Excerpt from The Annals of the War: Illustrated by a Selection of Historical Ballads

The War of 1812 placed the assets of its results, in no inconsiderable measure, to the credit of Canada. The prestige of Canada to-day, as a consolidating colony whose patriotism has continued pronouncedly British during the century that has transpired since the time of the war, is a determinate outgrowth from the prestige of an Empire which continues to hold its own as a first among the sovereignties of the world. If the colonial disaffection on the south side of the boundary-line of Canada gained from the War of Independence what it aimed at gaining by a severance from Great Britain, there was certainly no final loss of political freedom to those who stood loyally by such connection before and during that war. And this is no doubt the reason why Canadians have ever taken a pride in recognizing the War of 1812 as their very own national war, presaging, as it did, what is to be seen to-day in a prosperous confederated Canada. Indeed, it is needless to say that the political and commercial aggran dizement which is Canada's to-day as an intrinsic part of the British Empire, is as highly to be prized as a national asset, as is the phenomenal progress of the United States under Independence.

The purpose of this volume is to take a secondary share in the centennial commemoration of the hundred years' peace which has happily followed the terms on which the strife was brought to an end. The story of the war itself has already been given to the public by more than one author of high literary repute. That story, as herein repeated, with omissions to be detected by the student of historical detail, is put on record in this present volume, under divisions of narrative pertinent to the three sections of the Canadian frontier where the invader sought entrance into Canada to subdue it. Each of these divisions has been given, as far as possible, a unity of its own, under the guidance of the nature locz and a nucleus of ballad-verse has been provided as a memory-help to the reader while following the sequence of events as they occurred respectively in the vicinity of the Detroit River, the Niagara River, and the St. Law rence. Otherwise the plan of the book is much the same as that of the volume entitled The Battle of the Plains. General James Wolfe died victorious on the Plains of Abraham. General Isaac Brock's death was a prelude to the victory on Queenston Heights; and there can be nothing inappropriate In commemorating the military prowess of the days of their heroism in companion volumes, such as the author would humbly place in the hands of his British compatriots and the world at large in his Series of Studies in Verse and Prose.

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