CANADA.
The Story of the Nations: Canada. By J. G. Bourinot, C.M.G. (T. Fisher Unwin. 5s.)—One of the most interesting chapters of nineteenth-century history is that of the development of Eastern Canada and the rise of an alien population to be subjects of which any Crown might be proud. We allude, of course, to the French Canadians. There were many troublous days after that great fight on the Heights of Abraham before the union could be accomplished. The French Canadians held to privileges with the tenacity of a vigorous and essentially religious race, but in one way or another they worked their way onwards, what with representative government and general federation, to the Dominion of to-day. How it was accomplished, with no more misunderstandings than the first fifty years of the century saw, no one can tell, for we sent to Canada, as we have sent to other Colonies, the most ignorant and narrow-minded of men to act as Governors, men who had - not the average common-sense or presence of mind in emergencies. Yet the country survived all these dangers, a fact due to some strong strain of trust and loyalty and some peculiar reason- ableness in the " habitants " who otherwise retain all the characteristics of the land of their ancestry. The history of
Western Canada has yet to be written ; so far it is too short to tempt the. historian, but its wealth will soon rival that of the Eastern Provinces. Mr. Bourinot, though not neglecting the western half of the Dominion, is naturally mostly concerned with the maritime provinces and Ontario, and though he himself must trace his descent back to France, he discusses the repre- sentative struggles and the outbreaks of misguided patriots as impartially as if he were an arbitrator from Timbuctoo. Surely he ie a no less striking example of what a just and liberal government can effect than the people he describes. If he is to be believed, the race he represents have found a home where they are happier and possess a greater freedom and independence than the Republic can give them.
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