The Battle of New Orleans 291 



known form of wilful misstatement, from the sup- 

 pression of the truth and the suggestion of the 

 false to the lie direct. To a man of his character 

 the temptation was irresistible; for when he came 

 to our naval war, he had to appear as the champion, 

 of the beaten side, and to explain away defeat in- 

 stead of chronicling victory. The contemporary 

 American writers were quite as boastful and un- 

 truthful. No honorable American should at this 

 day endorse their statements ; and similarly, no rep- 

 utable Englishman should permit his name to be 

 associated in any way with James' book without 

 explicitly disclaiming all share in, or sympathy with, 

 its scurrilous mendacity. 



Mr. Powell's efforts to controvert my statements 

 can be disposed of in short order. He first en- 

 deavors to prove that James was right about the 

 tonnage of tne ships ; but all that he does is to show 

 that his author gave for English frigates and sloops 

 the correct tonnage by English and French rules. 

 This I never for a moment disputed. What I said 

 was that the comparative tonnage of the various 

 pairs of combatants as given by James was all 

 wrong; and this Mr. Powell does not even discuss. 

 James applied one system correctly to the English 

 vessels ; but he applied quite another to the American 

 (especially on the lakes). Mr. Powell actually 

 quotes Admiral Chads as a witness, because he 



