d trackless forests, we
cannot deny to General Ross the praise which is his due, of
having planned and successfully accomplished an expedition which
none but a sagacious mind could have devised, and none but a
gallant spirit carried into execution. Among the many important
transactions which then occupied the public attention, the
campaign at Washington was, I believe, but little spoken of; and
even now, it is overwhelmed in the recollections of the
all-engrossing Waterloo; but the time will probably come, when he
who at the head of four thousand men penetrated upwards of sixty
miles into an enemy's country; overthrew an army more than double
his own in point of numbers; took possession of the capital of a
great nation, and having held it as long as it suited his own
purposes to hold it, returned again in triumph to his fleet, will
be ranked, as he deserves to be ranked, among the number of those
who have most successfully contributed to elevate Great Britain
to the height of military glory on which she now stands.

It has been said that the entire merit of this brilliant
expedition is due, not so much to the brave man who conducted it,
as to Sir George Cockburn, at whose suggestion it was undertaken.
To the great gallantry and high talents of Sir George Cockburn no
one who served within the compass of the Bay of Chesapeake will
refuse to bear testimony, nor is it improbable that in
attributing to him the original, design of laying Washington
itself under contribution, common report speaks truly. But with
whomsoever the idea first originated, to General Boss belongs the
undivided of having, carried it into effect. From Sir George
Oockburn, and indeed from the whole fleet, the army received
every assistance which it was in the power of the the fleet to
bestow; but had no Ross been at the head of the land forces, the
capital of the United States would have suffered no insult. I
have ventured to make these remarks, not with any design of
taking away, in the slightest degree, from the well-earned
reputation of the living; but merely as an act of justice towards
the memory of the gallant dead, whose services have hardly
received all the notice, either from the Government or the
country, which they deserved.

Of the degree of military sagacity exhibited on both sides,
during the progress of hostilities, it scarcely becomes me to
speak. Perhaps our leader delayed something too long in making,
up his mind as to the ul