endered to General Brock, Governor of Upper Canada, at
Detroit on August 16, 1812]

BY ORDERS IN COUNCIL

Great Britain declared the whole French coast blockaded from Brest to
the Elbe, just as in 1915 the same power declared the whole North Sea
coast to be blockaded. By Decrees France declared the whole British
Islands to be in a state of blockade, exactly as Germany recently
declared those coasts to be a "naval zone." The consequence was that the
French captured 600 American merchantmen in the next nine years, and the
British took 900.

In this long controversy the French were the wiliest, the British were
the most arrogant. The United States would have been justified in war
against either of these powers, on the basis of their disregard of our
right to keep up neutral trade with both belligerents.

[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE

In this battle, which took place on July 25, 1814, and lasted from
sunset to midnight, the Americans under General Jacob Brown were left in
possession of the field, but were unable to carry away the heavy
artillery which they had captured]

At that time the United States found it hard to provide a remedy. The
most obvious method was to refuse to trade with either of the nations.
Accordingly an Embargo was laid by Congress in 1807, by which no cargoes
of any kind were allowed to leave American ports, bound to a foreign
destination. The embargo very nearly brought England to terms; but the
United States had not patience to wait for its results. The shipping
trade was paralyzed, and the farmers and planters could not export their
surplus. In view of these losses, Congress after fourteen months'
experience repealed the embargo.

CAUSES OF THE WAR

Since neither France nor Great Britain would accept the opportunity to
make a friend of the United States, the captures went on; and England
added the impressment of American seamen from American merchant vessels.
The idea that a subject of the British Empire could change his
allegiance and become the citizen of another nation seemed to England a
dangerous novelty. Still, if the great sea-power had been willing to pay
a little more wages to her men-of-warsmen, she could have filled her
ships by enlistment. If she had been content to "press" men from her own
merchant ships, she would not have aroused the antipathy of the
Americans. To save a few hundred thousand pounds and to assert a right
to claim Englishmen who had become Ame