262 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 



are appended, and naming their authors where possible or proper tO' 

 do so. I do not pretend to give a list of the innumerable Agricolas,. 

 Justitias, Catos, Pro-bono-publicos, &c., that from time to time have 

 abounded in our Canadian papers and periodicals, as in all papers and 

 periodicals, each treating, fitly doubtless, and reasonably, of a topic 

 of the moment just once, and then emerging to the view no more, 

 and so passing into complete oblivion. This would be an endless 

 task, and to identify the respective writers woiild be a matter per- 

 haps of not much moment. But there have appeared from time to 

 time amongst us, under fictitious signatures, during our short history, 

 especially in what seems to us now a rather remote past, writings 

 which deserved and have acquired more than an ephemeral repute, 

 and which have exerted over our mixed yet plastic Canadian society, 

 an influence that may be said, in some sense, to continue to the 

 present time. It is the authors of such productions as these that I 

 am to trace and put on record, as contributors in some sort to our 

 nascent Canadian literature, and perhaps to the formation of our 

 Canadian national character. 



On subjects then that may be roughly classed as follows, I find 

 writings of the kind described : 



1. Our Politics : our politics while Canada was yet known as the 

 two Canadas, Upper and Lower ; and our politics just after the 

 re-union of the two provinces into one. 2. The pi-omotion of emigra- 

 tion. 3. The question of education. 4. Miscellaneous subjects; as,, 

 for example, the fostering of patriotism towards Canada, and love and 

 reverence for the mother country, the cultivation of literature and 

 taste in general. And these writings divid.e themselves into prose 

 and verse. 



On the prose side we have, in relation to the politics of the first- 

 named period, the writings of Yeritas and Nerva. In relation to the 

 second, those of Patrick Swift and Legion. On the subject of emi- 

 gration we have the Backvfoodsman, the Pioneer of the Wilderness. 

 On the educational question there are Graduate, Scotus, British - 

 Canadian. Under the general head of the inculcation of taste in art 

 and literature, the promotion of patriotism, loyalty, attachment to 

 the mother country, we have Guy Pollock, Alan Fairford, Solomon 

 of Streetsville, Maple Knot, Maple Leaf, The Whistler at the Plough, 

 and Libertas. 



On. the poetical side, touching of course lightly and gracefully on. 



