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The United Empire Loyalists: Founders of British Canada by A. G. Bradley (review) - The Canadian Historical Review
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 13, Number 3, September 1932
- pp. 325-326
- Review
- Additional Information
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REVIEWS OF BOOKS 325 The United Empire Loyalists: Foundersof British Canada. By A. G. BRADLEY. London: Thornton Butterworth. 1032. Pp. 280. THE exactinghistorianwill not be impressedby Mr. Bradley's book for in it are many minor errorsand few references to authorities:the meagre list at the endof the bookisintendedonly for the generalreader. None the lesshas the book a real value as an interpretation of the expulsion from the revolted American colonies of the more resolute of those who adheredto GeorgeIII. Mr. Bradley devotesrather more than a third of the book to the War of 1812-14with the United States, chiefly a war to drive the British from North America and to realize finally the aim involved in the name of the continental congress. In this war the Loyalists, pursuedby their former persecutingneighboursto their new homes, fought with resolve that stemmed the invasion of Canada and made it irrevocably British. Mr. Bradley seesthe link between this and the Revolution and emphasis upon it in his lively and readable narrative is one of the chief merits of his book. His twelve chapterscoverfirst the causes and progress of the Revolutionary War; then the settlementof Loyalistsin the newly-settledregion of Upper Canadathat, for the first time, broughta considerable Englishspeaking element to what had been New France, and the movement of many thousandsof Loyalistschiefly from New England and New York to the older Nova Scotia there to create the separateLoyalist province of New Brunswick. Mr. Bradley brings to his book the weight of a wide experience. The sonof a formerdeanofWestminster,hehasthe cosmopolitan outlook of a world centre. In the seventieshe was a landowner in Virginia and in its society met membersof families of which Loyalist branches had goneto Canada. A friend, Mr. Burwell, of a family that hasgiven its name to more than one place in Canada, let him read his animated correspondencewith Thomas Jefferson on agricultural topics. In Boston Mr. Bradley talked much with Francis Parkman and later lived in Canada. Always he had an enquiringmind in regardto history and the presentbook is only the last of much that he haswritten on Canada. As his life of Lord Dorchester shows,he has read much manuscript material on the period of the Loyalists. The value of the book is, however, chiefly in his outlook. While fair in tone to the revolted colonieshe understandsthe forces, sometimessinister, on their side, that grasped at Loyalist property. He has imagination to realize the problemsof the families driven from their former homesinto the wildernessof Upper Canada and admirestheir couragein facing hard tasks. His last five chapterson the War of 1812 form a readable narrative of a dreary contest. This war, as he shows,was due lessto resentment at British treatment of Americanshipsonthe highseasthan to the pressure, largely by backwoodsmenin the south and west, to add Canada to their field for exploitation. He has no high opinion of President Madison, who was weak enoughto yield to this pressureas against protestsin maritime New England that its interestson the sea required not war but peace. Mr. Bradley notes that enduring bitternessis more usual from the vanquishedthan from the victor in war and heaskswhy this ruleshould 326 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW be reversed in the case of the United States in relation to the defeated mother country. If there is now any antagonismto the United States in Great Britain it is certainly not due to the American Revolution. Yet in the victoriouscountry the massesare still likely to regard even the present-daypolicyof Great Britain asalwayssinisterand they count it still necessary to keep alive the hatredsof a century and a half ago. Of this Mr. Bradley gives illustrations sometimesamusing in their naivet6. The latest is found in the recent desire of a successful candidate for the mayoralty in Chicagoto give King GeorgeV a physicaldrubbing shouldhe visit that virtuous city. The answerto Mr. Bradley'spuzzle as to the causeof this enduring hostility is probably to be found in the nature of nationalism. A nation feels bound to define itself as different from another, perhapsa rival, nation and suchdifferencestend to breed antagonisms. An illustration is England in relation. to France. The first stagesof national life in the United States were due to war with Great Britain. Sharp...