OF EAELY CANADIAN HTSTOEY. 43 



Approachiug our own time, we have François Xavier Grarneau's " Histoire du 

 Canada," the accepted French Canadian authority. He began writing his work in 1840, 

 and published the first volume in Quebec, in 1845, the second in 1846, and the third, treat- 

 ing of events down to 1792, in 1848. A new edition, revised and corrected, and brought 

 down to 1840, appeared at Montreal from John Lovell's press, in 1852, and a third 

 edition at Quebec in 1859. In 1882, the fourth edition, edited by his son, Alfred Garneau, 

 the author of "Les Seigneurs de Frontenac," appeared at Montreal. This edition is 

 enriched by a biography of the historian by the Hon. P. 'J. O. Chauveau, and a poem by 

 Louis Honore Frechette. The English reader is cautioned against Bell's so-called trans- 

 lation of Grarneau's History, which contains many unwarrantable liberties with the text. 



The ecclesiastical history of Canada is particulary illustrated by Abbé J. B. A. 

 Ferland in his " Cours d'Histoire du Canada, 1534-1*759," (Quebec, 1861 and 1865, two 

 A'olumes). The author died while the second volume was passing through the press, 

 and the completion of the publication devolved on Abbé Laverdière, one of the ripest 

 scholars in the Canadian priesthood. Ferland had access to many documents of great 

 interest, and his work shows judgment and a skilful handling of the rich store of 

 materials within his reach. 



The "Histoire de la Colonie Française en Canada," with maps, by Abbé Faillon, a 

 Sulpitian priest of very great ability, was projected on an extensive plan. The author 

 visited Canada on three separate occasions, spending several years in the country, and 

 making the most of his opportunities in gathering his material, not only there, but from the 

 archives of the Propaganda at Rome, and from the public offices in Paris. His work is 

 of great and paramount vakie, but it must be read with a full perception of the author's 

 intention to rear a monument to commemorate the labours and trials of the Sulpitians of 

 Montreal. Three volumes only appeared, the first two in 1865, and the third in 1866. 

 The death of M. Faillon at Paris, in 18*71, prevented further publication, but he has left 

 in manuscript enough prepared material to complete the work as far as the conquest of 

 1*759-60. The book was published anonymously, according to the custom of the Congre- 

 gation of St. Sulpice. 



Two volumes of Francis Parkman's series of " France and England in North America" 

 deal intimately with the period covered by the administrations of Frontenac, de La Barre 

 and de Deuouville. These are his " Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV," 

 (Boston, 18*7*7,) and his "La Salle, and the Discovery of the Great "West" (Boston, 1879). 

 The chief questioner of Parkman's views has been Abbé Casgrain, whose position is 

 best understood from his " Une Paroisse Canadienne au XVII Siècle," Quebec, 1880. Of 

 Mr. Parkman as an historian, there has been a wide recognition of a learning, that has 

 neglected no resource ; a research, which has proved fortunate in its results ; a judgment, 

 which, though Protestant, is fair and liberal ; a critical perception, which in the conflict 

 of testimony keeps him accurate and luminous ; and a style, which has given his narra- 

 tive the fascinations of a romance. 



John Dennis wrote a tragedy, "Liberty Asserted," which was acted in London in 

 1704, in which Frontenac was made a character, together with an English governor and an 

 Iroquois chief Betterton acted in it. A romantic picture of the period is furnished in an 

 amusing novel by M. Joseph Marmette, entitled " Francois de Bienville," in which Fron- 

 tenac figures as one of the principal characters. Fronteuac's expeditions against the 



