PREPARATIONS FOR WAR In 1805 Brock was again quartered in Quebec. In August of that year, General Hunter, the acting lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada and commander-in-chief was taken ill and died at Quebec, just after the departure on leave of Sir Robert Millies. His death placed both provinces in a peculiar position. There was neither a governor, commander-in-chief, nor lieutenant-governor in the Canadas. Nor was there a chief justice, for Chief Justice Elmsley, who had succeeded Osgoode at Quebec, had died rather suddenly, while Chief Justice Cochrane, who had taken the former's place in Upper Canada, had been drowned with the solicitor-general and other members of the court by the foundering of the _Speedy_ in Lake Ontario. The country was therefore deprived of almost all its leading officials. To meet the emergency Colonel Bowes of the 6th Regiment, as senior officer, had assumed the military authority and Mr. Thomas Dunn, president of the council, had been appointed civil administrator on the departure of Sir Robert Milnes. In Upper Canada, Mr. Peter Russell, senior councillor, called a meeting of the legislative council, and Mr. Alexander Grant, better known as {70} Commodore Grant, was chosen acting lieutenant-governor. Alexander Grant was a native of Inverness, Scotland, and had served in Amherst's army, under whom he had been appointed to command a small fleet on Lake Erie. His home was at Grosse Point, above Detroit. In October, 1805, Lieutenant-Colonel Brock was made a full colonel and shortly afterwards returned to England on leave. While there he seized the opportunity to lay before the Duke of York, then commander-in-chief, the scheme he had drawn up for the improvement of the army in Canada. The report was favourably received and some of its recommendations were afterwards carried out.