in sending me a copy, as I am all anxiety for your literary fame.  As you differ in sentiment from the Edinburgh Review, I hope that you have made up your mind to an unmerciful lashing.

I do not see the smallest prospect of my getting away from here, as the disposition manifested by the Canadians will occasion a large military force to be kept in the country, and it will serve as a plea to retain all at their posts.  I wish that I could boast of a little more patience than I feel I now possess.

The fortifications of Quebec are improving pretty rapidly, but workmen cannot be procured in sufficient number to proceed as fast as government would wish.  Labourers now get 7s. 6d. a day, and artificers from 12s. to 15s.  Upwards of three hundred vessels have already arrived—­a prodigious number.

Brigadier Brock to his sister-in-law, Mrs. William Brock.

    QUEBEC, July 10, 1810.

I cannot allow the frigate to depart without sending my affectionate love to you.  A Guernsey vessel arrived a few days ago, which brought me a letter from Savery of 10th May, and nothing could be more gratifying than the contents.  The May fleet, which sailed from Portsmouth the 24th, reached this in thirty days, but as it had not a scrape of a pen for me, its arrival did not interest me.  We have been uncommonly gay the last fortnight:  two frigates at anchor, and the arrival of Governor Gore from the upper province, have given a zest to society.  Races, country and water parties, have occupied our time in a continued round of festivity.  Such stimulus is highly necessary to keep our spirits afloat.  I contributed my share to the general mirth in a grand dinner given to Mrs. Gore, at which Sir J. Craig was present, and a ball to a vast assemblage of all descriptions.

I mentioned in a former letter my apprehensions of being ordered to the upper province.  I return this moment from waiting upon Sir James, who sent for me, to say he regretted he must part with me, as he found it absolutely necessary that I should proceed upwards without delay.  I am placed in a very awkward predicament, as my stay in that country depends wholly upon contingencies.  Should a brigadier arrive I am to be stationary, but otherwise return to Quebec.  Nothing could be more provoking and inconvenient than this arrangement.  Unless I take up every thing with me, I shall be miserably off, for nothing beyond eatables is to be had there; and in case I provide the requisites to make my abode in the winter in any way comfortable, and then be ordered back, the expense will be ruinous.  But I must submit to all this without repining, and since I cannot get to Europe, I care little where I am placed.  I have the most delightful garden imaginable, with abundance of melons and other good things, all which I must now desert.

What am I to tell you from this out-of-the-way