The eastern counties of Stormont and Glengarry, and parts of the western peninsula, had been settled by Highlanders; the Canada Company, organized in 1825 by the Scottish novelist, John Galt, had founded the town of Guelph, had cleared large tracts of land in the western peninsula, and settled thereon hundreds of the best .class of English and Scotch settlers.
Kelvin, Maclean and Galt (34) found the effect greatest in the air near the level of impact.
John Galt, the novelist, was educated in Greenock, where he also served some time in the custom house as a clerk.
The increased influence of this class of periodical upon public opinion was first apparent in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, founded in 1817 by the publisher of that name, and carried to a high degree of excellence by the contributions of Scott, Lockhart, Hogg, Maginn, Syme and John Wilson (" Christopher North "), John Galt and Samuel Warren.
The immediate proposal is said to have come from George Brown; the large political idea had long been advocated by Macdonald and Alexander Galt in Upper Canada - by Joseph Howe and others in the maritime provinces.