t hand when
Canada would be annexed to the federal republic. Some attempts were even
made to create discontent among the French Canadians, but no success
appears to have followed these efforts in a country where the bishop,
priests and leading men of the rural communities perfectly appreciated
the value of British connection.

The statesmen of the United States, who were responsible for the war,
looked on the provinces as so many weak communities which could be
easily invaded and conquered by the republican armies. Upper Canada,
with its long and exposed frontier and its small and scattered
population, was considered utterly indefensible and almost certain to be
successfully occupied by the invading forces. There was not a town of
one thousand souls in the whole of that province, and the only forts of
any pretension were those on the Niagara frontier. Kingston was a
fortified town of some importance in the eastern part of the province,
but Toronto had no adequate means of defence. At the commencement of the
war there were only fourteen hundred and fifty regular troops in the
whole country west of Montreal, and these men were scattered at
Kingston, York, Niagara, Chippewa, Erie, Amherstburg, and St. Joseph.
The total available militia did not exceed four thousand men, the
majority of whom had little or no knowledge of military discipline, and
were not even in the possession of suitable arms and accoutrements,
though, happily, all were animated by the loftiest sentiments of courage
and patriotism. In the lower provinces of Eastern Canada and Nova
Scotia there was a considerable military force, varying in the aggregate
from four to five thousand men. The fortifications of Quebec were in a
tolerable state of repair, but the citadel which dominates Halifax was
in a dilapidated condition. The latter port was, however, the rendezvous
of the English fleet, which always afforded adequate protection to
British interests on the Atlantic coasts of British North America,
despite the depredations of privateers and the successes attained during
the first months of the war by the superior tonnage and equipment of the
frigates of the republic. But the hopes that were entertained by the war
party in the United States could be gathered from the speeches of Henry
Clay of Kentucky, who believed that the issue would be favourable to
their invading forces, who would even "negotiate terms of peace at
Quebec or Halifax."

The United States ha