pper Canada. An
attack on Lower Canada, however, was successfully beaten back; and a
fresh advance of the British and Canadian forces in the heart of the
winter again recovered the Upper Province. The reverse gave fresh
strength to the party in the United States which had throughout been
opposed to the war, and whose opposition to it had been embittered by
the terrible distress brought about by the blockade and the ruin of
American commerce. Cries of secession began to be heard, and
Massachusetts took the bold step of appointing delegates to confer with
delegates from the other New England States "on the subject of their
grievances and common concerns."

[Sidenote: Peace in America.]

In 1814, however, the war was renewed with more vigour than ever; and
Upper Canada was again invaded. But the American army, after inflicting
a severe defeat on the British forces in the battle of Chippewa in July,
was itself defeated a few weeks after in an equally stubborn engagement,
and thrown back on its own frontier; while the fall of Napoleon enabled
the English Government to devote its whole strength to the struggle with
an enemy which it had ceased to despise. General Ross, with a force of
four thousand men, appeared in the Potomac, captured Washington, and
before evacuating the city burnt its public buildings to the ground. Few
more shameful acts are recorded in our history; and it was the more
shameful in that it was done under strict orders from the Government at
home. But the raid upon Washington was intended simply to strike terror
into the American people; and the real stress of the war was thrown on
two expeditions whose business was to penetrate into the States from the
north and from the south. Both proved utter failures. A force of nine
thousand Peninsular veterans which marched in September to the attack of
Plattsburg on Lake Champlain was forced to fall back by the defeat of
the English flotilla which accompanied it. A second force under General
Packenham appeared in December at the mouth of the Mississippi and
attacked New Orleans, but was repulsed by General Jackson with the loss
of half its numbers. Peace, however, had already been concluded. The
close of the French war, if it left untouched the grounds of the
struggle, made the United States sensible of the danger of pushing it
further; Britain herself was anxious for peace; and the warring claims,
both of England and America, were set aside in silence in the trea