Three weeks later, in a letter to Lord Liverpool, Sir George Prevost's tone had changed, and he was inclined to think war was more imminent. He writes: "The recent passing of an embargo act in congress, the orders issued for the march of sixteen hundred men to reinforce the American positions on Lakes Erie and Ontario and the river St. Lawrence, indicate an inevitable disposition for hostilities, which have induced me to accept the services of five hundred Canadian youths, to be formed into a corps of light infantry, or voltigeurs." On the same date, the minister at Washington, Mr. Foster, wrote to Lord Castlereagh, who had succeeded the Marquis of Wellesley as secretary of war: "The militia in the northern, and particularly the eastern states, are well trained and armed. The general who has been lately appointed commander-in-chief {192} (Dearborn) is a heavy, unwieldy looking man, who was a major in the American revolutionary war, and was a prisoner in Canada. He has apparently accepted his appointment with great reluctance. There is a cannon foundry near here from which a hundred cannon have been lately sent to New York, many of them cast iron. They have fifty more now on hand. Considerable supplies are daily sending to Albany, the contractors having shipped for that place every barrel of beef and pork in the market." On April 14th, the president of the United States placed an embargo on all American vessels for ninety days, so as to limit the number on the high seas, and also to enable them to man their ships of war and privateers. Their fastest merchant vessels were made into cruisers. The anti-war party in the United States, however, still hoped that the orders-in-council would be repealed or at least some friendly message sent from the English government. But no friendly message came.