stified. Your
situation is such as to warrant your resorting to any step
which, in your judgment, the public safety may require. I
should therefore think, that after taking the best opinions
you can obtain from the first law characters you have about
you respecting the doubts you entertain on this subject, you
need not hesitate to determine upon that line of conduct which
you shall think will best promote the good of the service,
trusting, if you do err, to the absolute necessity of the
measures you may adopt, as your justification for them to his
majesty's government.

Your letters of the 26th, 28th and 29th July, with the several
enclosures and papers accompanying them, were received by me
shortly previous to my leaving Quebec; the last containing
Captain Roberts' official account of the capture of Fort
Michilimakinack. Great credit is certainly due to that
officer for the zeal and promptitude with which he has
performed this service; at the same time I must confess, my
mind has been very much relieved by finding that the capture
took place at a period subsequent to Brigadier-General Hull's
invasion of the province, as, had it been prior to it, it
would not only have been in violation of Captain Roberts'
orders, but have afforded a just ground for the subsequent
conduct of the enemy, which, I now plainly perceive, no
forbearance on your part would have prevented. The capture of
this place will, I hope, enable the Indian tribes in that
quarter to co-operate with you in your present movements
against the enemy, by threatening his flanks, a diversion
which would greatly alarm him, and probably have the effect of
compelling him to retreat across the river.

I send you enclosed a copy of the official repeal of the
orders in council, which I received last night by express from
Quebec. Although I much doubt whether this step on the part of
our government will have any effect upon that of the United
States, the circulation of the paper evincing their
conciliatory disposition may tend to increase and strengthen
the divisions which subsist amongst the people upon the
subject of the war. I therefore recommend to you to have a
number of copies struck off and distributed.

Colonel Baynes is still absent upon his mission to the enemy's
camp. Your letter to him of the 2