene transmitted, quarters sufficiently roomy. With these, how-through the consular channel, an animated reply,

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ever, the ships went to sea; and they were soon found neither to sail well nor to work well. The utility of their stern chase ports, may be judged of when it is stated, that, owing to the narrowness of the ships at the stern, there was no room to work the tiller while the guns were pointed through the ports."

Of this last discreditable oversight and its attendant consequences, we shall have to give hereafter a practical illustration. Fortunately for the credit of the Brtiish navy, and for the

and be hove down.

When the ship was keel-out, the two American ships arrived in the port. The American Consul and the two American commanders now laid their heads together to contrive something which, without any personal risk to any one of the three, should contribute to the renown of their common country. What so likely as a challenge to Capt. Greene? It could not be accepted; and then the refusal would be as good as a victory to Captain Lawrence. Accordingly, a challenge for the Hornet to meet the Bonne-Citoyenne was offered by Captain Lawrence, through the American Consul, to the British consul, Mr. Frederick Landeman; Commodore Bainbridge pledging his honour to be out of the way, or not to interfere.

his

refusing a meeting "upon terms so manifestly advantageous as those proposed by Commodore Bainbridge." Indeed, it would appear as if the commodore had purposely inserted the words, or not interfering," lest Captain Greene, contrary to his expectation, should accept the challenge. For, had the two ships met by agreement, and engaged, the Constitution looked on without interfering, and the British ship been the conqueror, the pledge of honor, on the part of both Ameri can commanders, would have been fulfilled; and can any one for a moment imagine, that Commodore Bainbridge would have seen the Bonne-Citoyenne carry off a United States' ship of war, without attempting her rescue? It was more than

Before entering on the subject of the naval operations on the lakes, we shall proceed to give the American account of the havoc committed on British commerce, through the instrumentality of their cruisers, from the declaration of war to the end of the year 1812. It will be amusing, as the anxiety of the Americans to magnify every little coasting vessel, captured among the West India islands, into a sloop of war or armed vessel, will be thus shown.

American list of captures made.

According to the American account, from the date of the declaration of war, 18th June, to the end of the year, three hundred and five prizes were taken by their privateers.

It appears that of this number, sixty-eight vessels mounted seven hundred and sixtythree guns, (nearly eleven guns each,) and that in specie alone, one million eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars was secured, in

his head was worth. Where was the guarantee against re-capture, which always accompanies a serious proposal of this sort, when a stronger force, belonging to either party, is to preserve a temporary neutrality? The bait, therefore, did not take: the specie remained safe; and the American officers were obliged to content themselves with all the benefit they could reap from making a boast of the circumstance. This they did; and, to the present hour, the refusal of the Bonne-Citoyenne to meet the Hornet, stands recorded in the American naval archives, as a proof of the former's dread, although the "superior in force," of engaging the latter. The two ships, as has just been seen, were equal in guns, and not very unequal in crews; the Hornet having 171 men and two boys, the Bonne-Citoyenne, including 21 supernumeraries, 141 men and nine boys. But this inferiority was in a great degree compensated, by the pains which Captain Greene had taken to teach his men the use of their guns.

After the Constitution had sailed for Boston,

the Hornet continued blockading the Bonne-Cito yenne and her dollars, until the arrival, on the 24th of January, of the British 74-gun ship Montagu, Captain Manley Hall Dixon, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Manley Dixon. The American sloop, on being chased, ran for the harbor; but night coming on, the Hornet wore, and, by standing to the southward, dexterously evaded her pursuer. Escorted by the Montagu, the BonneCitoyenne, with her valuable cargo on board, put to sea on the 26th of January; and on the 22nd of February, in latitude 5° 20' south, longitude 40 west, the rear-admiral left Captain Greene, to pursue his voyage alone. Sometime in the month of April, having stopped at Madeira by the way, the Bonne-Citoyenne arrived in safety at Portsmouth.

Could any scheme have been more cunningly devised for acquiring credit at a cheap rate ?-ED.

twenty-one vessels, independent of the value of the crafts and cargoes.

In looking over this long list, we find so many vessels of from four to eight hundred tons each, and described as laden with the most valuable cargoes, that we conceive we are very much under the mark in valuing the three hundred and five prizes, at ten thousand dollars each. This valuation, with the amount of specie and the value of the seven hundred and sixty-three guns, would thus give, even at our low estimate, a loss of over five millions of dollars. To those who may remember the facts as they occurred, or who are otherwise conversant with our mercantile marine, the absurdity of this statement speaks for itself. It may, however, be as well to explain, for the benefit of the uninitiated, that the richest of these prizes, those represented as carrying the largest number, and the heaviest guns, were West Indiamen, principally homeward bound, and that, with some few exceptions, this class of vessels could not carry on deck anything heavier than a four or six-pounder, and of guns even of this calibre, few could bear more than four, six, or eight. In the American account, the guns are nearly all put down as twelve or fourteen-pounders, some even as eighteen-pounders, which makes the exaggeration still more apparent. It was a common practice for these vessels to mount four or six guns, and to have a number of what were called "Quakers," that is wooden guns, and, no doubt, our Yankee brethren have, in their version, reckoned each one of these 'Quakers" as a bona fide long twelve.

Not the least injury done was the depriving Great Britain of the services of so many sailors, for, according to this list, forty-five thousand seamen were captured during the first six months of the war.

A brief notice of a few of the most remarkable of the captures, as chronicled in the American papers, will be amusing:

Louisa Ann, laden with molasses, captured by a boat from the Benjamin Franklin, privateer, with seven men, under the guns (and we presume, also under the fire,) of a battery of twelve eighteen-pounders.

Ship Grenada, seven hundred tons burthen, eleven guns and thirty men, with schooner Shaddock, also armed, (with a complement, it may be presumed, of at least twelve men,)

both captured at the same time, by the Young not much cause for wonder that the commerEagle, of New York, one gun and forty-two cial energies of Great Britain were paralyzed.

men.

Five millions of dollars abstracted in five months. We only wonder that a national bankruptcy did not ensue.

Before closing this history we trust we shall be able to make it apparent, on which nation the greater injury was wrought, and that, during the years 1813 and '14, while English ves

Ship Hassan, fourteen guns and twenty men, captured by the Tom Jones, three guns. Ship Osborne, ten guns, long eighteenpounders, twenty-six men, five hundred tons, captured by the Teazer, two guns, and not thirty men. Brig Amelia, captured by the Mary Ann, sels were in every sea, and while her flag one gun. waved triumphantly everywhere, the American Marine, whether naval or commercial, was as effectually swept from the ocean, as if the besom of destruction had passed over it.

These are some of the more prominent exaggerations, but the list is filled with such, and, unfortunately for their credit, the cord has been too tightly drawn by these veracious chroniclers, and the arrow has, consequently, over-shot the mark.

Before closing the chapter a few short exAmerican President's tracts from Mr. Madison's Message, Nov. 4. speech will throw some additional light on the motives which prompted the American Government to prefer a war with England to one with France, even supposing that equal causes of complaint had existed against both those nations. We give one very significant paragraph towards the end of the message:

"The receipts into the Treasury, during the year ending on the 30th Sept. last, have exceeded sixteen millions and a half of dollars, which have been sufficient to defray all the demands on the Treasury to that day, including a necessary reimbursement of near three millions of the principal of the public debt. In these receipts are included a loan of near eight million eight hundred and fifty thousand

In the case of the Hassan, for instance, who ever heard of a vessel carrying fourteen twelve-pounders intended to be used, and a complement of only twenty men! It would, however, be a waste of time to adduce further instances of the means resorted to, throughout the States, to blind the eyes of the public, and, under the smoke of the seven hundred and sixty-three guns, to conceal the real ruin that was fast approaching. A few individuals, like drawers of prizes in a lottery, were fortunate enough to realise large fortunes by a series of lucky captures at the very commencement of the war; but very soon these prizes were exhausted, as we find by the 1st of December the lamentation that "it has not been our good fortune, latterly, to record the cap-dollars received on account of the loans authorture of many prizes. This has not arisen from want of activity in our many privateers, but from the scarcity of the enemy's vessels. Several have cruised ten thousand miles without seeing an Englishman. Whether the British Government is unable to furnish the needful convoys, or whether the commercial mind of the nation is panic-struck by the hardy exploits of our tars, and will not venture forth, time will determine."

We are not at all astonished at the commercial panic which at that time pervaded the nation-the thought, that half a dozen frigates, and as many brigs and sloops of war aided by privateers, (some only open boats, and others mounting only one gun,) had in four months effected what the united navies of France and Spain had failed to do, must have been indeed a humiliating one to the Briton, and there is

ized by the acts of the last session. The whole sum actually obtained on loan amounting to eleven milloins of dollars, the residue of which being receivable subsequent to the 20th Sept., will, together with the current revenue, enable us to defray all the expenses of this year."

Here we have, at once, a very obvious reason for the choice made by the American Government. We do not imagine that it was ever seriously contemplated that any prizes, taken could be an equivalent to the people, generally, for the certain drain on their resources which a war must inevitably entail, a list however of three hundred and odd prizes, with a certain amount of national glory acquired, backed, too, by nearly two millions of dollars in specie looked well on paper, and would not only furnish the Government with a satisfactory an

swer to any outcry that might arise relative to the Indians to act as their allies, and that it increase of taxation, but would also render was only on finding, that the memories of inMr. Madison's re-election to the Presidential juries perpetrated and wrongs inflicted by the chair pretty certain. Americans, were too fresh in the recollection of the Indians and rankled too deeply for the wound to be easily forgotton, that the Americans began to inveigh against the British, for their deviation from the rules of "civilized warfare."

It is amusing to note how lightly Mr. Madison touches on the military events that had taken place in the west. The single sentence: "The expedition, nevertheless, terminated unfortunately," is deemed sufficient, and by way of accounting, we suppose, for the unfortunate failure, a long paragraph is introduced, relative to the British availing themselves of the aid of their Indian allies. We cannot forbear quoting the passage, as it will shew to what the chief magistrate of a powerful nation can stoop to serve a selfish end :-"A distinguished feature in the operations which preceded and followed this adverse event, is the use made by the enemy of the merciless savages under their influence. Whilst the benevolent feeling of the United States invariably recommended peace, and promoted civili zation amongst that wretched portion of the human race, and was making exertions to dissuade them from taking either side in the war, the enemy has not scrupled to call to his aid their ruthless ferocity, armed with the instruments of carnage and torture, which are known to spare neither age nor sex. In this outrage against the laws of honorable war, and against the feelings sacred to humanity, the British commanders cannot resort to the plea of retaliation, for it is committed in the face of our example. They cannot mitigate it, by calling it a self-defence against men in arms, for it embraces the most shocking butcheries of defenceless families: nor can it be pretended that they are not answerable for the atrocities perpetrated, since the savages are employed with the knowledge, and even with menaces, that their fury could not be controlled. Such is the spectacle which the deputed authorities of a nation, boasting its religion and morality, have not been restrained from presenting to an enlightened age."

This reads well, and no doubt impressed the American mind with a very sufficient and wholesome indignation against a people who, if they did not themselves perpetrate atrocities, could at least countenance and encourage them in their allies. But what are the facts of the case :-That it was notorious that the Americans exhausted every possible means to induce

Besides, we fearlessly challenge Americans to adduce the flagrant instances "of butcheries against defenceless families," mentioned in the presidential address.

The speech furnishes, also, another very convincing proof, that, in spite of all efforts, the war had not, even then, become as popular as generally represented by the American press:

"Among the incidents to the measures of the war, I am constrained to advert to the refusals of the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut, to furnish the required detachments of militia towards the defence of the maritime frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and unfortunate exposition of the provision of the constitution relating to the militia.

"It is obvious, that if the authority of the United States to call into service and command the militia for the public defence, can be thus frustrated, even in a case of declared war, and, of course, under apprehensions of invasion preceding war, they are not one nation for the purpose most of all requiring it, and that the public safety may have no other resources than those large and permanent military establishments which are forbidden by the principles of our free government, and against the necessity of which the militia were meant to be a constitutional bulwark."

It is apparent from the tenor of this, that fears were entertained, even after the publication of the list of three hundred and five prizes, nearly eight hundred guns, and a large amount of specie, with any quantity of national glory added, that the Northerners might be found too ready to weigh the real value of these advantages against the certain disbursements of dollars and cents.

In short, there were fears that the Northerners could not be easily blinded as to the certain ruin which awaited them commercially.

CHAPTER VI.

CONTENTS.

return to the Niagara frontier, leaving all the force he could spare at Detroit, under General General Brock returns to York.-Complimentary and congratulatory letters received by Proctor, and on his way thither, while on his General Brock; Colonel Baynes' opinion of Voyage across Lake Erie, in the schooner General Hull.-General situation of affairs; Chippewa, he received the first intelligence the effects of the armistice upon them.-The of the armistice, which Sir George Prevost armistice, and the subsequent policy pursued. -Arrival of Indians, as a reinforcement, at Detroit.-Capture of the "Detroit" and Caledonia" by the Americans.-Escape of Gen. Brock. Expedition against Fort Wayne; abandonment of enterprise.-Despatch of Sir George Prevost to Sir Isaac Brock.

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NOTE. Such was General Brock's anxiety to return to the Niagara frontier, that, though unwillingly, he was obliged to leave some affairs of importance unsettled, as the following shows:From Lieut. Col. Nichol, Quartermaster-General

of Militia, to Major-General Brock.

* I have just been informed by Colonel Proctor that he intends sending an express to-morrow to Fort George, which gives me an opportunity to forward a few printed copies of your proclamation, and to inform you that in order to carry it into effect, it has been found absolutely necessary to organize the civil government. Under existing circumstances, I have advised Colonel Proctor to assume the administration until your pleasure is known, to which he has agreed, and the necessary arrangements consequent thereto have been adopted and promulgated. In Judge Woodward, who has been appointed secretary pro tem, he will find an able coadjutor; and as your object un loubtedly was to tranquillize the public mind, and to give the inhabitants a proof of the moderation and benevolence of His Majesty's Government, as well as to ensure the due administration of the laws, I do not think a more judicious choice could have been made. In all the discus

and General Dearborn, the American commander, had concluded. This intelligence occasioned the deepest regret to General Brock, as his foresight enabled him at once to perceive that the plans, which he had been maturing for an attack on Sackett's Harbor, must now necessarily be abandoned. His mortification must have been excessive at finding that the fruits of his successes in the west, which he was now prepared to gather, would be thus, in all probability, lost.

Without joining in the outery raised against Sir George Prevost, this armistice deserves serious consideration, as its operations tended

sions which took place on this subject, Colonel Proctor did me the honour to consult me; and I have no hesitation in saying, that I urged him to the step he has taken, of which I hope you will, as it is only temporary, approve. It has not been in my power as yet to send a statement of all that we have captured, as the property is 80 scattered, but I hope to finish this week. We got upwards of £1,200 in money, and have sent down a hundred packs worth, I suppose, £1,500 more. I have reason to think the captured property will not be much under £40,000.

We have still 350 prisoners to ship off, but I hope to get rid of them in a few days. Public confidence seems to be partially restored; business is again going on, and I hope that the country will become perfectly quiet.

It is impossible for me to say when I shall get done here. I hope, however, it will not be long. I regret that we are not able to send you complete returns of everything; but the captured property is in so many different places, and so scattered, that it cannot be done.

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