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 sh