1814	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	348

the stations assigned them. That Captain Pring of the Linnet, and Lieutenant Robertson, who succeeded to the command of the Confiance, after the lamented fate of Captain Downie (whose conduct was marked by the greatest valour), and Lieutenant Christopher James Bell, commanding the Murray, and Mr. James Robertson, commanding the Beresford, gun-boats, who appeared to take their trial at this court-martial, conducted themselves with great zeal, bravery, and ability, during the action : that Lieutenant William Hicks, commanding the Finch, also conducted himself with becoming bravery ; that the other surviving officer's and ship's crew, except Lieutenant M'Ghie of the Chubb, who has not appeared here to take his trial, also conducted themselves with bravery ; and that Captain Pring, Lieutenant Robertson, Lieutenant Hicks, Lieutenant Bell, and Mr. James Robertson, and the rest of the surviving officers and ship's company, except Lieutenant M'Ghie, ought to be most honourably acquitted, and they are hereby most Honourably acquitted accordingly. " On the 18th of the ensuing September Lieutenant M'Ghie was put upon his trial, and the following was the sentence pronounced upon him: " The court having heard the circumstances, determined that the Chubb was not properly carried into action, nor anchored so as to do the most effectual service; by which neglect, she drifted into the line of the enemy : that it did not appear, however, that there was any want of courage in Lieutenant M'Ghie; and, therefore, the court did only adjudge him to be severely reprimanded. "

Upon the American accounts we shall bestow but a few words. Having seen the effects of Commodore Perry's puritanical epistle, Commodore Macdonough writes his letter in the same mock-religious strain: "The Almighty has been pleased to grant us a signal victory on Lake Champlain, in the capture of one frigate, one brig, and two sloops of war of the enemy." The Confiance a " frigate ;" and the Chubb and Finch " sloops of war"! Yet, according to an American writer, Commodore Macdonough was " a religious man, as well as a hero, and prayed with his brave men on the morning of the victory. " *

In the very summer preceding the Lake Champlain action, some of the American newspaper editors were blaming Commodore Chauncey for not sailing out of Sackett's-Harbour, in the new ships Superior and Mohawk, after the latter had been launched nearly two, and the former upwards of three months. How did that cautious commander answer them ? Why, by writing to the secretary of the American navy thus: " I need not suggest to one of your experience, that a man of war may appear to the eye of a landsman, perfectly ready for sea, when she is deficient in many of the most essential points of her armament ; nor how unworthy I should have proved myself of the high trust reposed in me, had I ventured to sea in the face of an enemy of equal force,

* Naval Monument, p. 155.

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