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a Letter I have addresed to Major Melville or the officer commanding at Burlington the whole respecting an exchange of Prisoners.

Your Lordship will observe by my Letter to Mr. Barclay that the American Prisoners who had been embarked on board the Malabar Transport in order to proceed to Halifax, have been sent without my orders & contrary to my intentions to England.

I transmit to Your Lordship Copy of a Letter I have received from Major General Glasgow in explanation of this subject, from which it appears that officer has altogether misunderstood my wishes, and undertaken of himself without any reference to me, to adopt a measure which I am apprehensive may occasion much Embarrassment & difficulty respecting the future exchange of Prisoners.

I beg leave therefore to suggest to Your Lordship the propriety of sending as early as possible the whole of the Prisoners who are gone to England in the Malabar, by a Cartel to the United States, as the most effectual means of convincing their Government that their removal, to England has not been intentional, & of the disposition of His Majesty's Government to remove all further ground of complaint upon this subject.

I have the honor to be My Lord

Your Lordship's most obedient Humble Servant

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I have the honor to transmit to Your Lordship Copy of a Letter from Commodore Sir James Yeo, together with Captn. Barclay's official account of the action on Lake Erie referred to in my dispatches to Your Lordship No 90 of the date of 22nd Sept & No. 91 of 8th Oct'r last.

The loss sustained on that occasion Your Lordship will find subjoined to the General order also herewith transmitted which I have felt it my duty to issue in consequence of the recent events in

For Letter see page 549.

this command. I am happy to be able to add that Captn. Barclay is recovering of his wounds, & that there is a prospect of his valuable life & services being preserved for the benefit of his Country. I have the honor to be My Lord

Your Lordship's

Most obedt. huml. Servant

GEORGE PREVOST.

The right Honble Earl Bathurst.

Endorsed:

Lt. Genl. Sir Geo. Prevost. No. 111. Six Inclosures.

[ Q 123, p 53 ]

A STATEMENT OF THE FORCE OF HIS MAJESTY'S SQUADRON ON LAKE ERIE AND THAT OF THE UNITED STATES.

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RETURN OF THE RIGHT DIVISION OF THE ARMY OF UPPER CANADA.

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Killed-Lieut. Garden, Royal Newfoundland Regt.

Endorsed: 6.

Lt. Genl. Sir G. Prevost. No. 111. 25 Nov. 1813.

[ Q 123, p 67 ]

EDWARD BAINES,
Adjt. Genl.

SIR,

MAJ. GEN. JAMES WILKINSON TO SIR GEORGE PREVOST.

HEAD QUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES,
MALONE, Decemr. 3d, 1813.

In my letter to you of the 1st Ultimo I apprized you, that your communication of the 17th October last, had been transmitted to the President of the United States, and I have now the honor to lay before you the result.

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In a recent communication from the War Department, I am manded by the President to make known to you, in reply to your Letter, and for the Information of your Government, that "the Government of the United States adhering unalterably to the principle and purpose declared in the communication of Genl. "Dearborn to you, on the subject of the twenty three American Soldiers, Prisoners of War, sent to England to be tried as Crim

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"inals, and the confinement of the like number of British Soldiers, "Prisoners of War, selected to abide the fate of the former, has, in consequence of the step taken by the British Government, as now communicated, ordered Forty six British Officers into close confinement, and that they will not be discharged from their con"finement, until it shall be known, that the Forty Six American "Officers and non-commissioned officers in question are no longer "confined."

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I am further commanded by the President to advise you, for the information of your Government "that in the event of any proceed"ings of the British Commanders on our Coast, against the Inhabi"tants thereof, contrary to the Laws of War, observed among civi"lized Nations, as threatened in your communication of the seven"teenth of October, the United States will avail themselves of the means in their power, for such exemplary retaliations, as may "produce a Return to those legitimate modes of warfare, from which no other consideration, than the necessity imposed by the conduct "of the Enemy, could ever induce them to depart."

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Without the power to avert the calamitous scenes, which must ensue the pretentions of your Government, to violate a constitutional. principle, held sacred by the American Nation, and without examining the effects of this pretension should it be retorted, by the American Government, against the Population of Upper Canada, composed, as it is, in a great measure, of native born American citizens, I am impelled, by the impulses of humanity, to enquire whether some relaxation may not be expected on the part of your Government; and whether the officers and non-commissioned officers, thrown into Jail at Quebec, may not be restored to the ordinary conditions of Prisoners of War:

On the last topic, permit me to add, that when Captain Fitzgerald of your army, wounded and a Prisoner at Fort George, was sent to the camp of Brigadier General Vincent, it was under the express stipulation, ratified by Lieutenant Colonel Harvey, Deputy Adjutant General, of your Army, as I am assured by Colonel Scott of ours, that a Captain a Prisoner of War with you, should be liberated on parole.

Colonel Scott, who had the directon of this transaction, assures me, he is in possession of Colonel Harvey's written engagement and that the officer in whose favor the stipulation was made, is among the number you have thrown into Jail: I cannot charge my memory with the name of this officer, which will be transmitted me in a

few days, together with Colonel Harvey's obligation, but I make this early communication to you, in the hope, your officer may have advised you on the subject, in which case I demand, on the grounds of justice and good faith, that the American officer be liberated from confinement and discharged on parole.

I have the honor to be

with high consideration &

respect, Your Excellency's

obedt. huml. Servt.

JA. WILKINSON.

His Excellency Sir George Prevost, Lt. Genl. & Commander in Chief of the British Forces in North America.

[Q 123, p 91 ]

SIR,

SIR GEORGE PREVOST TO MAJ. GEN. JAMES WILKINSON.

HEAD QUARTERS, MONTREAL, 11th Decr. 1813.

I have had the honor to receive Your Excellency's Dispatches of the 3d and 4th Instant, in communicating to Your Excellency in my letter of the 17th of October last, the retaliating measure which His Majesty's Government had been compelled to adopt in consequence of the imprisonment by Major General Dearborn of twenty three British Soldiers as Hostages, for as many natural born subjects of His Majesty found in the service of the United States, in arms against their native country, I had entertained the hope that the American Government would have been induced to abandon a principle not recognized by any of the other civilized nations of the world, and against which when attempted to be put in practice they have all invariably resisted.

I regret to find myself disappointed in this just expectation by the communication made by Your Excellency of the determination of your Government unalterably to adhere to the principle and purpose, declared in the Letter of Major General Dearborn of the 31st May last, and of its having in consequence directed 46 British officers, Prisoners of War, to be closely confined, until the 46 American officers and non-commissioned officers now closely confined at Quebec as Hostages shall be released.

This step on the part of the Government of the United States leaves me no other alternative but that of directing and which I

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