We now proceed with our memoranda of the early press. When Fothergill was deprived of his office of King's Printer in 1825, he published for a time a quarto paper of his own, entitled the Palladium, composed of scientific, literary and general matter. Mr. Robert Stanton, King's Printer after Fothergill, issued on his own account for a few years, a newspaper called The U. E. Loyalist, the name, as we have seen, borne by the portion of the Gazette devoted to general intelligence while Mr. Stanton was King's Printer. The U. E. Loyalist was a quarto sheet, well printed, with an engraved ornamental heading resembling that which surmounted the New York Albion. The Loyalist was conservative, as also was a local contemporary after 1831, the Courier, edited and printed by Mr. George Gurnett, subsequently Clerk of the Peace, and Police Magistrate for the City of Toronto. The Christian Guardian, a local religious paper which still survives, began in 1828. The Patriot appeared at York in 1833: it had previously been issued at Kingston; its whole title was "The Patriot and Farmer's Monitor," with the motto, "Common Sense," below. It was of the folio form, and its Editor, Mr. Thos. Dalton, was a writer of much force, liveliness and originality. The Loyalist, Courier and Patriot were antagonists politically of the Advocate while the latter flourished; but all three laboured under the disadvantage of fighting on the side whose star was everywhere on the decline.
Notwithstanding its conservatism, however, it was in the Courier that the memorable revolutionary sentiments appeared, so frequently quoted afterwards in the Advocate publications: "the minds of the well-affected begin to be unhinged; they already begin to cast about in their mind's eye for some new state of political existence, which shall effectually put the colony without the pale of British connection;" words written under the irritation occasioned by the dismissal of the Attorney and Solicitor-General for Upper Canada in 1833.
For a short time prior to 1837, McKenzie's paper assumed the name of The Constitution. A faithful portrait of McKenzie will be seen at the beginning of the first volume of his "Life and Times," by Mr. Charles Lindsey, a work which will be carefully and profitably studied by future investigators in the field of Upper Canadian history. Excellent portraits of Mr. Gurnett and of Mr. Dalton are likewise extant in Toronto.
Soon after 1838, the Examiner newspaper acquired great influence at York. It was established and edited by Mr. Hincks. Mr. Hincks had emigrated to Canada with the intention of engaging in commerce; and in Walton's York Directory, 1833-34, we read for No. 21, west side of Yonge Street, "Hincks, Francis, Wholesale Warehouse." But Mr. Hincks' attention was drawn to the political condition of Canada, especially to its Finance. The accident of living in immediate proximity to a family that had already for a number of years been taking a warm and active interest in public affairs, may have contributed to this. In the Directory, just named, the Number after 21 on the west side of Yonge Street, is 23, and the occupants are "Baldwin, Doctor W. Warren; Baldwin, Robert, Esq., Attorney, &c., Baldwin and Sullivan's Attorney's Office, and Dr. Baldwin's Surrogate Office round the corner, in King Street, 195½." It was not unnatural that the next door neighbour of Dr. Baldwin's family, their tenant, moreover, and attached friend, should catch a degree of inspiration from them. The subsequent remarkable career of Mr. Hincks, afterwards so widely known as Sir Francis Hincks, has become a part of the general history of the country.
About the period of the Union of Upper and Lower Canada, a local tri-weekly named The Morning Star and Transcript was printed and published by Mr. W. J. Coates, who also issued occasionally, at a later date, the Canadian Punch, containing clever political cartoons in the style of the London Punch.
We have spoken once, we believe, of the Canadian Freeman's motto, "Est natura hominum novitatis avida;" and of the Patriot's, just above, "Common Sense." Fothergill's "Weekly Register" was headed by a brief cento from Shakespeare: "Our endeavour will be to stamp the very body of the time—its form and pressure—: we shall extenuate nothing, nor shall we set down aught in malice."
Other early Canadian newspaper mottoes which pleased the boyish fancy years ago, and which may still be pleasantly read on the face of the same long-lived and yet flourishing publications, were the "Mores et studia et populos et prælia dicam," of the Quebec Mercury, and the "Animos novitate tenebo" of the Montreal Herald. The Mercury and Herald likewise retain to this day their respective early devices: the former, Hermes, all proper, as the Heralds would say, descending from the sky, with the motto from Virgil, Mores et studia et populos et prælia dicam: the latter the Genius of Fame, bearing in one hand the British crown, and sounding as she speeds through the air her trump, from which issues the above-cited motto. Over the editorial column the device is repeated, with the difference that the floating Genius here adds the authority for her quotation—Ovid, a la Dr. Pangloss. Underneath the floating figure are many minute roses and shamrocks; but towering up to the right and left with a significant predominance, for the special gratification of Montrealers of the olden time, the thistle of Scotland.
Besides these primitive mottoes and emblematic headings, the Mercury and Herald likewise retain, each of them, to this day a certain pleasant individuality of aspect in regard to type, form and arrangement, by which they are each instantly to be recognized. This adherence of periodicals to their original physiognomy is very interesting, and in fact advantageous, inspiring in readers a certain tenderness of regard. Does not the cover of Blackwood, for example, even the poor United States copy of it, sometimes awaken in the chaos of a public reading-room table, a sense of affection, like a friend seen in the midst of a promiscuous crowd? The English Reviews too, as circulated among us from the United States, are conveniently recognized by their respective colours, although the English form of each has been, for cheapness' sake, departed from. The Montreal Gazette likewise survives, preserving its ancient look in many respects, and its high character for dignity of style and ability.
In glancing back at the supply of intelligence and literature provided at an early day for the Canadian community, it repeatedly occurs to us to name, as we have done, the Albion newspaper of New York. From this journal it was that almost every one in our Upper Canadian York who had the least taste for reading, derived the principal portion of his or her acquaintance with the outside world of letters, as well as the minuter details of prominent political events. As its name implies, the Albion was intended to meet the requirements of a large number of persons of English birth and of English descent, whose lot is cast on this continent, but who nevertheless cannot discharge from their hearts their natural love for England, their natural pride in her unequalled civilization. "Cælum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt," was its gracefully-chosen and appropriate motto.
Half a century ago, the boon of a judicious literary journal like the Albion was to dwellers in Canada a very precious one. The Quarterlies were not then reprinted as now; nor were periodicals like the Philadelphia Eclectic or the Boston Living Age readily procurable. Without the weekly visit of the Albion, months upon months would have passed without any adequate knowledge being enjoyed of the current products of the literary world. For the sake of its extracted reviews, tales and poetry the New York Albion was in some cases, as we well remember, loaned about to friends and read like a much sought after book in a modern circulating library. And happily its contents were always sterling, and worth the perusal. It was a part of our own boyish experience to become acquainted for the first time with a portion of Keble's Christian Year, in the columns of that paper.