The treaty was severely criticised and mercilessly ridiculed as a meaningless document. It might have been answered that the Federalists at least had no right to complain, since they had clamored only for peace, and the treaty brought peace. Better than this, it might have been answered that when a point has been practically settled by war, it is of little consequence whether it is conceded on paper; since every nation is likely to heed a lesson taught by force of arms, and equally likely, when interest dictates, to abrogate a treaty; and, whatever might be said of the campaigns on land, it could not be denied that American mariners had abundantly vin{348}dicated their right to an unmolested navigation of the high seas--a right which British cruisers have never since interfered with. There had been no exchange of prisoners during the war, though many had been paroled, and there were bitter complaints of the treatment received by Americans in British prisons. This was especially true of those confined at Dartmoor, the most unhealthful spot in the dreary highlands of Devonshire. These men were not only not released, but were not even informed that peace had been concluded, till three months after the treaty was signed. There seemed to be a special spite against them because they were mostly American sailors, who had audaciously and successfully disputed England's sovereignty of the seas. If it be a matter of pride, as an English poetess appears to think, for a nation to strew its dead over the face of the globe, * then Great Britain certainly won fresh laurels in this war; for her soldiers who fell in it found graves six thousand miles apart: in the depths of Lake Erie, about the great falls of Niagara, and along the Thames and St. Lawrence; in the Atlantic, both near the American coast and almost within sight of their own shores; in Long Island Sound, = ``` * Wave may not foam, nor wild wind sweep, ````Where rest not England's dead. `````--Mrs. Hemans=