The Navy, the Company, and Richard King; British Exploration in the Canadian Arctic, 1829–1860 by Hugh N. Wallace (review)

REVIEWS 257 fewtradefigures thrownin,Dr Goughhasensured thathissubject willhaveto be reinterpretedwithshippingcosts andavailability andinternational commerce ;with,wherepossible, asuitable statistical basis astheprincipal focus. JULI^SGW¾S University ofOttawa TheNavy,TheCompany, andRichard King;British Exploration intheCanadian Arctic, 1829-1860. HUGHN. WALLACE. Montreal, McGill-Queen'sUniversityPress, •98o.Pp.xxx,232,illus.$2•.95. Dr RichardKing,thatcantankerous oddity,wasinthehabitof cuttingdownto sizeotherintrepidexplorersof the Canadian Arctic.A talentedand highly motivated physician, Kingaccompanied GeorgeBackonthe•834expedition uptheGreatFish River.Hemade correct deductions about thepeninsularity of Boothia andKingWilliams LandthatBack, theRoyalGeographical Society, the ColonialOffice,theAdmiralty,andeventually SirJohn Franklin's widowall refusedtoaccept. Sincehehadcriticized thefur-tradingindustryfor destroying the nativepeoples of North America,the Hudson's BayCompanywould notgivehimthetimeofday.HughWallace, inatightlyarguedandwellwritten analysis of the evidence,relatesthe major failuresin Arctic exploration between•834 and •86o to theserejections of King'sideas.The man'svoice, suggests Wallace, became increasingly shrillandisolated. Wallace's thesis isthat the searchfor Franklinpre-emptedexplorationin about•846 andsetin train something quitedifferent:a surveyof theArctic 'against theAdmiralty's willbutaccording toitsbent.' Theforemost proponents of Arcticexpeditions in the RoyalNavybelievedin deep-sea operations for rescue, andwhenrescue became hopeless theysought todiscover thefateof theErebus andTerror. The Hudson's BayCompanyadvocated coastal routes, andKingappealed for aninlandapproach. Elaborate arrangements withthe mostmodernandcomfortable ships - for example, Enterprise andInvestigator, Assistance, Resolute, andPioneer, all followingthe generalpatternof Erebus and Terror - provedinappropriate tothetaskathand.The big,unwieldy boats and sleds theycarriedwereunsuitable forexpeditions across theice. Wallace strips away, delicately butfirmly, themystique surrounding thegreat nineteenth-century 'Arctics.' Theyemerge asproducts ofanagethatputcharacterbeforeintellect . Thiswasa notionnotentirelywithoutmerit.Certainly Canadawill foreverbein thedebtof those braveandhardymenwhofirst delineated thenation's hugeArcticexpanse, whatever theambiguity of their purpose. Butthatdoes notdestroy thevalidity of whatWallace issaying. Fourteen mapsillustrate graphically theaccumulation of knowledge about the ArcticArchipelagofor the period under consideration. They afford interesting andnecessary complements to the text.It isdifficult,however,to findtherightmapfor identifying some of theplacenames. Illustrations have 258 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW beenwellselected, butthesubject criesoutfor evenmorevisual impact.Line drawings andsketch mapsinterspersed amongpages ofbusyprintwouldrest theeyes andinformatthesame time.Mustpublishers always separate illustrations ,maps,andtext?Still,thebookishandsome andwelledited. Wallacehaswritten a successful revisionist interpretationthat will be an indispensible referencefor students of our lastandmostimportantfrontier. Hereinforces metropolitan views oftheCanadian Arcticanddemonstrates the importance of gradualandsequential phases ofexploration, survey, andsettlement .The bookshould berequiredreadingformodernArcticexplorers. W.A.B. I)OtJGI•AS Department ofNational Defence, Ottawa TheOfficial History ofColonial Development. Ii TheOrigins ofBritish AidPolicy, 19241945 ;II'- Developing BritishColonial Resources, 1945-1951; III.' A Reassessment of BritishAid Policy, 1951-1965; IV:Changes inBritishAid Policy, 1951-1970; v:Guidance toward Self-Government inBritish Colonies, 1941-1971. D.J. MORGAN. London,I-IMSO; AtlanticHighlands, Nj, HumanitiesPress, •98o.Pp.xxx, 253;xiv,397;xviii, 334;xvi,275;xviii,382.$37.5 ø pervolume. Everyonewhoworksonthehistoryof themodernCommonwealth will needto useMr Morgan'smammothpublication,whichcoversboth aid policyand constitutionalevolution.The author hashad full access to official documents, andhe hasproperlychosen to paraphrase andpresent a greatmass of the materialhefound,leaving readers tomakewhattheywantoftherecord.Some effortismade, especially forthelate•94os andearly5os, toplace development policyin thecontext of generaleconomic policy. Butasothervolumes in the Peacetime Series of Official Histories will treat Britain's external and internal economic policy, Mr Morganhasnotcarriedhisdescription of thesematters veryfar. WhatMr Morganoffersthereaderisamostusefulmixtureof economic and administrative history. The centralthreevolumes overlapchronologically and insubject matter. Groundnuts, forinstance, receive some •3øpages inVolume Ii andfortypages inVolumeIV•andthematerialontheWestIndiesandonthe Colonial Development andWelfareActof •945isdivided inthesame way,asis the discussion of the ColonialDevelopment Corporation. The very useful chapteron the'Economic Background •95•-1963'opens VolumeIII, andan Epilogue onrelationships between colonial government andcolonial development comesat the end of the fifth and lastvolume.Nor doesany volume contain either an index or even a table of contentsthat coversall five volumes; the paragraph thatconcludes the Prologue toVolumeI gives onlythemost generalindication ofeachvolume's coverage. It follows thatusers mustconsult allfivevolumes if theyaretobesurethattheyhavenotmissed something, and thatlibraries willhavetobuyallfive. ...