LXXX THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The most ambitious work on Canadian History so far produced, I 

 need hardly say, is Dr. Kingsford's. It is a work which, in spite of 

 defects in style and construction, should be spoken of with respect. The 

 industry and good intentions of the author are visible throughout. It 

 is based on a very considerable study of original documents, and deals 

 more comprehensively with the history of Canada — which, however, it 

 only carries down to the Union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841 — 

 than any other work as yet produced. Still, more might have been told 

 in ten octavo volumes than the author has succeeded in doing, had there 

 been more compression in the manner of telling. Economy in the use 

 of words and a keen sense for essentials are among the prime requisites 

 for the writing of history. Our author did not possess these qualities 

 in any great degree; nevertheless his book is a brave and meritorious 

 attempt to place in the hands of Canadians an adequate record of their 

 country's history. 



Some useful contributions to Canadian history have been made by 

 the late Mr. J. C, Dent in his "History of the Rebellion in Upper Canada" 

 and his "Last Forty Years," embracing the period from 1841 to 1881. 

 The style of these works is attractive, and their accuracy can in general 

 be depended upon. Special pains seem to have been taken by the 

 author to render his account of the Upper Canada Rebellion a very com- 

 plete record of facts. So far as I am aware, no equally detailed account 

 has been published of the Rebellion in Lower Canada. 



A work of unusual interest on account of the original documents, 

 prints, and plans which it embodies, and the acute manner in which 

 certain topographical and historical details are discussed, is "The Siege 

 of Quebec and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham," in six volumes by 

 Dr. A. G. Doughty, C.M.G., in collaboration with Mr. G. W. Parmelee, 

 the principal author of which our Society is happy to claim as a member. 



In the field of Constitutional History Canada must be credited with 

 two works of capital importance. I need hardly say that I refer to the 

 elaborate treatises on "Parliamentary Government in England" and 

 "Parliamentary Government in the British Colonies" produced by the 

 late Mr. Alpheus Todd, in his life time Librarian of the Dominion Par- 

 liament. For the date of the first, we must go back to the year of Con- 

 federation, 1867, and of the second to 1880. Even the second appeared 

 a full generation ago. Again we are reminded that intellectual pro- 

 ductivity is not altogether a question of population. Constitutional 

 histories differ, however, from general histories in that they deal with 

 institutions and the forms they successively assume, rather than with the 

 the human forces that have moulded them. Useful and indeed indis- 

 pensable as such works are, and calling for the exercise of no ordinary 

 accuracy, sagacity and learning, they can hardly be said to represent 



