relating to the early history of the country, and every year its treasures are explored and investigated by historians and inquirers from all parts of the continent. The society has published some valuable memoirs, transactions, and manuscripts in French and in English, and these are held in repute by scholars everywhere. To stimulate art, science, and letters in Canada, Lord Lorne, during his reign, established two societies. The Academy of Arts at once became successful. The Royal Society, which combines, perhaps, the best features of the French Academy and the British and American Associations, was not so well received at first, and in certain quarters it aroused some hostile criticism. The membership is limited to eighty Fellows. The first two sections, of twenty Fellows each, concern themselves with history, archæology, ethnology, and general literature. The first section is composed of Frenchmen, and the second of Englishmen; the remaining two sections are devoted to science in all its branches, nearly every department being represented. The latter, it may be said at once, make by far the better exhibit, but the literary sections show yearly signs of great vitality. This is especially noticeable in the French section, which admits into its part of the Transactions and Proceedings, poetry, stories, dramas, and fragments of comedies, though, of course, more solid papers on philology, history, and archæology are not excluded. The English are more conservative, and though poems are sometimes read at the meetings, they are rigorously excluded by the committee of editors from the pages of the published volume. The contrast between the work of the two sections is very great. The French conduct their share of the book, for which parliament grants five thousand dollars a year, as if it were a popular review of light and entertaining literature. The English contributors furnish papers of stronger matter, which deal principally with abstract science, political economy, history, archæology, and ethnology. At the last meeting, in May, 1890, at Ottawa, this contrast was noted by one of the newspapers, which commented on what the editor described as French

vitality as compared to English solidity. He fancied that he saw in the French section exhibitions of greater mental activity, because one member had four poems to read and another member had two lyrics, not knowing that the procedure of the two sections is as wide apart as the poles, and that while one section confined itself almost entirely to belles lettres, the other treated general literature very sparingly, indeed, the other features of the section claiming the more earnest attention of its members.

It may be asked, are the people of French Canada influenced deeply by the literary work of her authors? To find an answer to this query is not difficult. No man or woman in Quebec has succeeded in making his or her living by writing books. Literature is prosecuted mainly as an amusement. The writers, for the most part, hold offices in the civil service of the country. Others there are who write for the newspapers, and in their leisure hours they make books. Were it not for the government, few of the works, so prepared, would ever see the light. How influential the writings of French Canadian authors, produced under such disadvantageous circumstances, may be on the people of the province, is an easy task to determine. The mind is not impressed by them, and they exercise little, if any, effect on the life and movement of the populace. At best, about five hundred French volumes have been published since 1837. The successful ones may be counted on one's fingers and thumbs. Their weight on the events of the time has, in nearly every instance, been nil. In another half century, however, the order of things may be changed. Meanwhile, the independent observer, looking carefully about him, will find much in the letters of lower Canada to admire, but little to grow enthusiastic about. He will be amused, but not enthralled, and he will sigh in vain for one volume of substantial criticism. Indeed, in the way of critical writing, even the English Canadian is as badly off, that department being practically untouched, though the field offers inducements of the most tempting description.

Na recent number of the NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE I endeavored to describe to American readers the causes that have hitherto hindered the intellectual development of the Canadian people; and in portraying the present phase of the intellectual life of the country, in its relation to literature, I incidentally mentioned the names of one or two Canadian writers, whose eminence in the world of letters was a sufficient refutation of the careless assertion so frequently heard that this northern half of the American continent

does not possess a single writer of any consequence. As most of the works of our prominent authors are published by either American or English publishing houses, it is not surprising that many Americans should be ignorant of their Canadian origin. The peculiar obliquity of literary vision, which enables some English critics confidently to deny that America has yet produced a single great writer, can also be easily forgiven, because the magnitude of their ignorance is more than they can be morally responsible for. It is simply a result of the tra

ditions and prejudices upon which they have been nurtured from childhood. But one's patience is put to a severe test when one hears native-born Canadians of good education and attainments insist that Canada is to-day absolutely devoid of literary feeling and talent. These are the folk who make a ridiculous attempt to imitate the Queen's English of Mayfair, ape English fashions and customs, and wish to be thought "just out" from the Old Country. There are many such Canadians of ultra-loyal tendencies who are the victims of a delusion that homage to the Crown of Great Britain is only consistent with intense disparagement of the actual conditions that surround them, and a denial of all capacity in their fellow-countrymen. The sentiments of this section of the community-fortunately a not very important one, in the rapid changes of the popular pulse within recent years is voiced in the servile laudation of imperial institutions and precedents, which is

ing out their own destiny, and that destiny will certainly involve the annihilation of the last relics of the Old World fetishisms which have been engrafted upon our national life under the British domination. Human nature is essentially democratic. In both Europe and the New World the trend of modern literature is distinctly democratic

the surest indication of the truth of Victor Hugo's words: "The third gate of Barbarism, the Monarchical gate, is closing at this moment. The nineteenth century hears it rolling on its hinges." The loyalty of the Canadian people to the hereditary system is only an abstract sentiment; at heart they are republican. As the independence of the Canadian people increases, a literature is developing which promises some day to be worthy of the inspiration of our Canadian forests, lakes, rivers, and mountains, and of that full measure of manhood which God intended as a free gift to all men.

stages of every literature, there are more poets and clever versifiers than writers of good prose in Canada; but the contemporary poets of Canada have placed a wide gulf between them and the preceding generation. Their work has more technical finish; it shows more signs of culture, and is above all imbued, as the London Athenæum said recently in a critique of an anthology of Canadian song, with "the exhilaration that comes in a brilliant climate to men who are day by day possessing them

selves of nature's secrets and her wealth." The preponderance of poetry in Canadian literature is very significant. The poets are the sure precursors of a national upheaval. In the history of all countries and races the preaching of the gospel of freedom has been performed by the singers of the race. The surest way to offend the rising generation of Canada to-day, - the sturdy farmers' and merchants' sons, is to remind them that their country is still a British colony. They are tired of accept

ing their learning and their art from England, and are awakening to the fact that the love of the beautiful and the capability of expressing beautiful thought is not the heritage of one race, one country, or one hemisphere. Art, in the widest possible acceptance of the term, is the world's

Archibald Lampman.

mother-tongue, and not the patois of a clique.

I purpose in this article telling American readers something about the most prominent Canadian writers. If I were to attempt to do even partial justice to those who have passed away, and left a growing fame behind them, I should exceed the space at my command; so I must perforce confine myself to contemporary writers. It is also impossible for me to treat of the long list of French-Canadian litterateurs, as an endeavor to do so would necessitate condensation on a scale that would reduce the scope of this article to a barren enumeration of names and dates. I must warn the reader that in my selection of the most representative Canadian writers, I am not

infallible and may unwittingly have done injustice to many who deserve mention. I have also not made the least attempt to introduce the writers named in this article according to the relative position they occupy in the literary firmament. That would involve a critical analysis into which I should

be loath to enter; but it would be absurd in writing of Canadian authors, not to award the first place to a man, who is not alone the foremost writer in Canada, but is one of the greatest personalities of his generation. I refer to Professor Goldwin Smith.

It is incomprehensible to many that a man of Professor Goldwin Smith's refined tastes, culture, and brilliant accomplishments should voluntarily consign. himself to the virtual expatriation, which residence in a commercial centre, like Toronto, a city of but recent development and without any rich historical associations, implies. "The Grange" is certainly a charming home. An aroma of the Old World hangs about it; with its ivy-covered gables and well-kept lawns, it is like one of those pleasant English mansions which line the banks of the Thames. But Toronto is utterly destitute of that literary atmosphere which is of so buoyant a quality and has such a great influence for good in literary production. The lack of this electrical sympathy in Canadian society forces. our scattered writers into an isolation that in the multitude of instances is most pernicious in its effects. It is only men of great intellectual stamina who can escape deterioration under such disadvantages. Professor Smith has one of those wellbalanced intellects which are impervious to the influences of environment. has certainly, however, been drawn into the current of national life, and become pre-eminent in the sphere of Dominion politics as the one combatant in the strife for whom the possibilities of office and

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