The Municipality of Toronto: A History by Jesse Edgar Middleton, Women of Red River by W. J. Healy (review)

354 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW embroideryof the bookperhapsthe mostinterestinghasto do with the treatment of the Indians of the United States and Canada. The author condemns the Americansystemandsays"there isgoodreasonfor saying that the more rational treatment accordedby Canada to the tribes has beenfoundedin large measureon the experience which French Canada hastaught.... Amongso-called ChristianizedIndians,the Protestant Indian is an Indian while the Catholic Indian is a Catholic .... Scratch any sortof ProtestantIndian and belowthe skin lie all the aspirations of his natural religion." In the chapteron the St. LawrencePathway he calls attention to the fact that the "lower St. Lawrence,oldestof rivers, is the first of all our greater North Americanstreamswhosewatersparted under the keel of the white man's craft . . . and of all the world what river can display such panoramas pregnant with historyashaveparaded its waters?" L'Ile Perc•e is a book full of interest of the most varied kind, as may be judgedfrom the specimens of Dr. Clarke'swork which have been quotedin the foregoing pages, andno othersection of Canadahashad a more loving and brilliant tribute paid to its mountains,its wavebeatenshores , andits strangelymixedinhabitants, than thisneglected cornerof FrenchCanada,the firstpart of the countryto betroddenby awhiteman,andthelastpart of southern Canadato receive thestimulus of moderndevelopment. A. P. COLEMAN TheMunicipalityof Toronto:A History. By JESSE EDGAR MIDDLETON. With theco-operation of a groupofspecial writers. Threevolumes. Toronto: The Dominion PublishingCompany. 1923. Pp. 881; 371; illustrations. THE city of Toronto has not lacked historians. As long ago as 1878 the Rev. Dr. Scadding published that admirableessayin localhistory, Toronto ofOld; morerecentlythelateMr. JohnRoss Robertson issued, in sixvolumes, hisLandmarks of Toronto;andat onetimeor another severalother versionsof the history of Toronto have appeared. Now therecomes fromthe pressa portly workin threevolumes written by Mr. J. E. Middletonanda groupof special writerswhohaveassisted him. Therewas,perhaps, some justification for thisnewattemptto tell the story of Toronto'sgrowth. Dr. Scadding's bookis now half a centuryold, and Mr. JohnRossRobertson'sLandmarks are sounorgam izedandchaoticthat onecanrarelyfindin them,withoutgreatdifficulty, the information desired. Mr. Middleton's volumes have the merit of bringing thehistory ofthecityuptodate,andofsystematizing thework REVIEWS OF BOOKS 355 of hispredecessors in sucha way that hisvolumes areadmirablyadapted for reference purposes. He hasdividedhiswork into fourparts--" The City in its Beginnings","The City in its Progress","The City in its Activities" and "The City in its People", and he has providedan excellent index to the whole. Most of the chaptershave beenwritten by Mr. Middleton himself. In many of thesehe has not only gathered together the work of his predecessors, but he has done not a little researchon his own account. A chapterto whichspecialinterestattachesisthat on "The Newspapers of Toronto", in which Mr. Middleton has embodieda good deal of informationwhich has comewithin his personalknowledge. There is, however,in this chapterone seriousmistake. Mr. Middleton argues at somelength that JosephWillcocks's Upper Canada Guardian (supposedto havebeenfoundedin 1807)wasneverpublished;andheasserts that "nobodyhaseverseena copyof the paper" (p. 415). This is far from being the case. One could easily cite the evidenceof a number of 'persons whohaveprofessed to haveseen copies of thejournal; andasa matter of fact a photographicreproductionof the issueof April 14, 1810,is in the possession of the Niagara Historical Society. The chapterscontributedby specialwriters are: "Toronto and the Great War", by Lieut.-Col. JohnA. Cooper; "Toronto Harbour", by Mr. V. M. Roberts; "Railway Transportation.... Banking and , Finance" and "Manufacturing", by Mr. A. R. R. Jones; "Trade , Unionsin Toronto", by Mr. J. M. Conner; "The Medical Profession in Toronto", by Dr. H. B. Anderson; "The Hospitalsof Toronto", by Dr. J. N. E. Brown; "The Courtsof UpperCanada",by the Hon. Mr. JusticeRiddell; "The Catholic Church in Toronto", by Mr. H. F. Mackintosh; and "The Beginnings of the Telegraph", by Mr. Robert F. Easson. An appendixgivesa completelist of the members of the TorontoCity Councilfrom 1834to the present. One couldwish that the sectionentitled "The City in its People" had beenomitted. This secti6noccupies nearly half the work, and containsa seriesof biographical sketches of citizensof Toronto. The sketches arenot all writtenwith equallygoodjudgment,andonelooks amongthemin vain for a numberof importantnames; and yet--who knowsbut that the historianof the future may find in someof these sketches the mostvaluableandusefulpart of the wholework? Womenof RedRiver. By W. J. H•.AL¾. Winnipeg: The Women's CanadianClub. 1923. Pp. 261. T•Is bookisalmostcommunal in its makingaswellasits interest. Its...