The Crisis of Quebec, 1914–18 by Elizabeth H. Armstrong (review)

446 THe. CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW isolation. Should eitheror bothfail,wemaywonder howlongit canendure .... " The lastcorners of "OldFrance"arebeingswiftlyinvaded. Forexample, after Notre Damein Montrealwasbuilt "theNew York Gothic"stylespread through Quebec, which"explains the ugliness of mostof the renovated churches alongthe St. Lawrence" (p. 171). All whoareinterested in themelting-pot "nowboiling onthe'St.Lawrence" (p. 173)should readthisbookandbooks like it. The volumeis profusely illustrated andwell printedwhichmakesit a pleasure to the eye. Thekingdomof $aguenaybelongs to the bibliographyof Canadianart. It is illustratedin black and white reproductions of drawingsby elevenCanadian artists (not the most attractive featureof the volume) and consists chieflyof legends andstories of the St. Lawrence. Thereis a quaintnurseryflavourabout thetelling,whichnevertheless does notmakethemseem fit forthenursery. Perhapsthe mostinteresting sketchis "P•re Raquette",a studyof Mr. A. Y. Jackson, and throughthe dialogue, of the methodsandphilosophy of someof the otherleaders in Canadian art. The sketchshows very clearlywhythisgroupof paintersonthe onehandseemto revealthiscountry,because they takethetrouble to live in its landscapes andgrowup with them,and on the other,why theirbold andprimitiveman-handling ofsnow,rocks,trees,andscenes generally, struck,and hereand there still strike, sorudely on eyesaccustomed to the canvasses born in thepolite travail ofthefashionable studio. T.W.L. MACDEaMOT The Crisis of Quebec, 1914-18. By ELIZABETHH. ARMSTRONG. New York: ColumbiaUniversityPress. 1937. Pp. xiv, 270. ($3.00) T•Is bookis publishedat an opportunemoment. French-Canadian nationalism is oncemorea powerfulpoliticalforcein the dominion. The world situationlooks distressingly like that whichexisted in theyears1912-4;Canadians arelivingdaily in thefearofbeingobligedto choose againbetweeninterventionornon-intervention in a Europeanwar. If the choicemustbe made,the attitude of FrenchCanada will become of supreme importance. An accountof the relationsbetweenthe two racesin Canada during the years 1914-8has thus much more than a merely historical interest. Miss Armstrongvery properlydevotesseveralchaptersto the background of the nationalistmovementbeforeenteringupon a discussion of the war years. This part of the book providesa usefulsurvey of the developmentof French Canada's politicalaspirations duringthefirsthundredandfifty yearsunderBritish rule. The author'sthesisis that in spiteof the racial struggles of the preceding years Canada was a united country at the outbreak of the war. "In 1914 Canadiansof both racesandall religions wereboundin a sortof unionsacrde .... The representatives of everyshadeof FrenchCanadianpoliticalopinion,Liberals, Conservatives and even Nationalistsseemedto vie with eachotherin expressing enthusiasm for the Allied cause andfor Canadianparticipation." This statement shesupports with numerous quotationsfromlay andecclesiastical pronouncements, includingeven the redoubtableBourassa. The changein the French-Canadian attitude cameabout,in heropinion,asa resultof the re-emergence of theinnate isolationism of Quebec,fortifiedby the stupiditiesof the Englishwhohad chosen this momentto attack the useof the Frenchlanguagein the Ontario schools and who carried the same lack of tact into their methods of enlistment and treatment of French-Canadian recruits. These blunders armed the more extreme nationalists REVIEWS OF BOOKS 447 with the weapons they wanted. Bourassa repentedof hisearlierapprovalof the war andlaunched hiscrusade againstimperialism. The tworacesdriftedsteadily apart until conscription andits enforcement broughtthe climaxof the Quebec riots of March, 1918. After that blood-lettingtempersbeganto easeand a greater toleranceto reassertitself, sothat the worstbitternesshad passed by the time the armistice had arrived. For a generalpictureof the principalcurrentsof opinionin Quebec duringthe waryears,thebookisexcellent. MissArmstrong hasmadea painstaking search throughthe pamphletliterature of the period,and alsothroughthe filesnot only of the larger French dailiesbut of the important local paperspublishedin the smallerQuebectowns. Shehasappreciated thefact that the Frenchpress reflects the ideasof the French masses far more rapidly and accuratelythan doesthe Englishpressthe viewsof the EnglishCanadians. Her book alsobringsout in somedegree the tendency,alwayspresentin French-Canadian movements, of the popularleadersto gobeyondthe limitsof what the Romanhierarchywouldallow. Shedoes not,however, looksufficiently belowthesurface ofspeeches andpublished statements to analysetheunderlying conflicts within French-Canadian nationalism. To do sowouldhaveinvolvedseparating the religious influencefrom the purely racial and nationalisturgesof the people,a task not easy to perform but one essential to the understanding of FrenchCanadathen as now. The supportof the war givenby the churchin the early daysof 1914waswiseand properfrom the Catholicpoint of view as indicatingsupportof constitutedauthority, but it was not necessary onany nationalistpremise. Nationalismprovedthe strongerof the two influences duringthe war, and the church,especially the lowerordersof the clergy,had to followthe populartrend or be left far behind. Quebec's vigorous isolationism wasa productof hernationalismrather than of herCatholicism. The samenationalismwasbeginningto work amongstEnglishCanadiansin 1917,and Miss Armstrongmight usefullyhave written more about the oppositionto conscriptionin EnglishCanadato showthat the FrenchCanadianswereleaders in an attitudeto commonwealth affairswhichwasspreading beyondQuebec. The crisisin Quebecis well documented, hasa usefulbibliographyand index, and containsan interestingappendixon the numberof...