The Other Side of the "Story", Being Some Reviews of Mr. J.C. Dent's First
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: ' The Other Side OF . The "Story, V BEING SOME REVIEWS CRITICIZING "THE STORY OF THE UPPER CANADIAN REBELLION;" ALSO, THE LETTERS r'V-fe IN THE Mackenzie -Rolph Controversy AND / \ A CRITIQUE ON "THE NEW STORY." By JOHN KING, Barrister. TORONTO James Murray & Co., 26 and 28 Front Street West. — : — THE OTHER SIDE OF THE "STORY," BEING SOME KEVIEWS OE MR. J. C. DENT'S FIRST VOLUME OF "The Story of the Upper Canadian Sehellion," AND THE LETTERS IN THE MBCKENZIE-ROLPH CONTROVERSY. ALSO, A CRITIQUE, HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED, ON " THE NEW STORY:' " I have read somewhere or other, in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I think, that history is philosophy teaching by examples."—Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. " William Lyon Mackenzie was the leader of the real struggle for Responsible Govern- ment in Canada. He conducted the political siege, and headed the storming party that effected the breach. Mackenzie personified the vim and virtues, personal and political, that fought the fight and won it." New York Tribune. " That Mr. Dent is bent on exalting Dr. Rolph at the expense of other characters, and notably at the expense of Lyon Mackenzie, . nobody can fail to remark. He has a right to the indulgence of his fancy : these are the days of hero worship, rehabilitations and historical paradox ; but 'he cannot expect us all at once to bow down to the image which he has set up, and to trample on the image which he has cast down." The Week. " Truly, no man is ever so effectually written down as when he himself holds the pen." —J. C. Dent. TORONTO James Murray & Co., Printers, 26 and 28 Front Street West. 1886. — INTRODUCTORY. , Few words of introduction are needed for this brochure, and none to justify its appearance at the present time. The prospectus of the " Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion " promised the public that it would be written "from a Liberal but non-partisan point of view." Had this promise been kept, these pages would never have seen the light. But the faith plighted in the word has been broken in the deed. It has been broken repeatedly—may we not say deliberately? throughout the volume. Mr. Dent's Story is not Liberal in any proper sense of the term. A Liberal in political or historical authorship is not only a friend to liberty, but to liberty's friends, whether living or dead. To all alike he is, or at least ought to be, fair and considerate, just and generous. To those who have battled and suffered for popular rights in freedom's cause, he should never be anything else. Nor is the Story non-partisan. It is a fierce, and in many respects, vindictive arraignment of the Oligarchy of ante-Rebellion times. Not a few may say that this is right. Others—and we think many of the most intelligent adherents of the Liberal party in Canada—while admitting considerable justification, will not go the lengths that Mr. Dent has gone, and will have little sympathy with his injudicious and intemperate methods. Only the strongest provocation can justify venomous detraction of the dead. The writer of the narrative has received none such in the case of Chief Justice Robinson, Bishop Strachan, William Lyon Mackenzie, and others whom he has relent- lessly pursued beyond the grave. Authorship of that stamp is not Liberal ; it is no honour to the name ; it is the narrowest kind of in- tolerance and bigotry. In regard to William Lyon Mackenzie and John Rolph, the partisan- ship of the Story is beyond all question. A single paragraph in the chapter on the "Fathers of Reform" proves this conclusively, while the whole volume is a standing witness against its pretended imparti- ality. In so far as both these historical personages are concerned, this bulky book is partisan from the circumference to the core. 4 The appearance of so extraordinary a Story at once challenged criti- cism from the press. In this the leading organs of the rival parties took opposite sides. But considering the manifest disfavour with which life-long and pronounced Reformers received this new conception of Rebellion history, the Mail's editorial review was mildness itself. Other Conservative newspapers have been more distinctly hostile. The Globe committed itself strongly at the outset to the general scope of the narrative, especially those portions of it denunciatory of Family Com- pact rule. It praised the book, and defended it against the Mail's review. But, if there be any truth in a startling rumor afloat as to the paternity of its own reviews, their laudatory tone can occasion no surprise. With respect to the Mackenzie-Rolph analyses, criticisms and contrasts, it was for a long time silent. But when the storm of controversy fairly broke, it had honestly to admit that such a con- troversy was "inevitable." Mr. Dent's indiscretions had too plainly precipitated the issue to make any other statement possible. The outside organs of Reformers have concurred with their leading journal on this point, but not in its estimate of the book as a whole. As to this there have been differences of opinion, with, in a number of cases, strong disapproval of Mr. Dent's historical treatment of his two most prominent " personalities." Up to the present time not a single newspaper, expressing the views of the Reform party, has endorsed the author's judgments on either Mackenzie or Rolph. The voice of what is known as the independent and non-party press must always com- mand attention in such a discussion. It spoke in temperate tones, but unmistakably condemned the book. The attempt to manufacture political capital out of this " old, old story " will scarcely succeed. The great rival parties of Canada will be more likely to stand or fall on their present relative merits, than on the sins or follies of either of them fifty years ago. What more need be said 1 The attitude deliberately taken up by the author with respect to William Lyon Mackenzie, made it the im- perative duty of that worthy's friends and admirers to interpose, at the earliest possible moment, between him and his defamer, and, if neces- sary, to vindicate his name and memory. They would have been false to their political faith and antecedents, and to all the honoured traditions of Reform, had they failed to do so. In the publication of this pamphlet, which will express to a certain extent the feelings and senti- ments of Reformers everywhere, that duty has been partially discharged. It can scarcely fail to be supplemented hereafter, and in due time, it is expected, will be fully completed in an enlarged and improved edition of the life and times of the old Liberal leader. Meanwhile, the accompanying letters and newspaper reviews will be found exceedingly readable, interesting and instructive. They contain important facts which have never before appeared in print, and whole, pointedly and pungently written. The last critique is now published for the first time. " The Other Side of the Story " reflects, I believe, the views of men of all shades of political opinion, and should be acceptable to all alike. All that is asked for it is a fair and thought- ful perusal. JOHN KING. Berlin, March 15th, 1886. 1 MR. DENT'S STORY OF THE UPPER CANADIAN REBELLION. A STORYTELLER IN HISTORIC GARB. The following ably written, calm and dispassionate review of Mr. Dent's book appeared in the Toronto Daily Mail of November 19th, 1885: An impression has got abroad that Mr. Dent's " Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion "is to be a whitewashing book. The conclusion has been hastily formed, and so far as we can see at present, without sufficient foundation. The fantastic idea of elevating Dr. Eolph on a pedestal of glory is, it must be confessed, a 'sinister omen. Mr. Dent has undertaken the herculean task of making a hero out of the most unpromising material, the most un- heroic of men ; but that he intends to go to the extent of washing the blackamore white is an assumption unwarranted by anything that appears in the first volume. The proper place for the chief director of an insurrection is at the head of his forces, and there Dr. Rolph ought to have been at the rising of Yonge Street in Dec- ember, 1837. Instead of being in the van of the movement of which he was a principal director, he suddenly appeared clothed in the livery of the Government which the insurrection was intended to overthrow, accompanied by as loyal a man as ever drew breath, Robert Baldwin, and flying a flag of truce. The strange spectacle of this inexplicable transformation struck his bewildered followers with horror and dismay. They concluded that'they were betrayed, and many still hold that the act was one of treachery. Assuredly it was unheroic. — 8 The development of the central idea of the book—that Dr. Rolph was a hero whom the world has hitherto ungratefully neglected—is set about without circumlocution, and in a way which shows that the author intends to do his best in the per- formance of his task. Under Mr. Dent's manipulation Dr. Rolph, who read his Braithwaite and compounded his pills like any ordinary physician, becomes " unquestionably one of the most extraordinary persons who ever figured in the annals of Upper Canada." To this extent critical readers, with a living knowledge of the facts, would probably be willing to go. But the directions in which an individual may differ from the ordinary run of mortals are various, not necessarily admirable.