Secriox II., 1895. FOI Trans. R. 8. C. 
V.—A Plan for a General History of the Province’of New Brunswick. 
[Contributions to the History of New Brunswick, No. 1]. 
sen | 
By WiLLiAM F. GANONG. 
— 
(Presented by Dr. George Stewart, F.R.G.S.) 
INTRODUCTION. 
For several years it has been my intention to write a general history 
of the province of New Brunswick. To this end I have worked assidu- 
ously in studying original records, in collecting materials and in analys- 
ing and correlating causes and effects in the evolution of local events. I 
was led to my intention by several considerations; first, the want of a 
work of any kind upon the subject ; second, everything which concerns 
New Brunswick interests me ; third, I wished to make to this, my native 
province, some return for the personal service which I owe to her, but 
which I have had to withhold. But lately I have wavered somewhat, 
and this, not because of loss of interest, nor through pressure of other 
occupations, nor yet through fear of the proportions of a task colossal 
enough to appal one who can give to it only a scanty leisure, but because 
I have come to distrust my own powers of accomplishment in this field. 
Every man tends to write that kind of book which he likes best to read. 
A history of mine would be coldly scientific, precise, classified, complete ; 
but it would lack the life and form and colour which should distinguish 
a history for the people. It is only when he writes for brother students 
that the modern historian may argue, anatomize and be statistical ; 
when he addresses a general audience he should be first of all an impres- 
sionist. I have discovered that in history my tastes are rather those of a 
pre-Raphaelite, and therefore I relinquish my twelve-year growing desire 
to try to write a history worthy of my native province. 
In the course of my studies I have gathered not a little new and 
valuable material. To preserve this, [ propose to offer it to this society 
in a series of papers now in preparation. In preface to these, I beg to 
submit herewith a sketch of the plan I had finally fixed upon for the 
history. Developed naturally in the study of the subject, the plan has a 
value, in that it represents an adaptation to the conditions of the case, 
and therefore shows very nearly the treatment which must be adopted 
by any good history of the province. 
