e numerous historical works that have appeared since 1867 two only
demand special mention in this short review. One of these is _A History
of the days of Montcalm and Levis_ by the Abbe Casgrain, who
illustrates the studious and literary character of the professors of the
great university which bears the name of the first bishop of Canada,
Monseigneur Laval. A more elaborate general history of Canada, in ten
octavo volumes, is that by Dr. Kingsford, whose life closed with his
book. Whilst it shows much industry and conscientiousness on the part of
the author, it fails too often to evoke our interest even when it deals
with the striking and picturesque story of the French regime, since the
author considered it his duty to be sober and prosaic when Parkman is
bright and eloquent.

A good estimate of the progress of literary culture in Canada can be
formed from a careful perusal of the poems of Bliss Carman, Archibald
Lampman, Charles G.W. Roberts, Wilfred Campbell, Duncan Campbell Scott
and Frederick George Scott. The artistic finish of their verse and the
originality of their conception entitle them fairly to claim a foremost
place alongside American poets since Longfellow, Emerson, Whittier,
Bryant and Lowell have disappeared. Pauline Johnson, who has Indian
blood in her veins, Archbishop O'Brien of Halifax, Miss Machar, Ethelyn
Weatherald, Charles Mair and several others might also be named to prove
that poetry is not a lost art in Canada, despite its pressing prosaic
and material needs.

Dr. Louis Frechette is a worthy successor of Cremazie and has won the
distinction of having his best work crowned by the French Academy.
French Canadian poetry, however, has been often purely imitative of
French models like Musset and Gautier, both in style and sentiment, and
consequently lacks strength and originality. Frechette has all the
finish of the French poets and, while it cannot be said that he has yet
originated fresh thoughts, which are likely to live among even the
people whom he has so often instructed and delighted, yet he has given
us poems like that on the discovery of the Mississippi which prove that
he is capable of even better things if he would seek inspiration from
the sources of the deeply interesting history of his own country, or
enter into the inner mysteries and social relations of his picturesque
compatriots.

The life of the French Canadian habitant has been admirably described in
verse by Dr. Drummond,