THE   CANADIAN  JOURNAL.

                   NEW  SERIES.

     No.  XCVIL — JANUARY,  1878.
 

YONGE  STREET  AND  DUNDAS  STREET.

   THE MEN AFTER WHOM THEt WERE NAMED.*
 

BY HENRY SCADDING, D.\D.
 

  When it has happened that a town, city or region has received a

name intended to be an enduring memorial of a particular personage,

it is natural to suppose that some interest in his history and character

will there be felt.  In the many places, for example, which have been,

or are sure to be, called Livingstone, we may expect that hereafter a

special acquaintance with the story of the great explorer and mis¬

sionary will be kept up.  But names quickly become familiar and trite

on the lips of men; and unless now and then attention be directed to

■their significance, they soon cease to be much more than mere sounds.

  The inhabitants of Lorraine probably seldom give much thought

to the Lothaire, of whose realm, Lotharii regnum, their province is

the representative.   Few citizens of Bolivia waste time in recalling

Bolivar. To the Astorians, Astoria speaks faintly now of John Jacob

Astor; and Aspinwall, to its occupants, has  by this time lost the

personal allusion implied in the word.   Ismailia, on the Upper Nile,

may be a momentary exception.  That is altogether too fresh a crea¬

tion.  Who Ismail, the living Khedive, is, must  be sufficiently well

known at present to the people there.

  Nevertheless, I suppose, even where the notability commemorated

has  almost wholly departed out of the public  mind, a recurrence to
 

* Read before the Canadian Institute.