cious event
until the battles on the eighth occurred, causing such disaster and loss
of valuable lives to the English army and nation; and fifty-two days
from the signing of articles until a message of the good news was
received by the commander-in-chief of the British forces. There was no
alternative but to await the slow passage of the ship across the wide
Atlantic, with sails set to breeze and calm, and sometimes tossed and
delayed by adverse storm. To-day, the news of such an event would be
flashed over the great cables under the sea and the network of electric
wires throughout the land, in the twinkling of an eye after its
occurrence. Such an advantage at the time would have been worth to
England the entire cost of the telegraph system of the world.

LEGISLATURE SUPPRESSED UNDER MARTIAL LAW--CHARGES OF TREASONABLE
UTTERANCES.

On the morning of the twenty-eighth of December, just as the British
began their attack on the American line, General Jackson issued an order
forcibly forbidding the meeting of the Legislature in session, and for
taking possession of the legislative halls. The proceeding created great
excitement in the civil and military circles of the city, especially
among the members of the body and their immediate friends. The author is
indebted to Mr. William Beer, of the Howard Library of New Orleans, for
the loan of a copy of a rare little book entitled "Report of the
Committee of Inquiry on the Military Measures Employed Against the
Legislature of the State of Louisiana, the 28th of December, 1814." In
the full report of the testimony taken by the committee, we have a
history of the causes which led to this open rupture between the
commander-in-chief and the General Assembly of Louisiana, and of its
incidents and issues.

Since the landing of the British army on the twenty-third, there were
afloat in nebulous form some rumors of disaffection toward the American
military occupation of Louisiana, among an element of the population
unfriendly to the sovereignty of the United States over the territory
since its purchase from Napoleon. Up to the time of the military
occupation under Jackson, this hostile feeling seemed to display its
temper and policies mainly in matters of civil procedure. There was very
naturally a jealous opposition on the part of many leading citizens, of
French and Spanish descent, of whom the population west of the
Mississippi was almost entirely made up, against the annexation