XLVI THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
more intimate and more cordial than they ever have been. The 
interchange of thought between the two peoples will be more constant 
and more influential. Reciprocal travel and reciprocal trade will 
increase. The study of French should be extended in our English- 
speaking schools. In all our public libraries there should be shelves 
filled with the classic and best current literature of France. French 
journals and reviews should be found in our reading rooms. I venture 
to make the claim that from whatever viewpoint we regard the ques- 
tion, literary, scientific, linguistic, national, selfish, altruistic, imperial, 
provincial, parochial, material, spiritual, intellectual,—increased 
cultivation of the French language and French literature will add much 
to Canada’s assets. ; 
THE PRESS 
It may be of interest to know that there are 1,445 newspapers 
and periodicals of various kinds published in Canada. I have made 
no attempt to ascertain the aggregate circulation or alleged circulation, 
but it is pretty certain that of the million and a half of households in 
Canada there are few into which a daily or weekly newspaper does 
not go. The daily newspapers of course are published in the cities; 
the weekly and semi-weekly in the towns, or, if published in the 
cities, are religious or trade journals, or are the representatives of 
special interests. The monthly issues are magazines or the represent- 
atives again of special interests. As to the quality of our newspaper 
literature I can safely say we get all we pay for. It is a truly extra- 
ordinary fact that every morning I can have laid before me, for the 
trifling sum of $4.00 a year, the news of the world, to say nothing 
of energetically enforced suggestions as to how my political views 
should shape themselves. The criticism usually passed on our 
Canadian newspapers is that the limited staff employed, even on 
the best of them, is expected to write on too great a variety of subjects, 
and that the writing in consequence lacks that quality which can be 
supplied only by a specialized and intimate knowledge of the subject 
dealt with, a quality which we do find in the best London and New 
York dailies. In fact they are in the same position in which our 
Canadian universities were some years ago, when there was one pro- 
fessor with an assistant for the vast subject of modern languages, 
or classics, or mathematics, and when notwithstanding such professor 
with his assistant was struggling to maintain the institution’s curri- 
culum at a high level. | 
Two Canadian magazines are conspicuous by reason of their 
merit,—‘‘The University Magazine’ and ‘“‘La Revue Canadienne.” 
The inundation of the country with the short-story magazine is in a 
