to impede her effort.... The ships of
England," he continued, "had been refused shelter in United States
harbours, while refuge had been extended to the ships of our inveterate
enemies." He reminded the colonists that "insulting threats had been
offered to the flag and hostile preparations made." He praised the
militia, and, while wishing for peace, declared that "Canada must
prepare for war, relying on England's support in her hour of peril." He
asked the Legislature to assent to three things of vital importance--the
suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the passage of a law to regulate
the privileges of aliens, and an Act providing for rewards to be paid to
the captors of deserters.

It was a house divided against itself, and it turned a deaf ear to
Brock's appeal. "To the great influence of _American settlers_ over the
members of the Lower House," he attributed this defeat. A court-martial
revealed the fact that one of the best known militia regiments was
composed almost entirely of native Americans! The United Empire
Loyalists thronged to his banner.

Undaunted by the cheap prudence of Prevost, a hostile Legislature, and
the difficulties that beset him, Brock took off his coat, rolled up his
sleeves, and all but single-handed--"off his own bat," as Dobson
explained it to an admiring crowd in the barrack-room--wrought like the
hero that he was for the salvation of his country. He became a machine,
a machine working at high pressure eighteen hours out of twenty-four. He
had developed into a very demon for work.

With an empty treasury and no hope of reinforcements--every soldier
England could spare was fighting in Spain--he raised flank companies of
militia to be attached to the regular regiments. The Glengarry
sharpshooters, four hundred strong, were enlisted in three weeks. A new
schooner was placed on the stocks. He formed a car-brigade of the young
volunteer farmers of York and removed incompetent officers.

Fort George, constructed of earthen ramparts, with honeycombed cedar
palisades which a lighted candle could set fire to, with no tower or
block-house, and mounting only nine-pound guns, he knew was incapable of
resistance. It invited destruction from any battery that might be
erected at Youngstown on the American side, while confronting it was
Fort Niagara, built of stone, mounting over twenty heavy guns,
containing a furnace for heating shot, and formidable with bastions,
palisades, pickets and dry ditch.