THE HON. ALFRED GILPIN JONES

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Literature and Journalism. 569

years the only authority in general use in this country for purposes of local biographical reference. It professed to furnish an approximately complete list of eminent persons who have taken part in Canadian affairs—including statesmen, judges, warriors, authors, and what not—with succinct accounts of the most important passages in their lives. As a first attempt to cover a somewhat extensive tract of ground, it necessarily contained many inaccuracies and imperfections, but it served a good and useful purpose, and must therefore be pronounced to have been a success in its day. “Portraits of British Americans,” the letterpress whereof was furnished by the late Fennings Taylor, was a work more restricted in its scope, and much more elaborate in execution. It was almost entirely confined to contemporary biography, and was largely the result of the writer’s personal acquaintance with the individuals concerned. It does not sin deeply on the score of partiality, but is strangely diffuse, and all the really valuable portion of it might have been confined within very narrow limits. Of the much more recent work, “ The Canadian Portrait Gallery,” it would not become the present writer to speak, it being almost wholly the product of his own pen. “The Irishman in Canada,” by Nicholas Flood Davin, published in 1877, contains a good many facts of historical importance with reference to Irishmen who have settled in or been connected with Canada. “The Scot in British North America,” by W. J. Rattray, B.A. of Toronto, is not yet complete, but there need be no difficulty in passing judgment upon the work on the strength of the instalments which have already appeared. Mr. Rattray has long been known as one of the very best writers we have. His newspaper and magazine articles are marked by learning, thoughtfulness, and breadth of view, as well as by a fine command of vigorous and graceful language. It has for years been a subject for regret that he has not found leisure to employ his great talents in the production of some work of permanent value, That he is now producing such a work is a matter 37—2

570 The Last Forty Years.

as to which there can be no difference of opinion. It must at the same time be confessed that the three volumes hitherto published leave upon the reader’s mind an impression that the author has not here given us of his best: that he has not, in fact, chosen a field in which his high attainments show to their full advantage. His narrative is interesting, and written in good English. His generous enthusiasm, his constant desire to be rigidly impartial, his skilful avoidance of repetition and his general literary skill are worthy of all praise. But Mr. Rattray has evidently not imposed upon himself the labour of hard and minute investigation. He has sometimes followed untrustworthy authorities, and has thus been led into errors which even the exigencies of his arduous journalistic pursuits are barely sufficient to account for. His kindlyÿ nature, moreover, impels him to refrain from saying unpleasant things, even when Muse Clio imperatively demands plainness of language at his hands. These are the sole defects which an appreciative critic has to charge upon what is in other respects à most meritorious and valuable work. And the defects, after all, apply to but a very small proportion of the sum total. If Mr. Rattray were à mere literary hack his occasional lapses would not have been deemed worthy of notice, but his workmanship is generally of so excellent a quality that it behoves him to carefully guard his reputation. He has evidently been cramped by the exigency of serial publication —a disadvantage with which the writer of the present work can sincerely sympathize.

À quasi-biographical work, in five volumes, entitled ‘“ Case and his Contemporaries,” by the Rev. John Carroll, contains a good deal of matter which may not inaptly be termed “history in the rough.” The most noteworthy collection of biographies produced in the French language in Canada, during the period with which this review is concerned, is “Les Canadiens de l'Ouest,” by Joseph Tassé, M.P., published in 1879. It gives an account of the exploits of Langlade, Dubuque, and other pioneers of the Great West, and is embellished

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Literature and Journalism. 571

with authentic portraits. It is said to display great research and industry, but as the present writer has not seen it he can only pronounce upon it at second-hand.

The careful biographical studies of John Foster Kirk, a native of New Brunswick, have gained for him a high and wide reputation, but we are hardly entitled to claim him for our own, as he is by settlement and predilection à citizen of the United States, and has achieved all his sxecesses there. The most important separate biography published in Canada during the last forty years is Mr. Charles Lindsey’s “Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie,’ which appeared in 1862. It was prepared chiefly from materials which had been collected by Mr. Mackenzie himself with a view to an autobiography,and was as full and accurate as was reasonably to be expected from a work written within a twelvemonth after that œentleman’s death. Since then, however, a great deal of additional light has been thrown upon Mr. Mackenzie’s career in its relation to Canadian affairs, and there is undoubtedly an opening for a new work on the subject. No one is in s0 favourable a position to undertake such an enterprise as Mr. Lindsey, and it is to be hoped that he may erelong see his way to issuing a new and enlarged edition of his former biography. To the same author we owe an account of the Clergy Reserves, pub- lished in 1851; “Rome in Canada,” in 1877; and a work on the boundaries of Ontario, in 1873. Another work on the last-named subject, written by Mr. David Mills, was also , ablished in 1873.

A number of historico-topographical works, some of which are of considerable value, have from time to time been produced among us. “ Canada: Past, Present and Future,” by William H. Smith, published in 1851, was a useful work in its day, as was also the same authors “Canadian Gazetteer,” issued in 1846. Coming down to more recent times, the history and topography of Toronto and Quebec have been delineated with loving hands by Dr. Scadding and Mr. J. M. Lemoine. The latter has also published “Chronicles of

572 The Last Forty Years.

the St. Lawrence,” and a miniature library of other works bearing on the history and traditions of Lower Canada. “Red River,” by Joseph James Hargrave, gives a great deal of interesting and pleasantly-conveyed information respecting the settlement to which it refers. Mr. James Young, well-known in connection with journalism and Parliamentary iife in Ontario, has given us a readabie little volume embodying “Reminiscences of the Early History of Galt, and the settlement of Dumfries ;”” and the Counties of Leeds and Grenville have found a local historian in Mr. T. W. H. Leavitt.

“A History of Cavalry, from the Earliest Times, with Lessons for the Future,” by Lieutenant-Colonel George T. Denison, of Toronto, is a work of which the author especially, and Canadians generally, have abundant reason to feel proud. The circumstances under which it came to be written are worth recording. In 1874 the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia, with the Czar's sanction, offered three prizes for the best three books on the history of the cavalry service—a subject which up to that time had never found a historian. The competition was declared open to the whole world, and Colonel Denison entered himself for the race. “I felt,”’ said he, “that it was my duty to take advantage of the opening, and to show that it was possible for a native-born Canadian—an officer of the militia of this country—to hold his own with the officers of any force in the world.”* He had some years before gained considerable reputation by a work entitled “Modern Cavalry: its Organization, Armament and Employment in War,” published in England in 1868, and since translated into the principal languages of continental Europe. But the qualifications required for the successful performance of such a task as he now imposed upon himself were of an altogether exceptional kind, The preliminary labour was necessarily very great, and to a Canadian presented difficulties which most persons would have regarded as insuperable, Colonel

* These words were uttered by Colonel Denison in the course of a speech delivered at a banquet held in his honour at Toronto, in January, 1878,

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Literature and Journalisn. 573

Denison, however, set himself to his task with unflagging energy and resolution. Having written his book and obtained a translation of the manuscript into Russian, he proceeded to St. Petersburg, where he had the proud satisfaction of snatching the prize from all competitors, and of being received with honour at one of the most splendid courts in Europe. His history was issued in costly form by one of the foremost of English publishing houses. It has since been translated into several European languages, and has established the authors reputation throughout the world as a writer on military affairs.

In works relating to the constitution, Canada has produced several writers who have proved themselves capable of discussing grave questions of polity with intelligence ; and she can boast of one writer who has made his mark upon the constitutional literature of the English language. Dr. Alpheus Todd’s “ Parliamentary Government in England,” and “ Parliamentary Government in the British Colonies” have taken their due rank among the foremost authorities of the age upon the subjects to which they refer. They are the carefully-evolved product of a well-ordered mind; a mind richly stored with such knowledge as can only be acquired by long and close study, and trained to contemplate public questicns from the calm altitude of the judgment-seat. The author’s learning and industry have evoked well-merited acknowledgments from the leading organs of scholarly opinion in Great Britain, and his books are held in respect at Westminster no less than at Ottawa. “The Constitution of Canada,” by Joseph Doutre, Q.C., of Montreal, is & careful exposition of the British North America Act of 1867, with copious elucidations gathered from ail available sourcos. Samuel James Watson's “ Constitutionul History of Canada,” ct which only one small volume had been publishel when the authors career was cut short by death, gave promise G£f being an excellent work for general use, “The Powers of Canadian Parliaments,” from the same hand, is a potent plea for local ns against Federal authority in

574 The Lust Forty Years.

matters legislative. The other side of the question is argued by Mr. Fennings Taylor, in a little volume entitled “Are Legislatures Parliaments ?” Mr. D. A. O’Sullivan, in “ A Manual of Government in Canada,” has also briefly discussed the principles of our Federal and Provincial constitutions.

In fiction there is no great triumph to record: no name to be placed side by side with that of Judge Haliburton, whose strongest flights, both in fiction and history, were made during a former period. Subsequent to 1841, “the Old Judge” produced several works which have taken à certain rank in literature, but they are little more than feeble echoes of “The Clockmaker.” The novels of Major Richardson have frequently been referred to with high commendation, though it is difficult to understand how any writer possessed of true critical sagacity could have found anything in them to admire. The truth of the matter is that “ Wacousta,” “The Canadian Brothers,” and “ Ecarté ” are very wooden affairs. As for “The Monk Knight of St. John,” it is simply beneath criticism, whether regarded from a moral or a literary point of view. The author had no faculty for drawing character, and he had knocked about in barrack-rooms so long that he seemed to have lost all perception of the eternal fitness of things. Mrs. Susanna Moodie played a much more wholesome note, and several of her books, delineating the picturesque side of “Roughing itin the Bush,” as well as of “ Life in the Clearings,” furnish both pleasant and instructive reading. Her younger sister, Mrs. Trail], also produced several volumes of tales and sketches illustrative of pioneer life in Canada. Her brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Strickland, was the author of “Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West,” which was à partial record of his own adventures, and which, in strictness, has no right to be included among works of fiction, The list of readable novels by Canadian authors, indeed, is very brief. The only one produced in the English language which has any high claims to consideration is “ Le Chien d'Or,” by William Kirby, of Niagara: a work which con-

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tains nearly all the elements of a singularly powerful romance. The author combines a weird and at times delicate fancy with a thorough knowledge of his subject, and he has conjured up the dry bones of the past with a very unusual degree of power and felicity. His lack of artistie skill in the use of his materials is probably the result of inexperience, and, if so, he lacks nothing but patience and discipline to become a successful writer of fiction. “The Bastonnais,” by John Lesperance, though considerably below Mr. Kirby’s level, conveys a not inapt idea of the times whereof it treats, and wiil repay perusal. Mrs. Leprohon’s tales of Canadian life have won a wide reputation, more especially in the Lower Province, and at least one of them has been translated into French. The Rev. W. H. Withrow has also published several interesting little stories illustrative of Canadian history and every-day life. A very different style of fiction is that of the late James De Mille, somewhile Professor of History and Rhetoric in Dalhousie College, Halifax. The Professor was a man of ability and learning, who produced a work on rhetorice which is highly spoken of, His novels, however, are of the hyper-fervid class, and they are not books of which we, as Canadians, have any special reason to feel proud, though they obtained a large circulation, and were pecuniarily successful. Their success was doubtless promoted by the circumstance that they were cleverly illustrated and issued by prominent publishing houses in the United States. They are for the most part ghastly unrealities. The author had some insight into character, but was inconceivably awkward in the management of his plots, and some of his dialogues are the very acme of absurdity. Whatever was coarsely horrible had a strange fascination for him ; and in reading his morbid imaginings one cannot help wondering whether they were evolved from a perfectly sound brain. Such grotesque conceptions as are to be found in “Cord and Creese,” “ The Living Link,” “The Cryptogram,” “ The American Baron,” and ‘“ An

Open Question” are simply suggestive of Edgar Poe, with the genius, delicacy and Literary skill left out. The late Mrs. May Agnes Fleming also belonged to the Maritime Provinces. As a sensation novelist she achieved considerable pecuniary success in the United States, but the writer of these pages would be deceiving a confiding public if he were to lay claim to any personal knowledge of her writings.

Several French Canadian writers have produced noticeable works of fiction. “Charles Guérin,” by the Hon. P.J. O. Chauveau, was published at Montreal in 1852. It achieved much popularity among the author’s fellow-countrymen in Lower Canada, and is said to display much literary ability. “Jean Rivard,” by A. Gerin-Lajoie, published in 1862, is a simple but attractive story of French Canadian life and character as exhibited in the backwoods. “L’Intendant Bigot,” “François de Bienville,” and “Le Chevalier de Mornac,” by Joseph Marmette, are among the most popular works of contemporary French Canadian fiction. The stories of Mr. Narcisse H. E. Faucher de St. Maurice we find described as “ picturesque, and so well constructed that the interest of the narrative rises in intensity to the climax.”*

In poetry, much good work has been done by our French Canadian brethren. Mr. Louis Honoré Fréchette has written poems which are entitled to a permanent place in our literature, and which have already made his name known in lands where the names of our foremost :tatesmen are “ unfamiliar quantities.” “Les Fleurs Boreales” and ‘“ Les Oiseaux de Neige ” have enjoyed the high honour of being crowned by the Institute of France, and several of his dramas have been successfully performed in the theatres of his native Province. His writings display an ardent imagination, chastened by culture and good taste, The poems of Benjamin Sulte, L. P. Le May and

* See a thoughtful paper on “ The Intellectual Progress of Canada,” by James Douglas, Jr., published in The Canadian Monthly for June, 1875.

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Literature and Journalism. 577

the late Joseph Octave Crémazie, while they are less widely known than those of Mr. Fréchette, contain evidences of genuine inspiration, and have found an appreciative circle of readers. Several dramas by the Hon. F. G. Marchand have been successfully represented on the Quebec stage.

Among our writers of English poetry the first place has by common consent been awarded to the late Charles Heavysege, whose “ Saul ” was pronounced by the North British Review to be “ indubitably one of the most remarkable English poems ever written out of Great Britain.” It may seem ungracious for à Canadian writer to call in question so favourable a dictum from such a source, but since that dictum was pronounced a sufficient number of years have elapsed to admit of the formation of a maturer judgment. As compared with other poems by Canadian writers, “ Saul ” is certainly entitled to stand on a pedestal of its own. It contains a number of fine passages, some of which are absolutely startling by reason of the splendour of their imagery and their odd incongruity of thought. The writer’s capacity for rude conception is beyond dispute. But, if the truth must be told, his knowledge and powers were altogether inadequate to his theme. Notwithstanding his aptitude for producing startling effects, his genius seems to have been essentially imitative. His imagination was rough and undisciplined, and he was too ready to mistake mere violence of epithet for intensity of force. Some of the most enthusiastic of his critics, taken aback by his peculiarities of style, took him for a great pair r because he used a large brush. Genius he certainly possess 4, Training and culture would doubtless have done much for him; but itis very doubtful whether he had even any clear conception of

that “ great poetic heart” which the Laureate assures us is “ more than ail poetic fame.” He was not in sympathy with his age, which is too busy to occupy itself with the study of epic poems, even when they come from the hand of an acknowledged master. ‘“ Saul,”

578 The Last Forty Years.

in a word, was caviare to the general. “Jephthah’s Daughter” was an advance in point of mere execution, but it lacked the “ forceful might” which gave a special character to the former production. The author also wrote a novel called “ The Advocate,” which displays on a lower scale the same qualities as his poetry. Strength is there, but it is the strength of an untrained athlete, who knows not how to use his powers. In all his writings there are evidences of his fondness for Shakspeare, Milton and the Bible—models which could not well be improved upon—but it seems to have been the fondness of the enthusiast rather than that of the critic. Take him for all and all, while his right to the first place among Canadian poets is not to be disputed, it is not fair either to himself or to his poetical brethren to measure him by the false standard of the North British Review.

Thomas D’Arcy MceGee gave to the world à number of poems, many of them on Canadian subjects, but the author had no sufficient opportunity to steadfastly court the poetic Muse, and though some of his effusions display brilliant flashes of inspiration, they are the mere casual ebullitions of his spare hours. Another Irish Canadian, the late Samuel James Watson, whose ‘“ Constitutional History” was referred to several pages back, wrote poems and dramas exhibiting a high degree of poetic feeling. Charles Sangster has sung sweetly and well of the woods and streams of his native land. John Reade, literary editor of the Montreal Gazette, has given us some scholarly translations from Homer, and has also contributed melodious original verse to the various magazines. Alexander Mc- Lachlan, Charles Mair, Evan McColl, and Charles Pelham Mulvany are all entitled to honoured places among the sweet singers of Canada. The verses of the last-named writer are of very unequal merit, but some of his fugitive pieces, contributed during the last year or two to the Toronto periodicals, display a very unusual degree of literary and poetic ability.

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Literature and Journalism. 579

Bibliography is a plant which does not commonly flourish on à new soil, but we have several very creditable works in that department, The well-known “Catalogue” of George Barthélemi Faribault was published in 1837, and therefore does not come within our purview; but the “ Bibliotheca Canadensis ” of Mr. Morgan, published at Ottawa in 1867, is well entitled to a word of praise. It has proved an inestimable boon to literary men and journalists throughout the land, and it is to be hoped that the author may carry out his present design of issuing a new and enlarged edition. The “ Histoire de la Littérature Canadienne” by Edmond Lareau, and “Selections from the Canadian Poets,” by the Rev. Edward Hartley Dewart, are both useful works, and will be indispensable to the future historian of our literature. In the domain of metaphysics, Man's Moral Nature,” by Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke, is a noticeable work, to which it is impossible to do justice in a casual general review like the present. In art, a serial work entitled “ Picturesque Canada,” now in course of publication under the editorship of Principal Grant, of Kingston, is far in advance of anything of the kind hitherto attempted in Canada.

In science we have at least two names entitled to be placed beside those of the distinguished savants of the old world. The late Sir William Logan’s reputation as a geologist is confined to no country. Dr. Dawson’s works, as has been said elsewhere, have “opened up new fields of thought in districts that once were barren,” and have won respect for the author from persons who “know nothing of Canada beyond the fact that it is the abode of Professor Dawson.”* The names of Hind, Hunt, Vennor, Bell, Macoun, Chapman, Fleming and Wilson all suggest themselves as belonging to earnest inquirers who have made more or less extended excursions into various regions of ‘“ the fairy land of science.” Dr.

% Canadian Portrait Gallery, Vol, II., p. 133.

580 The Last Forty Years.

Wilson has also produced several literary works which show the result of careful study and earnest thought. In theology the writings of Bishop Medley and Dr. Bovell are to some extent known to learned divines in all parts of the English-speaking world. In law and medicine we have had several writers whose works furnish indisputable evidences of industry and learning. Dr. Adamson, Paul Kane, and the Rev. G. M. Grant have given us pleasant descriptions of Canadian scenery and travel. The Rev. W. H. Withrow has supplied the best popular contribution to the literature of the Roman catacombs that has appeared in any country, and he has also produced an interesting record of a European tour. We may indeed be said to have made a fair beginning in almost every branch of literature, and if we have no special reason to congratulate ourselves, we have certainly nothing to be ashamed of when we look back upon our achievements of the present and past generations. What the recently-established Royal Society may do for us remains to be seen; but if our immediate past is to be taken as an index of our immediate future, we may safely count upon a productive literary period during the next two decades of our existence.

The magazine literature of Canada has naturally had a good deal of influence in moulding our literary thought. The Anglo- American Magazine, established in Toronto about thirty years ago by Thomas Maclear, was a creditable attempt to furnish Canadian readers with the best contents of the current English periodicals, together with a considerable proportion of original matter by local writers. To its pages the Rev. R. J, MacGeorge contributed his “Chronicles of Dreepdaily,” and the major part of the monthly m’lange entitled “The Editor’s Shanty.” The venture lived for several years, but was in advance of the times, and finally died from want of support. The British American Magazine, founded in Toronto a few years later under the auspices of Messrs. Rollo & Adam, rau à similar course. A periodical far in advance of either of

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