1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 13 



anywhere else, but I would take the whole continent from them 

 and ask no favors. God has given us the power and the means: 

 we are to blame if we do not use them. " (1) 



The dispute respecting the ''right of search," which had 

 occupied diplomacy for some years, was eventually made the 

 pretext for war. Deserters from the British navy were in the 

 habit of joining American vessels; and, according to international 

 law at the time, the English had the right of stopping foreign 

 vessels on the high seas and looking for such men. This no doubt 

 at times was annoying and the ill-will existing in the United States 

 against England converted it unto a grievance of the first mag- 

 nitude. The history of these difficulties is a long and complicated 

 one and may be studied in many well-known works. 



It is due to the wisdom of the Duke of Kent, father of the 

 late Queen, that we were able in 1812 to provide the militia of 

 Lower Canada with a certain number of trained officers of their 

 own origin. As early as 1792, His Royal Highness had managed 

 to procure several commissions in the Imperial service for young 

 French Canadians of military tastes and these, after having gone 

 round the world with the British Army, were now recalled 

 to Canada in the hour of danger. Mention must also be made of 

 the non-commissioned officers and soldiers born in the Province, 

 and drilled in the regular regiments in which they had enlisted 

 who made themselves very useful as instructors to the militia. 

 If we take further into account the British officers then serving in 

 the country, it is clear that the rank and file of our forces did not 

 lack the means of becoming familiar with military drill and tactics. 

 On the contrary they had such means in abundance. The case 

 was altogether different with the Americans who were miserably 

 deficient in officers and instructors. Their troops therefore could 

 not be brought to a condition of efficiency, whereas on our side 

 every man soon became a real soldier. In the matter of equipment 

 all, on their side, at the outset was unpreparedness, while their 

 experience in the way of manufacturing what they required was 

 very limited. On this side conditions were different: the stores 

 of the British army supplied all our needs at a moment's notice. 

 After a few months of hostilities the Americans perceived that 

 they could not rush matters as they had expected; their operations 



(1) The Star, Montreal, 27th October, 1906. 



