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 having protested against the competency of the court to try the first charge, the court declined making any formal decision on it ; but yet gave an opinion that nothing appeared to them which could justify the charge.

" ' The court acquitted him of that part of the third specification, which charges him with having forbidden the American artillery to fire on the enemy, on their march towards the said Fort Detroit, and found him guilty of the first, second part of the third, and the fourth specifications. On the third charge, the court found the accused guilty of neglect of duty, in omitting seasonably to inspect, train, exercise, and order the troops under his command, or cause the same to be done. They also found him guilty of part of the fourth and fifth specifications, and the whole of the sixth and seventh ; and acquitted him of the second and third, and part of the fourth and fifth specifications.

" ' The court sentenced the said Brigadier-General William Hull to be shot to death, two-thirds of the court concurring in the sen- tence ; but, in consideration of his revolutionary services, and his advanced age, recommended him to the mercy of the president of the United States. The president approved the sentence, remitted the execution, and ordered the name of General Hull to be erased from the list of the army.' — Ibid, pp. 75, 76.

"The chagrin felt at Washington, when news arrived of the total failure of this the first attempt at invasion, was in proportion to the sanguine hopes entertained of its success. To what a pitch of extravagance those hopes had been carried, cannot better appear than in two speeches delivered upon the floor of congress, in the summer of 1812. Dr. Eustis, the secretary at war of the United States, said : ' We can take the Canadas without soldiers ; we have only to send officers into the provinces, and the people, disaffected towards their own government, will rally round our standard.' The honorable Henry Clay seconded his friend thus : 'It is absurd to suppose we shall not succeed in our enterprise against the enemy's provinces. We have the Canadas as much under our command as she (Great Britain) has the ocean ] and the way to conquer her on the ocean is to drive her from the land. I am not for stopping at Quebec, or any where else ; but I would take the whole continent from them, and ask them no favors. Her fleets cannot then rendezvous at Halifax as now ; and, having no place of resort in the north, cannot infest our coast as they have lately done. It is as easy to conquer them on the land, as their

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