Page:Brock centenary 2nd ed. 1913.djvu/17

 INTRODUCTION BROCK AND QUEENSTON

By John Stewart Carstairs, B.A., Toronto

Brock's fame and Brock's name will never die in our history. The past one hundred years have settled that. And in this glory the craggy heights of Queenston, where in their splendid mausoleum Brock and Macdonell sleep side by side their last sleep, will always have its share. Strangely enough, who ever associates Brock's name with Detroit? Yet, here was a marvellous achievement: the left wing of the enemy's army annihilated, its eloquent and grandiose leader captured and two thousand five hundred men and abundant military stores, with the State of Michigan thrown in!

But Britain in those days was so busy doing things that we a hundred years later can scarcely realize them. However, so much of our historic perspective has been settled during the past hun- dred years. Perhaps in another hundred years, when other generations come together to commem- orate the efforts of these men that with Brock and Macdonell strove to seek and find and do and not to yield, the skirmish at Queenston may be viewed in a different light.

Perhaps then the British Constitution will have bridged the oceans and the " Seven Seas " ; per- haps then Canada will be more British than Britain itself — the very core, the centre, the heart of the Empire in territory and population, in wealth and in influence, in spirit and in vital acti- vities. Then Queenston Heights may be regarded

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