532 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY. 



table, a sense of aft'ection, like a friend seen in the midst of a promiscuous crowd ? The 

 English Reviews too, as circulated among us from the United States, are conveniently recog- 

 tiized by their respective colours, although the English form of each lias been, for cheapness 

 sake, departed from. The Montreal Gazette likewise survives, preserving its ancient look In 

 many respects, and its high character for dignity of style and ability. 



In glancing back at the supply of intelligence and literature provided at an early day for the 

 Canadian community it repeatedly occurs to us to name, as we have done, the Albion news- 

 isaper of New York. From this journal it was that almost every one in our Upper Canadian 

 York who had the leat,t tendency to read, derived a considerable portion of his or her acquaint- 

 ance with the literature of the outside civilised world, as well as with the leading details of its 

 prominent political events. As its name implies, the Albion was intended to meet the require- 

 ments of a large number of persons of English birth and of English descent, whose lot is cast 

 on this continent, but who nevertheless cannot discharge from the core of their hearts their 

 natural love for England, their natural pride in her unequalled civilization. " Ccelum now 

 animiim mutant qai trans m%re currunt," was its gracefully-chosen and appropriate motto. 

 Half a century ago, the boon of a judicious literary journal like the Albion was to dwellers in 

 Canada a very precious one. The Quarterlies were not then reprinted as now ; nor were 

 periodicals like the Philadelpliia Eclectic or the Boston Living Age readily procurable. Without 

 the weekly visit of the Albion, months upon months would have passed without any adequate 

 knowledge being enjoyed of the current products of the literary world. For the sake of its extracted 

 reviews, tales and poetry the New York Albion was in some cases, as we well remember, loaned 

 about to friends and read like a mucli sought after book in a modern circulating library. And 

 happily its contents were always sterling and worth the perusal. It was a part of our own 

 boyish experience to become acquainted for the lirst time with a portion of Keble's Christian 

 Year, in the columns of that paper. The Albion was founded in 1822 by Dr. John Charlton 

 Fisher, who afterwards became a distinguished Editor at Quebec. To him Dr. Bartlett succeeded. 

 The New York Albion still flourishes under Mr. Cornwallis, retaining its high character for the 

 superior excellence of its matter, retaining also many traits of its ancient outward aspect, in 

 the style of its type, in the distribution of its matter. It has also retained its old motto. Its 

 familiar vignette healing of oak branches round the English rose, the thistle of Scotland, and 

 the shamrock, has been thinned out, and otherwise slightly modifled ; but it remains a fine 

 artistic composition, well executed. 



There was another journal from New York much esteemed at York for the real respectability 

 of its character, the New York Spectator. It was read for the sake of its commercial and general 

 information, rather than for its literary news. To the minds of the young tlie Greek revolution 

 had a singular fascination. We remember once entertaining the audacious idea of constructing 

 a history of the struggle m Greece, of which the authorities would, in great measure, have been 

 copious cuttings from the New York Spectator columns. One advantage of the embiyo design 

 certainly was a familiarity acquired with the map of Hellas within and without the Peloponne- 

 sus, Navarino, Modon, Coron, Tripolitza, Mistra, Missolonghi, with the incidents that had 

 made each temporarily famous, were rendered as familiar to the mind's eye as Sparta 

 Athens, Thebes, Thermopylse, and the events connected with each respectively, of an era two 

 thousand years previously, afterwards from other circumstances, became. Colocotroni, Mavro- 

 cordato, Miaulis, were heroes to the imagination as fully as Miltiades, Pericles, Nicias, after- 

 wards became. 



Partly in consequence ot the eagerness with which the columns of the New York Spectator 

 used to be ransacked with a view to the composition of the proposed great historical work, we 

 remember the peculiar interest with which we regarded the editor of that periodical at a later 

 period, on falling in with him, casually, at the Falls of Niagara. Mr. Hall was then well 

 advanced in years ; and from a very brief interview, the impression received was, that he was 

 the beau ideal of a veteran editor of the highest type ; for a man, almost omniscient ; unslum- 

 heringly observant ; sympathetic, in some way, with every occurrence and every remark ; tena- 

 cious of the past ; grasping the present on all sides, with readiness, genial interest and complete- 

 ness. In aspect, and even to some extent in costume, Mr. Hall might have been taken for an 

 English bishop of the generation just passing away. 



