JOHN A. MACDONALD: THE OLD CHIEFTAIN.
By Donald Creighton. (Macmillan, f2,2s.) THE first volume of Professor Donald Crcigh- ton's life of Sir John Macdonald showed that the Canadian statesman had found an ideal biographer in Canada's leading historian. The second and concluding volume, now published, more than fulfils the promise of the first. The latter period of Macdonald's life which it covers was concerned with three inter- connected problems: giving content and mean- ing to the structure of Canadian confedera- tion; building the trans-continental railway which was essential for his ideal of Dominion unity; and maintaining the 'alliance' with Britain as the only safeguard of Canadian nationality against the aggressiveness of Canada's southern neighbour. Professor Creighton's biography has the supreme merit of making us see Macdonald's struggles against enemies at home and in the United States and against apathy and indifference in England through his hero's eyes, and relating the per- sonal handicaps and difficulties of the ageing politician to the perpetual battle of public life. To say that this biography is as thrilling as a novel would be to pay an undeserved compli- ment to almost every novel. MAX BELOFF
Previous page
