From 1844 to the present time the newspaper press made progress equal to
the growth of the provinces in population, wealth and intelligence. The
rapid improvement in the internal communications of the country, the
increase of post offices and the cheapness of postage, together with the
remarkable development of public education, especially in Upper Canada,
naturally gave a great impulse to newspaper enterprise in all the large
cities and towns. _Le Journal de Quebec_ was established in 1842 by the
Hon Joseph Cauchon, from that time a force in political life. Another
journal, the _Minerve_, of Montreal, which had been founded in 1827 by
M. Morin, but had ceased publication during the troubles of 1837-8,
re-appeared again in 1842, and assumed that influential position as an
exponent of the Bleus which it has continued to occupy to the present.
_Le Pays_, _La Patrie_, and _L'Avenir_ were other Canadian papers,
supporting the Rouges--the latter having been established in 1848, and
edited by _l'enfant terrible_, M. J. B. Eric Dorion, a brother of Sir
Antoine Dorion. In Upper Canada, Mr. R. Reid Smiley established, during
1846, the Hamilton _Spectator_, as a tri-weekly, which was changed to a
daily issue in 1852. In 1848, Mr. W. Macdougall appeared for the first
time as a journalist, in connection with the _Canada Farmer_; but when
that journal was merged into the _Canada Agriculturist_, he founded the
_North American_, which exerted no small influence as a trenchant,
vigorous exponent of Reform principles, until it was amalgamated, in
1857, with the _Globe_. In 1852 the _Leader_ was established, at
Toronto, by Mr. James Beaty--the old _Patriot_ becoming its weekly
issue--and during the years it remained under the editorial management
of Mr. Charles Lindsey--a careful, graceful writer of large knowledge
--it exercised much influence as an exponent of the views of the Liberal
Conservative party; but soon after his retirement it lost its position,
and died at last from pure inanition and incapacity to keep up with the
progressive demands of modern journalism. In 1857, Mr. McGee made his