Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/166

 144 SIR ISAAC BROCK.

��No. 9.

��Preface to the Second Editio?i of Travels in Canada and the United States, in 181G and 1817, by Lieutenant Francis Hall, \Ath Light Dragoons, H. P.

" Soon after the publication of these travels, the author received an anonymous communication, charging him with misrepresenting the conduct of the officer who succeeded Sir Isaac Brock in the command of our forces in Upper Canada. The passages com- plained of are : the expression, (p. 227.,) that Tecumseh, after that general's death, ' found no kindred spirit with whom to act ; ' — the passages of Tecumseh's speech, quoted in the note ; — and the expression he is said to have subsequently used, ' Tell the dog,' &c.

" The author regrets that this communication, (which was con- veyed in the most gentlemanly terms,) by being anonymous, left him no opening for private explanation, which he cannot but think would, on the whole, have proved more satisfactory than a discus- sion in print : as it is, it only remains for him to commit the litigated points to the judgment of the public.

" The only insinuation intended to be conveyed by the terms 'no kindred spirit,' was, that the general who succeeded Sir Isaac Brock was inferior to him in talents, and was so considered by Tecumseh. This is mere matter of opinion ; but such as the author conceives every man is free to deliver, with respect to the conduct of an individual employed in a public capacity ; nor, however he may be unfortunate enough to differ in it from his correspondent, does he believe it would, by any means, be consi- dered a singular opinion by the officers who, at that time, served in Upper Canada.

" With regard to the application of the passages quoted from Tecumseh's speech, the author conceives he cannot do better than make his readers the judges of it, by printing an entire copy of the speech, with which his correspondent has been kind enough to furnish him.

" His correspondent denies that Tecumseh ever used the ex- pressions, ' Tell the dog,' &c. ; upon which the author cannot forbear observing, that, as he has stated no particular occasion on which they were used, it seems scarcely possible his correspon- dent, unless he was never from Tecumseh's side, can have the means of proving they were never uttered at all. The author conceives his authority on this point to be such, as fully to warrant

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