The Founding of New England by James Truslow Adams (review)

REVIEWS OF BOOKS 191 in other spheres. We share somethingof Sir Robert's gloom over the Peace,but faith will prevail if only we can be preparedto take risks-the great guaranteeof progress. As a new edition of this volume will doubtlessbe called for shortly, we shouldlike to point out someplaceswherechanges appeardesirable. It ought to be madeperfectly clearthat the stipulation in the Capitulations of Montreal that the free exerciseof the Roman Catholic religion "should subsistentire" wasa French stipulation, and that Amherst did not usethe term, but only the generalconcession of the Capitulationof Quebec (p. 15). The appeal to the Privy Council under the Proclamation of 1763wasonly in civil cases(p. 16). "Four" (p. 32, 1.7) ought to be "five." The quotation on pages59-60 is incomplete,and all of the Dominionsexcept Canada did not.approveof Lyttelton's proposals in 1905 (p. 59). New Zealand did not reply and Newfoundland explicitly disagreed. The discussion(pp. 63-64) over attempts by the imperial governmentto disallow provincial acts ought to be widened by a reference to Macdonald's attempt in 1888 to bring imperial influenceto bear againsta Quebecstatute (Correspondence, pp. 417-18). Secretary Bayard's letter to Tupper (p. 76) ought not to be isolated from the previous diplomatic correspondence, which places Canada's developmentin a,very strongposition. Great Britain made it perfectly clear, asagainstthe positiontaken up by the United States,that Canada had a perfectright to dealwith the mattersof treaty rights. The date "1866" (p. 144, n. 18) ought to be "1766." In a new edition an index ought to be provided. W. P. M. KENNEDY The Founding of New England. By JAMESTRUSLOWADAMS. Boston: TheAtlanticMonthlyPress.[1921.] Pp.•.i,482; illustrations. THE direct bearing of this book on Canadian history is slight. It contains somepageswhich deal with the early connectionbetween New England and Acadia; and there is an interesting account of Phips's expedition against Quebec in 1690. There are also some admirable chapters on American geographyand ethnology, on the early voyages of discovery, and on the early colonial policy of Great Britain, all of whichhavean interestfor the studentof early Canadianhistory,if only by reasonof the fact that they serveto set it in its propermilieu. But the history of one part of North America, even when told with the sweepand comprehensiveness of Mr. Adams'sbook,would have but a secondaryand incidental interest for the historiansof other parts of North America, were it not that it exhibited featuresof an exceptional and revolutionary character. 192 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW These featuresMr. Adams'sbook possesses.Rarely has there appeareda book which illustratesmore signallythe serviceswhich the New History can render. Mr. Adams has chosenas his theme a story whichhasbeentold over and over again,a story which hasbeentold sooften that onewouldhave thought therewasnothingmoreto be said. But by utilizing the evidence which modern historical research has brought to light, in many diversefields,and by assemblingthis evidence in a freshandthoroughlyscientificmanner,hehassucceeded in furnishing a new version of the beginningsof New England history, in which a body blow is dealt to many a hoary myth. "New material broughtto light within the past decadeor two," he saysin hispieface, "has necessitated a revaluationof many formerjudgments,aswell as changes in selectionand emphasis .... It is true that many points--suchaslandtenure , in spite of all that has beenwritten uponit--yet remain to be clearedup beforewe can be quite surethat we understanda numberof matters connectedwith colonial institutions. Nevertheless,so much work of this character has already been done, which has only in part foundits way into popularaccounts, that it seems as if the time had comefora serious attemptto recastthestoryofearlyNew England,and to combinetheseresultsof recent researchwith the more modernspirit, in a new presentationof the period." Mrs. Felicia Hemans,in her famousverseson "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers," askedand answeredthe question: What soughtthey thus afar? The treasures of the mine, The wealth of seas,the spoilsof war? They soughta faith's pure shrine. Mr. Adams showsconclusivelythat Mrs. Hemans'sanswerwas wrong. Although the religiouselementwasnot entirely absentin what may be calledthe Puritan migrationto America,it wasdistinctly subordinate to the economic. "The wealth of seas,"indeed,was much more the lure that broughtthe Pilgrim Fathersto New Englandthan any desire for "a faith'spureshrine,"whichthoseofthemwhohadbeenin Holland had enjoyed there. The fact is...