Colonel Proctor now assumed the offensive. He sent Captain Tallon, on the 5th of August, with an inconsiderable detachment of the 41st regiment, and a few of the many Indians, who were flocking to his standard, to Brownstown, a village opposite Amherstburgh. Captain Tallon energetically carried out his instructions, by surprising and routing more than two hundred of the Americans, who were under the command of Major Vanhorne. The captured detachment were on their way from Detroit to the river Raisin, in the expectation of meeting there a detachment of volunteers, from Ohio, under Captain Burr, with a convoy of provisions for the army. General Hull's despatches fell into the hands of the captors. The deplorable state of the American army was disclosed, and, without loss of time, Colonel Proctor sent over a reinforcement, consisting of one hundred men, of the 41st regiment, with some militia and four hundred Indians, under the command of Major Muir, their landing being protected by the brig Hunter. Nor were the American General's misfortunes yet to be ameliorated. While these things were taking place, a despatch reached him from the officer commanding the Niagara frontier, intimating that his expected co-operation was impossible. On every side, General Hull was being hemmed in. His supplies had been cut off. Defeat had befallen him so far and death, sickness, fatigue and discomfiture had its depressing effect upon his soldiery. There was no insurrection in Canada. The people of the backwoods had not the slightest desire to be territorially annexed to that country over which the standard of union had waved for thirty years. On the contrary, they were bent upon doing it as much mischief as possible. They had no idea of transferring their allegiance to a power who had visited them with the miseries of war, for no fault of theirs. Hull was dismayed. When it was announced that General Brocke was advancing against him, he sounded a retreat. Unwilling that his fears should be communicated to the troops under him, General Hull retreated ostensibly with the view of concentrating the army. After he had re-opened his communications with the rivers Raisin and Miami, through which the whole of his supplies came, he was to resume offensive operations. That time never came. On the 8th of August, Sandwich was evacuated. Two hundred and fifty men only were left behind, in charge of a small fortress, a little below Detroit. When again in Detroit, General Hull sent six hundred men under Colonel Miller, to dislodge the British from Brownston. Major Muir, who commanded at Brownston, instead of waiting for the attack, quixotically went out to meet his adversaries. The two opposing detachments met at Maguago, a kind of half way place, where a fight began. It was of short duration, but, considering the numbers engaged, was sanguinary. Seventy-five of the Americans fell, and the British were compelled, though with inconsiderable loss, to retreat. On the water as on the land, the chief mischief fell upon the Americans. Lieutenant Rolette, with the boats of the Queen Charlotte and Hunter, intercepted, attacked, and captured eleven American batteaux and boats, which were en route for Detroit, under the escort of two hundred and fifty American soldiers, marching along the shore, the boats and batteaux having on board fifty-six wounded Americans and two English prisoners.
General Brocke, who had prorogued his Parliament, now appeared at the seat of war. He had collected together a force of seven hundred of British regulars and militia and six hundred auxiliary Indians. And he very coolly determined upon obtaining the surrender of His Excellency, General Hull, and his whole force. Knowing from his absurd proclamation, how much in dread he stood of the Indians, General Brocke intimated that if an attack were made, the Indians would be beyond his control; that if Detroit were instantly surrendered, he would enter into conditions such as would satisfy the most scrupulous sense of honor; and that he had sent Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell and Major Glegg with full authority to conclude any arrangement that might prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood. General Hull replied very courteously in the negative. Captain Dixon, of the Royal Engineers, had thrown up a battery in Sandwich, on the very ground so recently occupied by the Americans, to act upon Detroit. In this battery there were two five and a half inch mortars, and one eighteen and two twelve pounder guns, and it was manned by sailors under the command of Captain Hull. For upwards of an hour the cannonade was terrific, the fire of the enemy being very feebly maintained, from two twenty-four pounders. On the morning of the eighteenth, the cannonade recommenced, and General Brocke crossed the river with his little army, unopposed, at the Spring Wells, three miles below Detroit, the landing being effected under cover of the guns of the Queen Charlotte and Hunter. General Brocke formed his troops upon the beach, into four deep, and flanked by the Indians, advanced for about a mile, when he formed this miniature army into line, with its right resting on the river Detroit, and the left supported by the Indians. He then made preparations for assault, and was about to attack, when to the surprise as much, it is said, of the American as of the British regiments, a flag of truce was displayed upon the walls of the fort, and a messenger was seen approaching. It was an intimation that General Hull would capitulate. Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell and Major Glegg were accordingly sent over to the American General's tent where, in a few minutes, the terms of capitulation were signed, sealed, and delivered in duplicate, one copy for the information of His Britannic Majesty, and the other for that of Mr. President Madison, the chief of the authors of the war. To Mr. Madison, the information that General Hull had capitulated to the Governor of Upper Canada, with two thousand five hundred men, and thirty-three pieces of cannon, and that, in consequence, the whole territory of Michigan had been ceded to Great Britain, could only have been as disagreeable as it was animating to the people of Canada. So entirely indeed were the Americans unprepared for a blow of such extraordinary severity, that no one could be brought to believe in it. It seemed an impossible circumstance. It was felt to be a delusion. It seemed as if some one had practised a terrible hoax upon the nation. Until officially made known to the sovereign people, the disaster was looked upon as a lying rumour of the enemy. Another Henry had been at work, tampering with the New England States, or the federalist minority had set it afloat. True it could not be. It was indeed something to excite surprise. The trophy of a British force, consisting of no more than seven hundred men, including militia, and six hundred Indians was the cession of a territory and the surrender of a General-in-Chief, a strong fort, the armed brig John Adams, and the two thousand five hundred men, who were designed not to defend their country only, but to wrest Upper Canada from the Crown of Great Britain. To General Hull's fears of the savage ferocity of the Indians, this bloodless victory must, to some extent, however trifling, be attributed. General Hull was evidently superstitiously afraid of an Indian. While asking the inhabitants of Upper Canada to come to him for protection, he could not help entreating, as it were, protection for himself against the Indians. If you will not accept my offer, the General seemed to say, either remain at home or cross bayonets with American soldiers, but turn into the field one of the scalping savages of your forests, and we shall kill, burn and destroy, everything that comes before us. With his regular troops, the unfortunate man was sent a prisoner to Montreal. He was led into that city, at the head of his officers and men, and was at once an object of pity and derision. But the Commander-in-Chief received his prisoner with the courtesy of a gentleman, and with every honor due to his rank. Nay, he even suffered him to return to the United States on parole, without solicitation.
In his official despatch, to the American government, Hull took pains to free his conduct from censure. His reasons for surrender, were the want of provisions to maintain the siege, the expected reinforcements of the enemy, and "the savage ferocity of the Indians," should he ultimately be compelled to capitulate. But the federal government so far from being satisfied with these excuses, ordered a Court Martial to assemble, before which General Hull was tried, on the charges of treason, cowardice, and unofficerlike conduct. On the last charge only was he found guilty and sentenced to death. The Court, nevertheless, strongly recommended him to mercy. He was an old man, and one who, in other times, had done the State some service. He had served honorably during the revolutionary war. The sentence of death was accordingly remitted by the President, but his name was struck off the army list, and this republican hero, who had forgotten the art of war, went in his old age, broken-hearted and disgraced, to a living grave, with a worm in his vitals, gnawing and torturing him, more terribly than thousands of Indians, practising the most unheard of cruelties could have done, until death, so long denied, came to him, naturally, as a relief.
The circumstance is not a little curious that only three days after General Hull had surrendered to Governor Brocke, Captain Dacres, commanding H.M.S. Guerrière, had surrendered to Captain Isaac Hull, after a most severe action with the American frigate Constitution. The Constitution was most heavily armed for a vessel of that period. On her main deck she carried no less than 30 twenty-four pounders, while on her upper deck she had 24 thirty-two pounders, and two eighteens. In addition to this, for a frigate, unusually heavy armament, there was a piece mounted, under her capstan, resembling seven musket barrels, fixed together with iron bands, the odd concern being discharged by a lock—each barrel threw twenty-five balls, within a few seconds of each other, making 145 from the piece within two minutes. And she was well manned. Her crew consisted of 476 men. The Guerrière mounted only 49 carriage guns, and was manned by only 244 men, and 19 boys. On the 19th of August, the look-out of the Guerrière noticed a sail on the weather beam. The ship was in latitude 40°., 20 N., and in longitude 55°. W., and was steering under a moderate breeze on the starboard tack. The strange sail seemed to be bearing down upon the Guerrière, and it was not long before the discovery was made that the stranger was a man-of-war, of great size and largely masted. Her sailing qualities, under the circumstances, were considerably superior to those of the Guerrière, and it became consequently necessary to prepare for an action, which it was impossible to avoid. At three o'clock, in the afternoon, Captain Dacres, the commander of the British frigate, beat to quarters. An hour later and the enemy was close at hand. She seemed to stand across the Guerrière's bows and Captain Dacres wore ship to avoid a raking fire. No sooner had this manœuvre been executed than the Guerrière ran up her colours and fired several shots at her opponent, but they fell short. The stranger soon followed the example set to him, and, hoisting American colours, fired in return. Captain Dacres now fully aware of the size, armament and sailing powers of his opponent, wore repeatedly, broadsides being as repeatedly exchanged. While both ships were keeping up a heavy fire, and steering free, the Constitution, at five o'clock, closed on the Guerrière's starboard beam, when the battle raged furiously. Twenty minutes had hardly elapsed when the mizen mast of the Guerrière was shot away, bringing the ship up into the wind, and the carnage on board became terrific. The Constitution, during the confusion, caused by the loss of the Guerrière's mast, was laid across the British frigate's bow, and while one or two of the bow guns of the Guerrière could only be brought to bear upon the Constitution, that vessel scoured the decks of the British ship, with a stream of metal. "At five minutes before six o'clock, says Captain Hull, when within half pistol shot, we commenced a heavy fire from all our guns, double shotted with round and grape." On board the Guerrière, Mr. Grant, who commanded the forecastle, was carried below, the master was shot through the knee; and I, says Captain Dacres, was shot in the back. At twenty minutes past six the fore and mainmasts of the Guerrière went over the side, leaving her an unmanageable wreck. The Constitution ceased firing and shot a-head, her cabin having taken fire from the Guerrière's guns. The Guerrière would have renewed the action, but the wreck of the masts had no sooner been cleared than the spritsail yard went, and the Constitution having no new braces, wore round within pistol shot again to rake her opponent. The crippled ship lay in the trough of the sea, rolling her main deck guns under water. Thirty shots had taken effect in her hull, about five sheets of copper down; the mizen mast, after it fell, had knocked a large hole under her starboard quarter, and she was so completely shattered as to be in a sinking state. The decks were swimming with blood. Fifteen men had been killed and sixty-three had been severely wounded, when Captain Dacres called his officers together and consulted them. Farther waste of life was useless, and the British colours were dropped in submission to those of America. But the result of the contest, though it could not fail to cause great exultation in the United States, reflected no dishonor upon the flag of Britain. A more unequal contest had never before been maintained with such spirit, zeal, skill, or bravery. The battle had lasted for nearly three hours and a half, and the result was the sure effect of size, as all things being otherwise equal, the heavier must overcome the lighter body. When the Guerrière surrendered, it was only to permit her gallant commander, her other officers, and the men, the wounded and the untouched, to be transferred for safety from a watery grave to the Constitution. Captain Hull, the conqueror, told his government that the Guerrière had been totally dismasted and otherwise cut to pieces, so as to make her not worth towing into port. With four feet of water in her hold, she was abandoned and blown up. The Constitution had only the Lieutenant of Marines and six seamen killed, and two officers, four seamen, and one marine wounded.
On each side there was now something to be proud of and something to regret. If the British exulted over the fall of Detroit and the surrender of General Hull, and the United States viewed these occurrences with indescribable pain and a sense of humiliation, the Americans could now boast of the success of their arms at sea, while Britain regretted a disaster upon that element, on which she had long held and yet holds the undisputed mastery. There was now no room for the American government, on the ground of having been too much humiliated, to refuse peace if it were offered to her. Yet peace was refused. Soon after these occurrences the news of the repeal of the Orders in Council reached this continent, and the ground of quarrel being removed, peace was expected, and an armistice was agreed to between the British Governor of Canada, Sir George Prevost and General Dearborn, the American commander-in-chief, on the northern frontier. But the American government, bent upon the conquest of this province, disavowed the armistice and determined upon the vigorous prosecution of the contest. It was then that the Northern States of the American Union, who were the most likely to suffer by the war became clamorous for peace. The whole brunt of the battle, by land, was necessarily to be borne by the State of New York, and the interruption of the transatlantic traffic was to fall with overwhelmingly disastrous pressure upon Massachusetts and Connecticut. Addresses to the President were sent in, one after another, from the Northeastern States, expressing dissatisfaction with the war and the utmost abhorrence of the alliance between imperial France and republican America. They would have none of it, and if French troops were introduced into their States, as auxiliaries, New England would look upon them and would treat them as enemies. Nay, the Northern States went still further. Two of the States, Connecticut and Massachusetts, openly refused to send their contingents or to impose the taxes which had been voted by Congress, and "symptoms of a decided intention to break off from the confederacy were already evinced in the four Northern States, comprising New York, and the most opulent and powerful portions of the Union."[17]
General Brocke, ignorant of the armistice, and indeed it did not affect him, for General Hull had acted under the immediate orders of the American Secretary at War, and was consequently irresponsible to General Dearborn, with the aid of the Lilliputian navy of the Lakes, was maintaining the ascendancy of Great Britain in Upper Canada and Michigan. He was about indeed to make an attempt upon Niagara, to be followed by another upon Sackett's Harbour, with that daring, promptitude and judgment, which was characteristic of the man, when he received instructions from the Governor General to rest a little. Following the advice of the Duke of Wellington, Sir George Prevost had wisely determined not to make a war of aggression with the only handful of troops that could be spared to him from the scene of prouder triumphs and of harder and more important struggles. But the American government, indifferent to the menaces of the Northern Provinces of the Union, and mistaking for weakness the conciliatory advances of Sir George Prevost, soon disturbed the rest of the gallant Brocke. Early on the morning of the 13th of October, a detachment of between a thousand and thirteen hundred men, from the American army of the centre, under the immediate command of Colonel Solomon Van Rensellaer,[18] crossed the river Niagara, and attacked the British position of Queenstown. It was when Van Rensellaer having himself crossed, and the British had been driven from their position, that General Brocke, and about six hundred of the 49th regiment, in the grey of the morning, arrived at the scene of conflict. The Americans being about the same time reinforced by the addition of regulars and militia. General Brocke put himself at the head of the 49th's Grenadiers, and while gallantly cheering them on, he fell mortally wounded, and soon after died. His trusty aid-de-camp, the brave Colonel McDonell, fell beside him, almost at the same moment, never again to rise in life. The 49th fought stoutly for a time, but, discouraged by the loss of the General, they fell back and the position was lost. But the fortune of the day was not yet decided, although Van Rensellaer, with the aid of Mr. Totter, his Lieutenant of Engineers, had somewhat strengthened the recently captured position on the heights. Reinforcements, consisting partly of regular troops, partly of militia, and partly of Chippewa Indians, in all about eight or nine hundred men, came up about three in the afternoon, to strengthen and encourage the discomfitted 49th, under General Roger Sheaffe, who now assumed the command. A combined attack was made on the Americans by the English troops and artillery, in front and flank, while Norton, with a considerable body of Indians, menaced their other extremity. It was entirely successful. The Americans were totally defeated, and one General Officer, (Wadsworth, commanding in the room of General Van Rensellaer, who had re-crossed the river to accelerate the embarkation of the militia, which, though urged, entreated, and commanded to embark, remained idle spectators, while their countrymen were, as the American accounts say, struggling for victory,) two Lieutenant-Colonels, five Majors, and a corresponding number of Captains and subalterns, with nine hundred men, were made prisoners; one gun and two colours were taken; and there were four hundred killed and wounded, while the loss on the side of the British did not exceed seventy men. Thus was the battle won. It had cost England an excellent soldier, a man who thoroughly understood his duty, and felt his position in whatever capacity he was placed. He died at the age of 42, and the remains of this gallant defender of Upper Canada were buried at Fort George, together with those of his aid-de-camp, Colonel McDonell. One grave contained both. General Brocke was buried amidst the tears of those whom he had often led to victory, and amidst the sympathetic sorrowing of even those who had caused his death. Minute guns were fired during the funeral, alike from the American as from the British batteries. Thus it was with the Americans on land. It was, as has been seen, very different on the sea. And the first rencontre took place on the latter element. When war was declared it was with the intention of intercepting the homeward bound West India fleet of British merchantmen. Three frigates, one sloop, and one brig of war, under the command of Captain Rogers, of the American frigate President, were despatched on that errand. It was about three on the morning of the 23rd of June, that Captain Rogers was informed, by an American brig, bound from Madeira to New York, that four days before a fleet of British merchantmen, were seen under convoy of a frigate and a brig, steering to the eastward. Captain Rogers accordingly shaped his course in pursuit of them. At six o'clock in the morning, a sail was descried, which was soon discovered to be a frigate. The signal was made for a chase, and the squadron made all sail on the starboard tack. This being perceived by Captain Byrn, who commanded the British frigate Belvidera, protecting the convoy, he tacked and made all sail, steering northeast by east. It was now eight o'clock in the morning, and the President seemed to be gaining on the Belvidera, leaving her consorts, however, far behind her. About half past three in the afternoon, the President fired three guns, the shot from one of which was terribly destructive. Two men were killed, and Lieutenant Bruce and four men were more or less severely wounded. Broadside after broadside was fired by both vessels soon afterwards, and the President at last bore off. Each party lost about twenty-two men, but the British frigate had the advantage. Her guns were pointed with great skill, and produced a surprising effect, as the American squadron failed in taking the single English frigate, and the whole merchantmen escaped untouched. Indeed after a cruise of twenty days and before the declaration of hostilities was known at sea, the American squadron returned to port, having only captured seven merchantmen.
The action between the Constitution and the Guerrière occurred after this event, the result of which has been already stated, somewhat out of place, it is true, but, with the design of exhibiting how a peace might have been effected, had it been desired by the Americans, without loss of honor on either side. The simultaneousness of the advantages gained by the British on the land, and of the advantages gained by the Americans on the sea, is not a little remarkable, nor is it less remarkable that after the tide of battle had slightly turned with the British on land, towards the close of the war, the naval actions at sea were nearly all to the disadvantage of the Americans. It would seem that providence had designed to humble the pride of the unnatural combatants.
About the exact time of the surrender of General Wadsworth, at Queenston, an engagement occurred between the English sloop of war Frolic, and the American brig of war Wasp, which proved disastrous to the former. As far as the number of guns went, both vessels were equal. Each had eighteen guns, nine to a broadside, but while the sloop had only 92 men and measured only 384 tons, the brig had 135 men and measured 434 tons. The Frolic, on the night of the 17th of October, had been overtaken by a most violent gale of wind, in which she carried away her mainyard, lost her topsails, and sprung her maintopmast. It was, while repairing damages, on the morning of the 18th, that Captain Whinyates, of the Frolic, was made aware of the presence of a suspicious looking vessel, in chase of the convoy, which the Frolic had in charge. The merchant ships continued their voyage with all sails set, and the Frolic, dropping astern, hoisted Spanish colours to decoy the stranger under her guns and give time for the convoy to escape. The vessels soon approached sufficiently to exchange broadsides, and the firing of the Frolic was admirable. But the vessel could not be worked easily, and the gaff braces being shot away, while no sail could be or was placed upon the mainmast, her opponent easily got the advantage of position. To be brief, the storm of the night before had given the Wasp an advantage which, neither nautical skill, nor undaunted resolution could counteract, and the Frolic, an unmanageable log upon the ocean, was compelled to strike. Undoubtedly this was another triumph to the United States, although, materially considered, the gain was not much. In only a few hours after this action, both the Wasp and the Frolic were surrendered to H.M.S. Poictiers, of seventy-four guns.
Seven days afterwards, another naval engagement occurred, more tellingly disastrous to Great Britain. The United States, a frigate of fifteen hundred tons burthen, carrying 30 long 24-pounders, on her main deck, and 22 42-pounders, with two long 24-pounders, on quarter deck and forecastle, howitzer guns in her tops, and a travelling carronade on her deck, with a complement of 478 picked men,[19] was perceived by H.M. frigate Macedonian, of 1081 tons, carrying 49 guns, and manned by 254 men and 35 boys. The Macedonian approached the enemy and the enemy backed her sails, awaiting the attack, after the firing had continued for about an hour, at long range. When in close battle, Captain Carden perceived that he had no chance of success, but he was determined to fight his ship while she floated and was manageable, hoping for, rather than expecting, some lucky hit, which would so cripple the enemy as to permit the Macedonian, if no more could be done, to bear off with honor. But the fortune of war was adverse. Every shot told with deadly and destructive effect upon the Macedonian, and even yet, with nearly a hundred shots in her hull, her lower guns under water, in a tempestuous sea, and a third of her crew either killed or wounded, Captain Carden fought his ship. To "conquer or die," was his motto, and the motto of a brave crew, some of whom even stood on deck, after having paid a visit to the cockpit, and submitted to the amputation of an arm, grinning defiance, and anxious to be permitted the chance of boarding with their fellows, when Captain Carden called up his boarders as a dernier resort. But boarding was rendered impossible, as the fore brace was shot away, and the yard swinging round, the vessel was thrown upon the wind. The United States made sail ahead and the crew of the Macedonian fancying that she was taking her leave cheered lustily. They were not long deceived. Having refilled her cartridges, the United States, at a convenient distance, stood across the bows of her disabled antagonist, and soon compelled her to strike. While the Macedonian had thirty-six killed and sixty-eight wounded, the United States had only five killed and seven hors de combat.
It was such advantages as these that induced the Americans to continue the war. The Americans were inflated with pride. In their own estimation they had become a first rate maritime power, and even in the eyes of Europe, it seemed that they were destined to become so. The disparity in force was justly less considered than the result. However bravely the British commanders had fought their ships, the disasters were no less distressing, politically considered, than if they had been the result of positive weakness or of lamentable cowardice. These advantages even compensated in glory to the Northeastern States for the losses which their commerce had sustained, and would, had they continued very much longer, have stimulated them to forget their selfishness, their bankruptcies, and their privations, though perhaps they tended on the other hand, to cause less vigorous efforts to be made for the acquisition of Canada, than otherwise would have been the case, by rivetting the public attention of America more on the successful operations by sea than on their own disastrous operations by land. There was yet another disaster to overtake Great Britain. And it was little wonder. The Lords of the Admiralty, wedded to old notions, unlike the Heads of the Naval Department of the United States, were slow to alter the build or armament of the national ships. They seemed to think that success must ultimately be dependent upon pluck, and that there could be again few instances in which a sloop could be so disabled by a storm as to be unable to cope with a brig, better manned, better armed, and in good sailing trim. They continued to send slow-sailing brigs and ill-armed sloops-of-war, for the protection of large fleets of merchantmen, with valuable cargoes, while the frigates of the enemy, in search of them, whether in the calm or in the storm, were faster than British seventy-fours, and were equal to British ships of the line in armament. It was after the loss of the Macedonian that the British Admiralty commissioned and sent to sea the frigate Java, of the same tonnage, with the same deficiency of men, and, worse than all, half of whom were landsmen, and of exactly the same armament as the Macedonian, only that her weight of metal was less, to cope with such frigates as the United States, the President, and the Constitution. On the 12th of November, the Java sailed from Spithead, the remonstrances of Captain Lambert against the inadequacy and inexperience of his crew being of no avail with the authorities. He was told, when he insisted that he was no match for an American, even of equal size, that "a voyage to the East Indies and back would make a good crew." The difficulties in the way of getting to the East Indies, to say nothing of coming back again, never entered into the heads of men, who had long been laid up in ordinary, and were dry-rotting to decay. These were the men who sent the water casks to contain the fresh water of His Majesty's vessels afloat on our fresh water lakes. Then, as now, were the wrong men in the wrong places. Men, who should have been in Greenwich Hospital, talking of times gone by, or living in dignified retirement, were entrusted with the management of affairs in a new age, the country rather losing than gaining by their individual experiences. And the British public stung to the quick, were aware of it. The correctness of Captain Lambert's judgment was too soon brought to the test. The Java fell in with the Constitution on the 28th of December, when the latter stood off as the former approached, to gain a first advantage by firing at long range. But as the Java was fast gaining upon her, the Constitution made a virtue of necessity, and shortened sail, placing herself under the lee bow of the Java, so that in close action, the crew of the Constitution might fight like men behind a rampart, while the crew of the Java stood at their guns en barbette. The action immediately commenced, and the effect of the Java's first broadside, on the enemy's hull, was such that the American wore to get away. Captain Lambert also wore his ship, and a running fight was kept up with great spirit for forty minutes. The Java had, as yet, suffered little, but the vessels coming within pistol shot, a determined action ensued. Captain Lambert had resolved upon boarding his enemy, if it were possible in any measure to effect it. With that view he was closing upon his antagonist, when the foremast of the Java fell suddenly and with a crash so tremendous as to break in the forecastle and cover the deck with the wreck. Only a moment later and the main topmast also fell upon the deck, while Captain Lambert lay weltering in his blood, mortally wounded. Lieutenant Chads, on whom the command now devolved, found the Java perfectly unmanageable. The wreck of the masts hung over the side, next to the enemy, and every discharge of the Java's own guns set her on fire. Yet, Lieutenant Chads continued the action for three hours and a half, until the Java was felt to be going down. It was then that the Constitution assumed a raking position, and it was then only that Lieutenant Chads struck. The Java was no prize to the victors of great value, for her crew were no sooner taken out than the American commander blew her up. In this desperate engagement the Java had twenty-two killed and one hundred and two wounded; the Constitution had ten killed and forty wounded. Captain Lambert's worst fears had been realised, and the death of that gallant and skilful sailor aroused a tongue which, in Great Britain, has a potency and influence, such as official insolence cannot withstand, nor official incapacity escape from. The spirit of the "Times" was up. The voice of the many loudly condemned the incompetency of the few. The conduct of the war had now become a matter of moment, and reforms, in the marine department at least, were imperative.