The New Brunswick Magazine/Volume 1/Number 2/An Early New Brunswick Magazine

On a more ambitious scale than the Amaranth, Messrs. Edward Manning and R. Aitken, in 1860, began in St. John the publication of a monthly magazine, devoted to education and general literature. The printers were Messrs. Barnes & Co., and the title of the venture was The Guardian. The editors were young men and full of hope, and their object was to supply a long felt want, for the magazines which our people read in those days, were all imported, the "more valuable" ones coming from Britain, and while a few American serials were "excellent," a great many of them were "very trashy." The scope of the Guardian was outlined in its prospectus, and was not unlike, in aim and aspiration, the monthly in which these words appear. New Brunswick, the editors thought, could afford topics enough for the employment of the most prolific pen, and while politics were eschewed, all else relating to the province, would find a place. For the imagination, the editors pointed out, there were the primeval forest, the remnant of the red men, land and sea, hill and dale. The soil, trade, navigation, the resources of the great waters, and historic achievement were only awaiting the pen of the annalist and student to lay bare their truths. Nor in the prospectus, were the Loyalists forgotten. Indeed, the Guardian was to be largely provincial in tone and in character, and a lengthy programme was prepared.. Papers relating to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were also freely admitted.

The magazine lived exactly nine months. It was withdrawn in September, after a hard but patriotic struggle, to the regret of its promoters and the few ​who took it in on personal grounds. The contributors were not paid.

There were a few selected articles and poems published, and these were indicated by an asterisk, but the greater part of the contents was original and dealt with matters of general and provincial interest.

The editors did not always confine themselves to the policy laid down in their scheme, though the contributors were residents or natives of St. John. Thus, we have "Papers by a Recluse,"—a series of speculative articles, whimsical and satirical,—by Dr. Sinclair. They enjoyed a vogue, and by a little circle of friends were discussed and praised. The Doctor was an observer, and his odd way of hitting off the follies of the time had its attractions. Such subjects as "Poetry in America," "British Poetry," "State of the World at the Christian Advent," etc., appeared side by side with articles more in line with the object of the promoters. These papers were pretty heavy. Mr. William R. M. Burtis, who had been a contributor of tales to the Amaranth, furnished most of the fiction. He wrote "Grace Thornton, a Tale of Acadia," in eleven chapters.

Mr. R. Peniston Starr published in the Guardian four or five papers on Coal. The printer supplied him with a pseudonym unconsciously. The last page of Mr. Starr's first paper, contained his initials. But the only letters which the compositor saw were on the page immediately preceding the last page, and they were "P. T. O."—(please turn over). P. T. O. was accordingly adopted by this author, much to the amusement of those who knew the secret.

There was a pretty good list of provincial subjects discussed. Botany of the Lower Provinces, Education in New Brunswick, the Geography of New Brunswick, Summer Trips in Acadia, Geography of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, History of Acadia, ​New Brunswick and Nova Scotia since 1784, were the principal of these. Caribou and the Canadian grouse or spruce partridge had their historians also.

The Guardian was well occupied with variety. The monthly instalments of papers, however, were very short, some of them taking up less than two pages of space. The nine numbers, bound, made a volume of 218 pages, and the cost to subscribers for the set was two shillings and sixpence. The letter-press was set in rather small type, and only now and then were the pages leaded.

Another attempt to establish a magazine in St. John, took place in 1867, when Stewart's Quarterly entered the field. It lived five years, and was succeeded by the Maritime Monthly, whose editors were the Rev. James Bennett, D. D., and Mr. H. L. Spencer, to which periodical the old contributors to the Quarterly transferred their pens. .