Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/149

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CANADIAN LITEKATtXKE. 121 CANADIAN LITERATURE. case of tlie French in Lower Canada, or Quebec, the first writers were explorers and historians. Samuel Hearne (born in London in 1745) made three voyages of exploration, under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company, traveling 1.300 miles on foot to the Great Slave Lake. After his death appeared his Account of a Journey from I'rincc of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Xorth-ycst (1795). Alexander Jlacken- zie (born in Scotland about 1745) (q.v.), enter- ing the service of the Northwest Fur Company, pushed beyond the Great Slave Lake down the river now bearing his name to the Arctic Ocean, and later crossed the Rocky IMoiuitains to the Pacific. The narrative of these two perilous ex- plorations was published under the title, I'oi/ases oil the Rirer Saint Lawrence and Through the Continent of Sorth America to the Fro::en and Pa- cific Oceans (1801; reprinted. New York, 1902). After heroic efforts and a bloody conflict, the Earl of Selkirk (q.v.) established a colony in the Red River Valley, n(AV the flourishing Province of Manitoba. While in Montreal he wrote his Sketch of the British Fur Trade in. Xorth Amer- ica (1816). From Joseph Bouchette, the sur- veyor-general, came two notable topographical descriptions of the Canadas (1815-32). All these works were published in London; but by this time histories were beginning to issue from the Canadian press. We may cite William Smith's History of Canada (1815), and David Thompson's War of ISIZ (1832). The speeches of Joseph Howe (q.v.), delivered in the Parlia- ment of Nova Scotia, possess rare eloquence. They were collected in 1858. As editor of the Sova Scotian, of Halifax, then the leading news- paper of Canada, he wrote two series of popular sketches, called "Western and Eastern Rambles" and "The Club." The former is based on observa- tions made in travels tlirough North America; the latter is an imitation of the Noctes Amlro- sianw (q.v.). To the Xova Scotiati, Thomas Chandler Haliburton (q.v.), a native of Nova Scotia and a judge of the Supreme Court, con- tributed the series of humorous papers known as The Clochmnler, or Sayin'js and Doings of Sam Slick of Slickville (1835 et seq.). The hero is a Yankee peddler into whose mouth is placed nuich telling criticism. The sketches were widely read in America and in England, and were translated into several languages. Oddly enough, though the Canadian humorist has had few successors in his own country, he is the father of dialect humor in the United States. Haliburton also wrote the standard his- tory of Nova Scotia, and many books descrip- tive of his country. The union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841, and the subsequent confederation of all the provinces except Newfoundland and Labra- dor, mark a new era for Canada. The feeling of nationality unknown in earlier times has found impassioned expression in the verse of Roberts, especially in the poem beginning, "O Child of Nations, giant-limbed!" To the new era belong the eminent statesmen Sir Charles Tupper (q.v.), .h>xander ilackenzie (q.v.), Sir John Macdonald (q.v.), and Sir Wilfrid Laurier (q.v.). The constitutional questions that have come to the front since 1840 have created a press which compares favorably with that of the United States or England. Of Canadian journalists, Goldwin Smith (q.v.), who settled in Toronto in 1871, is known throughout the English-speaking world for his able work in politics and in literature. One of his best works is The United States: An Outline of I'olitical History (1893). Of other miscellane- ous writers it is possible to give here only a partial list. In history, where much has been well done, should be mentioned: Robert Chris- tie's History of Lower Canada (6 vols., 1849- 55) ; Alpheus Todd's Parliamentary Govern- ment in England (2 vols., 1867-68) ; J. C. Dent's Tlie Last Forty Years (1881), and The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion (2 vols., 1885- 86) ; William Kingsford's History of Canada, the standard work ( 10 vols., 1887-97 ) : James Hannay's (q.v.) History of Acadia (1879), and otlier historical works; Uenry Scadding's To- ronto, Past and Present (1884); Rev. George Bryee's Manitoba (1881) and Short History of the Canadian People (1887); G. M. Adam's (q.v.) The Canadian Xorthwest (1885); C. G. 1). Roberts's (q.v.) History of Canada (1897) ; J. G. Bourinot's (q.v.) various books on Cana- dian history and literature, of which Canada Under British Rule appeared in 1900; and the publications of the Royal Society of Canada, founded in Ottawa in 1882. The essayists and miscellaneous writers who have contributed to Canadian, American, and English periodicals, or have published books, are numerous. The range of their work may be gained from the following iiicom])lete list: J. B. Crozier, wliose Civilization and Progress (1885) won wide attention and secured for the author an English pension; N. F. Davin, a member of the House of Commons for Assiniboia, whose Culture and Practical Power was praised by Gladstone; S. E. Dawson, known for his fine study of Tennyson's Princess (2d ed. 1884) ; Sir "William Dawson (q.v.), a geologist and naturalist, who has aimed in many books to reconcile science and religion; the Rev. W. H. Withrow (q.v.), author of The Catacombs of Rome, and other works; the Rev. G. M. Grant (q.v.), principal of Queen's College, Kingston, who has written several political and religious books, as Our Xational Objects and Aims ( 1890) , and The Religions of the World (1895) ; T. A. Haultain, the author of literary brochures, as A Critique of Cardinal Xewman's Exposition of the Illative Sense, and A Christmas Chat: a Fragmentary Dialogue on Love and Religion; J. C. Hopkins, who has written lives of Sir John Thompson, Gladstone, and Queen Victoria ; W. D. LeScur, the author of notable essays on Sainte-Beuve and Matthew Arnold; the Rev. John Maclean, whose books, as Our Savage Folk (1895), deal chiefly with the Indians; J. M. Oxley (q.v.), who has delighted boys with many capital sketches and stories, as Up Among the Ice Floes (1890), Archie McKcnzie (1893), and In the Swing of the Sea (1897); and George Stewart, who has written excellently of Alcott and Emerson. Perhaps this is not the place to speak of Canada's scholars; but we should not pass without mention the well-known crit- ical works of John Watson on Kant, Schelling, and English empirical philosophy as represent- ed by Mill and Spencer. In fiction Canada long lagged far behind the rest of the English-speaking world. She had