BROCK’S spectacular capture of Fort Detroit brought all Canada to his feet. Foremost in admiration was Sir George Prevost. Had Brock failed, Sir George no doubt, would have been as brusque in condemnation as, now that Brock had conquered, he was fulsome in praise. He had done his best to hamper Brock, and indeed at the last minute had sent a staff officer commanding him not to undertake the proposed Detroit expedition, but the messenger, happily alike for Canada and Brock, had failed to arrive in time. Provincial authorities and friends rained their congratulations, while Lord Bathurst, the British Secretary for War and the Colonies, commended him for his “firmness, skill, and bravery.” Bathurst’s case was similar to Prevost’s, for he had adjured the governor-general by repeated messages not to assume the offensive lest the Americans become unduly aggravated and thus possibly have some genuine cause of complaint. Nothing could better show the smallmindedness of the class of officialdom to which Bathurst and Prevost belonged than their willingness, now that victory was achieved, to share in the credit therefore. Bathurst wrote to Brock that “the Prince Regent had honored him for his services by making him an extra Knight of the Bath.” Unhappily, the man whom the Prince thus delighted to honor and who, one likes to think, would have honored the order by accepting it, died before he received word. Brock’s victory did something to offset the misfortunes which had piled upon the British in Europe. Just before the news of the capture of Fort Detroit was received in London, Britain had been beaten in a naval duel. The American ship _Constitution_ had thrashed the British battleship _Guerriere_. The shame which Britain felt on this account was deepened by the knowledge that she had been beaten on her own element by what was once a colony of hers. News of Brock’s victory, therefore, was opportune, and the British government was able to point out to the people that, if America had won a victory on the sea, she had more than lost it by the surrender of Detroit. October 6th was Brock’s birthday, the day on which the news of the victory at Detroit reached London. Brock’s brother William and his wife happened to be walking in a London park, and Mrs. Brock asked the reason of the flag-waving and the firing. “Do you not know,” said William, “that it is Isaac’s birthday? It is in honor of him.” What William said in jest turned out to be the very truth.