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over it, and none of the militia organised ; in 

 the following year, when strengthened by every 

 man that could be spared from the lower pro^ 

 vince and the dependent governments, the cam- 

 paign was made with 7000 men, against armies, 

 or rather collections, of much superior num- 

 bers ; and it was not until the middle of 1814 

 that sufficient reinforcements arrived to place 

 it in a state of security. On Lake Ontario the 

 preponderance of naval strength was latterly 

 with the English, but in the early part of the 

 war it was most decidedly on the enemy's 

 side; and to the co-operation of which he was 

 indebted for the advantage he obtained in 

 the few attacks that he made with success. 

 True it is, that he never gained any victory 

 that was eminently useful to him, even at the 

 time when the number of regular troops in the 

 province was at the lowest, for in nearly every 

 one of his attempts his plans were developed 

 and his armies overthrown by the bravery of 

 mere handfuls of well disciplined soldiers; but 

 the recurrence of a similar chain of fortunate 

 events is not to be presumed upon. In the 

 outset of the war a few hundreds of English 

 troops found it an easy task to bear away the 

 palm of victory from double, treble, and even 

 quadruple their number of opponents; but to- 

 wards its termination a material difference was 

 observable ; numerous disasters had taught the 



