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The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People

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




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.

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