PREFACE 



THE history of the naval events of the War of 

 1812 has been repeatedly presented both to the 

 American and the English reader. Historical writ 

 ers have treated it either in connection with a gen 

 eral account of the contest on land and sea, or as 

 forming a part of the complete record of the navies 

 of the two nations: A few monographs, which con 

 fine themselves strictly to the naval occurrences, have 

 also appeared. But none of these works can be re 

 garded as giving a satisfactorily full or impartial 

 account of the war some of them being of the 

 "popular" and loosely-constructed order, while oth 

 ers treat it from a purely partisan standpoint. No 

 single book can be quoted which would be accepted 

 by the modern reader as doing justice to both sides, 

 or, indeed, as telling the whole story. Any one spe 

 cially interested in the subject must read all, and 

 then it will seem almost a hopeless task to reconcile 

 the many and widely contradictory statements he 

 will meet with. 



There appear to be three works which, taken in 



(i) VOL. IX. i 



