460 REVIEWS OF BOOKS July Dr. Mathieson referring his readers for details to recent works on the subject. Meanwhile from 1820 social progress was rapid. Efforts, more or less successful, to protect the weak from wrong and better the position of the mass of the people, the repeal of the combination laws, the triumph of religious toleration, the extension of popular education, the abolition of the punishment of death for nearly a hundred offences, and other changes narrated here, are evidence that by 1832, though much remained to be achieved, the nation had in the space of less than fifty years made a wonderful advance as regards both actually accom- plished reforms and the spirit in which the wealthier classes regarded the needs and claims of their less fortunate fellow countrymen. William Hunt. Select British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812, vol. i. Edited by William Wood. (Toronto : The Champlain Society, 1920.) This is the first of three volumes to illustrate the purely Canadian side of the war. Mr. Wood's introduction covers the whole of the three years, but the documents deal only with ' Preparation, General, Naval, and Military ', and ' Brock ', i. e. the events of 1812, in which Brock was the outstanding figure, Michillimackinac, Detroit, Queenston, and minor operations after his death. Well arranged in chronological sequence, they give a wealth of details illustrating the connected history of the introduction and of Sir Charles Lucas's well-known work. They include both old material and new finds ; perhaps it is a pity that the editor has not differentiated these, or marked by notes in square brackets where the old may be found in print (e.g. in the works of the Lundy's Lane Historical Society to which Sir Charles often refers), thus calling our attention at once to what is new. We are promised for the third volume a real ' find ', a confidential letter of Wellington to Bathurst dated November 1814 : ' I believe I shall not be able to go to Quebec till April. ... It will be for you to consider whether I can be most useful to you there, here, or elsewhere.' The documents are mostly those of the Canadian archives and are official. One comes from the appendix to Mrs. Curzon's Laura Secord, an interesting letter with personal details from Colonel Evans, Brock's brigade-major, of his experiences before and at the battle at Queenston (pp. 617 f .). There is also, taken from the archives, a personal letter from Gray to Baynes (pp. 672 f.) explaining ' difficulties which I have not stated there ', i.e. in his official report, of a small action on the Montreal front ; the said difficulty was caused by militiamen, zealous but not accustomed to discipline, volunteering their advice to the commander of the expedition. Hull's proclamation is printed, also an amusing con- temporary skit from New York on ' The War of the Gulls ', a specimen of American humour contrasting Hull the general with Hull the sailor. The diary of Lieutenant-Colonel William McCay, belonging to the 24th Canadian Militia and printed by permission (p. 546), gives the personal experiences of the commander of a company of volunteers in Brock's expedition against Detroit. A ' Prize Pay List ' (p. 474), from the original in Chelsea Hospital, gives the exact figures of the units of this force:
