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to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts upon the coast as might be found assailable.

This general accusation was rebutted by Mr. Monroe, in his answer to this letter.

The secretary declared it to have been the resolution of government, from the very commencement of the war, to wage it in a manner most consonant to the principles of humanity, and to those friendly relations which it was desirable to preserve between the two nations, after the restoration of peace. This resolution had never been deviated from, although it was perceived, with the deepest regret, that a spirit so just and humane was neither cherished nor acted upon by the British government.

Without dwelling on the deplorable cruelties committed by the savages in the British ranks, and in British

pay, on American prisoners at the river Raisin, which to this day have never been disavowed or atoned, I refer, continued the secretary, as more immediately connected with the subject of your letter, to the wanton desolation that was committed at Havre-de-Grace, and at Georgetown, early in the spring of 1813. These villages were burnt and ravaged by the naval forces of Great Britain, to the ruin of their unarmed inhabitants, who saw with astonishment that they derived no protection to their property from the laws of war. During the same season, scenes of invasion and pillage, carried on under the same authority, were witnessed all along the waters of the Chesapeake, to an extent inflicting the most serious private distress, and under circumstances that justified the suspicion, that revenge and cupidity, rather than the manly motives that should dictate the hostility of a high-minded foe, led to their perpetration.

Although these acts of desolation invited, if they did not impose on the government, the necessity of retaliation, yet in no instance has it been authorised*. The burning of the vil. lage of Newark, in Upper Canada, was posterior to the early outrages above enumerated. The village of Newark adjoined Fort George, and its destruction was justified by the officer who . ordered it, on the ground that it became necessary in the mili

* We have always been of opinion, that our government was highly reprehensible, if not in the failure to adopt retaliatory measures, at least to make a solemn appeal to the British government and to the world, on the subject of these devastations. The outrages were not committed in the heat of the moment, or by an inferior officer, but by parties which were generally led by an admiral, and apparently in a systematic manner.

We cannot bring ourselves to believe, that if a decided stand had been taken, this abominable system of outrage would have continued to desolate the shores of the Chesapeake to the end of the war.

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tary operations there. The act, however, was disavowed by the government. The burning which took place at Long Point was unauthorised by the government, and the conduct of the officer subjected to the investigation of a military tribunal. For the burning at St. David's, committed by stragglers, the officer who commanded in that quarter was dismissed without trial, for not preventing it.

I am commanded by the president distinctly to state, continued the secretary, that it as little comports

with
any

orders which have been issued to the military and naval commanders of the United States, as it does with the established and known humanity of the American nation, to pursue a system which it appears you have adopted. This government owes it to itself, to the principles which it has ever held sacred, to disavow, as justly chargeable to it, any such wanton, cruel, and unjustifiable. warfare. Whatever unauthorised irregularity may have been committed by any of its troops, it would have been ready, acting on these principles of sacred and eternal obligation, to disavow, and as far as might be practicable, to repair.

But the government, it appears, was mistaken in attributing this general charge against the American troops in Upper Canada, to the destruction of the villages alluded to in the secretary's letter. The governor of Canada, in an address to the provincial parliament, on the 24th of January, 1815, asserted, “that, as a just retribution, the proud capitol at Washington, had experienced a similar fate to that inflicted by an American force on the seat of government in Upper Canada ;” and the chancellor of the exchequer, in a debate in the British parliament, on an address to the prince regent, in November, 1814, was still more explicit. The Americans at York, he asserted, not only burnt the house of the governor,

but also

every

house belonging to the meanest individual, even to a shell, and left the populace in the most wretched condition.”

Thus, in the great as in the little world, one wrong inevitably eads on the heels of another. The same cowardly spirit which dictated the orders for devastating the American coast, was apparent on this occasion, when, cowering under the reproaches of their compatriots for the stain they had cast on the British arms, the ministry were forced to shelter themselves under the most base and malignant untruths. But the reign of falsehood is always short. These ofhcial assertions produced an investigation of the subject by congress, which must cover with shame the authors of this slander.

From this investigation it appears, that nothing was destroy. ed by the American commander, excepting the barracks and

public storehouses. That several of the most valuable public buildings were destroyed by the explosion of a magazine, which the British set fire to as the Americans entered the place, and which proved fatal to general Pike, and to vast numbers of his brave followers. That notwithstanding this great provocation for burning the town, nothing of the kind took place ; a strong guard was set, with positive orders to prevent any plunder or depredation on the inhabitants; and when leaving the place, the commander of the American troops received a letter from judge Scott, chief justice of the superior court, in which he expressed his thanks for the humane treatment the inhabitants bad experienced from his troops, and for the commander's particular attention to the safety of their persons and property. The destruction of public edifices for civil uses was not only unauthorised, but positively forbidden by the American commanders. It has recently, however, appeared, that a public building, of little value, called the parliament-house (not the government-house), in which it is said that an American scalp was found, as a part of the decoration of the speaker's chair, had been burnt; whether it was so, and if it was, whether it was an accidental consequence of the confusion in which the explosion of the magazine involved the town, or the unauthorised act of some exasperated individual, has not been ascertained. The silence of the military and civil officers of the provincial government of Canada, seem to indicate that the transaction was not deemed, when it occurred, a cause,

either for retaliation or reproach.

The burning of Newark and of the Indian towns on the river Thames, commonly called the Moravian towns, are also adverted to in the report arising out of this investigation. The burning of Newark, it is stated, was vindicated by the American general, as necessary to his military operations; but as soon as the American government heard of it, instructions, dated the 6th of January, 1814, were given by the department of war, to major-general Wilkinson, to disavow the conduct of the officer who committed it, and to transmit to governor Prevost a copy of the order, under colour of which that officer had acted.” This disavowal was accordingly communicated, and on the 10th February, 1814, governor Prevost answered, " that it had been with great satisfaction he had received the assurance, that the perpetration of the burning of the town of Newark, was both unauthorised by the American government, and abhorrent to every American feeling ; that if any outrages had ensued the wanton and unjustifiable destruction of Newark, passing the bounds of just retaliation, they were to be at

tributed to the influence of irritated passions, on the part of the unfortunate sufferers by that event, which, in a state of active warfare, it had not been possible altogether to restrain ; and that it was as little congenial to the disposition of his majesty's government, as it was to that of the government of the United States, deliberately to adopt any plan of policy, which had for its object the devastation of private property.

But the disavowal of the American government was not the only expiation of the unauthorised offence committed by its officer; for the British government undertook itself to redress, the wrong. A few days after the burning of Newark, the British and Indian troops crossed the Niagara for this purpose ; they surprised and seized Fort Niagara ; they burnt the vil. lages of Lewistown, Manchester, Tuscarora, Buffalo, and Black Rock, desolating the whole of the Niagara frontier, and dispersing the inhabitants in the extremity of the winter. Sir George Prevost himself appears to have been satisfied with the vengeance that had been inflicted ; and, in his proclamation of the 12th of January, 1814, he expressly declared, that for the burning of Newark, “ the opportunity of punishment had occurred; that a full measure of retaliation had taken place, l

and that it was not his intention to pursue further a system of warfare, so revolting to his own feelings, and so little congenial to the British character, unless the future measures of the enemy should compel him again to resort to it." With his answer to major-general Wilkinson, which has been already noticed, he transmitted a copy of the proclamation, " as expressive of the determination as to his future line of conduct," and added, " that he was happy to learn, that there was no probability, that any measures, on the part of the American

government,

would oblige him to depart from it."

The places usually called the Moravian towns, were mere collections of Indian huts and cabins, on the river Le Trench or Thames, not probably worth, in the whole, one thousand

ollars. The Indians who inhabit them, among whom were some notoriously hostile to the United States, had made incursions the most cruel into their territory. When, therefore, the American army under general Harrison' invaded Canada of

1813, the huts and cabins of the hostile Indians were destroyed. But this species of warfare has been invariably pursued by every nation engaged in war with the Indians of the American continent.

However it may be regretted on the score of humanity, it appears to be the necessary means of averting the still greater calamities of savage hostility; and it is believed, that the occurrence would never

on the

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have been made the subject of a charge against the American troops, if the fact had not been misrepresented or misunderstood. Many people at home, and most people abroad, have been led to suppose, that the Moravian towns were the peaceable settlements of a religious sect of Christians, and not the abode of a hostile tribe of savages.

a But while excuses are thus framed with a view of palliating the devastation committed by the British army, not one attempt is made to palliate or excuse the navy for its plunder of the wealthy town of Alexandria, or for the system of pitiful pilfering which was carried on for two summers in the Chesapeake. Is the plunder and devastation of the property of private individuals, then, less heinous than the destruction of public edifices ? or is the world so accustomed to the system of wholesale privateering, authorised by the laws of naval warfare, as to pass over without comment, when committed by naval officers, not only the sack of a large town, but the desolation of whole districts?

The general orders of Brown, on crossing the Niagara, form a pleasing contrast to the devastating threat of Cochrane. “ Upon entering, Canada,” says he," the laws of war* will govern : men found in arms, or otherwise engaged in the service of the enemy, will be treated as enemies; those behaving peaceably, and following their private occupations, will be treated as friends. Private property will in all cases be held sacred; public property, wherever found, will be seized and disposed of by the commanding general. Any plunderer shall be punished with death, who shall be found violating this order."

." War is at best a savage thing, and wades through a sea of violence and injustice ; yet even war itself has its laws, which men of honour will not depart from.”--Plutarch, life of Camillus. To the same purport, sings one of the favourite poets of the present day:

Fair as the earliest beam of eastern light,

When first by the bewildered pilgrim spied,
It smiles upon the dreary brow of night,

And silvers o'er the torrent's foaming tide,

And lights the fearful path on mountain side ;
Fair as that beam, although the fairest far,

Giving to horror grace, to danger pride,
Shine martial Faith, and Courtesy's bright star,
Through all the wreckful storms that cloud the brow of War.

Lady of the Lake, Canto V.