Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/42

 24 MEMOIR OF SIR ISAAC BROCK.

in those personal gifts which appear to such peculiar advantage in the army, and at the first glance the soldier and the gentleman were seen. In stature he was tall, erect, athletic, and well proportioned, although in his latter years his figure was perhaps too portly ; and when a young man, at the head of his company of grenadiers, he attracted general observation by his martial presence. His fine and benevolent counte- nance was a perfect index of his mind, and his manners were courteous, frank, and engaging. His character has already been so fully developed in the preceding pages that it may appear superfluous to add a brief sketch of its more prominent features. Brave, liberal, and humane ; devoted to his sovereign, and loving his country with romantic fondness ; in command so gentle and persuasive, yet so firm, that he possessed the rare faculty of acquiring both the respect and the attachment of all who served under him. When urged by some friends, shortly before his death, to be more careful of his person, he replied : " How can I expect my men to go where I am afraid to lead them ;" and although perhaps his anxiety ever to shew a good example, by being foremost in danger, induced him to expose himself more than strict prudence or formality warranted, yet, if he erred on this point, his error was that of a soldier. Elevated to the government of Upper Canada, he reclaimed the disaffected by mildness, and fixed the wavering by argument ; and having no national par- tialities to gratify, that rock on which so many provincial governors have split, he meted equal favor and justice to all. British born subjects soon felt convinced that with him their religion or their birth place was no obstacle to their advancement. Even

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