the small numbers procurable for these services, and the sprawling and sporadic nature of the war. Discipline was another danger and difficulty. But, on the whole, it was well maintained. The sedentary militia gradually approximated to the embodied. These, in their turn, approximated to the Canadian regulars, who themselves became almost as seasoned as the Imperial Army. Pay, pensions, bounties, and land grants were all adjusted to the circumstances, as well as the resources available would permit. The land grants are especially important, as they helped to create so many future generations of Canadians who could look back with pride to a martial ancestry. The special militia preparations deserve particular notice, because it is the greatest mistake to suppose that the Canadian militia who fought so well were really militia in the common acceptation of the word, or that all the Canadians who fought were militia of any kind. Many were regulars. Others were militia embodied for fairly long terms of service. All were trained in close contact with the Imperial Army. The Canadian law authorised the calling out of all the able-bodied men, with a few exceptions, from among a population which did not exceed half-a-million. The United States contained fifteen times as many. The Canadian militia was either "embodied " or sedentary." Between the age of sixteen and sixty every man had to enrol his name, report every April, and attend four muster parades. From this universal "sedentary" force the "embodied " ΟΙ "incorporated" militia was obtained by volunteering or, when that failed to produce the required numbers, by ballot. In Lower Canada an Act of Parliament was passed on the 19th of May 1812 authorising an establishment of 2000 incorporated militia during the war. This strength was increased to 4000 by the Governor-General in Council, and 4000 remained the fixed establishment until the peace. The service was made as easy as possible by discouraging married men or other family supports from volunteering. The full term was two years. But half a corps could be sent home every year and replaced by fresh men. The half sent home then formed a trained reserve. Upper Canada was too sparsely settled for incorporated battalions. But a special consolidating Act of the 6th of March 1812 provided for trained flank companies-the picked men of each battalion. Two companies of 100 men each were to be raised, if the battalion strength allowed it, from men under forty who were unmarried and not the sole support of their family. These flank companies drilled six days a month long before war was declared. They were ready for service at a moment's notice, and they could be kept permanently embodied for any length of time, if required. Altogether there were about 12,000 men ready for the first shock of war in Canada. Of these 4450 were Imperial regulars, less than 4000 were Canadian regulars, most of whom had been specially raised for the occasion, and about 4000 more were "embodied" or "incorporated" militia, who had been partly trained already and who were under the same military discipline as the regulars. A few "sedentaries" appeared in action. But their general duty was to relieve better trained men at the base, from time to time, as opportunity offered or exigency required. The United States presented a striking contrast to this state of military preparation. Jefferson heralded his accession to the presidency in 1801 by declaring that the American "was the only government where every man would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern." He then reduced the army to 3000 men. Eleven years later, after President Madison and his whole party had decided on war, there were 35,000 men on paper but only 6744 in the ranks. During the three campaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814 the United States enlisted 56,032 men into their regular forces by land or sea, 10,110 into their special volunteers, and 3049 into their rangers. At the same time the different states composing the Union, each of which managed its own militia, called out 456,463 irregulars. Thus more than half a million men-equalling in numbers the whole Canadian population-were raised for different terms of service, from one month to five years, and for different kinds of forces, from the best of regulars to the worst of irregulars. Yet out of all this vast total of more than half a million no American general ever had ten thousand men fit for action at any one time and place. The Americans fought exceedingly well on many occasions. But their best fighters always were the men who had previously learnt how to fight. On the other hand, their undisciplined militia were almost always the real culprits in all the unpleasant incidents of the war. The British forces in Canada were few in numbers, but, on the whole, superior in discipline and training. It is only because they were either regulars or permanently embodied militia that their patriotic efforts succeeded in stemming the tide of invasion which would otherwise have made Canada a conquered province of the United States. |