British Regulars in Montreal: an Imperial Garrison, 1832–1854 by Elinor Kyte Senior (review)

REVIEWS 261 (4a6)andintheaccounts of thevarious engagements thecapacity of leaders is almostalwaysthe determiningfactor.The great man theory of history,or perhapsmoreappropriatelygiventhe natureof the war,the lackof a great mantheoryof history,isunquestioningly predominant.This isonlynatural. WhenBertonundertookhisstudyof alltheprimarymaterials hispurposewas nottoreinterpretthewaranditssignificance. Instead,it wastofleshinexisting interpretations withthehumandetailthatwouldappealtoapopularaudience. Havingimmersed himselfin nineteenth-century detail,it isnotsurprising his producthasanineteenth-centurycharacter. The conclusion tothebook,andtothiswholestudyof thewar,isdisappointinglybriefandperfunctory . It includes afewshortremarks abouttheimpact of the conflict on the Indians and some brief paragraphs on how the war confirmedadistinctly Canadianpolitical cultureandstyle.It shouldbenoted thatsince thebookmentions almost nothingabouttheMaritimes andverylittle aboutQuebec,the Ontario identityhasonceagainbeenelevatedto national status.So much more could have been said.Comparisonswith European Napoleoniccampaigns couldhavebeenattempted.Berton makesmuchof illness, for example.WereEuropeantroopsgenerallyhealthier? Evenwithin anexclusively NorthAmericancontext, generalizations mighthavebeenmade aboutsuchthingsastheusefulness ofconventional militarytactics in a wilderness setting,the problems caused bytheAmericanrelianceon militaryleaders left overfrom the revolution,the development of an Upper Canadian6lite, andthemythsengendered ineachcountrybythewar.Bertondropstantalizing hintsaboutthesethingsthroughoutthetextbutheobviously doesnotcareto elaborate onthemin asystematic way,whichisonlytosay, perhaps, thatheisa writer,oftena goodone,butnotahistorian. I•EI,CI-I W^LDE.N TrentUniversity British Regulars inMontreal: anImperial Garrison, 1832-1854. ELINOR KYTE SENIOR. Montreal,McGill-Queen's University Press, •98•. Pp.xiii, •88. $•9.95. The Britisharmy conqueredCanada,savedit in 2775-6and •8•a-•4, and deterred American aggression inthefollowing halfcentury; andthecost ofthe imperialgarrison inpeacetime, along withfearthatitmightbringanunwanted clash withtheUnitedStates in timeofcrisis, helpedbringresponsible government and Confederation. These things have been well researchedand expounded. What hashithertobeenalmostentirelyneglected is the direct effect that the severalgarrisonshad on the day-to-daylife of preConfederation Canadians andonCanada's long-termevolution. Becauseof limited communications, the army's influence was mainly restricted to places whereit hadgarrisons or detachments. In suchplaces its 262 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW economic andsocial impact was great.Unfortunately, therecent death ofJ.W. Spurrmeans thathisproposed history of theKingston garrison, whichwould haveexploredthat input,willnotnowbe completed. Kingston wouldhave beenaprototype for Fredericton, Quebec, StJohn's, Toronto,orLondon. The Montrealgarrison, in somerespects similar,wasverydifferentin two importantways.The cityhadby far the largestandmostimportantBritish garrisonin North America. Furthermore,the situationthere waspeculiar because, while the lower provinceasa wholewasFrench,Montrealhad an English-speaking majoritythat wassharplydividedon religious lines.The various ethnicandreligious groups' shiftingattitudes towards reliance on the garrison for thepreservation of lawandordermadeMontreal,asMrsSenior says, 'nottheeasiest of Britishgarrison towns toserve in,but... assuredly... one of themostinteresting.' That interest wasonewhichtheBritishmilitarycommandandtherankandfileheartily disliked. Buttheavailability oftheregulars madetheprovince slowtocreateanefficientapolitical policeforce.Hence,the Montrealgarrisonwasdrawnfrequentlyintoaidingthecivilpower;andits relations withthecitizens werethereby complicated. ElinorSeniorismistress oftheartofreconstructing thedetails ofthecourse ofevents inriotsandructions. Shebelieved thattheuse ofmilitary forceincivil strife,thoughsometimes quicklyeffective, waslesssatisfactory than police wouldhavebeen.Mobs stirred byracial or religious animosities tooeasily got outofcontrol; butsoldiers forbidden tousetheirweapons werehamstrung. If theydidfire,officers andmenmightfindthemselves prosecuted for murder withinthepolitical system theyhadbeeninvitedtodefend. The Montrealgarrison's aid to the civilpoweris particularly interesting becausethe garrisonat first faced mobs of patriotes and later of Constitutionalists . In between ithadtocope withunrulyIrishcanallets. It isimpossibleto tell howfar thesemobsweremanipulated by political or religious leaders, butit isclearthatthearmywasremarkably impartialandinnosense a toolofoppression. Itsofficers continued tomaintainclose social relationships with the civil authoritiesand with the classes from whichthe politicaland religious leaders came.Itsmenwereusuallypopularin thecity. Thisfascinatingpioneer study leads onetowonder whether Quebec's political andconstitutional evolution could have occurred as it did without the reluctant but effectiveaidgivenbytheMontrealgarrison . Althoughsocial relationships andthegarrison's supportfor thecity's economynaturallytakessecond placeinthisbooktotheaccount ofthemaintenance of lawandorder,thesethingsmaypossibly havehadmoreeventual importancein the shapingof Canada's culturaland economic distinctiveness. Mrs Senior's studyof thegarrison's contribution tothesocial, economic, andfinancialaspects of Montreal's development isexcellent andmustbeindicative of whathappenedin garrisons inotherplaces in Canada. R•CI4ARD A.•'Rv. STO•DukeUniversity ...