The new era of Canadian journalism commenced with the settlement of the political difficulties which so long disturbed the provinces, and with the concession of responsible government, which gave a wider range to the intellect of public writers. The leading papers, in 1840, were the Montreal _Gazette_, the Montreal _Herald_, the _Canadien_, the Quebec _Gazette_, the Quebec _Mercury_, in Lower Canada; the _British Colonist_, _British Whig_, and _Examiner_, in Upper Canada; the _Nova Scotian_ and _Acadian Recorder_, in Nova Scotia; the _News_, in New Brunswick. The _Colonist_ was founded at Toronto, in 1838, by Hugh Scobie, under the name of the _Scotsman_--changed to the former title in the third number--and from the outset took a high position as an independent organ of the Conservative party. The copy of the first number, before me, is quite an improvement on the _Gazette_ and _Mercury_ of Quebec, as published in the early part of the century. It contains some twenty-four columns, on a sheet about as large as the Ottawa _Free Press_. It contains several short editorials, a resume of news, and terse legislative reports. Among the advertisements is one of the New York _Albion_, which, for so many years, afforded an intellectual treat to the people of all the provinces; for it was in its columns they were able to read the best productions of Marryatt and other English authors, not easily procurable in those early times; besides being annually presented with engravings of merit--a decided improvement on the modern chromo--from the paintings of eminent artists; engravings which are still to be seen in thousands of Canadian homes, and which, in their way, helped to cultivate taste among the masses, by whom good pictures of that class could not be easily procured.