Some Account of the Public Life of the Late Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, Bart Part 21

[101] Gordon, Author of the History of the American Revolution, vol. iii.

p. 328, &c.

[102] "On the 9th January, 1808, died General Nagues, first Aid-de-Camp, &c. &c. His loss was strongly felt. This General had conciliated the esteem of the public by his inclination to do good, his attention to his duty, and his strict probity. Before he entered into the service of Holland, he had been Governor of St. Lucie, which he had defended as a brave soldier, and where he acquired the affection of the Planters."--_Historical Doc.u.ments and Reflections on the Government of Holland, by Louis Bonaparte_, vol. ii.

p. 214.

[103] From Toulon and Rochefort.

[104] A French Squadron was in the West Indies.

[105] These addresses are extracted from a work, ent.i.tled, "the Canadian Inspector," published at Montreal, in 1815, for the express purpose of noticing and confuting the a.s.sertions made by the author of the letters under the signature of Veritas, respecting the measures of Sir George Prevost, in the prosecution of the war. Upon the authority of these letters the Quarterly Reviewer has mainly relied, and has had the boldness to declare, that "_no reply was ever attempted to be made to the statements contained in them, or doubt ever expressed in the Provinces of their correctness_."--Review, p. 408.

[106] Since this work went to press, a positive contradiction to the Reviewer's a.s.sertion, _that Sir George Prevost attempted to affix a stigma upon the personal character of General Procter, which he was afterwards obliged to abandon, with a declaration of regret that it was ever made_, has been received from the Judge-Advocate who officiated at the above trial, and who is now resident in Canada. From this information it appears, that so far from the fifth charge being abandoned, the Judge-Advocate in his reply, although he adverted to the partial failure of the proof in support of that charge, still a.s.serted that there came out in evidence strong grounds for making it. In answer to the Reviewer's misrepresentations as to the delay in a.s.sembling the Court-martial, it appears from the same information that such delay was unavoidable. General Procter's letter, in explanation of the retreat of the right division, was not received until late in November, 1813. It was, of course, transmitted to England, that His Majesty's Government might judge of the necessity of an investigation. When General Procter applied for this investigation, he was told that this was the case; and also, what he must have known, that at all events, no such investigation could then take place, as the princ.i.p.al witnesses, both for and against him, were then prisoners in the state of Kentucky. The first orders of the Government for the a.s.sembling of the Court-martial were not received in Canada until the 28th of May, 1814. They were immediately notified to General Procter. The officers of the 41st were still prisoners, though they were shortly to be exchanged, but the exigencies of the war gave such employment to all the officers of proper rank to form such a Court-martial, as well as to many material witnesses, that it was impossible, without sacrificing the interests of the service to comply with General Procter's applications for the a.s.sembling of the Court.

[107] The action was fought on the 11th.