* * * * *

It will be seen by the next letter and a few others which follow, that
Sir Isaac Brock was well aware of the existence among the French
Canadians of a spirit of disaffection, which, in 1837, broke out into
open rebellion, the suppression of which earned Sir John Colborne (the
present Lord Seaton) his peerage. The outbreak caused great loss of
life, and considerable expense arising not only from the hurried
dispatch to Quebec of a large body of troops from Nova Scotia and
England, but from the retention in the Canadas of about 10,000 men for a
few years, to overawe the disaffected, and to repress the piratical
incursions of the citizens of the United States in their favor.


_Brigadier Brock to his brother William_.

QUEBEC, December 31, 1809.

You will long since have been convinced that the American
government is determined to involve the two countries in a
war; they have already given us legitimate cause, but, if
wise, we will studiously avoid doing that for which they shew
so great an anxiety. Their finances, you will perceive, are
very low, and they dare not propose direct taxes. They must
have recourse to loans at a time when they have only six
frigates in commission, and about five thousand men embodied.
To what a state of poverty and wretchedness would the
accumulated expenses of war reduce them! But they look to the
success of their privateers for a supply, and contemplate the