272 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



system and opened the door to several communications concerning the 

 questions of the day. That coincided with the creation of The Tlj^i^er 

 Canada Gazette, pubHshed at Newark in 1790. 



Contrary to what is generally believed, books were not unknown to 

 the French population of the colony during the second half of the 18th 

 century. It is stated that there were at least 60,000 volumes in the private 

 libraries about the year 1765, and many others were received after that 

 date ; so that we may fairly say that there was one volume for every soul 

 of the population in the province. Any one conversant with the habits 

 of the best families of the period in question understand i-eadily that 

 those people were educated not only in manners and outside politeness, 

 but equally by reading and by that practice of conversation and " causerie 

 de salon " which is so much French — a great school for learning what 

 you have not yet gathered from books. The literature of the reigns of 

 Louis XIV. and Louis XV. (1660 to 1760), therefore, composed the main 

 elements of a Canadian library by the end of the 18th century. Its influ. 

 ence is visible on every page written in those days, either for the public 

 press or in private letters. "We know, besides, nearly all the books then to 

 be found in Canada, because a great many of them have been preserved 

 by the descendants of the owners and handed down to us. 



At the outbreak of the French Eevolution a movement was noticeable 

 amongst the politicians in France to favour " the English system of gov- 

 ernment," in other words, the constitutional administration, but this could 

 not be made clear for the masses, unless some written explanations be 

 furnished. A lawyer by the name of De Lolme (a French Swiss) seems 

 to have sounded the correct note, and his work became classical at its first 

 edition. No sooner had a copy of it been received in Canada, that the 

 members of the Legislative Assembly, who were forty-two French speak- 

 ing men out of a total of fifty, turned their attention to that Alcoran, 

 but as the session was drawing near jto its end, [it was thought better 

 to arrange for a series of meetings in Quebec, Three Eiven^, Sorel, 

 Chambly and Montreal, where the members could gather by small de- 

 tachments and examine the " book of revelations " at ease. This was 

 done and it produced a good effect, inasmuch as it allowed some practical 

 information to make its way through the heads of our representative 



men. 



The spirit of the times is indicate by the insertion in the Quebec 

 Gazette of several articles clipped from Parisian newspapers, and all 

 necessarily of a "high tone" at that hour, when the Convention reigned 

 supreme at Paris. We dare sa}' no French Canadian publication would 

 have been allowed to do the same thing. Such was again the spirit of the 

 times. A French Canadian could not be otherwise than a bad subject ! 



The Duke of La Eochefoucauld, Avho visited Upper Canada in 1795, 

 says that the people there were not so eager for news as the inhabitants 



