In consequence of your having desired Colonel Proctor to proceed to Amherstburg, and of your presence being necessary at the seat of government to meet the legislature of Upper Canada, I have taken upon myself to place Major-General Sheaffe on the staff, to enable me to send him to assist you in the arduous task you have to perform, in the able execution of which I have great confidence. He has been accordingly directed to proceed without delay to Upper Canada, there to place himself under your command. I believe you are authorized by the commission under which you administer the government of Upper Canada, to declare martial law in the event of invasion or insurrection; it is therefore for you to consider whether you can obtain any thing equivalent to that power from your legislature. I have not succeeded in obtaining a modification of it in Lower Canada, and must therefore, upon the occurrence of either of those calamities, declare the law martial unqualified, and of course shut the doors of the courts of civil law. The report transmitted by Captain Dixon, of the Royal Engineers, to Lieut.-Colonel Bruyeres, of the state of defence in which he had placed Fort Amherstburg, together with the description of the troops allotted for its defence, give me a foreboding that the result of General Hull's attempt upon that fort will terminate honorably to our arms. If Lieut.-Colonel St. George be possessed of the talents and resources required to form a soldier, he is fortunate in the opportunity of displaying them. Should General Hull be compelled to relinquish his operations against Amherstburg, it will be proper his future movements should be most carefully observed, as his late march exhibits a more than ordinary character of enterprize. Your supposition of my slender means is but too correct; notwithstanding, you may rely upon every exertion being made to preserve uninterrupted the communication between Kingston and Montreal, and that I will also give all possible support to your endeavours to overcome every difficulty. The possession of Malden, which I consider means Amherstburg, appears a favorite object with the government of the United States. I sincerely hope you will disappoint them. Should the intelligence, which arrived yesterday by the way of Newfoundland, prove correct, a remarkable coincidence will exist in the revocation of our orders in council as regards America, and the declaration of war by congress against England, both having taken place on the same day in London and at Washington, the 17th June. _Colonel Baynes to Major-General Brock_. QUEBEC, August 1, 1812.