England was at peace with all Europe. Her conquering armies and fleets would be idle for an indefinite period; yet, it would be premature to disband the former or to dismantle the latter. Naturally, attention turned to the favorable policy of employing these vast and ready resources for the chastisement and humiliation of her American enemies, as a fit closing of the war and punishment for their rebellious defiance. Under orders, the troops in France and Spain were marched to Bordeaux and placed in a camp of concentration, from which they were debarked in fleets down the river Garonne, and across the Atlantic to their destinations in America. An English officer with these troops expressed the sentiment of the soldiers and seamen, and of the average citizen of England at this time, in this language: "It was the general opinion that a large proportion of the Peninsular army would be transported to the other side of the Atlantic, that the war would there be carried on with vigor, and that no terms of accommodation would be listened to, except such as a British general should dictate in the Republican Senate." Overtures for the negotiation-of a treaty of peace had been interchanged between the two nations at war as early as January. By April the American Commissioners were in Europe, though the arrival of the English Commissioners at Ghent for final deliberations was delayed until August. Meanwhile, several thousands of these Peninsular troops were transported to reinforce the army in Canada. On the sixteenth of August a small fleet of British vessels in Chesapeake Bay was reinforced by thirty sail under the command of Admirals Cochrane and Malcombe, one half of which were ships of war. A large part of this flotilla moved up the Potomac and disembarked about six thousand men, under command of General Ross. The battle of Bladensburg was fought on the twenty-fourth, followed immediately by the capture of Washington and the burning of the Government buildings there. A few days after, the combined naval and military British forces were defeated in an attack on Baltimore, General Ross, commander-in-chief, being among the slain. About the same date, Commodore McDonough won a great and crushing victory over the English fleet on Lake Champlain, while the British army of fourteen thousand men, under Sir George Prevost, was signally defeated by the Americans, less than seven thousand in number, at Plattsburg, on the border of New York.