336 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 



and defeated solely from tlie refusal of our admiral on tlie American 

 Station to concur in it. The Americans gave out that the proposition 

 came from Sir George, which I believe, because otherwise he would 

 have met it at once by a direct negative that would have ended all 

 discussion on the subject. In January, 1814, whilst the Legislature 

 was sitting at Quebec, Sir George made a trip to Montreal, from no 

 military motive that has ever been discovered or assigned, during 

 which the then Assembly were active in preparing mischief. That 

 Session was a stormy one, and ending in March, the Head-Quarters 

 were retransferred to Montreal. * * * * 



Soon after the navigation opened upon Lake Champlain, Capt. Pring, 

 in the naval command there, sailed from Isle aux Noix with our 

 flotilla, then superior to that of the enemy, which had wintered in 

 Otter Creek, where they had a ship-yard employed in constructing 

 ' a force intended to surpass ours. Capt. Pring, in consequence, applied 

 to Sir George for some troops to accompany him, with a viQw of 

 attempting to destroy this establishment and the vessels in that creek, 

 whether afloat or upon the stocks, which, next to Sackett's Harbour, 

 was an object worth a trial at some risk. As usual, the application 

 was refused. When Capt. Pring returned from his cruise up that 

 creek, he reported to Sir George what might have been done by a 

 joint attack, and then he was ofiered assistance, but the Captain 

 replied that it was then too late, as the enemy had taken alarm and 

 prepared accordingly. Sir George had the extraordinary fatality of 

 either never attempting an active operation, or of thinking of it only 

 when the time for practical execution was past." 



Here is a passage which, for style, may remind us of I^linglake or 

 Sir William Napier; the incidents referred to will also probably 

 interest us. ''As the season for action advanced," Veritas says, "to 

 the astonishment of everyone, there was formed at Chambly what is 

 called a Camp of Instruction, comprising the greater part of the force 

 above enumerated, and from which might and ought to have been 

 detached a force for the attack of Sackett's Harbour, or for the rein- 

 forcement of the Niagara frontier, seriously threatened as it then was 

 (1814) with invasion, in the opinion of every person who had eyes to 

 see or ears to hear. Had the first-mentioned object been attained) 

 the enemy would not have ventured to cross into Upper Canada ; or 

 if Sir George was obstinately bent on letting Sackett's Harbour alone, 

 the reinforcement of the Niagara frontier became the more imperiously 



