STYLE OF TRAVEL OF THE HIGH OFFICIALS AT 

 QUEBEC UNDER THE FRENCH REGIME. 



The industry and patient research displayed by our 

 French annalists, Garneau, Bibaud, Ferland, Faillon, 

 has unquestionably left but little unsaid or unnoticed, 

 on the old regime of Canada; albeit the manner of 

 presenting facts may widely differ ; whilst the glamour 

 and rainbow tints, with which the historian Frs. Park- 

 man has invested this remote period, seems to have 

 rendered it instinct with life. 



More than one circumstance of recent occurrence are, 

 of a nature to encourage the modern delver in the rich 

 mine of colonial history to delve still deeper. In 1872, 

 a Public Eecord Office was opened, an annex, as it 

 were, of the Department of Agriculture ; the best man 

 in the whole Dominion of Canada, probably, Douglas 

 Brymner, was selected as its head ■ specialists, such as 

 the Abbes Verreau and Tanguay, B. Suite, Jos. Mar^ 

 mette were asked to co-operate ; we all know their 

 cordial and effective response. 



It is now apparent to careful observers that the 

 lacuna, hitherto sorely felt with respect to reliable 

 records for describing a later period, the English regime 

 is being rapidly filled in. In more than one promising- 

 essay, is apparent the beneficient influence of the new 

 light, of wider horisons opened out ; there are many 

 satisfactory indications ; probably, no where more visible 

 than in two late histories of Canada, Mr. B. Suite's 

 and the more recent work ofWm. Kingsford, F. E. S. C. 

 Another healthy incident, worthy of notice, is the 

 awakening of each province, since Confederation, to the 



