132 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



party would succeed in obtaining a majority in the House of Repre- 

 sentatives where the advocates of peace were sometimes unable to ob- 

 tain a hearing. He believed that the members of the Executive Govern- 

 ment were still sincerely averse to hostilities but added that, if they failed 

 to concur in a declaration of war, they would certainly lose the support of 

 a majority of the southern and western members of Congress and could 

 expect to gain none from the Federalists. 



"It is not in human nature, at least not in ordinary human nature, " 

 he said; " to be willing to give up power, even when the terms of holding 

 it cannot be reconciled to the dictates of conscience, and therefore the 

 administration, finding that the sole chance of keeping their seats is in 

 going to war with us, will probably side with the majority. They have 

 delayed the measure as long as they could, but are now endeavoring to 

 exasperate by dwelling upon the grievance of impressment, a grievance 

 which, it is well known, might be settled if they would give adequate 

 security that our seamen would not be received into their mercantile 

 and naval service, but while they have thousands of them employed in 

 either and take every measure to seduce them from their allegiance, 

 Great Britain cannot in justice to herself, cease to endeavor to recover 

 such of them as she can lay her hands on, altho' the practice unfoitunat- 

 ely leads to mistakes by which we occasionally may lay hold of American 

 citizens whom, however, we never fail to restore when the error is 

 ascertained. " 



He had been informed that some members of the Committee on For- 

 eign Relations were in favour of a declaration that when war was 

 once begun, it should not be terminated until the conquest of Canada 

 was accomplished and that the conquered territory should never be 

 restored. Yet he still hoped that the good sense of the Senate would 

 avert hostilities.* 



In a letter in cypher he informed Prévost that one Nathaniel Cogs- 

 well of Newburyport in Massachusetts, was then on his way to Quebec to 

 reveal to him the particulars of a plot for the promotion of an insurrec- 

 tion in Upper Canada, in which he had been employed under authority 

 from the government of the United States since 1806 and had engaged 

 one hundred subordinate agents. He said that his motive in making 

 this disclosure was a desire for revenge as he had been refused an appoint- 

 ment as a brigadier general in the American army.f 



A week later Foster wrote that an act declaring war had actually 

 been passed in the House of Representatives but there was a majority of 

 two against it in the Senate J 



*Fostcr to Prévost, June 2, 1812. 

 tFoster to Prévost in cypher, undated. 

 JFoster to Prévost, June 9, 1812. 



