Fourscore Years

REVIEWS 107 of law as entirely repressive has not been maintained since Aristotle stat<7d the fundamental truth, that the functiQl1 of law is to provide -security. ,But the relation between coerciv.e and regulative processes will vary with the degree of general stability and above all with the degree to which actual laws express the norms of social conduct. This wider view of law involves many topics, such as the function of the State, the independence of groups, ,. the status of corporations, the limits ' of individual freedom. All these require careful study with the co-operation of students of p~litical science, ' law, sociology and philosophy. The work of Gurvitch is a valuable contribution in the field of sociological enquiry. To give an adequate idea of his method a~d results it would be necessary to analyse the second half of the book which elaborates the systematic principles under the headings: "Systematic Sociology of Law'" "Differential Sociology of Law" or "Jural Typology," and "Genetic Sociology of Law.)) These sections are very condensed and technical, so that they might be regarded as a programme for research in the different topics indicated. The outcome of this research would be exhaustive knowledge of "the innumerable variations of jural , rules, behaviour patterns, symbols, principle'S and values" (p. 308): This would be necessary as a basis for a sound philosophy of law. So we come back to that synthesis of idealism and realism mentioned above, which, we suspect, amounts in the case of 'this writer to a reconciliation of the dominant European and American attitudes. At least it is significant that the final admonition is that philosophy and sociology may ayoid conflict, provided they cling to a "radical empiricism» with an intuiti~nal basis. This surely is a formula for combining William James and Immanuel Kant, that peace and goodwill may once more prevail among the students of' hUl:nan relations. FOURSCORE YEARS* G. B. HARRISON I t is a speculation worthy of the schoolmen whether a hundred years hence Dr. Coulton's autobiography will be read as introduction to his medieval studies or whether the medieval studies will be used by students as appendix to the autobiography. For myself, I would guess that the autobiography will,survive longer. There are fashions in scholarship, but an honest , well-written autobiography is a permanent monument, and Fourscore Years is a vintage book, full of good stories, acute observations and wise sentences. Nevertheless it is not to be commended without ,comment as a pattern for living for every earnest young student who aspires to the academic life, for Dr. Coulton's career has been unorthodox. At school he was undistinguished. He was an idle undergraduate, and his first degree was, more than in name, by Grace of the University of Cam- *Fourscore Years: An AutobiograplJY. By G. G. COULTON. Cambridge: The University Press (Torcnto: The Macmillan Company of Ca.nada). 1943. Pp. viii) 378. ($7.00) 108 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY 'bridge. Moreover, ,he .never took a Ph.D., nor even an approved course in Historical Method. He did not teach in a university until he was in his fifties; and he loved' hard-hitting public controversy. These are not courses to be followed by orthodox scholars, but they are part of the composition of a remarkable personality. Dr. Coulton was born at Lynn-the unknowing call it King's Lynn. He has some good pictures of middle-class Victoria~ life in a town which is still rich in relics and customs of the Middle _Ages. At the age of seven he was sent to learn French at St. Orner, and in 1867 he entered Lynn Grammar School where conditions would move modern educationists to horror, though Dr. Coulton maintains (and many of those brought up in the same kind of school would agree) that there is much virtue in compulsion . "I admit myself grateful to those who, 'in the class room, dragged me through the paths of Greek and Latin which I should never have trodden by mere unforced choice." Thence he was sent'to Felsted in Essex, one of .the smaller English public schools which had evolved from the grammar school founded in 1554 hy Richard, Lord Rich, who had profited exceedingly from the spoils of the monasteries. Dr. Coulton's memories produce excellent chapters on the English public school of which he had considerable experience. From Felsted, after an attempt (fortunately unsuccessful) to win a scholarship at Wadham College, Oxford, he ultimately entered St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, as Senior Classical Scholar. The chapters on Cambridge at the end of the eighteen-seventies are a permanent addition to the record, already rich, of Cambridge life, but Dr. Coulton admits that "the three idlest years of my 'life were spent at Cambridge." The Fellows of St. Catharip,e's were not inspiring teachers, which is not perhaps surprising, as six of them averaged nearly seventy.nine years, with the senior aged ninety-six and the junior a mere fiftynine . 'This state of affairs passed after the first Great War when the old English universities came into line with younger foundations which decree that a man must make way for his juniors at sixty-five. Dr. Coulton left Cambridge with an aegrotat degree and went on to Llandaff to prepare for ordination in the Church of England. After a short spell as a curate he was soon· involved in a spiritual'-crisis when he found that the dogmas which he prof~ssed were unacceptable to his common sense.. He thereafter abandoned parish work and became a master in a small public school in Wales. Thence, in the interval before he finally lapsed into lay life, he went to Heidelberg where he combined a chaplaincy in an English school with the study Qf German, and a first-hand realization of the eternal' bellicosity of the Germans. When he returned to England he held temporary posts at two other public schools-Sherborne and Sedbergh-and then went to Dulwich College, originally foun.ded by .Edward AHeyn, the Elizabethan actor. Here he was near London, with opportunities for studying at the 'British Museum. His career at Dulwich came to an end ~n 1895 when he began seriously REVIEWS 109 to devote himself to medieval studies, a conversion which started after a severe illness and was completed in co~valescence in Italy. His next post was at Eastbourne, in Sussex with H. v. E. Scott, a famous crammer in his day. , The crammer is a type now rare in England. He was an expert in pre- 'paring for examinations those needing more personal attention than is av'ailable in universities or public schools. He charged high fees and gave individual, tuition. His pupils were very mixed: 'some needing polish for the higher competitive examinations, such as entrance ' to the Indian Civil Service, others to be levered into the universities. The advantage of this life to Dr. Coulton was a sufficient income) work less regimented -and more stimulating than the routine of schoolmastering and enough leisure to pursue his own enthusiasms. Dr. Coulton remained at Eastbourne for eleven years. He had meanwhile begun to give lectures for- the University Extension, particularly on Chaucer and his England, which afterward~ developed into one of his most successful books. In 1903,. after a memorable experience of winte'r sports, he was married and was thereafter happily led to turn author for the most efficacious of all reasons-a need for more money.. He finally left Eastbourne and returned to 'Cambridge in 1911, where he,set up as a coach but was soon brought in to lecture for the University. In 1919 when Cambridge was flooded with men returning from the war he was appointed University Lecturer in Medieval Studies for the newly founded English tripos and about the same time elected a 'Research Fellow at St. John's College. "Thus," as he e~presses it, "began another Vita Nuooa of unbroken help and harmony to the present day." Unfortunately at this point the autobiographical chapters cease, which-for those of my generationis the more disappointing as it was at this time that I first was made aware of "G. G.", being one of the crowd of ex-service men who sat beneath him as he discoursed, peripatetically,- on the social life of Chaucer's England. Of the early years of the English tripos and of the welter at Cambridge in the nineteen-twenties he says nothing. It is to be hoped that in the next edition he may be persuaded to add additional chapters on one of the most 'interesting periods-in the history of the University. .As might be expected of the author, the book is vigorous and sometimes ,combative, and the chapter on "History!and Controversy" is not so much a defence of those methods which Dr. Coulton has followed as a defiance of his critics. His criticisms of professional historians are pungent, and not unjust. "History suffers more than any other Faculty from academic conservatism and pedantry. . .. In History, as elsewhere, our first guide should be common-sense. . .. The more we divorce History from the common life of ordinary men) the more we strangle its own vigorous life." .It is indeed lamentably true that few of those modern scholars who write history have ever helped to make it. Apart from his own personality and industry (which IS prodigious) Dr. Coulton's greatest advantage as a 110 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY , . , historian is that he has had an unu'sually wide experience of men. Believ-' ing that men differ very little in any age, he expects to find then; behaving in the past as in the present. Hence his refusal to see any romance In the Middle Ages, and even less in the medieval Church. The book is illustrated with photographs and drawings-and Dr. Coulton is no mean draughtsman'. One in particular should give sardonic pleasure to those who have known him and his work. It was taken when he received the honorary degre~ of LL.D. at Queen's together with the Cardinal Archbishop of Quebec. The attitud~ and expression of both is perfect. The test of an autobiography is its objective truth. Fourscore Years is a true picture of the writer, with his courtesy, modesty and humanity, . learning and affability, his charm, honesty and common sense, and, it may be added, with his bonnet humming gently, with his own peculiar bees. PRELUDE TO GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD'" EDGAR McINNIS The Treaty of Washington in 1871 marked the close of a highly disturbed decade in the relations between Canada and the United States. The Civil War and its aftermath brought a whole series of developments which gave " rise to acute tension and on occasion raised the possibility of actual hostilities . It was only when the treaty with its arbitration clauses provided for 'the adjustment of the chief difficulties of the United States with both Britain and Canada that the path was opened for the development of a firm and growing friendliness on both sides of the border. The evolution of this spirit during the generation which followed was not entirely unclouded. On the one hand there was a tacit determination on both sides to live in harmony and to settle all difficulties by peaceful means. On the other there were controversies still to be settled which gave rise to a good deal of friction before solutions were finally reached. The four outstanding topics were commercial relations, fisheries, fur sealing ~ and the Alaskan boundary. All of them gave rise to prolonged negotiations: I and though they never threatened a breach of the basic good relations I between the two countries, they created a constant undercurrent of minor ~ i~ritations which delayed the evolution of mutual confidence and goodwill. 1 The recent volume by Professor Tansill in the Carnegie series of studies r' on Canadian-American relations is a detailed survey of the chief topics of diplomacy during this period. As such it fills a very real gap in the historicalliterature of the two countries. The author has worked through a mass of documents--many of them concerned wi th tedious and repetitious II wrangling over detailed points-covering the negotiatioris which were in ~ *Canadian-American Relations, 1875-1911. By CHARLES CALLAN TANSILL. (The Relations of Canada and the United States, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.) _ New Haven: Yale University Press. Toronto: Ryerson Press. 1943. Pp. ~x, 507. ($4.50) ...