whom were French; the population of Upper Canada was 75,000; the
population of the United States was upwards of 8,000,000: so that the
population of the _two Canadas_ was to that of the United States as one
to twenty-seven; and the population of _Upper Canada_ was to that of the
United States as one to one hundred and six.

Yet the Canadas, with a frontier of more than 1,000 miles, and aided by
a few regiments of regular soldiers, sent as a mere guard for the
principal cities, from Halifax to Amherstburg, resisted the whole
military power of the United States for two years, at the end of which
not an inch of Canadian ground was in possession of the invaders; and
within six months after England had given freedom and peace to
Europe--chaining its Tyrant to the island rock of Elba, sweeping with
its fleet the coasts of the United States, and sending 16,000 veteran
soldiers to aid the struggling Canadas--the boasting Madison and his
Government sued for peace, without even mentioning the original pretexts
of war, which Great Britain generously granted.

It does not come within our purpose to write a history of this war; we
present only such phases and events of it as will illustrate the
Loyalist spirit and courage of the Canadians, French as well as English,
and even true Americans; for the American settlers in Canada were, with
few exceptions, as loyal subjects and as bold defenders of their adopted
country as the U.E. Loyalists themselves; and even the most virtuous and
intelligent part of the citizens of the United States protested against
the alliance of the Democratic rulers at Washington with the tyrant and
scourge of Europe.

We shall notice, in the first place, the alleged and real causes of the
war; secondly, the preparations for it made by the Governments and
Legislatures of the two Canadas; thirdly, the invasions of each
province, each year, separately, and the battles fought. There were no
less than eleven invasions of the Canadas by the American armies during
the three years of the war, besides naval engagements, and various
incursions of marauding and plundering parties.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

ALLEGED AND REAL CAUSES OF THE WAR.

From the first--from the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the
United States in 1783--there was a large party in the United States
bitterly and actively hostile to England and its colonies; that party
had persecuted and driven the Loyalists from the United States, and