— 167 — 



The patriot's muse, though neither unknown, nor 

 unseen in former times, in 1830, stands out in bold 

 relief. If not always irresistable, her veiled or open 

 glance occasionally captivates you; her sad, prophetic 

 notes semi-historical, semi-poetical, are doubly interest- 

 ing under the latter aspect. Strange though it may seem, 

 some of our profound lawgivers, Sir George Et. Cartier, 

 as well as some of our most stirring actors in the stormy 

 era of 1837, to wit : the Honorable A. N". Morin, (who, 

 it is said drafted, in 1834, the 92 Eesolutions) and the 

 Honorable Denis Benjamin Viger, with his long, though 

 in the end, faulty record of political services, figure, in 

 the hey-day of their youth, as votaries to Phcebus- 

 Apollo. 



Numerous effusions of a political or patriotic cast 

 appeared anonymously from 1830 to 1837. It was not 

 always safe to speak out during the closing period 

 when Louis Joseph Papineau was uttering his fierce 

 denunciations from the floor of our Commons. A 

 Montreal poet of that period, J. G. Barthe, found it so 

 to his cost and discomfort in a oaf cere duro. The fact 

 is that the Waterloo hero, Sir John Colborue, had a 

 very qualified admiration for Canadian grievances ; he 

 had not had time to study them ? and his active 

 Attorney-General, Charles Kichard Ogden, did not 

 believe in them. 



Out of about twenty-one or twenty-two poetical 

 writings of Mr. Garneau, nineteen appear in the Reper- 

 toire National, with his signature. In more than one, 

 you are reminded of Beranger, whom he had seen in 

 Paris, and whom he much admired. As an instance 

 among many others, may be cited VEtr anger (1833). 

 Some of his poetical essays are tolerably lengthy ; la 

 Pologne (1835): au Canada (1837); la Revue du 

 Soldat (1838) in which he indulges in a cursory review 

 of the leading events in French History ; la Presse 

 (1839), a New Year's Address ; Louise, a Canadian 

 legend, (1840) and les Exile's (1841). 



