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Louis Riel by George F. G. Stanley Review by: C. P. Stacey The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d'Economique et de Science politique, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Nov., 1964), pp. 609-610 Published by: Wiley on behalf of Canadian Economics Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/139528 . Accessed: 12/06/2014 16:06 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Wiley and Canadian Economics Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d'Economique et de Science politique. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.212 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:06:33 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Louis Rielby George F. G. Stanley

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Louis Riel by George F. G. StanleyReview by: C. P. StaceyThe Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d'Economique etde Science politique, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Nov., 1964), pp. 609-610Published by: Wiley on behalf of Canadian Economics AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/139528 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 16:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Wiley and Canadian Economics Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d'Economique et deScience politique.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.212 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:06:33 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Louis Rielby George F. G. Stanley

Reviews of Books 609

toyed with the idea of accepting a half-invitation to enter tlhe union govern- ment. Mr. McGregor thinks he never considered it seriously, because if he had, he would have "discussed it immediately with Laurier," whereas in fact he never mentioned it to his leader till "over a month" later. But surely the last thing a soldier meditating desertion would do is to tell his commander-in- chief beforehand, or ask his advice.

Those who argue that some of the King "magic" was sheer luck are provided with a fresh piece of evidence. Before the Liberal Convention of 1919, King was in England, and had arranged to sail for home on July 14. Mr. McGregor arranged an alternative passage for July 12, and persuaded King, who wanted one more week-end in England, to take it. Immediately after he sailed, a strike tied up the other boat for a solid two weeks; if he had stuck to his original plans, King would have missed almost the whole Convention, and certainly the leadership.

The book contains a number of odd errors of fact. King did not "resign" as deputy minister of Labour "in June" 1909 "to become the minister" (p. 3). He resigned the deputy ministership September 21, 1908, and became minister only on June 2, 1909. The motion to extend the life of Parliament in 1917 was not "defeated by . . . 82 to 62" (p. 290); it was carried by 82 to 62. It is not true that the Union Government, during the 1917 election "included only one Roman Catholic and not a single French-Canadian" (p. 305); it had two French-Canadian Roman Catholics, Blondin and Sevigny, and one Irish, Doherty. E. M. Macdonald, in 1918, was not a "former Cabinet minister" (p. 319); he first took office April 12, 1923.

EUGENE FORSEY Ottawa

Louis Riel. By GEORGE F. G. STANLEY. Toronto: Ryerson Press. 1963. Pp. xii, 433. $8.50.

THIS long-awaited book adds something to Canadian history. It is a fuller picture of Louis Riel as a person than we have ever had before. Mr. Stanley has pursued the contemporary records to their most remote dens. In particular, he has obtained fuller access to ecclesiastical archives than any previous student of the subject, using the records of the Roman Catholic archbishoprics of Montreal, Quebec, and St. Boniface, and those of the College de Montreal which Riel attended from 1858 to 1865. He has skilfully pieced together fairly full accounts of Riel's period of madness (no other word seems suitable) in 1875-78, when he was in two asylums in the province of Quebec, and of his years in the United States, 1878-84. And Riel's actions during the two violent episodes when he led the metis of the west in opposition to the Canadian government are meticulously examined in the light of the original documents. Further research may add some details; but it seems unlikely that what Mr. Stanley has done will ever need to be done again. And though he appears to have pitched the book deliberately in a minor key and has refused to strain after effect, the pitiful story is well and effectively told.

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Page 3: Louis Rielby George F. G. Stanley

610 Canadian Journal of Econonmics and Political Science

For all this we should be grateful. On the other hand, Mr. Stanley has nlot done everything. He has told the stoly of Riel, but not the story of his times or even, in a full sense, of his relation to them. No one would gather from this book, for instance, that the Red River Expedition was for Canada a vital stroke of national policy, quite apart from its connection with Riel's career. Canadian politicians, including Macdonald, remain shadowy background figures. The discussions in the cabinet at Ottawa over Riel's execution are not fully treated (they are more completely dealt with in Mr. Stanley's The Birth of Western Canada of 1936; they would have been even more relevant here). The events of the 1885 rebellion are cursorily and not very satisfactorily described, without benefit of General Middleton's invaluable correspondence with the Minister of Militia, available in the Caron papers.

Ingrate that I am, I make another complaint. The author says in his preface, "Playwrights, polemicists and even musicians were willing to do something about Riel; historians appeared to hold aloof." But, laying down the book, one has the uncomfortable feeling that the author himself has, in part, held aloof. He offers no interpretation of Riel or of his place in our history. He shovels the metis chief into his humble grave at St. Boniface and then hastily withdraws, declining to answer questions. He expresses few opinions. He says, "When I wrote a pamphlet on Riel several years ago for the Canadian Historical Association, I thought I knew all the answers: now that I know more about Riel, I am less certain what the answers are. This book is a sincere effort however, and it is as complete as time and space will permit." That is honest and so far admirable. And yet, who can ever be so well qualified to give us guidance concerning a personality as the biographer who has lived long with that personality? Faced with this sort of refusal, we feel aban- doned. For decades to come students will regret that Mr. Stanley grudged Riel that extra "time and space." Two more years of work might have made this biography a Canadian classic. As it is, it is one more extremely useful piece of research.

C. P. STACEY University of Toronto

Power, Law, Right, and Love: A Study in Political Values. By EDGAR H. BROOKES. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press for the Lilly Endowment Research Program in Christianity and Politics. 1963. Pp. 84. $3.00.

EDGAR BROOKES is well known as the writer of perceptive studies on South African politics. For twelve years, from 1933 to 1945, he was Principal of Adams College, a famous mission school for Africans, and twice served as president of the conspicuously liberal South African Institute of Race Relations. More recently he has been Professor of History and Political Science at the University of Natal. He represented the natives of Natal and Zululand in the senate of South Africa from 1937 to 1952. XVith the abolition of these repre-

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