These Select British Documents are not meant to be a history but a contribution towards the original evidence on which true history must be based. They form the gist of only one of four equally important collections of evidence. The other three are: first, the American documents which correspond with those used here; secondly, the British documents concerned with that part of the war which was carried on outside of the Canadian theatre of operations; and, thirdly, the American documents of a correspondingly "outside" nature. But it is hoped that, within its proper limits, the evidence now selected is complete. It is grouped so as to tell its own tale in its own words, while the exact references to the originals or copies in the Archives will enable students to consult the documents themselves on any special point. Documents in French are very rarely used; and this for three reasons: first, because there appear to be no important official documents in French which are not practically translations from the English; secondly, because the official French texts have survived only in very corrupt forms, due probably to having been copied out by Englishspeaking Orderly Room clerks; and, thirdly, because very few private French documents seem to exist. FrenchCanadians who played a leading part, like De Salaberry, generally wrote their most important communications in English. A few American documents have been inserted when the thread of the narrative might otherwise be lost.

No discrimination is made between documents that have been printed over and over again and those which are now published for the first time. There are several "finds" of prime importance in the text as well as in the maps and illustrations. But they all go into their respective places like any other items of evidence. One of them, however, is so curious an instance of the might-have-beens of universal history that it may be mentioned separately. It is the confidential letter which Wellington wrote to Bathurst from

Paris, in November 1814, on hearing the news of Prevost's disgrace at Plattsburg. It suggests that Wellington might possibly have been in Canada instead of on the field of Waterloo; and it ends with a passage which throws his sense of duty into fine relief. He was already a duke, a fieldmarshal, and second only to Napoleon himself in the eyes of the world at large. Yet he was quite ready to start for even such a very minor seat of war as the Canada of 1815. "I believe I shall not be able to go to Quebec till April. . It will be for you to consider whether I can be most useful to you there, here, or elsewhere."

For the sake of convenience all the maps and illustrations are put into this first and handiest volume. The chapters of the Introduction exactly correspond with the groups of the Narrative Documents.

All the information generally given in footnotes will be found in or through the Index, which, in view of the multifarious details contained in the documents, has been made unusually full and precise.