It was not alone upon the continent of Europe that the dire effects of Napoleon’s sway were felt and regretted, but wherever the foot of civilisation had left its impress. Nor was it only the pulse of true liberty that beat quickly and faintly beneath the evil rule of his tyrant spirit, but commerce, by iniquitous decrees, lay groaning in chains, or eked out but a sorry existence. The intention of these ill-advised decrees was the destruction of the maritime and commercial might of Britain. Our Government sought to retaliate upon France the evils their imperial monarch had striven to inflict upon us, by barbarous enactments of a kindred character. Thus, between the two, the avenues of trade were all but hedged up—the channels of commercial intercourse dried up. America had hitherto grown rich upon the poverties which war had entailed upon the continental nations; and hence, when her merchants found their trade at an end, or, at all events, amounting to a thing of peril, her Government resented such decrees as a personal attack. Retaining an old grudge arising out of the nature of recent events, and, moreover, regarding Britain as the chief offender, having within herself alone the power to set at defiance the attempts of Napoleon, without adding a new evil to cure the old iniquity, America declared war against us, and her armies forthwith proceeded to take possession of Canada. To arrest the progress of the enemy in this quarter, the first battalion of the Royals was ordered from the West Indies to Canada. Although the forces engaged on either side were trifling in numbers when compared with the vast armaments which were then contending in Europe, still the contest was no less sanguinary and bitter, and equally developed the sterling qualities of our Royal Scots. Arrived in Canada in 1813, the battalion was present with credit at the successful attacks upon Sackett’s Harbour, Sodius, Niagara, Black Rock, and Buffalo; but it was not until 1814, that the preponderance of numbers on the side of the Americans rendering the contest more unequal, and when victory did not always smile on our arms—it was then we gather more striking evidence of the gallant demeanour of the Royals. At Longwood a superior force of Americans prevailed, and the battalion was reluctantly withdrawn, having suffered severely, principally in officers. At Chippewa 6000 Americans assailed a force of 1500 British, including 500 of the Royals. Although repulsed in the action which ensued, the General Order reports: “It was impossible for men to have done more, or to have sustained with greater courage the heavy and destructive fire with which the enemy, from his great superiority in numbers, was enabled to oppose them.” The Royals only yielded when upwards of 300 of their number had been disabled—sufficient proof of the fierceness of the conflict, and the desperate valour which sustained it. But a more deadly encounter—though happily a more successful one—took