"Major-General Brock has ever felt anxious to study the comforts and conveniences of the militia, but the conduct of the detachments which lately accompanied him to Detroit has if possible increased his anxiety on this subject. The present cessation of hostilities enables him to dispense with the services of a large proportion of them for a short period."
We very naturally ask ourselves who these troops were for whose welfare General Brock was always so solicitous. There were of course some British regular troops in Canada, noticeably the Forty-ninth, Brock's own regiment, but during the earlier stages of the war, and while Brock lived, the men of the Province, militia and yeomanry, had to be relied upon mainly; these chiefly were the men of the York, Glengarry, Norfolk and other militia regiments; every loyal man capable of bearing arms in the Province turned out to fight, or to help those who fought. The York and Glengarry militia served with great distinction, and I may perhaps be permitted to refer to the fact that forty-three gentlemen of my own name and family connection held commissions in the various regiments in that war. In connection with this I might further mention a somewhat curious incident. My own grandfather, Colonel Alexander Macdonell, was taken prisoner by the Americans at the Battle of Niagara, and was confined as a prisoner at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the very same prison in which his own father, Captain Allan Macdonell, had been confined by the Revolutionary States as a prisoner of war during the Revolutionary War, 1776-83.
Now, happily, all is peace; we have enjoyed one hundred years of peace and we thank Divine Providence for it. We have had preserved to us by Brock and those who fought and fell with him a rich kingdom; we possess it in peace and happiness and great prosperity. This is an age of peace, and in this age and generation it is fit that we should advance all the works and arts of peace; a very great trust in this respect has been handed down to us and confided to our safe keeping. In these days of our prosperity we must protect and defend and develop this great country, this rich heritage which the heroism of our forefathers has preserved to us. We must not only conserve it, but we must better it and develop it, and make useful to man all these possessions which have been given us. Our ideals and ambitions must always be high, and if we find ourselves faltering let us look upon this splendid monument and think of the hero in honour of whom it was raised; and let us at all times remember that now as in 1812 in unity we possess our strength; we must become one people if we are to be a great people, with one great common country. We have many Provinces but only one Canada.