ch were
already near the western {320} Canadian frontier when the
governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, a military man, heard
the news of the actual declaration of hostilities.

With the causes of the War of 1812 the Canadian people had nothing
whatever to do; it was quite sufficient for them to know that it was
their duty to assist England with all their might and submit to any
sacrifices which the fortunes of war might necessarily bring to a
country which became the principal scene of conflict. Ontario, then
Upper Canada, with a population of about eighty thousand souls, was the
only province that really suffered from the war. From the beginning to
the end its soil was the scene of the principal battles, and a great
amount of valuable property destroyed by the invading forces. "On to
Canada" had been the cry of the war party in the United States for
years; and there was a general feeling that the upper province could be
easily taken and held until the close of the struggle, when it could be
used as a lever to bring England to satisfactory terms or else be
united to the Federal Union. The result of the war showed, however,
that the people of the United States had entirely mistaken the spirit
of Canadians, and that the small population scattered over a large
region--not more than four hundred thousand souls from Sydney to
Sandwich--was animated by a stern determination to remain faithful to
England.

No doubt the American Government had been led to believe from the
utterances of Willcocks in the _Guardian_, as the representative of the
discontented element in Upper Canada, that they would find not {321}
only sympathy but probably some active co-operation in the western
country as soon as the armies of the Republic appeared on Canadian soil
and won, as they confidently expected, an easy victory over the small
force which could be brought to check invasion and defend the province.
General Hull's proclamation, when he crossed the Detroit River at the
commencement of hostilities, was so much evidence of the belief that
was entertained in the United States with regard to the fealty of the
Canadians. Willcocks proved himself a disloyal man, for he eventually
joined the American forces and fell fighting against the country which
he and a very small disaffected class would willingly have handed to a
foreign invader. The forces at the disposal of the Canadian
authorities certainly appeared to be inadequate for