For more than half a century, on two continents, Goldwin Smith played the part of controversialist, man of letters, and intellectual gadfly. His nom de plume in Canada, "Bystander," reflected his habitual preference for observation and comment over direct political action. Yet he made an important contribution to Canadian public life through his many journalistic activities and his unremitting insistence on the need for informed, independent thought among the reading and voting public.

Born on 13 August 1823 in Reading, England, the son of a well-to-do physician, Smith grew up among rural scenes and figures redolent of the novels of Henry Fielding: fox-hunting parsons and farmers who "ploughed with four horses [and] voted with the Squire," as Smith says in Reminiscences (1910). He was educated at Eton and then Oxford, graduating in 1845 with first class honors and many prizes.

Although called to the bar in 1847, Smith preferred the life of a...