Early Trading Companies of New France. By H. P. Biggar,
B.Litt. (University of Toronto.)—In his first chapter Mr. Biggar gives an account of the voyages of Cartier. The story is a curious illustration of the fact that disappointments often lead to more than equivalent successes. The French hoped to find gold in the St. Lawrence region; in this they failed ; but they did lay the foundations of a great commerce- The Newfoundland fisheries, the fur trade, and other branches of mercantile industry developed into something much more valuable than the treasure-seeking of England's great rival ever did. It is a very interesting story that we End in this volume. It contains a-strange mingling of weakness and strength, mean- ness and bad faith, in the home Govermitent, rivalries of adven- turers abroad, personal heroism and petty jealousies ; now and then religion mak.es its appearance, not always in a very Edifying fashion. Heterodoxy was not to be allowed beyond Certain degrees of longitude. The trading fleet of the Caens
Company (in the first half of the seventeenth century) was to be under the command of a Catholic, " who should give orders for- bidding all psalm-singing of any sort when the Newfoundland banks had been passed." Mr. Biggar has put together with adequate skill a great amount of valuable matter.
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