APPENDIX D. COINCIDENCES. In addition to the few mentioned in the text, (see pp. 14, 34, 44, and 101,) the following have been selected for insertion in this appendix. The subject may seem strange, but it is surely one which affords room for innocent speculation on the attributes of that Almighty Being, "who can make alive and who can kill." By many these coincidences will be ascribed to accident; others may view them as something more than special; while all must admit that so many links in the chain, if the effect of chance, do appear to be singularly casual. Oh Providence! how hidden are thy ways,- Sir Isaac Brock was born on the 6th October; made lieutenantcolonel 25th October, 1797; commanded his regiment at the battle of Egmont op Zee on the 6th October, 1799 (his birth-day); colonel 30th October, 1805; assumed the office of president of Upper Canada 9th October, 1811; and killed 13th October, 1812. War was declared by the United States on the 18th June, 1812, not without a strong opposition in the house of representatives, the division being seventy-nine to forty-nine votes. Thus this day, which became three years subsequently so memorable in the annals of Great Britain, was equally fatal to uncle and nephew, Major-General Brock and Lieutenant Tupper, and the forty-nine dissentients to the war tally with the former's favorite regiment. Moreover, the counter declaration of war, with the granting of letters of marque and reprisals, was not issued by Great Britain till the 13th of October, the day on which Sir Isaac Brock was slain, Extract of a letter from Fordsgrove, near London, dated 27th June, 1806.-"Isaac left town last evening in the mail for Milford Haven..... Dear fellow! Heaven knows when we shall see him again."-Thus Colonel Brock left London for the last time to embark for Canada on the 26th June, and his nephew, Lieutenant E. W. Tupper, died at Malta of his wounds on the 26th June, 1826, exactly twenty years after. The only two British general officers hitherto killed in action in Canada, derived their names from two animals formerly very common in Britain, the wolf and the brock, (the latter being the Saxon name for badger, and still retained in the English language,) and both their christian and surnames consisted of the same number of letters, James Wolfe and Isaac Brock. Both generals fell on the same day of the month, the 13th of September, 1759, and the 13th of October, 1812, and in places whose three first letters were the same, Quebec and Queenstown. Since the last coincidence was written, we accidentally observed in the Navy List for July, 1831, the following extract: "Mastiff, 6, Surveying Vessel-Mediterranean. Lieut. Commanding . • James Wolfe.. Nov. 22, 1830. ... Super. Lieut. and Assist. Surveyor. . T. S. Brock. Nov. 22, 1830." T. Saumarez Brock, great nephew of Lord De Saumarez, and a near relative of Sir Isaac Brock. As Captain Isaac Hull captured the Guerriere, so Major-General Isaac Brock captured Brigadier-General Hull, being the two first captures of any consequence made by sea and land in the late war. Extract of a letter from J. Savery Brock, Esq., dated York, Upper Canada, August 20, 1817.-"I should also mention that last Saturday I dined at Fort George, (Niagara,) by the invitation of the gentlemen there and its environs: we were forty-nine in number, and it was the anniversary of the capture of Detroit. I was invited without their remembering the day of the month: it was a curious coincidence." As two of Lieutenant E. W. Tupper's brothers were drowned, so were two of his brother lieutenants of the Sybille. The vacancy, to which Lieutenant Tupper was promoted, was occasioned by Lieutenant (now Captain Sir Thomas, Bart.) Thompson going home from Marseilles in June, 1825. The name of the officer, who killed his uncle William and godfather in a duel, was also Thompson. Several coincidences relative to General Wolfe and Sir Isaac Brock, and the latter and Lieutenant Tupper, of the Sybille, have already been mentioned. In Westminster Abbey there is a beautiful monument to the memory of General Wolfe, placed on a cross wall erected to receive it. On the other side of this wall is another large and handsome monument to the memory of Captain Edward Cooke, of H. M. S. Sybille, who was mortally wounded at the capture of the French frigate, La Forte, in the East Indies, on the 28th February, 1799, and died at Calcutta, Captain Cooke and Lieutenant Tupper being the only British officers of either rank mortally wounded on board the Sybille. Captain Cooke was a lieutenant in the Victory, at Toulon, with Lieutenant Carré Tupper, and also distinguished himself there. Captain and Lieutenants on board the Sybille frigate, June 18, 1826, with the date of their commissions : Captain Sir Samuel S. Pechell, Bart., C. B. June 16, 1808. June 30, 1813. All dated in June, excepting that of Lieutenant Tupper, and the Sybille was captured in the Greek Archipelago 17th June, 1794. Lieutenant Tupper's commission was dated in April, and he lost his life in June; the commissions of Lieutenants Gordon and Bliss were dated in June, and they perished in April. Lieutenant Tupper succeeded to a vacancy which occurred in June, 1825. Lieutenant Gordon was made a commander 3d June, 1826, and appointed to command the Acorn 25th June, 1827. He perished about the 17th April, 1828, and Colonel Tupper was killed in Chile 17th April, 1830. APPENDIX E. Extract from an Account of the Public Dinner given in Guernsey, on Tuesday, August 29, 1826, in honour of Sir John Doyle, Bart., G.C.B. and K. C., formerly Lieutenant-Governor of the island. The health of Sir John Doyle having been drunk, he rose, and, after some preliminary observations, spoke as follows: "Is there a profession in which you do not see native talent and spirit arrive at eminence? In the commercial line I have myself witnessed, from this small island, two Lords Mayors of London.* In the arts and sciences, you can boast a Doctor John Macculloch, celebrated throughout Europe for his unrivalled scientific knowledge; a Jeremie, who carries off the prizes even for English composition, in the University of Cambridge; a Dobrée, who obtained a Professor's chair, and succeeded the great Porson. In acts of individual bravery, none can excel the youth of the island. It is but a few years ago that a fine young man, Captain Dobrée, of the royal navy, with other brave natives, in trying to save a shipwrecked crew, sacrificed his valuable life. More fortunate was the generous intrepidity of Messrs. Lefebvre and Thomas Dobrée,† of the same service, both of whom, at different times, jumped overboard, and each rescued two British seamen from a watery grave. In the navy and the army, the smallness of the island prevents your contributing so largely as the more extended portion of the empire; but what you lack in quantity, you have amply made up in quality. Look to the annals of war: there you will see recorded the brilliant achievements of your gallant countrymen : the public gazettes will show you the names of Saumarez, Brock, Le Marchant and Smith, with other distinguished characters in the higher ranks of both services, that do not at this moment occur to me; for there is scarcely a family in the island that has not given its share to the general stock of native reputation and renown. -When I mention Sir Isaac Brock, General Le Marchant, Sir *The late Peter Perchard and Paul Le Mesurier, Esquires,--the latter was also Member of Parliament for Southwark. + Now Lieutenants of the Royal Navy. George Smith, in the higher, and Captain M'Crea,* Lieutenants La Serre* and Tupper in the junior ranks, I do from my heart deplore, that I must speak of those illustrious men, and brave youths, in the tense that is past, as, nobly prodigal of their blood in the service of their king and country, they have closed a life of glory on the bed of honor.† Their memories will long be cherished by a grateful country, and will live in the recollection of its enemies.—Our Saumarez, we still happily possess, not only to adorn and do honor to his native land, but to uphold the destinies of the empire, should they be endangered. His fame will be found recorded in every portion of the globe where the British flag has been known to fly. And well may our brave islander exclaim, with the Roman, Quæ Regio in Terris, Nostri non plena Laboris.' "The chairman gave-Colonel Evans and the garrison.' "Colonel Evans, after having returned thanks for the garrison and himself in appropriate terms, said, that lately arrived in this island, and finding himself surrounded by the friends and relatives of a great man, the loss of whom no one could lament more than he did, he would beg leave to propose a solemn toast to the memory of that heroic officer, who he scarcely need say, was Sir Isaac Brock. Attached to his person by official situation, as well as by friendship at the time of his death, he could appreciate his merits, and truly say that he possessed every quality that constituted a great man and a good soldier-brave and humane in the highest degree, he raised his fame in a distant country, and saved a large and valuable province belonging to Great Britain, by the resources which his own mind and energy could alone have drawn out and used, successfully to repel an invasion against numbers so superior, that resistance was generally deemed hopeless. He had to defend a frontier of many hundred miles with a trifling force, which he augmented by the influence of his popularity, and inspired by his example. He not only defended Upper Canada, but actually captured a whole army, and a strong fortress; his name will live in that country, and in history for ever; and his death was lamented even by his enemies, or rather by the enemies of his country, for * These two officers, both of the 87th regiment, were killed at Talavera, in 1809. Captain Rawdon M'Crea was only twenty years of age. + Colonel Le Mesurier in the higher, and Captain Le Marchant and Lieutenant Le Mesurier in the junior ranks were omitted, they all fell in the late Peninsular war.-Captain Carey Le Marchant was aid-de-camp to his father, when the latter was slain at Salamanca, in 1812, and subsequently to Lieut.-General Hon. Sir Walter Stewart. |