The intelligence of the country would have been at a much lower ebb,
without the dissemination of the press throughout the rural districts.

Whilst the journalists already named were contending in Upper Canada
with fierce zeal for their respective parties, new names had appeared in
the press of the other provinces. The _Canadien_ was edited for years by
M. Etienne Parent, except during its temporary suspension, from 1825 to
1831. His bold expression of opinion on the questions that forced a
small party of his countrymen into an ill-advised rebellion sent him at
last to prison; but, like others of his contemporaries, he eventually in
more peaceful times received a recompense for his services by
appointments in the public service, and died at last of a ripe old age a
few months after his retirement from the Assistant-Secretaryship of
State for the Dominion. In his hands the _Canadien_ continued to wield
great power among his compatriots, who have never failed to respect him
as one of the ablest journalists their country has produced. His
writings have not a little historical value, having been, in all cases
where his feelings were not too deeply involved, characterized by
breadth of view and critical acumen.

Whilst Gary, Neilson, Mackenzie, Parent, Dalton and Gurnett were the
prominent journalists of the larger provinces, where politics were
always at a fever heat, a young journalist first appeared in the
Maritime Colonies, who was thenceforth to be a very prominent figure in
the political contests of his native province. In 1827, Joseph Howe,
whose family came of that sturdy, intelligent New England stock which
has produced many men and women of great intellectual vigour, and who
had been from an early age, like Franklin, brought up within the
precincts of a printing office, bought out the _Weekly Chronicle_, of
Halifax, and, changing its name to the _Acadian_, commenced his career