Hard west indian totem6/12/2023 A few sampleswill sufficeto characterizethe book at its bestand its worst. But theauthoris unableto interpret significant functions in anything buta foreignlanguage, utterlypoorand devoidof style and distinction. E CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW greatwritersonceturnedto epics.It is in the manifestations of thesemanly effortsof a few chiefsto ward off tribaldecay thatthebook becomes significant it ismade of thestuffthat 342 Tr I amgoing to reward youfor youringenuity andyourstrength" (p. For instance, oneof themwouldsayin a potlatch: "Thegloryof everyyoung manis hisstrength.In addition to yourstrength I admire alsothewisdom withwhichyouputpitchand sand onyourhands before attempting toraise thestone. Andthephases of thepotlatches minutely andhonestly recounted by theauthorshow howthe Kwakiutl chiefsmeantto safeguard the staminaof their people they klaewno othermeansfor this than the preservation of their customs, of independence in theirvillage life,andof theircreed in vitallife forces withwhich theydealtlike Spartans. A raceof men stoutly endowed, liketheKwakiutl,witha sense of self-preservation, does notcomplacently godown toextinction. But he failedto understand profoundlythe elements of grandeur in the eventsthat enriched his longexperience and,morethan any other whiteman in the samesurroundings, he contributed to the defeatof nativeresistance in a last attemptto staveoff destiny. Halliday,whowroteit from personal experience for thirty-eight years, witnessed thestruggle of theKwakiutl, the mostconservative of the North-west coastnations,againstthe white invader,whosecomingmeantthe downfall of their customsand their race. Yet it is a long way from beinga greatbook. vith Gulliver'sTravelsor Å“rewhonas dramatic romanceand socialsatire". Indeed, the publishers state,on the jacket,that "If it werenot an actual,detailed studyof a livingtribe, it mightbe classed and totem has somefeaturesof a great book.NEW Potlatchand Totemand the Recollections of an Indian Agent. This book is a well-written and interesting account of Brougham's career"alonggenerallines"based on published materialonly,too partial to Brougham, andweakon the greatcauses to whichhe gavehis life. Brougham's sophistical arguments are takenat facevalue and the account is particularlyunfair to Melbourne. And so the account proceeds.The numberof thoseaffected by the ordinance is wronglygiven,and the illegalityis assigned to the wrong part of the ordinance. One of them,Daly, had beena memberof the old executivecounciland consequentlypossessed experience in Canadian administration.There wasno privatesecretary of Lord Durham'son the council, although therewere three secretaries to the commission, which was a different story. We are informedthat Lord Durham"formedan Execu.tiveCouncilof four, noneof whomhad any experience of Canadian administration, andthreeof whomwerehisprivatesecretaries".It would be very difficultto packmoreinaccuracies into so shorta sentence.It wasnot the executivecouncil it wasa specialcouncilwith legislativeas well as executive powers. REVIEWS OF BOOKS 341 passes comprehension. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
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