The Letter-Bag of the Great Western; or Life in a Steamer BOUND WITH The Bubbles of Canada. by Haliburton, Thomas Chandler [Sam Slick]

Paris: A. & W. Galignani, 1840. Probably from Baudry’s European Library (pp. xv, 174; [6], 292-421 [2]). Octavo (22.5 cm) in black publisher’s cloth, impressed decoration to covers, gilt titles to spine.  A bit of wear to spine top and bottom; front hinge starting, rear hinge re-inforced; two spots on front cover; first and last few pages foxed. The pagination breaks at p. 174 and begins again at p. 292. At one time The Bubbles of Canada probably was bound with The Clockmaker since a continuously paginated volume described by McGahern comprising these two titles ends, as ours does, with page 421; but as all the titles were likely pirated for a Paris edition, it is difficult to know for certain how the Letter-Bag came to be bound together with The Bubbles.

Of the two, The Letter-Bag is more accessible.  It is Haliburton’s Ship of Fools. Each passenger’s particular combination of social prejudice, self-interest, and ignorance suggests something of the nature of new immigrants and visitors to North America-- for example a writer who, having already written his travel book, intends a quick visit to America to hunt buffalo with the Pawnees and interview a few of MacKenzie’s or Papineau’s rebels in order to spice up his tale . The Bubbles, on the other hand, is a densely argued (and printed) criticism of Lord Durham’s Report which, in the wake of the disturbances of 1838, recommended a wider distribution of political power in the Canadian colonies (a reform unpalatable to Tories like Haliburton).