[boueinot] CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 23 



In French Canada there is an essentially literary activity, which has 

 produced poets and historians whose works have naturally attracted 

 attention in France, where the people are still deeply interested in the 

 material and intellectual development of their old colony. The names of 

 Garneau, Ferland, Frechette and Casgrain, especially, are recognized in 

 France, though they will be unfamiliar to most Englishmen, and even to 

 the majority of Americans, who are yet quite ignorant of the high attain- 

 ments of French Canadians, of whom Lord Durham wrote, in 1839, 

 " They are a people without a history, and without a literature," a state- 

 ment well disproved in these later times by the works of Parkman, and 

 the triumphs of French Canadians in Paris itself. The intellectual work 

 of the English-speaking peoj)le has been chiefly in the direction of scien- 

 tific, constitutional and historical literatui*e, in which departments they 

 have shown an amount of knowledge and research which has won for 

 many of them laurels outside of their own country. In the infancy of 

 the United States, works like " The Federalist," with its wealth of con- 

 stitutional and historical lore, naturally emanated from the brains of 

 publicists and statesmen. In laying the foundation of a great nation the 

 learning and wisdom of the best intellects were evoked, and it has been 

 so in a measure in Canada, where the working out of a system of govern- 

 ment adapted to the necessities of countries with distinct interests and 

 nationalities has developed a class of statesmen and writers with broad 

 national views and a large breadth of knowledge. On all occasions when 

 men have arisen beyond the passion and narrowness of party, the debates 

 of the legislature have been distinguished by a keenness of argument and 

 by a grace of oratory — especially in the case of some French Canadians 

 like Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the present premier, and Sir Adolphe Chapleau,. 

 lieutenant-governor of Quebec — which would be creditable to the 

 United States in its palmy days. Any one who reviews the fourteen 

 volumes already pubUshed by the Royal Society of Canada — one of the 

 most useful results of Lord Lome's administration — will see how much 

 scholarship and ability the writers of Canada bring to the study of 

 scientific, antiquarian, and historical subjects. In science, the names of 

 Sir William Dawson, of his equally gifted son. Dr. G. M. Dawson, as well 

 as of many others ai-e well known in the parent state and wherever 

 science has its votaries. In poetiy we have the names of Frederick G. 

 Scott, Pauline Johnson, Eoberts, Bliss Carman, Archbishop O'Brien, 

 Speaker Edgar, Ethelwyn Wetherald, Lampman and Wilfred Campbell, 

 who merit a high place among their famous contemporaries. The his- 

 torical novels of Major Eichardson, William Kirby, Gilbert Parker, — 

 notably " The Seats of the Mighty " and other works of the latter,— show 

 the rich materials our past annals offer for romance. " Sam Slick the 

 Clockmaker " and other books by Judge Haliburton, a Nova Scotian by 

 birth and education, are still the only noteworthy evidences Ave have of 



