during the summer of 1814.

During the summer about 16,000 British troops arrived at Quebec; but
only 4,000 were sent to Upper Canada, under the command of General
Kempt; and the Governor-General, Prevost, concentrated nearly the whole
of the remainder of the reinforcements in the Richelieu district, with a
view to a descent on the State of New York by way of Lake Champlain, at
Plattsburg. In order to do this, the co-operation of the flotilla on the
lake was considered necessary, and orders were given to put it in an
efficient condition; but the flotilla was defeated and its vessels
taken by the enemy; and the land forces, though they could have easily
taken Plattsburg, did nothing, and were ordered to retreat within the
British lines. The conduct of Sir George Prevost in this
affair--undertaken for his own ambition, and without any public
necessity--lost him all his military prestige; both officers and men
felt the disgrace of retreating before an inferior force of militia; the
valiant Colonel Murray and other officers protested against the retreat,
and some of them indignantly broke their swords, declaring that they
would never serve under him again. He was recalled to England, and under
charges by Commodore Sir James Yeo, was arraigned before a
court-martial, but died a week before the day appointed for his trial.
Though Sir George Prevost was unsuccessful as a military
commander--having disgracefully failed in the only two expeditions which
he planned and personally superintended--the one against Sackett's
Harbour and the other against Plattsburg--he was an excellent civil
governor for Lower Canada, and an amiable and upright man.

It is alleged, however, that the Duke of Wellington and other high
authorities approved of his conduct, and the Prince Regent showed marks
of kindness to his family after his death. His health, which was never
strong, suffered much, not only from mortification and mental anxiety in
regard to his approaching trial (which he demanded at the earliest
possible period), but by a winter's journey across the open country
between the St. Lawrence and St. John, on his way home, that he died on
the 5th of January, 1816, just one week before the court-martial
appointed to examine into his conduct was to have been convened.

Mr. Christie, who was an English member of the Legislative Assembly of
Lower Canada, and the author of an elaborate History of Canada, in six
volumes, beside his excellent "H