A Corner of Empire: The Old Ontario Strand by T. R. Glover, D. D. Calvin (review)

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 FrenchCanadiansin the Canadianexpeditionaryforces. It containsoccasional errors,suchas the statementsthat regulation17 only appliedto the first form of the elementaryschools, andthat the FrenchCanadians constituted 40 percent.of thepopulation, whileits reference to "the usualmoderation andstudieddignityof the Mail andempire"is courageous. The bookremainsa valuablecontributionto a newand difficult field. F. R. SCOTT A Corner ofEmpire: TheOldOntarioStrand. By T. R. GLOVER andD. D. CALVIN. London:Cambridge UniversityPress. [Toronto:The MacmillanCompany of Canada.] 1937. Pp. xii, 178. ($2.50) KINGSTON, Ontario, has plenty of history, but this pleasant and well-written volume,consisting mainlyof personal reminiscence, dealswith onlytwo phases of it, and thesenot very remotein time. Its authorsare concernedwith the timber shipbuilding industryof Gardenislandin its decliningyearsafter 1890,and with Queen'sUniversity in its PrincipalGrant periodabout the sametime. True, thereare throwbacks to an earlierdecade,to the shipping depression of the midseventies , whenin orderto keepgoingtheshipyardbuilt a salt-watervessel instead of the freshwateronesto which it had been confined,and even further back to the 448 Tt•- CA•U)•ts Hts•:oamAt, Rgwgw fort-buildingdays from 1812 to 1846 which left so many picturesque survivals. But the chief value of the book is the personalrecollections of the authors, of Dr. Glover in his sphereas a young lecturer at the university, just out of his fellowship days,andof Mr. Calvinasthe son(the infant sonin somepassages) of the ownerof the Gardenislandshipyard. Both are observantmen with good memories and a tastefor judiciousEnglish;and both the professorial groupand the rugged lumbermenand shipwrightscome to life very vividly in different chapters. It is interestingto learn that even in Mr. Calvin's studentdays the seniorphilosophy classstill openedwith prayer. As for the operationof rafting, or floatingtimber to Quebecfor export,the St. Lawrencetype of raft, whoseunits wereknownasa "dram" or in Frencha "cage",hasnot beensofully and understandinglydescribedby any previouswriter. It is entirely different from the better known Ottawa river type, and much more stronglybuilt. Both authors contribute many anecdotesof the university worthies of the first decadeof this century, and they were certainly amemorable group. B.K.SAm)WSLL The Dairy Industry in Canada. By J. A. RvI)I)IC•:, W. M. DRu•moNo, R. E. ENGLISH,and J. E. LATTI•r.R. Edited by H. A. INNIs. (The Relationsof Canadaandthe UnitedStates,a series of studiespreparedunderthedirection of the CarnegieEndowmentfor International Peace,Divisionof Economics and History.) Toronto: The RyersonPress. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1937. Pp. xxxii,299. ($3.75) As statedin the text, "This volumehasbeenarranged(1) to describe the backgroundof the industryin relationto world trade in generaland tradewith the United Statesin particular;(2) to givea generalsurveyof the dairy industryas seenthroughthe eyesof onewhohasbeendirectlyconcerned with development; (3) to describe its problems generallyand in relationto a...