THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 8 1 



In the western province the situation was even more desperate 

 than it was in the east. When the war broke out it was estimated that 

 the population of Upper Canada did not exceed 80,000. ' These were 

 grouped in small settlements along the frontier, and were exposed to 

 attack both by land and water. The principal centres were along 

 the northern banks of the St. Lawrence, at Kingston, around the 

 Bay of Quinte, at York (now Toronto), around the head of Lake 

 Ontario, and along the Niagara River, with a few settlements on 

 Lake Erie and the River Detroit. When we consider the sparseness 

 of the population, for it did not exceed that of the County of Went- 

 worth and the City of Hamilton combined, and the long frontier 

 they were called upon to defend, the outcome of the war is indeed 

 gratifying. Nor was the want of population the only drawback. The 

 means of communication between these widely separated settlements 

 was particularly bad, for the country had been settled less than thirty 

 years, and the roads in most cases were merely paths cut through the 

 forests. This rendered the transportation of troops and supplies a 

 long and arduous task. The rapid concentration of an army at a 

 given point is essential to the successful defence of any country. In 

 addition to these disadvantages the mother country was engaged in 

 war on the Continent, and could not furnish the necessary troops to 

 defend her colonies as she would have done had she been free from 

 European entanglements. 



The United States declared war against Great Britain on the 

 1 8th of June, 181 2, exactly three years before the decisive battle of 

 Waterloo. Some of the causes that led to the gradual estrangement 

 of the good-will of the Yo.ung Republic from the mother country, 

 and eventually led to the declaration of war, are to be found in the 

 series of events that occurred in Europe during the six preceding 

 years. Embittered by the memories of the terrible blow inflicted on 

 his navy at Trafalgar and the Nile^ Napoleon, when the Prussian 

 Monarchy had been humbled at Jena, turned fiercely upon Great 

 Britain, and attempted the destruction of her commerce by issuing 

 the famous " Berlin Decree." This decree was formally promulgated 

 on the 2ist of November, 1806, from Berlin, the Prussian Capital. 

 Although it did not extinguish British commerce, yet it inflicted 

 serious damage upon it, and caused heavy loss to many of her mer- 

 chants. The rigorous enforcement of this decree compelled the- 



