Premier, and now a well-known member of the House of Commons, who made
his paper a power in the little colony by his enterprise and forcible
expression of opinion. The _Standard_ is also another paper of political
influence, and is published daily, like the _Colonist_. Two papers are
printed in New Westminster, and one in Nanaimo; the total number in the
province being five.

In the previous paragraphs, I have contained myself to the mention of a
few facts in the early history of journalism in each of the Provinces of
Canada. Proceeding now to a more extended review, we find that a few
papers exercised from the outset a very decided influence in political
affairs, and it is to these I propose now to refer, especially, before
coming down to later times of extended political rights and consequent
expansion of newspaper enterprise. The oldest newspaper now in Canada is
the Montreal _Gazette_, which was first published as far back as 1787,
by one Mesplet, in the French language. It ceased publication for a
time, but reappeared about 1794, with Lewis Roy as printer. On the death
of the latter, the establishment was assumed by E. Edwards, at No. 135
St. Paul Street, then the fashionable thoroughfare of the town. It was
only a little affair, about the size of a large foolscap sheet, printed
in small type in the two languages, and containing eight broad columns.
In 1805, the Quebec _Mercury_ was founded by Thomas Gary, a Nova Scotian
lawyer, as an organ of the British inhabitants, who, at that time,
formed a small but comparatively wealthy and influential section of the
community. Mr. Gary was a man of scholarly attainments and a writer of
considerable force. The _Mercury_ had hardly been a year in existence,
when its editor experienced the difficulty of writing freely in those
troublous times, as he had to apologize for a too bold censure of the
action of the dominant party in the Legislature. But this _contretemps_
did not prevent him continuing in that vein of sarcasm of which he was a