town, which has always been in the midst of the most thickly settled
district of Lower Canada. At that time, newspapers were rapidly gaining
ground in Upper Canada--districts not so old by months or weeks even as
Three Rivers had years, and with a more scattered population, not
exceeding one-fifth of that of the Three Rivers district, could boast
of, at least, one newspaper. [Footnote: Quebec _Mercury_, 1832.]

In 1827, Mr. Jotham Blanchard, the ancestor of a well-known family of
Liberals in the Lower Provinces, established the first newspaper outside
of Halifax, the _Colonial Patriot_, at Pictou, a flourishing town on the
Straits of Northumberland, chiefly settled by the Scotch.

In 1839, Mr. G. Fenety--now 'Queen's Printer' at Fredericton
--established the _Commercial News_, at St. John, New Brunswick, the
first tri-weekly and penny paper in the Maritime Provinces, which he
conducted for a quarter of a century, until he disposed of it to Mr.
Edward Willis, under whose editorial supervision it has always exercised
considerable influence in the public affairs of the province. The first
daily paper published in the Province of Nova Scotia, was the Halifax
_Morning Post_, appearing in 1845, edited by John H. Crosskill but it
had a brief existence, and tri-weeklies continued to be published for
many years--the old _Colonist_ representing the Conservatives, and the
_Chronicle_ the Liberals, of the province. The senior of the press, in
the Lower Provinces, however, is the _Acadian Recorder_, the first
number of which appeared in 1813.

The only mention I have been able to find of a newspaper in the brief
histories of Prince Edward Island, is of the appearance, in 1823, of the
_Register_, printed and edited by J. D. Haszard, who distinguished
himself at the outset of his career by a libel on one of the Courts