CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED.. 26T 



me) lias shown that little men are not to be insulted with impunity. 

 On the breaking out of the troubles in England, the pigmy knight 

 was made a captain in the Royal Army, and in 1644 attended the 

 Queen to France, where he received a provocation from Mr. Crofts, 

 a young man of family, which he took so deeply to heart that a 

 challenge ensiied. Mr. Crofts appeared on the ground armed with a 

 syringe. This ludicrous weapon roused the indignation of the mag- 

 nanimous little hero to the highest pitch. A real duel ensued, in 

 which the antagonists were mounted on horseback, and Sir Jefferey, 

 with the first fire of his pistol, killed Mr. Crofts on the spot. I 

 cannot refrain from lingering on the history of the gallant Hudson. 

 Sir Walter Scott, in his novel of ' Peveril of the Peak,' has immor- 

 talized the chivalrous little knight, and I humbly wish to lend my 

 feeble aid in making known to the Canadian public the deeds of 

 departed littleness." 



These remarkable papers were from the pen of Mr. John Kent, 

 chief secretary for a time to Sir George Arthur, one of the Lieut. - 

 Grovei-nors of Upper Canada, and afterwards private tutor and confi- 

 dential secretary to the present Earl of Carnarvon. The influence 

 of Mr. Kent's character and writings on the minds of many of his 

 contemporaries during his sojourn in Canada was very marked. 



Between 1848-58, our Canadian Streetsville acquired great dis- 

 tinction and eclat as being the scene of the publication of the Streets- 

 ville Review, a periodical which managed to gain for itself a reputa- 

 tion altogether beyond the average for originality and spirit. Its 

 editor occasionally spoke of himself as Solomon in the columns of 

 this journal, and under this sobriquet, innumerable oracular utter- 

 ances of the Review were quoted and circulated in most of the news- 

 papers of Canada. Dry Scotticisms and quaintly-formed words and 

 expressions gave a kind of pungency to Solomon's observations on 

 current events. The- following will serve as specimens : 



From the Weekly Review of June 17th, 1854. "Lyrical Lunacy. 

 Solomon has ever regarded it as a leading feature of his mission to 

 check, by judicious application of the taws, that itch for engendering 

 idiotical rhymes which so calamitously characterizes this cranky age. 

 The latest escapade of this description, calling for stripes, appears in 

 the Commercial Advertiser of Montreal on Tuesday," &c. He then 

 transcribes and remarks on the doggerel referred to. Again : 

 "Solomon in his slippers. It is a common sujoerstition among the 



