PROCEEDINGS FOR 1895 LXXXIX 
On the 8th October, 1811, that great and good soldier (General Isaac 
Brock, after serving six years in Quebec with his regiment, the 49th, 
appears on the scene in Upper Canada as acting governor. Boulton’s 
release from a French prison ; £5,000 appropriated to maintain the militia 
in readiness for the impending struggle with the United States. ‘‘ Perfect 
reliance,’ says Brock, “can be placed on the loyalty of the original 
inhabitants and their descendants.” And was he not right ? 
General Brock also proposes “that at the present juncture (1812) 
“the prince regent should be moved to give permission to place the 
family of every soldier, regular or militia, also every mariner on the 
lakes, who may be killed in the coming contest with the United States, 
upon the U. E. list, and to extend this advantage to every mariner and 
militiaman who may be maimed or disabled upon actual service.” 
We next are made acquainted with the proclamation of General 
Brock in answer to that of General Hull. Hostilities follow, and history 
completes the glorious record of victories won on Canadian soil, ending in 
the retreat of the invading foe. 
But I must not trespass on your forbearance any longer, and shall 
bring my remarks to a close ; and if, laying aside the detached survey we 
have been making of the manuscript sources of our history, we should 
like to crowd in one canvas the brilliant outlines embracing the fruitful 
era of discovery, adventures, warfare, religious enthusiasm, which one of 
our most gifted viceroys, the late Earl of Elgin, styled “the heroic age 
of Canada,” what would you find? A succession of martial feats ; ex- 
amples of individual bravery ; instances of extraordinary physical endur- 
ance at the call of duty ; deadly ambuscades surrounding the pioneers of 
a Canadian wilderness ; savage encounters by sea and by land of a most 
startling nature, when measured by the standards of to-day. 
At one time, ‘tis the intrepid, conscious sacrifice of zealous preachers 
of the gospel—in order to lift upwards into a higher life and cleanse de- 
based humanity—men of prayer and pure mind, looking on death as the 
only earthly crown worthy of living for. 
At another time, ’tis delicate, self-sacrificing maidens, some, of courtly 
nurture, bidding an everlasting adieu to the charmed circle of Parisian 
gaities, braving the tempests and perils of the deep, to cast their lot 
amidst the rude aborigines hutted round their new forest homes on the 
shores of our great lakes and rivers. 
To-day, Indian savagery in its most hideous form is triumphant amid 
the corn and wheat fields of Lachine : the great massacre in August, 168). 
To-morrow, lion-hearted old Governor Frontenac, with fire and sword, 
will bring the barbarians to sue for peace on their knees, or warn with 
his big guns, from the gates of Quebec, the New England marauders. 
Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, the Cid of New France, will bear the 
triumphant flag of his country to the icy shores of Hudson’s Bay. 
