Britain and the Origin of Canadian Confederation, 1837-67

Louis A. Knafla is a professor of history at the University of Calgary
and the co-editor of Law, Society, and the State: Essays in Modern Legal
History.

Ged Martin, an authority on British colonial and imperial policy in the
19th century, argues in this book that Confederation did not occur
primarily in the years 1857–66 (from the depression to the
Charlottetown and London Conferences of 1864 and 1866), but that there
was a prehistory of the idea that emerged in the form of British North
American intercolonial union and imperialism. Locating the “idea” of
Confederation in the dreams of union in the late 1830s and 1840s, Martin
concludes that Britain’s role was “not one of pressure and command
but rather context and support.” The history of the process of
Confederation as “historical explanation” is the subject of Chapter
2, which focuses on the conflicting policies of George Brown and John A.
Macdonald. Other chapters deal with the British understanding of British
North America; the motives behind the British enthusiasm for
Confederation; and the formation of the “collective product” in
1864–67.

Martin draws upon an impressive range of original sources, including
the British Parliamentary Papers and Debates, the papers of the Colonial
Office, and materials in public and private archives in Britain and
Canada. He also provides intermittent commentary on the rich
historiography of the subject. The text is well written, although in
places it bogs down with an excess of detail. There is one map of
eastern British North America in 1860, a useful note on sources,
extensive documentation in the endnotes, and an excellent index.