CHAPTER V
Moved to Upper Canada
In 1809 Brock learned that Brigadier-General Baron de Rottenberg was coming to Canada. He knew that as the Baron was his senior in the service he would probably be the appointee of Sir James Craig to the commanding position. About this time he wrote to his sister-in-law, Mrs. W. Brock: “The spirit of insubordination lately manifested by the French Canadian population of this colony naturally called for precautionary measures, and our worthy chief (Sir James) is induced, in consequence, to retain in this country those on whom he can best confide. I am highly flattered in being reckoned among the number, whatever inward disappointment I may feel. Some unpleasant events have likewise happened in the upper country which have occasioned my receiving intimation to proceed thither, whether as a permanent station, or merely as a temporary visit, Sir James Craig has not determined.” Evidently Brock still had at the back of his mind an idea that the French in Lower Canada would welcome again the suzerainty of France.
In July Sir James, when Rottenberg came, sent Brock to Upper Canada and, in September, with his goods and chattels, chiefly consisting of books which, we have seen, he learned to love as a boy, he moved to Fort George, Niagara. He had not been there a month before he again felt restless and anxious to get back to some post where he might see service, for he expressed a desire to serve with the British forces who were then in Spain and Portugal. The adjutant-general, Colonel Baynes, however, replied that Sir James Craig informed him that he did not think the state of the public service would warrant his relieving Brock from duty in Upper Canada.
Brock busied himself with the duties attendant on his position and seems to have spent a good deal of time, as he had done in Quebec, in trying to gain the confidence of the people. He early saw that the upper province was by no means restful and his suspicions of a few years ago that the American immigrants were unsettling the province were thus confirmed.
In June, 1811, he was promoted to the rank of major-general. Sir James Craig, with the excuse of ill-health, resigned the position of governor-general and left for England. Sir James was ill, but he had incensed Lower Canada so much that his departure at this time was the best service he could render the country. Before he went he begged Brock to remain in Canada. “Your presence is needed here,” he said. And a little later, as an earnest of what the governor-general thought of him, Brock received a letter from Colonel Baynes in which he said: “He (Sir James) requests that you will do him the favor to accept as a legacy and mark of his very sincere regard his favorite horse Alfred, and he is induced to send him to you, not only from wishing to secure for his old favorite a kind and careful master, but from the conviction that the whole continent of America could not furnish you with so safe and excellent an horse?”
Three months later Sir George Prevost, who was the new governor-general of and commander of the forces in Canada, appointed Brock president and administrator of the government of Upper Canada, in place of the lieutenant-governor who had obtained leave to visit England. Upper Canada needed him, and Sir George Prevost made a wise move in this appointment. Bad feeling between Britain generally and the United States had developed in connection with the Canadas.
Before Craig left for England, amongst the matters he had discussed with Brock was that of possible trouble between the Indians in Canada and United States border citizens. Sir James Craig’s policy is outlined in a letter to Brock: “Upon every principle of policy our interests should lead us to use all our endeavors to prevent a rupture between the Indians and the subjects of the United States.” Brock appreciated the wisdom of this and followed it out. He instructed those under him, who had charge of territory inhabited by these Indians, to keep a tight rein on their maraudings and pillagings and did all he could to discourage border crime. But, doubtless to his amazement, in the summer of 1811, the government of the United States accused British officers in Canada of actually aiding and abetting the Indians in their lawlessness. Brock, naturally, had a hard enough row to hoe, for though he must deprecate the cruelty of the Indians, he was anxious to preserve friendliness with them, since, should war come, he desired them as allies, or at any rate, did not want them as enemies. His position was difficult.
This was but one of the perplexities which the new administrator of Upper Canada had to face. Just about this time, domestic trouble caused him great anxiety. He had two brothers in London, William and Irving. They were partners in a private bank. Serious financial troubles had been caused by the wars in Europe, and in New York failures had been many. Brock, in a letter to his brother Irving, reporting these, prophesied a financial crash in London. He hoped they had “withheld their confidence in public stock.” Unfortunately, they had not, and owing to the depredations of Napoleon’s privateers upon the boats belonging to his banker-brothers, the latter had had to close their house. When the books were examined there was an item of £3,000, which appeared as a debt owed to the bank by Isaac Brock. This was really a personal loan by William Brock to Isaac, but as the transaction appeared in the books, Brock deemed himself liable. That was a small matter, however, compared to the trouble which the bank’s affairs had made between William and Irving. Irving blamed his brother William for the smash.
Brock wrote from Canada to Irving imploring his kindliness to William. “Hang the world! It is not worth a thought,” he wrote. “Be generous, and find silent comfort in being so.” Brock knew how his brother William, who had been so kind to him, was suffering. “Why refuse him consolation”? his letter to Irving read. “Could tears restore him he would soon be happy.... My thoughts are fixed on you all and the last thing that gives me any concern is the call which Savery prepared me to expect from the creditors.”
Great hearted Brock! It meant much to him just now to find £3,000, but the suffering of William and the breach between the brothers meant far more.