leu] Peace of Ghent. American losses. 347 Cherub, 18, in neutral waters, on March 28, 1814, and easily captured, the British having a great superiority in force. In Atlantic waters the same fate befell the American sloop Frolic, which was captured by a British vessel of superior class. On the other hand the American Peacock took the British Apervier, a vessel wretchedly manned, with a large proportion of foreigners in her crew; and the Wasp took the British Reindeer, and sank the Avon. The closing engagements were the capture of the American frigate President by two British vessels of her own class; the capture of the British sloops Cyane and Levant by the large frigate Constitution ; and the surrender of the British Penguin to the Hornet, after a sharp action in which the British ship failed to hit her opponent once with her great guns. Such an en- counter shows to what lengths neglect of gunnery had proceeded in the British navy as the result of a supremacy unchallenged for seven years. Negotiations for peace had been opened in 1814 ; and commissioners representing the two Powers met at Ghent in August of that year. Each side at first put forward demands which the other considered impossible; and, in the end, a settlement was only reached by tacitly ignoring the very issues which had caused the war, no doubt because peace with France in Europe had rendered them matters which no longer were of vital moment for Great Britain, and because it was important for her to have her hands free in order to exercise her full influence in the Congress of Vienna. The treaty signed on December 24, 1814, but not received in the United States until some weeks later, virtually re-established the status quo, with the provision that various disputes which had arisen as to the exact delimitation of the frontier should be referred to a joint commission, and, if this commission could not reach a decision, to foreign arbitration. A declaration was appended, binding both Powers to use their best endeaVours for the suppression of the slave-trade. The peace was certainly more satisfactory to the United States than to Great Britain, concluded as it was before the disaster at New Orleans had occurred. The United States had suffered far more than Great Britain in the war. Their naval victories, with the exception of the battles on the lakes, were of no strategic importance, and had little influence upon the issue. On land their forces failed to gain any decisive success, and at the best merely repulsed British attacks, though at New Orleans they inflicted terrible loss upon their adversaries. Their trade was destroyed, their exports having fallen from ?22,571,000 at which figure they stood in 1807 before the Non-Intercourse Act, to ,8,026,000 in 1812, .5,813,000 in 1813, and 1,443,000 in 1814. No less than 1400 war- ships and merchantmen, flying the American flag, with 20,961 seamen, were captured by the British cruisers. These losses and the suspension of trade caused acute commercial and financial distress in the Union. A loan of 1,200,000, issued by the Federal government in July, 1814.
