[gourinor] ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE PROVINCES 45 
refused to have anything to do with what he called “a Godless Univer- 
sity,” and founded Trinity College which still remains to attest his zeal 
for the church to which he devoted his life. 
We need not linger long on the literary culture of those early times. 
Joseph Bouchette, a surveyor-general, had published in the first part of 
the century his noble contribution to the topography and cartography 
of Lower Canada. Major Richardson, a native of Amherstburg in 
Upper Canada, who had served in the war of 1812 and in the Spanish 
Peninsula, wrote in 1838 “ Wacousta or the Prophecy,’ a spirited 
romance of Indian life and the defence of Detroit by Major Gladwin 
against the Ottawas and other tribes led by Pontiac. In Nova Scotia 
the “ Sayings and Doings of Sam Slick of Slickville *—truly a remark- 
able original creation in humorous literature—first appeared in a Hali- 
fax paper, edited by Joseph Howe, poet and statesman, and was given 
to the British public in 1837 by Richard Bentley, the well-known pub- 
lisher. Judge Haliburton also published as early as 1829 an excellent 
work in two volumes on the history and topography of his native pro- 
vince. Libraries and bookstores could be seen only in Montreal, Hali- 
fax, Quebec, and Toronto. The best library was that belonging to the 
legislature of Quebec, and the ancient seminary, afterwards merged in 
Laval University, had a fine collection of old French books and manu- 
scripts, whose value was not recognized in days when Lord Durham 
could write that the French Canadians were a people “ without a his- 
tory and without a literature” In 1824, Lord Dalhousie gave some 
stimulus to historic and literary studies by the establishment of the Que- 
bee Literary and Historical Society, which through the liberal aid given 
it from time to time by the legislature, was able for years to print rare 
and valuable documents, relating to the interesting history of the pro- 
vince, and did much to lessen the labours of Garneau, Ferland, Parkman 
and others who have shown signally the fallacy of one part of Lord 
Durham’s statements. 
In the early times of the provinces when books and magazines were 
rarities, the newspaper press naturally exercised much influence on the 
social and intellectual conditions of the people at large. The first 
paper printed in British North America was the “ Halifax Gazette,” 
which appeared in 1752, or twelve years before the “ Quebec Gazette.” 
The “ Montreal Gazette,” now the oldest paper in Canada, appeared as 
far back as 1787, and was first printed by one Mesplet in the French 
language. The first paper that appeared in Upper Canada was “ The 
Upper Canada Gazette or the American Oracle,” published by 
Louis Roy at Newark, in 1793; and it was eventually followed 
