Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 2. Under British Rule, 1760-1914 — A Closer Reading

The Preface as Methodological Statement

Atherton's preface is unusually candid about the historian's predicament. He admits that Montreal's French-Canadian majority makes it "necessary to give especial attention to the history of two-thirds of the people," while also pledging to "respect the rights of the minority." This balancing act is not merely rhetorical; he invokes the city's motto, "Concordia Salus" (safety through harmony), as a guiding principle. The preface also includes a telling quotation from Charles Dickens, who in 1842 called Montreal a "heart-burning town." Atherton expresses hope that his work will not renew that reputation, implicitly acknowledging the tensions that underlie his narrative. Readers should note that the preface is the only place where Atherton directly addresses his own methodology; the body of the volume proceeds largely without such reflexive commentary.

McGill College: A Case Study in Institutional Strife

The excerpt on McGill College illustrates the kind of conflict Atherton documents. A letter from the governor general criticizes the combination of the roles of principal, professor of divinity, and rector of Montreal in one person, calling it an "incongruity." The college's financial troubles are stark: in 1851 its income was £540 against expenditures of £742, leading to a debt that was relieved by a committee of Montreal merchants—a pattern of private intervention that Atherton notes "has never failed to be followed." The arrival of Principal William Dawson in 1855 marked a turning point. Dawson's own description of the campus—"unfinished and partly ruined buildings," "a wilderness of excavators and masons' rubbish," cattle grazing on unfenced grounds—gives a vivid sense of the institution's precarious state. This concrete detail grounds the broader narrative of institutional development in material conditions.

The Texture of Evidence: Letters, Speeches, and Official Documents

Atherton's method relies heavily on quoted primary sources. The McGill section includes a lengthy extract from a governor general's letter, reproduced with its original formal phrasing and parenthetical qualifications. This choice gives readers direct access to the language of authority, but also means that the narrative sometimes proceeds by accretion of documents rather than by synthesis. The author's own voice is most present in transitional phrases and in the selection of which documents to include. For instance, the list of notable medical school graduates—"Duncan McCallum, George E. Fenwick, Robert Palmer Howard"—reads like a roll call intended to establish the institution's pedigree. Readers should be alert to how Atherton uses such lists to imply continuity and prestige, even when the institution itself was struggling.

Atherton's volume is best approached as a documentary history that weaves together official correspondence, institutional records, and biographical sketches. The author's professed neutrality is a lens through which to read his selections: what he includes and what he omits are themselves evidence of the tensions he describes. Readers interested in the texture of nineteenth-century Canadian governance and education will find rich material, but should be prepared for a narrative that proceeds by accumulation rather than argument. The work rewards attention to its quoted voices, which often speak more directly than Atherton's own prose.

Reading about McGill’s early, faltering steps under a divided city’s gaze, I found myself thinking how identity is often forged in stubbornness rather than harmony. That same quiet, persistent push against circumstance seems to echo in the story of Patrick, that other exile building something lasting from fragments. The book sits nearby now: The life of St. Patrick and his place in history — Reading Companion. Both leave me with a similar, wistful ache for what survives its own beginnings.