As if to counterbalance the effect of this success, another naval engagement occurred at sea, on the 14th of February, between the British sloop of war _Peacock_ and the American brig _Hornet_. The fight was long continued, bloody and destructive. The _Peacock_, after an hour and a half of hard fighting was in a sinking state. The effect of the enemy's fire was tremendous, but the men of the _Peacock_ behaved nobly. Mr. Humble, the boatswain, having had his hand shot away, went to the cockpit, underwent amputation at the wrist, and again voluntarily came upon deck to pipe the boarders. The _Peacock_ was now rapidly settling down, and a signal of distress was consequently hoisted. The signal was at once humanely answered. The firing ceased immediately, the American's boats were launched, and every effort praiseworthily made to save the sinking crew. All were not, however, saved. Three of the _Hornet's_ men and thirteen of the crew of the _Peacock_ went down in the latter vessel together. The _Hornet_ carried twenty guns, while the _Peacock_ had only eighteen, and the tonnage of the former exceeded, by seventy-four tons, that of the latter. The Americans now gathering up their strength, irritated by their repeated failures on the land, and disheartened, but yet not discouraged by their original weakness on the lakes, were about, in some degree, to be compensated more suitably for their inland losses than by the capture or rather by the negative kind of advantage of destroying at considerable cost and risk, frigates and sloops of war at sea, inferior in every respect, the bravery of the sailors and the skill of the officers excepted, to the huge and properly much esteemed American double-banked frigates and long-gunned brigs. The command of Lake Ontario had devolved on the Americans. New ships of considerable size, and well armed, under the superintendence of experienced naval officers, were built and launched day after day. Troops were being collected at every point for an attack, by sea and land, upon either York or Kingston. It was now exceedingly necessary that some activity of a similar kind should be displayed by the British. The forests abounded in the very best timber; there were able shipbuilders at Quebec; the Canadian naval commanders had distinguished themselves frequently; there was a secure dockyard at Kingston; and, indeed, there existed no reason whatever, for the absence of that industry on the Canadian side of the rivers and lakes, dividing the two countries, but one, and a more fatal one could not have been listened to. It was simply that the British had been hitherto able to repel the invader wherever he had effected a landing, and would be, under any circumstances, quite able, as they were willing, to repel him again. And there was an ignorance about Canada, on the part of both the heads of the naval and of the military departments in England, as disgraceful, as it was inexcusable. It was believed that there were