CANADIAN ESSAYS CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL BY THOMAS O’HAGAN, M.A, Ph.D. Author of “A Gate of Flowers," “In Dreamland," “Songs of the Settlement," “ Studies in Poetry,” etc. “ But thou, my country, dream not thou ! IVake, and behold how night is done,— How on thy breast, and o'er thy brow, Btirsts the uprising sun!" —Roberts. TORONTO: WILLIAM BRIGGS V 50\^ Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand nine hundred and one, by Thomas O’Hagan, at the Department of Agriculture. TO THE BROTHERS ' OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS, DISCIPLES OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE, THE FATHER OF MODERN PEDAGOGY, I DEDICATE, WITH SINCERE ADMIRATION, THIS VOLUME. ^80038 PREFACE. The following essays have appeared during the past few years in various magazines, and are now submitted to the public for the first time in book form. It will be noticed that they all deal with some phase of Canadian history or literature, and it is hoped that their publication will to some extent attain the purpose which their author has in view, namely, the promotion of a wider and better acquaintance on the part of Canadians with the historical and intellectual development of their own country. It is quite true that nothing can be added to the literary worth of an author by injudicious praise, nor will puffery give poet, novelist or historian a seat in the parquet of true merit or a niche in the temple of permanent fame. Yet does it not seem, to say the least, shortsighted and unpatriotic that we Canadians should busy ourselves with the literary beginnings of other lands, and pay but little heed to the literary colonizers and toilers of our own? Is it, indeed, true “ that one hears more of the Canadian vi PREFACE. poets, Carman and Roberts and Campbell, in New York in a week than in Canada in five years ” ? If it should appear that some authors whose contributions to Canadian literature are but slight have gained recognition in this volume, it is because such writers have cheerfully and patriotically given of their heart and brain— whether lyric, story or historical sketch—to enrich the intellectual life-blood of our country, and deserve, therefore, to be gratefully remem¬ bered in its literary annals. It is to be hoped, too, that the essay dealing with French Canadian life and literature may help to make better known to the people of Ontario and the other provinces the literary worth and character of the French Canadian people, who were the pioneers of our country’s progress, and who to-day form such an impor¬ tant part of this great Dominion. The subject of the deportation of the Aca- dians is a mooted one in Canadian history. The writer begs to enroll himself with those who regard the exiling of the Acadians as unjustifi¬ able, and who look upon it as the most cruel and wanton act that stains the page of New World history. Though the papers on the Catholic Church in Ontario, the Jesuit martyrdom, and the life and PREFACE. Vll work of Rt. Rev. Alexander Macdonell appeal in interest especially to Catholics, yet their his¬ torical value as a record of the pioneer labors of the Catholic Church in the chief province of the Dominion may entitle them to be considered as a part of the general historical records of our country. The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness in the preparation of this volume to the following works : Rev. Dr. Harris’s “His¬ tory of the Early Missions in Western Canada”; Parkman’s “ Early Jesuit Missions in North America,” “ Wolfe and Montcalm,” and “ Half a Century of Conflict ”; Kingsford’s “ History of Canada”; Martin’s “Life of Brebeuf”; Rev. Dr. Teefy’s “Jubilee Volume of the Arch¬ diocese of Toronto ”; “ Reminiscences of Bishop Macdonell,” by Chevalier Macdonell, K.H.S.; Dr. D. A. O’Sullivan’s “ Essays on the Church in Canada”; Benjamin Suite’s “Origin of the French Canadians”; William Parker Green- ough’s “Canadian Folk-life and Folk-lore”; Arthur Buie’s “ The Saugenay and the Valley of Lake St. John”; Haliburton’s “History of Nova Scotia”; Abb6 Casgrain’s “Pilgrimage to the Land of Evangeline”; Richard’s excel¬ lent work, “ Acadia : Missing Links of a Lost Chapter in American History”; Rev. Dr- Scadding’s “Toronto of Old”; Rev. Dr. viii PREFACE. Dewart’s “ Selections from the Canadian Poets”; Morgan’s invaluable work, “Canadian Men and Women of the Time”; Lighthall’s “Songs of the Great Dominion”; and Dr. Rand’s admirable “ Treasury of Canadian Verse.” The courtesy of the publishers of the Ameri¬ can Catholic Quarterly Review, the Catholic World’ and “ Canada: An Encyclopedia,” for permission to reprint the four essays, “ The Catholic Church in Ontario,” “ Canadian Poets and Poetry,” “ French Canadian Life and Literature,” and “ Canadian Women Writers,” which yere specially prepared for these publica¬ tions, is hereby also gratefully acknowledged. T. O’H. Toronto, Canada, June, 1901. CONTENTS. Page Canadian Poets and Poetry . n Canadian Women Writers.54 French Canadian Life and Literature - - 104 The Old Mission Church at Tadousac - - 122 The True Story of the Acadian Deportation - 133 In the Land of the Jesuit Martyrs - - - 161 The Pioneer Bishop of Ontario - - - 178 The Catholic Church in Ontario - - - 192 CANADIAN ESSAYS, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL. CANADIAN POETS AND POETRY. AN AD A has a goodly number of inspired V_> singers whose strong, fresh notes in the academic groves of song are steadily winning the ear and heart of an increasing multitude. These chanters of Canadian lays, these prophets of the people, sing in various keys—some catch¬ ing up in their song the glory and spirit of the world without, some weaving in ballad a recital of the bold adventures and heroic achievements of the early missionary explorer and pioneer, while others with heart and lips of fire are stir¬ ring in the national breast of “ Young Canada ” fairer visions and dreams of patriotism and promise. The note of all these singers is indi¬ vidual—indigenous. Their songs are racy of the soil, charged with the very life-blood of the people, reflecting their courage, their toil, their suffering, and the heroic deeds that illumine the pages of our country’s history. 12 CANADIAN ESSAYS. Nor is there anything of pessimism in Cana¬ dian poetry. It is full-blooded, hearty, healthy and hopeful in its tone. The Canadian pioneer who entered the virgin forest in the twilight days of civilization brought with him a stout and resolute heart, ready to front every danger and bear up under every deprivation and loss. This lineage of courage is manifest in Cana¬ dian song. Alexander MacLachlan, who is justly called the Burns of Canada, breathes it into his tender and melodious lines. This venerable poet, who passed away in 1896, in his early days experienced life in the backwoods of Canada, and many of his finest lyrics find their root of inspiration in scenes and incidents peculiar to roughing it in the woods. It is not to be wondered at, then, that the heroism of our fathers in the forest gave soil to a spirit of heroism in Canadian poetry, and that the whole¬ some virtues of honesty, uprightness, industry and good cheer find reflection in the life inter¬ pretation of our people. The links that bind in song the Canadian poets of to-day with the old and honored choir that chanted in the dawn of Canadian life and letters, are, year by year, breaking and disappearing. Pierre Chauveau, universally recognized as one of the most accomplished of French Canadian literati; Charles Sangster, the Canadian Wordsworth in his reverence and love CANADIAN POETS AND POETRY. 13 of nature; Charles Heavysege, whose great scriptural tragedy “Saul” was considered by Longfellow to be “ the best tragedy written since the days of Shakspere ”; and Louisa Murray, the author of “ Merlin’s Cave,” a poem characterized by great beauty of thought and diction—all these have heard within a few years the whisperings of death and have stolen away. The younger Canadian poets of to-day revere these names as the pioneers of Cana¬ dian letters—song-birds of the dawn—min¬ strels whose harps cheered the patriot firesides of the early Canadian settler. They had for contemporaries in American poetry Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier and Holmes ; but the labor of their achievement as first colon¬ izers of literature in Canada entitles them to be ranked rather as contemporaries of Irving, Willis, Halleck and Poe. Now as to the spirit and methods of the older and younger schools of Canadian poetry. Scholarship, refinement, a keen appreciation of the artistic, with a certain boldness of wing, mark the performances of the Canadian singer of to-day. He puts into his workmanship more of Keats and Tennyson and Swinburne, but less of Scott and Wordsworth and Burns, than did the poets of the older school. He has drunk copiously from classical fountains— from the clear streams of Theocritus, and 14 CANADIAN ESSAYS. Moschus, and the other idyllic and nature- loving poets of Greece. He pitches his song in a higher and less homely key than did his elder brothers of the lyre; sings of nature in round and graceful notes, and reads the throbbing promise of his country’s future in the glorious light of her eyes. Broadly and deeply sympathetic, he has but one altar in his heart, and this is dedicated to the service of his native land. The imperial note in his song, which is but a grace note, marks the ties of love and reverence which bind him to the mother¬ land—the Canadian note, strong and full, the patriotic service of chivalrous knighthood de¬ manded of him at the sacred shrine of Duty and Country.