Be formed of the
interests and connections of the several powers of Europe'; and care
is to be taken 'to collect the transactions and occurrences of our
mother-country, and to introduce every remarkable event, uncommon
debates, extraordinary performance and interesting turn of affairs
that shall be thought to merit the notice of the reader as matter of
entertainment, or that can be of service to the publick as inhabitants
of an English colony.' Attention is also to be given to the affairs of
the American colonies and West India Islands; and, in the absence of
foreign intelligence, the reader is to be presented with 'such
originals, in prose and verse, as will please the fancy and instruct
the judgment. And,' the address continues, 'here we beg leave to
observe that we shall have nothing so much at heart as the support of
virtue and morality and the noble cause of liberty. The refined
amusements of literature and the pleasing veins of well-pointed wit
shall also be considered as necessary to the collection; interspersed
with other chosen pieces and curious essays extracted from the most
celebrated authors; so that, blending philosophy with politicks,
history, &c., the youth of both sexes will be improved, and persons of
all ranks agreeably and usefully entertained.'
"As an inducement to advertisers, it is held out that the circulation
of the Gazette will extend, not only through the British colonies,
but also through the West India Islands and the trading ports of Great
Britain and Ireland. The address very sensibly concludes with the
following remarks, which, however, cast a shade over the rather
tedious prolegomena: 'Our intention to please the whole, without
offence to any individual, will be better evinced by our practice than
by writing volumes on this subject. This one thing we beg may be
believed, that party prejudice or private scandal will never find a
place in this paper.'
"With this large promise began the first Canadian newspaper on the
21st of June, 1764.
"The news in the first number is all foreign. There are despatches
from Riga, St. Petersburg, Rome, Hermanstadt, Dantzic, Vienna,
Florence and Utrecht, the dates ranging from the 8th of March to the
11th of April. There are also items of news from New York, bearing
date the 3rd, and from Philadelphia the 7th of May. News-collecting
was then a slow process, by land as well as by sea.
"Of the despatches, the following is of historical importance:
'London, March 10th. It is said that a scheme of taxation of our
American colonies has for some time been in agitation, that it had
been previously debated in the Parliament whether they had power to
lay a tax on colonies which had no representative in Parliament and
determined in the affirmative,' etc. The occasional insertion of a
dash instead of a name, or the wary mention of a 'certain great
leader' or 'a certain great personage' tell a simple tale of the
jealousy with which the press was then regarded both in England and on
the continent. The prosecution of Smollett, Cave, Wilkes and others
were still fresh in the minds of printers and writers.
"Another despatch informs the readers of the Gazette of an arret
lately issued for the banishment of the Jesuits from France, and
another of a deputation of journeymen silk weavers who waited on the
King at St. James with a petition setting forth their grievances from
the clandestine importation of French silk, to which His Majesty
graciously replied, promising to have the matter properly laid before
Parliament.
"An extract from a letter from Virginia gives an account of some
Indian outrages, and there is some other intelligence of a similar
nature. The other news is of a like temporary interest.
"I have already mentioned a masonic advertisement. I now give it in
full:
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN,
That on Sunday, the 24th, being the Festival of St. Jhon (sic),
such strange BRETHREN who may have a desire of joining the Merchants
Lodge, No. 1, Quebec, may obtain Liberty, by applying to Miles
Prenties, at the Sun, in St. John Street, who has Tickets, Price
Five Shillings, for that Day.
"One thing is evident, that a printing establishment of 1764 had to be
supplied with abundance of italics and capitals to meet the exigencies
of the typographic fashion of the time.
"Of the two remaining advertisements, one is an order of the Collector
of Customs for the prevention of composition for duties and the other
gives a list of 'an assortment of goods,' 'just imported from London,
and to be sold at the lowest prices by John Baird, in the upper part
of Mr. Henry Morin's house at the entry of the Cul de Sac' - an
assortment which is very comprehensive, ranging from leather breeches
to frying-pans. From this and subsequent trade advertisements we are
able to gather some not unimportant information as to the manner of
living of the citizens of Quebec in those days." [22]
William Brown was succeeded in the editorship and proprietorship of this
venerable sheet by his nephew, Samuel Neilson, the elder brother of John
Neilson, who for years was the trusted member for the County of Quebec; as
widely known as a journalist - a legislator - in 1822 our worthy ambassador
to England - as he was respected as a patriot.
Samuel Neilson had died in 1793; - his young brother and protege, John,
born at Dornald, in Scotland, in 1776, being, in 1793, a minor, the
Gazette was conducted by the late Rev. Dr. Alex. Sparks, his guardian,
until 1796. When John Neilson became of full age, he assumed the direction
of the paper for more than half a century, either in his own name or in
that of his son Samuel.
