Land of a Thousand Sorrows: the Australian Prison Journal of the Exiled Canadien Patriote, François Maurice Lepailleur ed. by F. Murray Greenwood (review)

REVIEWS 247 Historyof CanadianScience and Technologyin •978 at Kingston.In this volumethe papersand reportsof theconference are published alongwith usefulappendices listing museumsof scienceand technology in Canada anda select bibliography of thehistoryof Canadianscience, medicine, and technology. Suchcollections of papersarenecessarily unevenin quality.In thisvolume the weakest are thosein whichthe conference organizers trumpet the importanceof their own activities; the mostinteresting, thosein whichcontributors pointoutboththedifficulties andopportunities metin thisnewarea of research. Especially refreshingafterthesomewhat Whiggish concept of an evolving andadvancing formof Canadian science andtechnology presented in thefirstpages aretheessays of Raymond Duchesne andJacques Bernier. Takingthehistoryof medicine asanexample,theywarnagainst wrenching science from itssocial, political,andculturalcontextbyshowing whata false pictureit canproduceof intellectual progress in nineteenth-century Quebec. James o. Petersen indiscussing government patentrecords andArthurJ.Ray inanalyzing theusefulness ofHudson's BayCompany archival sources provide further evidence of thewaysin whichinventionanddiscovery are shapedby social forces. In additiontotheresearch oriented chapters thevolume contains reportson publishing, researching, and teachingof science and technology whichmakesthe work requiredreadingfor anyoneinterested in thisnew Canadian discipline. ANGUS MCLAREN University ofVictoria Landofa Thousand Sorrows: theAustralian Prison Journal ofthe Exiled Canadien Patriote, Franfois MauriceLepailleur. Editedby F.MURKYCREENWOOI). Vancouver ,Universityof British ColumbiaPress,•98o. Pp. xxxvi, 220, illus. $25.00. Francois-Maurice Lepailleurwasoneoffifty-twoCanadiens landedinAustralia in March •84o,exiledfor theirrolesin theLowerCanadianuprisings. This is notthefirstaccount of theirordeal.Indeed,partof Lepailleur'sjournals was published in •972 by R.L. S6guin, althoughthe present editionis more extensive. English versions of Patriotes' accounts of theexilehaveappeared previously, includingthoseof L6onDucharme andFrancois-Xavier Prieur, andmanyUpperCanadian prisoners published theirmemoirs. Still,anynew insightsinto the rebellionsand their aftermath,which are much more discussed than understood,are welcome. Alas,thisvolumeprovidesus the mostdetailed pictureavailable of life in anAustralian prison campbutdoes nothing toadvance ourknowledge of therebellion orof politics generally. Perhaps throughfear,perhaps because ofhisownpredilections, Lepailleur ignored politics inhisprison journal.EditorGreenwood has chosen topublish 248 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW onlythoseportions actually writtenin prison,probably the mostcautious portions, and,inturn,does littletoenlighten usabout moregeneral questions in hisownIntroduction andAfterword.That maybefairenough giventhat thebookwas prepared foranAustralian audience which presumably mightbe moreconcerned withdetails in theprisonandpioneer Sydney thanwithan obscure uprising in Canada. However, Greenwood's elementary treatment of Canadian politics isnot helpfulto anyoneevenpassingly familiarwiththe events.And Lepailleur'sday-by-dayaccountof prisonlife, while often powerful, isrepetitious andexhausting; atfirsttouching, itbecomes awearying taleof pettytyranny,sordidbetrayals, andhumanweakness. Locked in their littleworld,thePatriotes weredrivento thefactionalism andminorcruelty whichmarkprisoners everywhere. The readergrows firstsympathetic, then tired,withthedailyretellingof existence in a placewherelife necessarily is always the same. Thislatest Patriote journalhasverylittlefor Canadians. Except for those withaspecial interest intheAustralian prison camps, theavailable accounts suchasPrieur ,FredLandon's editionof ElijahWoodman, BenjaminWait's letters,and SamuelSnow's and WilliamGates'memoirs (bothdeserving reprinting)- are likelytobe muchmoreuseful. MIC}•AV.L S.CV, OSS Dalhousie University Schooling and Society in::oth Century British Columbia. Edited byj.DONALD WILSON andDAVID C.JONES. Calgary, Detselig Enterprises, x98o. Pp.x9x.$xx.25. In afaintly apologetic introduction tothese sixessays J.Donald Wilson notes therelative paucity ofworkonBritish Columbia's educational history. While thequality of such studies isuneven, thereiscertainly nolackof them,as Frances Woodward's extensive bibliography in thisvolumedemonstrates. Wilson also traces theevolution offashions ineducational history. Thewriters in thisbook- allof whomhavestudied in theFaculty of Education atthe University ofBritish Columbia - clearly belong towhat has been called the'era of"moderate revisionists"' inthatthey wish 'toview educational history ina largercontext asanaspect of social history' (xo).Theyalsoshare, to some extent, the idea of the 'radical revisionists' that social control was a main purposeof the schools. In abroad overview of'TheRise ofMass Public Schooling ...•9oo - x929,' Timothy A. Dunn arguesthat British Columbia's schoolreformers,like reformers elsewhere, sought 'toprepare youth forsocially efficient citizenship' (47)in'anexpanding urban industrial society' (46). Jean Mann's study oftwo prominentprofessional educators,G.M. Weir, sometime ministerof education ,and H.B. King,nicelycomplements Dunn'sessay asdoesDianeL. Matters' workonaveryparticular kindofschool, theBoys' Industrial School forjuvenileoffenders. ...