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[259] 
 
 SOME CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED; 
 
 WITH SAMPLES OF THE WRITINGS TO WHICH THEY ARE 
 
 APPENDED. 
 
 BY HENRY SCADDING, D. D. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I suppose all countries that have a literature at all, have a certain 
 number of pseudonymous writings to shew, which have become classic, 
 so to speak ; a certain number of productions under feigned names, 
 that have acquired a repute or a notoriety beyond anything pei-haps 
 that their authors had ever anticipated for them. The oldest litera- 
 tures of which we have any knowledge exhibits examples of such 
 writings. To this day we have in circulation compositions assigned 
 to Orpheus, ]Musteus, Homer, Hesiod, Pythagoras, which it is cer- 
 tain those personages never penned. In like manner, in the far east 
 of Asia, the names of Confucius, Mencius, Manes, Sakyamouni, 
 Mahomet, are abused. And all this not, in every instance, originally 
 from a gross intention to deceive. It seems to have been an early 
 practice, ever3r\vhere perhaps, and one held to be within certain 
 limits legitimate, to give importance to compositions by attributing 
 them to great men long previously deceased. 
 
 And then the sophists and rhetoricians, and, at later periods, the 
 disputants in the schools at universities, have now and then uninten- 
 tionally misled posterity by their declamations, in which illustrious 
 characters were personated and their style imitated. These produc- 
 tions, intended simply as exei'cises of subtlety and skill, have been, 
 in the lapse of time, occasionally assigned to the authors respectively 
 mimicked, as their genuine offspring. Thus we now have a Plato and 
 a pseudo-Plato j an Aristotle and a pseudo- Aristotle ; a Lucian and 
 a pseudo-Lucian ; a Cicero and a pseudo-Cicero. Thucydides and 
 Livy have much to answer for in this regard, having led the example 
 of putting into the mouths of their heroes formal speeches, which, 
 however worthily and truthfully conceived, were never uttered. 
 
 In theology, sad to say, a like practice has prevailed, to such an 
 extent that the modem divine has to be very wary in regard to the 
 ■writings which he quotes as authority. For among the Fathers and 
 
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 Ni 1 > > , 
 
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 epBC 
 
SCO 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 the Decretalists it is discovered now tliat, as the French say, " II y 
 a fwjots etfiujots.'^ When wo buy tlie Glentiold starch, are wo not 
 constantly tohl to see that v/o get it I It is just so with Cyprian and 
 Athanasius, and many otliers of that class ; when you cite them, you 
 have to see to it that it is they. 
 
 At later periods, pseudonyms have been used for purposes of con- 
 cealment, and the writings to which they were attached became 
 famous. The Abl)e St. Cyran in 1035 wrote his famous defence of 
 the French hierarchy, under the title of Petrus Aurclius ; and 
 Paschal originally subscribed the name of Louis de Montalto to his 
 well-known Provincial Letters. There is in France a whole Diction- 
 ary of " Autcurs Dcguises sous les noms Etrangers, Empruntes, 
 Supposes, Feints a plaisir, ChifFres, Renverses, E.etouni(N, ou Changes 
 d'un Langue en une autre." Baillet, the com])iler of this work, has 
 also a department in his " Jugements des Savants " for " Auteurs 
 Deguises." The name by which Paul Sarpi was known as historian 
 of the Council of Trent was Pietro Soave Polano, an imperfect 
 anagram of Paolo Sarju, Yenetiano. That Sarpi had some reason to 
 protect himself by a disguise, is shown by Mhat Ijcfd him on the 
 Briilgo of St. Mark's, when; he was waylaid by assassins and staltbed 
 all but mortally. In Germany, Fredfnick von Hardenberg, author 
 of "Hymns to Night" and the mystic romance entitled '"Heinrich 
 von Oftenlingen," is usually known and quoted as Novalis. 
 
 In Great Britaux and Ireland, while yet open criticism of the 
 jx>licy of Ministers was held to be seditious— when the publication 
 of [)arliamentary debates was forbidden, and the press generally was 
 gagged — a pseudonymous literature of a wide range of course sprung 
 up. It was only under disguised names that enlightened men, in 
 many an instance, ventured to promulgate their doctrines which, 
 however salutary to mankind, were yet inacceptablo to those in 
 power, and sometimes to the bulk of tlie community likewise. 
 Sometimes the mask assumed was so eftectually retained that, in 
 spite of considerable curiosity on the point, posterity has been left 
 in doubt. Whole shelves are filled with conjectrral rei)lies to the 
 queries, Who was Martin Marprelate? Who was Junius? But 
 Peter Pindar's secret wjis quickly discovered; as also was Peter 
 Porcupine's and Peter Plimley's, no particular pains having been 
 taken in any of these cases to preserve it. The same may be said 
 of Ilunnymede and Historicus. 
 
 •f 
 
 I 
 
 v. 
 

 CANADIAy NOMS-DE-PLUME mENTIFIED. 
 
 ir.i 
 
 Til very recent times, several literary lailies have veiled their sex 
 under such noms-dc-plnme as George Sand, Geor^'e Eliot, Currt.r 
 Bell, Acton Bell. Ellis Bell ; and hy the adoption of this course, 
 ilioy have created for themselves an entity, so to speak, inde})endent 
 of their proper pei\sons ; a thiuir which has happened in similar 
 manner to some male authors also. When we hear or read of Sholto 
 and Reuben Percy, of Thomas Tugoldi^hy, t)f Father Prout, of Arthur 
 Sketehley, of Ban-y Cornwall, who is not inclined to think of each 
 of them as substantial, real personages? We hear sometimes of 
 [)ersons carving out a name for tluimselves ; here the process is re- 
 versed — names carve out and create for themselves persons. 
 
 In the United States they have closely followtid the literary prac- 
 tices and caprices of the mother country. Some yeai"s before the 
 Revolution, Franklin, was widely known •, "♦-"'eh -•.»'! Siundor.s, the 
 " Poor Richard " of the Almanac from 173"2 d; ^;•fl^ -.i ds. In later 
 times, Dietrick Knickerbocker, historian of ^\ew Amsterdam, I.e., 
 New Yoik, became a quasi-actual it y, whilst the second assumed name 
 of the same author, GeolFry Crayon, became a familiar exiiression 
 throu'diout En'dand as well as the United States, and was re<'arded bv 
 many as almost a real cognomen. In late years, ilr. Hose; Bighjw 
 has nearly eiiualled GeoftVy Crayon in extent and degree of reputa- 
 tion. Numerous other appellations of this class have likewise 
 become hous(>hold words, throughout the United States at least ; for 
 examitle, Ik. Marvel (Donald Mitchell), Jack i)owning (Seba Smith), 
 Gail Hamilton (a lady, Miss Dodge), INIark Twain (T. L. Clemens), 
 Petroleum J. Nashby (D. R. Locke), 6:c. The supposed United 
 States characteristic practice of citing only the initial of an inter- 
 mediate Christian name, as here^ has given rise to the not very 
 elegant iwm-de-plume of Orpheus C. Kerr (R. H. Newell), intended 
 to be a bit of satire on carpet-baggers and other hungry parasites of 
 the several governments and municipalities. 
 
 Now, our Canadian literature has something to shew analogous to 
 these developments in the literatures of ohler eomnmnities. Our 
 Canadian literature, indeed, in what may be called its more infantile 
 stage, has consisted, in great measure, of productions to which, for 
 reasons arising out of the times, were allixeil tictitious signatures. 
 And I have thought that it mi<dit be a matter of some interest, and 
 even of some utility, to collect the more important of these feigned 
 names, giving at the same time samples of the writings to which tliey 
 
2G2 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 are appondod, ivntl naming their autliors whvva possiliU; or proper to 
 do so. I do not pretend to give a list of the inniiinerablo AgiicoLas, 
 Justitias, Catos, Pro-bono-publico.s, ttc., that from time to time liavc 
 abound(;il in our Canadian papers and jKiriodicals, as in all papers and 
 periodicals, e.cli treating, fitly doubtless, and reasonaldy, of a to|»iG 
 of the moment just once, and then emerging to tin; view no more, 
 and so passing into comjjlete oblivion. This woidd be an endless 
 task, and to identify the; respective writers would be a matter per- 
 haps of not nmch mouiL-nt. But there have ai»poared from time to 
 time amongst us, under fictitious signatures, during our short history, 
 especially in what seems to ns now a rather remote past, writings 
 which deserved and have acquired more than an ephemeral repute, 
 and which have exerted over our mixed yet plastic Canadian society, 
 an influence that may be said, in some sense, to continue to the 
 present time. It is the authors of such productions as these that I 
 am to trace and put on record, as contributors in some sort to our 
 nascent Canadian literature, and perhaps to the formation of our 
 Canadian national character. 
 
 On subjects then that may be roughly classed as follows, T find 
 writings of the kind described : 
 
 1. Our Politics : our politics while Canada was yet known as the 
 two Canadas, U]>per and Lower; and our jiolitics just after the 
 re-uniun of the two provinces into one. 2. The promotion of emigra- 
 tion. 3. The question of education. 4. Miscellaneous subjects ; as^ 
 for example, the fostering of patriotism towards Canada, and love and 
 reverence for the mother country, the cultivation of literature and 
 taste in general. And these writings divide themselves into prose 
 and vei*se. 
 
 On the prose side we have, in relation to the politics of the first- 
 named period, the writings of Veritas and Nerva. In relation to the 
 second, those of Patrick Swift and Legion. On the subject of emi 
 gration we have the Backwoodsman, the Pioneer of the Wilderness. 
 On the educational question there are Graduate, Scotus, British. 
 Canadian. Lender the general head of the inculcation of taste in art 
 and literature, the promotion of patriotism, loyalty, attachment to 
 the mother country, we have Guy Pollock, Alan Faiiford, Solomon 
 of Streetsville, Maple Knot, Maple Leaf, The Whistler at the Plough, 
 and Libertas. 
 
 On the poetical side, touching of course lightly and gracefully on. 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 2G3 
 
 to 
 las, 
 avG 
 and 
 >j»iG 
 jrc, 
 ess 
 )or- 
 
 to 
 
 subjects more or less identical with tlioso just enumerated, wo have 
 Kosehiirp. Cinna, Isidore, Plinius Seeuudus, Claud Ilalcro, Zadi;,'. 
 
 I exclude with regret, from a kind of necessity, Lower Canadian 
 French noius-dc-plniiie, not haviuji,' convenient access to the early 
 journals and other publications which from time to time have 
 appeared in what is now the Pruvince of t^nt'lK'c ; but \ know there 
 are several which are duly honoured by literary men there. I 
 also exclude the writings of ]Mr. Samuel Slick, the famous clock- 
 maker of Slickvillo, the decease of their author having occurred 
 ))efore his native province, Nova Scotia, was comprised within the 
 Canadian boun<hiries. 
 
 I begin with the prose writei-s ; and of these I dispose first of those 
 whom I have classed as miscellaneous. 
 
 In the periodicals of 1(S3;3 and of several successive years, pub- 
 lished at Toronto, appeare<l many communications on miscellaneous 
 subjects, signed Guy Pollock. They attracted general attention, 
 l)eing marked by an elevation of thought and culture beyond the 
 ordinary, and by a good style. J give a itassage from a descri[ition 
 of the Falls of Niagara, by Guy Pollock, in the Canndlan Literarii 
 Magazine for April, 1833, in which he oiTers some strictures on the 
 great cataract thus : *' Were I to write a criticism on nature — which, 
 by the way, would be something like presumption — I would say," Guy 
 Pollock writes, *' that for producing a grand emotion, the cascade is 
 too low when compared with its extent across the ri\er. The architec- 
 tural proportions, as builders ex[)ress the idea, are not preserved, the 
 ri\"er oven grows ])roader immediately above the Falls — a circum- 
 stance which gives the cascade too nuu'h the ap[)earance of an 
 inunense mill dam — an ap[)earance which excites a very ordinary, 
 although, no doul>t, a very useful idea. The Falls of Niagara are 
 great," he continues, "and therefore in .some measure grand; but, 
 tmless for their magnitude, which in that respect gi\es them a 
 decided superiority, they are, in respect of sublimity of aspect and 
 grandeur of surrounding scenery, far inferior to the Falls of Clyde, 
 round which the jackilaws are screaming, above the goshawks are 
 soaring, and under the overhanging groves the bat llies at noon. 
 Com[)ared with the Falls of Clyde, those of Niagara have a lifeless 
 api)earance." 
 
 The following is from a ch'ii)ter on craniology in the same periodi- 
 cal, by tho same writer, under the same signature : "The common 
 
204 
 
 CAN/>DIAN NOMS DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 reproach of Avaiiting Lraiiis, a round licnd, and a tliii'k skull, are 
 iiifi-o colloi[uial c'xprosbioiis, ol'teu spoken at random, to suit the 
 Iminour of the nionicut," Guy Pollock says; " ])ut on inquiry tliey 
 uro found to ho strictly phiio3o]»hic;>.l expressions, sanctioned hy the 
 exiK'rieneo of acjes. This |tliysical deilcieuey in the position and 
 (juantity of tho brain, explains, on philosophical jtrinciples, the jLjrand 
 secret why the Ethiopians have so lon^,' heen retained in a state of 
 slavery. Tiiat knowledge is power is an undisputed aphorism, which 
 ;ipp!ies well to the present condition of tho Ethiopian species; they 
 want knowledi^e to discover and ajipreciate their own power, other- 
 wise thoy would have broken the gyves of slavery in pieces long before 
 this evil hour: for tlie tirst use that every man makes of knowledge 
 is to turn it to his own advantage. It is the same want of know- 
 ledge, iu a still greater degree, which constitutes what we call docility 
 in the horse or elephant. The strength of either of these animals is 
 far beyond that of a man : but they know it not ; thoy cannot avail 
 themselves of their natural supei'iority in this resj)oct, therefore thoy 
 are confounded by the commanding skill of their drivers, and tamely 
 submit to their dominion." 
 
 Guy Pollock is understood to have been Robert Douglas Hamilton, 
 a Scottish 31. D., who had seen service as a surgeon in*the army and 
 navy. He emigrated to Canada in 1830, and died in Scarborough, 
 near Toronto, in 1857. Before his emigration Dr. Hamilton was 
 known in Scotland and England as the author of works of fiction, 
 and of essays on medical and other subjects. 
 
 The Canadian Literary Jfa/jazine, publislied at Toronto in ISS-l, 
 was edited bv a gentleman afterwards well known in the literarv 
 worhl of Canada by the nom-ile-plame of Alan Fairford. Under 
 rhis signature appearc'l in a widely -circulated Canadian periodical a 
 series entitled ''The English Lavman." The subjects handled therein 
 were such as the following : The connection between Democracy and 
 Inlidelity, Duties of the Laity, Plain Ileasons for Loyalty, the Press, 
 Sacrilege, &c. In all the productions of Alan Fairford there is 
 noticeable a line, manly sentiment expressed in remarkably vigorous 
 and pure English. I quote from the introduction to his paper 
 I'Utitled, "Plain Reasons for Loyalty." The scene is Cobourg, on 
 Lake Ontario. We are reminded of the style, now of Paley, now of 
 WiUihington Irving. " I sit," Alan Fairford says, " while I write, 
 bjneath one of those lofty, drooping elms which, having been spared 
 
CANADIAN NOJI.»-DC-PLr;ME IDKNTIFIED. 
 
 205 
 
 from tlio general liavoc of thffir flrlvan Imitlircn, are to he found 
 hero and tlioro, erect iu HUkifhi l*aaty, relievin:^ the eye after it li.is 
 Ijeen wearied in gaziii^j; on ex*^iU*l*Trl ma.s,s*»j of unliroktjn fuliii^'o. It 
 stands on a rid;,'<j in tJje luiiUt <r>f an o[>on country, ami wlien seen 
 from a diHtanee on a Hxunmffru fr*(;uini^, with a sky as yet glowhi;;^ 
 with a thousand inimitable tiuu, it di.^{>lays so minutely all its 
 tracery, l)ranehes, and even leavii.-*, that it appears as if it would he 
 no dillicult task to count thf^:n. But the day is iis yet in all its 
 meridian splendour. The hhrill. ehf*?rfnl chorus of tlio grasshoppers 
 rinjrs in mv ears. The ©cho^?* of the tl.iil miu'de with the softer 
 murmur of the la-eeze that wskUUttiA A'ith the leaves over my head ; 
 and every sound an<l siglit prvy^lairns that the sand has still some 
 hours to run befoic the hum of indiifitn' ami the voice of creation 
 will be mute, llich, variout* ai»ci i;*-autiful is the landscape on which 
 I gaze. At my feet the ofxintrv dfn-ioends into a gentle slope ; to 
 this succeeds a narrow, fertUe viAhy, with a streain winding through 
 it that waters Km meadow, ttircb* the wheel of the mill, and contri- 
 butes alike to the susteuauoe aivl health of man, the cool ivfreshment 
 of the panting cattle, tlae grf>»tii of manufactures, and the promo- 
 tion of agriculture. BeyonJ the valley the gi'ound ascends into a 
 gentle undulation. Fields that have con.signiMl their ])roduce to the 
 barn, lie denuded of their wealth, but dotted here and there with 
 browsing cattle. A i*ange of Wfy^A^, with many a crested eminence 
 wrapixnl in the blue iiaze of an afituranal day, terminates my view. 
 The frost has not yet scatter*?'! the coloui's of the rainbow over the 
 forest, but there is nothing Jik*,- sameness in the glorious landscape. 
 Orchards laden with reddeniw;; friit, the white farm house with its 
 commodious outbuildings, thie ootmtrv' inn, flanked by a long line of 
 Lond^ardy poplars, wliich here neerl not droop for want of Italian 
 skies, .lie towering mill with hn pointed angles, and the broad 
 Ontario stretching to the tight, are objects that successively attract 
 the eye as it travels with hucaan resth-ssness in search of novelty and 
 variety. Now I turn my hea'i. and f»erceive that the picture is incom- 
 plete, for I have not 3'et intro^iaeesi into it a pleasing scene of the 
 imfinished harvest — tlie sheavesi that you cannot look upon without 
 thaidcing God for your dnily hrrad. and the rising stack on which 
 they will shortly be piled. Alongside of the gathered and gathering 
 treasures of the present year, the husbandman is committing to the 
 rich fallow the promise of the inext ; and my mind is at once regaled 
 
L'CG 
 
 CAXADTAK NOMS-DE-rLUMK IDKNTIFIED. 
 
 witli tlie si^ht cf a iirosoiit plenty und tlio ]>n)S|)oct of its undimln- 
 islu'd surcessioii. To wlioiii do these "svoods and meadows, tlicse 
 streams and valleys, these smilini^ homesteads, these (loeks and herds, 
 helonLj / Does their possessor reside in sonn; haronial hall — the rural 
 king of his snirounding tenantry] Or is the soil the property of a 
 few, while the many rise np (;urly and li(^ down late, and eat the 
 bread of carefulness? The ine([ualities «»f eoudition and wealth — 
 the characteristics of an old and densel}'-peoplcd country — are not as 
 yet known in Upprr Canachi." 
 
 Thf fi>]lowini,' has reference to the Duke of Wellington: "We 
 are prepared to view him meditating gigantic schemes and laying 
 down the plans by which they are to be accomplished. We find no 
 more than we expected when he com[»resses a life of truth and 
 experience into a single hour, and with an intuitive glance foretells 
 the catastrophes of the various dramas enacting on the world's wide 
 stage iK'fore him. We ]KMceive no ciiuse for sjiecial wonderment in 
 his untiring sagacity, in his combination of the aggressive vigour of 
 jMarcelhis with the defensive caution of Fabius, in his unrivalled 
 ])ractical sense, his unshaken magnanimity, and his lofty disinterested- 
 ness. These, it must be confessed, are signal and noble qualities, but 
 they fill us with esteem rather than with affection ; they dazzle rather 
 than fascinate our eyes ; anil their combination is not a novel feature 
 in the character of the world's foremost men. The traits which these 
 Des)>ntchcs exhibit to us for the first time, and which previously were 
 not in general accorded to the Duke of Wellington, are those which 
 add love to admiration, and h<Mghti'n national grataude into personal 
 attachment. It is ennobling to our species, and delightful to our 
 feelings, to find that the highest excellences of private station are 
 not Lrreconcilal)le with the stern career of the victorious warrior, and 
 thnt the household virtues and the peace-loving humanities of life 
 may ]>e found among the demoralization of camps and the carnage- 
 covered fields of battle." 
 
 T select one more passage from this excellent master of English 
 style. It is from a paper in a humorous strain, entitled, " A Defence 
 of Little Men," and it professes to be, not by Alan Fairford this 
 time, but by Sir Minimus Pigmy. ** Perhaps some tall gentleman 
 is laughing at what I have written," Sir JNIinimus says, " but he had 
 better take care not to laugh in my face. Little men are as choleric 
 as Celts j and Sir Jefferey Hudson (a name ever to be venerated by 
 

 CANADIAN NOMSDE-PLUME IPENTIFIED. 
 
 2g; 
 
 I 
 
 iiK!) lias shown tli.it littU^ iiieii ai-c iir)t to \ni iiisnltc^d with imiMinity. 
 On the hit'aking out of tlio troiildes in Knglaiul, tho pigmy knight 
 was iiiado u cai)taiii in tht? IJoyal Army, and in 1011 att<n<h<l tlie 
 Queen to Francjc, where lu; received a iirovocatiou from Mr. I'rofts, 
 a young man of family, whieh he took s'> deejily to heart tliat a 
 challeng'' ^nsued. Mr. Crofts appeared on the gi-ountl aimed with a 
 syringe. iMii.s ludicrous weapon roused tho indignation of the mag- 
 nanimous little hero to tin; highest pitch. A real duel ensued, in 
 which the antagonists were niounte<l on horsel>ack. and Sir Jcfferey, 
 with the first fire of liis pistol, killed ^Fr. Crofts on the spot. I 
 cannot refrain from lingering on the history tf th(? gallant Hudson. 
 Sir Walter Scott, in his novtd ot" ' Pevei-il of th" Peak,' has inuuor- 
 talized tiie chivalrous litth; knight, and 1 luuubiy wish to lend my 
 feeble aid in making known to the Caua<U a pullio th'^ Jeeds of 
 depart "<1 littleness." 
 
 These remarkat>le pajters wi .-e from the pen ()'i Mr. John Kent, 
 chief secretary for a time to Sir (^eoi-ge Ai thur, one of the Lieut. - 
 Governors of Upper Canada, and afterwards private tutor and conti- 
 dentinl secretary to the present Earl of Cfrnarvon. The uillu'^n^e 
 of Mr. Kent's cliaracter and writings on the minds of many of hi.s 
 contcm[)oraries during his sojourn in Canada was very marked. 
 
 Between 1848-58, o\ir Canadian Stree'tsville acqui'-"il great dis- 
 tinction and eclat as being tho scene of tho publication of the >)itreets- 
 vWe Jiii'iew, a periodical which managed lo gain for itself a reputa- 
 tion altogether beyond the average for originality and spirit. Its 
 editor occasionally spoke of himself as Solomon in tho columns of 
 tliis journal, and under this sobriquet, innumerable or-.icular utter- 
 ances of tho Review wore quoted and circulated in most of the news- 
 liapers 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, 185-4. "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 dcscri])tion, calling for stripes, ap}>ears in 
 the Commercial Advertiser of Montreal on Tuesday," ikc. He then 
 transcribes and remarks on the doggerel referred to. Again : 
 " Solomon in his slippers. It is a common superstition ainoug the 
 
268 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 million that editors are f sliionecl out of cast-iron, and that they can 
 engender articles from the primary day of Jaiiuary to the final ditto 
 of December without ex2)eriencing lassitude or performing the mus- 
 cular action of a yawn. Never was there a more monstrous fallacy. 
 Solomon at least can speak for himself, that he is subject to all the 
 weaknesses of our common humanity, and desiderates an occasional 
 modicum of repose quite as much as the balance of Adam's multi- 
 tudinous family." Again: "The rival settlements of Hamilton and 
 Toronto being witnesses, Streetsville is progi-essing at railroad speed. 
 Like the fabled bearer of the mythical Jack, a sharp-eyed observer 
 can twig the perpetual motion of its growth. Our grist and saw- 
 mills are too numerous to be recapitulated without drawing sundry 
 breaths ; our stores emulate the dollar-coining emporiums of King 
 Street (Toronto) ; and before long, the magic wand of an act of 
 incor})oration will call into being crops of civic fathers, wise as Solon, 
 and inflexible as Brutus senior. In these circumstances, we are 
 patriotically desirous that our beloved sucking city should put her 
 best foot foremost, and exhibit to an admiring universe smooth-kempt 
 hair and a shining well- washed foce. Now, nothing would tend so 
 much to improve the frontispiece of Sti'eetsville as a sprinkling of 
 trees judiciously era planted before her churches, marts and villas. 
 Stern truth compels us to admit that the village does not possess an 
 overly inviting appearance to the stranger who, whirled i)ast in the 
 accommodating machine of Squire Harris, snatches a passing glance 
 at her charms. Tardily doth the plasterer and bricklayer repair the 
 dilapidations which accident or senility makes in her dwellings ; 
 and too frequeiitly doth the stocking or sui»erannuated Kilmarnock 
 night-cowl usurp the place of plate or crown glass in the windows of 
 her sons. If all these flaws were redressed, most assuredly we 
 would rise in the scale of cityhood so far as appearance went. But 
 chiefly and above all would the arborical immigration which we 
 advocate heighten the witcheries of our ffU'-famed clachan. Let the 
 sceptic on this head pay a visit to the neighbouring republic, .and he 
 ■».vill frankly admit that we have got the legitimate sow by the ear." 
 Kossuth's avoidance of the British side of the Lakes in 1852 is 
 thus spoken of : " We esteem it as a high coin[)liment that Kossuth 
 has not visited Canada. We thank him for the tacit admission that 
 the spurious metal which so tickled the vulgar taste of our republican 
 neighbours would be altogether thrown away upon the denizens of 
 
CANADIAN NOJR-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 2G9 
 
 British North America. There is, there must be, a lingering frag- 
 ment of shame about the man after all. It is a redeeming feature 
 in Kossuth's cliaracter that he lacked assurance to preach to a free 
 people, like the subjects of Queini Victoria, about freedom, after 
 coming from the land of bondage, redolent with the foul kisses of the 
 tyrant, and goi-ged with money earned by the toil of the slave." 
 
 This Solomon, under another guise, edited the Anrjlo-Amcrican 
 Magazine, a valuable periodical published for several years in Toronto 
 by Mr. Maclear. One conspicuous feature of this monthly was a 
 department in which, after the pattern of Blackwood of old, a group 
 of friends discuss matters in .a free and familiar manner. The per- 
 sonage who figures as the editor in these " Sederunts," as they are 
 called, is " Culpepper Crabtree, Esq.," major in the militia, at whose 
 shanty events and books are made to pass under review; the other 
 interlocutors are the Doctor, the Laird, the Squireen, and Mrs. 
 Grundy. The shanty itself is on the bankcj of the Humber. It is 
 thus spoken of: "On a gentle slope, some four miles to the west- 
 ward of the ' Muddy clearing,' as Solomon of Streetsville delighteth 
 to call our city, i.e., Toronto, may be seen one of those primitive 
 fabrics, yclept in Cannuckian vernacular a * shanty.' " It is further 
 described. The conversation then proceeds in a natural, chatty way, 
 with a plentiful intermixture of anecdote and humour. Thus in the 
 year of the Duke of Wellington's death (1852), we have : — 
 
 " Laird. — Ha'e ye read, Crabtree, the vidimus which the Times 
 gives of the great Duke's life and character ] 
 
 Major. — I have, and with unmixed enjoyment. It is one of the 
 most masterly essays which has graced the periodical press for many 
 a long day, far surpassing, in my humlile opinion, the highest flights 
 of that showy but intensely superficial writer, Thomas Babington 
 Macaulay. 
 
 Laird. — You are a thocht too hard on Tummus, Major. His 
 sangs o' auld Rome rouse my blood like the blast o' a border 
 trumpet. 
 
 Major. — By your leave, Laiid, you are creating a man of straw 
 for the mere purpose of demolishing your handicraft. I said nothing 
 against Macaulay as a poet, but merely demurred to his pretensions 
 as a historian. 
 
 Doctor. — The less a fossil such as you are, Crabtree, says respect- 
 ing a Whig historian, the better. You know that I, as a Whig, can 
 
^70 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 never agi'ee with your opinion. We are wandering, however, from 
 the point in hand. Wliat a wonderful establishment the Times 
 m\ist be, which, almost at an hour's notice, can turn out such an 
 article as that to which I referred." 
 
 Again, in 1852, thus closes a discussion on Cooper, the United 
 States novelist. The Major, or editor, thus speaks of the book before 
 him, viz., a " Memorial of Cooper," as a pleasingly compiled record 
 of certain proceedings which have recently taken place in New 
 York, with the view of giving expression to the public sentiment on 
 the death of that illustrious novelist. On the Doctor's observing 
 that " Cooper's Leatherstocking " is a chef<V<x.uvre, the Laird 
 rejoins : " I like his writings weel eneuch ; but ah, man, he's no to 
 compare wi' Walter Scott," &c. The peroration of a eulogy by W. C. 
 Bryant is quoted, of which the language is somewhat high-flown. 
 This dnaws from the Squireen the observation : "Ah! how swately the 
 dew of praise must fall on the sensibilities of departed genius, if the 
 spiritual essence be cognizant of the incense of corporeal votaries at 
 its shrine and susceptible of its influence." To which the Laird 
 giniflly replies : " Nane o' your poetical flights o' fancy ! Dinna forget 
 we ha'e four miles o' limestone to hirple o'er afore the sma' hours 
 come ringing frae the St. Lawrence Ha'. Guid nicht, ]S[ajor." 
 {Exeunt.) Thus the sederunt closes. 
 
 Solomon of Streetsville was the Rev. J. MacGeorge. Mr. Mac- 
 George, prior to his emigration to Canada, was an experienced 
 litterateur, a contributor to Fraser and other English periodicals. 
 In his graver moods, Mr. MacGeorge was a poet of no mean grade, 
 as we shall perhaps hereafter see. 
 
 I observe in Morgan's Bihliotheca Canadensis that in 1858 a 
 work of fiction, highly spoken of, appeared in Montreal, entitled 
 *' The Life and Adventures of Simon Seek ; or, Canada in all Shapes," 
 by Maple Knot. I regret that I have it not in my power to give a 
 sample of Maple Knot, who was Mr. Ebenezer Clemo, now 
 deceased. The nom-de-plume Maple Knot suggests to me the 
 mention here of " Maple Leaf," or rather "■ The Maple Leaf," a very 
 handsome Christmas or New Year's gift book, which was published 
 in Toronto in 1847, and in several successive years. The "Maple 
 Leaf" introduced to the Canadian public a goodly company of credit- 
 able local writers, who, without the stimulus afforded by this publi- 
 cation, would perhaps never have ventured to try their hand at such 
 
 ■in 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 271 
 
 ■, from 
 
 Times 
 
 ich an 
 
 work. The "Maple Leaf" thus contributed much to the genesis of a 
 high-class Canadian literature. It were to be wished that the editor 
 of this volume had identified himself with Maple Leaf as a nom- 
 de-plume instead of resigning it altogether to the volumes of which 
 he superintended the issue. The pai)ers in that book are all anony- 
 mous. If none of them are from his own facile and elegant pen. it is 
 certain that the prefaces are his handwork. From these accordingly 
 I venture to make an excerpt or two, treating them as though they 
 liai' appeared under the signature of Maple Leaf. 
 
 First, I give a pleasant account of our Canadian London as it was hi 
 1848, with some remarks on tlie Canadian habit of transplanting local 
 names from the "Old Country." " The good custom," Maple Leal 
 says, "of naming places, as they spring into existence in this new 
 world, after the old localities with which the early associations of the 
 settlers are connected, at once attests the affectionate remembrance 
 of the fatherland, and preserves unimpaired the sweet ties which 
 bind us to * home,' as we still fondly call the far-distant land of oui 
 birth. In the present case the town of London, the county of whicli 
 it is the capital is Middlesex, the stream the banks of which it 
 graces bears that name so closely associated with the most thrilling 
 events of English history, the Thames. The toll-gate on the right 
 of our view opens on anotii^r ^^'^estminster Bridge ; and a second 
 Blackfriars would meet the eye if we could but see a little more to 
 the left." 
 
 " Procedo et parvam Trojam, sinuilatar[ue magnis 
 Pergama, et arentem Xauthi cognomiue rivuiu 
 Agnosco, Scfeaeque amplector limina portas." 
 
 "Nor is the Canadian stream," Maple Leaf continues, "wholly 
 wanting in historic interest ; for in a battle in its neighbourhood fell 
 the noblest Indian warrior that ever drew bow, or raised rifle, in 
 defence of the * White Father ' of the tribes. It was at the battle 
 of the Thames that the gallant Tecumseth was lost to his brother 
 warriors, and to his country ; but this, however, was at a distance 
 fi'om the scene more immediately under our notice. Elevated on a 
 pleasant bank, which looks down upon the junction of two streams, 
 stands our Canadian London. As it stretches itself towards the 
 waters that flow on either side of it, it seems as if fondling them into 
 that amity with which they embrace and flow on united, ere they 
 leave the reconciler of their variance. From this 
 
 * meeting of the 
 
272 
 
 CANADIAN XOMS-DE-PLUME ID.iXTIFIED, 
 
 waters ' — all I how unlike that sweet valley in our own dear isle, with 
 
 ' Her purest of crystal an<l brightest of green !* 
 — the rapid river hastens on tlironijh a fertile country, until it pours 
 its tribute into the lap of St. Clair, some miles below Chatham. 
 Long })revious to the foundation of the town, the surrounding coun- 
 tiy was well settled, and contained many wealthy fai'mers, and the 
 spot was called by the xmcouth familiar ap[)ell;ition of 'The Forks.'" 
 In another place, we have a reference to the University of Toronto, 
 or, as it was called in 1848, the University of King's College. At 
 that time the work of the University was carried on in the Parlia- 
 ment Buildings, the Government having been removed, when the 
 two Canadas were united, from Toronto to ]Montreal. A flagstaff is 
 also spoken of in Government House gi'ounds, whereon, when the 
 Governor was here, a flag used to be displayed. After numerous 
 vicissitudes of local history, it is plea.siint in 1870 to have our Parlia- 
 ment Buildings at Toronto ag-ain put to their proper use ; and to see 
 the symbol of a Governor's presence amongst us again floating over 
 the same Government House gi'ounds, which had been for a time 
 deserted, A humorous allusion occurs to the fact that while the 
 University was in occujtation of the central Parliament Building, one 
 of the wings of the same Iniilding was made a receptacle for lunatics. 
 It is singular that it has been the fate of the University, since its 
 removal to its present magnificent quai-ters, to have again become a 
 close neighbour to a recej)tacle for lunatics. " The long ranges of red 
 brick, towards the left of the view," ^laple Leaf says, speaking of 
 an engraving of Toronto, " were once tuneful with the eloquence of 
 our legislators, but are noAv the [)eaceful retreat of learning. In the 
 main structure and west wing are the temporary halls and lecture 
 rooms of our noble university, wliile the building on the east is at 
 present occuided by the Lunatic Asylum, a playful illustration of the 
 ])oetic adage, 
 
 ' Great Wit to Mailness nearly is allied.' " 
 
 " A little in the rear," the account of the engi-aving goes on to say, 
 " above a thick plantation, may Ije seen the staff which, in days gone 
 by, was wont to bear the flag that indicated to the lieges of Toronto 
 the presence of the Lieutenant-Governor, in the official residence 
 endjosomod by those dark trees." 
 
 ]\[aple Leaf, who thus in 1848, and ten years earlier it may be 
 said, was the first to call forth 'with sensible cfiect, and mould into 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 273 
 
 ^: 
 
 respecffible form, a higher Caniulian literature, was the Rev. Dr. Mo- 
 Caul, still among us, engaged iu the same work ; not now single- 
 liancknl, so to speak, but surroiuided by com[)eers of tlie first class, all 
 " minding the same thing," seconded, too, more or less, by a younger 
 veneration scattered throughout Canada, who, having received from 
 such hands tlie sacred torch of Learning and light, are aml)itious, it 
 is hoped, to pass it on, trimmed and brilliant, to their successors. 
 
 I next make an extract from a volume of a very miscellaneous 
 character, published in Montreal in 18G0, bearing on its title page, 
 in addition to the real name of the author, the nom-de-plvvie by 
 which he had previously been extensively known, viz., " One who 
 has whistled at the Plough !" This work is entitled, "The Consei-va- 
 tive Science of Nations ; being the first complete narrative of Somer- 
 ville's Diligent Life iu the Service of Public Safety in Britain." 
 The mass of the book consists of nuitter with wliich (.'anada has little 
 concern, but the passsige which I quott; relates to Canadian atlairs. It 
 criticises, it will be seen, the tone adopted by the editor of the Qnehec 
 Merturij towards the Canadian French, and hints that the politics 
 of that paper are, in his opinion, " small," i.e., somewhat narrow in 
 their range. He also gives his views on the Science of Political 
 Economy. 
 
 " Of difficulties in govei-ning Canada-, on whicli you remark with 
 emphasis, 1 do not," the Whistler says to the editor of the Quebec 
 MercuTii, "as a stranger, presume to speak beyoiul this, that the 
 unenfranchised working class of Britain does not inherit an enmity 
 of race, language and religion, against the throne, church, laws and 
 constitution. If you see no diri'erence between the French Canadians 
 who are enfranchised here and the unenfranchised men of Britain, 
 I do. You date the difficulties of Canadian Government from the 
 advent of the Whigs to power at the Reform era, 183U, 18.'51, 
 1832, and rail at me for being their ally, while I call myself a 
 Conservative. Sir," he then shrewdly observes, "the difficulty hi 
 governing Canada dates from the 13th of September, 1759. Diffi- 
 culty of government is a penalty of conquest everywhere. Not 
 all the wisest or stei'nest Tories ever born to the inheritance of 
 power, could govern Canada by a compulsory sword and proscription 
 of race, as you seem to desire, in presence of the United States and 
 of free institutions in Britain. As for Radicals, Whigs, Tories and 
 
274 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 any such party alliances, I never was of them. Mine has not been a 
 life of small ])olitics. Mnch of my literary life has been spent, and 
 iny brain worn to even incajtiicitv for literary labour, in rescuin;^' the 
 science of Political Economy from the soulless materialism which had 
 made it, in moutlis of Whigs and Kadicals, odious to the People. It 
 has Ijeen my self-iiii posed task to humanize and Christianize Political 
 Economy. I assert man to be the primary element in national 
 wealth." 
 
 The Whistler, 3Ir. Somerville, still, I believe, resides in Canada, 
 and occasionally addresses a couimunication to (.^uiadian journals. 
 It was his intention, at one time, to identify himself with a i)eriodical 
 on Canadian Agi'iculture. In tlie preface to " The Diligent Life," 
 he thus si)eaks of himself: "Having been bred in the toils and joys 
 of agricultural and rui-al life, its associations liave for me a charm 
 beyond all other objects of literature." 
 
 By right of subsei^uent intimate association with our country, we 
 may fairly claim as a Canadian writer, Lil)ertas, the author of a book 
 entitled, ''The Fame and Glory of England Vindicated," which 
 aj)i)eared at New York in 1842, with that nom-Je-plame on its title- 
 page. It was a review and a refutation in detail of the work of a 
 United States writer named Lister, who, after a visit to England of a 
 few weeks, in 1840, undertook to pronounce judgment on what he saw 
 and heard there, and to give the pre-eminence in most things to the 
 United States. The book was entitled, "The Glory and Shame of 
 England " Libertas exposes the mode in which Lister's book was 
 manufactured, and the numerous misstatements and unwarrantable 
 inferences it contained respecting England and her institutions ; and 
 in the course of the discussion he is led to give his views — which are 
 enlightened and broad — on the English Corn Laws, the Poor Laws, 
 British and American Tariffs, Taxation, Education, Church and 
 State, Slavery, and other interosting questions ; and " in reversing," 
 Libertas says, " the low position in which Lister has placed Britain 
 and her institutions, and the high elevation he has assigned to the 
 United States, we conceive that we have done no more than justice 
 requires, and which, we feel assured, impartial history will award to 
 the two countries, when the traas-^'itions of the present generation 
 shall be i)]aced on record. * * * The author will think his 
 time well bestowed," Libertas continues, "if he shall succeed in 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 275 
 
 shr^winf^ the impossibility of sncli works as * The Glory and Shame of 
 Knyliiml ' being piiblLshod witliout risk of (letcctiou and exposure, 
 or in thro\vin<f any additional liglit on thosr- (jnestions which are now 
 agitating tho public on both sides of the Atlantic." I give a passage 
 fi-oiii the thirteenth chapter as a specimen of the writer's clear and 
 vi'4(trous style. Lister had asserted that " English liberty had its 
 broadest foundations dui'ing," as he cliose to call it, " Cromwell's 
 s])l'Mulid administration." Libertas then jiroceeds : " Xow, we never 
 knew any man who was a genuine friend of liberty, who admired 
 Olivci' Cromwel!. With such persons you will invai-ialdy find that 
 ii is republicanism, not liberty, that tliey admire. It is not tyranny 
 that tli(!y di.-^like, l)ut monarchy. Cromwell was, like many repub- 
 lican'<, a seeker of power. Re[>ul)licauisin was with him, as with 
 Napoleon Donapnrte, the ladder l»y which he reached that })Ower. 
 Both kicked away the ladder when the power was attained. Will 
 our autlior say," asks Libertas, " what stone was ever laid on the 
 fmph^ of freedom l)y Cromwell aftei- he reached hb; elevation ? He 
 broke up the remains of the Kinup Parliament with a military force, 
 crying out as the last vestige of popular power disa2)peared, ' Take 
 aw.iv that bauMi'.' He summoned another Parliament, consisting of 
 his own creatures, who went such lengths in folly that even their 
 master was ashamed of them." Then a little further on : •* We have 
 often been astonished to hear men, stylin;^ themselves democratical 
 republicans, praising Napoleon Bonaparte. That unprincipled man 
 went farther lengths tlian Cromwell ; and yet because he was 
 not born to royalty, and because he overturned ancient dynasties, he 
 is still looked on with respect by repiddicans, and all his tyranny 
 and and)ition are forgotten. Tlie splendid administration and 
 splendid talents of tliese ambitious men, only rendered them more 
 dangerous to the liberties and indepen-V^nce of '"itic^n?. The solution 
 of such strange inconsistency is plainly this : tha- many republicans 
 are not favourable to liberty, and many understai n nothing of its 
 genuine principles. It is too readily assumed that republicanism is 
 synonymous with freedom, but such is not necessarily the case. 
 Oppression by a majority is just as much oppression as by a king or 
 aiistocracy ; and the oppression Itecomes tndy fearful, when that 
 majority delegates its power to wicked and selfish men, and is so 
 ignorant that it is not aware when that power is abused." 
 
276 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLLME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 I 
 
 t 
 
 Lister, the very unfair, and in fact ignorant criticiser of old 
 England and her ways, was an American clergyuiim. Hence the 
 Tnotto from Burns on the title-page of the " Fame and Glory of 
 England : " 
 
 ' ' Some books are lies f rae end to end, 
 And some great lies were never penn'd ; 
 E'en miniitcrs, they ha'e been kenn'd, 
 
 In holy rapture, 
 A rousing wind at times to vend, 
 And nail't wi' Scripture. " 
 
 Libertas is known to have been the late Peter Brown, Esq., the 
 founder of the G/ob« journal in Toronto ; a Scottish gentleman, 
 freshly remembered in our community for his eminent talents as a 
 journalist, for his high literary attainments and skill, and for many 
 estimable traits of character, as a genial and benevolent member 
 of society. 
 
 i 
 
 'I 
 t 
 
I 
 
[332] 
 
 SOME CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED: 
 
 WITH SAMPLES OF TIIK \VRITIX(;s TO WHICH TIIEY 
 
 xVKE AITENDED. 
 
 BY HENUY iSCADDlNG, D.D. 
 
 (Continued from page 376. J 
 
 We now come to our politicjil noms-de-plume. 
 
 Canada, both in its French and its Englisli portions, has had a 
 troubled histojy. With a very mixed population, teeming with a 
 vai'iety of clashing prej\idices, brougiit with them or inherited from 
 the Old World, governors sent out by the parent state to guide their 
 destinies, to amnigamate them into one mass, to mould their character 
 into a national consistency, liave found, especially in years bygone, 
 that their tusk was not an easy or a trilling one ; aiid whatever their 
 line of conduct, they were sure to be criticized with severity by one 
 coterie or another in the community. II(;re, as elsewhen;, the news- 
 papers Mid other local periodicals have been vents for the sjjleen of 
 individuals; and as at early periods in Canada, Upper and Lower, 
 men in power held it to be ])roper to stand ou their dignity more 
 punctiliously than they do now, it was not quite safe for writers to 
 come out with their strictures in 'projirid persona. Consequently, 
 the local periodicals of the day abound with objui-gatoi-y comnumica- 
 tions under the fictitious signatures usually adojtted in the newspapers 
 and periodicals of the same period in (treat Britain and Ireland. 
 And when I say in former days men in power were specially touchy, 
 I include in the expression the Houses of Assembly themselves, 
 which were very ready to summon otlenders before them for verbal 
 bi-eaches of privilege. Thus j\Ir. Cary, editor of the Quehec Mercitrii. 
 was sent for V)y the Lower Canadian House, in 1813, for publishing 
 a communication signed *' Juniolus Canadensis," an invecti\'e, in the 
 style of Junius, against Mr. Stuai-t, a member of the House. Mr. 
 Carv absented himself from the citv durinj; the remainder of the 
 Session, and so eluded the search of the Serjeant-at-Arms. But tlie 
 
CANADIAN NOMB bE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 J33 
 
 day after tbo prorogation the {<A\ow'uk^ Canl appeared in the Mermry: 
 "The i:^Jitor's respects to a iiiajority of the House of AsstMiiKly. 
 Being just arrived from a tour (A bu>irie<i.s, h»' le.irna tliat the Jlouso 
 had evinced much anxiety to hfn; hirn during his absence. Unfor- 
 tunately, liis return has taken \thf^r n 'uy tixj lute for him to have 
 the honour of waiting ou the Hon.-*;, He is, however, ratiier at a 
 loss to conceive how liis present; c<'j>»jld ^>e in any manner uselul in 
 assisting them in their vocation of framing laws." 
 
 It would be, of course, an eudlem and unpnjtitablo undertaking to 
 trace the atithorship of the gnsat Ijujik of |)S*Midonymou.s productions 
 in early Canadian journals ou {«r>iitiir;al subjects. But one twra-de- 
 plume which appeai-ed in the coluuirijt of the Montreal Herald, in the 
 years 1 Hi 3-15, presents excejnional claim.s to consideration. The 
 signature of Veritas has ]>ec<>m*r biAtorical. Moreover, it possessed 
 for a time an additional degree of iiiter»,'st from the slight mystery 
 and uncertainty which uttachwJ xo ii. the author having taken some 
 pains, as I suppose, to maintain au Lnc^nrnito. As all }»('i'sons con- 
 cerned have long j)assed oli' tL<^ sy.vrrifr, no hann will be tlone n-wv if 
 I remove the veil^ as I shall do \m^^ui\y, and for the iirst time since 
 an uncertainty on the subject spratii^ op- 
 
 Sir George Prevost was the G-oi-frnior-General of Canada and Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Forces in \^A'l, when the war broke out 
 between Great Britain and tL<; L'nitft*! ?^tat»'S, and the letters of 
 Veritas are devoted to an adver** criticism of Sir George's military 
 tactics throughout the unnatural <.vj»niest. In many of tlu; subseijuent 
 accounts of the war of 1812, Vfritas* is fpioted as an authority, but 
 I do not observe anywhere that tine real name of the writer is men- 
 tioned. It became, in fact, as we diafl Jiee, almost irretrieval»ly lost. 
 So late as 1855, after all rea-son for secrecy had passed away, Aiichin 
 leek, in his "History of the War '12, '13, 'U," defends Sir George 
 Prevost a<iainst the strictures of the sliadowv Veritas. " Veritas 
 observes," he says, " that it is thc' fccme of assurance to insinuate that 
 the [British] Ministry were to bkm^; for the insufficiency [of force in 
 the two Provinces at the outbr^k (A the w:a], especiully as they 
 could only have a knowledge of o^nr wants through Sir George's in- 
 formation. Now, how in justioe," Afichinleck asks, " can Sir George 
 be blamed for not informing \WimtfT% of his recpiirements for a war 
 which he w^as instructed [by that 3Iini.stry] by all the means in his 
 power to avoid the promotion of? In his anxiety to attack the 
 
334 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 movers of tlio address [to Sir (leor^n, on his dopurturo from Quebec] 
 in reference to the wiir, Veritas has suffered himself to fjo to tlie 
 verge of injustice." Again, in Col. W. F. Collin's admirable and 
 elu(juent work, entitled " 1812 ; or the War and its Moral : a Cana- 
 dian Chronicle," it is observed, " If York (Toronto) had been left 
 dofencrless and unprotected ; if a ship of war in the hands of the 
 shipwright had been recklessly exposed to destruction, the fault was 
 not with Sheatlb nor with his direct stipcrior, Sir (Jeorge Prevost, as 
 charged by Veritas, but with the authorities in England, who trilled 
 with the emergency until too late, and then spent treasures in life 
 and m(mey to repair an iri-ej>arablo error." 
 
 In Tupper's •' Life and Letters of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock," 
 Veritas is also largely quoted, but in the same abstract way. The 
 author of an article in the Quartcrli/ liexnew of July, 1822, headed 
 "Campaigns in the Canadas," evidently knew who Veritas was; but 
 he refrains from naming him. " The Letters of Veritas," the writer 
 says, "were originally printed in a weekly paper puljlished at Mon- 
 treal, in Lower Canada, and subseqnently collect(!d in the little volume 
 before us. Within a small compass, ' the reviewer continues, " these 
 unpretending letters contain a gi'eater body of useful information 
 upon the campaigns in the Canadas than is anywhere else to be found. 
 They are, we believe, the ]»roduction of a gentleman in Montreal of 
 known ros])ectal)ility. Thougli not a military man, he enjoyed the 
 best o])port unities for acquaintance with the circumstances of the 
 war ; and as these letters, which excited great attention in the 
 Canadas, appeared in successive papers while Monti-cal was filled 
 with almost all the officers of rank who liad served in the country, 
 it may i-easonably be presumed that his eiTors, luid he committed 
 any, would not have escaped without censure ; yet no reply was ever 
 attempted to his statements — no doubt ever expressed in the pro- 
 vinces of the correctness of his assertions." My curiosity, a few 
 years since, having become aroused as to the identity of Veritas, it 
 came to be with me, for a time, a kind of Junius-question which I 
 sought to solve : for a long time, but not, finally, without success. 
 I searched in vain in the useful works of Mr. H. J. Morgan, of 
 Ottawa, the compiler of " Sketches of Celebrated Canadians," and the 
 Blhliotheca Canadensis ; but I found no clue. I interrogated the late 
 Rev. Dr. Ricliardson on the subject (he, in his younger days, lost an 
 arm while actively serving in a naval capacity in one of the expedi- 
 
CANADIAN' NOMS-nE-rLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 33ft 
 
 tions (irdorcd i»y Sir Ooorfjo Provost). I atMros.s»Hl notes to Hcveml 
 goiitlciiKMi wlio had int(*rost<Ml thcinsclvt's in fiirly U.»iiiuli:in hi.storv. 
 Itiit without result. Ainonu'st them, e.sp»'cially, I appli.'d to Col. 
 Coffin, above-named, hut after inijuiry instituted, he could allurd me 
 no help. rn(piiri(!S were also niadt- for me of the present jiroprietc^i-s 
 and |)ultlisheis of the Montv^nl llirahl. I thoui,'ht that iH).s.siblv 
 amoiij,' the traditions of the otlice of that paper the name of it.s now 
 historieal conti-ihutor mi;,'ht he jireservcd. Mr. Penny, the present 
 editor of the llorald, kin<lly endoavoared to <;et the dt'sired infor- 
 mation from Mr. Archibald Ker^'uson, a fjentleman now ayed more 
 than ninety years, formerly projirietor of Herald. Mr. Ferguson's 
 rcj)ly, however, now lyinj,' befon; me, was as follows : — " lu answer 
 to your note of tho 17th instant, I be<;; to inform you that I do not 
 know who wro - the articles S!i,'ned Veritas anil Nerva, in 1815. 
 They were published nine years before I purchased tlie I/>'r(dd 
 e.sta})lishment, and the two former pro[)rietors were dead before I 
 jmrchased." (1 had coupled my query about Veritas with one alxiut 
 a writer stvliufj himself Nerva, also in the ller(dd : but Nerva I 
 discovered afterwards bv accident, while lookin*' throu'di the articles 
 in Mr. Mor<,'an's JUhliotheca Canaderisis.) How J came at length to 
 recover the all but totally forgotten authorshij) of the Veritas letters, 
 I will detail concisely after I have given a sam{)Ie or two of tho j)ro- 
 ductions them.selve.s. I add the rellection : if in so short a period an 
 uncertainty so decided could sj»ring up in regard to writings whose 
 authorslii[) was jirobably notorious to contemporaries, how easy it 
 must have been, in the days when printing was unknown, and when 
 of many an important record no du])licate existed, for ambiguities to 
 arise on such points ; how easy it must have been, at the dictate of 
 policy or ambition, to falsify and substitute, with small chance of 
 explicit detection at the hands of posterity. 
 
 Veritas, throughout his letters, inveighs against Sir George Prevost 
 for an apparent lack of energy, decision, and dash. liut we must 
 bear in mind what Auchinleck has said, as quoted just now, that Sir 
 George was probably under restraint from the instructions which he 
 had received from the Ministry at home, who liad no relish for the 
 contest in which they found themselves engaged. " Towards spring, 
 1814, so inveterate," Veritas says, "'was Sir George's rage for ai*mis- 
 tices, notwithstanding the injurious consequences of the former to 
 the military service, that a negotiation for another was set on foot, 
 
336 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 and defeated solely from the refusal of our admiral on tlie American 
 Station to concur in it. The Americans gave out that the proposition 
 came from Sir George, which I believe, l)ecause otherwise he would 
 have met it at once by a direct negative that would have ended all 
 discussion on the subject. In January, 1814, whilst the Legishiture 
 was sitting at Quebec, Sir George made a trip to Montreal, from no 
 military motive that has ever been discovered or assigned, during 
 whi(;h the then Assembly were active in preparing mischief. That 
 Session was a stormy one, and ending in Mai'ch, the Head-Quarters 
 were retransferred to Montreal. * # * # 
 
 Soon after the navigation opened upon Lake Champlain, Capt. Pring, 
 in the naval command there, sailed from Isle aux Noix with our 
 flotilla, then superior to that of the enemy, which had wintei'cd in 
 Otter Creek, where they had a ship-yard employed in constructing 
 a force intended to surpass ours. Capt. Pring, in consequence, a})plie(l 
 to Sir George for some troops to accompany him, with a view of 
 attempting to destroy this estiiblishment and the vessels in that creek, 
 whetlier aliout or upon the stocks, which, next to Sackett's Harbour, 
 was an object worth a trial at some risk. As usual, the application 
 was refused. When Capt. Pving returned from his cruiso u]) that 
 creek, he reported to Sir George what might have been done by a 
 joint attack, and then he was offered assistance, but the Ca])tain 
 rejilied that it was then too late, as the enemy had taken alariu and 
 prepared accordingly. Sir George had the extraordinary fatality of 
 either never attempting an active operation, or of thinking of it only 
 when the time for pi'actical execution was past." 
 
 Here is a passage which, for stylo, may remind us of Kinglake or 
 Sir William Napier ; the incidents referred to will also pi'obal.ly 
 interest us. "As the season for action advanced," Veritas says, " to 
 the astonishment of everyone, there w-as formed at Chambly what is 
 callcil a Camp of Instruction, comjirising the greater part of the force 
 above enumerated, and from which mi<dit and ouiiht to have been 
 detached a force for the attack of Sackett's Harbour, or for the rein- 
 forcement of the Niagara frontier, seriously threatened as it then was 
 (1814) with invasion, in the opinion of every person who had eyes to 
 see or ears to hear. Had the first-mentioned object been attained^ 
 the enemy would not have ventured to cross into Upper Canada ; or 
 if Sir (ieorge was obstinately bent on letting Sau'kett's Harbour alone, 
 the reinforcement of the Niagara frontier became the more imperiously 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 337 
 
 necessary to secure it against tlie enemy's accumiilating force, which 
 had been even seen by some of our officers in returning from captivity, 
 but whose reports thereon were utterly disregiirdeJ. Thus the Camp 
 above-said furnished the means of instructioii to tlie enemy upon the 
 said frontier, by allowing them to practise against our very inferior 
 force ; but of destruction to our troops there eniphn^ed, who were 
 thereby doomed to combat against fearful odds, as will be seen here- 
 after, which is quite inexcusable, seeing we had the means of pre- 
 vention in our power ; for so infatuated was Sir George that not a 
 man was sent from Lower Canada to their aid until the 12th July, 
 after our tirst disaster c.t Chippewa was known. "■' "' * 
 
 From the end of May, reinforcements from Great Britahi. Ireland 
 and the West Indies came in ; but the accursed Camp of Instruction 
 continued; when to our astonishment, in June and July, such a 
 numerous body of troops arrived from Bordeaux that it became 
 evident Sir George was quite bewildered thereby. Piecemeal rein- 
 forcements were now des[)atchcd to Upper Canada, and a very large 
 force kept below to do something — but Avhat it was remained doubt- 
 ful, although a bustle of preparation began across the river, which 
 was continued for months at inllnite exj)ense." I atld one more 
 passage : an indignant, Junius-like denunciation of certain speeches 
 in the House of Commons, notably one by jVIr. Whitbread, on the 
 subject of the destruction of the public buildings at Washington by 
 a British force, in which speeches more feeling was apparently shown 
 for +he loss experienced by the United States Government than for 
 the sufi'erings of British subjects when violently de])rived of their 
 homes and property at Yoi-k and Niagara, a few mouths ]>reviously, 
 by an invading United States army, " Now, is it ])0.ssible to con- 
 ceive," Veritas asks, "that all these and former acts of conflagration 
 and })illage could have happened without orders froju the Anunican 
 Government J And yet if we had retaliated upon this princi|»le in 
 the Chesaj)eake, or eLsev/here (which was completely in our power to 
 have done), what an outcry would have been raised Ijv ^Ir. Madison, 
 and re-echoed by the Opposition in the Imperial Parliament, who, 
 on finding themselves beat from their grounds of censure against our 
 Government and officers for the destruction of the ])ublic buildings 
 at Washington, when proved to ha re been merely retaliatory, then 
 took up a nev,^ position ecpially un -enable, viz., that it would have 
 been mignauimous not to have followed ..he example of the Ameri- 
 
e«ti«tJMB 
 
 338 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 cans ill tluur conduct at York and Newark. Now, in common sense, 
 what does such doctrine mean? Do tliese mock-patriots reserve all 
 their sympathies for the enemies of their country, and regai'tl with 
 callous indifference the suff(M'ings of their fellow-subjects? Are the 
 latter not entitled to protection and consideration ; and as means of 
 that protection, was it not incumbent upon our officers, and a point 
 of justice, to turn against the enemy their own weapons, and thereby 
 make them feel the consequences of their own enormity of conduct, 
 with a view to prevent their repeating the like in future] It is very 
 magnanimous, to be sure, to speak with cold-])looded indifference 
 about the infliction of ruin upon friends, at the distance of 3,000 
 miles, by fire and devastation in the most aggravated sha])es ; ])ut I 
 will venture to s;jy that if Mr. Whitbread's brewery and his }»i-incely 
 mansion, with all their contents, had been at York or Newark, and 
 shared the fate of the buildiiuxs there consigned to the flames by the 
 enemy, we should never have heard of his lecture upon the vii'tue of 
 magnanimity." 
 
 It was by the aid of Sir Francis Hincks, now resident in j\Iontreal, 
 that my curiosity in regard to Veritas was at length gratified. Sir 
 Francis took much interest in the inquiry, when it chanced to be 
 projtosed to hiin ; and he kindly ap])lied for me to the {)resent authori- 
 ties of the Herald ofhce, with the result already mentioned. A\'hen 
 now I supposed nothing farther wo\dd come of the investigation, I 
 unexpectedly received from Sir Francis the following communication, 
 which sets the question at rest. The note is dated jNIontreal, 15th 
 July, 1873. "By a very singular accident," Sir Francis writes, "I 
 obtained a few moments ago the information which you wanted a 
 few weeks since. Coming into town this morning, I met Mr. J. S. 
 ]\tcKenzie, one of our oldest and wealthiest citizens, lately a Director 
 of the Bank of Montreal, and senior })artney of one of our principal 
 firms. He was talking of his ago, and as having served in the war 
 of 1812. It immediately occurred to me that he might know who 
 Veritas was ; but at the moment I had forgotten this signature, and 
 was only able to ask if ho recollected a criticism on Sir George 
 Prevost's oi>erations. ' Certainly,' he said, ' it was signed Vekitas, 
 and was written liy the Hon. John Hichardson, with whom I was a 
 clerk in the old house of Forsyth, Kichardson ik Co.' Mr. Richardson 
 was a very likely man to have written such an article," Sir Francis 
 adds, *' an<l Mr. McKenzie was quite clear on the point. I think, 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 339 
 
 tlierefore, you may be satisfied. I liad overlooked Mr. McKenzie, 
 who is one of our octogenarians." 
 
 The most concise way in which I can explain who Mr. Eichaidson, 
 the writer of the letters signed " Veritas " was, will be to copy the 
 inscription on a marble tablet on the outer wall of the " Richardson 
 Winf " of tlie General Hospital at Montreal. It reads as follows : — 
 ''This building was erected A.D. 1852, to commemorate the public 
 and private virtues of the Plon. John Eiehardson, a distinguished 
 merchant of this City, and Member of the Executive and Logisliitive 
 Councils of tlie Province. He was the hrst President of this Hos- 
 pital, and a liberal contributor to its foundation and support. He 
 was born at Portsoy, North Britain, and died ISth May, 1831, aged 
 76 years." 
 
 Veritixs closes his series of letters with this paragraph : "It was 
 my intention to have given also a sketch of Sir Ueorge's civil adminis- 
 tration ; but reflecting that it has been already so ably depicted by 
 Nerva, in his admirably written allegory, I shall for the present not 
 prosecute that intention." The " allegory " of Nerva was contained 
 in a series of lettei-s, professedly on Irish affairs, addressed to the 
 Herald, in which Canada was aduml»nited by Ireland, 8ir George 
 Prevost by Earl Fitzwilliam, and 8ir George's predecessor, Sir Jamos 
 Craig, by Lord Westmoreland. Sir George's marked policy of con- 
 ciliation as a civil governor is therein roundly condemned, Imt 
 evidently from the point of view of a narrow conservatism ; a policy, 
 it must be remembered, enjoined by Sir George's masters in England, 
 with distinct reference to the immediate crisis, when Canada was 
 about to be exposed to an invasion, and required for its safety a 
 people, so for as possible, united. " Between two .systems of govern- 
 ment proposed for adoption," Nerva observes, '' theorists may often 
 find it difticult to determine the claims to preference ; because the 
 peculiar defects of each nuiy be comi>ensated by peculiar advantages ; 
 but where a system of government is already established, there are 
 certain rules for its exercise from which the experience of practical 
 politicians will i)ronounce all deviation to be improper and hazardous. 
 Of these rules, the most universally admitted is, that all changes 
 should be gradual, not abrupt ; should be necessary, not experimental. 
 But Earl Fitzwilliam began his innovations upon his entrance into 
 office, without waiting to ascertain whether Lord Westmoreland's 
 measures were achipted to the situation of the country ; without lu- 
 
340 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 deed knowing what the situation of the country required, or whether 
 a sudden change, even from what miirlit originally have been impro- 
 per, would not produce greati^r evil than that which it should be 
 intended to correct His proj>er path had in<lee<l been mark<;d out 
 for him, and every obstruction and difficulty removed by Lord West- 
 moreland, whose laboui-s, had they been turned to advantage, would 
 have enal)led his successor to pursue, with perfect ease and safety, a 
 coui'se at once consistent with his own honour and with the dignity 
 of his government. Yet these advantages were ovei-looked or despised 
 by the Earl, who, like some rulers in whom vanity has pi-edominated 
 over judgment, disdained to govern in any respect according to the 
 prescrij)tion or example of another. In consequence, he was speedily 
 surrounded by men of principles avoweiUy inimical to the just and 
 long-established prei'ogatives of the C'ro^^^), who were the obj >cts of 
 his peculiar notice, and most graciou.sly received at his table and his 
 court. Situations of trust and power were accumulated upon indivi- 
 duals unknown befoi'<3 in departments of State, ;ind incapable as well 
 us regardless of th(^ performance of theur official duties ; while their 
 rapacity was so insatiable as to force fmrn the luiwilling Vicisroy 
 himself the observation, that if En:,dand and Ireland were given to 
 them as estates, they would ask for the Isle of Man as a kitchen 
 garden. A viceroy, \\4th the assistance of associates, de[)endants and 
 comjianious of f:o unusual a cast, it would be natui-al to expect Avould 
 difler in pi-inciple find in action from most representatives of royalty. 
 And the event fully jiistitied the expectation. The conciliation of 
 the worthless became his primary object ; and concession was con- 
 sidered the princii)al means." 
 
 Nerva, \\ hose letters, like those of Veritas, were re-published in 
 a collected form, after their a}»pearance in the Herald, was Mr. 
 Justice dale, wdio died at Montreal in 1805. These productions 
 thus acfpiired a more than temponiry cii-culation and influence. In 
 regard to the strictui-es of Veritas, we reail among the nuscellaneous 
 editorial matter of the Herald of August li'th, 1815, the ft)llowing 
 item : " Persons living at a distance are informed that the whole of 
 the ii;q<res.-ions of ' Veritas Letters ' are sold. We give this 
 notice in order to save correspondents the expense of postage. We 
 understand an edition is now printing at Halifax. Veritas was 
 uncommoidy well received in that city." 
 
 The editor and printer of the Herald were both prosecuted by the 
 Government. In the mimber of that journal for March 11, 1815, 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 311 
 
 we have tlio announcement that " On Monday hist [this would be 
 March 5] tlic Grand Jury for tliLs District found a l)ii] of indictment 
 against tlie printer of this paper for a lilx'l on the Commander-in- 
 Chief. On \Vednes(hiy [tin's wouhl he the 7th], hvo Ijills were found 
 against tlie Editor for the same offences. To all the eharfcs con- 
 tained in the indictments the defendants ]ileaded Xot Guilt;/. Thov 
 readily found security to appear in another term for trial." We 
 have no notice given us in siibserpicnt journals of the issue of the 
 pi'osecution. It may have been dropped in consequence of the death 
 of Sir Georaje Prevost in Janunrv, 181(!. 
 
 Mr. Mungo Kay, the edifor, and Mr. W. Gray, the pi-inter, did 
 ' xX betray the confidence placed in them by the ]>seudonymous writers 
 in their journal, except in one instance. It happened that ]\[r. 
 Sewell, the Solicitor-General, whose duty it became to conduct th(> 
 proceedings against the alleged libellers, had himself on two occa- 
 sions, under the nom-de-plume of Colonist, contributed ailicles tO' 
 the Herald which could be interpreted as censure on the Ccmraauder- 
 in-Chief. As, in the opinion of the editor and printer, Mr. So well 
 (exhibited an over-zeal in pressing the case against them, by summon- 
 ing the employe's of the printuig office to give evidence, they con- 
 sidered themselves at libertv to disclose to Sir Georiie Prevost the 
 authorship of thf^ particular ai^ticles referred to, and this led to the 
 removal of Mr. Sewell from the Solicitor-Generalship. The result 
 of the prosecution was thus probably more serious to him than to 
 anv one else : his official advancement receivinix on. the occasion a 
 fatal check. 
 
 Contemporary with Veritas and Ncrva in the volumes of the 
 Herald was a writer who signed himself Le Bon Vienx Temps. He 
 was an exponent of the views of the loyally-disjiosed French Cana- 
 dians in regard to the politics of the day. I have not be(!n altle to 
 trace satisfactorily the authoi'ship of the letters thus subscribed. 
 They have been attiibuted to a Vigm- and a Quesntd. 
 
 In 1843 Sir Charles jNIetcalfe succeeded Sir Chai-les P.agot in the 
 Governor-Generalship of Canada. Responsible Go^•ernment had not 
 long been conceded ; and tlie Governors themselves had not yet quite 
 cordially come into the system. Tlunr view of their own rcs[)onsi- 
 Itility to the Crown and people of England conflicted in some degree 
 with the theory of Responsible Government as understood by Cana- 
 dian,s. Sir Charles Metcalfe, though nominally accepting Responsible 
 

 CANADIAN N0M3-DE-rLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 Crovernment, fouml Liiiisolf in nnt;igouiara with its warmest siifi- 
 porters. Possessed of a stron;? will, lie Avislied to rule as well as 
 reign ; and, probably, could he have had, consistently with the new 
 theory, his own way in the management of public alluirs, the common 
 weal would not have suffered; for he was a highly-gifted, excelhnt, 
 and most beiievolent-minded man. But the amour projtre of Cana- 
 dian statesmen, just beginning to rejoice in the newly-acquinnl right 
 of stilf-government, was (piickly offended l)y Sir Charles' too frequent 
 interposition of his own in;lividual judgment. 
 
 Legion's letters were a sharp attack upon Sir Charles Metcalfe's 
 mode of administering the Canadian government, and a vindication 
 of the view taken of the reformed Canadian constitution by the 
 Liberal party. Nominally they wei-e a reply to a series of letters by 
 Dr. EiiTftrton E,verson, in defence of Sir Charles ]Metcalfe's ideas ; and 
 it was durin<x the course of this discussion that Legion fastened on 
 his opponent the curious soubri(piet of Leonidas; not, as I have seen 
 it alleged, because his antagonist had ado})ted that name as a nom-de- 
 phime, but simply, because, when rushing to the protection of the 
 <TOvernor-Ceneral, he chanced to liken himself to the Spartan hcro."'^ 
 I need not go further into the particulars of this renowned encounter. 
 I will sini])ly give a specimen or two of Legion's ilowing, oratorical 
 style. I first quote a short passage, which disposes of the nom-de- 
 jilume theory of the origin of " Leonidas " as a soubriquet, and also 
 exi)lains why Legion himself adopted the obviously objectionable 
 signature which appears at the close of his letters : " Had he [his 
 opponent] signed himself the Doctor, or Leonidas, or Three IIundre<l 
 Spartans, or Wesley, or Fletcher, or liobert Hall, or Chalmer.s, 1 
 should have been spared the necessity for this letter," Legion says : 
 " but he [his opponent] has place.d his name and his former conduct 
 before the public as bearing upon the matter at issue, and as adding 
 weight to his arguments. I could not, therefore, as he say.s, pass it 
 
 * Tlie ]>;i.ssago rcferrt'd to cci'urs at p. iv. of ihc Introductiny Xotico, (lati'(l Cobnurfr, May 27, 
 ■5, I'l'i-'tixeil to "Sir Cliaiics 'vloiUtalCi; DutriKkd iii^'aiust tiiu Attacks of liis lato Couuacl- 
 'I'l;." "Mr. Kycrsiiii has not thdU^^lit proiicr, umlci- lu'dseiit ciri-aiiiistancos, to a'H'i'pt tlii- 
 ffi-'-if Suiierintendi'iit of Education; nor has any iioliticiil offlco ever bci'Ti oli'iri'd to him. 
 A)i'i he in ready to reliiKHiish any situation which Ik; now (ills ratlierthan nut a'HOiiijilish tliis 
 iiniicralivi undertaking. For if a Ticonidas and three hundied Spartans coulil throw thein- 
 .srlves iuii' the TlKTUiopyhe of death for the salvation of their co\iiitry, it would ill become orie 
 huinbk- Canadian to hesitate at any s;icriliee, or shrink from any repponsibiliiy, or even dangei, 
 in order to (irevent his own countrymen from ru.'diini,' into a vortex which, he is most certainly 
 pcrsnailcd, will involve many of tUeiu iu (;;ilamititH more serious than thuso which followed the 
 events of 1837." 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED, 
 
 o4.> 
 
 
 
 over; nor would it have been courteous to treat lu^ uatne and hi? 
 inducements as nothing. I tliink it a piece of miajudjs^. d egotism to 
 mix the name of a public writer up with his arguments ; 't ahvays- is 
 calculated to mislead, and at the best is loss of tiiuo • nd > '" j)rintinp; 
 materials, which now bia fair to ])e too much in requv?st t<> 'le wasted. 
 The above are my sentiments, Sir," the writer says tc 1 (r ■ editor of 
 the Examiner, the journal in which the letters first appf.iired, "Imt 
 as they are also the opinion of hundreds of thousands •■" . od loynl 
 Canadians, I have no right to the monopoly. I therciorc, Sir, with 
 all defcence to your readers, subscribe myself your an 1 tlnnr humble 
 servant. Legion — for We are ]Many." I now quote an elaborate dis- 
 crimination between desftotism and constitutional government, with 
 an ironical statement of the merits of the former un'ler certain 
 circumstances, and a repudiation uf the doctrine that riders in free 
 countries can proceed safely and satisfactorily without having regard 
 to public opinion and considerations of party. '"A pi.'^ty may b'.^ 
 defined for our present purpose," Legion observes, " as a number of 
 persons professing an opinion or oj)inions in vhich they ligrce ; oppo- 
 site parties, as two parties each respectively agreeing ,'iongst its 
 own members, and opposing tlie o{)inion or opinioiic -^ the other 
 party. As the whole of a community is rarely of or* '•pinion, the 
 opinion of the majority, or of those forming the largesr : arty, is, for 
 the purpose of government, said to be public ojdnion ; ai least it is 
 the oj)inion which for all practical purposes must be taken to be 
 public opinion. What is just, and right, and good," Legiun goes on 
 to say, " may be the object of a despotic as well as of a free govern- 
 ment. No one dreams of alleging that absolute power in the ruler 
 is iucon-istent with good government. All I need maintain is, that 
 absolute power in the ruler is inconsistent with all our notions of 
 free institutions. An absolute ruler may, with the best intentions, 
 look Avithin his own breast for the rules of right and wrong — to his 
 own reason for his policy ; and if his mind be better constituted, 
 and his means of information gi-eater than that of all others, his 
 government may be better and wiser than any government influenced 
 by popular opinion. To such a potentate, it is true praise to say of 
 liim that he possessed an inflexible determination to administer his 
 government without regard to party, because the opinions which 
 make pax-ties are beneath his consideration. He jutlges, he thinks. 
 he rules for himself; he puts down public opinion, for it is but an 
 
344 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE- PLUME IDENTIFIEP. 
 
 irapetlimont in liis way ; and lio rules irreapectivo of i)arty, because" 
 to him pul)lic opinion is as notliing. But just in proportion as the 
 form of a govei'nnK-nt is removed from a despotism, disregard of pub- 
 lic opinion becomes a crime in a ruh>i', and ceases to be a sultject for 
 eulogy. And he who administers a Government free and })opular in 
 its form, without regard to public opinion or to party opinions, call 
 it which we please, is a violator of the constitution he is boinid to 
 uphold, and insincere in his professions of attachment to that con- 
 stitution. Swift, in ridiculing party divisions, describes the kingdom 
 of Lilliput as divided into two parties, one of whoni wore Ioav heels 
 to their shoes, the other high heels ; and if Sir Charles Metcalfe had 
 been made Governor of Lilliput, he might have governed its diminu- 
 tive inhabitants without regard to their heels, and have chosen his 
 councillors from both parties indifferently, caring nothing for their 
 disputes, and desjiising their party ditierences ; but who Avould allege 
 that he was influenced by public opinion, or that he was administer- 
 ing Responsible Government] It is, however, just as a pigniy people 
 that Sir Charles has always regarded Canadians, and it is with this 
 view that he takes to himself the praise of inflexible determination; 
 but the inflexible determination of a ruler \inder the British Constitu- 
 tion is national determination ; and personal determination which 
 opposes this, is despotism. The threat to employ whatever force 
 may be necessary to enforce it, is tyranny ; and the pretence that it 
 is consistent with llesponsible Government is hy[)ocrisy." On Sir 
 (^harlcs' alleged resolve to act officially without the concurrence of 
 Iiis Executive Council, Legion thus remarks : " Charity may once 
 luive ascribed his invasion of the Constitution of this countiy to 
 ignorance of British constitutional usage ; but time has removed the 
 veil, and he must now be considered cither as the originator, or the 
 instrument of a design to defeat and put down L^spousible Govei'n- 
 n)f;nt in Canada. If Canadians value Kes})onsible Goveriunent, they 
 cannot give way. They must iiso every constitutional means of 
 asserting their rights, till they obtain them fully. If they do not 
 value British freedom, or if Dr. Ryerson has been able to frighten 
 them with his bugbear of " Ptoyal Proclamations and IMilitary Pro- 
 visions," let them kneel down and ask pardon for the presumption of 
 their Parliament, and let the reign of fiivonritism and intrigue con- 
 tinue. If Canadians have not the S])irit of British subjects, let them 
 be the servants of servants they deserve to be ; but if they hxxvQ any 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-rLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 345 
 
 wisli tor peace and quietness as the fruit of ii^nominious vussalao-o, 
 let tlicni })etitioii for tlie abolition of the Provincial Parliaraeiit. which 
 cannot exist without constantly reminding them of tlieii degrada- 
 tion. There may be something noble in politieal slavery ; but 
 political slavery with the forms of freedom is, to all intents and pur 
 poses, wretched and utterly despicable." 
 
 The letters of Legion were from the pen of Roljert Baldwin Sulli- 
 van, afterwards one of the judges of the Queen's Bench, anil pre- 
 viously a member of successive Governments before and after the 
 union of the Canadas. The author of the letters of Legic^n was 
 wont in his younger days to contiibute papers of a humorous and 
 playful character to the literary {)eriodicals of the day. In Si])bald's 
 Canadian Magazine, publisheil at York (Toronto) in 1833, are to 
 be seen communications of his luider the nomde-plu/ne of •' Cinna." 
 I select a jjassage from an amusing '" Essay on Ptoads," by Cinna.* 
 "This being an introductory essay," the writer says, '"it is tit that I 
 explain that my remarks will not be confined to mere terrestrial 
 roads ; they will, indeed, be princi})ally directed to those mental higli- 
 ways along which the glorious march of intellect is conducted, or 
 rather driven with such steam-engine impetuosity. The schoolmaster 
 is abroad, they say ; and, indeed, for any use he is of, may so re- 
 main ; learning is acquired nowadays without his assistance. The 
 road to the temple of Fame has been levelled and macadamized ; and 
 there are rumours of a railway and a canal. This last, to be sure, is 
 opposed by some old sober-sided fools, who tliinlc that the ancient 
 institutions at the top of the hill, and which have been erected v/ith 
 so much labour, will slide into tlui <le{^p cut which would be necessary 
 to bring the canal down to ditcli-water level ; but suppose they do. 
 who cares] Is it not better to go on a tow-\mth over their ruins, 
 than be threatened with a hempen one, into the other world, for tiy- 
 ing to undermine them 1 AYlien I was a litth; boy, niy grandmother 
 thought me a youth of talents rare when I learned my letters ; and 
 to say the truth, my talons were often made to look as rare as an 
 Abyssinian beefsteak before I acquired so much learning. 1 then 
 stuck so long in orthography, that one would think I w^as sixdl- 
 bouud. Oh ! if I had only waited till now, when grown up gentle- 
 men and ladies are tau-dit writini; in six short les.sous. 1 might in a 
 
 * Of a latrrdate is Uie "Cinna" of li,irket:i Caaadicui Magazine and tlio liingstou BrUisk 
 Whig, understood to have been W. 13. WMs, Esq., now County Judge of Kent. 
 
n4G 
 
 CANADIAN XOMS DE-PLUMK IDE.VTIFIED. 
 
 woek have boon a litcratn person, and so liiandtnl Ijy Act of Parlia- 
 ment. I nii;,dit then, indwul, have served my friends, who now say I 
 am a burden to tliein, with writs of ca-re and fiery faces, like Mr. 
 Und(n-hill ; or j)eiha|)S I might have been an attorney and then my 
 clients would give mo instructions, and pay besides ; and no one 
 could say my education would not bo finished some time or other, 
 unless, indeed, it is possible that my aforesaid instructions might 
 happen to be nevei' dun ! which is, it nmst bo acknowledged, very 
 unlikely." In the same Canadian Mwjazine are some poetic pieces 
 ivuni the haml of Cinna, humorous and serious, which I shall 
 presently notice. He explains in the following manner, in one of his 
 papers, how he first came to send the editor a communication in 
 prose : — '' I was sitting," he says, "one evening with my friend 'Sac 
 Bald' (so the editor Sibbald resolved his name on the covc's of the 
 Magazine), who everybody knows to be the proprietor of the Maga- 
 zine, and I wns reciting to him, as I thought most beautifully, some 
 cantos of my great epic poem, in which I ilatter myself I have 
 excelled most poets in making the sound agree with the sense. The 
 canto contained a sublime and musical description of the baying of a 
 kennel full of honnds by moonlight ; and of course the verse seemed 
 to echo the voices of the interesting animals who thus sang in concert 
 with the music of the spheres. The passage I was reading, notwith- 
 standing the sj)lendour of the lunar orb, was a dark one ; and I was 
 indulging myself in the hope that I had excelled even ray companion 
 ' Sae Bald' in the obscurity of his style, when I was awakejied from 
 my pleasing dream by his suddenly interrupting me. Laying down 
 his glass, ' Cinna, mon,' says he, 'will ye juf-t hand me the nutmeg?* 
 This spicj gale quite shijiwrecked the bark of my dogs, and oh ! how 
 that cinnamon and nutmeg gi'ated on my feelings 1 But think not, 
 reader, that my friend does not imderstand and feel poetry, particu- 
 larly such as mine. The truth was, I had chosen my time badly. 
 The printer's imp stood behind his chair. ' Cinna,' said Sae Bald, 
 ' Avhat for do ye no gie us some prose for the Mogazeen 1 Yon deevil 
 of a printer is in an unco hurry for matter, an' he says, nae matter 
 how I get it, it maun be furnishet directly.' 'And I suppose,' said 
 I, sna[)pishly, ' you cannot furnish it directly if your materials are 
 inverse.' " I close Cinna's prose with two anecdotes which he contrives 
 to bring in. (The " lied Lion " is still in being in Yoi'kvilie ; it 
 used to be known, from the name of the well-known proprietor and 
 manager, as Tiers' Tavern. It should have been mentioned above 
 
 1^ __ 
 
CANADIAN NOMS DE-PLCME FDENTIFIED. 
 
 317 
 
 tliiit the Untlrrliill there nanK-d waji a well-known locjil huiHn'.) "An 
 old awiuaintiinco of mine," Cinnn writes^ '• tho l.iiidlord of tlic Hod 
 Lion, who was a jolly fellow, ahhfm'/h bis nanio wan Tiers (wliat his 
 •wife's was before niariiai^o is now ffjtrwxtten. for Tiers dropped upon 
 the word and — blotted it out for '•rtr 1;. pnzzleil a gentleman sonijy 
 in my presence, by telling him that h*i. Tiers, was tired of jni'hlic. 
 life, and nnist retire from the '>orr. And I my.-;<df," (.'inna add.s. 
 "was once canvassing for a W'tit its Parliament, and ap[)lied to an 
 Irish friend to let me have sorne ^k'M fand, that being considered tlie 
 <^nly f[ualilieation necessary in a wria^jtr, I began l)y telling my 
 friend, in the elevated and patriotic vtyln which the election time 
 produces, that I was desirous at Laving a gtahe in the country. 
 • Tlien,' says he, ' you had b"tt^'r go to old Ireland for that same, for 
 tlio never a stenh you'll get in ihif country tit to ait, for love or 
 money.' " Outrageous jiuns. it wi31 lit> oWr\-ed, form tlu> sta})]e of 
 these papr^rs. iSome playf',:l ver-irf-s fr-im the same hand, in the 
 manner of Hood, and similaijy cliara*rtrTized, are to be seen also in 
 Sibbald's Magazine. As a sj)eciiii'-ii, I give a few lines from a ballad 
 of thirty-two stanzas. Tom S>:ja3j«-K a medical student, abi-itrncts 
 from a dissecting-room the head an-j ano-s of a dead body. The deed 
 is thus described : — 
 
 '• Says Tom, altlif^tigh the sky don't fall 
 
 1 thiijk I'll have a lark ; 
 This kind of larL tiity fly by night ; 
 
 So Turn got out i.i 't-^.l. 
 And took his st.^tl aisfi «t'>Ie two arms, 
 
 And bag;^ed tat fusl-frict'sj hea<l ; 
 Like other folks :;.La: tike to anna, 
 
 He took to leir' aal ma. 
 Although he ht:i!i a .» *h->t. f^re half 
 
 His heavy task wis jLme.'' 
 
 TliO grotesque consequences of the action are then detailed at 
 length, in language ingeniou,sl>- VinnrC'l. 1 observe also some grace- 
 ful songs by Cinna, in the llavnf^ iJSsivIy style. I select one verse: — 
 
 "The worm 1' 'if jx^,tal.s fold, 
 
 Gnawis at iti ::Mii^i%t core ; 
 And hn-e that za^m muiit he told 
 Cctntfumcs thi iutart the more." 
 
 T'r 
 
 ?o these extracts I suljjoin one {'>.%»age, in which the writer of the 
 Letters of Legion, and of tlie pro iwrdoaa subscribed " Cinna," speaks 
 in his own proper person. It h (r*jia an "Address on Inunigration 
 
318 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DIM'LlMi: IDDNTIFIKI). 
 
 iiiid r«)l('iiizjiti()ii," (Iclivorcd in (li(i JMeclianics' Iiistituto, Toronto, 
 1S17. Jt V ill 1)0 .seen tliiit ill 1817 ln' lunl ;i voiy clear vi(!\v of 
 the Citpiiltilitics of tin; then nltiiost wholly uii'lmclopcd North-West. 
 " I (laro sijy by this time," Mr. Sullivan said, in the conrsi! of liis 
 address, '* f ha\e established my character lor In'ing visionary and 
 over-ardent, and impatient; hut 1 havo t(t lead you yet farther. Just 
 tak(! the ma]) of Canada — hut no! that will not do ; take th(! m;i|' of 
 Xoi-th America, and look to the westward of that ^loi'ious inland 
 sea, J.ake Superior. I say iiothitig of th(^ minei-al treasui'cs of its 
 iKjrthei'u shores, or those of our own Lake Ifiwon, hut I ask you to 
 go with mo to the head of Lake Suj)erior, to the hoiindary line. You 
 will say it is a cold journey ; hut 1 tcill you the olimat'.; still im|)roves 
 as you '^o we.stwai'd. At the head of Lako Supei'ior we surmount ii 
 hcij,'ht of land, and tluni descend into the real ga)'den of the l>i-itish 
 po.ssessions, of which so few know anything. Books t('ll you little of 
 the country, and what they do say will deceive and mislead you. I 
 tell you what 1 havo heard directly from your townsman, Mr. Angus 
 Bethune, and indirectly from Mr. Ermatingor, voiy lately from that 
 countrv : — A little to the westward of Luke Suncrior is Lake Win- 
 
 V 4. 
 
 nipeg, and into Lake Winnipeg run.s the Saskatchewan River. It 
 takes its rise in the Rocky Mountains, and the lAike Winnipeg dis- 
 charges its waters towards and into Hudson's Bay. This river runs 
 from w(\st to v;\Ht iifteen hundred miles without an o1)Ktruction ; it is 
 iiaviu^il)](> for baits carrying ten or twelv*; tons. It runs throu'di a 
 country diversitied witli prairie, rich grass, clumps of forest, and on 
 one of the branches of the river arc coal-btMls, out of which coal can 
 be obtained by any one with a spade in his Isaiid or, without; and 
 the plains are covered with the wild butl'al) of ..\i ;e)ica. I am told 
 that you may drive a waggon from one end cO the other of the 
 country of the Saskatchewa]i ; and I am told, moreover, that it is 
 KU}ierior in soil and equal in climate to any part of Canada, and that 
 it [troduces wheat, barley, oats, potatoes — -in short, all the crops of 
 temperate climates — in abundance." Now that INlanitoba has been 
 organized, and a beneficent ci\ilization is beginning to spread itself 
 thence far out over the broad Saskatchewan valleys, d(?stined soon to 
 meet influences of a similar kind emanating from British Columbia, 
 the forecasts of a thoughtful, ardent mind in regard to these regions 
 some thirty years ago are interesting to read ; and they may help us 
 to realize and measure the progress — material, social, and inoral — 
 which has been made in that interval of time. 
 
[436] 
 
 SOME CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED: 
 
 WITH SAMPLES OF THE WRITINGS TO WHICH THEY 
 
 ARE APPENDED. 
 
 BY HENRY SCADDING, D. D. 
 
 f Continued from page SIS- ) 
 
 [My specimens of the wiitings of Patrick Swift should have pre- 
 ceded those given of the productions of Legion and Cinna.l 
 
 About the year 1826 or 1827, there appeared in the Colonial 
 Advocate, a well-known Canadian paper of the day, a name which 
 became subsequently a nom-de-plunie of great note, if not notoriety, 
 in Upper Canada. In the first instance, I believe, Patrick Swift 
 tiguretl simply as an interlocutor in an imaginary conference on 
 public affairs, held in a private parlour at Toronto, or York, as the 
 place was then called. But he afterwards appeared as the supposed 
 compiler of a remarkable almanac, which for several successive years 
 found its way into probably every house in Upper Canada. This 
 publication had a purpose, independently of the use implied by its 
 title. It was intended to advocate a radical reform in the govern- 
 ment of the country. Patrick Swift addressed himself especially to 
 the yeomen voters of Canada ; and his pages bristled, not only with 
 statistics of almost every kind, but with grievances and abuses, 
 curtly and pointedly stated. At the same time the remedies were 
 named as clearly and as plentifully. On looking calmly back now 
 on the times in which this almanac was issued, we shall all allow 
 that Mr. Patrick Swift was not so bad a counsellor of the public as 
 he was once represented to be. Borrowing an idea from Benjamin 
 Franklin, the earlier numbers of this publication were entitled 
 "Poor Eiohard," with the secondary heading of "The Yorkshire 
 ^ Imanac," with reference possibly to the Canadian county of York, 
 in which York or Toronto was situated. The name of the author 
 or editor is given on the title-page, thus: "Patrick Swift, late of 
 J3olfast, ill the Kingdom of Ireland, Esq., F.R.I., grand-nephew of 
 
CANADIAN NO.MS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 437 
 
 the celebrated Doctor Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's. Dublin, 
 etc. etc." In later issues it ap}»ears as '• Patrick S^vift, Esq., M.P.P., 
 Professor of Astrology, York." The Almanac for 1834 has dropped 
 the " Poor Richard," and also the reference to " Yorkshire," and 
 exhibits the fuller title of "A New Almanac for the Canadian True 
 Blues, with which is incorporated the Constitutional Reformer's Text 
 Book, for the Millennial and Propiietical year of the Grand General 
 Election for Upper Canada, and total and everlasting downfall of 
 Toryism in the British Empire." 
 
 I now proceed to give a specimen or two of Patrick Swift's style 
 as a propagandist of Reform. After giving a long and most minute 
 enumeration of taxes imposed in England, Scotland and Ireland, he 
 tells the Canadian yeomanry : " In short, everything that has an 
 existence on the face of the earth, or under the earth, or in the 
 firmament of heaven, is heavily taxed ; and these enormous taxes 
 are laid on and expended by a body called the House of Commons, 
 the majority of the members of Avhich are neither directly nor indi- 
 rectly the representatives of the people, but are the nominees of 
 lords, bishops, ind wealthy gentlemen. So that, if the representa- 
 tives of every great county, city and popidous borough in England, 
 Ireland and Walea, were to vote for a reduction of standing armies, 
 tithes and taxes, and for retrenchment and economy, the rotten 
 borough and Scots close countv members could and would outvote 
 them, and uphold corruption. Yorkshiremen in Upper Canada," 
 Swift exclaims, " think on these things ! Laws grind the poor, 
 when rich men make the laws." This, it must be noted, was written 
 in 1831. 
 
 Then, after an analysis of the U})per Canada Parliament of 1831, 
 showing the nationality of each of its "fty members and the num- 
 bers represented by each member respe L ' dy. he points cut an injua- 
 tice which seems to result from the existing distiibution of seats : 
 " The population of IJpper Camida," he says, " is estimated at 215,750, 
 which is under the actual nund)er of souls. Assuming the fact," he 
 continues, '' that the proj)erty is in proportion to the population, and 
 then taking population as the basis of representation, fifty members, 
 would give one i'epresentativc to every 4,315 inhabitants. But, 
 accoiding to the ['resent mode of projjortioning the mend)er3, the 
 minority pass laws to bii; ! the majority. For : The uiembers ol the 
 four towns, and for the oounties of Simcoe, Durham, Essex, Kent, 
 
438 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 Wentwortli, Norfolk, Oxford, Stormont, Dundas, Ottawa, Haldi- 
 mand, Frontonac, and Hastings, are in number 26 — the population 
 they re})resent being 70,500 — while the remaining counties of the 
 province, containing 145,250 inhabitants, are rejjresented bj cvly 24 
 members, or less than lialf the house. Thus the representacives of 
 less than one- third of the people are more in numbei- than tiie repre- 
 sentatives of the other tvv^o-thirds. Again : the counties of Norfolk, 
 Dundas, Hastings, Frontenac, Sinicoe, Haldimand, and Essex, and 
 the towns of Brockville and Niagara, with half the county of Dur- 
 ham, possess a population of 33,250, and send 15 members to the 
 House of Assembly — while the counties of York and Carleton, with 
 a population of 33,500, send only three members ; so that, if by a 
 popular legislative body it is n dant to obtain an expression of public 
 opinion on matters of government, the thz-ee votes of Messrs. Morris, 
 Ketchum and Mackenzie are a greater indication thereof than the 
 fifteen votes given for the places before mentioned." 
 
 In the Almanac of 1834 an elaborate scheme is presented for a 
 thorough organization of the Reformers of Upper Canada. Direc- 
 tions are given for the formation of " Central Committees, Town, 
 County and Provincial Conventions, and Regular Nominations," as 
 *' the sure legal Weapons by which Reformers may Ti'iumph." The 
 closing exhortation is : "It must not discourage the Reformers of 
 any township, if they happen to find themselves in the minority as 
 compared to the other inhabitants. Let them meet, few and small 
 as they may be, and observe the above usages, the same as if they 
 counted thousands. Time, which does much, is in their favour : they 
 may be sure that Upper Canada will form no exception to the other 
 parts of this continent : liberal principles must prevail : freedom is 
 indigenous in our soil." To the whole document is quaintly added : 
 " Sic suhscribltur. Patrick Swift." 
 
 A brief gu'umary of principles given just before will be of inte- 
 rest, as it will be seen that all of them have been accepted and 
 incorporated in our existing provincial constitutions, with the excep- 
 tion of the one which Patrick Swift himself at the moment did not 
 care to jiress. " Tiie Reformers," he says, ** are to be known by 
 their principles, which are : the control of the whole revenue to be 
 in the people's representatives; the Legislative Council to be elective; 
 the representation of the House of Assembly tx) be n% equally pro- 
 portioned to the j)opulation as possible ; the Executive Govevament 
 to incur a responsibility ; the laAV of primogeniture to be abolished ; 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 439 
 
 Halili- 
 :)ulation 
 5 of the 
 o').ly 24 
 icives of 
 10 repre- 
 ss or folic, 
 3ex, and 
 of Dur- 
 3 to the 
 on, with 
 
 I if l>y a 
 )f public 
 
 , Mort'is, 
 ilian the 
 
 ,ecl for a 
 
 Direc- 
 
 3, Town, 
 
 ions," as 
 
 " The 
 rmers of 
 lority as 
 lid small 
 
 if tliey 
 iir : they 
 he other 
 eedom is 
 7 added ; 
 
 of inte- 
 )ted and 
 le excep- 
 : did not 
 lown by 
 ue to be 
 elective ; 
 ally pro- 
 evjinient 
 )olished ; 
 
 the principle of Mr. Perry's Jury Bill to be adopted ; the Judiciary 
 to be independent ; the Military to }>e in strict subordination to the 
 Civil authority ; equal rights to the several members of the cmnmu- 
 nity ; every vestige of church-and-state union to be done away ; the 
 lands and all the revenues of the country to be under the control of 
 the country ; and education to be widely, carefully, and impartially 
 diffused. To these I would add that we ought to choose our own 
 Governors ; but I know that there are some Reformers who have 
 not made up their minds upon that qiiestion : I therefore advise it 
 be not pressed." In regard to the exception named, he expressed 
 himself in another part of the Almanac, thus : '' Patrick Swift 
 would veiy willingly exchange General Colborne for a Governor such 
 as is pictured in the following anecdote : A late number of the 
 London Courier contains the following extract of a letter from 
 America : ' I am travelling in V^ermont State for pleasure and infor- 
 mation. I have journeyed 500 miles in my OAvn carriage, by easy 
 stages, and have not seen a single person in my pi-ogi-ess to whom I 
 ishould have dared to offer alms ! As I was detained an hour or two 
 a few days since, I saw a stur<ly looking farmer pass the inn, driving 
 a one-horse cart loaded v^ith wool, on which he was seated. He 
 drove to a store, shouldered his liales of wool, one after another, 
 and placed them in the merchant's shop. Who do you think he was? 
 Palmer, the present Governor of the State of Vermont.' " This story 
 would, of course, be well relished by the majority of tho.^e for whom 
 the Almanac was prepared. The second edition of the nuiubor for 
 1834 has an exasperating dedication. It is addressed to three gen- 
 tlemen who were the wi-iter's most formidable political antrt,gonists ; 
 i'vo of them in England, one here. It reads thus : "To E. G. Stanley 
 and U. W. Hay, Secretaries of State for the North American Colo- 
 nies, and John Beverley Robinson, Judge and Tory Politician, at 
 York, in Upper Caiiada, to whose uniform support of opjtression 
 and misrule m Church and State, and steady friendship for Canada's 
 and Ireland's oppressors, the public are chiefly indebted for this 
 extra edition of twenty thousand ' Canadian True Blue Almanacs : ' 
 it is specially dedicated and inscril>ed by their trusty and well- 
 beloved cousin and councillor, Pat. Swift." " E. G. ^jUinley " was 
 subsequently the well-known Earl of Derljy. It is scarcely necessary 
 to mention, after all this, that Mr. Patrick Swift was Mr. William 
 Lyon Mackenzie, editor of the Colonial Advocate, and many times 
 elected a member of the Provin "al Parliament of Upper Canada. 
 
mm 
 
 UO 
 
 CANADIAN- NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 [My notice of '-Reckoner," "Mentor" and " Mercator," should 
 have baen inserted before, among the writers on miscellaneous 
 subjects.] 
 
 I regret that I am unable to give a sample of " Reckoner," the 
 author of seventy essays on various subjects, said to have appeared 
 in the KlnjstGn Gazette, circa 1811. This writer was the Rev. Dr. 
 Strachan, while yet a resident at Cornwall. I have seen communi- 
 cations from the same pen, in the Christian Recorder and the Cana- 
 dian Magazine, signed X. N., the finals of the writer's real name. 
 I must record also the pseudonym of " Mentor," appended to a series 
 of letters in tL Kingston Herald, 1839-44, afterwards collected 
 in pamphlet foi . '^'ley are a contribution to the literatui*e of 
 Canadian jurisprui, on the subject of discrepancies in lines of 
 
 survey, arising from variations in the magnetic needle in successive 
 years; a curious and dry subject, but yet of much interest, in 
 Canada, to the numerous patentees and gi-antees of land, and even 
 affording occasion now and then for a rhetorical burst, as, for 
 example, here : " This province was the asylum," Mentor says, "pro- 
 vided by his Majesty George the Third, of revered memory, for 
 faithful and attached subjects, who, after their settlement in a wild 
 and uncultivated wilderness, soon experienced the libei-ality of a 
 generous and just sovereign. His munificent donations of land, in 
 compensation for their losses in property, and supplies for the three 
 first years of the settlement, amidst obstacles and difficulties nearly 
 insuperable, are not equalleii in the history of any people or nation 
 under any other government. With a recollection of these rewards, 
 and -under a sense of their legal and just rights, the author, under 
 the signature of Mentor, is fully aware and sensible that the Loyal- 
 ists, their heirs and descendants, do and Avill regard usurped occu- 
 pancy, and illegal possession, and encroachment upon their patented 
 rights and estates, with feelings of indignation and discontent to- 
 wards the holders by injustice and spoliation ; but towards the 
 Government they will cherish the feelings of gratitude and loyalty ; 
 and moreover, they will justly appreciate the legacy of land left to 
 them by their fathers, and to which they will adhere with associa- 
 tions of fond attachment." "Mentor" is understood to have been 
 the Rev. George Okill Stuart, heir to lot 24 in the first concession of 
 Seigniory No. 1. (afterwards known as the township of Kingston), 
 as surveyed by Deputy Surveyor-General Collins, in 1783. 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 441 
 
 The series of letters signed '' Mercitor," addressed to the Montreal 
 Herald in 1807, in the "Contest between the Earl of Selkirk and 
 the Hudson's Bay Company on the one side, and the North West 
 Company on the other," and afterwards issued in pamphlet form, was 
 from the pen of the Right Hon. Edwai-d Ellice. 
 
 I notice next one or two writers under pseudonyms whose object 
 was the promotion of emigx-atioii and the instruction of emigrants. 
 I enclose them in my list, however, not on this account, but Ijecause 
 the productions themselves, being of a superior character in point of 
 matter and style, may be said to have entered into our Canadian 
 literature. First I name the " B.ickwoodsman," author of a volume 
 entitled " Statistical Sketches oi Upper Canada ;" published in Lon- 
 don by John Murray, Albemarle Street, in 1832, but dated from 
 Goderieh, on Lake Huron. The nine chapters of the little wor-k are 
 filled with useful statistics and matter-of-fact information, but all 
 cleverly spiced throughout with phjasant humour. Backwoodsman 
 undertook its composition becaiise he was constantly in the receipt 
 of inquiries, couched of course in polite terms, and expressing the 
 writer's sincere sorrow for taking up so much of his vnluable time : 
 " After having filled some i^eams in answer," Backwooilsinan says, 
 " and when every other packet Ijrought one, and no later than last 
 week I had two to answer, things l)egan to look serious, and so did I; 
 for I found that if they went on at this rate, I should have no ' vaki- 
 able time ' to devote to my own proper aff'airs. And therefore, it 
 being now midwinter," Backwoodsman says, "and seeing no {)ros- 
 pect of my being able to follow my out-of-door avocations for some 
 weeks, I set myself down in something like a pet to throw together 
 and put in form the more prominent parts of the information I had 
 been collecting, to the end that I might be enabled in future to answer 
 my voluminous correspondents after the manner of the late worthy 
 Mr. Abernethy, by referring them to certain pages of Mi/ Booh." 
 
 Here is one of Backwoodsman's reasons why emigrants from the 
 British Islands should prefer Canada to the L^nited States : 
 
 ** It is to many who happen to have consciences no light matter to 
 forswear their allegiance to th(nr king, and declare that they are 
 willing to take up arms against their native country at the call of 
 the country of their adoption ; and \inless they do so, they must 
 remain aliens for ever ; nay, even if they do manage to swallow such 
 an oath, it is seven years before their apostasy is rewarded by the 
 right of citizenship. In landing in His Majesty's dominions, they 
 
442 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS DE-PLUME ir-^'NTIFIED. 
 
 cany with them their rights of subjects, and, immediately on becoming 
 40s. freehohlers, have the right of voting for a representative." 
 
 Some tables at the end of the volume, showing the resources and 
 estimates of the Province of Upper Canada in tlie year 1832, would, 
 if quoted at length, amuse probably as well as instruct, in these 
 days when, to a Canadian minister of finance even in a province, 
 such figures must seem a mere bagatelle. Here are Backwoodsman's 
 conclusions on a review of these tables. He considers the prospects 
 they hold out to be encoui-aging. He indulges, at the same time, in 
 a little banter on the wisdom of the Upper House, which, it would 
 seem, had just stopped the supplies, and that too at an inopportune 
 moment. The remark about the consequent increase in the surplus 
 is probably a joke. 
 
 "From these statements it will appear," he says, "that the rev- 
 enues of the colony are in a very flourishing state ; as last year we 
 paid off 10 per cept. of the public debt, and this year, the Upper 
 House having n joctcd the supplies on nearly the last day of the 
 Session, when the mischief could not be remedied, it is ])robable the 
 surplus will be considerably greater. It has been eloqiiently said of 
 the Earl of Chatham, that he ' advanced the nation to a high pitch 
 of prosperity and glory by commerce, for the first time united with, 
 and made to flourisli by war.' In like mannei*, thougii by no means 
 Chathains, the legislators of Upper Canada have, for the first time I 
 suspect, succeeded in uniting revenue with debt, and making it 
 flourish by debt ; for it will be seen that the debts of the province 
 have been contracted chiefly for the purposes of public improvement, 
 and that the public works, as they develop themselves, will not only 
 repay the money expended on them, but become a permanent source 
 of revenue to the colony. Of the £47,490," he goes on to say, "of 
 taxes raised on the subject, directly and indirectly, we may estimate 
 that ,£10,000 is paid by the United States for British goods smug- 
 gled across the frontiers, leaving £37,490 as the whole of the pro- 
 vincial taxes to be paid by 300,000 people, — that is to say, in even 
 money, about 2 shillings sterling a head. Go that, it appears. Brother 
 Jonathan, with all the appari>nt economy of his institutions, pays to 
 his general and particular governments ten times as much as we do ; 
 and unfortunate John Bull, who, poor fellow, is much worse able to 
 afford it, just about twenty-five times as much." 
 
 " Backwoodsman " was Dr. William Dunlop, a distinguished con- 
 tributor to Blackwood and Fraser long before his settlement in 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 44 O 
 
 Canada, — to tlie /or?/ie7*, under the nom-de-plume of Colin Ballantyne. 
 K.N. His early life was full of adventure in India, and, [trfviously, 
 on this continent, as a surgeon in the Connaudit Ranfrers, during 
 the war of 1812-13-14. He was also widely known l)y the sobri- 
 quet of the Tijer, for his having succeeded in clearing the island of 
 Saugur, in India, of that pest. Dr. Dunlop died at Lachine in 1848. 
 A hue portrait of him exists in Tt)runto, the proj)erty of the late 
 Capt. Dick. It was to be seen at the Queen's Hotel in Toronto. 
 
 In 1849, a writer assuming the pseudonym of a " Pioneer of the 
 Wilderness" produced two volumes of notes on Upper Canada, under 
 the general title of "The Emigrant ('hurchman." Richard Bentley 
 was the publisher. As a well drawn picture of western Canada at 
 the time, it retains considerable value. " The Pioneer " was a man 
 of superior education, a keen observer, and a skilful writer. Here 
 is what he had to say of Brockville and the Thousand Islands : 
 "A few miles steaming, after leaving Prescott, brought us to Brock- 
 ville, which, to the author's taste, presents one of the j)rettiest and 
 most interesting localities on he river side in all Canada. It is 
 situated upon rather a steep bank, the a})proach to the town being 
 prettily overshadowed by trees, amongst which the church stands a 
 conspicuous object. A little further on, the river abounds with the 
 prettiest rocky islets, most of them wooded more or less, among 
 which, on a line summer afternoon, the white sails of tiny ])leasure- 
 skiffs may be seen gleaming here and there, giving visions of health 
 and iiniocent aquatic recreation. What a si)ot for a few Cambridge 
 or Oxford eight-oars to turn out in ! The effect of the handsome 
 boating uniforms of the crews, and perfect ai)pointment of the galleys 
 of Cam or Isis, with the gay blazoniy of their silken ensigns floating 
 in the wind, the boats dashing bravely up to their stations, or shoot- 
 ing with racer-like velocity through the varied scene of isle and 
 wooded bank and river, amidst the cheers of admiring thousands, 
 was all that was wanting to complete the vision to the eye of an 
 English University man. I am not aware," the Pioneer adds, 
 " whether this right manly and gallant exercise is followed with any 
 ardour by the University of Toronto. The open shores of Lake 
 Ontario are wanting, however, in the diversity of beauty ])resented 
 by the scenei-y around Brockville ; and while we yet muse we ai'e 
 dashing and splashing on till islet after isk-t, rocky and grove- 
 ci'owned, sweeping into view in lovely and still varying succession, 
 proclaims our approach to the for-famed Lake of the Tliouf^a'ul 
 
444 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 Islands. Of all the exquisite scenery that it has been the author's 
 
 privilege to gaze upon, nothing that he can remember ap})roaches 
 
 this in beauty. As we shot tlu-ough the open narrow and intricate 
 
 channels of this watery paradise, the scene was reposing in all the 
 
 luxurious softness of a gorgeous Canadian autumnal sunset. And as 
 
 the glowing beams poured their bright torrents of radiance through 
 
 natural watery vistas, or turned the liquid expanse to molten gold, 
 
 the glorious islets seemed at times to float in light, realizing the 
 
 dream of some fairy scene of paradise. Sometimes we would shoot 
 
 past a spot of exquisite beauty, almost touching the shore ; anon, 
 
 just as our liquid jiathway appeared entirely closed in, we would 
 
 sv 3ep off at an angle and open another unexpected channel, or catch 
 
 a glimpse of the main-land as we wended by some bay of surpassing 
 
 outline, heavily fringed with wood, all gloriously pai'klike to the 
 
 water's side, holding forth happy visions of many a calm retreat and 
 
 home of peace and love, when the axe and the plough of the colonist 
 
 should have carved out an abode where the lines were fallen indeed 
 
 in i)leasant places. Around on the other side, a long sweep of a bay 
 
 would open up towards the American shore, where it is too difficult 
 
 at times to distinguish earth from water, or air from either, so softly 
 
 were the lights and shadows blended ; and then the channel would 
 
 narrow again, until at length we brought up to take in wood at the 
 
 wild-looking settlement of Gananoque." 
 
 This " Pioneer of the Wilderness," who travelled over the country 
 with a hand fide intention of selecting a home within its borders, was 
 a clergyman of the Church of England, named Rose. His decease 
 occurred not long after his settlement here. 
 
 Also, in 1849, there was published in London by David Bogue, 
 Fleet Street, a volume of " Sketches of Canadian Life, Lay and 
 Ecclesiastical" — having on its title page, as the designation of its 
 author, *' A Presbyter of the Diocese of Toronto." This was a work 
 intended for the benefit and information of emigrants, not of the 
 humblest class. It is a series of pictures, cleverly and vividly drawn 
 from the life, linked together by mean- of a story, giving the sup- 
 posed experiences of Harry Vernon, an English gentleman's fourth 
 son, who takes a "lot" of land in a backwoods township called 
 Monkleigh. The following passage describes an unfortunate species 
 of settler, still perhaps not unknown in certain parts of Canada : 
 " They were generally persons of education, and members of highly 
 respectable families, who had been brought up to do nothing, and 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 445 
 
 who, on arriving at man's estate, found that an occupation in which 
 they could not afford to continue. As they found themselves lit for 
 nothing in England, they, or their frieml^s for them, resolved that 
 Canada should have the benefit of their talents and usefulness ; but, 
 alas ! in a majority of instances, those who were fit for nothing at 
 home were observed to possess the very same characteristics abroad. 
 Others of them, again, had acquired wild and re|)ulsive halnts, and 
 after nearly rendering tbeir fathers bankrui)t, both in purse and 
 patience, were sent out with a few hundnxl pounds to Canada, to 
 reform and provide for themselves — a most sage and sagacious plan ! 
 and one which, almost without an exception, was ju'oductivo of but 
 one result, namely, the utter ruin of the class alluded to. Freed 
 entirely from all restraint, they gave way to the most miserable dis- 
 sipation, and then wrote home romantic fictions of their exertions 
 and good behaviour, in hopes thereby to ' do the governoi-' out of a 
 fresh remittance. Many of these young men, under the impulse of 
 novelty, set to work vigorously along with their men, but being 
 utterly unaccustomed to such employments, the solitary charm which 
 it possessed soon disappeared, and they were glad to seek excitement 
 and amusement wherever it could be found. Almost the only })lace 
 where it could be looked for was at each other's shanties, where they 
 would frequently congi-egate," etc. " The Presbyter of the Diocese 
 of Toronto," who embodied the results of his own observation iii 
 these truthful and gi-aphic sketches, Avas the Rev, W. Stewart Darling. 
 The educational question in Canada some thirty or forty years 
 since presented a tangled web of dithculties to .statesmen and philan- 
 thropists. How to maintain with consistency the theories of public 
 education which hitherto had been almost exclusively acted on in 
 the mother country, and how at the same time to meet the evident 
 necessities of the composite people which was rapidly taking posses- 
 sion of British North America, was a i)roblem discussed again and 
 again, and the most gloomy consequences were foretold of varia- 
 tion from established traditions and routine. Happily at last the 
 aolvitur amhulando method was applied to the question ; with the 
 results — surely not disastrous — which we see around us at this 
 day. Of the noms-de-plume attached to contemi)orary brochures on 
 the subject of education of more than ordinaiy note, I select three ; 
 " Gi-aduate," " Scotus," " British Canadian." Graduate's memorable 
 brochure, entitled " The University Question Considered," appeared 
 in 1845, and it essentially helped to defeat a bill which was brought 
 6 
 
44G 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 into tlio Tlourso in tliat year affecting the charter of King's Colloge. 
 The sample vvliich I give of Graduate speaks of tlio necessity of 
 repose fur the well-being of learned societies. I do not know that 
 the delightful dream indicated was ever realized by the learned society 
 whose tranquillity was at the moment disturbed. "Frequent changes 
 arc injurious to any establishment," Giaduate says, "but ruinous to 
 a University. It is impossible that the olyects of such an institu- 
 tion can be attained if it be subjected to repeated modification. 
 Altei'ations, if often introduced even by its own authorities, are 
 most prejudicial to its welfare ; but the very anticipation of exter- 
 nal interference in its management would produce the most mis- 
 chievous effects. iVo/i solum adventus mail, sed etlarn metus ipse 
 affert c(damitatem. Repose is absolutely essential to its success ; if 
 disturbed, or even liable to be disturbed, it must fail. Its pursuits 
 are such that they cannot be successfully prosecuted without peace 
 and tranquillity. They require a devotion of the mind which cannot 
 exist if apprehensions of change are constantly obtruding themselves, 
 and every member of the establishment would feel the pernicious 
 influence of this dread. The governing body would slu-ink from the 
 responsibility of ado[)ting any system as permanent which they knew 
 not when they might be compelled to change ; the professors would 
 be paralysed in the discharge of even their routine duties, and instead 
 of enjoying the liberty, or feeling the inclination to prosecute the 
 favourite subjects of their study during their leisure hours, would 
 be reduced to the miserable necessity of em})loying them in efforts to 
 conciliate or struggles to resist the spirit of innovation ; whilst the 
 students would refuse to submit to discijiline attempted to be en- 
 forced by those whose authority they knew might be abrogated or 
 superseded by a power capable of revolutionizing the whole system 
 and establishment." The "Graduate" who thus, at a troubled period 
 of our local history, urged on legislators and others the indisj)ensable 
 necessity of establishing tranquil surroundings for a seat of learning, 
 is to be identified with the writer whom we have already seen, as 
 " Maple-leaf," inaugui-ating amongst us a higher literature, the Rev. 
 Dr. McCaul. 
 
 A noticeable series of letters on educational topics appeared in the 
 Hamilton Gazette about the year 1850, subscribed by the nomrde- 
 plume of Scotus. They were exceedingly well -written, and deserved 
 to be collected, as they were, in pamphlet form. They repay perusal 
 still, being a valuable contribution, on the conservative side, of the 
 
 
CAyADI-l?f 50>f«i-DE-PLrME IDKVTIFIED. 
 
 u: 
 
 vexed question of r«rVyJifmH eflufution. As a s{)ecitnen of Scotus, I 
 select a passage contairiin;^ a %-iew somewhat opiiosed to a j>opular 
 notion on the Kubj<5ct of erlocation ; ami also the statement of a fa<-! 
 connected with B<X)tLi»rji'I which is not fjenei-idly realized : 
 
 ** In order to raih* up a national system of education in vny conu- 
 try," Scotus sayts, " iu-n-f-vid of U'ginning at the bottom ami ascendiiii; 
 upwards, you must iKVf^nf: the onler an I begin at the top and flescemi 
 downwards; or, in <Altf:r words, you must tirst ei'cct a noble univer- 
 sity, lilling its cliairs with m»^-n illustrious in science and literature, 
 and thereby create m thr.- public mind a tastk for learnini; in it^ 
 highest deitartmentij ; and afterwards, the inferior schools will follow 
 as a matter' of cou^t*f^ Or. to make use of a simile, the supplying of a 
 country w^th educraition loay ?je likened to the su])])lying of a great city 
 withw^ater, — the ih%t j»tftp in thfj business is to erect a great reservoir 
 or fountain-hea<i, ir<j:a which the lesser streams may be ditfused in all 
 quarters. The fomvinUfju on which I rest my argument is, I humbly 
 conceive, sound and (AtviffWi. Literature and science are things for 
 which there is naturally no demand, grxerally, in the j>ublio min-i 
 in any country. A ta^te for these refinements of civilization must, 
 therefore, be Urst crestSi'?! by, as it were, a forcing process, and until 
 that taste is so create J. you may set about the erection of (Jommon 
 or District HcL'>fils till the end of time, but will tind that all your 
 labours have been vain and fraitless. * * '^ J mfi qiiitn awarf?.^ 
 Scotus then goes on to imj, " that it is tpiite common to hear persons 
 state, in reference t«o Jiooitknrl, that she owes all her education to her 
 Parish Schools. A mfjTf: ignorant assertion was never made. Scot- 
 land, and I flatter mywrlf I know her well, owes all her education- 
 PRIMARILY, to her Universities ; and it may with safety be alhnned 
 that had not thetse v^iTieTable fountain-heads of learning been first 
 erected by the piety and munificence of her Kin - i.^d Ohurchmen. 
 such an establishniient iaa a ^jaiish school in Scotland would nev^ 
 have had an existeuw.'' 
 
 Our Scotus was Mr, D-a-td Bum, formerly Deputy Registrar for 
 the county of WemtwortK. The parai)hlet containing his collected 
 letters ia entitled '* CoSwiial Legislation on the Subject of Education."" 
 
 I next mention tb<e wmAe-plume of "British Canadian," atmehed 
 
 to a long series of comma nicat ions in the Hamilton Spectator some 
 
 twenty years ago : tn^dng ably of a gi-eat variety of public matters: 
 
 among them, of ©duication. I give as a specimen of " British Cana- 
 
 Uan" a short exti-act. which will serve to show the agitated state of 
 
448 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 the pnl)lic mind on the subject of education m 1851. He strongly 
 opposes, under tlui circunihtances of the country, the retention of a 
 fiiculty of theology in the national university. He stiys : " It is 
 witli difUculty tluit tlie great English universities retain their exclu- 
 sive religious character : and surely it is needless to attempt to raise 
 up such an institution in Canada, after the experience we hav" 
 already had. Canada, which glories in its British parentage, 
 ha[)pily placed at such a distance from the seat of empire, that we 
 can contemplate the throes of church and state corruption, if not 
 without fear, at least not without warning : for just in proportion as 
 the church derives support from the state, i.e. from the endowments 
 of public jn'operty, so is tho danger of religious commotion and 
 sectarian enmity. Tliis ctinnot be fostered by surer means than by 
 the establishment of an exclusive university." " British Canadian," 
 nevertheless, axlvoctites a genial intermingling of religion with com- 
 mon affaii-s. On this jioint, he delivers himself thus, in Letter cxvii., 
 wherein he draws a picture of the ways of the world, only too truthful : 
 " Many jiersons, I air aware," he says, ** are opposed to the intro- 
 duction of religion in politics. Not because they are averse to re- 
 gion, but because they consider it a subject too sacred to be mixea 
 up with the news of the day. Politics with them is the business of 
 the day : religion relates to eternity. In other words, all their 
 talents and energies they devote to those objects which seem to 
 promise worldly prosperity : and theii' hours of ease and lassitude 
 they devote to religion. How mistaken such persons are, in sepa- 
 rating religion from the more immediate business of their lives, I 
 need scarcely point out. Suffice it to say, that by so doing they run 
 the risk of losing the substance, whOe they are pursuing the shadow. 
 8ix days they labour, with no higher object in view than to increase 
 their worldly store : the seventh day they generously devote to their 
 soul's ease. They go to the house of God for an hour or so, and 
 having criticised the senuon, the duties of religion they consider 
 fulfilled : and they devote the rest of the week to secular affairs and 
 politics. I admit that a newspaper is not the place where we should 
 look for a sermon or discourses on the necessity of prayer and the 
 virtues of a holy life ; but there are circumstances connected with 
 religion which render it not only proper, but which imperatively 
 call upon us to take notice of them, and to urge them upon the 
 consideration of our fellow-subjects. These circumstances exist in 
 Canada West at the present moment." (This in January, 1851.) 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-I'M'MP: IDENTIFIED. 
 
 449 
 
 Tlie letters of " British Caimdiiui" were fnnu the pen of the late 
 Mr. Edvvanl Erniatinger. of 8t. Thomas, author of a valual)!.; an.l 
 intereHtiug " Life of Colonel Tulhot, ami History of the T.-ilhot Set- 
 tlement." 
 
 I am now, finally, to identify some nomsde-phime which from 
 time to time in the past have l)een apjxMided to poetical productions 
 of note in our Canadian periodicals, an<l to give .samjjles of each. In 
 accomplishing both portions of this \y.\.n of my nndertakincj. 1 shall 
 aim at brevity. 
 
 1. The first of my poetical noms-de-pluvxe is tliat of " Roseliarp." 
 In 1823, a literary magazine was issued for a short time at York 
 (Toronto), entitled "The Rosehari) ; for the Encouragement of Loy- 
 alty, Genius and Merit ;" and in FotliergiU's WepM;/ L'etjister there 
 were occasional communications in verse, subscriWd " Ror^eharp." 
 Here is a specimen, dated Jan. 8, 1824 : 
 
 where was Prudence, cautinug power, 
 
 When first my venturous youth began ? 
 She came not to the Muses' bower. 
 Where passed I many an idle hour. 
 
 To tell of life's short fleeting span ; 
 Nor did she pi-ophesy of woe 
 To chill my heart's impetuous glow. 
 
 "But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair, 
 What was thy delighted measure ? 
 Still it whispered promised pleasure, 
 
 And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail." 
 This was my favourite minstrel's song. 
 
 My morn like his was fair anil bright — 
 Then Hope with Pleasure danced along, 
 
 And gave me visions of <lelight ; 
 Then wildly throbbed each pulse at thy sweet smile : 
 linger yet, sweet Hope, with me awhile. 
 
 The originator of the " Roseharp" miscellany, and the wnter of the 
 " Roseharp" pieces, was Mr. James M. Cawdell, attached for a time, in 
 some capacity, to the Law Courts at Toronto, and formerly an otticer 
 in the anny. 
 
 2. In 1825, also fz'om the press of Charles Fothergill, ajipeareil a 
 rather elaborate poem entitled " Wonders of the "West, or a Day at 
 the Falls of Niagara," by " A Canadian." The dramatis jyersona; of 
 the story are some French tourists. The metre and style are those 
 of Scott's Ladi/ of the Lake. Incidentally we have the following 
 
450 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 lines in honour of Col, Nicliol, recently killed by accidentally driving 
 
 in the darkness of the night over the precipice at Queenston. 
 
 Nichol, the sympathetic tear shall flow 
 
 From all who knew thee, and from aii who know 
 
 That, snalched in the prime of life from all that binds 
 
 The heart to earth, anf' gives to human mhids 
 
 A wish to lengthen out existence here, 
 
 From fortune, friends, and family roost dear, 
 
 Ambition's prize, nay., merit's claim, in sight. 
 
 Which thou had'st F.mply earned, both day and night, 
 
 ^Vith unremitting toil and anxious care, 
 
 Serving the country both in peace and war. 
 
 When thou hail'st reachcu the summit and prepared 
 
 To cease thy toil, and reap thy just reward, 
 
 Thou wast, that moment, from the summit hurled 
 
 To be rewarded in another world. 
 
 'J'hy widowed mourner weeps, nor weeps alone — 
 
 A. coim try's grief re-echoes to her moaui 
 
 Weeps fo" her statesman and her hero dead, 
 
 Nor hopes to tind an equal in his stead. 
 
 '' A Canadiar" was Mr. James Lynne Alexander, affcerwai'ds a Clerk 
 
 in Holy Orders. 
 
 3. " Erie-us" was a signature attached to poetical pieces in our 
 
 local periodicals in and before 1838. I quote ;art of a " Eulogy on 
 
 Sussex Vale in Now Bi'unswick," thus subscribed : 
 
 Fanatic and hypocrite, disfi^ired in face. 
 
 Rant, cant, seot and radical, here find no place 
 
 The social relations to set all ajar, 
 
 And the sweets of a rational intercoursp mar. 
 
 The politeness of kindness, the confidence fair. 
 
 Of integrity meek, unassuming, — the air, 
 
 The port, manner, habit, and action of truth 
 
 And true manliness, wrought into childhood and youth. 
 
 The graces of goodness unshackled by art ; 
 
 The large hospitality warm from the heart ; 
 
 The valk circumscribed by the d\;ties of life ; 
 
 These iluties fdlfiUed without en\'y .ind strife. 
 
 Oh, sweet vale of Sussex ! such things did I see 
 
 In thy children, the loyal, the happy and free; 
 
 And I praised the good ways that oui forefathers trod. 
 
 For the building of man in the pea(^e of his God. 
 
 I give another sample of Erie-us, taken from a poem of his of 
 considerable length, written in 1818, and entitled "Talbot Road." 
 It commemorates the patriotism and energy of Col. Talbot, the local 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 451 
 
 eponymous hero : it describes the vise and i^rogvess of the settlement ; 
 its devastation by invaders in 1812 ; its rapid recovery. I select the 
 writer's brief recapitulation towards the end of his poem. It reads 
 like a passage from Prayton's Polyolhion. Occasionally a primitive 
 local name, as Catfish Creek, is ill-adapted to poetic purposes. Thus 
 Erie-US sings : 
 
 111 Norfolk county, first tlie Talbot street, 
 
 East, makes its course tlirougli Middleton complete ; 
 
 Thence into Middlesex, through Houghton gore, 
 
 And thence through Bayham, (where was marked before 
 
 A bridle-path) — thence Otter Creek comes down 
 
 From Norwich, lengthwise, nearly through the town, 
 
 On which, e'en now, the oar fair Commerce plies 
 
 AbA the first efforts of her empire tries — 
 
 Earnest of future wealth. Next, alongside 
 
 Is the tine thriving town of Malahide, 
 
 In which famed Catfish has its eastern source 
 
 And spreads the richest bottoms in its course. 
 
 Wellington mills, late-built, on Catfish stand, 
 
 To answer agriculture's loud demand ; 
 
 A work substantial, such as should be found 
 
 Where a fine growing country stretches round. 
 
 In order next upon the list appears 
 
 Yarmouth, whose fame has tilled ten thousan<l ears. 
 
 For beauteous plains, rich soil, translucent rills, 
 
 Its rolling surface and its verdant hills ; 
 
 Its waving cornfield.si and its meadows gay, 
 
 Where bleating flocks alreaily bound and play ; 
 
 A tovTi, St. Thomas, is in Yarmouth laid, 
 
 On a bold bank by Kettle river maile, 
 
 O'erlooking the broad vale which 'iieath it lies — 
 
 A striking picture in the traveller's eyes, 
 
 Southwold succeeds, in which the North Branch road 
 
 Turns off to Westminster" as has been show'd : 
 
 Next Dunwich, ending Talbot Koad the East, 
 
 From whence it is denominated West 
 
 Next Aldbro'. Now the reader must be sent 
 
 From Middlesex into the county of Kent : 
 
 Then follows Orford, &c. 
 
 " Erie-us" was Adam Hood Burwell, afterwards Col. Burwell, aft er 
 whom Port Burwell on Lake Erie is named.. 
 
 4. I have already given a poetical quotation from " Cinna," and 
 identified the writer. That was from a i)iece in the style of Hood, 
 I now give a few lines from a song in graver strain, by the same hand : 
 
452 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 And pride forgot his dream of self 
 To utter words of praise. 
 
 The worm the rose's petals fold, 
 Gnaws at its inmost core. 
 
 And love that never must be told 
 Consumes the heart the more. 
 
 I trembled when her warbling voice 
 
 Poured forth the tide of song, 
 And bade the admiring hearts rejoice 
 
 Of all the listening throng. 
 Wealth ceased the while to sum his 
 
 To catoh the thrilling lays ; [pelf, 
 
 5. In 1843, " Plinius Secundus" published at Toronto his " Curioe 
 Canadenses ; or, the Canadii*n Law Courts : being a Poem describing 
 the several Courts of Law and Equity," &c. The wiiter adopts the 
 Hudibrastic style. Thus he proceeds : 
 
 A Common Pleas was there erected, 
 
 Where Subject's Eights should be protected. 
 
 Then a Queen's Bench forthwith arose, 
 
 The Suitors' injuries to dispose, 
 
 "With a Chief Judge and Puisnes four. 
 
 At every Term to ope the door : 
 
 Four times a year beginning Monday, 
 
 And always ending next to Sunday ; 
 
 C-^m Banco Sittings for Judgments, Pleadings 
 
 To be digested after readings, 
 
 And as mortalium nemo sapit, — 
 
 Appeal Court then the Record capit. 
 
 Where great and gravest heads do meet. 
 
 To make the Law still more complete. 
 
 Then skill and science to acquire. 
 
 Experience and forensic fire, 
 
 A Practice Court behold appended. 
 
 That Forms and Rides may be amended 
 
 Now, too, is heard from legal forts 
 
 A regular volley of Bejiorts, 
 
 After command from Osgoode's Benches, 
 
 And charge from Chiefs in open Trenches. 
 
 The following lines enumerate the places of public resort to which 
 the Judges may betake themselves, if they will, during Vacation : 
 
 Thrice happy soil, where, without measure, 
 Enjoyment may flow o'*^r with jieasure ! 
 For Saratoga, or its drinks. 
 The Whirlpool or Niagara's brinks. 
 Or Caledonia's far-famed springs, 
 Or the ten hundred sparkling Rings 
 That deck St. Lawrence mighty river. 
 Guarding its spangled tide for ever, 
 The Judge from toil may well reLeve, 
 Until hia wonted strength retrieve^ 
 
 ' mmt»«miif*iM»mmiiLimuimm 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 453 
 
 "Pliiiius Sccundus" was Mr. John Rumsey, an English attorney, 
 who made Canada his home for a short time. 
 
 6. A writer in our periodicals in 1843 assumed the name of the 
 poet '.vho figures in Sir Walter Scott's Pirate, who had "■ once taken 
 a pinch of snuff out of glorious John Dryden's snufF-box, and never 
 suflfcred his friends to forget it" — Claud Halcro. I transcribe his 
 " Crusaders' Hymn before Jerusalem :" 
 
 Now onward ! for our banners in the win.l are waving free, 
 
 The Sultan's troops are streaming forth like to a surging sea ; 
 
 " God wills it !" is our battle-cry— Jerusalem our prize ; 
 
 We couch the lance, we wield the sword beneath our monarch's eyes. 
 
 Hark ! from the city of our God, our Saviour's hallowed shrine, 
 
 llie Saracen's bold music floats, the silver crescents shine ! 
 
 The Infidels have stalled their steeds within her sacred walls ; 
 
 To draw the sword, our Christian faith — our knightly honour, calls ! 
 
 The Sim is iip — on tower and wall he gilds the flashing spear ; 
 
 But the Lord of Hosts is with us ! Shall Christian warriors fear? 
 
 Raise not the lance, nor stay the sword from slaughter of the foe — 
 Peace offerings to the Holy Shrine the Moslem's blood shall flow ! 
 Think on the weary pilgrim, o'er the long and toilsome way 
 Who dragged his limbs to Salem's walls his pious vows to pay ! 
 Just Heaven ! the blighting breath of war surrounds the sacred fane ! 
 His humble prayer is laughed to scorn, his march of toil is vain ! 
 Look on the holy city, that hath kissed a Saviour's feet, 
 E'en there the unbelieving dog with scorn our prayers would greet ! 
 Then spur the steed, and brace the arm, and fling defiance high, 
 For the trumpet call hath sounded, and the turbaned host is nigh ! 
 
 They come, they come, Avith hourra wild, and many a bristling spear, 
 
 And the war-shout of the Paynim band breaks on the startled ear ! 
 
 They call, with words of mystery — high-shoute<l, earnest prayer — 
 
 On Mahomet, their prophet false, his followers to spare ! 
 
 But we unto the lixing God our hopeful incense send. 
 
 And the shouts of rival hosts with words of adoration blend I 
 
 Lo, in their van the crescent of l)oid Saladin, afar 
 
 Gleams brightly from the lesser hof't, and lights them to the war ! 
 
 But our lion-hearted monarch wav^es aloft his trusty sword — 
 
 Then onward, we will triumph in our arm of strength, the Lord ! 
 
 "Claud Halcro" was Mr. John Breakenridge of Belleville. Shortly 
 before his early death, his poems appeared in a collected form. 
 
 7. Some forty years since, many Canadian readers were familiar 
 with the nom-de-plunie of *' Zadig," subscribed to numerous fugitive 
 nieces of giaceful verse on historical and patriotic subjects. I trau- 
 
9 
 
 454 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 scribe some stanzas by this writer, on tlie "Martial Music of England," 
 wliich is described as perpetually encircling the habitable globe ; 
 
 'Tis mom on green Australia's woods : 
 The broad Pacifies kindling floods, 
 
 Flush'd with warm sunliglit, glow ; 
 A trumi>et wakes the silent dawn, 
 A war-drum sweeps its summons on — 
 
 Far, far, the glad sounds H -w. 
 O'er spicy wave and Indian isle. 
 Such strains still greet the day -god's smile, 
 
 Break the ixdd Briton's rest ; 
 Fort William's stem reveille^ beats. 
 O'er realm and main the brave sound fleets, 
 O'er the wild Afghan's far retreats 
 
 To Ghuznee's vanquish'd crest ! 
 Awake ! pale giant of the Cape, 
 The sunlight gilds thy phantom shape ! 
 Wake Mount of Lions, stern and hoar, 
 'Tis mom on Afric's golden shore ; 
 
 Then the l>old echoes ring ; 
 Answers the Spaniard's aerial height — 
 Gray Malta's tempest-scofting might, 
 Ionia's isles of song and light, 
 
 Hear the wild music sing. 
 Nor silent sleeps th' Atlantic wave — 
 
 The chorus bursts once more 
 Up from the Gallic Thunderer's grave — 
 
 Bermuda's summer shore. 
 Fair England's voice is swelling now 
 Hound old Quel>ec'3 embattled brow ; 
 
 On, on the war-strains sweep, 
 O'er Erie's wave, o'er soft St. Clair, 
 Fresh clarions waft the burden there 
 
 O'er Huron's giant deep. 
 Lone wood and lake the glad sounds wake, 
 
 Till Columbia's ru.shing river 
 Sweeps its tribute song to the m^iu along — 
 
 Old England's might forever ! 
 
 It was understood that "Zadig" was the nom-de-plume of Mr. J. 
 H. Hagarty ; since, the Hon. Chief Justice Hagarty 
 
 8. I regret that I am not able to give a sampie of '' Isidore," an 
 admired writer of verse some seventeen years since in Montreal 
 periodicals. His pieces have l>een collected in book-form under the 
 general title of Voices from the Hearth. They are said to evince 
 poetic feeling, melody of diction, and happiness of expression. The 
 
...RADIAN NOMS-DE-l'LUME IDEMlFl^i^. 
 
 author's real name is Asclier. Tlioiigli called to the Bar in the 
 Lower Province, he has taken up his abode in En;,land."''' 
 
 9. One who, as a poet, appears to have sought to be known among 
 us chiefly as " he who sang the 8ong of Charity," has, besides the 
 composition bearing that title, contributed to our literature several 
 pieces of permanent interest. I quote the close of a poem of his, 
 entitled "A Canadian Summer's Night." It is a picturesque descrip- 
 tion of the sights and sounds and suggestions of a night spent on the 
 waters of Lake Couchiching. 
 
 The lights upon the distant shore And time it were for ns to take 
 That shone so redly, shine no more : Our homeward course across the lake 
 The Indian fisher's toil is o'er. 
 
 Ere yet the tell-tale moon awake. 
 
 Already in the eastern skies, 
 Where up and up new stars arise 
 A pearly lustre softly lies. 
 
 Night — where old shape-hauutings dwell, 
 Though noM', calm-eyed : — for thy soft spell, 
 smoothing Night ! I thaidi tiiee well. 
 
 Just before, a canoe had been passed, evidently bound for Rama. A 
 momentary contest of speed between it and the white man's craft is 
 described : 
 
 Swifter and swifter on we go ; 
 For though the breeze but feigns to 
 
 blow. 
 Its kisses catch us, soft and low. 
 
 But with us now, and side by side. 
 Striving awdiile for j)lace of pride, 
 A silent dusky form doth gUde. 
 
 Though swift and Hglit the birch canoe, 
 It cannot take tl. 'aim h-nm you, 
 My little boat, so trim and true. 
 
 "Indian, where away to-night?" 
 "Homewards 1 wend: you beacon-light 
 Shines out tor me:— ( Joocl night !" "Good 
 night ;" 
 
 * I have never observed a copy of Mr. Asch'n''.s poems exposed for sale at any of the hook- 
 sellers' ill Toronto. The abseiiee of iuter-(.'Oiiimunicatioii between pulilisliers in the Canadian 
 cities is a eurious phenomenon. Books ])uhlislied in Quebec, Montreal and Halifax are by no 
 means, as a matter of eonrse, to be seen iu Toronto ; and, in like manner, liook.s iiublished in 
 Toronto ^re not, as a matter of course, to bo seen m Quebec, Montreal and Halifax. In a recent 
 editorial of a literary paper of wide circulation published at Montical (the CdH'idixn lUinftrntvil 
 Neivs), it was amusin;^ to have the writer (Hjnfe.ssiiig that he had never seen Mr. Watson's 
 "Legend of the Hoses," although he had reason, he said, to believe it "a work of the highe,st 
 character ; '* and two years had elapsed since its jiresentation to the puldic. This was because 
 Mr. Watson's book hai'pened to be printed at Toronto, and not In Montreal. It is probable 
 that M. Edniond Lareau, of Montreal, had in 1874 never chanced to form the acquaintance of 
 the Canadian Juunial, published now for nioie than twenty years at Toronto, under the 
 auspices of the Canadian Institute. We .should otherwise have seen in his "Histoire de la 
 Litterature Canadienne," some reference to the many valuable contributions to Canadian 
 S(uence, literature, and history which are to be found in its pages. M. Lareuu's enumeration 
 of Franco-Canadian writers is copious and interesting. On the issue of a. new work in any Cana- 
 dian town, might not a few copi(!S be sent to the principal booksellers in each of the other 
 Canadian towns for the iusjioctioii of customers; to be taken back if not s(,ld williiu a given 
 time? This practice would perhaps produce more buyers than the customary newspaper 
 notices do at present. 
 
456 
 
 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 He who sang the " Song of Charity," it is probably no serious breach 
 of secrecy to state, was Professor Chapman of the University of 
 Toronto. 
 
 10. To one more poetic nom-de-plume of distinction Canadian 
 literature may in some sort put in a claim, namely, that of '' Wil. 
 D'Leina, Esq., of the Outer Temple." It is to be observed that the 
 recent edition of a collection of '* Spring Wild Flowers," to which 
 that pseudonym was at first prefixed, is dated from Toronto ; and 
 some pieces now included in it will be recognized as having once 
 graced the pages of the Canadian Monthly, published in Toronto. 
 The author, speaking in his own name, in the new edition refers 
 to these productions as " sins of his youth." Splendida peccata, 
 will be the reader's observation after a study of the volume. I give 
 brief samples : 
 
 Oh, to be in Scotland now 
 When the mellow autumn smiles 
 
 So pleasantly on knoll and howe ; 
 
 Where from ragged cliff and heathy brow 
 Of each mountain height you look down defiles 
 
 Golden with the harvest's glow. 
 
 Oh, to be in the kindly land, 
 Whether mellow autumn smile or no, 
 
 It is well if the joyous reaper stand 
 
 Breast-deep in the yellow corn, sickle in hand ; 
 But I care not though sleety east winds blow, 
 
 So long as I tread its strand. 
 
 To be wandering there at will, 
 Be it sunshine or rain, or its windit that brace ; 
 
 To climb the old famihar hill ; 
 
 Of the storied landscape to drink wy fill, 
 And look out on the gray old town at its base. 
 
 And linger a dreamer still. 
 
 Oh, to lie in Scottish earth, 
 Lapped in the clods of its kindly soil ; 
 
 Where the soaring laverock's song has birth 
 
 In the welkin's blue ; and its heavenward mirth 
 Lends a rapture to earthborn toil— 
 
 W^hat matter! Death recks not the dearth. 
 
 1 isemsmtisiM- 
 
CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 457 
 
 And here is the opening of a colloquy between " Earth and Sea." 
 
 Sitteth the green Earth and hearkeneth to the Sea, 
 
 Ever as its moaning waves cruon luUabie ; 
 
 Ever as its troubled waves ask : '• Earth ! Earth ! 
 
 WTiere wert thou, mother auld, afore my birth ? 
 
 Where wert thou then, and what wilt thou be 
 
 In the coming time o' Eternitie ?" 
 
 Answereth the Earth to the vexed Sea : 
 
 ' ' I was a maiden afore I bore thee : 
 
 In the formless void, where nae sun had shone, 
 
 I was a maiden, and dwelt all alone ; 
 
 As like to sic home as a babe could 1)e 
 
 Fresh come frae the womb of Eternitie." 
 
 "And what did'st thou in thy long, long home ?" 
 
 Answereth the green Earth : " Long did .1 roam; 
 
 But Eternitie's wider than Chaos's pall, 
 
 An' God's eye's above, and his hand 'neath all , 
 
 And I heard far-off sounds that whispered to rre 
 
 In the crooning chimes o' Eternitie , 
 
 An' the life divine was aye brooding o'er me, 
 
 Till Time woke frae dreaminr- ,vhen I bore thee. 
 
 Within th' eerie caves of chy 'ark, deep womb. 
 
 Strange types of being fand kindly home, 
 
 Till in forms of beauty young life gat free 
 
 Frae the lone, lang dream o' Eternitie." 
 
 This garland of spring flov/er, , wlii.]i, after the lapse of perhaps a 
 quarter of a century, has been , •e^^ntec) to the world afresh by the 
 Messrs. Nelson of Edinbur,/ii a\."o ))ut together by the hand of 
 Professor Daniel Wilson, now of Toronto, of whose name Wil. 
 D'Leina is a partial anagram. 
 
 I might add the nom-de-plume of " Fidelis," and identify it. Dis- 
 tinguished as it has now be(tome amongst us, in the depart^nents 
 of poetry, of prose-fiction, of metaphysical discussion, it has w^on and 
 will retain a place in our nascent literature. But it was no part of 
 my design to glean in recently opened spaces in the Canadian field of 
 letters, but to confine myself to products of the first clearings. Pos- 
 sibly hereafter a Canadian Warton, a Canadian Hallam, a Canadian 
 Taine, desire us of seeing cf what kind were the very first shootings 
 forth of cv^ 
 meration *,t 
 to which ih ':j are appended. 
 
 In the mture, I suppose, there will still from time to time be 
 appearing', under feigned names, discussions of political, social, and 
 
 i'vatM 0' ^*dian intellect, mil be thankful for the enu- 
 pse'! louyms now given, and for samples of the writings 
 
458 
 
 CANADTAX NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 
 
 general .subjects, and works of fiction in proso and poetiy, all so 
 strongly stamped by cleverness and good sense, and so remarkable for 
 the vigour, and purity, and beauty of their conception and execution, 
 as to induce a general curiosity, and even pride, in relation to their 
 authorship. But I think the fashion of w'iting in a veiled way will 
 probal)ly not again come into vogue to the extent in which it was 
 prevalent during the reign of the Georges and previously. We have 
 now to congratulate onrselves, not only on the settlement of numer- 
 ous exasperating (piestions — which set our grandfatliers at home and 
 hero by the cars, and the open discussion of which brought with it 
 peril to life and limb — but also on the possession of a free press, and 
 consequent upgrowth amongst us of a greater liberality of sentiment 
 and a more charitable public opinion. Milton's doctrine has pre- 
 vailed : " What advantage is it to be a man," asks Milton in his 
 Areopagitica (ii. 78), " over it is to be a boy at school, if we have 
 only escaped the ferula to come iinder the fescue of an imprimatur 1 
 if ser .ous and elaborate writings, as if they were uo more than the 
 theme of a grammar-lad under his pedagogue, must not be uttered 
 without the cursory eyes of a temporizing and extemporizing licenser 'I 
 He who is not trusted with his own actions — his drift not being 
 known to be evil, and standing to the liazard of law and penalty — 
 has no great argument to think himself reputed in the commonwealth 
 wherein he was born for other than a fool or a foreigner." 
 
 Writers here and in Britain will probably more and more here- 
 after, deliver what they have to say, over their own names, fearlessly 
 and without reproach, enjoying the /cudos and the gratitude which 
 communities are ever ready to accoi'd to those who will embody in 
 apt language for them their own latent thoughts, and conveniently 
 supply to them " aids to reflection," and sensible views of their sur- 
 roundin^rs in the universe. Such is the choice of the conti-ibutors to 
 the tnodern intiuential peiiodicals, the Contemporary and tlie Fort- 
 nightlij, each writer signing his own name, and " standing," as Milton 
 speaks, " to the hazard of law and penalty." Or else, as we see done 
 in the grave pages of the old Quarterlies, in the ever-ready, masterly 
 daily leaders of the London Times, and in the multitudinous free- 
 lance onslaughts of the Saturday Review, they will prefer to discuss 
 questions wholly in the abstract, putting out of the way altogether 
 the disturbing consideration of authorship, and letting words and 
 arguments go exactly for what they are worth.