Page:The Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock - 1847.djvu/11

 PREFACE.

��IN the early part of last year, a box of manuscripts and the trunks belonging to Sir Isaac Brock, which had remained locked and unexamined for nearly thirty years, were at length opened, as the general s last surviving brother, Savery, in whose possession they had remained during that period, was then, from disease of the brain, unconscious of passing events. With that sensibility which shrinks from the sight of objects that remind us of a much-loved departed rela tive or friend, he had allowed the contents to remain untouched ; and when they saw the light, the gene ral s uniforms, including the one in which he fell, were much motheaten, but the manuscripts were happily uninjured. On the return of the Editor from South America, in May last, he for the first time learnt the existence of these effects ; and a few weeks after, having hastily perused and assorted the letters and other papers, he decided on their publica tion. Whether this decision was wise, the reader must determine. If, on the one hand, part of their interest be lost in the lapse of years ; on the other, they, and the comments they have elicited, can now be published with less risk of wounding private feelings.

It has been the Editor s study to avoid all unne cessary remarks on the letters in this volume, so as to allow the writers to speak for themselves. But he has deemed it a sacred obligation due to the memory of Sir Isaac Brock, to withhold nothing descriptive of his energetic views and intentions, and of the

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