ANNALS OF AN OLD SOCIETY. . S9 



birth of a new literary régime was in the air. Poets were beginning to sing of Canadian 

 scenes, and lecturers were venturing on Canadian subjects. In the preceding year, a maga- 

 zine had been started in Montreal, whose pages bear witness to this fact, and it was 

 followed by a rival in 18:24. In the same year a novel was issued from the Kingston press, 

 illustrative of Canadian manners and customs, and the columns of the newspapers were 

 beginning to touch on kindred topics in prose and verse. Previously, the intellectual acti- 

 vit}' of the country had sought its fame in political aggrandisement, but now even the 

 politicians began to see that the writing of history was as honourable as the making of 

 history, and sought to favour the historian in his efibrts to place upon record all that was 

 known or could be learned of his country. Nor in view of sul)sec|uent events, can we think 

 slightingly of the exalted tone of the citizens of Quebec,wheu they say that it is fair to expect, 

 irom the formation of such a literary association as theirs, " the creation of a lasting bond 

 of union and correspondence between men eminent for rank, erudition, and genius, from 

 one extremity of the British provinces to the other." At first thought, there may appear 

 in such a statement a little inflation of language, yet it is a well-known fact that during 

 the first decade of their Society's existence, there was to be witnessed throughout the whole 

 country a literary activity which not only gave birth to many societies of a kindred char- 

 acter, but which nurtured the rising fame of the poets, historians, and essayists, whose 

 names are to-day proudly recorded on the pages of the history of Canadian literature. If 

 the Quebec Society has not as yet realized its early ambition to the full, it can at least claim 

 to have been one of the earliest exponents of the literary spirit in the country. If its sym- 

 pathies to a large extent have been local, its labours have been none the less cosmopoli- 

 tan ; while it has enjoyed the co-operation directly or indirectly of nearly all those socie- 

 ties which have taken an interest in the preservation of Canadian historical records. The 

 documents in its possession and the memoirs it has published from time to time have been 

 of the greatest service to the writers who have discussed Canadian themes ; and in this, if 

 in no other way, it has had something to do with the building-up of whatever of a 

 national spirit there is in Canada. As a local institution, it has done much to foster the 

 literary spirit among the citizens of Quebec, by providing them with an excellent library 

 and museum, as well as by arranging conferences during the winter months for the dis- 

 cussion of literary and scientific subjects ; yet its higher fame may fairly seek to blend 

 itself with the events attending the birth of Canadian literature, at a time when men 

 began to look upon Canada as being something more than a mere makeshift in their lives, 

 when the spirit of a higher intelligence began to make itself felt amid political bickerings 

 and a mere striving after a i^hysical existence. 



It was not until the mouth of November, 1829, that the first copy of the Transactions 

 of the Society was issued in the form of a goodly volume of two hundred and sixty pages, 

 bearing the imprint of Francois Le Maitre of the Star office. At first, the meetings of the 

 association continued to be held in the Chateau St. Loiris, and the above volume, in men- 

 tioning this fact, contains a certificate from "William Green, the Secretary, to the eifect that 

 " an assembly took place on Monday, the 31st of May, 1824, when an inaugural address 

 and essay on the early civil, ecclesiastical, and jixridical history of France was read by the 

 Hon. Jonathan Sewell, Chief-Justice of Lower Canada." It is unfortunate that the full 

 record of the meetings of the Society in its earlier days is lost to us, — the minutes having in 

 all probability been burned in the fires which, on two different occasions, were attended 



