commanded us, Sir, this never would have occurred.”  Indeed, there was a correspondence of regard between him and his officers, and even the non-commissioned officers and privates, that, with this solitary exception, produced the picture of a happy family.  Those extremities of punishment, which the exactions of discipline will sometimes occasion, rarely reached his men.  And yet shortly before he succeeded to the command of the regiment, it was in a sad state of disorganization, from the causes already explained. (Page 7.) During the mutiny on board the fleet at the Nore, in May, 1797, the 49th was quartered on the borders of the river Thames; and as the privates evidently sympathized with the seamen, Major Brock not only seldom went to bed till nearly daylight, but slept with loaded pistols, while during the day he frequently visited the mess-rooms, to tear down or erase such inscriptions as “The Navy for Ever.”  But soon after he became the lieutenant-colonel, by happily blending conciliation with firmness, and bringing to a court martial two or three officers, whose misconduct could not be overlooked, he quickly restored the discipline of the corps.  Having effected this, he afterwards governed it by that sentiment of esteem which he himself had created, and the consolation was given him to terminate a brief but brilliant course in the midst of his professional family.[108]

It deserves to be recorded as an instance of good fortune, unprecedented perhaps in military annals, and especially in a country where the advantage and facility of escape were so great, that from the 6th of August, the day on which Major-General Brock left York for Detroit, to the period immediately preceding the battle of Queenstown, the force under his personal command suffered no diminution in its numbers either by desertion, natural death, or the sword.  This comprehended a period of nearly ten weeks, during which an army was captured, and a journey of several hundred miles, by land and water, accomplished with extreme rapidity.

In compiling this memoir, we have been much struck with the rapidity of Major-General Brock’s movements:  he appears to have been everywhere, and, as Veritas observed of him, to have “flown, as it were.”  To-day at York, engaged in his civil and military duties—­to-morrow at Fort George, superintending the defences of the Niagara frontier, or at Kingston, reviewing and animating the militia.  To-day at Fort George, watching the enemy—­the next at York, dissolving the legislature—­and a fortnight after, on his return from the capture of Detroit!  To-day at Fort George again—­a few hours after at Fort Erie, endeavouring to retake the brigs Detroit and Caledonia.  And yet this most active and energetic officer was compelled, by his defensive instructions, tamely to look on the offensive preparations of the Americans for the invasion of the province committed to his charge!