It is a noteworthy fact, which can be best mentioned here, that the first newspaper in Three Rivers was the _Gazette_, published by one Stobbs, in 1832, more than two centuries after the settlement of that 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.