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THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CANADIAN PEOPLE
AN HISTORICAL REVIEW
BY JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT
PREFATORY NOTE.
This series of papers has been prepared in accordance with a plan marked
out by the writer, some years ago of taking up, from time to time,
certain features of the social, political and industrial progress of the
Dominion. Essays on the Maritime Industry and the National Development
of Canada have been read before the Royal Colonial Institute in England,
and have been so favourably received by the Press of both countries,
that the writer has felt encouraged to continue in the same course of
study, and supplement his previous efforts by an historical review of
the intellectual progress of the Canadian people.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, OTTAWA, February 17th, 1881.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
EFFECT OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES ON MENTAL DEVELOPMENT.
Introductory Remarks--Conditions of Settlement in Canada--Her History
divided into three Periods--First Period, under the French Regime;
Second, from the Conquest to the Union of 1840; Third, from 1840 to
1867--New Period since Confederation--Intellectual Lethargy in New
France--Influence of U. K. Loyalists on Political and Social Life of the
Canadian Provinces--Formation of two Governments in the East and
West--Effect of Parliamentary Institutions on the Public Intelligence
--Remarkable impulse given to Canadian Communities by the Union of
1840--Difficulties of the Old Settlers--Results of the improvement of
Internal Intercourse, the growth of Education and Political
Progress--Population in 1760, 1840 and 1870--Rapid increase of the
Professional and Educated Classes--Wider Field of Thought and Activity
opened to Canadians by Confederation--Effect of Climatic Influences on
National Development--Distinctive traits of French Canadians--Influence
of Union of Races--Usefulness of Religious Teachers in early
times--Labours of the Journalist--Influence of Political Discussion--
Development of Public Intelligence through the extension of Political
Rights.
CHAPTER II.
EDUCATION.
State of Education under the French Regime--Its slow progress after the
Conquest--Schools in Upper Canada--Dr. Strachan's famous Academy
--Stimulus given to Public Schools by the Union of 1840--Schools in the
Maritime Provinces--Higher Education in Canada--The Quebec
Seminary--King's College--Roman Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian
Institutions--First Colleges in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick--Laval
University--Kingston Military College and other Educational
Experiments--Female Colleges--Statistics of Educational Progress--
Status of Teachers--Defects of the Public School System--Review of the
University System--Advantages of Special Professional Courses as in
Germany--A National University.
CHAPTER III.
JOURNALISM.
Influence of the Newspaper Press on the Intellect of the Country--First
Newspapers in Canada--Review of Political Journalism up to 1840--Quebec
_Gazette_, Montreal _Gazette_, Quebec _Mercury_, _Le Canadien_,
etc.--Journalists of mark in old times--Gary, Bedard, Neilson,
Mackenzie, Horne, Fothergill, Gurnett, Dalton, Parent--Mrs. Jameson on
the Upper Canada Press--Advent of Joseph Howe--Journalism since
1840--Sir Francis Hincks--The _Globe_ and Hon. George Brown--_Le Journal
de Quebec_ and Hon. Joseph Cauchon--The _New Era_ and Hon. D'Arcy
McGee--The Hamilton _Spectator_, Toronto _Leader_ and other Journals of
note established--Oldest Newspapers in Canada--Number of Papers, and
their probable total Circulation--Influential Journals since
1867--Leading Journalists--The Religious Press--Illustrated
Papers--Influence of the Press in Canada--Its Improvement in tone and
its great Enterprise--The Old and New Times, as illustrated in two
Toronto Papers.
CHAPTER IV.
NATIVE LITERATURE.
Society in New France--Intellectual lethargy--First Books published
after the Conquest--Bouchette's Works--New Era in French Canadian
Letters--Periodicals, Histories, Poems--Garneau, Ferland, Cremazie,
Frechette--Antiquarian Research--Canadian Ballads--Literary Progress of
English-speaking People--Society previous to the Union of 1840--Early
Libraries and Magazines--Authors of Repute--'Sam Slick'--Professor
Dawson--Charles Heavysege--Poetry--Romance--History--Miscellaneous
Works of Merit--Mr. Alpheus Todd's Constitutional Researches--
Contributions to Colonial Literature by Public Men--Talent in the
Legislature--Results of a Century of Progress summed up--Mental Activity
among the Intelligent and Educated Classes--Increasing Issue of Works and
Pamphlets from Canadian Press--Signs of General Culture--Public
Libraries--Literary and Scientific Societies--Mechanics' Institutes--School
Libraries--A Grand Opportunity for the Rich Men of Canada--Literary,
Artistic and Scientific Topics engaging greater Attention--Writers of
Intellectual Power on the Increase--Encouraging Signs of Intellectual
Development--Brighter Auguries for the Future.
CHAPTER I.
EFFECT OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES ON MENTAL DEVELOPMENT.
Should the title of this review come by any chance under the notice of
some of those learned gentlemen who are delving among Greek roots or
working out abstruse mathematical problems in the great academic seats
on the banks of the Cam or Isis, they would probably wonder what can be
said on the subject of the intellectual development of a people engaged
in the absorbing practical work of a Colonial dependency. To such
eminent scholars Canada is probably only remarkable as a country where
even yet there is, apparently, so little sound scholarship that
vacancies in classical and mathematical chairs have to be frequently
filled by gentlemen who have distinguished themselves in the
Universities of the parent state. Indeed, if we are to judge from
articles and books that appear from time to time in England with
reference to this country, Englishmen in general know very little of the
progress that has been made in culture since Canada has become the most
important dependency of Great Britain, by virtue of her material
progress within half a century. Even the Americans who live alongside of
us, and would be naturally supposed to be pretty well informed as to the
progress of the Dominion to their north, appear for the most part
ignorant of the facts of its development in this particular. It was but
the other day that a writer of some ability, in an organ of religious
opinion, referred to the French Canadians as a people speaking only
inferior French, and entirely wanting in intellectual vigour. Nor is
this fact surprising when we consider that there are even some Canadians
who do not appear to have that knowledge which they ought to have on
such a subject, and take many opportunities of concealing their
ignorance by depreciating the intellectual efforts of their countrymen.
If so much ignorance or indifference prevails with respect to the
progress of Canada in this respect, it must be admitted--however little
flattering the admission may be to our national pride--that it is, after
all, only the natural sequel of colonial obscurity. It is still a
current belief abroad--at least in Europe--that we are all so much
occupied with the care of our material interests, that we are so deeply
absorbed by the grosser conditions of existence in a new country, that
we have little opportunity or leisure to cultivate those things which
give refinement and tone to social life. Many persons lose sight of the
fact that Canada, young though she is compared with the countries of the
Old World, has passed beyond the state of mere colonial pupilage. One
very important section of her population has a history contemporaneous
with the history of the New England States, whose literature is read
wherever the English tongue is spoken. The British population have a
history which goes back over a century, and it is the record of an
industrious, enterprising people who have made great political and
social progress. Indeed it may be said that the political and material
progress that these two sections of the Canadian people have conjointly
made is of itself an evidence of their mental capacity. But whilst reams
are written on the industrial progress of the Dominion with the
praiseworthy object of bringing additional capital and people into the
country, only an incidental allusion is made now and then to the
illustrations of mental activity which are found in its schools, in its
press, and even in its literature. It is now the purpose of the present
writer to show that, in the essential elements of intellectual
development, Canada is making not a rapid but certainly at least a
steady and encouraging progress, which proves that her people have not
lost, in consequence of the decided disadvantages of their colonial
situation, any of the characteristics of the races to whom they owe
their origin. He will endeavour to treat the subject in the spirit of an
impartial critic, and confine himself as closely as possible to such
facts as illustrate the character of the progress, and give much
encouragement for the future of a country even now only a little beyond
the infancy of its material as well as intellectual development.
It is necessary to consider first the conditions under which the
Dominion has been peopled, before proceeding to follow the progress of
intellectual culture. So far, the history of Canada may be divided into
three memorable periods of political and social development. The first
period lasted during the years of French dominion; the second, from the
Conquest to the Union of 1840, during which the provinces were working
out representative institutions; the third, from 1840 to 1867, during
which interval the country enjoyed responsible government, and entered
on a career of material progress only exceeded by that of the great
nation on its borders. Since 1867, Canada has commenced a new period in
her political development, the full results of which are yet a problem,
but which the writer believes, in common with all hopeful Canadians,
will tend eventually to enlarge her political condition, and place her
in a higher position among communities. It is only necessary, however,
to refer particularly to the three first periods in this introductory
chapter, which is merely intended to show as concisely as possible those
successive changes in the social and political circumstances of the
provinces, which have necessarily had the effect of stimulating the
intellectual development of the people.
Religion and commerce, poverty and misfortune, loyalty and devotion to
the British Empire, have brought into the Dominion of Canada the people
who, within a comparatively short period of time, have won from the
wilderness a country whose present condition is the best evidence of
their industrial activity. Religion was a very potent influence in the
settlement of New France. It gave to the country--to the Indian as well
as to the Frenchman--the services of a zealous, devoted band of
missionaries who, with unfaltering courage, forced their way into the
then trackless West, and associated their names to all time with the
rivers, lakes, and forests of that vast region, which is now the most
productive granary of the world. In the wake of these priestly pioneers
followed the trader and adventurer to assist in solving the secrets of
unknown rivers and illimitable forests. From the hardy peasantry of
Normandy and Brittany came reinforcements to settle the lands on the
banks of the St Lawrence and its tributary rivers, and lay the
foundations of the present Province of Quebec. The life of the
population, that, in the course of time, filled up certain districts of
the province, was one of constant restlessness and uncertainty which
prevented them ever attaining a permanent prosperity. When the French
regime disappeared with the fall of Quebec and Montreal, it can hardly
be said there existed a Canadian people distinguished for material or
intellectual activity. At no time under the government of France had the
voice of the 'habitants' any influence in the councils of their country.
A bureaucracy, acting directly under the orders of the King of France,
managed public affairs; and the French Canadian of those times, very
unlike his rival in New England, was a mere automaton, without any
political significance whatever. The communities of people that were
settled on the St. Lawrence and in Acadia were sunk in an intellectual
lethargy--the natural consequence not only of their hard struggle for
existence, but equally of their inability to take a part in the
government of the country. It was impossible that a people who had no
inducement to study public affairs--who could not even hold a town or
parish meeting for the establishment of a public schools--should give
many signs of mental vigour. Consequently, at the time of the Conquest,
the people of the Canadian settlements seemed to have no aspirations for
the future, no interest in the prosperity or welfare of each other, no
real bonds of unity. The very flag which floated above them was an
ever-present evidence of their national humiliation.
So the first period of Canadian history went down amid the deepest
gloom, and many years passed away before the country saw the gleam of a
brighter day. On one side of the English Channel, the King of France
soon forgot his mortification at the loss of an unprofitable 'region of
frost and snow;' on the other side, the English Government looked with
indifference, now that the victory was won, on the acquisition of an
alien people who were likely to be a source of trouble and expense. Then
occurred the War of American Independence, which aroused the English
Ministry from their indifference and forced into the country many
thousands of resolute, intelligent men, who gave up everything in their
devotion to one absorbing principle of loyalty. The history of these men
is still to be written as respects their real influence on the political
and social life of the Canadian Provinces. A very superficial review,
however, of the characteristics of these pioneers will show that they
were men of strong opinions and great force of character--valuable
qualities in the formation of a new community. If, in their Toryism,
they and their descendants were slow to change their opinions and to
yield to the force of those progressive ideas necessary to the political
and mental development of a new country, yet, perhaps, these were not
dangerous characteristics at a time when republicanism had not a few
adherents among those who saw the greater progress and prosperity of the
people to the south of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. These men
were not ordinary immigrants, drawn from the ignorant, poverty-stricken
classes of an Old World; they were men of a time which had produced
Otis, Franklin, Adams, Hancock and Washington--men of remarkable energy
and intellectual power. Not a few of these men formed in the Canadian
colony little centres from which radiated more or less of intellectual
light to brighten the prevailing darkness of those rough times of
Canadian settlement. The exertions of these men, combined with the
industry of others brought into the country by the hope of making homes
and fortunes in the New World, opened up, in the course of years, the
fertile lands of the West. Then two provinces were formed in the East
and West, divided by the Ottawa River, and representative government was
conceded to each. The struggles of the majority to enlarge their
political liberties and break the trammels of a selfish bureaucracy
illustrate the new mental vigour that was infused into the French
Canadian race by the concession of the parliamentary system of 1792. The
descendants of the people who had no share whatever in the government
under French rule had at last an admirable opportunity of proving their
capacity for administering their own affairs, and the verdict of the
present is, that, on the whole, whatever mistakes were committed by
their too ardent and impulsive leaders, they showed their full
appreciation of the rights that were justly theirs as the people of a
free colonial community. Their minds expanded with their new political
existence, and a new people were born on the banks of the St. Lawrence.
At the same time the English-speaking communities of Upper Canada and
the Maritime Provinces advanced in mental vigour with the progress of
the struggle for more liberal institutions. Men of no ordinary
intellectual power were created by that political agitation which forced
the most indifferent from that, mental apathy, natural perhaps to a new
country, where a struggle for mere existence demands such unflagging
physical exertion. It is, however, in the new era that followed the
Union that we find the fullest evidence of the decided mental progress
of the Canadian communities. From that date the Canadian Provinces
entered on a new period of industrial and mental activity. Old
jealousies and rivalries between the different races of the country
became more or less softened by the closer intercourse, social and
political, that the Union brought about. During the fierce political
conflicts that lasted for so many years in Lower Canada--those years of
trial for all true Canadians--the division between the two races was not
a mere line, but apparently a deep gulf, almost impossible to be bridged
in the then temper of the contending parties. No common education served
to remove and soften the differences of origin and language. The
associations of youth, the sports of childhood, the studies by which the
character of manhood is modified, were totally distinct. [Footnote:
Report of Lord Durham on Canada, pp. 14-15.] With the Union of 1840,
unpalatable as it was to many French Canadians who believed that the
measure was intended to destroy their political autonomy, came a spirit
of conciliation which tended to modify, in the course of no long time,
the animosities of the past, and awaken a belief in the good will and
patriotism of the two races, then working side by side in a common
country, and having the same destiny in the future. And with the
improvement of facilities for trade and intercourse, all sections were
brought into those more intimate relations which naturally give an
impulse not only to internal commerce but to the intellectual faculties
of a people. [Footnote: Lord Macaulay says on this point: Every
improvement of the means of locomotion benefits mankind morally and
intellectually, as well as materially, and not only facilitates the
interchange of the various productions of nature and art, but tends to
remove natural and provincial antipathies and to bind together all the
branches of the human family.] During the first years of the settlement
of Canada there was a vast amount of ignorance throughout the rural
districts, especially in the western Province. Travellers who visited
the country and had abundant opportunities of ascertaining its social
condition, dwelt pointedly on the moral and intellectual apathy that
prevailed outside a few places like York or other centres of
intelligence; but they forgot to make allowance for the difficulties
that surrounded these settlers. The isolation of their lives had
naturally the effect of making even the better class narrow-minded,
selfish, and at last careless of anything like refinement. Men who lived
for years without the means of frequent communication with their
fellow-men, without opportunities for social, instructive intercourse,
except what they might enjoy at rare intervals through the visit of some
intelligent clergyman or tourist, might well have little ambition except
to satisfy the grosser wants of their nature. The post office, the
school, and the church were only to be found, in the majority of cases,
at a great distance from their homes. Their children, as likely as not,
grew up in ignorance, even were educational facilities at hand; for in
those days the parent had absolute need of his son's assistance in the
avocations of pioneer life. Yet, with all these disadvantages, these men
displayed a spirit of manly independence and fortitude which was in some
measure a test of their capacity for better things. They helped to make
the country what it is, and to prepare the way for the larger population
which came into it under more favourable auspices after the Union of
1840. From that time Canada received a decided impulse in everything
that tends to make a country happy and prosperous. Cities, towns and
villages sprang up with remarkable activity all over the face of the
country, and vastly enlarged the opportunities for that social
intercourse which is always an important factor in the education of a
new country. At the same time, with the progress of the country in
population and wealth, there grew up a spirit of self-reliance which of
itself attested the mental vigour of the people. Whilst England was
still for many 'the old home,' rich in memories of the past, Canada
began to be a real entity, as it were, a something to be loved, and to
be proud of. The only reminiscences that very many had of the countries
of their origin were reminiscences of poverty and wretchedness, and this
class valued above all old national associations the comfort and
independence, if not wealth, they had been able to win in their Canadian
home. The Frenchman, Scotchman, Irishman, and Englishman, now that they
had achieved a marked success in their pioneer work, determined that
their children should not be behind those of New England, and set to
work to build up a system of education far more comprehensive and
liberal than that enjoyed by the masses in Great Britain. On all sides
at last there were many evidences of the progress of culture, stimulated
by the more generally diffused prosperity. It was only necessary to
enter into the homes of the people, not in the cities and important
centres of industry and education, but in the rural districts, to see
the effects of the industrial and mental development within the period
that elapsed from the Union of 1840 to the Confederation of 1867. Where
a humble log cabin once rose among the black pine stumps, a comfortable
and in many cases expensive mansion, of wood or more durable material,
had become the home of the Canadian farmer, who, probably, in his early
life, had been but a poor peasant in the mother country. He himself,
whose life had been one of unremitting toil and endeavour, showed no
culture, but his children reaped the full benefits of the splendid
opportunities of acquiring knowledge afforded by the country which owed
its prosperity to their father and men like him. The homes of such men,
in the most favoured districts, were no longer the abodes of rude
industry, but illustrative, in not a few cases, of that comfort and
refinement which must be the natural sequence of the general
distribution of wealth, the improvement of internal intercourse, and the
growth of education.
When France no longer owned a foot of land in British North America,
except two or three barren islets on the coast of Newfoundland, the
total population of the provinces known now as Canada was not above
seventy thousand souls, nearly all French. From that time to 1840, the
population of the different provinces made but a slow increase, owing to
the ignorance that prevailed as to Canada, the indifference of English
statesmen in respect to colonization, internal dissensions in the
country itself, and its slow progress, as compared with the great
republic on its borders. Yet, despite these obstacles to advancement, by
1841 the population of Canada reached nearly a million and a half, of
whom at least fifty-five per cent. were French Canadians. Then the tide
of immigration set in this direction, until at last the total population
of Canada rose, in 1867, to between three and four millions, or an
increase of more than a hundred per cent. in a quarter of a century. By
the last Census of 1870, we have some idea of the national character of
this population--more than eighty per cent. being Canadian by birth,
and, consequently, identified in all senses of the term with the soil
and prosperity of the country. Whilst the large proportion of the people
are necessarily engaged in those industrial pursuits which are the basis
of a country's material prosperity, the statistics show the rapid growth
of the classes who live by mental labour, and who are naturally the
leaders in matters of culture. The total number of the professional
class in all the provinces was some 40,000, of whom 4,436 were
clergymen, 109 judges, 264 professors, 3,000 advocates and notaries,
2,792 physicians and surgeons, 13,400 teachers, 451 civil engineers, 232
architects; and for the first time we find mention of a special class of
artists and _litterateurs_, 590 in all, and these evidently do not
include journalists, who would, if enumerated, largely swell the number.
Previous to 1867, different communities of people existed throughout
British North America, but they had no general interest or purpose, no
real bond of union, except their common allegiance to one Sovereign. The
Confederation of the Provinces was intended, by its very essence and
operation, to stimulate, not only the industrial energy, but the mental
activity as well, of the different communities that compose the
Dominion. A wider field of thought has, undoubtedly, been opened up to
these communities, so long dwarfed by that narrow provincialism which
every now and then crops up to mar our national development and impede
intellectual progress. Already the people of the Confederated Provinces
are every where abroad recognised as Canadians--as a Canadian people,
with a history of their own, with certain achievements to prove their
industrial activity. Climatic influences, all history proves, have much
to do with the progress of a people. It is an admitted fact that the
highest grade of intellect has always been developed, sooner or later,
in those countries which have no great diversities of climate.
[Footnote: Sir A. Alison (Vol. xiii. p. 271). says on this point:
'Canada and the other British possessions in British North America,
though apparently blessed with fewer physical advantages than the
country to the South, contain a noble race, and are evidently destined
for a lofty destination. Everything there is in proper keeping for the
development of the combined physical and mental qualities of man. There
are to be found at once the hardihood of character which conquers
difficulty, the severity of climate which stimulates exertion, and
natural advantages which reward enterprise.'] If our natural conditions
are favourable to our mental growth, so, too, it may be urged that the
difference of races which exists in Canada may have a useful influence
upon the moral as well as the intellectual nature of the people as a
whole. In all the measures calculated to develop the industrial
resources and stimulate the intellectual life of the Dominion, the names
of French Canadians appear along with those of British origin. The
French Canadian is animated by a deep veneration for the past history of
his native country, and by a very decided determination to preserve his
language and institutions intact; and consequently there exists in the
Province of Quebec a national French Canadian sentiment, which has
produced no mean intellectual fruits. We know that all the grand efforts
in the attainment of civilization have been accomplished by a
combination of different peoples. The union of the races in Canada must
have its effect in the way of varying and reproducing, and probably
invigorating also, many of the qualities belonging to each--material,
moral, and mental; an effect only perceptible after the lapse of very
many years, but which is, nevertheless, being steadily accomplished all
the while with the progress of social, political, and commercial
intercourse. The greater impulsiveness and vivacity of the French
Canadian can brighten up, so to say, the stolidity and ruggedness of the
Saxon. The strong common-sense and energy of the Englishman can combine
advantageously with the nervous, impetuous activity of the Gaul. Nor
should it be forgotten that the French Canadian is not a descendant of
the natives of the fickle, sunny South, but that his forefathers came
from the more rugged Normandy and Brittany, whose people have much that
is akin with the people of the British islands.
In the subsequent portions of this review, the writer will endeavour to
follow the progress in culture, not merely of the British-speaking
people, but of the two races now working together harmoniously as
Canadians. It will not be necessary to dwell at any length on the first
period of Canadian history It is quite obvious that in the first
centuries of colonial history, but few intellectual fruits can be
brought to maturity. In the infancy of a colony or dependency like
Canada, whilst men are struggling with the forest and sea for a
livelihood, the mass of the people can only find mental food in the
utterances of the pulpit, the legislature, and the press. This
preliminary chapter would be incomplete were we to forget to bear
testimony to the fidelity with which the early Roman Catholic and
Protestant missionaries laboured at the great task devolving upon them
among the pioneers in the Canadian wilderness. In those times of rude
struggle with the difficulties of a colonial life, the religious
teachers always threw a gleam of light amid the mental darkness that
necessarily prevailed among the toilers of the land and sea. Bishops
Laval, Lartigue, Strachan, and Mountain; Sister Bourgeois, Dr. Burns,
Dr. Jas. McGregor, Dr. Anson Green, are conspicuous names among the many
religious teachers who did good service in the early times of colonial
development. During the first periods of Canadian history, the priest or
clergyman was, as often as not, a guide in things temporal as well as
spiritual. Dr. Strachan was not simply the instructor in knowledge of
many of the Upper Canadian youth who, in after times, were among the
foremost men of their day, but was as potent and obstinate in the
Council as he was vigorous and decided in the pulpit. When
communications were wretched, and churches were the exception, the
clergyman was a constant guest in the humble homes of the settlers, who
welcomed him as one who not only gave them religious instruction, but on
many a winter or autumn evening charmed the listeners in front of the
blazing maple logs with anecdotes of the great world of which they too
rarely heard. In those early days, the Church of England clergyman was a
man generally trained in one of the Universities of the parent state,
bringing to the discharge of his duties a conscientious conviction of
his great responsibilities, possessing at the same time varied
knowledge, and necessarily exercising through his profession and
acquirements no inconsiderable influence, not only in a religious but in
an intellectual sense as well--an influence which he has never ceased to
exercise in this country. It is true as the country became more thickly
settled and the people began to claim larger political rights, the
influence of many leading minds among the Anglican clergy, who believed
in an intimate connection between Church and State, even in a colony,
was somewhat antagonistic to the promotion of popular education and the
extension of popular government. The Church was too often the Church of
the aristocratic and wealthier classes; some of its clergy were sadly
wanting in missionary efforts; its magnificent liturgy was too cold and
intellectual, perhaps, for the mass: and consequently, in the course of
time, the Methodists made rapid progress in Upper Canada. Large numbers
of Scotch Presbyterians also settled in the provinces, and exercised a
powerful influence on the social, moral and political progress of the
country. These pioneers came from a country where parish schools existed
long before popular education was dreamed of across the border. Their
clergy came from colleges whose course of study cultivated minds of rare
analytical and argumentative power. The sermon in the Presbyterian
Church is the test of the intellectual calibre of the preacher, whose
efforts are followed by his long-headed congregation in a spirit of the
keenest criticism, ever ready to detect a want of logic. It is obvious
then that the Presbyterian clergyman, from the earliest time he appeared
in the history of this country, has always been a considerable force in
the mental development of a large section of the people, which has given
us, as it will be seen hereafter, many eminent statesmen, journalists,
and _litterateurs_.
From the time the people began to have a voice in public affairs, the
politician and the journalist commenced naturally to have much influence
on the minds of the masses. The labours of the journalist, in connection
with the mental development of the country, will be treated at some
length in a subsequent part of the review. At present it is sufficient
to say that of the different influences that have operated on the minds
of the people generally, none has been more important than the Press,
notwithstanding the many discouraging circumstances under which it long
laboured, in a thinly populated and poor country. The influence of
political discussion on the intellect of Canada has been, on the whole,
in the direction of expanding the public intelligence, although at times
an extreme spirit of partisanship has had the effect of evoking much
prejudice and ill-feeling, not calculated to develop the higher
attributes of our nature. But whatever may have been the injurious
effects of extreme partisanship, the people as a rule have found in the
discussion of public matters an excitement which has prevented them from
falling into that mental torpor so likely to arise amid the isolation
and rude conditions of early times. If the New England States have
always been foremost in intellectual movement, it may be attributed in a
great measure to the fact that from the first days of their settlement
they thought and acted for themselves in all matters of local interest.
It was only late in the day when Canadians had an opportunity given them
of stimulating their mental faculties by public discussion, but when
they were enabled to act for themselves they rapidly improved in mental
strength. It is very interesting to Canadians of the present generation
to go back to those years when the first Legislatures were opened in the
old Bishop's Palace, on the heights of Quebec, and in the more humble
structure on the banks of the Niagara River, and study the record of
their initiation into parliamentary procedure. It is a noteworthy fact
that the French Canadian Legislatures showed from the first an earnest
desire to follow, as closely as their circumstances would permit, those
admirable rules and principles of procedure which the experience of
centuries in England has shown to be necessary to the preservation of
decorum, to freedom of speech, and to the protection of the minority.
The speeches of the leading men in the two Houses were characterized by
evidences of large constitutional knowledge, remarkable for men who had
no practical training in parliamentary life. Of course there were in
these small Assemblies many men rough in speech and manner, with hardly
any education whatever but the writers who refer to them in no very
complimentary terms [Footnote: For instance, Talbot, I, chap. 23. He
acknowledges, at the same time, the great ability of the leading men,
'who would do credit to the British Parliament.'] always ignore the
hardships of their pioneer life, and forget to do justice to their
possession, at all events, of good common-sense and much natural
acuteness, which enabled them to be of use in their humble way, under
the guidance of the few who were in those days the leaders of public
opinion. These leaders were generally men drawn from the Bar, who
naturally turned to the legislative arena to satisfy their ambition and
to cultivate on a larger scale those powers of persuasion and argument
in which their professional training naturally made them adepts. With
many of these men legislative success was only considered a means of
more rapidly attaining the highest honours of their profession, and
consequently they were not always the most disinterested guides in the
political controversies of the day; but, nevertheless, it must be
admitted that, on the whole, the Bar of Canada, then as now, gave the
country not a few men who forgot mere selfish considerations, and
brought to the discussion of public affairs a wide knowledge and
disinterested zeal which showed how men of fine intellect can rise above
the narrower range of thought peculiar to continuous practice in the
Courts. As public questions became of larger import, the minds of
politicians expanded, and enabled them to bring to their discussion a
breadth of knowledge and argumentative force which attracted the
attention of English statesmen, who were so constantly referred to in
those times of our political pupilage, and were by no means too ready to
place a high estimate on colonial statesmanship. In the earlier days of
our political history some men played so important a part in educating
the people to a full comprehension of their political rights that their
names must be always gratefully remembered in Canada. Papineau, Bedard,
DeValliere, Stuart, Neilson, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Howe, Wilmot,
Johnstone, Uniacke, were men of fine intellects--natural-born teachers
of the people. Their successors in later times have ably continued the
work of perfecting the political structure. All party prejudice aside,
every allowance made for political errors in times of violent
controversy, the result of their efforts has been not only eminently
favourable to the material development of the country but also to the
mental vigour of the people. The statesmen who met in council in the
ancient city of Quebec during the October of 1864 gave a memorable
illustration of their constitutional knowledge and their practical
acumen in the famous Resolutions which form the basis of the present
Constitution of Canada.
But it is not within the limits of this review to dwell on the political
progress of Canada, except so far as it may influence the intellectual
development of the people. It will be seen, as we proceed, that the
extension of political rights had a remarkable effect in stimulating the
public intelligence and especially in improving the mental outfit of the
people. The press increased in influence and ability; but, more than
all, with the concession of responsible government, education became the
great question of the day in the legislatures of the larger provinces.
But to so important and interesting a subject it will be necessary to
devote a separate chapter.