so many quarters for militia below Kingston, that to insure a general arrangement and to adopt the best system that circumstances will admit, he has directed Colonel Lethbridge, the inspecting field officer here, to proceed through the line of settlements to see the several colonels and corps of militia so as to fix their quotas, and afterwards to proceed to Kingston and assume the command of that post, if necessary:  he will be placed under your orders, but you will perhaps not wish to bring him in contact with the 41st regiment, as he is senior to Colonel Proctor.

Sir George desires me to say, that he does not attempt to prescribe specific rules for your guidance—­they must be directed by your discretion and the circumstances of the time:  the present order of the day with him is forbearance, until hostilities are more decidedly marked.

Sir George Prevost to Major-General Brock.

    MONTREAL, July 10, 1812.

Colonel Lethbridge’s departure for Kingston affords me an opportunity of replying more fully and confidentially to your letter of the 3d instant, than I could venture to have done the day before, yesterday by an uncertain conveyance.  That officer has been desired to transmit to you, together with this dispatch, a copy of the instructions given to him for his guidance until the exigencies of the service make it necessary in your estimation to substitute others, or to employ the colonel in any other situation of command.  In them you will find expressed my sentiments respecting the mode of conducting the war on our part, suited to the existing circumstances; and as they change, so must we vary our line of conduct, adapting it to our means of preserving entire the king’s provinces.

Our numbers would not justify offensive operations being undertaken, unless they were solely calculated to strengthen a defensive attitude.  I consider it prudent and politic to avoid any measure which can in its effect have a tendency to unite the people in the American States.  Whilst disunion prevails among them, their attempts on these provinces will be feeble; it is, therefore, our duty carefully to avoid committing any act which may, even by construction, tend to unite the eastern and southern states, unless, by its perpetration, we are to derive a considerable and important advantage.  But the government of the United States, resting on public opinion for all its measures, is liable to sudden and violent changes; it becomes an essential part of our duty to watch the effect of parties on its measures, and to adapt ours to the impulse given by those possessed of influence over the public mind in America.

Notwithstanding these observations, I have to assure you of my perfect confidence in your measures for the preservation of Upper Canada.  All your wants shall be supplied as fast as possible, except money, of which I have so little, as to be obliged to have recourse to a paper currency.

    The adjutant-general has reported to you the aid we have
    afforded, in arms and ammunition, to your militia at Cornwall,
    Glengary, Dundas, and Stormont.