o make favorable terms of
peace.

[Illustration: Courtesy, Harper's Magazine Copyright, Harper & Brothers

PERRY RECEIVING THE SURRENDER OF THE BRITISH COMMANDERS ABOARD THE
"LAWRENCE"

From the painting by W.J. Aylward]

For a hundred years experts have been trying to find out just why the
United States was so successful in the naval war. The British newspapers
of the day tried to prove that it was because they called a vessel a
frigate when it was really bigger and stronger than the British frigate.
That did not affect the captain of the _Guerriere_ when he accepted
battle with the _Constitution_: he evidently thought that he had size
and power enough to capture his adversary. The Americans appear to have
had heavier guns, better training in handling the guns, better
marksmanship, to have been quicker and smarter.

It was the privateers that were in the long run most effective. The
London Times complained toward the end of 1814 that "there are
privateers off this harbor which plunder every vessel coming in or going
out, notwithstanding we have three line of battle, six frigates, and
four sloops here." The Morning Chronicle complained that a great part of
the coast of Ireland had "been for above a month under the unresisted
dominion of a few petty 'fly-by-nights' from the blockaded ports of the
United States--a grievance equally intolerable and disgraceful." The
Annual Register thought it a mortifying reflection that, notwithstanding
a navy of a thousand ships, "it was not safe for a vessel to sail
without convoy from one part of the English or Irish Channel to
another."

[Illustration: From "Naval Actions of The War of 1812," by James Barnes.

Copyright 1896, by Harper & Brothers

THE NIAGARA BREAKS THE ENGLISH LINE

When Perry's flagship, the "Lawrence," was riddled by the enemy, he
transferred himself in a small boat to the "Niagara." This ship broke
the British line, and then the battle was won. From a painting by
Carlton T. Chapman]

In March, 1915, a British squadron captured the German frigate _Dresden_
in the neutral Chilean waters of the Island of Juan Fernandez. A similar
episode occurred in 1814, when the United States ship _Essex_ was
cornered and destroyed by two British vessels in the harbor of
Valparaiso. The American privateer _General Armstrong_ was also cut out
and destroyed by the British under the guns of the Portuguese fort at
Fayal in the Azores.

EFFECT ON THE AMERICANS

On the