In the development of Canadian intellect the newspaper press has had a
very large influence during the past half-century and more. What the
pulpit has done for the moral education of the people, the press has
accomplished for their general culture when schools were few and very
inferior, and books were rarely seen throughout the country. When the
political rights of the people were the subject of earnest controversy
in the Legislatures of the Provinces the press enabled all classes to
discuss public questions with more or less knowledge, and gave a decided
intellectual stimulus, which had a valuable effect in a young isolated
country like Canada. In the days of the French _regime_ there was not a
single printing press in Canada, though the _News Letter_ was published
in Boston as early as 1704. [Footnote: The first printing press in
America wag set up at Cambridge, in the ninth year of the Charter
Government (1639); the first document printed was the 'Freeman's Oath,'
then an almanack, and next the Psalms.--2 Palgrave, 45. In 1740, there
were no less than eleven journals--only of foolscap size,
however--published in the English Colonies.] It is generally claimed
that the first newspaper in Canada, was the Quebec _Gazette_, which was
published in 1764, by Brown & Gilmour, formerly Philadelphia printers,
with a subscription list of only one hundred and fifty names. The first
issue appeared on the 21st June, printed on four folio pages of 18 by 12
inches, each containing two columns of small type. The first article was
the prospectus in larger type, in which the promoters promised to pay
particular attention 'to the refined amusements of literature and the
pleasant veins of well-pointed wit; interspersed with chosen pieces of
curious essays, extracted from the most celebrated authors, blending
philosophy with politics, history, &c.' The conductors also pledged
themselves to give no place in the paper to 'party prejudices and