The purpose of the work has determined the method of treatment. It is not difficult to find evidence of the crusading zeal of the active churchman or of the sound practical wisdom gained from experience in public life and especially from participation in the deliberations of the Assembly of the League of Nations. Few, if any, Canadians are better qualified by temperament and training than Mr. Rowell to perform the very great service which he has undertaken in directing the thought of Canada to the problems of its nationhood. The early chapters of the book deal with the history and achievements of the League of Nations. Four excellent chapters then deal with the characteristics of the British Commonwealth of Nations and in particular with the Empire's contribution to World Peace. Most Canadians, however, will be more interested in the section in which is discussed the relationship of Canada to World Peace. Mr. Rowell reviews the various adjustments of international problems by arbitration or other peaceable means from the Rush-Bagot agreement of 1817 to the present day, and discusses the organization by which Canada's external affairs are conducted. The concluding section is concerned with the obligation of Canada as a Christian community in connexion with world problems.

The Great War has created a new world. Canadians have not yet adjusted themselves to this new creation. Mr. Rowell is performing a very real national service in placing the problem in its proper relationship and in indicating the lines upon which its solution must be obtained.

Dr. Kennedy's work is a survey of Canadian constitutional development from the early years of the French régime to the present day. The task undertaken by the author has been one of great difficulty. It is not possible to deal adequately with all phases of the development of a nation's institutions of government extending over a period of three centuries. It is therefore to be expected that certain periods will receive more thorough treatment than others. Nevertheless Dr. Kennedy's book presents the best available review of the development of the Canadian constitution.

The chapters descriptive of the Government of Canada and its problems after the conquest and up to the passing of

the Quebec Act are particularly well done. Less adequate possibly are the sections dealing with the failure of representative government as established in 1791 and with the formation of the Federation. Subsequent development is considered from the point of view of the growth of Canadian autonomy, the nature of Canadian federalism and of the Imperial connexion.

In the chapter on the development of Canadian autonomy justice is done to the work of Edward Black in stating more clearly than had hitherto been done the constitutional relationship of Canada to the motherland. The history of what we term the 'treaty making power' is traced and special attention is paid to the changes in Canada's status arising out of the war and the subsequent negotiations of the Peace Treaty. An excellent survey is given of the effect of the more important judicial decisions upon the nature and extent of the sovereignty of the provincial and federal governments. The concluding paragraph discusses the imperial and international relations of Canada. It is of interest to note the conclusion of the author that Canada has no international status and that the League of Nations in giving Canada a new position at the same time binds it closer to the imperial crown.

There will probably be many years before we have an adequate history of the settlement and early life of the Province of Ontario. Much 'spade work' remains to be done before such a history, thorough and comprehensive, can be written, and there is a very real danger lest by that time we will have lost the intimate contact with the realities of pioneer life which determine the atmosphere of that most important period. It is therefore most important that the knowledge and impressions of persons still living of those earlier days should be preserved as faithfully as possible and that the record of individual settlements should be obtained while most important information is preserved in the memory of the older generation.

For this reason it is a real pleasure to welcome the productions of Mr. Smith and Mr. Kirkconnell. Mr. Smith's book appears as one of the new series of The Makers of Canada. The author has not attempted to write a history of the settle

ment of Ontario, but has brought together a series of very interesting sketches of pioneer life based largely on information obtained by him from 'old settlers'. The book presents with rare vividness the problem of the Ontario pioneer. The reader is brought into intimate and lively contact with the hardships of the struggle for existence; he sees the daily round of toil, the recreations, the associations for economic, political and religious purposes, and is made to feel that these giants were very human persons. Much is added to the pleasure of the book by an excellent series of drawings by M. McGillivray.

Work such as is done by Mr. Kirkconnell is of equal importance. This province has been fortunate in possessing such men as John Ross Robertson, Judge Armatinger and Mr. Herrington, who have preserved the records of the districts with which they were most familiar. We must now add Mr. Kirkconnell to this distinguished group.

The plan of the book is to give a general survey of conditions attending settlement in the third and fourth decades of the last century and then to describe in more complete detail the settlement of the townships constituting Victoria County. Most valuable information is given of the Huron tribes which located in this area, of the development of transportation, education, and the organization of the church.

It is unfortunate that in a work of such real merit Mr. Kirkconnell should have permitted himself to slide into that free and easy style of historical writing which designates John Graves Simcoe as the 'first Governor of Upper Canada', and refers to the Constitutional Act as that 'by which the Canadian colony was divided into two provinces, Upper and Lower Canada.'

D. M.

CORRESPONDENCE

To the Editor of Queen's Quarterly:

I quote from Mr. Clark's reply to Mr. Macdonnell's article in the last Quarterly: 'On this continent we have a deep-rooted abhorrence of dilettantism, of graceful futility, of the trained intellect which is not linked with some overmastering passion -we distrust the Balfour mind.'

This sentence seems to be the crest of the wave of argument which, proving the professional, the 'vocational' course, to be the only means of right educational development, breaks over and utterly swamps Mr. Macdonnell's plea for exclusion of the frankly vocational courses from the Arts courses.

It seems to me that if the possessor of the Balfour mind is to be described as compact of dilettantism and graceful futility—a trained intellect not linked with some over-mastering passion-and if we consider the strength and courage he exhibited as Chief Secretary for Ireland in troubled days-the estimation in which learned men held him who invited him to deliver the Gifford Lectures, or in which a great party held him and followed him as Prime Minister-or as the great man at the Washington Conference one is awed to meditate on what heights he might have attained had Cambridge provided for him a Commerce Course. I am reminded of a Minister in one of our provinces who was a lover of money. He was talking to the Wednesday evening gathering at the weekly prayer meeting, his subject being the feeding of the five thousand, and he remarked: 'What a wonderful success the Master would have made had he turned his marvellous abilities to the accumulation of wealth.'

I am inclined to think that while I can say nothing of myself that might influence the writer of the Reply to Mr. Macdonnell, he would respect some authorities and would not entirely distrust the 'Morley Mind'; so I turn to John Morley, Studies in Literature (Macmillan & Co., 1904), pp. 194, 195 and quote: "There is a Commission now at work on that very

important and abstruse subject-the Currency. I am told that no one there displays so acute an intelligence of the difficulties that are to be met, and so ready an apprehension of the important arguments that are brought forward and the practical ends to be achieved as the Chairman of the Commission, who is not what is called a practical man, but a man of study, literature, theoretical speculation and University training. Oh, No! gentlemen, some of the best men of business in the country are men who have had the best collegian's equipment, and are the most accomplished bookmen.'

four.

The Chairman of the Commission was Mr. Arthur Bal

Toronto, April 27, 1923.

Yours faithfully,

GEO. H. SEDGEWICK.