Title: The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People: An Historical Review
Author: Bourinot, John George
Language: English
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THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CANADIAN PEOPLE

AN HISTORICAL REVIEW

BY JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT



PREFATORY NOTE.

This series of papers has been prepared in accordance with a plan marked
out by the writer, some years ago of taking up, from time to time,
certain features of the social, political and industrial progress of the
Dominion. Essays on the Maritime Industry and the National Development
of Canada have been read before the Royal Colonial Institute in England,
and have been so favourably received by the Press of both countries,
that the writer has felt encouraged to continue in the same course of
study, and supplement his previous efforts by an historical review of
the intellectual progress of the Canadian people.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, OTTAWA, February 17th, 1881.



CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

EFFECT OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES ON MENTAL DEVELOPMENT.

Introductory Remarks--Conditions of Settlement in Canada--Her History
divided into three Periods--First Period, under the French Regime;
Second, from the Conquest to the Union of 1840; Third, from 1840 to
1867--New Period since Confederation--Intellectual Lethargy in New
France--Influence of U. K. Loyalists on Political and Social Life of the
Canadian Provinces--Formation of two Governments in the East and
West--Effect of Parliamentary Institutions on the Public Intelligence
--Remarkable impulse given to Canadian Communities by the Union of
1840--Difficulties of the Old Settlers--Results of the improvement of
Internal Intercourse, the growth of Education and Political
Progress--Population in 1760, 1840 and 1870--Rapid increase of the
Professional and Educated Classes--Wider Field of Thought and Activity
opened to Canadians by Confederation--Effect of Climatic Influences on
National Development--Distinctive traits of French Canadians--Influence
of Union of Races--Usefulness of Religious Teachers in early
times--Labours of the Journalist--Influence of Political Discussion--
Development of Public Intelligence through the extension of Political
Rights.


CHAPTER II.

EDUCATION.

State of Education under the French Regime--Its slow progress after the
Conquest--Schools in Upper Canada--Dr. Strachan's famous Academy
--Stimulus given to Public Schools by the Union of 1840--Schools in the
Maritime Provinces--Higher Education in Canada--The Quebec
Seminary--King's College--Roman Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian
Institutions--First Colleges in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick--Laval
University--Kingston Military College and other Educational
Experiments--Female Colleges--Statistics of Educational Progress--
Status of Teachers--Defects of the Public School System--Review of the
University System--Advantages of Special Professional Courses as in
Germany--A National University.


CHAPTER III.

JOURNALISM.

Influence of the Newspaper Press on the Intellect of the Country--First
Newspapers in Canada--Review of Political Journalism up to 1840--Quebec
_Gazette_, Montreal _Gazette_, Quebec _Mercury_, _Le Canadien_,
etc.--Journalists of mark in old times--Gary, Bedard, Neilson,
Mackenzie, Horne, Fothergill, Gurnett, Dalton, Parent--Mrs. Jameson on
the Upper Canada Press--Advent of Joseph Howe--Journalism since
1840--Sir Francis Hincks--The _Globe_ and Hon. George Brown--_Le Journal
de Quebec_ and Hon. Joseph Cauchon--The _New Era_ and Hon. D'Arcy
McGee--The Hamilton _Spectator_, Toronto _Leader_ and other Journals of
note established--Oldest Newspapers in Canada--Number of Papers, and
their probable total Circulation--Influential Journals since
1867--Leading Journalists--The Religious Press--Illustrated
Papers--Influence of the Press in Canada--Its Improvement in tone and
its great Enterprise--The Old and New Times, as illustrated in two
Toronto Papers.


CHAPTER IV.

NATIVE LITERATURE.

Society in New France--Intellectual lethargy--First Books published
after the Conquest--Bouchette's Works--New Era in French Canadian
Letters--Periodicals, Histories, Poems--Garneau, Ferland, Cremazie,
Frechette--Antiquarian Research--Canadian Ballads--Literary Progress of
English-speaking People--Society previous to the Union of 1840--Early
Libraries and Magazines--Authors of Repute--'Sam Slick'--Professor
Dawson--Charles Heavysege--Poetry--Romance--History--Miscellaneous
Works of Merit--Mr. Alpheus Todd's Constitutional Researches--
Contributions to Colonial Literature by Public Men--Talent in the
Legislature--Results of a Century of Progress summed up--Mental Activity
among the Intelligent and Educated Classes--Increasing Issue of Works and
Pamphlets from Canadian Press--Signs of General Culture--Public
Libraries--Literary and Scientific Societies--Mechanics' Institutes--School
Libraries--A Grand Opportunity for the Rich Men of Canada--Literary,
Artistic and Scientific Topics engaging greater Attention--Writers of
Intellectual Power on the Increase--Encouraging Signs of Intellectual
Development--Brighter Auguries for the Future.



CHAPTER I.

EFFECT OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES ON MENTAL DEVELOPMENT.


Should the title of this review come by any chance under the notice of
some of those learned gentlemen who are delving among Greek roots or
working out abstruse mathematical problems in the great academic seats
on the banks of the Cam or Isis, they would probably wonder what can be
said on the subject of the intellectual development of a people engaged
in the absorbing practical work of a Colonial dependency. To such
eminent scholars Canada is probably only remarkable as a country where
even yet there is, apparently, so little sound scholarship that
vacancies in classical and mathematical chairs have to be frequently
filled by gentlemen who have distinguished themselves in the
Universities of the parent state. Indeed, if we are to judge from
articles and books that appear from time to time in England with
reference to this country, Englishmen in general know very little of the
progress that has been made in culture since Canada has become the most
important dependency of Great Britain, by virtue of her material
progress within half a century. Even the Americans who live alongside of
us, and would be naturally supposed to be pretty well informed as to the
progress of the Dominion to their north, appear for the most part
ignorant of the facts of its development in this particular. It was but
the other day that a writer of some ability, in an organ of religious
opinion, referred to the French Canadians as a people speaking only
inferior French, and entirely wanting in intellectual vigour. Nor is
this fact surprising when we consider that there are even some Canadians
who do not appear to have that knowledge which they ought to have on
such a subject, and take many opportunities of concealing their
ignorance by depreciating the intellectual efforts of their countrymen.
If so much ignorance or indifference prevails with respect to the
progress of Canada in this respect, it must be admitted--however little
flattering the admission may be to our national pride--that it is, after
all, only the natural sequel of colonial obscurity. It is still a
current belief abroad--at least in Europe--that we are all so much
occupied with the care of our material interests, that we are so deeply
absorbed by the grosser conditions of existence in a new country, that
we have little opportunity or leisure to cultivate those things which
give refinement and tone to social life. Many persons lose sight of the
fact that Canada, young though she is compared with the countries of the
Old World, has passed beyond the state of mere colonial pupilage. One
very important section of her population has a history contemporaneous
with the history of the New England States, whose literature is read
wherever the English tongue is spoken. The British population have a
history which goes back over a century, and it is the record of an
industrious, enterprising people who have made great political and
social progress. Indeed it may be said that the political and material
progress that these two sections of the Canadian people have conjointly
made is of itself an evidence of their mental capacity. But whilst reams
are written on the industrial progress of the Dominion with the
praiseworthy object of bringing additional capital and people into the
country, only an incidental allusion is made now and then to the
illustrations of mental activity which are found in its schools, in its
press, and even in its literature. It is now the purpose of the present
writer to show that, in the essential elements of intellectual
development, Canada is making not a rapid but certainly at least a
steady and encouraging progress, which proves that her people have not
lost, in consequence of the decided disadvantages of their colonial
situation, any of the characteristics of the races to whom they owe
their origin. He will endeavour to treat the subject in the spirit of an
impartial critic, and confine himself as closely as possible to such
facts as illustrate the character of the progress, and give much
encouragement for the future of a country even now only a little beyond
the infancy of its material as well as intellectual development.

It is necessary to consider first the conditions under which the
Dominion has been peopled, before proceeding to follow the progress of
intellectual culture. So far, the history of Canada may be divided into
three memorable periods of political and social development. The first
period lasted during the years of French dominion; the second, from the
Conquest to the Union of 1840, during which the provinces were working
out representative institutions; the third, from 1840 to 1867, during
which interval the country enjoyed responsible government, and entered
on a career of material progress only exceeded by that of the great
nation on its borders. Since 1867, Canada has commenced a new period in
her political development, the full results of which are yet a problem,
but which the writer believes, in common with all hopeful Canadians,
will tend eventually to enlarge her political condition, and place her
in a higher position among communities. It is only necessary, however,
to refer particularly to the three first periods in this introductory
chapter, which is merely intended to show as concisely as possible those
successive changes in the social and political circumstances of the
provinces, which have necessarily had the effect of stimulating the
intellectual development of the people.

Religion and commerce, poverty and misfortune, loyalty and devotion to
the British Empire, have brought into the Dominion of Canada the people
who, within a comparatively short period of time, have won from the
wilderness a country whose present condition is the best evidence of
their industrial activity. Religion was a very potent influence in the
settlement of New France. It gave to the country--to the Indian as well
as to the Frenchman--the services of a zealous, devoted band of
missionaries who, with unfaltering courage, forced their way into the
then trackless West, and associated their names to all time with the
rivers, lakes, and forests of that vast region, which is now the most
productive granary of the world. In the wake of these priestly pioneers
followed the trader and adventurer to assist in solving the secrets of
unknown rivers and illimitable forests. From the hardy peasantry of
Normandy and Brittany came reinforcements to settle the lands on the
banks of the St Lawrence and its tributary rivers, and lay the
foundations of the present Province of Quebec. The life of the
population, that, in the course of time, filled up certain districts of
the province, was one of constant restlessness and uncertainty which
prevented them ever attaining a permanent prosperity. When the French
regime disappeared with the fall of Quebec and Montreal, it can hardly
be said there existed a Canadian people distinguished for material or
intellectual activity. At no time under the government of France had the
voice of the 'habitants' any influence in the councils of their country.
A bureaucracy, acting directly under the orders of the King of France,
managed public affairs; and the French Canadian of those times, very
unlike his rival in New England, was a mere automaton, without any
political significance whatever. The communities of people that were
settled on the St. Lawrence and in Acadia were sunk in an intellectual
lethargy--the natural consequence not only of their hard struggle for
existence, but equally of their inability to take a part in the
government of the country. It was impossible that a people who had no
inducement to study public affairs--who could not even hold a town or
parish meeting for the establishment of a public schools--should give
many signs of mental vigour. Consequently, at the time of the Conquest,
the people of the Canadian settlements seemed to have no aspirations for
the future, no interest in the prosperity or welfare of each other, no
real bonds of unity. The very flag which floated above them was an
ever-present evidence of their national humiliation.

So the first period of Canadian history went down amid the deepest
gloom, and many years passed away before the country saw the gleam of a
brighter day. On one side of the English Channel, the King of France
soon forgot his mortification at the loss of an unprofitable 'region of
frost and snow;' on the other side, the English Government looked with
indifference, now that the victory was won, on the acquisition of an
alien people who were likely to be a source of trouble and expense. Then
occurred the War of American Independence, which aroused the English
Ministry from their indifference and forced into the country many
thousands of resolute, intelligent men, who gave up everything in their
devotion to one absorbing principle of loyalty. The history of these men
is still to be written as respects their real influence on the political
and social life of the Canadian Provinces. A very superficial review,
however, of the characteristics of these pioneers will show that they
were men of strong opinions and great force of character--valuable
qualities in the formation of a new community. If, in their Toryism,
they and their descendants were slow to change their opinions and to
yield to the force of those progressive ideas necessary to the political
and mental development of a new country, yet, perhaps, these were not
dangerous characteristics at a time when republicanism had not a few
adherents among those who saw the greater progress and prosperity of the
people to the south of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. These men
were not ordinary immigrants, drawn from the ignorant, poverty-stricken
classes of an Old World; they were men of a time which had produced
Otis, Franklin, Adams, Hancock and Washington--men of remarkable energy
and intellectual power. Not a few of these men formed in the Canadian
colony little centres from which radiated more or less of intellectual
light to brighten the prevailing darkness of those rough times of
Canadian settlement. The exertions of these men, combined with the
industry of others brought into the country by the hope of making homes
and fortunes in the New World, opened up, in the course of years, the
fertile lands of the West. Then two provinces were formed in the East
and West, divided by the Ottawa River, and representative government was
conceded to each. The struggles of the majority to enlarge their
political liberties and break the trammels of a selfish bureaucracy
illustrate the new mental vigour that was infused into the French
Canadian race by the concession of the parliamentary system of 1792. The
descendants of the people who had no share whatever in the government
under French rule had at last an admirable opportunity of proving their
capacity for administering their own affairs, and the verdict of the
present is, that, on the whole, whatever mistakes were committed by
their too ardent and impulsive leaders, they showed their full
appreciation of the rights that were justly theirs as the people of a
free colonial community. Their minds expanded with their new political
existence, and a new people were born on the banks of the St. Lawrence.

At the same time the English-speaking communities of Upper Canada and
the Maritime Provinces advanced in mental vigour with the progress of
the struggle for more liberal institutions. Men of no ordinary
intellectual power were created by that political agitation which forced
the most indifferent from that, mental apathy, natural perhaps to a new
country, where a struggle for mere existence demands such unflagging
physical exertion. It is, however, in the new era that followed the
Union that we find the fullest evidence of the decided mental progress
of the Canadian communities. From that date the Canadian Provinces
entered on a new period of industrial and mental activity. Old
jealousies and rivalries between the different races of the country
became more or less softened by the closer intercourse, social and
political, that the Union brought about. During the fierce political
conflicts that lasted for so many years in Lower Canada--those years of
trial for all true Canadians--the division between the two races was not
a mere line, but apparently a deep gulf, almost impossible to be bridged
in the then temper of the contending parties. No common education served
to remove and soften the differences of origin and language. The
associations of youth, the sports of childhood, the studies by which the
character of manhood is modified, were totally distinct. [Footnote:
Report of Lord Durham on Canada, pp. 14-15.] With the Union of 1840,
unpalatable as it was to many French Canadians who believed that the
measure was intended to destroy their political autonomy, came a spirit
of conciliation which tended to modify, in the course of no long time,
the animosities of the past, and awaken a belief in the good will and
patriotism of the two races, then working side by side in a common
country, and having the same destiny in the future. And with the
improvement of facilities for trade and intercourse, all sections were
brought into those more intimate relations which naturally give an
impulse not only to internal commerce but to the intellectual faculties
of a people. [Footnote: Lord Macaulay says on this point: Every
improvement of the means of locomotion benefits mankind morally and
intellectually, as well as materially, and not only facilitates the
interchange of the various productions of nature and art, but tends to
remove natural and provincial antipathies and to bind together all the
branches of the human family.] During the first years of the settlement
of Canada there was a vast amount of ignorance throughout the rural
districts, especially in the western Province. Travellers who visited
the country and had abundant opportunities of ascertaining its social
condition, dwelt pointedly on the moral and intellectual apathy that
prevailed outside a few places like York or other centres of
intelligence; but they forgot to make allowance for the difficulties
that surrounded these settlers. The isolation of their lives had
naturally the effect of making even the better class narrow-minded,
selfish, and at last careless of anything like refinement. Men who lived
for years without the means of frequent communication with their
fellow-men, without opportunities for social, instructive intercourse,
except what they might enjoy at rare intervals through the visit of some
intelligent clergyman or tourist, might well have little ambition except
to satisfy the grosser wants of their nature. The post office, the
school, and the church were only to be found, in the majority of cases,
at a great distance from their homes. Their children, as likely as not,
grew up in ignorance, even were educational facilities at hand; for in
those days the parent had absolute need of his son's assistance in the
avocations of pioneer life. Yet, with all these disadvantages, these men
displayed a spirit of manly independence and fortitude which was in some
measure a test of their capacity for better things. They helped to make
the country what it is, and to prepare the way for the larger population
which came into it under more favourable auspices after the Union of
1840. From that time Canada received a decided impulse in everything
that tends to make a country happy and prosperous. Cities, towns and
villages sprang up with remarkable activity all over the face of the
country, and vastly enlarged the opportunities for that social
intercourse which is always an important factor in the education of a
new country. At the same time, with the progress of the country in
population and wealth, there grew up a spirit of self-reliance which of
itself attested the mental vigour of the people. Whilst England was
still for many 'the old home,' rich in memories of the past, Canada
began to be a real entity, as it were, a something to be loved, and to
be proud of. The only reminiscences that very many had of the countries
of their origin were reminiscences of poverty and wretchedness, and this
class valued above all old national associations the comfort and
independence, if not wealth, they had been able to win in their Canadian
home. The Frenchman, Scotchman, Irishman, and Englishman, now that they
had achieved a marked success in their pioneer work, determined that
their children should not be behind those of New England, and set to
work to build up a system of education far more comprehensive and
liberal than that enjoyed by the masses in Great Britain. On all sides
at last there were many evidences of the progress of culture, stimulated
by the more generally diffused prosperity. It was only necessary to
enter into the homes of the people, not in the cities and important
centres of industry and education, but in the rural districts, to see
the effects of the industrial and mental development within the period
that elapsed from the Union of 1840 to the Confederation of 1867. Where
a humble log cabin once rose among the black pine stumps, a comfortable
and in many cases expensive mansion, of wood or more durable material,
had become the home of the Canadian farmer, who, probably, in his early
life, had been but a poor peasant in the mother country. He himself,
whose life had been one of unremitting toil and endeavour, showed no
culture, but his children reaped the full benefits of the splendid
opportunities of acquiring knowledge afforded by the country which owed
its prosperity to their father and men like him. The homes of such men,
in the most favoured districts, were no longer the abodes of rude
industry, but illustrative, in not a few cases, of that comfort and
refinement which must be the natural sequence of the general
distribution of wealth, the improvement of internal intercourse, and the
growth of education.

When France no longer owned a foot of land in British North America,
except two or three barren islets on the coast of Newfoundland, the
total population of the provinces known now as Canada was not above
seventy thousand souls, nearly all French. From that time to 1840, the
population of the different provinces made but a slow increase, owing to
the ignorance that prevailed as to Canada, the indifference of English
statesmen in respect to colonization, internal dissensions in the
country itself, and its slow progress, as compared with the great
republic on its borders. Yet, despite these obstacles to advancement, by
1841 the population of Canada reached nearly a million and a half, of
whom at least fifty-five per cent. were French Canadians. Then the tide
of immigration set in this direction, until at last the total population
of Canada rose, in 1867, to between three and four millions, or an
increase of more than a hundred per cent. in a quarter of a century. By
the last Census of 1870, we have some idea of the national character of
this population--more than eighty per cent. being Canadian by birth,
and, consequently, identified in all senses of the term with the soil
and prosperity of the country. Whilst the large proportion of the people
are necessarily engaged in those industrial pursuits which are the basis
of a country's material prosperity, the statistics show the rapid growth
of the classes who live by mental labour, and who are naturally the
leaders in matters of culture. The total number of the professional
class in all the provinces was some 40,000, of whom 4,436 were
clergymen, 109 judges, 264 professors, 3,000 advocates and notaries,
2,792 physicians and surgeons, 13,400 teachers, 451 civil engineers, 232
architects; and for the first time we find mention of a special class of
artists and _litterateurs_, 590 in all, and these evidently do not
include journalists, who would, if enumerated, largely swell the number.

Previous to 1867, different communities of people existed throughout
British North America, but they had no general interest or purpose, no
real bond of union, except their common allegiance to one Sovereign. The
Confederation of the Provinces was intended, by its very essence and
operation, to stimulate, not only the industrial energy, but the mental
activity as well, of the different communities that compose the
Dominion. A wider field of thought has, undoubtedly, been opened up to
these communities, so long dwarfed by that narrow provincialism which
every now and then crops up to mar our national development and impede
intellectual progress. Already the people of the Confederated Provinces
are every where abroad recognised as Canadians--as a Canadian people,
with a history of their own, with certain achievements to prove their
industrial activity. Climatic influences, all history proves, have much
to do with the progress of a people. It is an admitted fact that the
highest grade of intellect has always been developed, sooner or later,
in those countries which have no great diversities of climate.
[Footnote: Sir A. Alison (Vol. xiii. p. 271). says on this point:
'Canada and the other British possessions in British North America,
though apparently blessed with fewer physical advantages than the
country to the South, contain a noble race, and are evidently destined
for a lofty destination. Everything there is in proper keeping for the
development of the combined physical and mental qualities of man. There
are to be found at once the hardihood of character which conquers
difficulty, the severity of climate which stimulates exertion, and
natural advantages which reward enterprise.'] If our natural conditions
are favourable to our mental growth, so, too, it may be urged that the
difference of races which exists in Canada may have a useful influence
upon the moral as well as the intellectual nature of the people as a
whole. In all the measures calculated to develop the industrial
resources and stimulate the intellectual life of the Dominion, the names
of French Canadians appear along with those of British origin. The
French Canadian is animated by a deep veneration for the past history of
his native country, and by a very decided determination to preserve his
language and institutions intact; and consequently there exists in the
Province of Quebec a national French Canadian sentiment, which has
produced no mean intellectual fruits. We know that all the grand efforts
in the attainment of civilization have been accomplished by a
combination of different peoples. The union of the races in Canada must
have its effect in the way of varying and reproducing, and probably
invigorating also, many of the qualities belonging to each--material,
moral, and mental; an effect only perceptible after the lapse of very
many years, but which is, nevertheless, being steadily accomplished all
the while with the progress of social, political, and commercial
intercourse. The greater impulsiveness and vivacity of the French
Canadian can brighten up, so to say, the stolidity and ruggedness of the
Saxon. The strong common-sense and energy of the Englishman can combine
advantageously with the nervous, impetuous activity of the Gaul. Nor
should it be forgotten that the French Canadian is not a descendant of
the natives of the fickle, sunny South, but that his forefathers came
from the more rugged Normandy and Brittany, whose people have much that
is akin with the people of the British islands.

In the subsequent portions of this review, the writer will endeavour to
follow the progress in culture, not merely of the British-speaking
people, but of the two races now working together harmoniously as
Canadians. It will not be necessary to dwell at any length on the first
period of Canadian history It is quite obvious that in the first
centuries of colonial history, but few intellectual fruits can be
brought to maturity. In the infancy of a colony or dependency like
Canada, whilst men are struggling with the forest and sea for a
livelihood, the mass of the people can only find mental food in the
utterances of the pulpit, the legislature, and the press. This
preliminary chapter would be incomplete were we to forget to bear
testimony to the fidelity with which the early Roman Catholic and
Protestant missionaries laboured at the great task devolving upon them
among the pioneers in the Canadian wilderness. In those times of rude
struggle with the difficulties of a colonial life, the religious
teachers always threw a gleam of light amid the mental darkness that
necessarily prevailed among the toilers of the land and sea. Bishops
Laval, Lartigue, Strachan, and Mountain; Sister Bourgeois, Dr. Burns,
Dr. Jas. McGregor, Dr. Anson Green, are conspicuous names among the many
religious teachers who did good service in the early times of colonial
development. During the first periods of Canadian history, the priest or
clergyman was, as often as not, a guide in things temporal as well as
spiritual. Dr. Strachan was not simply the instructor in knowledge of
many of the Upper Canadian youth who, in after times, were among the
foremost men of their day, but was as potent and obstinate in the
Council as he was vigorous and decided in the pulpit. When
communications were wretched, and churches were the exception, the
clergyman was a constant guest in the humble homes of the settlers, who
welcomed him as one who not only gave them religious instruction, but on
many a winter or autumn evening charmed the listeners in front of the
blazing maple logs with anecdotes of the great world of which they too
rarely heard. In those early days, the Church of England clergyman was a
man generally trained in one of the Universities of the parent state,
bringing to the discharge of his duties a conscientious conviction of
his great responsibilities, possessing at the same time varied
knowledge, and necessarily exercising through his profession and
acquirements no inconsiderable influence, not only in a religious but in
an intellectual sense as well--an influence which he has never ceased to
exercise in this country. It is true as the country became more thickly
settled and the people began to claim larger political rights, the
influence of many leading minds among the Anglican clergy, who believed
in an intimate connection between Church and State, even in a colony,
was somewhat antagonistic to the promotion of popular education and the
extension of popular government. The Church was too often the Church of
the aristocratic and wealthier classes; some of its clergy were sadly
wanting in missionary efforts; its magnificent liturgy was too cold and
intellectual, perhaps, for the mass: and consequently, in the course of
time, the Methodists made rapid progress in Upper Canada. Large numbers
of Scotch Presbyterians also settled in the provinces, and exercised a
powerful influence on the social, moral and political progress of the
country. These pioneers came from a country where parish schools existed
long before popular education was dreamed of across the border. Their
clergy came from colleges whose course of study cultivated minds of rare
analytical and argumentative power. The sermon in the Presbyterian
Church is the test of the intellectual calibre of the preacher, whose
efforts are followed by his long-headed congregation in a spirit of the
keenest criticism, ever ready to detect a want of logic. It is obvious
then that the Presbyterian clergyman, from the earliest time he appeared
in the history of this country, has always been a considerable force in
the mental development of a large section of the people, which has given
us, as it will be seen hereafter, many eminent statesmen, journalists,
and _litterateurs_.

From the time the people began to have a voice in public affairs, the
politician and the journalist commenced naturally to have much influence
on the minds of the masses. The labours of the journalist, in connection
with the mental development of the country, will be treated at some
length in a subsequent part of the review. At present it is sufficient
to say that of the different influences that have operated on the minds
of the people generally, none has been more important than the Press,
notwithstanding the many discouraging circumstances under which it long
laboured, in a thinly populated and poor country. The influence of
political discussion on the intellect of Canada has been, on the whole,
in the direction of expanding the public intelligence, although at times
an extreme spirit of partisanship has had the effect of evoking much
prejudice and ill-feeling, not calculated to develop the higher
attributes of our nature. But whatever may have been the injurious
effects of extreme partisanship, the people as a rule have found in the
discussion of public matters an excitement which has prevented them from
falling into that mental torpor so likely to arise amid the isolation
and rude conditions of early times. If the New England States have
always been foremost in intellectual movement, it may be attributed in a
great measure to the fact that from the first days of their settlement
they thought and acted for themselves in all matters of local interest.
It was only late in the day when Canadians had an opportunity given them
of stimulating their mental faculties by public discussion, but when
they were enabled to act for themselves they rapidly improved in mental
strength. It is very interesting to Canadians of the present generation
to go back to those years when the first Legislatures were opened in the
old Bishop's Palace, on the heights of Quebec, and in the more humble
structure on the banks of the Niagara River, and study the record of
their initiation into parliamentary procedure. It is a noteworthy fact
that the French Canadian Legislatures showed from the first an earnest
desire to follow, as closely as their circumstances would permit, those
admirable rules and principles of procedure which the experience of
centuries in England has shown to be necessary to the preservation of
decorum, to freedom of speech, and to the protection of the minority.
The speeches of the leading men in the two Houses were characterized by
evidences of large constitutional knowledge, remarkable for men who had
no practical training in parliamentary life. Of course there were in
these small Assemblies many men rough in speech and manner, with hardly
any education whatever but the writers who refer to them in no very
complimentary terms [Footnote: For instance, Talbot, I, chap. 23. He
acknowledges, at the same time, the great ability of the leading men,
'who would do credit to the British Parliament.'] always ignore the
hardships of their pioneer life, and forget to do justice to their
possession, at all events, of good common-sense and much natural
acuteness, which enabled them to be of use in their humble way, under
the guidance of the few who were in those days the leaders of public
opinion. These leaders were generally men drawn from the Bar, who
naturally turned to the legislative arena to satisfy their ambition and
to cultivate on a larger scale those powers of persuasion and argument
in which their professional training naturally made them adepts. With
many of these men legislative success was only considered a means of
more rapidly attaining the highest honours of their profession, and
consequently they were not always the most disinterested guides in the
political controversies of the day; but, nevertheless, it must be
admitted that, on the whole, the Bar of Canada, then as now, gave the
country not a few men who forgot mere selfish considerations, and
brought to the discussion of public affairs a wide knowledge and
disinterested zeal which showed how men of fine intellect can rise above
the narrower range of thought peculiar to continuous practice in the
Courts. As public questions became of larger import, the minds of
politicians expanded, and enabled them to bring to their discussion a
breadth of knowledge and argumentative force which attracted the
attention of English statesmen, who were so constantly referred to in
those times of our political pupilage, and were by no means too ready to
place a high estimate on colonial statesmanship. In the earlier days of
our political history some men played so important a part in educating
the people to a full comprehension of their political rights that their
names must be always gratefully remembered in Canada. Papineau, Bedard,
DeValliere, Stuart, Neilson, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Howe, Wilmot,
Johnstone, Uniacke, were men of fine intellects--natural-born teachers
of the people. Their successors in later times have ably continued the
work of perfecting the political structure. All party prejudice aside,
every allowance made for political errors in times of violent
controversy, the result of their efforts has been not only eminently
favourable to the material development of the country but also to the
mental vigour of the people. The statesmen who met in council in the
ancient city of Quebec during the October of 1864 gave a memorable
illustration of their constitutional knowledge and their practical
acumen in the famous Resolutions which form the basis of the present
Constitution of Canada.

But it is not within the limits of this review to dwell on the political
progress of Canada, except so far as it may influence the intellectual
development of the people. It will be seen, as we proceed, that the
extension of political rights had a remarkable effect in stimulating the
public intelligence and especially in improving the mental outfit of the
people. The press increased in influence and ability; but, more than
all, with the concession of responsible government, education became the
great question of the day in the legislatures of the larger provinces.
But to so important and interesting a subject it will be necessary to
devote a separate chapter.



CHAPTER II.

EDUCATION.


The great educational advantages that the people of Canada now enjoy,
and more especially in the premier Province of Ontario--as the splendid
exhibit recently made at Paris and Philadelphia has proved to the
world--are the results of the legislation of a very few years. A review
of the first two periods of our political history affords abundant
evidence that there existed in Canada as in Europe much indifference in
all matters affecting the general education of the country. Whatever was
accomplished during these early times was owing, in a great measure, to
the meritorious efforts of ecclesiastical bodies or private individuals.
As long as France governed Canada, education was entirely in the hands
of the Roman Catholic Church. The Jesuits, Franciscans, and other
religious male and female Orders, at an early date, commenced the
establishment of those colleges and seminaries which have always had so
important a share in the education of Lower Canada. The first school in
that province was opened in 1616 at Three Rivers, by Brother Pacifique
Duplessis, a Franciscan. The Jesuits founded a College at Quebec in
1831, or three years before the establishment of Harvard and the
Ursulines opened their convent in the same city four years later. Sister
Bourgeoys, of Troyes, founded at Montreal in 1659 the Congregation de
Notre Dame for the education of girls of humble rank, the commencement
of an institution which has now its buildings in many parts of Canada.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century Mgr. Francois Xavier de
Laval-Montmorency, a member of one of the proudest families in Europe,
carried out a project of providing education for Canadian priests drawn
from the people of the country. Consequently, in addition to the Great
Seminary at Quebec, there was the Lesser Seminary where boys were taught
in the hope that they would one day take orders. In this project the
Indians were included, and several attended when the school was opened
in 1668, in the humble dwelling owned by Mme. Couillard, though it was
not long before they showed their impatience of scholastic bondage. It
is also interesting to learn that, in the inception of education, the
French endeavoured in more than one of their institutions to combine
industrial pursuits with the ordinary branches of an elementary
education. For instance, attached to the Seminary was a sort of
farm-school, established in the parish of St. Joachim, below Quebec, the
object of which was to train the humbler class of pupils in agricultural
as well as certain mechanical pursuits. The manual arts were also taught
in the institutions under the charge of the Ursulines and Congregation.
We find, for example, a French King giving a thousand francs to a
sisterhood of Montreal to buy wool, and the same sum to teach young
girls to knit. We also read of the same Sovereign maintaining a teacher
of navigation and surveying at Quebec on the modest salary of four
hundred francs a-year. But all accounts of the days of the French regime
go to show that, despite the zealous efforts of the religious bodies to
improve the education of the colonists, secular instruction was at a
very low ebb. One writer tells us that 'even the children of officers
and gentlemen scarcely knew how to read and write; they were ignorant of
the first elements of geography and history.' These were, in fact, days
of darkness everywhere, so far as the masses were concerned. Neither
England nor France had a system of popular education. Yet it is
undoubted that on the whole the inhabitants of Canada had far superior
moral and educational advantages than were enjoyed during those times by
the mass of people in England and France. Even in the days of Walpole
and Hannah More the ignorance of the English peasantry was only equalled
by their poverty and moral depravity. [Footnote: Green in his 'History
of the English People' says:--Purity and fidelity to the marriage vow
were sneered out of fashion; and Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to
his son, instructed him in the art of seduction as part of a polite
education. At the other end of the social scale lay the masses of the
poor. They were ignorant and brutal to a degree which it is hard to
conceive, for the vast increase of population which followed on the
growth of towns and the development of manufactures had been met by no
effort for religious or educational improvement. Not a new parish had
been created. Hardly a single new church had been built. Schools there
were none save the grammar schools of Edward and Elizabeth. The rural
peasantry, who were fast being reduced to pauperism by the poor-laws,
were left without moral or religious training of any sort. 'We saw but
one bible in the parish of Chedda,' said Hannah More, at a far later
time, 'and that was used to prop a flower pot.' p. 707, Harpers' ed.
1870. Parkman also admits that 'towards the end of the French regime the
Canadian habitant was probably better taught, so far as concerned
religion, than the mass of French peasants.'--_The Old Regime in
Canada_.]

Sensuality was not encouraged in Canada by the leaders of society, as
was notoriously the case in the best circles of England and of France.
Dull and devoid of intellectual light as was the life of the Canadian,
he had his places of worship, where he had a moral training which
elevated him immeasurably above the peasantry of England as well as of
his old home. The clergy of Lower Canada confessedly did their best to
relieve the ignorance of the people, but they were naturally unable to
accomplish, by themselves, a task which properly devolved on the
governing class. But under the French regime in Canada, the civil
authorities were as little anxious to enlighten the people by the
establishment of schools as they were to give them a voice in the
government of the country. In remarkable contrast with the conduct of
the French Government in this particular were the efforts of the Puritan
pioneers then engaged in the work of civilization among the rocks of New
England. Learning, after religion and social order, was the object
nearest to the hearts of the New England fathers; or rather it may be
said that they were convinced that social order and a religious
character could not subsist in the absence of mental culture. As early
as 1647, Governor Winthrop sanctioned a measure [Footnote: This measure
provided that 'every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord has
increased them to the number of 50 householders, shall then forthwith
appoint one within their town, to teach all such children as shall
resort to him, to write and read, whose wages shall be paid, either by
the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in
general, by way of supply.' And it was further ordered that 'when any
town shall increase to the number of one hundred families, or
householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof
being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the
University.'] which was the first school law ever passed in America, and
outlined just such a system as we now enjoy on an extended scale in
Canada. Wise men those stern Puritans of the early colonial times! It is
not surprising that intellectual food, so early provided for all
classes, should have nurtured at last an Emerson, an Everett, a
Hawthorne, a Wendell Philips, a Longfellow, a Lowell, a Howells, and a
Parkman.

After the Conquest the education of the people made but little progress
in Lower Canada. Education was confined for the most part to the Quebec
Seminary, and a few other institutions under the control of religious
communities, permitted to remain in the country. Lord Dorchester
appointed a Commission in 1787, to enquire into the whole subject, but
no practical results followed the step. In 1792 the Duke de
Rochefoucauld wrote that 'the Canadian who could read was regarded as a
phenomenon.' The attempt of the 'Royal Institution for the Advancement
of Learning' to establish schools was comparatively a failure; for after
an existence of twenty years it had only 37 schools, attended by 1,048
pupils altogether. The British Government, at no time after it came into
possession of the province, ever attempted anything for the promotion of
general education. Indeed, the only matter in which it appeared in
connection with education was one by no means creditable to it; for it
applied the Jesuits' estates, which were destined for education, to a
species of fund for secret service, and for a number of years maintained
an obstinate struggle with the Assembly in order to continue this
misappropriation. No doubt the existing antagonism of races, then so
great an evil in Lower Canada, prevented anything like co-operation in
this matter; but added to this was, probably, a doubt among the ruling
class in Canada, as in England, as to the wisdom of educating the
masses. An educational report of 1824 informs us that 'generally not
above one-fourth of the entire population could read, and not above
one-tenth of them could write even imperfectly.' In the presentments of
the grand juries, and in the petitions on public grievances so
frequently presented to Parliament, the majority of the signers were
obliged to make their marks. During the year 1824, the Fabrique Act was
passed with the view of relieving the public ignorance, but unhappily
the political difficulties that prevailed from that time prevented any
effective measures being carried out for the establishment of public
schools throughout the province.

Nor was education in the western province in a much better state during
the first period of Parliamentary Government, that is from 1792 to 1840.
It is noteworthy, however, that high schools for the education of the
wealthier classes were established at a very early date in the province.
The first classical school was opened in the old town of Kingston by the
Rev. Dr. Stuart. In 1807 the first Education Act was passed,
establishing grammar schools in each of the eight districts in which the
province was divided, and endowing them with an annual stipend of one
hundred pounds each. In 1816 the first steps were taken by the
Legislature in the direction of common schools--as they were then, and
for some time afterwards, designated--but the Acts that were then and
subsequently passed up to the time of the Union were very inadequate to
accomplish the object aimed at. No general system existed; the masters
were very inferior and ill paid. A very considerable portion of the
province was without schools as well as churches. Of the lands which
were generally appropriated to the support of the former by far the most
valuable portion was diverted to the endowment of King's College. In
1838 there were 24,000 children in the common schools, out of a
population of 450,000, leaving probably some 50,000 destitute of the
means of education. The well-to-do classes, however, especially those
living in the large towns, had good opportunities of acquiring a sound
education. Toronto was well supplied with establishments, supported by
large endowments: Upper Canada College, the Home District Grammar
School, besides some well conducted seminaries for young ladies. For
years Cornwall Grammar School, under the superintendence of the
energetic Dr. Strachan was the resort of the provincial aristocracy.
Among the men who received their early education in that famous
establishment were Robert Baldwin, H. J. Boulton, J. B. Macaulay, Allan
McNab, John Beverley Robinson, Dean Bethune, Clark Gamble, and many
others afterwards famous in politics, in law and in the church. Dr.
Strachan was not only a sound scholar but an astute man of the world,
admirably fitted to develop the talents of his pupils and prepare them
for the active duties of life in those young days of Canada. 'In
conducting your education,' said he on one occasion, 'one of my
principal duties has always been to fit you for discharging with credit
the duties of any office to which you may hereafter be called. To
accomplish this it was necessary for you to be accustomed frequently to
depend upon and think for yourselves. Accordingly, I have always
encouraged this disposition, which, when preserved within due bounds, is
one of the greatest benefits that can possibly be acquired. To enable
you to think with advantage, I not only regulated your tasks in such a
manner as to exercise your judgment, but extended them for you beyond
the mechanical routine of study usually adopted in schools.' [Footnote:
Scadding's 'Toronto of Old,' p. 161.] None of the masters of the high
schools of the present day could do as much under the very scientific
system which limits their freedom of action in the educational training
of their scholars. But whilst the wealthier classes in the larger
centres of population could avail themselves of the services of such
able teachers as the late Bishop of Toronto, the mass of people were
left in a state of ignorance. The good schools were controlled by
clergymen of the different denominations; in fact, the Church of England
was nearly dominant in such matters in those early times, and it must be
admitted that there was a spirit abroad in the province which
discredited all attempts to place the education of the masses on a more
liberal basis.

The Union of 1840 and the extension of the political rights of the
people gave a new impulse to useful and practical legislation in a
country whose population commenced from that time to increase very
rapidly. In 1841, 1843 and 1844 measures were passed for the improvement
of the school system of both provinces. In 1846, the system of
compulsory taxation for the support of public schools was, for the first
time, embodied in the law, and education at last made steady progress.
According as experience showed the necessity of changes, the Legislature
improved the educational system of both provinces--these changes having
been continued to be made since Confederation. In Lower Canada, the
names of two men will always be honourably associated with the working
out of the School Law, and these are Dr. Meilleur and Hon. Mr. Chauveau,
the latter of whom succeeded in establishing Normal Schools at Montreal
and Quebec. In the Province of Ontario, Egerton Ryerson has perpetuated
his name from one end of the country to the other, where the young are
being educated in large, comfortable school-houses by a class of
teachers whose qualifications, on the whole, are of a high order.

Great as has been the progress of education in Quebec, yet it must be
admitted that it is in some respects behind that of Ontario. The
buildings are inferior, the teachers less efficient, and insufficiently
paid in many cases--and efficiency, no doubt, depends in a great measure
on the remuneration. The ratio of children who are ignorant of the
elements of knowledge is greater than in the Province of Ontario, where,
it must be remembered, there is more wealth and, perhaps, more ambition
among the people generally. Still the tendency in Quebec is in the
direction of progress, and as the people become better off, they will
doubtless be induced to work out their system, on the whole so
admirable, with greater zeal and energy.

In the Province of Ontario every child can receive a free education, and
can pass from the Public School to the High School or Collegiate
Institute, and thence to the University, where the fees are small and
many scholarships are offered to the industrious student. The principles
which lie at the basis of the system are local assessment to supplement
State aid; thorough inspection of all schools; ensuring the best
teachers by means of Normal Schools and competitive examinations,
complete equipment, graded examinations, and separate schools. The State
recognises its obligation to the child, not only by contributing
pecuniary aid, but by exercising a general supervision, by means of a
Superintendent in Quebec and by a Minister of the Crown in Ontario. The
system of Ontario, which has been the prototype for the legislation of
all the smaller provinces, is eclectic, for it is the result of a
careful examination of the systems that prevail in the United States,
Prussia, and Ireland.

As in the larger provinces, much apathy was shown in Nova Scotia for
many years on the subject of the education of the people. Unhappily this
apathy lasted much longer; for the census of 1861 proved that out of a
population of 284,000 persons over five years of age, no less than
81,469 could not read a printed page, and 114,877 could not write their
names. It was not till 1864 that Sir Charles Tupper, then Premier,
brought in a comprehensive measure containing the best features of the
Ontario system; and the result has been a remarkable development in the
education of the province. In New Brunswick, where the public schools
were long in a very inferior state--though parish schools had been
established as early as 1823--the system was remodelled, in 1871, on
that of Ontario, though no provision was made for Separate Schools--an
omission which has created much bitterness in the province, as the
political history of Canada for the subsequent years abundantly
testifies. In Prince Edward Island the first free schools were
established in 1852, and further improvements have been made of recent
years. In British Columbia, the Legislature has adopted substantially
the Ontario School Law with such modifications as are essential to the
different circumstances of a sparse population. In the North-west,
before the formation of the Province of Manitoba, education was in a
much better condition than the isolation and scattered state of the
population would have led one to expect. In 1857 there were seventeen
schools in the settlements, generally under the supervision of the
clergy of the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian bodies. In
the Collegiate School, managed by the Church of England, and supported,
like all other institutions in the country, by contributions from
abroad, Aeschylus, Herodotus, Thucydides and Livy were read with other
classics besides mathematics. In 1871 a school law of a liberal
character was passed, provision being made for Protestant and Roman
Catholic schools separately.

The higher branches of education have been taught from a very early date
in the history of all the provinces. In the Jesuit College, the Quebec
Seminary, and other Roman Catholic institutions founded in Montreal, St.
Hyacinthe, Three Rivers, and Nicolet, young men could always be educated
for the priesthood, or receive such higher education as was considered
necessary in those early times. The Quebec Seminary always occupied a
foremost position as an educational institution of the higher order, and
did much to foster a love for learning among those classes who were able
to enjoy the advantages it offered them. [Footnote: Mr. Buller, in his
Educational Report to Lord Durham, says: 'I spent some hours in the
experimental lecture-room of the eminent Professor M. Casault, and I
think that I saw there the best and most extensive set of philosophic
apparatus which is yet to be found in the Colonies of British North
America. The buildings are extensive, and its chambers airy and clean;
it has a valuable library, and a host of professors and masters. It
secures to the student an extensive course of education.'] It has
already been noticed that a Grammar School system was established in the
years of the first settlement of Ontario. Governor Simcoe first
suggested the idea of a Provincial University, and valuable lands were
granted by George III., in 1798, for that purpose. The University of
Toronto, or King's College, as it was first called, was established
originally under the auspices of the Church of England, and was endowed
in 1828, but it was not inaugurated and opened until 1843. Upper Canada
College, intended as a feeder to the University, dates back as far as
the same time, when it opened with a powerful array of teachers, drawn
for the most part from Cambridge. In 1834, the Wesleyan Methodists laid
the foundation of Victoria College, at Cobourg, and it was incorporated
in 1841, as a University, with the well-known Rev. Dr. Ryerson as its
first President. The Kirk of Scotland established Queen's College, at
Kingston, in 1841, and the Presbyterian Church of Canada, Knox's
College, at Toronto, in 1844. The Roman Catholics founded Regiopolis, at
Kingston, in 1846; St. Joseph's College, at Ottawa, in 1846; St
Michael's, at Toronto, in 1852. Trinity College, under the auspices of
the Church of England, was the issue of the successful effort that was
made, in 1849, to throw King's College open to all denominations. Bishop
Strachan determined never to lend his countenance to what he called 'a
Godless University,' and succeeded in founding an institution which has
always occupied a creditable position among the higher educational
establishments of the country. The Baptists established the Woodstock
Literary Institute in 1857; the Episcopal Methodists, Albert College, at
Belleville, in 1866; and the Evangelical section of the Church of
England, in 1878, obtained a charter for Huron College, under the name
of the Western University of London.

But the great Province of Ontario cannot lay claim to the honour of
having established the first Colleges with University powers in British
North America. King's College at Windsor, in Nova Scotia--the old home
of 'Sam Slick'--was the first institution of a high order founded in the
provinces, its history as an academy going as far back as 1788, when
Upper Canada had no government of its own. This institution has always
remained under the control of the Church of England, and continues to
hold a respectable position among educational institutions. Dalhousie
College was established at Halifax in 1820, chiefly through the efforts
of the Presbyterian Church. In 1831 the Baptists founded Acadia in
Horton, and in 1843 the Wesleyans an Academy at Sackville, N. B.--a
neutral ground as it were--which was afterwards elevated to the dignity
of a University. The Catholics founded St. Mary's at Halifax in 1840,
and St Francois Xavier at Antigonishe in 1855. In 1876 the experiment
was commenced, at Halifax, of a University to hold examinations in arts,
law, and medicine, and to confer degrees. In New Brunswick, King's
College was established at Fredericton in 1828 under the control of the
Church of England, but in 1858 it was made non-sectarian under the
designation of the University of New Brunswick. Even the little
Provinces of Prince Edward Island and Manitoba have aspirations in the
same way, for the University of Manitoba was established a year or two
ago, and the Prince of Wales College followed the visit of His Royal
Highness to Charlottetown in 1860.

The establishment of Laval University was an important event in the
annals of education of the Province of Quebec. Bishop Bourget of
Montreal first suggested the idea of interesting the Quebec Seminary in
the project. The result was the visit of the Principal, M. Louis
Casault, to Europe, where he obtained a Royal charter, and studied the
best university systems. The charter was signed in 1852, and the Pope
approved the scheme, and authorized the erection of chairs of theology
and the conferring of degrees. The University of McGill is an older
institution than Laval. The noble bequest to which it owes its origin
was for many years a source of expensive litigation, and it was not till
1821 that it received a charter, and only in 1829 was it able to
commence operations. In fact, it cannot be said to have made any
substantial progress till 1854, when it was re-organized with a
distinguished Nova Scotian scientist as its Principal--Dr. J. W.
Dawson--to whom his native province previously owed much for his efforts
to improve education at a time when it was in a very low state, owing to
the apathy of the Legislature. Bishop's College at Lennoxville was
established in 1844, for the education of members of the Church of
England, through the exertions of Bishop Mountain, but it was not till
1853 that it was erected into a University. Besides these institutions,
the Roman Catholics and other denominations have various colleges and
academies at different important points--such as St. Hyacinthe,
Montreal, Masson and L'Assomption Colleges. The Government of the
Dominion have also established, at Kingston, an institution where young
men may receive a training to fit them for the military profession--an
institution something on the model of West Point--the practical benefits
of which, however, are not as yet appreciable in a country like this,
which has no regular army, and cannot afford employment suitable for the
peculiar studies necessarily followed in the Academy. The Ontario
Government are also trying the experiment, on an expensive scale, of
teaching young men agriculture, practically and scientifically--a
repetition, under more favourable circumstances, of what was tried
centuries ago by the religious communities of Quebec. Nor, in reviewing
the means of mental equipment in Canada, must we forget the many
establishments which are now provided for the education of young women
outside of the Public and High Schools, the most notable being the Roman
Catholic Convents of Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur, Ottawa Ladies' College,
Wesleyan Ladies' College at Hamilton, Brantford Ladies' College, Bishop
Strachan School at Toronto, Helmuth Ladies' College at London, Albert
College, and Woodstock Literary Institute, besides many minor
institutions of more or less merit. Several of our universities have
also shown a liberal progressive spirit in acknowledging the right of
women to participate in the higher education, hitherto confined to men
in this country--an illustration in itself of the intellectual
development that is now going on among us.

When we proceed to review the statistics of educational progress, they
present very gratifying results. The following table, carefully prepared
to the latest date, from the voluminous official returns annually
presented to the different Legislatures of the Provinces of Canada, will
be quite sufficient for the purposes of this paper:

  Total number of public educational institutions in the Dominion  13,800

  Number of pupils in attendance throughout the year              925,000
  Amount now annually contributed by the State and People      $6,700,000

  Number of Colleges and Universities                                  21
  Number of Undergraduates in Arts, Law, Medicine, Theology, about  2,200

  Number of Superior and High Schools, including Academies and
      Collegiate Institutes                                           443
  Aggregate attendance in same                                    141,000

  Number of Normal Schools                                              8
  Number of students in same                                        1,400

  Amount expended in Ontario alone during 30 years (from 1850
      to 1880,) for erection and repairs of School-houses,
      fuel and contingencies, about                           $15,000,000

  [Footnote: The educational statistics preceding 1850 are not easily
  ascertained, and in any case are small. I have not been able to
  obtain similar figures for other provinces; in fact, in some cases,
  they are not to be ascertained with any degree of accuracy.]

  Total amount expended in same province, for all educational
  purposes during same period, upwards of                     $50,000,000

  Total amount (approximate), available for public school
  purposes, in _all_ Canada, since Confederation,
  _i.e._ in 12 years                                          $64,000,000


These statistics prove conclusively, that Canada occupies a foremost
position among communities for its zeal in developing the education of
the people, irrespective of class. The progress that has been made
within forty years may be also illustrated by the fact that, in 1839,
there were in all the public and private schools of British North
America only some 92,000 young people, out of a total population of
1,440,000, or about one in fifteen, whilst now the proportion may be
given at one in four, if we include the students in all educational
institutions. But it must be admitted, that it is to Ontario we must
look for illustrations of the most perfect educational system. There,
from the very commencement, the admirable municipal system which was one
of the best results of the Union of 1840, enabled the people to prove
their public spirit by carrying out with great energy the different
measures passed by the Legislature for the promotion of Public Schools.
'By their constitution, the municipal and school corporations are
reflections of the sentiments and feelings of the people within their
respective circles of jurisdiction; their powers are adequate to meet
all the economic exigencies of each municipality, whether of schools or
roads, of the diffusion of knowledge, or the development of wealth.'
[Footnote: Hon. Adam Crooks, Minister of Education, Report on
Educational Institutions of Ontario, for Philadelphia Exhibition, p.
45.] As a result of such public spirit, we find in Ontario the finest
specimens of school architecture, and the most perfect school apparatus
and appliances of every kind, calculated to assist the teacher and
pupil, and to bring into play their best mental faculties. But there can
be no doubt that the success of the system rests in a very great measure
on the effort that has been made to improve the status of the teacher.
The schoolmaster is no longer a man who resorts to education because
everything else has failed. He is no longer one of that class of
'adventurers, many of them persons of the lowest grade,' who, we are
told, infested the rural districts of Upper Canada in olden times,
'wheresoever they found the field unoccupied; pursuing their speculation
with pecuniary profit to themselves, but with certainly little advantage
to the moral discipline of their youthful pupils.' [Footnote: Preston's
'Three Years in Canada' (1837-9), p. 110, Vol. ii.] The fact that such
men could be instructors of youth, half a century ago, is of itself a
forcible illustration of the public indifference to the question of
popular education. All the legislation in Ontario, and in the other
provinces as well, has been framed with the object of elevating the
moral and intellectual standing of a class on whose efforts so much of
the future happiness and prosperity of this country depends. On the
whole, the object has been successfully achieved, and the schoolmasters
of Ontario are, as a rule, a superior class of men. Yet it must be
admitted that much can still be done to improve their position.
Education, we all know, does not necessarily bring with it refinement;
that can only come by constant communication with a cultured society,
which is not always, in Canada, ready to admit the teacher on equal
terms. It may also be urged that the teacher, under the system as now
perfected, is far too much of an automaton--a mere machine, wound up to
proceed so far and no farther. He is not allowed sufficient of that free
volition which would enable him to develop the best qualities of his
pupils, and to elevate their general tone. Polite manners among the
pupils are just as valuable as orderly habits. Teachers cannot strive
too much to check all rudeness among the youth, many of whom have few
opportunities to cultivate those social amenities which make life so
pleasant, and also do so much to soften the difficulties of one's
journey through life. [Footnote: Since the above was written, I find the
following remarks by Mr. Adam, editor of the _Canada Educational
Monthly_, to the same purport: 'The tone of the Schools might be largely
raised and the tender and plastic nature of the young minds under
training be directed into sympathy with the noble and the elevating.
Relieved of much of the red-tapism which hampers the work of the
High-School teacher, the masters of the Public Schools have more
opportunity to make individuality tell in the conduct of the school, and
of encircling the sphere of their work with a bright zone of cultivation
and refinement. But the Public School teacher will accomplish much if,
reverently and sympathetically, he endeavours to preserve the freshness
and ingenuousness of childhood and, by the influence of his own example,
while leading the pupil up the golden ladder of mental acquisition, he
encourages the cultivation of those graces of life which are the best
adornments of youth.'--Feb. 1879.] Such discipline cannot be too rigidly
followed in a country of a Saxon race, whose _brusquerie_ of manner and
speech is a natural heritage, just as a spirit of courtesy seems innate
in the humblest _habitants_ who have not yet forgotten, among the rude
conditions of their American life, that prominent characteristic of a
Gallic people. [Footnote: More than forty years ago, Mr. Buller, in his
report to Lord Durham on the State of Education in Lower Canada, pays
this tribute to the peasantry: 'Withal this is a people eminently
qualified to reap advantages from education; they are shrewd and
intelligent, never morose, most amiable in their domestic relations, and
_most graceful in their manners_.']

It is quite probable that the Public School system of this country is
still defective in certain respects, which can only be satisfactorily
improved with the progress of experience. The remarks of a writer in a
recent number of a popular American magazine, _Scribner's Monthly_, may
have some application to ourselves, when he says that there is
now-a-days 'too decided an aim to train everybody to pass an examination
in everything;' that the present system 'encourages two virtues--to
forgive and forget, in time to forgive the examiner, and to forget the
subject of the examination.' The present writer does not wish--in fact,
it is rather beyond the limit he has marked out for this review--to go
into any lengthy discussion of matters which are worthy, however, of
consideration by all those interested in perfecting the details of the
educational system in Ontario; but he may refer, _en passant_, to the
somewhat remarkable multiplication of text-books, many of which are
carelessly got up, simply to gratify the vanity and fill the purse of
some educationist, anxious to get into print. Grammar also appears to be
a lost art in the Public Schools, where the students are perplexed by
books, not simple, but most complex in their teachings, calculated to
bewilder persons of mature analytical minds, and to make one appreciate
more highly than ever the intelligible lessons of Lennie's homely little
volume, which was the favourite in those times when education was not
quite so much reduced to a science. But these are, after all, only among
the details which can be best treated by teachers themselves, in those
little parliaments which have grown up of recent years, and where
educationists have admirable opportunities of comparing their
experiences, and suggesting such improvements as may assist in the
intellectual development of the young, and at the same time elevate
their own social standing in this country. On the whole, Canada has much
reason for congratulation in possessing a system which brings education
in every province within the reach of all, and enables a lad to
cultivate his intellectual faculties to a point sufficient to place him
in the years of his mature manhood in the highest position that this
country offers to its sons. As to the objection, not unfrequently urged,
that the tendency of the public school education of this country is to
withdraw the young from the industrial avocations of life, it may be
forcibly met by the fact, that it is to the New England States we look
for the best evidences of industrial, as well as intellectual,
development. The looms of Massachusetts and Connecticut are not less
busy--the inventive genius of those States is not less fertile, because
their public schools are teeming with their youth. But it is not
necessary to go to the neighbouring States to give additional force to
these remarks; for in no part of the Dominion, is there so much
industrial energy as in the Province of Ontario, where the school system
is the best. An English gentleman, who has devoted more attention than
the majority of his countrymen to the study of colonial subjects, has
well observed on this point: 'A key to one of the principal causes of
their successful progress in the development of industrial art is
probably to be found in their excellent and superior educational
system.' [Footnote: Address of Mr. Frederick Young on the Paris
Exhibition, before the Royal Colonial Institute, 1878-9.]

A review of the University system of this country, on the perfection of
which depends the higher culture of the people, shows us that the
tendency continues to be in the direction of strengthening the
denominational institutions. The Universities of Toronto and McGill are
the principal non-sectarian institutions of a higher class, which appear
to be on a popular and substantial basis. It is natural enough that each
denomination should rally around a college, which rests on a religious
basis. Parents seem in not a few cases to appreciate very highly the
moral security that the denominational system appears to afford to their
sons--a moral security which they believe to be wanting in the case of
non-sectarian institutions. Even those colleges which do not shut their
doors to young men of any particular creed continue to be more or less
supported by the denominations under whose auspices they were first
established. No doubt, these colleges, sufficiently numerous for a
sparsely peopled country like Canada, are doing a valuable work in
developing the intellectual faculties of the youth of the several
provinces. It is a question, however, if the perpetuation of a system
which multiplies colleges with University powers in each province, will
tend to produce the soundest scholarship in the end. What we want even
now are not so many 'Admirable Crichtons' with a smattering of all sorts
of knowledge, but men recognised for their proficiency in special
branches of learning. Where there is much competition, there must be
sooner or later an inclination to lower the standard, and degrade the
value of the diplomas issued at the close of a college course.
Theoretically, it seems preferable that in a great province like
Ontario, the diplomas should emanate from one Central University
authority rather than from a number of colleges, each pursuing its own
curriculum. No doubt it is also quite possible to improve our higher
system of education so as to make it more in conformity with the
practical necessities of the country. An earnest discussion has been
going on for some time in the United States as to the inferiority of the
American University System compared with that of Germany. [Footnote: An
article, in the July number of _Harper's_ for 1880, by so distinguished
an authority as Professor Draper, is well worthy of perusal by those who
wish to pursue this subject at greater length. Among other things he
says (pp. 253-4): 'There is therefore in America a want of a school
offering opportunities to large and constantly increasing classes of men
for pursuing professional studies--a want which is deeply felt, and
which sends every year many students and millions of dollars out of the
country. Where in the United States can a young man prepare himself
thoroughly to become a teacher of the ancient classics. A simple college
course is not enough. The Germans require that their teachers of Latin
and Greek should pursue the classics as a specialty for three years at a
University after having completed the gymnasium which, as a classical
school, would be universally admitted to rank with our colleges.... If
an American (or a Canadian) wishes to pursue a special course in
history, politics and political economy, mathematics, philosophy, or in
any one of many other studies lying outside of the three professions,
law, medicine, and theology, he must go to Europe. Again, whoever
desires even in theology, law and medicine to select from one branch as
a specialty, must go to Europe to do so.' Hon. Mr. Blake, in his last
address as Chancellor of Toronto University, also dwelt very forcibly on
the necessity of _post graduate_ courses of study in special
subjects.--_Canada Educational Monthly_, Oct. 1880.] John-Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Michigan University, and Cornell University,
are illustrations of the desire to enlarge the sphere of the education
of the people. If we had the German system in this country, men could
study classics or mathematics, or science, or literature, or law, or
medicine, in a national University with a sole view to their future
avocations in life. It is true, in the case of law and medicine Laval,
Toronto, McGill and other Universities in the provinces have organized
professional courses; and there is no doubt a desire on the part of the
educational authorities in these institutions to ensure proficiency so
far as the comparatively limited means at their command permit them. It
is certainly a noteworthy fact--lately pointed out by Mr. Blake--that
during the last five years only one fourth of the entrants into Osgoode
Hall were graduates of any University, and three-fourths were men who
had taken no degree, and yet there is no profession which demands a
higher mental training than the Bar. In medical education there is
certainly less laxity than in the United States; all the efforts of
medical men being laudably directed to lengthen the course and develop
the professional knowledge of the students. Still, not a few of our
young men show their appreciation of the need of even a wider knowledge
and experience than is afforded in the necessarily limited field of
Canadian study, by spending some time in the great schools and hospitals
of Europe. Of course, in a new country, where there is a general desire
to get to the practical work of life with as little delay as possible,
the tendency to be carefully guarded against is the giving too large
facilities to enter professions where life and property are every day at
stake. It is satisfactory, however, to know that the tendency in Canada
is rather in the other direction, and that an institution like McGill
College, which is a Medical College of high reputation, is doing its
best with the materials at command, to perfect the medical knowledge of
those who seek its generous aid. No doubt the time is fast approaching
when the State will be obliged to give greater assistance to Toronto
University so as to enable it to enter on a broader and more liberal
system of culture, commensurate with the development of science and
literature. Unless the State makes a liberal effort in this direction,
we are afraid it will be some time before University College will be in
a position to imitate the praiseworthy example set by Columbia College,
which, from its situation in the great commercial metropolis, and the
large means at its command, seems likely to be the great American
University of the future. It must be remembered that the intellectual
requirements of the Dominion must continue to increase with great
rapidity, since there is greater wealth accumulating, and a praiseworthy
ambition for higher culture. The legislature and the public service are
making very heavy requisitions on the intellect of this much governed
country, with its numerous Parliaments and Cabinets and large body of
officials, very many of whom are entrusted with the most responsible
duties, demanding no ordinary mental qualifications. [Footnote: It is a
fact worthy of mention in this connection, that in the English House of
Commons dissolved in 1880, 236, or more than a third out of 658, members
were Oxford or Cambridge men, while about 180 were 'public school
men,'--the 'public schools' being Eton and such high class institutions.
In a previous English Cabinet, the majority were Honor men; Mr.
Gladstone is a double first of Christ Church, Oxford.]

The public schools, collegiate institutes, and universities, apart from
the learned professions, must also every year make larger demands on the
intellectual funds of the Dominion, and as the remuneration of the
masters and professors in the educational institutions of this country
should in the nature of things improve in the future, our young men must
be necessarily stimulated to consider such positions more worthy of a
life's devotion. Under such circumstances, it should be the great object
of all true friends of the sound intellectual development of Canada to
place our system of higher education on a basis equal to the exigencies
of a practical, prescient age, and no longer cling to worn out ideas of
the past. In order to do this, let the people of Ontario determine to
establish a national University which will be worthy of their great
province and of the whole Dominion. Toronto University seems to have in
some measure around it that aroma of learning, that dignity of age, and
that prestige of historic association which are necessary to the
successful establishment of a national seat of learning, and will give
the fullest scope to Canadian talent.



CHAPTER III.

JOURNALISM.


In the development of Canadian intellect the newspaper press has had a
very large influence during the past half-century and more. What the
pulpit has done for the moral education of the people, the press has
accomplished for their general culture when schools were few and very
inferior, and books were rarely seen throughout the country. When the
political rights of the people were the subject of earnest controversy
in the Legislatures of the Provinces the press enabled all classes to
discuss public questions with more or less knowledge, and gave a decided
intellectual stimulus, which had a valuable effect in a young isolated
country like Canada. In the days of the French _regime_ there was not a
single printing press in Canada, though the _News Letter_ was published
in Boston as early as 1704. [Footnote: The first printing press in
America wag set up at Cambridge, in the ninth year of the Charter
Government (1639); the first document printed was the 'Freeman's Oath,'
then an almanack, and next the Psalms.--2 Palgrave, 45. In 1740, there
were no less than eleven journals--only of foolscap size,
however--published in the English Colonies.] It is generally claimed
that the first newspaper in Canada, was the Quebec _Gazette_, which was
published in 1764, by Brown & Gilmour, formerly Philadelphia printers,
with a subscription list of only one hundred and fifty names. The first
issue appeared on the 21st June, printed on four folio pages of 18 by 12
inches, each containing two columns of small type. The first article was
the prospectus in larger type, in which the promoters promised to pay
particular attention 'to the refined amusements of literature and the
pleasant veins of well-pointed wit; interspersed with chosen pieces of
curious essays, extracted from the most celebrated authors, blending
philosophy with politics, history, &c.' The conductors also pledged
themselves to give no place in the paper to 'party prejudices and
private scandal'--a pledge better kept than such promises are generally.
There was a very slender allowance of news from Riga, St. Petersburg,
London, New York and Philadelphia; but there was one ominous item, that
Parliament was about imposing taxes on the Colonies, though they were
without representation in that Parliament. The latest English news was
to the 11th April; the latest American to the 7th May. Only two
advertisements appeared--one of a general store, of dry goods,
groceries, hardware, all the _olla podrida_ necessary in those days; the
other from the Honourable Commissioner of Customs, warning the public
against making compositions for duties under the Imperial Act. This
sheet, for some years, had no influence on public opinion; for it
continued to be a mere bald summary of news, without comment on
political events. Indeed, when it was first issued, the time was
unfavourable for political discussion, as Quebec had only just become an
English possession, and the whole country was lying torpid under the
military administration of General Murray. It is, however, a fact not
very generally known even yet, except to a few antiquarians, that there
was a small sheet published in British America, called the Halifax
_Gazette_ [Footnote: In a letter of Secretary Cotterell, written in
1754, to Captain Floyer, at Piziquid (Windsor), he refers to M. Dandin,
a priest in one of the Acadian settlements: 'If he chooses to play _bel
esprit_ in the Halifax _Gazette_, he may communicate his matter to the
printer as soon as he pleases, as he will not print it without showing
it to me.--See Murdoch's History of Nova Scotia, vol. 2, p. 234] just
twelve years before the appearance of the Quebec paper. From 1769 we
commence to find regular mention of the Nova Scotia _Gazette and Weekly
Chronicle_, published on Sackville Street by A. Fleury, who also printed
the first Almanac in Canada, in 1774. One of the first newspapers
published in the Maritime Provinces was the _Royal Gazette and New
Brunswick Advertiser_, which appeared in 1785 in St. John, just founded
by the American Loyalists. The first paper appeared in Upper Canada on
the establishment of Parliamentary Government, and was published by
Louis Roy, at Newark, on the 18th April, 1793, under the title of _The
Upper Canada Gazette, or the American Oracle_. The sheet was in folio,
15 by 9-1/2 inches, of coarse, but durable paper--not a characteristic,
certainly, of our great newspapers now-a-days, of which the material is
very flimsy; the impression was fairly executed; the price was three
dollars a year. In 1794, the form was changed to a quarto, and one
Tiffany had become the proprietor. When the _Gazette_ was removed to
York, in 1800, with all the Government offices, the Messrs. Tiffany
started the _Constellation_, which, Dr. Scadding tells us, illustrated
the jealousy which the people of the Niagara district felt at seeing
York suddenly assume so much importance; for one of the writers
ironically proposes a 'Stump Act' for the ambitious, though muddy,
unkempt little town, 'so that the people in the space of a few months,
may relapse into intoxication with impunity, and stagger home at any
hour of the night without encountering the dreadful apprehension of
broken necks.'

The _Constellation_ only lived a year or two, and then gave way to the
_Herald_ and other papers at subsequent dates; and it is an interesting
fact, mentioned by the learned antiquarian of Toronto, that the imposing
stone used by Mr. Tiffany, was in use up to 1870, when the old _Niagara
Mail_, long edited by Mr. W. Kirby, at last ceased publication. The
_Gazette_ and _Oracle_ continued to be published at York by different
printers, and, like other journals in America, often appeared in
variegated colours--blue being the favourite--in consequence of the
scarcity of white paper. The title, _American Oracle_, was dropped from
the heading when Dr. Horne became the publisher, in 1817; it continued
to publish official notices, besides meagre summaries of general news,
and some miscellaneous reading matter.

The second paper in Upper Canada was the _Upper Canada Guardian_ or
_Freeman's Journal_, which was edited and printed by Joseph Willcox, who
fell under the ban of the Lieutenant Governor, for his Liberal opinions.
It was printed in 1807, and exercised much influence for a time as an
organ of the struggling Liberal party. Like others, in those days of
political bitterness, its editor was imprisoned, ostensibly for a breach
of parliamentary privilege, though in reality as a punishment for
presuming to differ from the governing party; but, able man as he
undoubtedly was, he marred his career by an infamous desertion to the
Americans during the war of 1812, before the expiration of which he was
killed. The first newspaper in Kingston, the third in the province, was
the _Gazette_, founded in 1810, by Stephen Miles, who afterwards became
a minister of the Methodist denomination, and also printed the Grenville
_Gazette_, the first journal in the old town of Prescott. [Footnote:
Morgan's 'Bibliotheca Canadensis,' Art. Miles.] The first daily paper
published in British North America, appears to have been the _Daily
Advertiser_, which appeared in Montreal, in May, 1833--the _Herald_ and
_Gazette_ being tri-weekly papers at the time. The _Daily Advertiser_
was issued in the interests of the Liberals, under the management of the
Hon. H. S. Chapman, subsequently a judge in New Zealand. One of the
chief inducements held out to subscribers was the regular publication of
full prices current and other commercial information. The _British
Whig_, of Kingston, was the first newspaper that attempted the
experiment of a daily issue in Upper Canada.

It is a noteworthy fact, which can be best mentioned here, that the
first newspaper in Three Rivers was the _Gazette_, published by one
Stobbs, in 1832, more than two centuries after the settlement of that
town, which has always been in the midst of the most thickly settled
district of Lower Canada. At that time, newspapers were rapidly gaining
ground in Upper Canada--districts not so old by months or weeks even as
Three Rivers had years, and with a more scattered population, not
exceeding one-fifth of that of the Three Rivers district, could boast
of, at least, one newspaper. [Footnote: Quebec _Mercury_, 1832.]

In 1827, Mr. Jotham Blanchard, the ancestor of a well-known family of
Liberals in the Lower Provinces, established the first newspaper outside
of Halifax, the _Colonial Patriot_, at Pictou, a flourishing town on the
Straits of Northumberland, chiefly settled by the Scotch.

In 1839, Mr. G. Fenety--now 'Queen's Printer' at Fredericton
--established the _Commercial News_, at St. John, New Brunswick, the
first tri-weekly and penny paper in the Maritime Provinces, which he
conducted for a quarter of a century, until he disposed of it to Mr.
Edward Willis, under whose editorial supervision it has always exercised
considerable influence in the public affairs of the province. The first
daily paper published in the Province of Nova Scotia, was the Halifax
_Morning Post_, appearing in 1845, edited by John H. Crosskill but it
had a brief existence, and tri-weeklies continued to be published for
many years--the old _Colonist_ representing the Conservatives, and the
_Chronicle_ the Liberals, of the province. The senior of the press, in
the Lower Provinces, however, is the _Acadian Recorder_, the first
number of which appeared in 1813.

The only mention I have been able to find of a newspaper in the brief
histories of Prince Edward Island, is of the appearance, in 1823, of the
_Register_, printed and edited by J. D. Haszard, who distinguished
himself at the outset of his career by a libel on one of the Courts
before which he was summoned with legal promptitude--just as printers
are now-a-days in Manitoba--and dismissed with a solemn reprimand, on
condition of revealing the authors of the libel. The remarks of the
Chancellor (who appears to have been also the Governor of the Island),
in dismissing the culprit, are quite unique in their way. 'I
compassionate your youth and inexperience; did I not do so, I would lay
you by the heels long enough for you to remember it. You have delivered
your evidence fairly, plainly and clearly, and as became a man; but I
caution you, when you publish anything again, keep clear, Sir, of a
Chancellor. Beware, Sir, of a Chancellor.' [Footnote: Campbell's Hist,
of P. E. I.] Many other papers were published in later years; the most
prominent being the _Islander_, which appeared in 1842, and continued in
existence for forty-two years. This paper along with the _Examiner_,
edited by the Hon. Edward Whelan, a man of brilliant parts, now dead,
had much influence over political affairs in the little colony.

The history of the newspaper press of British Columbia does not go
beyond twenty-two years. The first attempt at journalistic enterprise
was the Victoria _Gazette_, a daily published in 1858, by two Americans,
who, however, stopped the issue in the following year. The next paper
was the _Courrier de la Nouvelle Caledonie_ printed by one Thornton, an
Anglo-Frenchman, who had travelled all over the world. The somewhat
notorious Marriott, of the San Francisco _News-Letter_, also, in 1859,
published the Vancouver Island _Gazette_, but only for a while. It is a
noteworthy fact, that the Cariboo _Sentinel_--now no longer in
existence--was printed on a press sent out to Mgr. Demers, by the Roman
Catholics of Paris. Even the little settlement of Emory has had its
newspaper, the _Inland Sentinel_. The best known newspaper in the
Pacific Province has always been, since 1858, the _British Colonist_,
owned and edited originally by Hon. Amor de Cosmos, for some time
Premier, and now a well-known member of the House of Commons, who made
his paper a power in the little colony by his enterprise and forcible
expression of opinion. The _Standard_ is also another paper of political
influence, and is published daily, like the _Colonist_. Two papers are
printed in New Westminster, and one in Nanaimo; the total number in the
province being five.

In the previous paragraphs, I have contained myself to the mention of a
few facts in the early history of journalism in each of the Provinces of
Canada. Proceeding now to a more extended review, we find that a few
papers exercised from the outset a very decided influence in political
affairs, and it is to these I propose now to refer, especially, before
coming down to later times of extended political rights and consequent
expansion of newspaper enterprise. The oldest newspaper now in Canada is
the Montreal _Gazette_, which was first published as far back as 1787,
by one Mesplet, in the French language. It ceased publication for a
time, but reappeared about 1794, with Lewis Roy as printer. On the death
of the latter, the establishment was assumed by E. Edwards, at No. 135
St. Paul Street, then the fashionable thoroughfare of the town. It was
only a little affair, about the size of a large foolscap sheet, printed
in small type in the two languages, and containing eight broad columns.
In 1805, the Quebec _Mercury_ was founded by Thomas Gary, a Nova Scotian
lawyer, as an organ of the British inhabitants, who, at that time,
formed a small but comparatively wealthy and influential section of the
community. Mr. Gary was a man of scholarly attainments and a writer of
considerable force. The _Mercury_ had hardly been a year in existence,
when its editor experienced the difficulty of writing freely in those
troublous times, as he had to apologize for a too bold censure of the
action of the dominant party in the Legislature. But this _contretemps_
did not prevent him continuing in that vein of sarcasm of which he was a
master, and evoking, consequently, the ire of the leading Liberals of
those days--Stuart, Vanfelson, Papineau, Viger, and others. One of the
results of his excessive freedom of speech was an attempt to punish him
for a breach of privilege; but he remained concealed in his own house,
where, like the conspirators of old times, he had a secret recess made
for such purposes, and where he continued hurling his philippics against
his adversaries with all that power of invective which would be used by
a conscientious though uncompromising old Tory of those days, when party
excitement ran so high. The Quebec _Gazette_ was at that time, as in its
first years, hardly more than a mere resume of news. [Footnote: From
1783 to 1792, the paper scarcely published a political 'leader,' and so
fearful were printers of offending men in power, that the Montreal
_Gazette_, so late as 1790, would not even indicate the locality in
which a famous political banquet was held, on the occasion of the
formation of a Constitutional Club, the principal object of which was to
spread political knowledge throughout the country. See Garneau II. 197
and 206.] Hon. John Neilson assumed its editorship in 1796, and
continued more or less to influence its columns whilst he remained in
the Lower Canada Legislature. In 1808, Mr. Neilson enlarged the size of
his paper, and published it twice a week, in order to meet the growing
demand for political intelligence. The _Gazette_ was trammelled for
years by the fact that it was semi-official, and the vehicle of public
notifications, but when, subsequently, [Footnote: In 1823, an Official
Gazette was published by Dr. Fisher, Queen's Printer. Canadian
Magazine,' p. 470.] this difficulty no longer existed, the paper, either
under his own or his son's management, was independent, and, on the
whole, moderate in tone whenever it expressed opinions on leading public
questions. Mr. Neilson, from 1818, when he became a member of the
Legislature, exercised a marked influence on the political discussions
of his time, and any review of his career as journalist and politician
would be necessarily a review of the political history of half a
century. A constant friend of the French Canadians, a firm defender of
British connection, never a violent, uncompromising partisan, but a man
of cool judgment, he was generally able to perform good service to his
party and country. As a public writer he was concise and argumentative,
and influential, through the belief that men had in his sincerity and
honesty of purpose.

In 1806, there appeared in Quebec a new organ of public opinion, which
has continued to the present day to exercise much influence on the
politics of Lower Canada. This was the _Canadien_, which was established
in the fall of that year, chiefly through the exertions of Pierre
Bedard, who was for a long while the leader of the French party in the
Legislature, and at the same time chief editor of the new journal, which
at once assumed a strong position as the exponent of the principles with
which its French Canadian conductors were so long identified. It waged a
bitter war against its adversaries, and no doubt had an important share
in shaping the opinions and educating the public mind of the majority in
the province. If it too frequently appealed to national prejudices, and
assumed an uncompromising attitude when counsels of conciliation and
moderation would have been wiser, we must make allowance for the hot
temper of those times, and the hostile antagonism of races and parties,
which the leaders on both sides were too often ready to foment, The
editor of the _Canadien_ was also punished by imprisonment for months,
and the issue of the paper was stopped for a while on the order of Chief
Justice Sewell, in the exciting times of that most arbitrary of military
governors, Sir James Craig. The action of the authorities in this matter
is now admitted to have been tyrannical and unconstitutional, and it is
certainly an illustration of human frailty that this same M. Bedard, who
suffered not a little from the injustice of his political enemies,
should have shown such weakness--or, shall we say, Christian
forbearance--in accepting, not long afterwards, a judgeship from the
same Government which he had always so violently opposed, and from which
he had suffered so much.

Whilst the _Canadien_, _Gazette_, and _Mercury_ were, in Lower Canada,
ably advocating their respective views on the questions of the day, the
Press of Upper Canada was also exhibiting evidences of new vigour. The
_Observer_ was established at York, in 1820, and the _Canadian freeman_
in 1825, the latter, an Opposition paper, well printed, and edited by
Francis Collins who had also suffered at the hands of the ruling powers.
An anecdote is related of the commencement of the journalistic career of
this newspaper man of old times, which is somewhat characteristic of the
feelings which animated the ruling powers of the day with respect to the
mass of people who were not within the sacred pale. When Dr. Home gave
up the publication of the _Gazette_, in whose office Collins had been
for some time a compositor, the latter applied for the position, and was
informed that 'the office would be given to none but a _gentleman_.'

This little incident recalls the quiet satire which Goldsmith levels in
'The Good-natured Man,' against just such absurd sensitiveness as
Collins had to submit to:--

  FIRST FELLOW--The Squire has got spunk in him.

  SECOND FELLOW--I loves to hear him sing, bekeays he never gives us
  nothing that's low.

  THIRD FELLOW--O, damn anything that's low; I cannot bear it.

  FOURTH FELLOW--The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if so
  be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

  THIRD FELLOW--I likes the maxum of it. Master Muggins. What,
  though I am obligated to dance a bear, a man may be a gentleman for all
  that. May this be my poison, if my bear ever dances but to the very
  genteelest of tunes--'Water Parted,' or 'The Minuet in Ariadne.'


No doubt this little episode made the disappointed applicant inveterate
against the Government, for he commenced, soon afterwards, the
publication of an Opposition paper, in which be exhibited the rude
ability of an unpolished and half-educated man. [Footnote: C. Lindsey's
'Life of W. Lyon Mackenzie,' Vol. I., p. 112, note.]

Mr. W. Lyon Mackenzie appeared as a journalist for the first time in
1824, at Queenston, where he published the Colonial _Advocate_, on the
model of Cobbett's _Register_, containing 32 pages, a form afterwards
changed to the broad sheet. From the first it illustrated the original
and eccentric talent of its independent founder. Italics and capitals,
index hands and other typographic symbols, were scattered about with
remarkable profusion, to give additional force and notoriety to the
editorial remarks which were found on every page, according as the whim
and inspiration of the editor dictated. The establishment of the paper
was undoubtedly a bold attempt at a time when the province was but
sparsely settled, and the circulation necessarily limited by the rarity
of post-offices even in the more thickly-populated districts, and by the
exorbitant rates of postage which amounted to eight hundred dollars
a-year on a thousand copies. More than that, any independent expression
of opinion was sure to evoke the ire of the orthodox in politics and
religion, which in those days were somewhat closely connected. The
_Advocate_ was soon removed to York, and became from that time a
political power, which ever and anon excited the wrath of the leaders of
the opposite party, who induced some of their followers at last to throw
the press and type of the obnoxious journal into the Bay, while they
themselves, following the famous Wilkes' precedent, expelled Mackenzie
from the legislature, and in defiance of constitutional law, declared
him time and again ineligible to sit in the Assembly. The despotic acts
of the reigning party, however, had the effect of awakening the masses
to the necessity of supporting Mr. Mackenzie, and made him eventually a
prominent figure in the politics of those disturbed times. The
_Advocate_ changed its name, a short time previous to 1837, to the
_Constitution_, and then disappeared in the troublous days that ended
with the flight of its indiscreet though honest editor. Contemporaneous
with the _Advocate_ were the _Loyalist_, the _Courier_, and the
_Patriot_--the latter having first appeared at York in 1833. These three
journals were Conservative, or rather Tory organs, and were controlled
by Mr. Fothergill, Mr. Gurnett, and Mr. Dalton. Mr. Gurnett was for
years after the Union the Police Magistrate of Toronto, while his old
antagonist was a member of the Legislature, and the editor of the
_Message_, a curiosity in political literature. Mr. Thomas Dalton was a
very zealous advocate of British connection, and was one of the first
Colonial writers to urge a Confederation of the Provinces; and if his
zeal frequently carried him into the intemperate discussion of public
questions the ardour of the times must be for him, as for his able,
unselfish opponent, Mr. Mackenzie, the best apology.

Mrs. Jameson, who was by no means inclined to view Canadian affairs with
a favourable eye, informs us that in 1836 there were some forty papers
published in Upper Canada; of these, three were religious, namely, the
_Christian Guardian_, the _Wesleyan Advocate_, and the _Church_. A paper
in the German language was published at Berlin, in the Gore Settlement,
for the use of the German settlers. Lower Canadian and American
newspapers were also circulated in great numbers. She deprecates the
abusive, narrow tone of the local papers, but at the same time admits--a
valuable admission from one far from prepossessed in favour of
Canadians--that, on the whole, the press did good in the absence and
scarcity of books. In some of the provincial papers she 'had seen
articles written with considerable talent;' among other things, 'a
series of letters, signed Evans, on the subject of an education fitted
for an agricultural people, and written with infinite good sense and
kindly feeling.' At this time the number of newspapers circulated
through the post-office in Upper Canada, and paying postage, was:
Provincial papers, 178,065; United States and other foreign papers,
149,502. Adding 100,000 papers stamped, or free, there were some 427,567
papers circulated yearly among a population of 370,000, 'of whom perhaps
one in fifty could read.' The narrow-mindedness of the country journals
generally would probably strike an English _litterateur_ like Mrs.
Jameson with much force; little else was to be expected in a country,
situated as Canada was then, with a small population, no generally
diffused education, and imperfect facilities of communication with the
great world beyond. In this comparatively isolated position, journalists
might too often mistake

    'The rustic murmur of their burgh
    For the great wave that echoes round the world.'


Yet despite its defects, the journalism of Upper Canada was confessedly
doing an important work in those backward days of Canadian development.
The intelligence of the country would have been at a much lower ebb,
without the dissemination of the press throughout the rural districts.

Whilst the journalists already named were contending in Upper Canada
with fierce zeal for their respective parties, new names had appeared in
the press of the other provinces. The _Canadien_ was edited for years by
M. Etienne Parent, except during its temporary suspension, from 1825 to
1831. His bold expression of opinion on the questions that forced a
small party of his countrymen into an ill-advised rebellion sent him at
last to prison; but, like others of his contemporaries, he eventually in
more peaceful times received a recompense for his services by
appointments in the public service, and died at last of a ripe old age a
few months after his retirement from the Assistant-Secretaryship of
State for the Dominion. In his hands the _Canadien_ continued to wield
great power among his compatriots, who have never failed to respect him
as one of the ablest journalists their country has produced. His
writings have not a little historical value, having been, in all cases
where his feelings were not too deeply involved, characterized by
breadth of view and critical acumen.

Whilst Gary, Neilson, Mackenzie, Parent, Dalton and Gurnett were the
prominent journalists of the larger provinces, where politics were
always at a fever heat, a young journalist first appeared in the
Maritime Colonies, who was thenceforth to be a very prominent figure in
the political contests of his native province. In 1827, Joseph Howe,
whose family came of that sturdy, intelligent New England stock which
has produced many men and women of great intellectual vigour, and who
had been from an early age, like Franklin, brought up within the
precincts of a printing office, bought out the _Weekly Chronicle_, of
Halifax, and, changing its name to the _Acadian_, commenced his career
as a public writer. Referring to the file of the _Acadian_, we see
little to indicate unusual talent. It contains some lively sketches of
natural scenery, some indifferent poetry, and a few common-place
editorial contributions. A few months later he severed his connection
with the _Acadian_ and purchased the _Nova Scotian_ from Mr. G. R.
Young, the brother of the present Chief-Justice, a man of large
knowledge and fine intellect. It was a courageous undertaking for so
young a man, as he was only 24 years of age when he assumed the control
of so prominent a paper; but the rulers of the dominant official party
soon found in him a vigorous opponent and a zealous advocate of Liberal
opinions. It is a noteworthy fact that Mr. Howe, like Mr. Mackenzie in
Upper Canada, made himself famous at the outset of his career by
pleading on his own behalf in a case of libel. Mr. Mackenzie had been
prosecuted for an alleged libel circulated during a political contest
with Mr. Small, and defended his own cause so successfully that the jury
gave him a verdict; and they are even said, according to Mr. Lindsey's
'Life of Mr. Mackenzie,' to have debated among themselves whether it was
not competent for them to award damages to the defendant for the
annoyance of a frivolous prosecution. Mr. Howe's debut as an advocate
was in connection with a matter of much graver importance. He had the
courage, at a time when there existed many abuses apparently without
hope of redress, to attack the Halifax Bench of Magistrates, little
autocrats in their way, a sort of Venetian Council, and the consequence
was a criminal indictment for libel. He determined to get up his own
case, and, after several days' close study of authorities, he went to
the jury in the Old Court Room, now turned into the Legislative Library,
and succeeded in obtaining a glorious acquittal and no small amount of
popular applause for his moral courage on this memorable occasion. The
subsequent history of his career justified the confidence which his
friends thenceforth reposed in him. His indefatigable industry, added to
his great love of the masters of English literature, soon gave vigour
and grace to his style, whilst his natural independence of spirit that
could little brook control in any shape, and his innate hatred of
political despotism, soon led him to attack boldly the political abuses
of the day. The history of Joseph Howe from that day was a history of
the triumph of Liberal principles and of responsible government in Nova
Scotia. As a versatile writer, he has had no superior in Canada, for he
brought to the political controversies of his time the aid of powerful
invective and cutting satire; whilst, on occasions when party strife was
hushed, he could exhibit all the evidences of his cultivated intellect
and sprightly humour.

The new era of Canadian journalism commenced with the settlement of the
political difficulties which so long disturbed the provinces, and with
the concession of responsible government, which gave a wider range to
the intellect of public writers. The leading papers, in 1840, were the
Montreal _Gazette_, the Montreal _Herald_, the _Canadien_, the Quebec
_Gazette_, the Quebec _Mercury_, in Lower Canada; the _British
Colonist_, _British Whig_, and _Examiner_, in Upper Canada; the _Nova
Scotian_ and _Acadian Recorder_, in Nova Scotia; the _News_, in New
Brunswick. The _Colonist_ was founded at Toronto, in 1838, by Hugh
Scobie, under the name of the _Scotsman_--changed to the former title in
the third number--and from the outset took a high position as an
independent organ of the Conservative party. The copy of the first
number, before me, is quite an improvement on the _Gazette_ and
_Mercury_ of Quebec, as published in the early part of the century. It
contains some twenty-four columns, on a sheet about as large as the
Ottawa _Free Press_. It contains several short editorials, a resume of
news, and terse legislative reports. Among the advertisements is one of
the New York _Albion_, which, for so many years, afforded an
intellectual treat to the people of all the provinces; for it was in its
columns they were able to read the best productions of Marryatt and
other English authors, not easily procurable in those early times;
besides being annually presented with engravings of merit--a decided
improvement on the modern chromo--from the paintings of eminent artists;
engravings which are still to be seen in thousands of Canadian homes,
and which, in their way, helped to cultivate taste among the masses, by
whom good pictures of that class could not be easily procured.

_The Examiner_ was started at Toronto, on the appointment of Lord Durham
to the Government of Canada, as an organ of the Liberal party, by Mr.
Francis Hincks, a young Irishman, who, from his first arrival in Canada,
attracted attention as a financier and a journalist. _The Examiner_,
however, had not a long existence, for Sir Francis Hincks--we give him
his later title, won after years of useful public service as journalist
and statesman--proceeded, in 1843, to Montreal, where he established the
_Pilot_, which had much influence as an organ of the party led by
Baldwin and Lafontaine. In 1844, a young Scotchman, Mr. George Brown,
began to be a power in the politics of the Canadian Provinces. He was
first connected with _The Banner_, founded in the interest of the Free
Church party; but the Liberals found it necessary to have a special
organ, and the result was the establishment, in 1844, of the Toronto
_Globe_, at first a weekly, then a tri-weekly, and eventually the most
widely circulated and influential daily paper in British North America.
During the thirty-five years Mr. Brown remained connected with that
journal it invariably bore the impress of his powerful intellect. The
_Globe_ and George Brown were always synonymous in the public mind, and
the influence he exercised over his party--no doubt a tyrannical
influence at times--proved the power that a man of indomitable will and
tenacity of purpose can exercise in the control of a political organ.
From 1844 to the present time the newspaper press made progress equal to
the growth of the provinces in population, wealth and intelligence. The
rapid improvement in the internal communications of the country, the
increase of post offices and the cheapness of postage, together with the
remarkable development of public education, especially in Upper Canada,
naturally gave a great impulse to newspaper enterprise in all the large
cities and towns. _Le Journal de Quebec_ was established in 1842 by the
Hon Joseph Cauchon, from that time a force in political life. Another
journal, the _Minerve_, of Montreal, which had been founded in 1827 by
M. Morin, but had ceased publication during the troubles of 1837-8,
re-appeared again in 1842, and assumed that influential position as an
exponent of the Bleus which it has continued to occupy to the present.
_Le Pays_, _La Patrie_, and _L'Avenir_ were other Canadian papers,
supporting the Rouges--the latter having been established in 1848, and
edited by _l'enfant terrible_, M. J. B. Eric Dorion, a brother of Sir
Antoine Dorion. In Upper Canada, Mr. R. Reid Smiley established, during
1846, the Hamilton _Spectator_, as a tri-weekly, which was changed to a
daily issue in 1852. In 1848, Mr. W. Macdougall appeared for the first
time as a journalist, in connection with the _Canada Farmer_; but when
that journal was merged into the _Canada Agriculturist_, he founded the
_North American_, which exerted no small influence as a trenchant,
vigorous exponent of Reform principles, until it was amalgamated, in
1857, with the _Globe_. In 1852 the _Leader_ was established, at
Toronto, by Mr. James Beaty--the old _Patriot_ becoming its weekly
issue--and during the years it remained under the editorial management
of Mr. Charles Lindsey--a careful, graceful writer of large knowledge
--it exercised much influence as an exponent of the views of the Liberal
Conservative party; but soon after his retirement it lost its position,
and died at last from pure inanition and incapacity to keep up with the
progressive demands of modern journalism. In 1857, Mr. McGee made his
appearance in Canada as the editor of the Montreal _New Era_, in which
he illustrated for some years the brilliancy of his style and his varied
attainments. The history of journalism, indeed, from 1840 to 1867,
brings before us a number of able writers, whose names are remembered
with pride by all who were connected with them and had opportunities,
not merely of reading their literary contributions, but of personally
associating with men of such varied accomplishments and knowledge of the
Canadian world. Morrison, Sheppard, Penny, Chamberlin, Brown, Lindsey,
Macdougall, Hogan, McGee, Whelan, P. S. Hamilton, T. White, Derome,
Cauchon, Jos. Doutre, were the most distinguished writers of an epoch
which was famous for its political and industrial progress. But of all
that brilliant phalanx, Mr. White alone contributes, with more or less
regularity, to the press, whilst all the others are either dead or
engaged in other occupations. [Footnote: Mr. McGee was assassinated in
1868. The circumstances of the death of John Sheridan Hogan, in 1859,
were not known till years afterwards, when one of the infamous Don Gang
revealed the story of his wretched end. Then we have the great
journalist and leader of the Liberal party in Upper Canada also dying
from the effects of a pistol-wound at the hands of a drunken reprobate.
Hon. Edward Whelan, of Charlottetown, died years ago. Mr. Morrison died
whilst editor of the Toronto _Daily Telegraph_. Mr. Sheppard was, when
last heard of, in New York, in connection with the press. Mr. Lindsey is
Registrar of Toronto. Hon. Joseph Cauchon is Lieutenant-Governor of
Manitoba. Mr. Chamberlin is Queen's Printer at Ottawa, and his partner
on the _Gazette_, Mr. Lowe, is also in the Civil service. Mr. Derome
died only a few weeks ago. Mr. Penny is a Senator. Mr. McDongall is a
member of the Commons, and lives in Ottawa. Mr. Doutre is at the head of
his profession in Quebec. Mr. Belford, of the _Mail_, died a few weeks
ago at Ottawa. Besides those older journalists mentioned in the text,
younger men, like Mr. Descelles and Mr. Dansereau, of the _Minerve_, and
Mr. Patteson, of the _Mail_, have also received positions recently in
the public service. Mr. Edward McDonald, who founded, with Mr. Garvie,
the Halifax _Citizen_, in opposition to the _Reporter_, of which the
present writer was editor, died Collector of the Port. Mr. Bowell, of
the Belleville _Intelligencer_, is now Minister of Customs. The list
might be extended indefinitely.]

Since 1867, the _Mail_, established in 1873 as the chief organ of the
Liberal Conservatives, has come to the front rank in journalism, and is
a powerful rival of the _Globe_, while the _Colonist_, _Leader_, and
other papers which once played an important part in the political drama,
are forgotten, like most political instruments that have done their
service and are no longer available. Several of the old journals so long
associated with the history of political and intellectual activity in
this country, however, still exist as influential organs. The Quebec
_Gazette_ was, some years ago, merged into another Quebec paper--having
become long before a memorial of the past in its appearance and
dullness, a sort of Rip Van Winkle in the newspaper world. The
_Canadien_ has always had its troubles; but, nevertheless, it continues
to have influence in the Quebec district, and the same may be said of
the _Journal de Quebec_, though the writer who first gave it power in
politics is now keeping petty state in the infant Province of the West.
The Quebec _Mercury_ still exists, though on a very small scale of late.
The Montreal _Gazette_ (now the oldest paper in Canada), the Montreal
_Herald_, the _Minerve_, the Hamilton _Spectator_, and the Brockville
_Recorder_ (established in 1820), are still exercising political
influence as of old. The St. John _News_ and the Halifax _Acadian
Recorder_ are still vigorously carried on. The Halifax _Chronicle_
remains the leading Liberal organ in Nova Scotia, though the journalist
whose name was so long associated with it in the early days of its
influence died a few years ago in the old Government House, within whose
sacred walls he was not permitted to enter in the days of his fierce
controversy with Lord Falkland. In its later days, the Hon. William
Annand, lately in the employment of the Dominion Government in London,
was nominally the Editor-in-Chief, but the Hon. Jonathan McCully, Hiram
Blanchard, and William Garvie were among those who contributed largely
to its editorial columns--able political writers not long since dead.
The public journals of this country are now so numerous that it would
take several pages to enumerate them; hardly a village of importance
throughout Canada but has one or more weeklies. In 1840 there were, as
accurately as I have been able to ascertain, only 65 papers in all
Canada, including the Maritime Provinces. In 1857, there were 243 in
all; in 1862 some 320, and in 1870 the number had increased to 432, of
which Ontario alone owned 255. The number has not much increased since
then--the probable number being now 465, of which 56, at least, appear
daily. [Footnote: The data for 1840 are taken from Martin's 'Colonial
Empire,' and Mrs. Jameson's account. The figures for 1857 are taken from
Lovell's 'Canada Directory;' the figures for 1880 from the lists in
Commons and Senate Reading Rooms. The last census returns for the four
old Provinces give only 308 printing establishments, employing 3,400
hands, paying $1,200,000 in wages, and producing articles to the worth
of $3,420,202. Although not so stated, these figures probably include
job as well as newspaper offices--both being generally combined--and
newspapers where no job work is done are obviously left out.] The Post
Office statistics show in 1879, that 4,085,454 lbs. of newspapers, at
one cent per lb. passed through the post offices of the Dominion, and
5,610,000 copies were posted otherwise. Nearly three millions and a half
of papers were delivered under the free delivery system in the cities of
Halifax, Hamilton, London, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, St. John, and
Toronto. Another estimate gives some 30,000,000 of papers passing
through the Post Office in the course of a year, of which probably two
thirds, or 20,000,000, are Canadian. These figures do not, however,
represent any thing like the actual circulation of the Canadian papers,
as the larger proportion are immediately delivered to subscribers by
carriers in the cities and towns. The census of 1870 in the United
States showed the total annual circulation of the 5,871 newspapers in
that country to be, 1,508,548,250, or an average of forty for each
person in the Republic, or one for every inhabitant in the world. Taking
the same basis for our calculation, we may estimate there are upwards of
160,000,000 copies of newspapers annually distributed to our probable
population of four millions of people. The influence which the newspaper
press must exercise upon the intelligence of the masses is consequently
obvious.

The names of the journals that take the front rank, from the enterprise
and ability with which they are conducted, will occur to every one _au
courant_ with public affairs: the _Globe_ and _Mail_, in Toronto; the
_Gazette_ and _Herald_, in Montreal; the _Chronicle_ (in its 34th year)
and _Mercury_, in Quebec; the _Spectator_ and _Times_, in Hamilton; the
_Free Press_ and _Advertiser_, in London; the _British Whig_ (in its
46th year) and _Daily News_, in Kingston; _Citizen_ and _Free Press_, in
Ottawa; _News_, _Globe_, _Telegraph_, and _Sun_, in St. John, N. B.;
_Herald_ and _Chronicle_, in Halifax; the _Examiner_ and _Patriot_, in
Prince Edward Island, are the chief exponents of the principles of the
Conservative and Liberal party. Besides these political organs the
Montreal _Star_ and _Witness_, and the Toronto _Telegram_ have a large
circulation, and are more or less independent in their opinions. Among
the French papers, besides those referred to above, we have the
_Courrier de Montreal_ (1877), _Nouveau Monde_ (1867), _L'Evenement_
(1867), _Courrier d'Ottawa_, now _le Canada_ (1879), _Franco Canadien_
(1857), which enjoy more or less influence in the Province of Quebec.
Perhaps no fact illustrates more strikingly the material and mental
activity of the Dominion than the number of newspapers now published in
the new Province of the North-West. The first paper in that region
appeared in 1859, when Messrs. Buckingham & Coldwell conveyed to Fort
Garry their press and materials in an ox cart, and established the
little _Nor' Wester_ immediately under the walls of the fort. Now there
are three dailies published in the City of Winnipeg alone--all of them
well printed and fairly edited--and at least sixteen papers in all
appear periodically through the North-West. The country press--that is
to say, the press published outside the great centres of industrial and
political activity--has remarkably improved in vigour within a few
years; and the metropolitan papers are constantly receiving from its
ranks new and valuable accessions, whilst there remain connected with
it, steadily labouring with enthusiasm in many cases, though the
pecuniary rewards are small, an indefatigable band of terse,
well-informed writers, who exercise no mean influence within the
respective spheres of their operations. The Sarnia _Observer_,
Sherbrooke _Gazette_, Stratford _Beacon_, Perth _Courier_ (1834),
Lindsay _Post_, Guelph _Mercury_ (1845), Yarmouth _Herald_, Peterboro
_Review_, St. Thomas _Journal_, _News of St. Johns_ (Q), _Courrier de
St. Hyacinthe_, Carleton _Sentinel_, Maritime _Farmer_, are among the
many journals which display no little vigour in their editorials and
skill in the selection of news and literary matter. During the thirteen
years that have elapsed since Confederation new names have been
inscribed on the long roll of Canadian journalists. Mr. Gordon Brown
still remains in the editorial chair of the _Globe_, one of the few
examples we find in the history of Canadian journalism of men who have
not been carried away by the excitement of politics or the attraction of
a soft place in the public service. The names of White, McCulloch,
Farrar, Rattray, G. Stewart, jr., M. J. Griffin, Carroll Ryan, Stewart
(Montreal _Herald_), Stewart (Halifax _Herald_), Sumichrast, Fielding,
Elder, Geo. Johnson, Blackburn (London _Free Press_), Cameron (London
_Advertiser_), Davin, Dymond, Pirie, D. K. Brown, Mackintosh, Macready,
Livingstone, Ellis, Houde, Vallee, Desjardins, Tarte, Faucher de St.
Maurice, Fabre, Tasse, L'O. David, are among the prominent writers on
the most widely circulated English and French Canadian papers.

In the necessarily limited review I have been forced to give of the
progress of journalism in Canada, I have made no mention of the
religious press which has been established, in the large cities
principally, as the exponent of the views of particular sects. The
Methodist body has been particularly successful in this line of
business, in comparison with other denominations. The _Christian
Guardian_, established at Toronto in 1829, under the editorial
supervision of Rev. Egerton Ryerson, continues to exhibit its pristine
vigour under the editorship of the Rev. Mr. Dewart. The organ of the
same body in the Maritime Provinces is the _Wesleyan_, edited by Rev. T.
Watson Smith, and is fully equal in appearance and ability to its
Western contemporary. The Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopal Methodists
and Congregationalists, have also exponents of their particular views.
The Church of England has made many attempts to establish denominational
organs on a successful basis, but very few of them have ever come up to
the expectations of their promoters in point of circulation--the old
_Church_ having been, on the whole, the most ably conducted. At present
there are three papers in the west, representing different sections of
the Church. The Roman Catholics have also their organs, not so much
religious as political--the St. John _Freeman_, edited by the Hon. Mr.
Anglin, is the most remarkable for the ability and vigour with which it
has been conducted as a supporter of the views of the Liberal party in
the Dominion, as well as of the interests of the Roman Catholic body. In
all there are some thirty papers published in the Dominion, professing
to have the interests of certain sects particularly at heart. [Footnote:
It is noteworthy that the Canadian religions press has never attained
the popularity of the American Denominational Journals, which are said
to have an aggregate circulation of nearly half of the secular press.]

The _Canadian Illustrated News_ and _L'Opinion Publique_, which owe
their establishment to the enterprise of Mr. Desbarats, a gentleman of
culture, formerly at the head of the old Government Printing Office, are
among the examples of the new vigour and ability that have characterized
Canadian journalistic enterprise of recent years. The illustrations in
the _News_ are, on the whole well executed, and were it possible to
print them on the superior tinted paper of the _Graphic_, and it would
be possible if the people were willing to pay the expense, they would
compare more favourably than they do with the impressions of the older
papers published in New York and London. In its prints of native
scenery, and portraits of deceased Canadians of merit, the _News_ is a
valuable and interesting addition to journalism in this country, and
will be found most useful to the future generations who will people the
Dominion. Nor does Canada now lack an imitator of _Punch_, in the
humorous line. It is noteworthy that whilst America has produced
humorists like 'Sam Slick,' Artemus Ward, Mark Twain, and others, no
American rival to _Punch_ has yet appeared in Boston or New York. The
attempts that have heretofore been made have been generally coarse
caricatures--for example, the political cartoons in _Harper's Weekly_,
which are never characterized by those keen artistic touches that make
_Punch_ so famous. Previous efforts in this field of political and
social satire in Canada have always failed for want of support, as well
as from the absence of legitimate humour. The oldest satirical sheet was
_Le Fantastique_, published at Quebec by N. Aubin, who was a very bitter
partisan, and was sent to gaol in 1838 for the expression of his
opinions. The _Grumbler_ was a more creditable effort made in Toronto
some quarter of a century ago, to illustrate and hit off the political
and social foibles of the day in Canada. But it has been left for Mr.
Bengough in these times to rise in _Grip_ far above all previous
attempts in the same direction, and 'to show up' very successfully, and
generally with much humour, certain salient features of our contemporary
history.

The influence of the press, during the century, must be measured by the
political intelligence and activity of the people. Only in the United
States are the masses as well informed on the public questions of the
day as are the majority of Canadians, and this fact must be attributed,
in a large measure, to the efforts of journalists to educate the people
and stimulate their mental faculties. When education was at a low ebb
indeed, when the leading and wealthier class was by no means too anxious
to increase the knowledge of the people, the press was the best vehicle
of public instruction. No doubt it often abused its trust, and forgot
the responsibilities devolving on it; no doubt its conductors were too
frequently animated by purely selfish motives, yet, taking the good with
the evil, the former was predominant as a rule. It is only necessary to
consider the number of journalists who have played an important part in
Parliament, to estimate the influence journalism must have exerted on
the political fortunes of Canada. The names of Neilson, Bedard, W. L.
Mackenzie, Hincks, Howe, Brown, and Macdougall, will recall remarkable
epochs in our history. But it is not only as a political engine that the
press has had a decided beneficial effect upon the public intelligence;
it has generally been alive to the social and moral questions of the
hour, and exposed religions charlatanry, and arrested the progress of
dangerous social innovations, with the same fearlessness and vigour
which it has shown in the case of political abuses. Political
controversy, no doubt, has too often degenerated into licentiousness,
and public men have been too often maligned, simply because they were
political opponents--an evil which weakens the influence of journalism
to an incalculable degree, because the people begin at last to attach
little or no importance to charges levelled recklessly against public
men. But it is not too much to say that the press of all parties is
commencing to recognise its responsibilities to a degree that would not
have been possible a few years ago. It is true the ineffable meanness of
old times of partisan controversy will crop out constantly in certain
quarters, and political writers are not always the safest guides in
times of party excitement. But there is a healthier tone in public
discussion, and the people are better able to eliminate the truth and
come to a correct conclusion. Personalities are being gradually
discouraged, and appeals more frequently made to the reason rather than
to the passion and prejudice of party--a fact in itself some evidence of
the progress of the readers in culture. The great change in the business
basis on which the leading newspapers are now-a-days conducted, of
itself must tend to modify political acrimony, and make them safer
public guides. A great newspaper now-a-days must be conducted on the
same principles on which any other business is carried on. The expenses
of a daily journal are now so great that it requires the outlay of large
capital to keep it up to the requirements of the time; in fact, it can
best be done by joint-stock companies, rather than by individual effort.
Slavish dependence on a Government or party, as in the old times of
journalism, can never make a newspaper successful as a financial
speculation, nor give it that circulation on which its influence in a
large measure depends. The journal of the present day is a compilation
of telegraphic despatches from all parts of the world, and of reports of
all matters of local and provincial importance, with one or more columns
of concise editorial comment on public topics of general interest: and
the success with which this is done is the measure of its circulation
and influence. Both the _Globe_ and _Mail_ illustrate this fact very
forcibly; both journals being good _newspapers_, in every sense of the
term, read by Conservatives and Liberals, irrespective of political
opinions, although naturally depending for their chief support on a
particular party. In no better way can we illustrate the great change
that has taken place within less than half a century in the newspaper
enterprise of this country than by comparing a copy of a journal of 1839
with one of 1880. Taking, in the first place, the issue of the Toronto
_British Colonist_, for the 23rd October, 1839, we have before us a
sheet, as previously stated, of twenty-four columns, twelve of which are
advertisements and eight of extracts, chiefly from New York papers. Not
a single editorial appeared in this number, though prominence was given
to a communication describing certain riotous proceedings, in which
prominent 'blues' took part, on the occasion of a public meeting
attempted to be held at a Mr. Davis's house on Yonge Street, for the
purpose of considering important changes about to take place in the
political Constitution of the Canadas. Mr. Poulett Thompson had arrived
in the St. Lawrence on the 16th, but the _Colonist_ was only able to
announce the fact on the 23rd of the month. New York papers took four
days to reach Toronto--a decided improvement, however, on old times--and
these afforded Canadian editors the most convenient means of culling
foreign news. Only five lawyers advertised their places of business; Mr.
and Mrs. Crombie announced the opening of their well-known schools.
McGill College, at last, advertised that it was open to students--an
important event in the educational history of Canada, which, however,
received no editorial comment in the paper. We come upon a brief
advertisement from Messrs. Armour & Ramsay, the well-known booksellers;
but the only book they announced was that work so familiar to old-time
students, 'Walkinghame's Arithmetic.' Another literary announcement was
the publication of a work, by the Rev. R. Murray, of Oakville, on the
'Tendency and Errors of Temperance Societies'--then in the infancy of
their progress in Upper Canada. One of the most encouraging notices was
that of the Montreal Type Foundry, which was beginning to compete with
American establishments, also advertised in the same issue--an evidence
of the rapid progress of printing in Canada. Only one steamer was
advertised, the _Gore_, which ran between Toronto and Hamilton; she was
described as 'new, splendid, fast-sailing, and elegantly fitted up,' and
no doubt she was, compared with the old batteaux and schooners which,
not long before, had kept up communication with other parts of the
Province. On the whole, this issue illustrated the fact that Toronto was
making steady progress, and Upper Canada was no longer a mere
wilderness. Many of my readers will recall those days, for I am writing
of times within the memory of many Upper Canadians.

Now take an ordinary issue of the _Mail_, printed on the same day, in
the same city, only forty-one years later. We see a handsome paper of
eight closely-printed pages--each larger than a page of the
_Colonist_--and fifty-six columns, sixteen of which are devoted to
advertisements illustrative of the commercial growth, not only of
Toronto, but of Ontario at large--advertisements of Banking, Insurance
and Loan Companies, representing many millions of capital; of Railway
and Steamship Lines, connecting Toronto daily with all parts of America
and Europe; of various classes of manufactures, which have grown up in a
quarter of a century or so. No less than five notices of theatrical and
other amusements appear; these entertainments take place in spacious,
elegant halls and opera houses, instead of the little, confined rooms
which satisfied the citizens of Toronto only a few years ago. Some forty
barristers and attorneys, physicians and surgeons--no, not all
gentlemen, but one a lady--advertise their respective offices, and yet
these are only representative of the large number of persons practising
these professions in the same city. Leaving the advertisements and
reviewing the reading matter, we find eleven columns devoted to
telegraphic intelligence from all parts of the world where any event of
interest has occurred a day or two before. Several columns are given up
to religious news, including a lengthy report of the proceedings of the
Baptist Union, meeting, for the first time, under an Act of Parliament
of 1880--an Association intended for the promotion of missions,
_literature_, and church work, into which famous John Bunyan would have
heartily thrown himself, no longer in fear of being cast into prison.
Four columns are taken up with sports and pastimes, such as lacrosse,
the rifle, rowing, cricket, curling, foot-ball, hunting--illustrative
of the growing taste among all classes of young men for such healthy
recreation. Perhaps no feature of the paper gives more conclusive
evidence of the growth of the city and province than the seven columns
specially set apart to finance, commerce and marine intelligence, and
giving the latest and fullest intelligence of prices in all places with
which Canada has commercial transactions. Nearly one column of the
smallest type is necessary to announce the arrivals and departures of
the steam-tugs, propellers, schooners and other craft which make up the
large inland fleet of the Western Province. We find reports of
proceedings in the Courts in Toronto and elsewhere, besides many items
of local interest. Five columns are made up of editorials and editorial
briefs, the latter an interesting feature of modern journalism. The
'leader' is a column in length, and is a sarcastic commentary on the
'fallacious hopes' of the Opposition; the next article is an answer to
one in the London _Economist_, devoted to the vexed question of
protective duties in the Colonies; another refers to modern 'literary
criticism,' one of the strangest literary products of this busy age of
intellectual development. In all we have thirty-six columns of reading
matter, remarkable for literary execution and careful editing, as well
as for the moderate tone of its political criticism. It will be seen
that there is only one advertisement of books in the columns of this
issue, but the reason is that it is the custom only to advertise new
works on Saturday, when the paper generally contains twelve pages, or
eighty-four columns. On the whole, the issue of a very prominent
Canadian paper illustrates not only the material development of Ontario
in its commercial and advertising columns, but also the mental progress
of the people, who demand so large an amount of reading matter at the
cost of so much money and mental labour.

As the country increases in wealth and population, the Press must become
undoubtedly still more a profession to which men of the highest ability
and learning will attach themselves permanently, instead of being too
often attracted, as heretofore, by the greater pecuniary rewards offered
by other pursuits in life. Horace Greeley, Dana, Curtis, Whitelaw Reid
and Bryant are among the many illustrious examples that the neighbouring
States afford of men to whom journalism has been a profession, valued
not simply for the temporary influence and popularity it gives, but as a
great and powerful organ of public education on all the live questions
of the day. The journals whose conductors are known to be above the
allurements of political favour, even while they consistently sustain
the general policy of a party, are those which most obviously become the
true exponents of a sound public opinion, and the successful competitor
for public favour in this, as in all other countries enjoying a popular
system of government.



CHAPTER IV.

NATIVE LITERATURE.


Lord Durham wrote, over fifty [Errata: (from final page) for _fifty_
read _forty_.] years ago, of the French Canadians: 'They are a people
without a history and a literature.' He was very ignorant, assuredly, of
the deep interest that attaches to the historic past of the first
pioneers in Canada, and had he lived to the present day, he would have
blotted out the first part of the statement. But he was right enough
when he added that the French Canadians had, at that time, no literature
of their own. During the two centuries and more that Canada remained a
French Colony, books were neither read nor written; they were only to be
seen in the educational establishments, or in a very few private houses,
in the later days of the colony. [Footnote: The priests appear to have
only encouraged books of devotion. La Hontan mentions an incident of a
priest coming into his room and tearing up a book; but the library of
that gay gentleman was hardly very select and proper.] An intellectual
torpor was the prevailing feature of the French _regime_. Only now and
then do we meet in the history of those early times with the name of a
man residing in the colony with some reputation for his literary or
scientific attainments. The genial, chatty L'Escarbot has left us a
pleasant volume of the early days of Acadie, when De Monts and De
Poutrincourt were struggling to establish Port Royal. The works of the
Jesuits Lafitau and Charlevoix are well known to all students of the
historic past of Canada. The Marquis de la Galissoniere was the only man
of culture among the functionaries of the French dominion. Parkman tells
us that the physician Sarrazin, whose name still clings to the
pitcher-plant (_Sarracenia purpurea_) was for years the only real
medical man in Canada, and was chiefly dependent for his support on the
miserable pittance of three hundred francs yearly, given him by the
king. Yet it would be a mistake to suppose there was no cultivated
society in Canada. The navigator Bougainville tells us, that, though
education was so defective, the Canadians were naturally very
intelligent, and their accent was as good as that of the Parisians.
Another well-informed writer says 'there was a select little society in
Quebec, which wants nothing to make it agreeable. In the salons of the
wives of the Governor and Intendant one finds circles as brilliant as in
other countries. Science and the Fine Arts have their turn, and
conversation does not flag. The Canadians breathe from their birth an
air of liberty, which makes them very pleasant in the intercourse of
life, and our language is nowhere more purely spoken.' But the people
outside of the little coterie, of which this writer speaks so
flatteringly, had no opportunities whatever of following the progress of
new ideas in the parent state. What learning there was could only be
found among the priests, to whom we owe 'Les Relations des Jesuites,'
among other less notable productions. The Roman Catholic Church, being
everywhere a democracy, the humblest _habitant_ might enter its ranks
and aspire to its highest dignities. Consequently we find the pioneers
of that Church, at the very outset, affording the Canadian an
opportunity, irrespective of birth or wealth, of entering within its
pale. But apart from this class, there was no inducement offered to
Canadian intellect in those times.

The Conquest robbed the country of a large proportion of the best class
of the Canadian _noblesse_, and many years elapsed before the people
awoke from their mental slumber. The press alone illustrated the
literary capacity of the best intellects for very many years after the
fall of Quebec. We have already read how many political writers of
eminence were born with the endowment of the Canadian with political
rights, which aroused him from his torpor and gave his mental faculties
a new impulse. The only works, however, of national importance which
issued from the press, from the Conquest to the Union of 1840, were Mr.
Joseph Bouchette's topographical descriptions of British North America,
which had to be published in England at a great expense; but these
books, creditable as they were to the ability and industry of the
author, and useful as they certainly were to the whole country, could
never enter into general circulation. They must always remain, however,
the most creditable specimens of works of that class ever published in
any country. The first volume of poetry, written by a French Canadian,
was published in 1830, by M. Michel Bibaud, who was also the editor of
the 'Bibliotheque Canadienne,' and 'Le Magazin du Bas Canada,'
periodicals very short lived, though somewhat promising.

From the year 1840, commenced a new era in French Canadian letters, as
we can see by reference to the pages of several periodical publications,
which were issued subsequently. 'Le Repertoire National,' published from
1848 to 1850, contained the first efforts of those writers who could
fairly lay claim to be the pioneers of French Canadian Literature. This
useful publication was followed by the 'Soirees Canadiennes,' and 'Le
Foyer Canadien,' which also gave a new impulse to native talent, and
those who wish to study the productions of the early days of French
Canadian literature will find much interest and profit in the pages of
these characteristic publications, as well as in the 'Revue Canadienne,'
of these later times. From the moment the intellect of the French
Canadian was stimulated by a patriotic love for the past history and
traditions of his country, volumes of prose and poetry of more or less
merit commenced to flow regularly from the press. Two histories of
undoubted value have been written by French Canadians, and these are the
works of Garneau and Ferland. The former is the history of the French
Canadian race, from its earliest days to the Union of 1840. It is
written with much fervour, from the point of view of a French Canadian,
imbued with a strong sense of patriotism, and is the best monument ever
raised to Papineau; for that brilliant man is M. Garneau's hero, to
whose political virtues he is always kind, and to whose political
follies he is too often insensible. Old France, too, is to him something
more than a memory; he would fix her history and traditions deep in the
hearts of his countrymen; but great as is his love for her, he does not
fail to show, even while pointing out the blunders of British
Ministries, that Canada, after all, must be happier under the new, than
under the old, _regime_. The 'Cours d'Histoire du Canada' was
unfortunately never completed by the Abbe Ferland, who was Professor of
the Faculty of Arts in the Laval University. Yet the portion that he was
able to finish before his death displays much patient research and
narrative skill, and justly entitles him to a first place among French
Canadian historians.

In romance, several attempts have been made by French Canadians, but
without any marked success, except in two instances. M. de Gaspe, when
in his seventieth year, described in simple, natural language, in 'Les
Anciens Canadiens,' the old life of his compatriots. M. Gerin Lajoie
attempted, in 'Jean Rivard,' to portray the trials and difficulties of
the Canadian pioneer in the backwoods. M. Lajoie is a pleasing writer,
and discharged his task with much fidelity to nature. It is somewhat
noteworthy that the author, for many years assistant librarian of the
library of Parliament, should have selected for his theme the struggles
of a man of action in a new country; for no subject could apparently be
more foreign to the tastes of the genial, scholarly man of letters, who,
seemingly overcome by the torpor of official life in a small city, or
the slight encouragement given to Canadian books, never brought to full
fruition the intellectual powers which his early efforts so clearly
showed him to possess.

In poetry, the French Canadian has won a more brilliant success than in
the sister art of romance. Four names are best known in Quebec for the
smoothness of the versification, the purity of style, and the poetic
genius which some of their works illustrate. These are, MM. Le May,
Cremazie, Sulte, and Frechette. M. Cremazie's elegy on 'Les Morts' is
worthy of even Victor Hugo. M. Frechette was recognised long ago in
Paris as a young man of undoubted promise 'on account of the genius
which reflects on his fatherland a gleam of his own fame.' Since M.
Frechette has been removed from the excitement of politics, he has gone
back to his first mistress, and has won for himself and native province
the high distinction of being crowned the poet of the year by the French
Academy. M. Frechette has been fortunate in more than one respect,--in
having an Academy to recognise his poetic talent, and again, in being a
citizen of a nationality more ready than the English section of our
population to acknowledge that literary success is a matter of national
pride.

The French Canadians have devoted much time and attention to that
fruitful field of research which the study of the customs and
antiquities of their ancestors opens up to them. The names of Jacques
Viger and Faribault, Sir Louis Lafontaine, the Abbes Laverdiere, and
Verrault are well known as those of men who devoted themselves to the
accumulation of valuable materials illustrative of the historic past, as
the library of Laval University can testify. The edition of Champlain's
works, by the Abbe Laverdiere for some years librarian of Laval, is a
most creditable example of critical acumen and typographical skill. In
the same field there is much yet to be explored by the zealous
antiquarian who has the patience to delve among the accumulations of
matter that are hidden in Canadian and European archives. This is a
work, however, which can be best done by the State; and it is
satisfactory to know that something has been attempted of late years in
this direction by the Canadian Government--the collection of the
Haldimand papers, for instance. But we are still far behind our American
neighbours in this respect, as their State libraries abundantly prove.

The Canadian ballad was only known for years by the favourite verses
written by the poet Moore, which, however musical, have no real
semblance to the veritable ballads with which the voyageurs have for
centuries kept time as they pushed over the lakes and rivers of Canada
and the North-west. Dr. Larue and M. Ernest Gagnon have given us a
compilation of this interesting feature of French Canadian literature,
which is hardly yet familiar to the English population of Canada.

Other French Canadian names occur to the writer, but it is impossible to
do justice to them in this necessarily limited review. 'Les Legendes,'
of the Abbe Casgrain, 'Les Pionniers de l'Ouest,' of M. Joseph Tasse,
and the works of M. Faucher de St. Maurice, are among other
illustrations of the national spirit that animates French Canadian
writers, and makes them deservedly popular among their compatriots.

If we now turn to the literary progress of the English-speaking people
of Canada, we see some evidences of intellectual activity from an early
time in the history of these colonies. During the two decades
immediately preceding the Union of 1840, there was a cultured society in
all the larger centres of intelligence. In official circles there was
always found much culture and refinement, and the inmates of "Government
House," in the several capitals, then as now, dispensed a graceful
hospitality and contributed largely to the pleasures of the little
society of which they were the leaders by virtue of their elevated
position. Social circles which could boast of the presence of Mr. John
Galt, author of 'Laurie Todd,' and other works of note in their day, of
Mr. and Mrs. Jameson, who lived some years in Toronto, of the
Stricklands, of Judge Haliburton, of learned divines, astute lawyers and
politicians, and clever journalists, could not have been altogether
behind older communities. From one of the magazines, published in 1824,
we learn that there were some libraries in the large towns of Quebec,
Montreal, York, Kingston, and Halifax; that belonging to the Parliament
at Quebec being the most complete in standard works. Montreal as far
back as 1823, had several book stores, and a public library of 8,000
volumes, containing many valuable works, and, independent of this, there
were two circulating libraries, the property of booksellers, both of
which were tolerably well supplied with new books. [Footnote: Talbot's
Canada, Vol. I., p. 77. But it appears that there was a circulating
library at Quebec as far back as 1779, with 2,000 volumes; it was
maintained till a few years ago, when its books were transferred to the
Literary and Historical Society.] In this respect Montreal possessed for
years decided advantages over York, for Mrs. Jameson tells us that when
she arrived there ten years later, that town contained only one
book-store, in which drugs and other articles were also sold. Indeed,
Mr. W. Lyon Mackenzie commenced life in Canada in the book and drug
business with Mr. James Lesslie, the profits of the books going to the
latter, and the profits of the drugs to the former. Subsequently, Mr.
Mackenzie established a circulating library at Dundas, in connection
with drugs, hardware, jewellery, and other miscellaneous wares, it being
evidently impossible, in those days, to live by books alone. [Footnote:
Lindsey's Life, pp. 36-7.] By 1836, however, even Mrs. Jameson, ready as
she was to point out the defects of Canadian life, was obliged to
acknowledge that Toronto had 'two good book-stores, with a fair
circulating library.' Archdeacon Strachan and Chief Justice Robinson,
according to the same author, had 'very pretty libraries.' Well-known
gentlemen in the other Provinces had also well furnished libraries for
those times.

We see in the articles contributed to the newspapers many evidences of
careful writing and well digested reading. Literary and scientific
societies now existed in all the large towns, though they necessarily
depended for their support on a select few. Theatrical entertainments
and concerts of a high order were not of unfrequent occurrence, for
instance, we read in the Montreal papers of 1833 carefully-written
notices of the performances of Mr. and Miss Kemble. The press also
published lengthy criticisms of new publications, much more
discriminating in some cases than the careless reviews of these later
times, which seem too often written simply with the object of puffing a
work, and not with a desire to cultivate a correct taste. We notice,
too, that half a century ago there were gentlemen who thought they had
an innate genius for writing manuals of arithmetic, and so forth, for
the bewilderment of the Canadian youth. The literary tastes of the
people were, then as now, fostered by the Boston and New York
publishers; for example, we see lengthy notices of 'Harper's Family
Library,' a series of cheap publications of standard works on History,
Biography, Travels, &c., an invaluable acquisition to Canadians, the
majority of whom could ill afford to pay the large prices then asked for
English books. Several magazines began to be published in the East and
West.

The first experiment of this kind was the _Canadian Magazine_, printed
by N. Mower, in 1823, and subsequently published by Joseph Nickless,
bookseller, opposite the Court House, Montreal. It was intended, in the
words of the preface, 'as an archive for giving permanency to literary
and scientific pursuits in the only British continental colony in the
western hemisphere which has yet made any progress in settlement and
cultivation.' The introduction is a very characteristic bit of writing,
commencing as it does with a reference to the condition of 'man as a
savage in mind and body,' and to the advance of the countries of ancient
civilization in art and letters, until at last the reader is brought to
appreciate the high object which the conductors had in view in
establishing this new magazine--'to keep alive the heroic and energetic
sentiment of our ancestors, their private virtues and public patriotism,
and to form, for the example of posterity, a moral, an industrious, and
loyal population.' The early following issues contained many
well-written articles on Canadian subjects which give us some insight
into the habits and tastes of the people, and are worthy of perusal by
all those who take an interest in the old times of the colony. One
particularly valuable feature was the digest of provincial news at the
end of each number,--civil appointments, deaths, births and marriages,
and army intelligence being deemed worthy of insertion. Among other
things illustrative of social progress in 1823, we find notices of the
first amateur concert given at Montreal in aid of a charitable object;
of the establishment of the Quebec Historical Society, an event in the
literary annals of Canada; of the foundation of the first circulating
library in the City of Halifax, said to contain a number of valuable
works. In 1824, H. A. Cunningham published, in Montreal, a rival
publication, the _Canadian Review, and Literary and Historical Journal_,
which appears to have excited the ire of the editor of the _Canadian
Magazine_, for he devotes several pages of one issue to a criticism of
its demerits. But these publications had only an ephemeral existence,
and were succeeded by others. One of those was the _Museum_, edited by
ladies in Montreal, in 1833. It contained some articles of merit, with a
good deal of sentimental gush, [Footnote: The veteran editor of the
_Quebec Mercury_ thus pleasantly hit off this class of literature,
always appreciated by boarding-school misses and milliners'
apprentices:--'"The Cousins," written by M. ----, we candidly admit we
did not encounter. When a man has arrived at that time of life when he
is compelled to use spec----no, not so bad as that, but _lunettes_, in
order to accommodate the text to his eyes, and finds at the conclusion
of an article such a passage as the following: "Beneath that knoll, at
the foot of that weeping ash, side by side, in the bosom of one grave
lie Reginald and Charlotte de Conrci"--when a semi-centenarian meets
such a passage in such a situation, it is a loss of time for him to turn
back and threading way through the mazes of the story.'] such as one
found in the keepsakes and other gift books of those days. The first
magazine of ability in the West appears to have been the _Canadian
Magazine_, edited by Mr. Sibbald, and published at Toronto in 1833. The
next periodical, which lasted many years, was the _Literary Garland_,
published in Montreal, in conjunction with Mr. John Gibson, [Footnote:
These two gentlemen were long associated in the partnership, widely
known throughout Canada, as that of Lovell & Gibson, parliamentary
printers.] by that veteran publisher, John Lovell, a gentleman to whom
the country owes much for his zeal and enterprise in all such literary
matters. All these facts were illustrative of the growth of literary and
cultured taste throughout the Provinces, even in those early times. But
it must be admitted that then, as now, the intellectual progress of
Canada was very slow compared with that of the United States, where,
during the times of which I am writing, literature was at last promising
to be a profession, Cooper, Irving and Poe having already won no little
celebrity at home and abroad. It was not till the Canadas were re-united
and population and wealth poured into the country that culture began to
be more general. Sixteen years after Mrs. Jameson published her account
of Canada, another writer [Footnote: W. H. Kigston. 1852. 2 vols]
visited Toronto, and wrote in very flattering terms of the appearance of
the city, and the many evidences of taste he noticed in the streets and
homes of its people. At that time he tells us there were 'five or six
large booksellers' shops, equal to any in the larger towns of England,
and some of whom were publishers also.' Mr. Maclear had at that time
'published two very well-got-up volumes on Canada, by Mr. W. H. Smith,
and was also the publisher of the _Anglo-American Magazine_, a very
creditably conducted periodical.' Now, in this same City of Toronto,
there are some forty stationers' and booksellers' establishments, small
and large; whilst there are about one hundred altogether in the leading
cities of the Provinces. Of the libraries, I shall have occasion to
write some pages further on.

Since 1840, Canadians have made many ambitious efforts in the walks of
literature, though only a few works have achieved a reputation beyond
our own country. Nova Scotia can claim the credit of giving birth to two
men whose works, though in very different fields of intellectual effort,
have won for them no little distinction abroad. 'Sam Slick' may now be
considered an English classic, new editions of which are still published
from year to year and placed on the bookseller's shelves with the works
of Fielding, Smollett, Butler and Barham. The sayings and doings of the
knowing clockmaker were first published by Mr. Howe in the columns of
the old _Nova Scotia_, still published as the weekly edition of the
Halifax _Chronicle_, for the purpose of preserving some good stories and
anecdotes of early colonial life. Like many good things that appear in
the Canadian press, the judge's humorous effort would, no doubt, have
been forgotten long before these times, had not the eminent publisher,
Mr. Richard Bentley, seen the articles and printed them in book form.
The humour of the work soon established the reputation of the author,
and together with his companionable qualities made the 'old judge' a
favourite when he left his native province and settled in England, where
he lived and died, like Cowley, Thomson, Pope, and other men known to
fame, on the banks of the Thames. The comments of 'Sam Slick' are full
of keen humour, and have a moral as well. When first published, the work
was not calculated to make him popular with certain classes of his
countrymen, impatient of the satire which touched off weaknesses and
follies in the little social and political world of those laggard times;
but now that the habits of the people have changed, and the Nova Scotia
of the Clockmaker exists no longer, except perhaps in some lonely
corner; every one laughs at his humorous descriptions of the slow old
times, and confesses, that if things were as Sam has portrayed them in
his quaint way, he only acted the part of a true moralist in laying them
bare to the world, and aiming at them the pointed shafts of his ready
satire. The work is likely to have a more enduring reputation than the
mere mechanical humour of the productions of 'Mark Twain.' Many of his
sayings, like 'soft sawder,' have entered into our every day conversation.

The other distinguished Nova Scotian is the learned Principal of McGill
College. Professor Dawson is a native of the County of Pictou, which has
given birth to many men of ability in divinity, letters and politics. At
an early age the natural bent of his talent carried him into the rich,
unbroken field that the geology of his native province offered in those
days to scientists. The two visits he paid with Sir Charles Lyell
through Nova Scotia, gave him admirable opportunities of comparing notes
with that distinguished geologist, and no doubt did much to encourage
him in the pursuit of an attractive, though hardly remunerative, branch
of study. The result was his first work, 'Acadian Geology,' which was at
once accepted by _savants_ everywhere as a valuable contribution to
geological literature. His subsequent works--'The Story of the Earth and
Man,' 'Fossil Man,' 'The Origin of the World,' and his numerous
contributions to scientific periodicals, have aided to establish his
reputation as a sound scholar and tasteful writer, as easily understood
by the ordinary reader as by the student of geological lore. Moreover,
his religious instincts have kept him free from that scepticism and
infidelity into which scientists like himself are so apt to fall, as the
result of their close studies of natural science; and his later works
have all been written with the object of reconciling the conclusions of
Science with the teachings of Scripture--a very difficult task
discharged in a spirit of candour, liberality and fairness, which has
won the praise of his most able adversaries.

A great deal of poetry has been written in Canadian periodicals, and now
and then certainly we come across productions displaying much poetic
taste as well as rhythmic skill. The only work of a high order that has
attracted some attention abroad, is 'Saul,' a Drama, by Charles
Heavysege, who died in Montreal not long since, a humble worker on the
daily press. The leading English reviews, at the time of its appearance,
acknowledged that 'it is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable works
ever written out of Great Britain;' and yet, despite the grandeur of the
subject, and the poetical and dramatic power, as well as the
psychological analysis displayed in its conception and execution, this
production of a local reporter, gifted with undoubted genius, is only
known to a few Canadians. 'Saul,' like Milton's great epic, now-a-days,
is only admired by a few, and never read by the many. Charles Sangster
has also given us a very pleasing collection of poems, in which, like
Wordsworth, he illustrates his love for nature by graceful, poetic
descriptions of the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay. That a pure poetic
vein runs through the minds of not a few of our writers, can be seen by
a perusal of the poems contributed for some years to the CANADIAN
MONTHLY, _Scribner's_, and other publications, by L'Esperance, Watson,
Griffin, Carroll Ryan, 'Fidelis,' John Reade, Charles Roberts, Mrs.
Seymour McLean, and C. P. Mulvany; the volume recently published by the
latter writer is undoubtedly a good illustration of the poetic talent
that exists among the cultured classes of our people.

As to Canadian novels and romances, there is very little to say; for
though there have been many attempts at fiction, the performance has, on
the whole, been weak in the extreme. In historic romance, only three
works of merit have been so far produced; and these are 'Wacousta,'
written by Major Richardson, in 1833; 'Le Bastonnais,' by M.
L'Esperance, and 'Le Chien d'Or,' by Mr. Kirby, since 1867--during the
long interval of nearly forty years between these works, not a single
romance worth reading was published in Canada. These three books,
however, are written with spirit, and recall the masterpieces of
fiction. In novels, illustrative of ordinary life in the Colonies, we
know of no works that anybody remembers except those by Miss Louisa
Murray, the author of 'The Cited Curate,' and 'The Settlers of Long
Arrow,' who, at all events, writes naturally, and succeeds in investing
her story with a vein of interest. The late Professor De Mille gave us
two well-written productions in 'Helena's Household,' a 'Tale of Rome in
the First Century,' and 'The Dodge Club Abroad;' but his later works did
not keep up the promise of his earlier efforts, for they never rose
beyond slavish imitations of the ingenious plots of Wilkie Collins and
his school. Yet they were above the ordinary Canadian novel, and had
many readers in the United States and Canada.

In History, much has been attempted. Every one who can write an article
in a country newspaper thinks he is competent to give the world a
history of our young Dominion in some shape or other; and yet, when we
come to review the results, it can hardly be said that the literary
success is remarkable. The history of Canada, as a whole, has yet to be
written, and it most be admitted that the task has its difficulties. The
first era has its picturesque features, which may attract an eloquent
writer, but the field has in a large measure been already occupied with
great fidelity and ability by that accomplished historian, Francis
Parkman, of Boston. The subsequent history, under the English _regime_,
labours under the disadvantage of want of unity, and being for the most
part a record of comparatively insignificant political controversy. To
the outside world such a history has probably no very great attraction,
and consequently could bring an author no great measure of reputation.
Yet, if a Canadian imbued with true patriotism, content with the
applause of his own countrymen, should devote to the task much patient
research, and a graceful style, and while leaving out all petty and
unimportant details, should bring into bold relief the salient and
noteworthy features of the social and political development of Canada,
such a writer would lift Canadian history out of that slough of dullness
into which so many have succeeded in throwing it in their efforts to
immortalise themselves rather than their country. Nor can it be truly
said that to trace the successive stages in a nation's growth, is a task
uninteresting or unimportant, even to the great world beyond us. But
Canada has as yet no national importance; she is only in the colonial
transition, stage, and her influence on other peoples is hardly yet
appreciable So it happens, that whilst the history of a small state in
Europe like Holland, Belgium, or Denmark, may win a writer a world-wide
reputation, as was the case with Motley, on the other hand, the history
of a colonial community is only associated in the minds of the foreign
public with petty political conflicts, and not with those great
movements of humanity which have affected so deeply the political and
social fabric of European States.

All that, however, by way of parenthesis. Garneau's history, of which we
have a fair translation, remains the best work of the kind, but it is
not a history of Canada--simply of one section and of one class of the
population. Hannay's 'History of Acadia' is also a work which displays
research, and skill in arranging the materials, as well as a pleasing,
readable style. Such works as Murdoch's 'History of Nova Scotia,' Dr.
Canniff's Bay of Quinte, Dr. Scadding's 'Toronto of Old' are very
valuable in the way of collecting facts and data from dusty archives and
from old pioneers, thus saving the future historian much labour. The
last mentioned book is one of the most interesting works of the class
ever published in this country, and shows what an earnest, enthusiastic
antiquarian can do for the English-speaking races in Canada, in
perpetuating the memories and associations that cling to old landmarks.
Like Dr. Scadding in Toronto, Mr. James Lemoine has delved industriously
among the historic monuments of Quebec, and made himself the historian
_par excellence_ of that interesting old city. To him the natural beauty
of the St. Lawrence and its historic and legendary lore are as familiar
as were the picturesque scenery and the history of Scotland to Sir
Walter Scott. Both Mr. Lemoine and Dr. Scadding illustrate what may be
done in other cities and towns of Canada by an enthusiastic student of
their annals, who would not aim too high, but be content with the
reputation of local historians or antiquarians. We cannot lose any time
in committing to paper the recollections of those old settlers who are
fast dying out among us. 'The Scot in British North America,' by Mr. W.
J. Rattray, is an attempt--and a most meritorious one--to illustrate the
history of the progress of a class who have done so much for the
prosperity of this country. Historical bodies, like the New England
Historical Society, can do a great deal to preserve the records of old
times. The Quebec Literary Historical Society, founded as long ago as
1824, under the auspices of the Governor-General of the time, Lord
Dalhousie, has done a good work with the small means at its command in
this direction, and it is satisfactory to know that a similar
institution has at last been established in Halifax, where there ought
to be much interesting material in the possession of old families, whose
founders came from New England or the "old country" in the troublous
times of the American Revolution.

Reviewing generally works of a miscellaneous class, we find several that
have deservedly won for the authors a certain position in Canadian
literature. For instance, Colonel Denison's works on Cavalry, one of
which gained a prize offered by the Emperor of Russia, illustrate
certainly the fertility and acuteness of the Canadian intellect when it
is stimulated to some meritorious performance in a particular field.
Mrs. Moodie's 'Roughing it in the Bush' is an evidence of the interest
that may be thrown around the story of the trials and struggles of
settlers in the wilderness, when the writer describes the life naturally
and effectively. [Footnote: In the course of my readings of old files in
the Parliamentary library, I came across this reference to the early
literary efforts of this lady, whose pen in later times has contributed
so much charming poetry and prose to Canadian publications, serial and
general: 'The editor of the New York _Albion_ has had the good fortune
to obtain as contributor to his poetical columns the name of Susanna
Moodie, better known among the admirers of elegiac poetry, in her days
of celibate life, as Susanna Strickland. From the specimen with which
she has furnished Dr. Bartlett of her poetic ardour, we are happy to
find that neither the Canadian atmosphere nor the circumstances
attendant upon the alteration of her name, have dimmed the light of that
Muse which, in past years, engaged many of our juvenile hours with
pleasure and profit.'--Montreal _Gazette_, 1833.] Mr. Charles Lindsey
has given us, among other works, a life of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie,--with
whom he was connected by marriage--valuable for its historical accuracy
and moderate spirit. Mr. George Stewart has in 'Evenings in the Library'
illustrated how earnestly and conscientiously he has studied English and
American literature. Dr. Daniel Wilson, since he has made Canada his
home, has continued to illustrate the versatility of his knowledge and
the activity of his intellect by his works on 'Prehistoric Man,' and
'Recollections of Edinburgh,' besides his many contributions to the
proceedings of learned societies and the pages of periodicals, Mr.
Fennings Taylor, an accomplished official of Parliament, has given us a
number of gracefully-written essays on Episcopalian dignitaries and
Canadian statesmen, though he has had to labour in most cases with the
difficulty of reviewing the career of men still in life, whose political
merit is still a point in the opinion of parties. Mr. Alpheus Todd, the
well-known librarian of Parliament, has been without a rival in the
dependencies of Great Britain, in his particular line of constitutional
studies. For over a quarter of a century he has been accumulating
precedent upon precedent, until his mind is a remarkable store-house of
well-digested data, from which he has illustrated the growth of
Parliamentary institutions in Great Britain and her Colonies. His style
is remarkably clear and logical,--though the character of his works and
the plan adopted in their execution, are unfavourable to literary
finish,--and even those who may not agree with his conclusions, on
certain constitutional points, will give full credit to the
conscientiousness of his researches and the sincerity of his purpose.
His 'Parliamentary Government in England' was described in the
_Edinburgh Review_ as 'one of the most useful and complete works which
has yet appeared on the practical operation of the British
Constitution.' It says much for our system of Government, that it has
been able to stimulate the intellectual faculties of a Canadian writer
to the production of such thoughtful, erudite works. They are a natural
outcome of the interest which all classes of our people take in
questions of a political bearing. They illustrate the mental activity
which, from the earliest times in our history, has been devoted to the
study of political and constitutional questions, and which has hitherto
for the most part found expression only in the press or in the
legislatures of the different provinces. Works of constitutional
authority like those of Hallam, May, Stubbs, and Todd must emanate
naturally from the student, removed from the turmoil and excitement of
political contests, rather than from the politician and statesman, whose
mind can hardly ever find that freedom from bias which would give
general confidence in his works, if indeed he could ever find time to
produce them.

And here we may appropriately refer to the contributions made to
Colonial literature by the eminent men who have assisted in giving
Canada her present political and industrial status. The great speeches
of Canadian statesmen must nearly all be sought in the old files of
newspapers deposited in our libraries; but as a rule the chief interest
that now attaches to these speeches is the light they throw on the
history of the past. The opportunities which Canadian statesmen have had
of making great oratorical efforts have not been frequent in
dependencies where the questions have necessarily been for the most part
of purely local importance and of a very practical character. Yet when
subjects of large constitutional or national importance have come up for
discussion, the debates prove that Canadian intellects display a
comprehensiveness of knowledge and a power of argument worthy of a
larger arena. Some of Sir Alexander Galt's speeches, in bringing down
the Budget in old times, were characterized by that masterly arrangement
of statistics which has made Mr. Gladstone so famous in the House of
Commons. Sir John Macdonald's speech explaining the Washington Treaty,
in 1872, was remarkable for its logical arrangement and its
illustrations of the analytical power and the varied knowledge of that
eminent statesman, who, in the intervals of leisure, has always been a
student of general literature. Mr. Blake's speeches afford abundant
evidence of the brilliant talent of a public man who is both a student
of books as well as of politics, and who, were the tendency of
Parliamentary oratory something higher than mere practical debate, could
rise fully to the height of some great argument. But oratory, in the
real sense of the art, cannot exist in our system of government in a
Colonial dependency where practical results are immediately sought for.
It consequently follows that the speeches which interest us to-day lose
their attraction when the object has been gained. Both Mr. Howe and Mr.
McGee were able to invest their great addresses with a charm which still
clings to them when we take them up. The reason is, they were, like
Gladstone and Disraeli, both _litterateurs_ who studied their subjects
in the library, among the great masters of eloquence and statesmanship,
and were thus able to throw around a great question the flowers of a
highly cultivated mind. But even Mr. Howe's most memorable speeches of
old times would perhaps be hardly appreciated in the cold practical
arena in which our public business is now transacted. Yet it cannot be
said that the Legislature is no field to display the highest qualities
of intellectual activity because it is no longer possible to indulge in
those nights of poetic fancy or those brilliant perorations which are
now confined to the pulpit or lecture-hall. The intellectual strength of
the country must be of no mean order when it can give us statesmen like
Sir Charles Tupper and Mr. Mackenzie, whose best speeches are admirable
illustrations of logical arrangement and argumentative power. And, it
may be added, with respect to the present House, that no previous
Parliament, entrusted with the control of the affairs of Canada, has
comprised a larger number of gentlemen, distinguished not only for their
practical comprehension of the wants of this country, but for their wide
attainments and general culture.

When we come to sum up the literary results of the century that has
passed since the two races entered conjointly on the material and
intellectual development of Canada, it will be seen that there has been
a steady movement forward. It must be admitted that Canada has not yet
produced any works which show a marked originality of thought. Some
humorous writings, a few good poems, one or two histories, some
scientific and constitutional productions, are alone known to a small
reading public outside of Canada. Striking originality can hardly be
developed to any great extent in a dependency which naturally, and
perhaps wisely in some cases, looks for all its traditions and habits of
thought to a parent state. It is only with an older condition of
society, when men have learned at last to think as well as to act for
themselves, to originate rather than to reproduce, that there can be a
national literature. The political development of Canada within forty
years affords forcible evidence of the expansion of the political ideas
of our public men, who are no longer tormented by the dread of what
others say of them, but legislate solely with respect to the internal
necessities of the country; and the same development is now going on in
other departments of intellectual life, and affords additional evidence
of our national growth. It must also be remembered that there is a
mental activity among the intelligent classes of the country, in itself
as significant as the production of great works. Like our American
neighbours, the mass of Canadians is able to think intelligently, and
come generally to a right conclusion, on all matters of local concern;
in this respect, no comparison need be made with the mass of Englishmen
or Frenchmen in the Old World, for the social and educational facilities
within the reach of the people of this country, give them undoubted
advantages over others. It is only necessary to consider the number of
pamphlets and volumes on matters affecting Canada, that annually issue
from the press in this country, to show the existence of a mental
activity in entire harmony with the industrial progress of the country.
[Footnote: For instance, we find in Morgan's 'Annual Register' for 1879,
that during that year there were no less than 166 publications issued
from the press, of which 17 were poetic; 12 historical; 15 educational;
17 legal; 24 religious; 66 miscellaneous, &c. Some of these were of
considerable merit, as 'Tasse's Pioneers,' F. Taylor's 'Are Legislatures
Parliaments?' Frechette's Poems, Hannay's 'Acadia,' &c. In this
connection it may be interesting to add that the Parliamentary Library
contains some 1,400 copies of pamphlets, bound in 200 volumes, since
Confederation, and that the total number of original Canadian
publications registered since that time is over 1,500--only a few of the
pamphlets being registered copyright. The Parliamentary Library,
however, is very defective yet in Canadian books, papers and pamphlets.
Laval University has a far more valuable collection. We ought to have a
National Library like the British Museum, where all Canadian
publications can have a place. Strange as it may seem, only a few copies
of old Canadian papers can be found in the Ottawa Library. Yet, if a
little money were spent and trouble. taken, a valuable collection could
be procured from private individuals throughout the Dominion.] It is
fair then to argue that the intellectual progress of a country like
Canada must not be measured solely by the production of great works
which have been stamped with the approval of the outside literary world,
on whose verdict, it must of course be admitted, depends true fame. We
must also look to the signs of general culture that are now exhibited on
all sides, compared with a quarter of a century ago, when the
development of material interests necessarily engrossed all the best
faculties of the people. The development of higher education, together
with the formation of Art Schools, Museums, and Literary Societies, is
illustrative of the greater mental activity of all classes. The
paintings of O'Brien and Verner are pleasing evidences of the growth of
art in a country where, hitherto, but few pictures of merit have even
been imported. It is no longer considered a sign of good taste to cover
the walls with oils and chromes whose chief value is the tawdry, showy
gilt which encases them and makes so loud a display on the walls of the
_nouveaux riches_. In the style of public buildings and private
dwellings, there is a remarkable improvement within twenty years, to
indicate not only the increase of national and individual wealth, but
the growth of a cultured taste. The interior decorations, too, show a
desire to imitate the modern ideas that prevail abroad; and in this
respect every year must witness a steady advance, according as our
people travel more in the older countries in Europe and study the
fashions of the artistic and intellectual world. There are even now in
prosaic, practical Canada, some men and women who fully appreciate the
aesthetic ideal that the poet Morris would achieve in the form, harmony,
and decoration of domestic furniture. If such aesthetic ideas could only
be realized in the decoration of our great public edifices, the
Parliamentary buildings at Ottawa, for instance, the national taste
would certainly be improved. At present huge portraits of politicians,
who by intrinsic merit or political favour have become speakers, stare
down from the walls in solitary grandeur, and already begin to overcrowd
each other. We search in vain for allegorical paintings by eminent
Canadian artists, or monuments of illustrious statesmen, such as we see
in the Capitol at Washington, or in the elegant structure nearly
completed at Albany.

In one respect we are still much behind hand, and that is in our Public
Libraries. The library of the Parliament of Canada still remains the
only institution worthy of much notice in the Dominion. It was certainly
an event in the history of literary culture in Canada when this library
was moved into the edifice whose architectural beauty is in itself an
illustration of the rapid advance in taste of the Dominion. As one looks
up at its chaste, vaulted ceiling, which lights the tiers of volumes,
arranged in a circle, one recalls the now forgotten poem of Crabbe, that
ardent lover of books:--

   Come, Child of Care! to make thy soul serene,
   Approach the treasures of this tranquil scene;
   Survey the dome, and, as the doors unfold,
   The soul's best cure, in all her cares, behold!
   Where mental wealth the poor in thought may find,
   And mental physic the diseased in mind.

       *       *       *       *       *

   With awe, around these silent walks we tread;
   These are the lasting mansions of the dead:--
   "The dead!" Methinks a thousand tongues reply:
   "These are the tombs of such as cannot die!
   "Crowned with eternal fame, they sit sublime
   "And laugh at all the little strife of time."


But whilst we pay this tribute to its architectural grace, one wonders
at the same time at the shortsightedness which has sacrificed everything
to appearance, and given us a building not even equal to existing
demands--as if a library was a thing of the present, not to increase
with the intellectual requirements of the country. As it is now, the
library contains only some 100,000 volumes, many of which have no
particular value. The American and Canadian department is confessedly
inferior in many respects, although we ought to excel in that
particular. Of late years, the annual grant has been extremely small,
and chiefly devoted to the purchase of books for the law branch, for the
especial benefit of lawyers engaged in the Supreme Court. But we have as
yet no Free Libraries like those in the United States, of which the
Boston Library is a notable illustration. [Footnote: Boston, twenty
years ago, spent and spent well, in founding her great free library,
more than two dollars for each man, woman, and child within her limits,
and she has sustained it to this day with great spirit and liberality.
That library has now more than 360,000 volumes, and her citizens in 1879
took to their homes more than 1,160,000 volumes. Many smaller places in
New England and elsewhere, not without careful investigation, have
followed her example, finding in the practical results of her 20 years'
work, proof satisfactory to their tax-payers, that a free library is a
profitable investment of public money, while in the West the great
cities of Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis, with Western free-handed
energy, have already free libraries on such a scale that one at least of
them bids fair to rank among the greatest in the world--_Scribner's
Monthly_ for September, 1880, where the advantages of a free library are
very tersely shown.] But, nevertheless, the reading facilities of the
people generally have increased very largely within two decades. At the
present time, as far as we can estimate from the information within
reach, there are some 130,000 volumes in the Parliamentary Libraries of
the Dominion, 700,000 in the Universities, Colleges and Schools--all of
which are necessarily of a limited professional class--and 140,000 in
Mechanics' Institutes and Literary Societies. The grand total of library
and prize books despatched to the Public Schools of the Province of
Ontario alone within twenty-five years is over one million and a quarter
of volumes--comprising of course books of an educational character, but
nevertheless valuable in laying the foundation of general culture, and
bringing the means of acquiring knowledge to sections where otherwise
such facilities would be wanting. Last year, the value of the books
imported into Canada amounted to about a million of dollars, or an
increase of about 30 per cent. in ten years. Literary and Scientific
Institutes are increasing in number, and some are doing a useful, if not
a national work: the Quebec Historical Society, referred to on a
previous page, the Toronto Canadian Institute, which has made not a few
useful contributions to science and literature, and the Institut
Canadien which has erected in Ottawa one of the handsomest structures
yet raised in Canada by a literary association. In Ontario there are
also some 100 Mechanics Institutes, including nearly 11,000 members,
with an aggregate of 118,000 volumes in the libraries; [Footnote:
'Address of Mr. James Young, President of Mechanics' Institutes
Association of Ontario (_Globe_, Sept. 24th, 1880).] and it is
satisfactory to learn that institutions which may have an important
influence on the industrial classes are to be placed on a more efficient
basis. These facts illustrate that we are making progress in the right
direction; but what we want, above all things, are public libraries, to
which all classes may have free access, in the principal centres of
population. The rich men of this country can devote a part of their
surplus wealth to no more patriotic purpose than the establishment of
such libraries in the places where they live, and in that way erect a
monument for themselves far more honourable than any that may be
achieved by expenditures on purely selfish objects. All through the New
England and Central States we meet with such illustrations of private
generosity, but there are few similar examples in Canada. Perhaps the
handsome contribution recently made by Mr. Redpath towards the
establishment of a museum in connection with McGill College--itself a
memorial of private generosity--is a favourable augury of what we may
often look for in the future, as the number of our wealthy men increase
and they become more alive to the intellectual wants of those around
them.

In the columns of our ablest journals there is a growing tendency to
devote more space to the discussion of literary, artistic and scientific
topics which are engaging attention in the world of thought The
publication of a periodical like the _Bystander_ may justly be
considered an event in the political and literary annals of this
country. It illustrates the desire that exists for independent political
criticism amid the intense conflict of party opinion; and even those who
cannot agree with the views of the eminent gentleman who conducts this
work will frankly admit the originality and independence of thought in
all he says. But it is not only as a political writer that Mr. Smith is
doing good service to this country; every one who reads his reviews of
current events cannot fail to profit by the study of his graceful style
as well as by the versatility of his knowledge on all the social,
political and economic questions that are engaging attention at home or
abroad. The pages of the _Canadian Monthly_ have also for some time
shown that there is coming to the front a number of writers of
considerable intellectual power on the leading social and religious
problems to which so many able thinkers are devoting themselves
now-a-days. Herbert Spencer has his disciples and defenders, who prove
themselves no contemptible adversaries of the orthodox school of
religion. Very few of us probably sympathize with these modern
iconoclasts who would destroy all motive for right doing in this world,
by breaking down human faith in the existence of one Supreme Being; but,
at the same time, no one can deny the earnestness and ability these
writers bring to their work. It is quite obvious that such able thinkers
as Mr. Spencer and his followers in Canada, with Mr. Le Sueur at their
head, cannot be 'snubbed' cavalierly by the professed teachers of
religion. The tendency of modern thought, a wave of which has reached
us, is undoubtedly in the direction of bringing all subjects, however
sacred, to the crucial test of argument, fact and experience, and our
religious guides must not think they will prevail by the exhibit of mere
contemptuous indifference to the free thought that prevails around them.
If our great theological schools and seats of learning are to prove
themselves equal to the demands of the present day, it will be by moving
out of their grooves of worn-out tradition and routine, and by enlarging
their teachings so that the men they send out into the world may be more
equal than most of them appear now to meet in argument the Positivist,
Rationalist and Materialist, or whatever the disciple of the modern
schools of philosophy may call himself. The man of true liberality and
faith in the truth of his religious principles must be fully prepared to
allow the freest expression of opinion, however antagonistic it may
appear to the true happiness of society. This very conflict of ideas and
arguments between such opposite schools of opinion must, in the end,
evolve the truth, and necessarily give additional stimulus to
intellectual thought in this country, where, so far, there has been a
great dearth of original thinkers to elevate us above purely selfish,
material interests.

In the natural order of things, the next half century ought to witness a
far larger development of the intellect of this country. We have already
seen that, with the progress of the Dominion in population and wealth,
education has been stimulated to a remarkable degree, journalism has
become more of a profession, and not only have several books, of more
than ordinary value and merit, been produced in various departments of
knowledge, but there are already signs of a spirit of intellectual
emulation which must, sooner or later, have its full fruition. If Canada
makes the material progress within the next few decades that her people
hope, and her statesmen are endeavouring to accomplish, in the face, no
doubt, of many difficulties, we may confidently look forward to a
corresponding intellectual development. So much practical work of
immediate importance has to be performed in a comparatively new country
like this, that native talent has naturally found chief expression in
politics, the professions, and the press; but with greater wealth, and
an older condition of society, literature, science, and art, will be
cultivated to a far larger extent. 'It was amid the ruins of the
Capitol,' says Gibbon, 'that I first conceived the idea of writing the
"History of the Roman Empire."' Such a work could not have been written
among the forests of Canada, while men were labouring with the many
difficulties of a pioneer existence. But with the greater opportunities
of leisure and culture necessarily opening up to us in the future,
Canadians may yet have a literature, not merely imitative, as at
present, but creative and original. It is stated somewhere in an old
English review of American literature, that on this new continent we can
hardly expect the rich fruition which springs from that deep, humanized
soil of the old world, which has for ages been enriched by the ripe
droppings of a fertile national life, where, in the words of an American
poet,--

   One half the soil has walked the rest,
   In poets, heroes, martyrs, sages.


It is certainly true that the beauty and grandeur of external nature
alone will never inspire the highest and deepest writings; but human
life with its manifold experiences, its glooms and glories, sorrows and
rejoicings, pains, pleasures and aspirations. Every rood of ground in
the old communities of Europe has its historic associations to point
many a moral and adorn many a tale. Yet if this America of ours has a
history only of yesterday, it, too, has its memories and associations to
stimulate the genius of history, poetry and romance. Already in the
first century of American literature have poets and historians and
artists appeared to rival those of the older civilization of the world.
The works of Parkman and Longfellow illustrate that there is, even in
the early history and traditions of Canada, much to evoke the interest
of the great world beyond us, when a writer brings to the task the
genius of a true poet or the brilliancy of an accomplished historian. If
our soil is new, yet it may produce fruits which will bear a rich
flavour of their own, and may please the palate of even those surfeited
with the hothouse growth of older lands. Hawthorne, Emerson, Howells,
Bret Harte, Sam Slick, are among many writers who illustrate the
raciness and freshness of American production. Nor let it be forgotten
that American and Canadian, in 'the fresh woods and pastures new' of
this continent, have an equal heritage with the people of the British
Islands in that rich, humanized soil which has borne such rare
intellectual fruit. We, too, may enjoy its bounteous gifts and gather
inspiration from its treasures of 'English undefiled,' although we live
in another land whose history dawned but yesterday, and where the soil
is almost virgin.

In this land there is a future full of promise for literature as for
industry. Our soil speaks to the millions of poor in the old countries
of the world of boundless hope. Here there is no ancient system of
social exclusiveness to fix a limit to the intellectual progress of the
proletariat. Political freedom rests on a firm, broad basis of general
education. Our political constitution is not alienated from the
intellect of the country, but its successful working depends entirely on
the public intelligence. As our political horizon widens, and a more
expansive national existence opens before us, so must our intellectual
life become not only more vigorous, but more replete with evidences of
graceful culture:

   'For through all the ages one increasing purpose runs,
   And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.'





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People: An Historical Review" ***

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