Dictionary of Canadian Biography. X: 1871 to 1880 ed. by Marc La Terreur (review)

REVIEWS 197 wasup 3ø per cent over I88• owingto the i885 FranchiseAct. It wasthis failure to increase the vote that had so disillusioned Blake. Whether this failure to changethe percentage of Liberal votesin I887 from I88e wasowing to Blake'sstandon Riel is something that requiresto be proved. Happily, the bookdoesnot standor fall on theseperipheralpoints.It is a first-class military accountof the I885 campaign.On its own groundit is very goodindeed.The illustrations are excellent;theyconfirm,if confirmationwere needed,the qualityof the bookasa whole,aswell asconveying something of the courageand the doggedness of Canada'sfledglingmilitia army of I885. P.B. WAITE DalhousieUniversity Dictionaryo/ CanadianBiography. x: 1871 to 188o.Edited by RE,JR. Toronto and Quebec,Universityof Toronto Pressand Les Presses de l'Universit•Laval, I97•. Pp.xx, 8•3. $eo.oo. This, the third volumepublished bythe Dictionaryo[ CanadaBiography,isin fact the tenthvolumein the projectedseries. Whereastheearliervolumes dealt largelywith individualsactivein the historyof New France,the new volume treatsthosenotableCanadians whodiedbetweeni87I and i88o, thustackling the muchmorecomplexfieldof nineteenth-century Canadianhistory.Like its predecessors, this volumeis a superbpieceof historicalscholarship, usefulto all who are interested in the studyof the Canadianpast.Unfortunately,few peopleare likely to attemptthe formidabletaskof readinga largeportionof the 574 biographies containedin the volume.And that is a pity. For, whatever its obviousmerits as a work of reference,this volume is also a major contribution to socialhistory. In a shortbut wide-ranging introduction,Marc La Terreur, the editor of the volume,pointsout that theaim of thevo.lume wasto detail,aswellasany bookdealingwith biographies could,themainevents andthemes of nineteenthcenturyCanadianhistory .He goeson to outlinethesethemes, particularlythe consolidation and sophistication of Canadianinstitutions, supporting his argumentswith well-chosen references to specific biographies in thevolume.In passing he emphasizes that the volume'doesdescribe in a fairly continuous fashion three-quarters of a centuryrichin events.' In factmostof thepersonalities considered wereprominentin what mightbe termedthe earlyand mid-Victorian eras,from I83O to I87O , sothat the studyof their livesis hardly a very deep analysis of nineteenth-century Canada.Still thisis only a minor quibblewith an otherwiseexcellentintroduction,sincethe volumedoesindeedpresentthe readerwith a fair pictureof the burgeoning life of BritishAmericain a time of rapid changeand expansion. HenceLa Terreur'sperceptivecommentthat the volume'doesnot mark a pausein time, but rather is the portrayalof an evolution.' The individuals included in the volume were selected for their noteworthiness ,in other wordsfor their significance to the development of Canada. 198 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Thoughthiscriterion mightappearsomewhat vague, it hasallowed theeditors to choose a cross-section of people,bothhigh and low,whosomehow achieved prominence in the country.Indeed,if thereisanycriticism to bemadeof their selection it is not that theyhave left out somenotablepersons, but that they haveincludeda few toomanywhowereonlyordinary.And yet theinclusion of theseordinaryCanadiansis of someimportanceto the socialhistorian,if not to the generalreader. Naturallythe leaders of the colonial andCanadiancommunities receive very closeattention.There are, for example,longstudies of governors like Francis Bond Head and JamesDouglas,businessmen like William Molsonand John Young,and churchmen like AlexanderBethuneandCharlesLa Rocque.More than any othergroup,however,politicians apparently meritedthe mostdetailedtreatment -the careers of menlikeL.-J. Papineau, George l•tienneCartier , Joseph Howe, and GeorgeBrownplusa series of lesser figures like John SandfieldMacdonald,JamesWilliam Johnston, and William Henry Popeare all outlinedand analyzed in somedepth.Perhaps to the occasional readerthis concern for the politicianand hisdoings mayseemexcessive, yet at thistime in Canadianlife politicians reallywereof pre-eminent importance, morethan most businessmen or churchmen. The majorityof the biographies, of course, deal with the so-called 'middle' Canadians, people who,whiletheymaynothavesignificantly affected Canadian life, did give that life its uniquecharacter.Includedhereare novelists and artists,educators and journalists, judgesand lawyers, merchants and labourers -aswellasa longlistof zealous andScottish officials employed bythe Hudson BayCompany. To notebut a fewof these individuals, thereisMary Agnes Fleming, a professional novelist whowrote'suspense-laden' tales of 'high life' in the Anglo-American world which earnedher an annualincomein excess of $•o,oooduringthe •87os;Modeste Demers, thefirstCatholic bishop of Vancouver Island, who carried the Catholic faith into the Pacificdomainsof the HudsonBayCompany;andWilliam Logan,a British-trained scientist, who founded Canada's Geological Survey anddevoted almost thirtyyears of hislife to the geological mappingof the provinces. While the careersof suchpeople mightlackthesignificance (thoughnotalways thedrama)attached tothelives of a Papineau or a Brown,onlyby studying these'middle'Canadians canone comprehend the diversityof experiences in Victorian Canada. Lastlythevolumeconsiders a collection of assorted persons whoin oneway...