States raised no objection, though it was in violation of the world's
law in respect to nations which were at peace with each other. The
United States' President evidently believed that British resentment at
Napoleon's decree would sooner or later provide the United States with
an excuse for a disagreement with Britain. He was not mistaken. Britain
at once announced that she in her turn would prohibit the ships of other
nations visiting French ports until they had first called at a British
port. But two wrongs do not make a right. England also, being short of
seamen by desertion, insisted that she had the right to search for
British seamen on American vessels.

This was a questionable proceeding, and not always carried out in the
most amiable manner, as the _Chesapeake_ incident proves, and
occasionally led to seizing American seamen, native-born citizens of the
United States, in mistake for British-born deserters.

Meanwhile Brock found "the military and the people of Quebec divided by
opposing elements of dissatisfaction." His call for one thousand men for
two months to complete the defences of the Citadel was met by the
Provincial Government with what was practically a refusal. He persisted
in his purpose, and despite drawbacks which would have deterred a less
dominant nature, he erected a battery, mounting eight thirty-six pound
guns, raised upon a cavalier bastion, in the centre of the Citadel, so
as to command the opposite heights of Point Levis.

Alive to the probability of invasion, and to the defenceless state of
the Canadian frontier and the extreme apathy of the Quebec Government,
Colonel Brock warned the War Office. He stated that, as the means at his
disposal were quite inadequate to oppose an enemy in the field, with a
provincial frontier of 500 miles, he would perforce confine himself to