Margaret Penrose - "The Motor Girls"

William Makepeace Thackeray - "The Yellowplush Papers"

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Alexandre Dumas, Pere - "Ten Years Later"

The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People

J >> John George Bourinot >> The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People




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.

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