[BRYCE] A RARE FIND IN THE CANADIAN ARCHIVES 23 
he holds up to condemnation. In proof of this he points to the fact that 
he has introduced two noble French characters, Frontenac and Mira- 
mont into the drama, and to this may be added that it is a French 
governor that Dennis chooses as worthy to be king and rule over 
independent Canada. 
There are three leading principles akin to each other advocated 
in the drama. The first of these is indicated in the title “ Liberty As- 
serted”’—the right of every people to have a voice in its own govern- 
ment and to refuse to be subject to arbitrary sway. 
The second is purity of administration—putting public weal 
- before private interest. The third is liberty in the concrete—an in- 
dependent Canada, free from the evils of war, stirred up by European 
nations, chiefly the English and French, continually laying claim to 
her fair heritage. 
GENERAL ESTIMATE. 
That this drama at first so well received did not find a place among 
English classics and can now only be found among the treasures of our 
archives may be due to various causes. Dennis, by his severity as a 
critic, made many enemies among the literary men of his day and we 
doubt not that any work of his thus set before the public gaze would 
suffer from the rancour of the former victims of his pen. The defects 
of the drama itself, already mentioned, must also be taken into account, 
although its production, undertaken as it was by so many brilliant 
actors and actresses, showed that it furnished scope for histrionic talent. 
The English sentiment to which Dennis appealed, was in some 
degree ephemeral. The people were still rejoicing over their deliver- 
ance from the arbitrary rule of the Stuart dynasty, an event kept in 
mind by the constant efforts of the Stuarts, under the ægis of France, 
to regain the English throne. 
The constitutional monarchy secured to them on the accession of 
William and Mary was still matter for congratulation and the English 
could hardly fail to contrast their own government with that of the 
monarch that coined the phrase, “L'état c’est moi,” or to sympathize 
with the spirit of discord then arising in France which later proved so 
fatal to the House of Bourbon. 
The English were inclined to peace and the military aggressions of 
Louis XIV on the continent of Europe kept them constantly in the 
turmoil of war, whilst the struggles between the French and English 
for supremacy on the North American continent fostered a spirit of 
national rivalry. All these sentiments were woven into the fibre of 
the drama with considerable aptitude and would naturally make it 
