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Chambli 28^th Sept^r 1776.

My Lord

I have received Your Lordships letter of the 21^st of June^[44] and cannot but think myself highly honoured by the notice His Majesty is pleased to take of my Services, for which I shall allways remain very thankfull.

Your Lordship having expressed a "regret that I neither specified the actual force of the Rebels, nor communicated the Intelligence I received; nor the conjectures I formed relative to their intentions." Also that my "Silence as to my own intended operations, and the present disposition of the Canadians was much to be lamented because the ignorance in which I left you concerning these matters render[e]d it impossible for you to convey to me, for the present any further Instructions."^[45]

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As to my opinion of the Canadians, I think there is nothing to fear from them, while we are in a state of prosperity, and nothing to hope for when in distress; I speak of the People at large; there are among them who are guided by Sentiments of honour, but the multitude is influenced only by hopes of gain, or fear of punishment.

I have given my opinion so amply on the affairs of Canada, how much the Canadians may be depended upon, and under what circumstances they may be usefull, in former letters which lie in your Lordships office, that I must beg leave to refer you to them; particularly to one marked secret, I think it was wrote in 1769, to the Earl of Hillsborough;^[46] also to copies of my Letters to General Gage in February 1775^[47] — and early in 1767,^[48] in which, and indeed in all my political letters, I had a war of this sort constantly in view, as your Lordship may perceive upon perusal, and have not now the least reason to change my opinion of these matters.

The second division of the Brunswick Troops^[49] is arrived, except about half the Regiment of Specht, in the Vriesland Transport. They are on their march, and I expect their last Division will arrive at St. Johns about the middle of October.

I am my Lord

with all due respect

Your Lordships

most obedient

and most

humble servant

GUY CARLETON.

Lord George Germain

[43]	Canadian Archives, Q 12, p. 188. On Jan. 25th, 1776, Lord Geo. Sackville Germain succeeded Lord Dartmouth as Colonial Secretary, or Secretary of the American Department, as it was frequently named at that period.

[44]	Conveying the King's approval of his conduct and that of his officers and of the garrison, merchants and others in defending the town of Quebec against the attacks of the invading forces under Montgomery and Arnold. See Q 12, p. 44.

[45]	Here follow details of military plans and operations for maintaining the command of Lake Champlain.

[46]

This is evidently the letter of Nov. 20th, 1768, marked "Secret Correspondence," in which he points out the important position which Canada might occupy in maintaining British interests on the Continent if the Canadian noblesse, through whom the peasantry and the Indians might be secured, were restored to the influence and power which they held under the French system. See p. 325.

[47]	His recent letter of 4th Feb. 1775. See p. 660.

[48]	Referring to his letter of 15th Feb., 1767. See p. 280. This is to much the same purpose as that to Hillsborough in Nov., 1768.

[49]

In a note from George III to Lord North, 12th Nov., 1775, referring to the distribution of the German mercenaries to be employed in the colonies, the King says, "The Troops of the Duke of Brunswick shewed so much want of courage last war, that Carleton, who can have but a small number of British Troops, ought to have the Hessians." Letters of George III to Lord North in Lord Broughman's Statesmen of the Time of George III." Vol. I, p. 93.