HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RENC 
 
 WITH 
 
 BIX -I- YEARS -I- DF -I- LIFE I AND -1- TRA¥EL 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ^ ->PI^D¥INCEtDF>|cyUEBEC,r. 
 
 ILISHERS Pkeface.— The manuscript of part flrst of this work was written 
 axtive of mine, and from my own personal experience of seven years in the 
 ^e of Quebec. I consider it an excellent and tiHithful portrayal of every day 
 lat province. Being also personally acquainted with most of the charac- 
 1 iiitmy of the Incidents of the book I can offer it to the public as a irue pic- 
 bi life without a word of fiction in it except the names which I have changed 
 [ot the characters in it are living.— R. A. N. Harvsy. 
 
 • 
 
 FROM- 
 
 O 
 
 
 W. H. GRAY & CO. 
 
 BOOKS, S'^'ATIONE-RY Wm, 
 
 pF^ovo <: 
 
 '--' X 
 
 AH. 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY: 
 
 TirMiES sxE-A-iM: iF'iai^sri'. 
 
 
 • • • 
 
 imh, . .';».. 
 
 • « • • 
 
 • » « <. 
 
 c^ 
 
 
^ BIBMOTHEQVE 
 
 MIOT-SVLPICE^^ 
 
 1 ■*".'*' 
 
 * • • .• 
 
 • 4 
 
 i I , **<»'.' 
 
 • • • • < 
 • . • • • 
 
Chapter I. 
 
 In the year i860 a family named Howard emigrated to the 
 backwoods of Canada. The family consisted of father, mother 
 aid^two sons. The husband was a thriftless being who had not 
 sufficient energy to provide for his family, but allowed his wife's 
 brother in London, named Goldsmith, to pay to his wife a yearly 
 income of ^400; after the wife's death the uncle of the children 
 settled ;^300 a year on the two boys — whose names were Tom 
 and Arthur — who had bought some property from another uncle 
 in Montreal. The narrative commences on the 5th day of Jan- 
 uary, 1876, when the two brothers receive a letter from their 
 uncle in London: "My dear boys I received your welcome let- 
 ters and am happy to hear that you are comfortable with your 
 father, at the same time I wish it to be understood that the 
 money advanced to you must be laid out in the improvement of 
 your new farm and I strongly advise you to try and make it at 
 once produce the necessaries ot life; get ready a portion of that 
 ground and plant potatoes and wheat immediately, as you may 
 lose the home farm so su idenly as to throw you into difficulties, 
 your father is so uncertain both in his temper and management, 
 he may either involve it in debt or sell it before you had time to 
 prepare, on that account and for his interest as well as your own 
 I again strongly recommend to make your farm the grand object 
 of your exertions, so as not to have yourselves and father with- 
 out the common necessaries of life; I am truly justified in being 
 afraid of Mr. Howard's management, when I remember the sums 
 of money he has wasted from his youth to this year and the 
 charge, trouble and expense he has been to every one connected 
 with him. I think for his sake and yours you ought to spend 
 your income on your lots otherwise your time and money v il 
 be frittered away; as regards Mr. H's clearance I could put a 
 boarding school girl, who could on uncleared land do three times 
 as much as he did at half the cost. I expected to see at least 
 40 acres of good land cleared and fenced bearing good crops, 
 
 fiQ517 
 
4 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 That, property of yours will be a splendid place soon, although 
 the labor is great the reward will be greater. Have you tried to 
 get a contract for the wood at the mines? Have you seen any 
 bears? How does my dear sister's tomb look? I hope the ce- 
 dar hedge will thrive. Give my love to my niece; tell her I will 
 write next week; she is a great pet of mine, alscr remember me 
 to my brother Herbert and his wife. Everything here is dull 
 and I am afaid trade will never revive in England; the tradesmen 
 and mechanics have driven the trade into other countries bv their 
 strikes and short sighted foolish proceedings and now the 
 wretched workhouses and open streets are full of half starved 
 people, clerks and laborers as well as every kind of mechanics 
 seeking in vain for employment at any wages, ever so little to 
 keep them from starvation; there seems to be no hope of im- 
 provement; it is I fear permanent. I should like to live in your 
 neighborhood. If I had possessed 13000 acres like your uncle 
 Richard I should not have sold it but made it valuable property. 
 Take care and do not rest in wet clothes or catch cold. I hope 
 to hear good news about you all; tell uncle Herbert not to give 
 up work or else he will fall sick. My dear Tom and Arthur, 
 your loving uncle, J. Goldsmith." Saw the northern lights at 
 midday, which are only seen in day time during the most severe 
 winters; measured Joe Vincent's job of cord wood, cut him one 
 cord on the 20 on account of the small branchwood in it, also 
 because some of the piles were too loosely corded. Had a dis- 
 pute with father and his hired boy Dodsley; Dodsley called me 
 a liar for which I boxed his ears; father took Dodsley's part and 
 said we had nothing to do with him; I told him that if we fed 
 and clothed the boy he might at least render us some service oc- 
 casionally, such as cleaning the stables, etc. On Sunday our 
 cousins Sarah, Ethel, Philip, Walter and Jonathan Goldsmith, 
 took tea with us and spent the evening in reading Chamber's 
 miscellaneous and the British American magazine, full of inter- 
 esting anecdotes and love stories. Next day Tom and I went to 
 Richford and paid our accounts with storekeepers there; stayed 
 all night at C. McMills, who keeps a hotel; next morning saw 
 a span of colts v'alued at ;^ioo which we thought too dear; on 
 our way back Guertin told us he charged $2 a 1000 feet for saw- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 5 
 
 ing lumber; he oftered to sell us a very fine horse for$[O0; next 
 day Tom and father had a dispute about a gold watch and a bible 
 thac our dear mother left to Tom, which father did not want to 
 let him have, he however came to terms and gave them to him. 
 Andre L, to whom we gave a job of making shingles, said if we 
 did not keep him supplied with cedar he would not finish the 
 job; we promised to keep him better supplied and gave him an 
 order on Bedard's store as part payment on the job. Went to 
 Vincent's to hire them to draw saw logs, they could not as they 
 had a large quantity of wood to draw for the R'wy Co. Magloire 
 and is greatly captivated with Tetreault's daughter; she is veiy 
 stout, frightfully pockmarked and has very ugly features, but I 
 suppose it is a great blessing that many persons seem indifferent 
 to the charms of beauty or a great many men and women would 
 remain unmarried. I can understand a man marrying an ugly 
 woman who is very talented, for intellectual beauty is of even 
 more consequence than physical, but I do not admire a man's 
 taste who marries a woman devoid of both these qualities. Jack 
 Spencer came looking for work; gave him the job of drawing 
 100 saw logs to G's mill, 2 miles distance for $'j Louis Brodeur 
 came to get us to go with our horses to snow-plow the roads; 
 we went; there were 8 other teams whose owners had volunteer- 
 ed their services for the public good In some parishes a man 
 is given the contract of clearing the road in winter and keeping 
 it in repair, getting $25 to keep 6 miles in order during the win- 
 ter. Received a letter from Allan Robertson of New Brunswick, 
 chiefly a letter of condo'icnce on our dear mother's death, also 
 events in his life at college and of his father's travels on the con- 
 tinent of Europe, Jan. 20, one of father's cows got strangled 
 last night, got her foot m the yoke; went to Meredith's to buy 
 another but the one he had for sale was nothing extra; was in- 
 vited to 3tay to tea but declined with thanks and an excuse, Tom 
 and I had a talk about our affairs, I tVanted to build merely a 
 log barn, Tom a frame one. I suggestsd that we might want to 
 leave this place later on and it would be wiser to make what 
 money we could out of the place and not spend all our income on 
 it and keep a bank account in case of an emergency. Tom's idei 
 however prevailed; a Frenchman '^anted to sell us a horse and 
 
6 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 take a gun and revolver at ^20 as part pnyment; we however de- 
 clined. Derbue came looking for work; gave him 10 cords of 
 wood to chop; father sold him the dead cow to make soap but 
 we afterwards heard that he antl his faiDily actually eat ic; Der- 
 bue wanted us to advance him money to get provisions but I did 
 not like to trust him at which he was greatly offended. Next 
 morning went to Aston with a double load of wood, had hard 
 work starting the sleigh, it was frozen to the snow; had to chop 
 the hard snow around the runners; only sold my load for ^1.40 
 to the R'wy, it only passed for 3^/^ ft. wood, so I did not "cut" 
 Vincent enough on it. We made a mistake in contracting our 
 bark to Chelton, he gave me $G for my last load whilj D. Do- 
 herty offered ^9; in the evening went to G's; A. Larivere and 
 his wife were there; they were only married this fall and are liv- 
 ing on what was once Larivere's old homestead, on which his 
 father settled in 1858, when he had to leave the cast half ot lot 
 30, on which he had squatted; uncle H having come to live on 
 it from his other lot in the 6th range, which was too sandy to 
 make farming a success, Larivere sen. although a hard worker, 
 has been unsuccessful, partly through drink, he during the first 
 few years went out west and made a considerable amount of 
 money and returned to his wife who lived on the farm with the 
 younger children; left his 3 oldest sons out west who often sent 
 him sums of money but to no use; the crash came through un- 
 successful lumbering operations and the homestead was sold; the 
 family moved to another lot they bought from the British Amer- 
 ican Land Co. situated in the Point of Aston, which place he 
 gave into the management of one of his sons on condition that 
 he and his wife should receive their support from him, which is 
 the usual way it is managed in this province. Andre is going 
 to move in the Spring on 50 acres of land opposite to ours, which 
 he has bought on credit; after a hard days work he and his wife 
 make shingles to sell up-till 1 1 every night, so if frugality and 
 industry is all that is required he ought to succeed. As it was 
 a beautiful moonlight night I went out for a snow shoe tramp with 
 Ethel and the two Miss Day tons to the top of Parker's hill; Par- 
 ker, poor fellow, through drink has years ago been obliged to 
 sell out and go west and has since had a village called after him 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. J 
 
 and is its postmaster. F. Burke wanted to hire to us to drive our 
 team, but even if we did want one I would never have him, for 
 when his half starved oxen could not pull their load he placed a 
 bundle of straw behind them and burnt them in a terrible man- 
 ner, also another instance of his develish cruelty was the putting 
 coal oil on a cat and setting her on fire till burnt to death, yet 
 this scoundrel had the audacity to partake of the Mciy Sacra- 
 ment, a few days after this occurrence and that too with respect- 
 able members of the infallable church who were acquainted with 
 all his villany. Mr. Meredith wrote to father saying he would 
 sell a pure Ayrshire calf for ^lo; sent to Montreal for pork, 
 where it is cheaper than here. Broke roads to the saw logs as 
 it is a mild day, which is the best time for "breaking" roads as 
 the snow packs better. We heard of pair of oxen for sale at $50 
 each but one pair was too old, 9 years and the other too young, 
 2^^, which is too young for heavy work. Of late we are getting 
 "cut" on our bark on account of its being considerably broken; 
 at a tannery this is not objected to as it can be thrown into the 
 mill and ground at once, but shipping such bark to the U. S. 
 causes a great amount of extra work in loading and unloading it 
 from the cars as well as waste; received a letter from uncle Rich- 
 ard: "My dear Arthur and Tom, I have to apologize for not 
 writing sooner, but I have been exceedingly busy since I saw 
 you last; I am attending Montreal general hospital at present, 
 in fact that would occupy my time without anything else, I am 
 happy to say through my son Richard's help I have got out all 
 my accounts; things are frightful in town, going from bad to 
 worse, but some of the sufferers really deserve what they are get 
 ting; sickness has been very prevalent this winter; when I was 
 out I quite forgot to take out a cap Angelica sent to Tom, you 
 can get it when you come in; we have no visitors at present and 
 the sooner you come in the better, with love to your father, be- 
 lieve me to remain your affectionate uncle Richard I Goldsmith." 
 Barclay brought 16 yards of cloth that his wife had wove for fa- 
 ther; he invited us to a temperance meeting at East Hastings. 
 Jonathan G. only made one load for us to-day; this is not fair, 
 when i changed time with them last fall at plowing I worked 
 from daylight till dark, they also want more than one bushel of 
 
8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 oats per clay for their horses. Feb. 6th, Tom and I went to As- 
 ton; he bought a cloth cap for ^i and a pair of kid niits for $i 30; 
 paid 15 cents each for hair cutting; Tom went to Montreal; next 
 day, Sunday, a beautiful day, put chloride of zinc on our mare's 
 shoulder, which is sore, then went for a snow shoe tramp with 
 Sarah. Ethel and Philip; in the evening young Kirwin came 
 from Devlin's and asked us all to a dance there, aunt and uncle 
 went and 1 spent the evening at G's.; Sarah read stories aloud 
 till m; roads next day bad to Guertin's mill, can only load on 
 2 logsa load; went to McDougall's at Aston for money he owed 
 us, he was not at home, was at a school meeting, he is one of the 
 village trustees for the village school; had a long chat with Mrs. 
 McD, she is a French Canadian Roman Catholic, but has a fair 
 education and speaks English as fluently as French; they seem 
 to live very happily together notwithstanding their difference in 
 religious belief, he being a Congregationalist, but there being no 
 children may account for this; I believe from what I have heard 
 that they had some trouble as regards the education of his daugh- 
 ter and only child by his first wife, who was a Protestant, and 
 whom Mrs. McD tried to bring up as an R. C, but her father 
 sent her to her grandmother, where she has always lived since, 
 thus removing what is generally the cause of discord in married 
 life between husband and wife when they hold opposite beliefs. 
 On Friday, on returning in the evening from drawing saw logs 
 to the saw mill uncle Herbert said his son had finishe'd paying 
 the time he owed us with his team; for peace sake I said nothing 
 but knew from our account book he owed us still 4 days; Tom 
 returned on Saturday; I made 4 loads of logs, the last upset 3 
 times; sold the "cut" of some birch and ash for square timber to 
 Israel Dufresne at ^^i per tree, he only takes the largest and best; 
 the squared timber is bought by "buyers" and shipped to the U 
 S and Europe. Dufresne is part lumberer, trapper and laborer; 
 ;n autumn he shoots game, fishes and lays traps for fur bearing 
 ;inimals, chiefly mink, martin and otter, he also sells the skins 
 of skunks after using a certain process to remove the disgusting 
 .>dor and occasionally catches a bear in "dead falls" or steel traps; 
 n winter he makes square timber, in spring makes sugar and in 
 summer sometimes peels bark "by the cord," makes barrel hoops 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 9 
 
 out of ash, but he never makes any attempt to clear or cultivate 
 his lot of land. Spent Sunday at Doherty's, an Irish family. 3 
 miles from our place. Dennis Doherty offered me $800 for the 
 cut of all the wood on our 2 lots, 34 and 35, which I refused; 
 father wanted us to go and hear Chief Joseph of the Oka Indians 
 speak of the illtreatment that his tribe received from the Semi- 
 nary brothers; we went however to a lecture at Richford town 
 hall, the audience consisted 3f about 40 persons; the lecturer 
 was once a chaplain in the U. S. army; he commenced with a 
 description of the horrors of war, on being captured by the 
 Southerners he said "why do you take my horse for 1 do not 
 fight against you and I attend to the spiritual wants of Southern- 
 ers as well as Northerners, but the remonstrance was of no avail 
 and I was sent with my comrades to Libby prison; the forced 
 marches under a burning sun were of course harder on us than 
 our guards, encumbered as we were with our cavalry boots; on 
 arrival the jailor seaiched us all and took away all the green- 
 backs any of the soldiers had, but left them in possession of 
 vSouthern money when they had any; some of the soldiers hid 
 their money by removing the brass covering ofT their buttons and 
 hiding a bill inside, another way was to put a ^$20 bill in a quid 
 of tobacco in their mouths and when out of sight remove it; our 
 rations were barely sufficient to keep life in us; the way we 
 cooked our bread was to mix the flour in an old rubber coat and 
 cook the dough on a flat stone; that bread would have been bet- 
 ter for paving a road than the human stomach; after a time it 
 was given cooked to us, a piece about the size of my hand and 
 a piece of meat as large as my two fingers; sometimes we had a 
 little soup that had a horrible taste, but it was too dark to see 
 what it was composed of, one morning while taking some I dis- 
 covered a large white maggot in it; the meat they gave us was 
 so lively that I actually think if it was left on the ground it 
 would have walked away. We used to have regular markets 
 among ourselves; the way we got our provisions was to attach 
 a piece of bone to a string and throw it out through the bars of 
 the window with a bank note attached; the people outside would 
 attach to the string an egg or potatoes, &c.; we had to pay $1 
 for either a potatoe or an egg. One of our greatest torments 
 
lO HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 was vermin, the best blood in Libby prison flowed in their veins." 
 The boss of McDougalls cordwood shanty wanted to buy the 
 cut of the wood on 20 acres of land at 10 cents a cord, which we 
 refused; sold the cut of the hemlock bark on both our lots for 
 $700, ^400 cash and a half lot of land equivalent to the ^300; 
 went by the 2 o'clock train to Montreal with Doherty; paid 30 
 cents for breakfast on arrival. At uncle Richard's the family 
 were not up, Doherty left saying he would call in the evening; 
 drove about the city with uncle during the day; the bargain was 
 concluded in the evening, but found that the 100 acres in ques- 
 tion could not be purchased, so the full ;^700 was to be paid in- 
 stead. On returning bought the cut of fathers hemlock bark and 
 pine lumber for ;gi50. Of late D. Doherty has been buying lots 
 of land sold at auction at St. Lengene, the capital of the Co. of 
 Bradford, which are sold for the amount of taxes due on them; 
 sometimes one can make 1000 per cent interest on the invest- 
 ment. I gave back to father the right of keeping his pine timber; 
 he is indignant with me for buying his bark; I told him he had 
 no right to be, seeing that I gave him $5 more than another man 
 offered him, to whom he was going to sell. Father sold the cut 
 of the basswood timber on 60 acres for ;^35 to a man who owns 
 a steam saw mill at the end of this "Range." Had several very 
 cold and stormy days during which we only attended to the an- 
 imals and cut firewood for the house; passed these days in read- 
 ing at home or in conversation at our neighbors. I take pleas 
 ure in listening to Philip when he plays on his violin, on which 
 he is very skilful. I have always thought that good music has 
 an elevating influence on man. I have been thinking that father, 
 even at his present age, ought to succeed on his farm. He has 
 over ;^2oo, very fair buildings, over 25 acres fit for the plow, a 
 good wardrobe full of clothing, sufficient for a lifetime, 12 sheep, 
 a horse and cow besides wheat, money he can make from the 
 valuable timber his 100 acre lot contains, as well as a fine sugar 
 bush of 700 trees. Received a letter from uncle Jerrold: "My 
 dear Tom and Arthur, how does the barn get on? make it so 
 that it can be enlarged and see that it is strong and water tight; if 
 once well done alwayscomfortable, but if rickety ever a nuisance. 
 I dare say you will have cellars to keep your winter stores in 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMEKICA, , II 
 
 In Ireland they dig deep pits and cover tlie potatoes with large 
 heaps of earth to keep out the frost, probably this would not do 
 for your severe climate. Have you cleared out the brook and 
 made it deeper, so as to drain the Beaver meadov/? that land is 
 worth all the labor you can spend on it as it will turn out rich 
 and fertile. I suppose you will live in the barn until you are able 
 to get up a nice house at your leisure. Uncle Richard has a 
 capital plan of a house with a veranda and balcony. I hope he 
 will often go and see you; as long as you take his advice and ere 
 guided by his counsel and assistance you are safe. He is wise, 
 steady, good and experienced alike, and you are both thrice, even . 
 ten fold happy in having him as a staunch and loving friend; he 
 has by his ability, prudence and good conduct realized, without 
 one mortal to aid him, a fortune in a career of virtue and honor, 
 by the blessing of God, escaping from calumny and disgrace, 
 steering clear from the traps and assaults of the wicked jealous 
 people that are always ready to lie in wait for every good and 
 prosperous man. It is a well known and admitted fact that rom 
 the very days of our blessed Lord down to this hour, scarcely 
 can a truly generous and good man escape the slanders of the 
 truly idle and wicked, and clever and cautious indeed must be 
 the upright man who can so walk as to escape the pitfalls and 
 illwill of the vicious and the bad, and so much do they outnum- 
 ber the good men of the world it will behave in proportion as you 
 are happy and prosperous, to avoid giving them the slightest 
 pretence either by look or word for attacking your character. 
 Your aunt is sitting by the fire with her sister reading texts from 
 the Bible. The weather is warm and so mild that flowers and 
 leaves are springing up in our garden. We went yesterday to 
 our church and heard our American Church of England pastor 
 preach a most clever and edifying sermon extemporaneously 
 without note or book; a pious man, he knew the Bible well and 
 quoted it often from memory; the people were most attentive 
 and you could see at once the effect of a good and sincere man. 
 Rupert is in his own room reading hard for Oxford; we are some- 
 times oblijj'ed to drive him from it as it gives him a headache. 
 The course of study here now is very hard, if you do not work 
 10 or 15 hours a day you are most likely rejected; the labor is 
 
12 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 much greater than any mechanic or laborers work and much 
 more worrying and injurious to the health, so that we are obliged 
 to be very watchful and no: let Rupert damage his constitution 
 by incessant study. It has just commenced to pour down rain 
 again; we have not had such a season for 33 years and as far 
 trade and business it seems to have fled away; we were grieved 
 to hear it is as bad in Canada and the U. S. so that a time of war 
 and trouble is dreaded in Europe, which however you will escape 
 in your happy Canada. How glad you must be in your pleasant 
 fields and woods with the fine open air of heaven and not shut 
 up in dusty smoky cities, hemmed in by smothering walls drains 
 and cesspools and every breath and breeze laden with foul con- 
 tagion and bad smells. Small pox is raging in England; our par- 
 liament is sitting and there is a great conflict raging between the 
 Conservatives who are in the ministry and the Liberals who are 
 out upon. the Turkish or Eastern question. It is generally sup- 
 posed that Russia mtends to make war on Turkey and that in 
 the end we also shall declare war on Russia and help the Turks, 
 with love to uncle Herbert and all his family, and with best pray- 
 ers to God for you both and much loye, your aflectionate 
 uncle Jerrold. P. S. — What are you going to call your lots?" 
 Received $2J from McDougall for fcordwood. Tom gave me a 
 note for $%i payable in 1880, for money I advanced the firm that 
 I possessed when we first entered partnership. Went to church 
 on foot; met Andre L, and Louis B. returning from mass and they 
 advised me to take a short cut by a bush road through Fancher's 
 farm, did so and regretted it; I often sunk through treacherous 
 ice up to my knees in water; when ^ the way spied Christie's 
 snow-capped hill with barn upon it through the tree tops, decided 
 to take a bee line for it but the crust on the snow was not strong 
 enough to support my weight and every few footsteps I sank' over 
 knee deep in the snow; no one can imagine how wearisome or 
 aggravating it is to walk a mile in this manner, at the same time 
 I easily imagined how the poor English felt when they staggered 
 about in the snow as they resisted the French who attacked them 
 on snow shoes in one of their earliest contests on this continent. 
 On entering Christie's clearance my difficulties were over, for 
 here the frost had taken greater effect on the snow than where it 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I3 
 
 was sheltered by the forest; Mr.VVilloughby had not arrived from 
 Preston when I arrived, where he also holds services as well as at 
 Richford and Davenport, the latter place he goes to on a week 
 day. Maud and Florence Meredith were at church, the church 
 was full for a wonder as generally there are not more than 15 or 
 20. Several persons during the week have applied for the con- 
 tract of building us a house and barn; we had put up a notice on 
 the station house asking for tenders. John Blake was the lowest 
 bidder, $S$ to finish a frame barn 40x30 feet, with a stable in it, 
 he to square the timber and do all the work except the building 
 of a stone foundation and the hauling of the materials on the 
 spot, we of course furnishing the nails, shingles, hinges, &c.; the 
 house to be of hewn logs 6 inches thick, 20 x 22 feet, he to hevv 
 the timber and merely erect the house and put in the doors and 
 windows. Uncle Richard sent us an excellent plan for a barn 
 with a stone stable, 7 feet high underneath, but it was too expen- 
 sive for us in our present circumstances; one good feature I saw 
 in it was that of having the floors of the stables so arranged as to 
 save the liquid manure. J. Blake is an unfortunate man, for 
 which he himself is to blame; he lost 2 farms by extravagantly 
 going into debt with a storekeeper named Delage, who took his 
 farm from him for a small debt he owed him by making a great 
 amount of law costs and forcing the sale of the farm at a small 
 figure. Delage has since cleared ^1500 on the wood alone and 
 has had the farm cleared from end to end. This same man is one 
 of the largest land proprietors in the country and is the largest 
 fa-mer; he has 27 farms. Several farmers have had auctions lately 
 and sold out their stock, fodder, animals and implements; all 
 amounts under $^ cash down, under ^10 credit 6 monts, over ;$io 
 one year. For several days I was laid up in the house from a 
 severe cold. I really think great benefit is derived from exer- 
 cising one's will-power when sick and not giving way to every 
 slight sickness as some people do; of all things a doctor detests 
 most is to treat a desponding or dispairing patient. While in 
 Aston a few days ago there was an election for Mayor. Roussin 
 the "rouge" candidate was elected amid great enthusiasm; there 
 was a triumphant procession of / o sleighs headed by a brass band, 
 after which many speeches were made from the balcony of the 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 hotel Phancuf wanted to sell me an enormous pair of oxen for 
 $gO] his wife is suffering from a cancer and her face is frightfully 
 eaten away by it; she appeared perfectly unconscious, it was a 
 sight I shall never forget; he wanted me to take some whiskey 
 with him but I told him I was a total abstainer. Carmichael boys 
 are great novel readers; I often ridicule to them their trashy and 
 sensational reading, in which the characters are all overdrawn, 
 the villain is painted too black, the hero too perfect and the lovers 
 too ridiculously sentimental; all sensible people should try and 
 avoid becoming fascinated with this worthless style of literature, 
 and any man who says I do this or that to "kill time" should not 
 receive the respect of any good man or woman; man on this 
 earth has such a short time to perform the great duties of life 
 that every hour and even second should be regarded by him as 
 precious and Scicrcd and no book should be read or word uttered, 
 or action performed that would not benefit the man himself or 
 the rest of mankind. Several of the lamb's of father's sheep have 
 died and no wonder, the sheep were only fed on hay and straw, 
 they should have received additional nourishment and been kept 
 in a warmer building; animals badly kept are oniy a loss. Gave 
 L. Brodeur $\'^ for drawing the squared timber of the barn and 
 house; conversed with Tom how we should have our lofjirinir 
 done this spring, he thought we ought to buy a yoke of cattle, I 
 thought it would be cheaper to give it out by the job than to pay 
 a man $l a day to help us, but to tell the truth I do not know 
 where all the money is to come from; there is $85 for building 
 the barn and house.about ^25 for the stone foundations,^3o for the 
 sawing of lumber, $10 still due Andre for shingks, $1^ to Louis 
 for hauling squared timber, $20 for seed, oats and potatoes, and at 
 least $12 for provisions from this to May, in all $167 ; all we have 
 to meet this is ^78.62; my uncle Jerrold's quarterly allowance and 
 $lco cash in hand. One thing is certain father will have to buy 
 his provisions in future as he is going to get another boy from 
 Norfolk Home; this sheltering home is managed by charitable 
 ladies who gather helpless orphans in England and find homes 
 for them in Canada; at any rate we cannot possibly board both 
 boys for him. On Saturday went early to Aston market to buy 
 seed potatoes, father and 2 Frenchmen were with us; on our way 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. l5 
 
 to the village we caught up to a F'rench woman from France, her 
 first husband was an officer in the French army; she first came to 
 Montreal and swindled one of its leading citizens out cf a large 
 sum of money by threatening blackmail, then came out here with 
 a man said to be her cousin, he was found dead a short time after 
 their arrival and she has taken another partner, Francis Burke, 
 the cruel wretch who burned a cat alive; at present she is cutting 
 a great dash on the monev she obtained in Montreal; she is the 
 cause of great scandal in our neighborhood. She is well educated 
 and a wonderfully fluent conversationalist; father advised me not 
 to take her on our double sleigh but I told him that it would be 
 a greater disgrace to pass a poor woman with a six mile walk be 
 fore her on a frosty morning; of course if the others had not 
 been with me I should have been under the painful necessity of 
 passing her; bought lo bushels of potatoes at 35 cts. a bushel. 
 We have great difficulty with Blake, who keeps continually ask 
 ing for money on the contract; we however adhere chiefly to the 
 contract and only pay in proportion as the work advances; fathjr 
 told us if we continued livin^r on farinaceous food onlv, we would 
 get consumptive and that he had written to uncle Richard and 
 was determined to investigate our accounts; told him we had 
 no objection to show him or any one else our accounts 
 and that the more economical we could live the better as 
 long as we did not lose our health, which was never better 
 than at present. Mr. Brodeur returned from mass with a 
 sprig of blessed palm which French Catholics keep hang 
 ing up from the ceiling throughout the year, all Canadians regar.d 
 it with veneration and will not remove it from its place in a de- 
 serted house. Saw the first flock of crows this season; Cousin 
 Ethel is going to the French school and is getting quite proficient 
 in French. It is quite amusing to see my aunt and Miss Du- 
 pont trying to carry on conversation as neither of them can 
 converse in any other language than their own. To-day the 25th 
 March is my birthday, I am 18 years of age. There has been 
 sufficient mild weather to enable Guertin to start his saw mill 
 which works by water; chose a site for our new house which 
 will be rather too close to the road but this could not be avoided 
 ©n account of the small size of the clearance; 30th March raining 
 
l6 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 liard, dense fog, the snow will soon be gone. Mrs. C. asked 
 me what became of our dear mother's personal efTects. I am sure 
 it is none of her business, father acted mean in not giving me 
 some triflmg article that my mother wore as a momento. 31st 
 went to Guertin's gave him a list of the different sizes' of lumber 
 we needed, 20 pieces of scantling 4 inches x 4 for braces for the 
 barn, 13.00 ft. of lumber, 15 ft. long for boarding up the sides of 
 the buildings and 800 ft. 13 ft long, also (,000 ft 12 ft long for 
 roofing, &c. Napoleon wanted to n nt a sugar kettle, the rent is 
 I lb of sugar for the season for every bucket of sap the kettle will 
 contain. In coming back from Guertin's I had 600 ft. of lumber 
 on; the road was flooded and frozen over but broke through and 
 the sleighs became immerged. I was afraid the horses would 
 get drowned but I succeeded in unhitching the traces; came home 
 on horseback at full gallop nigh half frozen. Dufresne offered 
 father 100 lbs of sugar as rent for his sugar bu=:h, father accepted 
 it as a good offer, as half the trees have not been supplied with 
 troughs; we got out our sleighs with difficulty, we should not 
 use them any more this winter as the roads are bare in many 
 places, which quickly wears ont the shoeing of a sleigh; the wet- 
 ting I got gave me a bad cold and sore throat. Andrie L. has a 
 hired man one of the smallest and i )st crabbed specimens of hu- 
 manity I have seen, not quite 4 ft. high and in his face can be 
 seen the misery he has endured; he told me he has been hard at 
 work at manual labor since he was 6 yrs old, which no doubt 
 partially accounts for his being a dwarf; he was married at 14 yrs 
 of age but is very industrious and can do very nearly as much 
 work as an ordinary man. Tom sold hay to Andre at $7 per 100 
 bundles of 15 lbs each. Our lerters to our friend Mr. Hogarth 
 have been returned, I suppose he has gone to some new place. 
 Was terribly pestered by Blake for more money than work was 
 done for on the buildings; spent the evening at Mr. Wheeler's; 
 Mrs. W. is of the opinion that farming is a very slow means of mak- 
 ing money, says that Mr. Meredith is sick of it already and that he 
 pays out four times more than he receives, and that were it not 
 for the ;^4000 a yr. that he eaiiis as mineralogist his scientific 
 tarming and farm would be a complete failure. I said of course 
 his farm could not pay expenses for the first few years on account 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 1/ 
 
 of his doing every improvement in such first class style and 
 making so many permai.^nt improvements on his place, such as 
 adding another story to his brick house, covering it with slate, 
 building new barns and stables, fencing his place anew, pulling 
 out stones and making underground drains, but that no doubt it 
 would in after yrs. for a Scotchman is the last man in the world to 
 spend his money unwisely. Louis' wife asked me if I saw him; 
 told her I savv him at Aston House, poor thing she kr^w well 
 that very little of his weeks earnings would come back home; 
 the father and mother encouraged him to marry her and settle 
 down for they feared he would return to the U. S. and remain 
 there; Canadian priests discourage emigration to the U. S. as 
 much as they can fearing I suppose the enlightning effect of 
 American institutions on their followers. The wife of Maurice 
 Dufresne works with him in the sugar bush and actually chops 
 wood and hauls sap, wading through the snow in masculine at- 
 tire with two heavy buckets f'^U of sap in either hand; Maurice 
 said to me you ought to gc^ married, you see you could make 
 your wife earn her living like mine, I replied I would sooner die 
 than make a slave of the woman I loved, and that I would con- 
 sider myself worse than a brute if I allowed the object of my 
 affections to suffer the slightest hardship whatever; alas nature 
 has dealt hardly with this woman in depriving her completely of 
 all physical beauty and at the saiue time giving her a poor and 
 lazy husband. VVent to Beniots to buy some syrup, his wife 
 was watching the boiling pots while her husband was gathering 
 the sap; she is the best looking Frenchwoman I ever saw, even 
 as she sat on the rough blocks of wood dressed in the poorest of 
 clothes the beauty of her face and the symmetry of her figure 
 would have attracted the attention of the most unobserving, how- 
 ever as I am not a connoisseur, I cannot attempt a minute 
 description, I was greatly surprised with her beantiful complexion, 
 which in my experience is a rarity among Frenchwomen; but 
 to use a novelist's expression, what struck me most was the hap- 
 py combination of every line and feature,not one of which detract- 
 ed from the beauty of the others; how often do we see a beautiful 
 face spoiled by an unsightly nose or badly shaped mouth, or a 
 beautiful figure spoiled by an ugly face; as the wind blew the 
 
l8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 
 
 smoke into her face causing the tears to start into her eyes 1 
 could not help thinking at the time how much I should like to 
 see her change places with some fat old dowager for a week or 
 so. If ruling children A^ith a rod of iron makes good nien and 
 women, my cousins ought to be, ^or their parents now treat them 
 as if they were little children though in reality they ought to be 
 considered young men ai.d women, and their parents still dictate 
 to them' in every thing; uncle and aunt have become more relig- 
 ious of late and have prayers occasionally in the evening; it is 
 wonderful what a change takes place in some people as old age 
 advances upon them. Called at Israel's house, only his wife 
 was at home; said she could not pay what was owed us for cut 
 of square timber; this woman is very masculine in some ways; 
 she can chop wood as good as any man; she cleared over two 
 acres of brush wood on father's lot by herself as her father was 
 unable to perform the job after he had taken it; although this 
 woman has the strength of a man she has not the courage of 
 many women, and allows her insignificant husband to beat her 
 out of the house when he is drunk. The stars can be seen 
 through the roof of the shanty they live in and the floor is hewn 
 logs; it is the oldest house about here and is in such a state of 
 decay that if theyjdo not leave it it will fall down upon them. 
 Napoleon told me he is engaged in a lawsuit with J. Murphy and 
 would have to sell all the sugar and syrup he made to pay his 
 lawyers fee, and that he had the misfortune to lose 50 pails of 
 sap by getting it in an old trough which burst; the lawsuit is about 
 a $25 horse Murphy sold to Gilbert Miguault; Napoleon says he 
 signed as witness; Murphy asserts that it was as security; strange 
 Murphy does not leave law alone, seeing he burnt his fingers at 
 it once. Had a dispute with some Frenchmen about some land; 
 the time the division lines were changed Murphy ordered the two 
 men off the land, (that they gained by the change) till they paid 
 for the improvements, they had axes in their hands and advanced 
 towards him, he attacked them, wrenching the axe from one of 
 them and cut him sorely with it, a lawsuit was the result, in which 
 Murphy lost ^600 which crippled him financially for years. 
 During the week we piled our lumber at Guertin's leaving spaces 
 between each board t( let the air through it to dry it. Received 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I9 
 
 a letter from uncle Richard, "my dear Tom and Arthur I would 
 have written long ere this but have been occupied in many ways 
 so that I could not write; Doherty has paid another ^150 which 
 I duly credited to your account, he did not say one word about 
 the lot and asked me to g.ve him till July for the $100; it is for 
 you to say wether I shall do it or not; you will oblige by letting 
 me know your wish on this matter, I also want to know wliether 
 you will require the mare; my little mare is quite well again and 
 I think she will be quite sufficient for my work during the sum- 
 mer; the mare is in fine condition just now and has improved 
 much since you saw her, whatever you require for yourselves or 
 the house let me l^now and I will send your order out to you. 
 Has the man begun the house yet ? I must conclude, believe 
 me to remain your affectionate uncle Richard." ".St. Augustian 
 April 1st, Mr. J. Howard, dear sir, you wrote to me some time 
 ago requesting me to get the line drawn between my lot and 
 yours, I think it would be best to do it before the bark peeling 
 season commences, as Doherty might peel some trees on my lot; 
 jhoping you are all well, your sincere friend Philip Therman." 
 Had a long conversation with Mr. Baker on farming, he is one 
 of the shrewdest business men in the county of Sussex; he has 
 been manager of Sharp's tannery for a great many years, many 
 ay he has ''feathered his own nest," by taking enormous meas- 
 re when buying bark, giving the poor "habitants" a cord and a 
 uarter for i}4 cords, and marking down i^ cords in Sharp's 
 ooks and pocketing the quarter himself, this caused the "hab- 
 tants" to curse him with every curse imaginable which he listened 
 o with indfierence, measuring the work as if he were an automa^ 
 on. He also speculated in bark, himself and a few years ago owned 
 s much as 45000 acres, which he has been selling off since he 
 as dismissed from Sharp's service; bought window frames at 
 5 cents each, and two doors, one at ;^i.5o the other at ;^3.oo. 
 th April, snowed 2 inches during the night; there is more trou- 
 le than one would imagine in starting on a bush farm; men 
 other us for money before the value is done in work, also have 
 2ars that they will give up their jobs, also that bad roads may 
 revent us from furnishing the lumber in time for the buildings; 
 ommenced digging our cellar; on getting about 3^ feet deep 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE FRENXH IN AiMERICA. 
 
 struck water, surface water from a small swamp in the top of the 
 hill; Tom has given ilic job of building the foundation of the 
 barn to a stone mason for $i^, we to furnish all the materials, he 
 to help us dig the stones. Mallet, Doherty's hired man, had a 
 row with old Doherty; the old man called a French Protestant 
 family, their neighbors, turncoats. Mallet remonstrated and the 
 old mail tried to kick him out, but he doused Doherty in a barrel 
 of water, for which he dismissed him; the cause of Doherty's an- 
 imosity is the fear that his oldest son Bartholemew will marry 
 the daughter, who is a Protestant. Started for lime, Chartier the 
 mason said 3 barricks or 18 bushels would be sufficient. St. 
 Marie is composed of a single street, comprising a large brick, 
 church, post office, cheese factory, a few small groceries and far- 
 mers houses, which look well surrounded by fine orchards; the 
 lime is burnt in an oven shaped like a dome with an opening in ■ 
 the top; the roads were bad and the horses got played out and I 
 had to get a farmer with his team to draw the load home. I 
 wrote to Uncle Richard saying We would buy his mare if he 
 would give us time to pay for her; Tom and I asked fithcr if he 
 had any money to spare, he said he could lend us ;$ioo and that 
 it would be just as well as in the bank. Bergeron asked us $60 
 for a pair of cattle; we offered ;^40 cash which he accepted, giv- 
 ing us a yoke and chain with them; gave the job of drawing 
 lumber from Guertin's mill to St. John for ;^i.50 per 1000 ft. 
 Tried the oxen at plowing, they are well trained and go right or 
 left as told; I went to Richford about doors and windows; the 
 falls looked fine with masses of ice being dashed to pieces on the 
 rocks below, they are over 50 ft. high, almost perpendicular and 
 strange to say a horse and cart were carried over them on a hiige 
 mass of ice and escaped with only a few bruises. A carpenter 
 asked 40 cents a case to make cases for the windows. Miss Mc- 
 Neill told me jokingly that when our house was finished she was 
 going to marry Tom and keep house for us, I answered her in 
 the same strain; she has pleasing features and is a coquette by 
 nature. J. Blake has finished putting up our house; had to go 
 to Aston for spikes to spike the rafters to the top plates. De- 
 lage, sr., the postmaster, would not give me our letters because 
 I was 5 minutes late, he is a very disobliging man and several 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 31 
 
 requisitions have been made to the postmaster general for his re- 
 moval but to no avail as he is a f litliful old conservative. At 
 Aston House a Yankee had one side of the parlor covered with 
 numbered photographs, which he sold at 25 cents each; they 
 are numbered and the men that got the right numbers got prizes 
 ran<^i«ig from $5 to 10. When the rafters were put on our house 
 Blake put an evergreen bough on the top of the end rafters; all 
 the French per.ple around do so; the 'habitants" call it "La Bo- 
 quet." Louis asked permission to take some tamarac to make 
 fence pins as it is less brittle and stronger than cedar. Mary 
 Dupins and her husband died in the U. S. their 7 children are 
 to be divided between Brodeur, their grandfather and an uncle at 
 East Hastings. Mallet has returned to Doherty's, which shows 
 very little spirit after the treatment he received, but the powerful 
 influence of cupid few mefl can resist; poor Mallet is captivated 
 by the charms of Doherty's youngest daughter, but to no pur- 
 pose, Miss D. aspires higher than a farm laborer, at any rate she 
 has often emphatically asserted that she never will marry a her- 
 etic, although her two sisters have done so, but they married 
 above their position, which perhaps not even their youngest 
 daughter would ngt object to, but it is doubtful whether she will 
 ever get the chance as she has not the beauty of her sisters, and 
 the extreme angularity of her features spoils the effect of a clear 
 complexion and fine figure, &c. Maurice D. cleared off with all 
 the sugar he made and only gave father a few lbs.; father want- 
 ed us to work it but we could not with all our own work on our 
 hands, the G. boys however took it on halves for the rest of the 
 season. Wrote to Uncle Jerrold, Dear uncle, excuse my not an- 
 swering your kind letter sooner; all the timber of the barn is 
 squared and framed ready to raise; to-morrow the stone mason 
 will begin on the foundation; most of the barns around here are 
 built on wooden posts as it costs less but is not as cheap in the 
 end as the posts decay. We thought we might as well build a 
 small house as living in part of the barn would be dangerous on 
 account of fire, but as you suggest when we can build a better 
 one we can convert it into a barn; the logs and the rafters of the 
 house are put up; we intend to do the boarding, shingling and 
 laying down of the floor ourselves, and are going to have a cellar 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 12 ft. deep dug underneath and a stone foundation built, as yet 
 we have not cleared out the stream but when the dry weather 
 comes we will commence to do so; I think the best way to have 
 it cleared will be to get a process verbal for it, that is to get a no- 
 tary to follow the course of the stream and count all the lots 
 that send water into it and get a legal document passed in the 
 municipal council to oblige all the land holders to work at the 
 stream in proportion to the amount of their land that drains into 
 it; the times are very dull in Canada as you say, farmers will not 
 suffer as much as mechanics or commercial men, in fact agricul- 
 tural produce sells nearly as high as usual and labor is at half 
 the price that was charged a few years ago, other items end the 
 letter. Read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" a second time, it is one of 
 the most interesting books I ever read. Drew sand and stones 
 to the mason; he asks $30 to build a foundation under the bank 
 12 ft. high and $1$ if we furnish the material; found a snake 2 ft. 
 long; it is a different species from the common kind around here; 
 preserved it in high wines and sent it to cousin Clifford in Mont- 
 /£al, who has a large collection of minerals and curiosities. Our 
 Jog Carlo is a great fighter; some of our neiji^hbors consider dog 
 fights great sport; in my opinion men must be very brutal in- 
 deed to be pleasea with such a cruel pastime. Most of our neigh- 
 bors spend their evenings in playing cards or worthless conver- 
 sation; I can well imagine how the civilized and nobler men of 
 future ages will read with pity and contempt how the majority 
 of mankind of this age employed their time; I am sorry to say 
 that Tom and myself have drifted into this bad habit and waste 
 hours of our time in this manner. This spring I have found out 
 the truth of "the borrower is servant to the lender." It is a poor 
 system at best and should be avoided as much as possible by 
 farmers; I have seen a Frenchman lose half a day in going to a 
 neighbors to borrow a scythe; now the cost of a scythe and han- 
 dle is only;^2.25; so that this man who makes a habit of borrowing 
 spends as much time in walking to and fro as would buy 10 
 scythes. Father has returned with the new boy from Norfolk 
 Distributing Home; I walked to Aston; received a letter from 
 uncle Richard: "My dear boys I received your letter yesterday 
 and herewith enclose you $50; if you want the mare you are per- 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 23 
 
 fectly welcome to her, as regards the payment you can suit your 
 convenience; since slie was in town she went lame on one foot.and 
 the veterinary surgeon told me she took cold in the shoulder 
 from her stall being situated in a current of air between two 
 doors, however you can lake her but I trust it will be gone be- 
 fore you come hi; I am glad you have bought oxen for they are 
 most useful on a bush farm; Arthur can come in at any time it 
 suits him, as you will want the balance of the money he can have 
 it whenever he likes; we are all well here, aunt unites in love, 
 believe me to remain your affectionate uncle, R, J. Goldsmith." 
 At Vednar's store I changed the $^o note, largo bills are useful 
 to him in settling his accounts in Montreal; he wanted to sell me 
 some pine shingles at $2.25 a case, but planed shingles made by 
 hand are better than sawn ones; Tom and I had a difference about 
 Sherman's hay, a private spec of his own; he wanted to sell it to 
 our firm but I considered he asked too high a price; he said I 
 wanted to grind him down as I did everyone else I had transac- 
 tions with; I told him that as regards making too hard a bargain 
 in this part of the country it was nigh an impossibility as nearly 
 everyone had two sets of prices, laborers as well as storekeepers, 
 and that to protect one's self one had to beat down their prices, 
 My aunt and Walter passed in a cart on their way to Aston; 
 they of a truth do not "live for appearances;" it is all very well 
 not to waste money on a costly carriage as the roads are bad but 
 for respectable people of moderate means a cart for a means of 
 conveyance is carrying Diogenism too far. Lapointe has taken 
 the job of building a foundation to the house for ^15; he fur- 
 nishes everything except lime; this damp sloppy weather is hard 
 on boots and shoes, they have to be greased often to preserve 
 them; I told Andre he would have to give his note for the amount 
 he was owing Tom for hay; he seemed offended but I told him 
 it was customary nowadays in transacting business; met D. 
 Doherty at Laporte's notorial office with Lapointe who has lost 
 his lot of land without receiving scarcely any benefit for it; he 
 agreed to peel 100 cords of bark for Doherty but through mis- 
 fortune only peeled 80; Doherty who had paid him full in advance 
 threatened to sue him if he did not give him a note for ^^40, ;$20 
 which he received and ^20 damages for not fulfilling his contract; 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 to this Lapointe consented and usury did the rest, leaving him 
 to-day without a home; truly this Doherty nearly rivals a Shy- 
 lock; bought 25 bushels of oats at 50 cents a bushel. On my 
 way home I went into a brown study over the disadvantages of 
 Tom and I passing the rest of our lives among the vulgar and 
 bad associations with which we are surrounded; it seems to me 
 that man must have good society to live a truly happy and noble 
 life, one cannot hear vulgar and vile conversation without having 
 the finer sensibility of one's nature blunted and destroyed by it. 
 The man who brought us oats from the "French country" can 
 read moderately well in English which suiprised us, as most of 
 the French cannot read even in their own language, but their 
 number is decreasing among the rising generation, all through 
 the beneficial result of English influence are being educated; the 
 term French country is applied by English settlers to those 
 parishes where there are no English residents. This man says 
 we are fouls to waste our time and money here as we will never 
 be able to sell it for what it costs; I considered I had a good 
 memory for faces but was mortified when he reminded me of 
 our meeting a year ago, however his features are by no means 
 impressive, beautiful and hideous faces are the easiest to remem- 
 ber, those of ordinary appearance last of all. Uncle H. told me 
 we had no right to expect Jonathan to pay us for the wood we 
 sold him; 1 thought to myself you are a mean grasping old man, 
 so I cancelled the debt; 24th April we find that on account of 
 rocks we have to give up the idea of a cellar deeper than 4 ft. 
 Tom and I ploughed a piece of land on our lots for potatoes. 
 J. Blake had a "bee" to day and raised the barn; received a letter 
 from uncle Richard, "my dear boy I was not surprised at your 
 father getting another boy, avoid all quarrelling and giving of- 
 fence, in your new house have a room fitted up for him; let him 
 live with you if he likes it, for it will eventually come to that, 
 but you must have command of your own place; if ever he gets 
 to live with you it must be with the understanding that he is not 
 to interfere with you in any way whatever. Russia has declared 
 war with Turkey; flour and pork have gone up and are still 
 going up, your affectionate uncle, Richard." Bought a bushel 
 of seed buckwheat for one dollar; some farmers only sow ]^ of 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 2$ 
 
 a bushel to an acre of land with stumps in it, as it sends out so 
 many stalks from one seed. Read a book called "the Crusades 
 and the Crusaders/'which shows what fools the christians of the 
 middle ages were; went to Guertin's mill through the wood at 
 night, felt somewhat afraid although I really had nothing to be 
 afraid of, as bears are scarce, robbers unknown and ghosts I do 
 not believe in; but all men are born with a certain amount of natural 
 fear; the heroes and the brave are those who conquer and subdue 
 the natural fear and timidity of man. Read in the Witness, the Turks 
 have gained a few advantages over the Russians, but the Russians 
 are certain to crush them in the long run; father said ,he would 
 require i.he money he lent us as he was 'i-unning short. 2nd of 
 May ToQi harrowed a piece o(hnd ^or potatoes^I "underbrushed;" 
 this is the iirst thing that has to be done in clearing lan.d,Jthe trees 
 are then cut down, their branches^c^ut and piled and their trunks 
 cut mt-o 12 ft lengths; the brash should be burnt off before piling 
 the logs as the brush would be an encumberance; if the weather 
 is dry and woodlands of value are near, a calm day is preferable, 
 as there is less risk of the fire running; if no wood of value is 
 near a day with a strong breeze is best as the fire spreads better; 
 a small piece of partially decayed wood will burn several hours; 
 on arriving at a brush pile it has only to be held close to the 
 brush and blown gently with one's breath till a flame starts up, 
 but with hardwood brush when the leaves are not on it small 
 chips have to be collected to start it for this reason, it is preferable 
 I to cut brushwood before the leaves have fallen from it; after the 
 jbrush piles have burnt about two hours they have to be thrown 
 together, as even the dryest of brush piles have a fringe ofun- 
 burnt brush about the edges which should be thrown together 
 (before the fire died out; there are different opinions as to whether 
 joxen or horses are most preferable for logging; a strong horse 
 [is best on high dry smooth ground, as a horse moves quicker, 
 [but in low swampy land or on rocky highland with many roots 
 )xen are preferable; four men are quite sufficient to work with 
 )xen or a horse; a small active boy to chain the logs greatly 
 hastens the work; the pilers have to carry all the small timber 
 )n to the log pile, that is not worth while hitching the team to, 
 rhere they are too far to carry the pilers place them in small . 
 
26 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 piles SO that the teamster can hitch on to them all at once; the 
 choosing of the spot for the log pile is generally left to the driver 
 on account of his wishing to avoid driving his team in rooty 
 or muddy places, of course at the same time he consults the ad- 
 vantage of his men by choosing an easy place to roll the logs 
 and place their skids, also to place the piles on level land, or 
 still better in hollows to prevent their rolling apart when burn- 
 ing; the driver although he has not as much hard labor as the 
 pilers has by far the most disagreeable job, having often to use 
 his hand in cold damp weather and scrape a hole in the wet 
 earth or mud underneath the log, when it is laying partly im- 
 bedded in the earth from having lain there for years and pass the 
 hook underneath the log and hook it on the other side; some- 
 times roots or rocks prevents him from doing this and he then 
 has to try and hitch his chain to a knot or end of a branch, and 
 if this fails to stir the imbedded log he shouts "lever" and one or 
 two of the piler-s have to come and lift the "sog," by which name 
 wet and rotten logs are called; this is generally put on top of the 
 pile as it would not burn if placed at the bottom; to be a good 
 driver one must have inexhaustable good humor, great agility 
 and know all the rules as regard ''chaining," and unchaining, 
 giving roll to the chain, lengthening it and shortening it and pre- 
 venting it from getting over the oxens' backs; when pulling a 
 log from a height; the pile itself to burn well requires to be at 
 least four logs high and put together as closely as possible, in 
 dry weather the piles put together during the day should be set 
 on fire in the evening and then shoved together in the morning; 
 some piles when they are damp require a great amount of chips 
 and small sticks to start them burning, in very dry weather by 
 constantly shoving the piles together they burn up completely, 
 especially hardwood, of which maple burns the best and ranks 
 as the best quality of firewood, but in most cases the remnants 
 of all the piles have to be hauled together in one large pile and 
 burnt; if grain is to be sown two bushels of oats is sufficient to 
 an acre, which is sown on the burnt black surface of the earth 
 and is then "harrowed in;" a strong narrow harrow shaped like 
 a letter V, a narrow harrow being necessary to pass between the 
 numberless stumps, also a man to follow the teamster with a hoc 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 2/ 
 
 to cover the grain where the harrow cannot get at it, sometimes 
 the harrow has to pass four or five times over rooty ground before 
 the grain is covered; sometimes a harrow will be thrown as 
 much as three ft high wlien it strikes a root or rock; I have known 
 one man to have his ancle sprained by the harrow striking his 
 leg. I went to Montreal on the ist of May, went on a fishing 
 excursion with cousin Clifford to Lake St. Louis, but only caught 
 a few small fish as it was too early in the season; brought back 
 the mare with me. Father received the following letter from 
 uncle Richard; "my dear Jonathan, according to instructions I 
 have forwarded you a barrel of flour and Indian meal, a parcel of 
 grass seeds, I could only get one kind of vetch; since the stoppage 
 of the sugar refinery here there is no golden syrup to be had in 
 town, the buckwheat flour they do not keep in the stores here in 
 summer, as they tell me it is very apt to heat and spoil; the prices 
 of provisions are rising rapidly; on account of the war rice is high 
 just now, 6 cents a lb; we had a letter from Richard yesterday he 
 is enjoying himself in London; for want of news I must conclude. 
 Yours very affectionately, R. J. Goldsmith." May i6th, "My 
 dear boys. You need not annoy yourselves about that contract 
 with Blake you can neither sue or be sued so if you have not 
 overpaid him you are all right; the height of the rooms in the 
 house should be at least ic ft, 12 ft is the ordinary height in 
 Montreal, and is none too high, rest lost." Tom gave me a, note 
 [for what he owes me, which is now ;^I33; he has decided to keep 
 [the mare we bought as a private speculation. During May we 
 >lanted oats aud potatoes, cleared land and did work on our 
 louse. Wrote to uncle Richard: "My dear uncle I have just 
 irrived home, I took a little over a day to drive the 75 miles, 
 the mare is a good traveler and seemed just as fresh at the end 
 )f the journey as at the beginning. D. Doherty has been going 
 )ver our lots and has offered us $$0 if we will take back the cut 
 )f the hemlock bark; I do not see why he should make such an 
 )fter unless the price of bark has fallen in Boston or that he over 
 istimated the amount of bark on the lots. Blake has broke his 
 -|:ontract with us and deserted his job but fortunately we have 
 |iot overpaid him and can easily get the buildings finished for 
 \vhat we owe him. I trust my aunt is better from the effects of 
 
28 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. . 
 
 the fall and sprained ancle, with love to my aunt and cousins, I 
 remain your aftectionate nephew, A. Howard." W?nt to Mere- 
 diths; Mr. M. is in New York seeing about some mines; Mrs. 
 M, was very cordial and friendly, she is a model hostess and can 
 equally entertain the rustic farmer or the polished gentleman; 
 enquired if they had any tar left from what they bought to tar 
 the roofs of their barns; said I would buy it to tar our roofs; 
 she told me that Tom Bacon had bought Littleton's house and 
 grounds on speculation and she thought it would be so nice for 
 us to buy it from him and live in the village instead of out in the 
 backwoods, also that her son Nicholas was at an Agricultural 
 College at Guelph, to learn the science of farm' • that he worked 
 at manual labor at the rate of six hours a day, lor which he was 
 paid 50 cents an hour; everything is performed in the most ap- 
 proved manner on the model farm and in the college. The 
 weather was dry enough to burn the brush on the land we were 
 clearing on the 12 May; lived on very plain and substantial 
 food during these months to economize, and find that we are just 
 as healthy as if we had all the delicacies of the season. Saw 
 Andrie's baby, it is the blackest and smallest little Caucasian I 
 ever laid my eyes on. Doherty is making three wagon roads 
 through the lots which is an advantage for us. Logging is very 
 disagreeable work, one gets black as a nigger among the charred 
 timber, tor there are multitudes of mosquitoes, sand flies and mid- 
 ges, that keep constantly getting into ones ej^es, ears nose and 
 mouth which keeps one constantly rubbing ones face with ones 
 hands. Father tells us the Russians are getting beat by the 
 Turks, but of course it will only be a temporary advantage, the 
 bravest of the brave can hardly resist ten to one. On Sunday 
 went on a fishing and bathing excursion with jny cousins; 1 see 
 no harm in taking innocent pleasure and recreation on a Sunday, 
 it is no holier than any other day; to consider it so is only a rem- 
 nant of superstitious barbarism; a good action may be performed 
 on any day wi;hout committing sin, and bad actions should al- 
 ways be avoided on no matter what day; but it has become 
 universally acknowledged that an occasional day of rest is necess- 
 ary and beneficial to man, and it is more convenient that one 
 certain day should be set apart that all men might rest and take 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. Z9 
 
 recreation at the sani :ne; it is however simply absurd to try 
 and compel all men t^ act with what is considered especially 
 saint-like conduct on a Sunday, only to read musty theological 
 works and to observe the day with grave and solemn deportment 
 and conversation; I often felt how supremely ridiculous it appear- 
 ed to have a mother tell her little child that it was a sin to engage 
 in harmless childish sports on a Sunday or to read any books, 
 excepting those devoted to a description of the golden streets 
 and harps of heaven and other heavenly fiction, which have only 
 been concocted in the brains of some religious novelist, or why 
 do some people consider it a sin for factory people who are shut 
 up all week in a hot smoky dusty city, to go out on Sunday into 
 the country and enjoy the pure air of heaven, admire the beauties 
 of nature, truly this is as pleasing to God as to see them sitting 
 in a crowded church listening to some threadbare arguments 
 and discourses th'dt have been repeated to the christian world 
 for the last eighteen hundred years, or to the discussion of im- 
 aginary things which are of no earthly consequence to man's 
 happiness or development. What good I would like to know 
 has all the arguments advanced upon the doctrines of the holy 
 trinity conferred on poor mechanics or any other portion of man- 
 kind, and the worst feature of it is that most clergy^men devote 
 most of their time to doctrinal teaching, whereas if Suiiday- 
 Schools and clergymen taught nature's aud moral iaws and 
 scientific truths instead of their doctrinal hash mankind would be 
 the happier and nobler for it. Wrote to Allen Robertson a friend 
 of mine in New Brunswick; ''My d^ar Allen, I have just re- 
 turned from a fishing excursion on Lake Louis; went from 
 Montreal to Lachine by railway and from Lachine to Beauharnois 
 by boat, after a whole days fishing and trolling we caught only 
 a few small fish; we rowed quite close to the foot of Cedar 
 Rapids and then rowed up the St. Louis river, where we expected 
 to have better success as the water was warmer but without re- 
 sult; on returning we shot the Lacine Rapids, it was not so 
 thrilling as I expected, from the description I saw of it in books. 
 This Spring we have cleared ten acres of land and will sow them 
 with oats and grass seed; land newly cleared is best under grass 
 as it is too rough to keep under cultivation, have also planted 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 
 
 eleven bushels of potatoes; have not moved to our lots yet as the 
 buildings are not quite finished. At present we are trying to get 
 a "process verbal" for a stream that runs through our land; if 
 we can get it passed through Aston muncipal council, the stream 
 will be dug 4 ft deep, 7 ft wide and all the brush and logs clear- 
 ed away on either bank; the distance to be dug is about ten miles 
 and our part of it will cost about $200, but the advantage will be 
 great as it will drain nearly 300 acres of our land; conclude with 
 other news. There has been several thunder storms in May. 
 We fenced in Sherman's clearance as we have the use of it for pas- 
 ture on condition that we pay the taxes and mend the roads. 
 Father has bought a sewing machine for ;^20, second hand; he 
 thinks to do all his own sewing on it; a truly disgraceful occu- 
 pation for a man who passed in one of the best colleges in England 
 as a civil engineer. Read two books entitled "Ferguson's trip 
 across Africa in a balloon," also "The Talisman" by Dr. W. Scott. 
 The Turko Russian war still progresses; the Turks have still the 
 best of it; France and Germany look threateningly at each other 
 and Austria also threatens Russia. I spent an evening at Car- 
 micheal's; Stephen C. has been married since he went to Montreal 
 and brought his wife out with him; she is very plain and what is 
 still worse vulgar, but is good enough for him; uncle and 
 Clifford came from Montreal and admired the work on our house 
 and barn. Went on a fishing excursion to White liver at the 
 end of the range; bought 33 lbs of harrow pins at 8 cents a pound 
 at the blacksmiths; the pins are steel pointed and will not wear 
 out so easily; gave the job of finishing the house and barn to a 
 man for ;^8o, the amount still due Blake, the house to be finished 
 on the 7th and the barn on the 30th of June. I 
 wanted to sell out to Tom for whatever he thought my 
 half was worth, but he would not buy; told him that 
 I would try and enter some military college, A great 
 many people of this range have had the smallpox of which four 
 have died. On Sunday went to the White river with the G. 
 boys and divided ourselves into two crews and ran a race down 
 the river; afterward rowed up nearly to Richford, 5 miles distant, 
 where we lunched on a picturesque island. Since our dear mothers 
 death family prayers have been abandoned; I think, however, 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 31 
 
 that praying now-a-days is overdone, in fact that it is altogether 
 unnecessary; how foolish does it appear for millions of different 
 people, and even people of one nation or pirish, praying for 
 directly contrary results; does it not appear far wiser to perform 
 our duty in this world according to the wisdom a Creator has 
 given us and leave the result in his hands. 7th June, sowed the 
 last of our oats; it is doubtful if it will ripen for the land is so 
 rich that it will keep growing longer than oats sown in poorer 
 land, besides it is a week pa^-t the right time lor sowing it, how- 
 ever it will make good green fodder. Tom sheared father's 
 sheep; this is the right time as the weather is beginning to be 
 very warm and the sheep rub it off; if, however, they are shorn 
 too early they catch cold from the early spring rains. Shingled 
 our house. Tom offered to sell out to me, but I preferred not 
 to buy. Our oxen are what is called breachy, no fence will keep 
 them in, a low f^nce they jump and a high one they he down 
 against it and upset it; put an apparatus on their heads covered 
 with sharp points to prevent them. I went to the back end of 
 our 400 acres and considered it was all magnificent land, but a 
 year after was surprised at the change after the fire had ran over 
 it and burnt off all the loose moss and light vegetable earth on 
 the surface, leaving exposed all the roots and stones underneath; 
 however, our lot contains some of the best land in these parts. 
 Our mare is.very wild since she has been put in the pasture, and 
 kicks dangerously at one when one tries to catch her. Had a 
 "bee" on our lots and logged about ^ of an acre, and made i8 
 log piles, which is very fair as men never work as hard at a "bee" 
 as on other occasions. Had my aunt to bake some bread for us; 
 gave her 60 lbs. of flour and got back 30 lbs. of bread; decided 
 that this does not pay, and in the future if we run short of 
 baker's bread we will make pancakes. On Sunday did not go 
 to church as the mare was lame; read a book called "America 
 before Columbus;" also a book: called "My Wife and I." 
 My aunt keeps continually praising Florence Meredith to me; 
 by so doing I do believe she intends to tease me ; played 
 checkers with Frenchmen in the afternoon. 19th June, received 
 a letter from uncle Richard: "My dear boys, I have just received 
 yours and will see that the door is sent at once. We are all well 
 
32 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 and are going to the seaside at Gaspe on the 2nd of July. How 
 is the mare, has she kicked since she ran away with Arthur? 
 Richard has read your letters and says that the door can be got 
 cheaper in Aston. When you are settled in your new house 
 send me a list of the things you need, for I hnve no doubt th:\t 
 there are many things in our house which we do not use that 
 would add to your comfort. Your aunt and cousins unite in 
 love to you both and to you father. Believe me to remain, dear 
 boys, your affectionate uncle, Richard." We truly ought to be 
 thankful for having such a kind uncle. Took several horses to 
 pasture at $2 a month as our pasture has more grass than our 
 animals can consume. The oats sown on the rich, black soil by 
 the stream, looks better than what was sown on higher ground. 
 Wrote to uncle Richard. "Dear Uncle: We received your let- 
 ter with the ;^io enclosed; we can buy a front door for $3. We 
 have seeded all our new land with hay seed and it has taken 
 well. We will not be able to move to our lots for several days 
 yet, but on doing so will let you know; it we cannot get a stove 
 from tather we will purchase one in Montreal as they are cheap- 
 er there than here. We have had tarred paper put between the 
 boarding of the stable which will make it very warm. We 
 both thank you tor thinking so much about our comfort, also 
 for the postage stamps, Tom unites with me in love to all. 
 Your affectionate nephew, Arthur." We bought 1800 feet of 
 pine lumber for cornice and casings around the doors and win- 
 dows at $18 a 1000 feet. Spent the evening at Meredith's and 
 was introduced to three young gentlemen from an adjoining 
 village, named Harrison, who were on a visit there. Earthed up 
 our potatoes. Out of respect for the reader's feelings I cannot 
 give verbatim the disgusting conversation and jokes we hear 
 daily and I regret to say that conversation that used to fill us 
 with disgust is now listened to with the utmost indifference. 
 Tom and I had a dispute about the mare; I refused to pay for 
 her keep; sowed our buckwheat on the 29th ot June. Herbert 
 C. sat in Willoughby's drawingroom and read a book, never 
 speaking a word to Miss Mabel W. who was there ; told him 
 that such ungentlemanly behavior would make the ladies con- 
 sider bim a boor. Went to the church with Mabel ; she teaches 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 33 
 
 Sunday school; she is not beautiful, but is very accomplished 
 and has graceful manners and is a very kind-hearted, pious 
 young lady, is able to converse in 4 languages, and is a skillful 
 pianist. While in Aston buying locks and keys for our house, 
 1 noticed flags flying from the station, the union jack, the stars 
 and stripes, and another flag that is used in all Catholic proces- 
 sions, and the band playing as the incoming train arrived. Sir J. 
 Macdonel was on the train on his way to a conservative picnic. 
 Mr. Mignault read and address from the French Conservatives 
 and Mr. Littleton from the English; he also received a bouquet 
 from the ladies. Sir J. in his speech tickled their fancy by his 
 saying that his opponents called him a priest's man. 1 often 
 make resol es to devote all my spare moments to self improve- 
 ment and not be influenced by the bad associations around me, 
 and perhaps the very next evening am enticed by an acquaint- 
 ance to some de.nce at an adjoining neighbors, where I hear 
 conversation from young girls of "sweet sixteen" that would, I 
 actually believe, make the ladies of Queen Isabella and Charles 
 the Second's court blush. While chopping a turned up tree 
 into lengths the roots and stump suddenly sprang back into its 
 old place and buried cur dog Carlo beneath ; it fortunately did 
 not crush him and I quickly dug him out; I have known a man 
 to have been thrown as much as 15 feet and considerably bruised 
 by such an occurence. Paid $"] for 7 doz. small panes of glass, 
 1 2th July, moved into our house; father gave us some of the 
 furniture and cooking utensils of the old place and a small cook- 
 ing stove. Finished earthing up our potatoes for the second 
 time. Aunt Ethel and Sarah came to see us. I said to Tom 
 the first evening in our new house, let us in the future be united 
 in all our plans and transactions, and show to the world that we 
 can succeed; after which I burnt his note to me for ^^130, but he 
 seemed very cool and indifferent. Father told us that when we 
 had our house finished he would give us some turkish carpets 
 and lace curtains that our dear mother brought from England, 
 
 I which is very kind of him. Uncle and aunt told us that an 
 Orangeman had been murdered by the Roman Catholics of 
 Montreal, whose name was Hackett. Two foolish Protestant 
 ladies wore orange flowers and this color has the same effect on 
 
34 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH iN AMERICA. 
 
 some Catholics as blood has to a mad bull. The followers of 
 this the only ''perfect church," vilely insulted and attacked these 
 helpless ladies and Hackett, like a true gentleman, remonstrated 
 and then defended them and in doing so was brutally murdered. 
 "My dear boys, you will perceive that I am still at Gaspe with 
 your aunt and cousins. I suppose that you are very busy with 
 your crops and that you have moved into your new house by 
 this. This is a lonely place and the winters are about one month 
 longer than with you, There is a beautiful bay just outside our 
 windows. We all went in a yacht the day b;.'fore yesterday; it 
 is very dangerous and I am afraid that none of them will try it 
 again. Clifford, Mabel, Flora and myself went out fishing to 
 the St Johns river, we only caught a dozen trout and some of 
 them were very small It is cool here in the morninf^fs and 
 evenings ana very pleasant in the middle of the day. Rain is 
 badly vvanted here, they have had only one small shower tor 
 weeks. It takes 4 or 5 days to get a letter or paper from Mon - 
 treal; I miss the papers very much. Richard is taking care of 
 my patients; should you require anything let him know. 1 ex- 
 pect to return on the ^th of August. With love from all, your 
 affectionate uncle, Richard." Read a book by Capt. Butler, 
 entitled, "The Great Lone Country." Commenced cutting our 
 hay on the i6th of July; some of the inhabitants only cut theirs 
 in the middle or last of August, but the hay by then has lost its 
 nutritious juices and is little better than dried sticks. I dulled 
 my scythe and had to go to a neighbors to sharpen it as we 
 have not yet bought a grinding stone. When I returned, Tom 
 accused me of wasting time and a dispute was the result; he said 
 he would not be under any obligation to me and gave me back 
 a note for the amount he owed me. I worked till dark as we 
 wish to get our hay saved while the weather is fine. It surprises 
 me how we lived at this time, a completely vegetable diet, and . 
 in the best of health with much hard work. It certainly re- 
 quires endurance to mow steadily all day in the sun, with a 
 thermometer at 78 to 89 degrees above zero. Tom commenced 
 digging a well. Andre has commenced to use his new potatoes. • 
 In a confab Tom and I had, he said he would like to go to Man- 
 itoba or Texas. Old Burke came with a petition to have his son 
 
HISTORY OF THE FKKNCH IN AMERICA. 35 
 
 released froQi Kingston, a great many justices of the peace had 
 signed it, and some priests; we put our names to it. His son 
 half killed a peddler a few years ago. The G's. refused to pay 
 for the pasturage of their horse, because our dog killed a pig of 
 theirs that was running half wild in the woods. Ran the 
 boundary line between Delage's farm and ours; the surveyor 
 was 5 acres out in the distance of one mile when he reached the 
 corner post at the other end of the lot; in returning the line was 
 rectified and the posts changed. Sent by a passing neighbor for 
 a bag of salt, a little put on the hay in the mow prevents it from 
 heatnif or becomin^j mildewed, and makes the animals eat it 
 with a better relish; 3 persons are required to draw in hay: one 
 to pack it on the load, one to pi'ch it up and one to rake after 
 the load. Have been reading history of late. I think we should 
 get a home boy; he would be useful for cooking meals and keep- 
 ing the house clean. Had to pay the surveyor at the rate of ^5 
 per day and $i for placing a boundary stone, also hotel expenses 
 $1; thcT dearest surveyor we ever had; the other one we had only 
 charged us $2}4 for our expense. Allowed Andre to put his 
 hay in our barn till he gets one built. While saving father's hay 
 for him, our oxen trespassed on G's. meadow, for which we had 
 to pay $1. Mr. Carmicheal, of Montreal is on a visit with his 
 relations; he is a very vulgar man and is continually talking of 
 having dined with the honorable Mr. so and so. We fenced in 
 a piece of meadow for a pasture by our house to prevent our 
 oxen from trespassing; were offered I cent a foot, lineal measure, 
 for the cut of our tamerac timber on our lots,.which we did .not 
 accept. We cook our meals outside in a stone fireplace to keep 
 the house from being too warm. After mass on Sunday our 
 French neighbors went picking blueberries. We have commenced 
 underbrushing more land; also are drilling and blasting the rock 
 in our well. Some Aston ladies came on a raspberry picking 
 excursion and took tea with us. F'ather says he has only $20 
 ! cash, if so he will have hard work to weather the winter. At 
 [present we are making rails for a fence in front of our lots; we 
 jniake 150 a day, which is fair considering we are novices in rail 
 making. Cut down a cedar somewhat over 90 feet high, the 
 highest I have seen in these parts. Had a dispute with Tom 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 about housework, thought he left too much of it for me to do. 
 Had hard work swamping the rails, sank some times over one 
 foot in the mud. I am thinking of asking my uncle's permission 
 to enter somt! military college when I go to Montreal in Novem- 
 ber. A heavy thunder storm has caused the tall, rank oats by 
 the stream to be thrown down, which will make it ditticult to 
 cut; next morning the whole of the low lands were flooded as 
 there is only a partial outlet for the stream. Have commenced 
 to use new potatoes occasionally, but it is a waste to use them 
 until full grown. Tom has become quiie a sportsman and shot 
 many pigeons in groves of cherry trees. "Dear boys, we have 
 all got home at last from Gaspe, Richard and Charley are not 
 at home and I thought you had better postpone your visit till 
 they come back. I hope to be able to come out and see you 
 very soon. As soon as you get this send me word what money 
 you want, also a list of the things you may require ; I am glad 
 you have moved to your new house for several reasons; you will 
 save time and fatigue and be able to keep a lookout o*n your 
 land. I think it will be necessary to get a cow; the small Cana- 
 dian cows are good milkers." Extract from reply: "We owe 
 Bedard $27 for blacksmith bill and Mousseau $29 for groceries. 
 We will require ;^6o this quarter. In the future we will try and 
 buy everything on the cash system as the storekeepers have 
 higher prices for credit," To-morrow we will finish fencing the 
 new pasture we have made; after this is finished we will plaster 
 the crevices between the logs of the house and apply tar to the 
 roofs of the housq and barn to preserve the shingles. Carlo dis- 
 covered an otter under some roots by the stream, but we could 
 not get at it; their skins are worth $10. Gave the job of i^ 
 acres of land to Napoleon to log and burn for $8. Received 
 a letter from uncle Richard, sending us ;$6o and advising us to 
 keep poultry. Tom and I have decided to clear 25 acres of land 
 this year; we will do all the underbrushing and cut all the tim- 
 ber on the ground this fall, and in the winter cut the standing 
 timber. This is a good time to get improvements done as labor 
 is cheap. Sold Meredith fifty cords of stovewood for ^1.25 a 
 cord, also twenty cord of wood to Mrs. Guernsy at $2 a cord. 
 Bought ten lengths of stovepipe for 64 cents. Canadian tobbacco 
 
HISTORY OK THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 37 
 
 in rolls costs 20 cents a lb. As we will not have as good a crop 
 of potatoes as we expected (on acconnt of the ravages uf the Col- 
 orodo beetle) we bought some potatoes cheap at 25 cents a 
 bushel. Clifford came from ^^v)ntreal. I slept on the hay in the 
 barn but fuund it rather chilly; cut with a brush scythe wild 
 raspberry buslics that was growing upon seme of the cleared land. 
 Moses La. Kivere, brother to Andrie' is coming to live next to 
 him, he has often arguments with me on purgatory and confession 
 and advises me to become a Catholic and marry a I'rench girl. 
 I ridiculed the idea of his paying certain sums of money to his 
 priest to get his mother-in-law's soul out of purgatory, and tell 
 him that it is a religious swindle and means of making money. 
 Louis BroJjur's mother-in-law nearly drowned in a stream; she at- 
 tempted to cioss while driving cows through the woods, she sank 
 in the mud so much thitshe could not extricate herself but 
 fortunately help arrived in time. Wrote to uncle Jerrold giving 
 him a description of the improvements on the lots. Bought a 
 cow from Napoleon for $2$, a very fine animal, part Durham 
 and a good milker. We are fittening two pigs, for pork Went 
 on three days fishing and boating excursion with the G. boys 
 and Clifford to the Black river, also shot some partridges. Cliff- 
 ord says we ought not to allow Frenchmen working in this 
 vicinity to stop at our house, but it is hard to refuse them, it 
 would look disobliging. Bread has fallen to 15 cents for a 6 lb 
 loaf Tom and I had another dispute about house work. Tom 
 went to Aston council but the process verbal did not pass, there 
 was too much opposition; many of the councillors land that sends 
 water into the stream voted against it to avoid expense. There 
 iwas a review of militia at Richford, one of the raw recruits shot 
 Ihis captain in the hand. Jonathan G. tells me that Magloire 
 [Vincent had a disgraceful wedding through too much whiskey; 
 the bridegrooms brother had his clothing torn off hi.n and one 
 )f the bridesmaids had her nose broken; amongst the French 
 lere there is generally only one bridesmaid and a best man, who 
 ire called "Garcon de honeur" and "Fille de honeur." "Salford 
 mgland August 20th. My dear Tom and Arthur, I received 
 )oth your most '^velcome letters; I am truly glad to hear that 
 'ou are getting along with your farm; you ought to be truly hap- 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 py boys, out in the fresh country air, healthy and strong, every 
 foot of your property your own forever. I have been trying 
 to buy some land ever so wild; I should not care but cannot get 
 it. I once owned 70 acres but was tempted by an offer of just 
 double what I gave for it and have regretted it ever since. Al- 
 though you are minors no one can touch your land without the 
 deliberate consent of two old experienced heads; every foot you 
 improve of that land is a safe investment. It almost makes my 
 head ache to see Rupert studying so much over his books the 
 competition is so great now-a-days that brain work is carried to 
 an excess. We leave Salford shortly, remaining at Orford 
 House a few weeks and then go on to Brighton where we will 
 remain a few weeks for the sea air, I went round the Duke of 
 Devonshire's garden and grounds; I saw two immense rocks 
 called rocking rocks so evenly balanced that thej could be moved 
 with a touch of the finger; the conservatories were beautiful, con- 
 taining all sorts of Southern plants and rare trees growing in a 
 glass building larger than a church and heated to rather an 
 unpleasant degree. The Russians and Turks are busy killing, 
 burning and cutting each others throats; Heaven change them 
 and God grant we may never suffer from the horrors of war. 
 Aunt Mary joins in love. Your affectionate liUcle, Jerrold Gold- 
 smith." Uncle Richard came to see us and b -ought us two large 
 jars of preserves from my aunt. Uncle said wc would have a fine 
 estate some day. lOth September, this week we expect to finish 
 sowing all our oats, Received a note from uucle Richard say- 
 ing he had insured our buildings for $300 and our crops at ;^200 
 for three years; cost of insurance $5.15. In a letter from uncle 
 Jerrold he says Rupert thinks of entering the Queen's horse 
 guards. Gave Lapointe of Aston a job often acres to under- 
 brush at $1.60 an acre. Went to Doherty to give him a notice 
 to pay the balance of his account, had a supper there; their usual 
 fare potatoes, pork, bread, butter, honey and strong tea. Re- 
 solved to devote $1 out of every ;^ioo I am worth to some worthy 
 charities. Wrote to uncle Richard; "Dear uncle, Tom unites 
 with me in thanking you for your regard for our interests in 
 having our buildings insured. Wc have finished plastering the 
 chinks between the logs of our house; Doherty will pay the bal- 
 
PISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 39 
 
 ance next week; we have given twenty acres to Frenchmen to 
 have underbrushed at ^i.6o an acre in low land, and $2 in high 
 lands; where there is more fallen timber to cut it is a great bar- 
 gain, the usual price is $y, the twenty acres will extend from the 
 ' Beaver meadows on 35, across the whole front of 34 to Sherman's 
 line. Could you, if convenient, lend us ^$40 and we will pay you 
 out of thj November quarter. We will cut our buckwheat next 
 week;" unimportani; itjms conclude it. Bought a grinding stone 
 for 6S cents. Went to Meredith's, Florence and Maud are at a 
 ladies college in upper Canada, Jessie at a deaf and dumb insti- 
 tution in Montreal; she lost the power of speech and hearing at 
 an early age after a severe fever; and Timothy the second eldest 
 son is at Lennox college, so the house has a deserted appearance 
 with only the mother and younger children. G. boys are mak- 
 ing great improvements, most of their meadows could be cut with 
 a machine; they have a small orchard that is wonderfully pro- 
 ductive. Gave a Frenchman a job of sawing 80 cords of stove 
 wood with our sawing machine for 35 cents a cord, we to furnish 
 the machine, oil and files and a man to work it. I went to a 
 "bee" at Houde's farm near our place; the family are going to 
 inove here this fall; there were twenty-three men whichwas more 
 than was needed. The Frenchman has given up the job of saw- 
 ing the wood, says the machine does not saw enough to pay him. 
 "My dear boys, I received your letter yesterday and was glad 
 you were both so well, in fact you are both so busy that you 
 have no time to think of bodily ailments even if you had them. 
 There is no doubt that the clearing of that twenty acres will be 
 a grand improvement when it is finished. I shall take a great 
 pride in your making that a fine farm particularly as I expect 
 your uncle Jerrold will soon come over to see you. It was prin- 
 cipally on your account he came out last time. In the letter I 
 enclose ;^6o, ;^40 from myself as a present and ^20 from your 
 uncle Jerrold to pay for a cow which you absolutely need he 
 says, not having heard you bought one. After a year or two 
 you will be able to sell something off your farm when you can 
 keep a boy and have more cattle; that farm of yours when cleared 
 will make a fine stock farm. I hope you will not be obliged to 
 draw cordwood this winter any more at $2 a cord, there is noth- 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ing made by it and you really are above such labor. Clifford is 
 going to school again but I think he is getting tired of it. After 
 next year I think he will like to be a farmer, but I fear he has 
 been too much spoiled by town luxuries. I send you a small 
 book af prayers for morning and evening use, as I know that it 
 will give your uncle Jerrold pleasure to know that you apply to 
 the throne of our Heavenly Father for guidance every day, as 
 we require to support the body with daily food so we must en- 
 liven our faith and nourish our souls by constant communion 
 with God. I thank you very much for your kind invitation and 
 would like very much to go out and see you tor a few days; 
 when you are opening up the stream try and give me a couple 
 of days notice. Of all things plant an orchard; see what a great 
 quantity of fruit your uncle has received from his orchard which 
 I planted myself for him lo years ago; excuse my writing across 
 my letter, with much love in which your aunt unites, I remain 
 your loving uncle, R. J. Goldsmith." "Dear uncle Richard I 
 received your letter yester^h^^ evening with your generous gift 
 of ;^40 and thank you for it, I trust by our future conduct and 
 management of these lots we will at least show you that we are 
 trying to be worthy of two such generous and good uncles, who 
 have always taken such a deep interest m our spiritual as well as 
 our temporal welfare; how very good of uncle Jerrold to send us 
 $20 to buy a cow with. We have finished cutting our buckwheat; 
 we will not draw any more wood to Aston but let the purchas- 
 ers get teamsters to draw it. This winter however we will have 
 plenty to do in chopping the standing timber and making rails. 
 We will follow your advice and make preparations for the plant- 
 ing of an orchard; in a short time we will begin to cut wood 
 with the sawing machine; with love to my aunt and cousins, 
 your affectionate nephew, A. N. Howard." Father's buckwheat 
 has been destroyed by G's cattle; Jonathan tried to take their 
 cattle from father's stable by force and struck father several times, 
 in one spot making his face black and blue; father threatens to 
 sue for damages for assault and battery, if the damage is not paid 
 and a written apology given. W. Carmichael ot Montreal acts 
 hke a rough, he fired off his revolver in Aston several times. 
 Wrote to uncle Jerrold a long letter. Received a letter from 
 
HISTORY OF THE FREISfCH IN AMERICA, 4 I 
 
 uncke Richard saying that Flora was very busy preparing for her 
 apj)roachiiig wedding; she is going to be married to a Mr Butler, 
 a superintendent ot a railw.iy. On the 13th Oct. received another 
 letter saying that Flora had returned from her wedding tour and 
 thjLt lie expected us in shortly, also that he was sorry to hear of 
 tliJ fresh feud between father and G's. In November received a 
 lettT from uncle Jerrold congratulating us on our improvements; 
 su )posed that Sarah had returned to her husband for they should 
 think more of each other than all the world, that he was a sober 
 and industrious man, who will eventually make her happy, also 
 asked to be kindly remembered to Mrs. McNeill, who so kindly 
 attend-,'d on our dear mother in her last sickness; that we should 
 visit our dear mother's grave often and keep it looking beautiful 
 and attend church regularly. The council decided that the 
 bridge over our stream 12 ft, wide was not a bridge but a culvert, 
 and that we and the land proprietor on the opposite side should 
 keep it in repair. In November Jonathan G. went to a medical 
 co'L'ge at Chicago; he has earned some money teaching school 
 anJ his brvjther out west will also help him; he is a clever fellow 
 having studied enough by himself with the aid of Rev. L. C, Wil- 
 loughby to matriculate. Mrs. Meredith invited us to spend 
 Christmas with them. Mrs. M. told me they were paying ^ooo 
 a year for the schooling of Florence in Montreal and that the 
 education of five of their eldest children cost ;^i8oo alone, also 
 showed me a large and interesting collection ot curiosities col- 
 lected by her husband, such as coins, minerals, &c. Uncle Rich- 
 ^ard wrote saying that he passed through Aston and intended to 
 all and see us but that uncle H. was on the platform and never 
 nvited him out, and wanted to know if we had heard of anything 
 hat displeased uncle H. Replied, "Dear uncle, yours received 
 with uncle Jerrold's enclosed; we did not hear anything as re- 
 -gards uncle H; he has not been to see us since he was with you 
 last August. We have logged 6 of the 20 acres also plowed 
 "Some of Richard's old clearance to have ready for wheat next 
 Spring. At present we are chopping down and cutting up the 
 Jarjije trees on the 20 acres; when the days are too wet to work 
 
 futside we thrash oats in the barn. Tom has changed a consid- 
 rable amount of time with the neighbors by sawing wood for 
 ■ 
 
4^ HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 tliem with the sawing machine, they are to pay us back by help 
 ing us to log We hope to have the pleasure of seeing you and 
 Clifford at Christm- s, with love to all, your affectionate nephew, 
 Arthur." Mr. Meredith sent father a book of travel; he has 
 written a Very interesting book entitled "To the Andes and back." 
 Ihave commenced a history of the World and intend to devote 
 the spare moments of my life to it, and I never lose an oppor- 
 tunity to collect all the most important events, statistics, man- 
 ners, habits and customs of all nations from all sources imaginable; 
 histories, newspapers, magazines, etc., and classify them, leaving 
 out all the trivial and unimportant details. On the 25th of Oct, 
 the ground was covered with snow, the first we have had this 
 season. Read for the second time the history of Rome. Had 
 several disputes with father this fall, he thinks we should vvork 
 on his farm as well as our own, we told him we could not and 
 that he must depend upon his own resources to make his system 
 of farming a success, but that we should never see him in want 
 of anything; told him it was mean of him to try and prejudice 
 our uncles against us, or to tell our friends that we were bad 
 boys because we went fishing or boating on a Sunday or passed 
 our evenings at the firesides of our French neighbors. We have 
 3 French neighbors now, Andre and Moses Larivere and the 
 Houde faniily, which consists of father, mother, 4 daughters a.id 
 2 sons. Went to Houde's to spend the evening, Andre and his 
 wife were there playing cards; Houde made me take supper with 
 them after which he asked me to join them at cards; told him I 
 could not play, said his daughter Marie would show me how, at 
 which a lather ordinary plain featured brunette came and sat by me 
 she appeared however to be the most intelligent of the daughters 
 and can read and write, of wliich accomplishment her sis- 
 ters are deficient. The old lady and Andre quizzed me and 
 said they supposed I should soon get married now that we had 
 a house built; I said I did not think I was possessed of suf- 
 ficient means, at which Andre laughed and said look at me. 
 I had only a week's provisions ahead; said I thought he had 
 more pluck than ever ^ would have; under Marie's direc- 
 tion I played with varying success; sometimes when the 
 cards went wrong she would utter rather strong language, such 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMEKICA. 43 
 
 as "Mon Dieu," "Seigneur," etc. Andre lives the best of any 
 French people around here; he nearly always has meat, soup, 
 potatoes, butter, bread, tea, and very often apple and mince pies. 
 14th December; the water in the basin on the wash-stand was 
 frozen solid this inorning ; the ddy is windy and piercingly cold; 
 there are good sleigh roads. Wrote to uncle Jerrold : "My 
 dear uncle, I received your letter, and thank you for the great 
 ititoMCst you take in our welfare. I smcerely trust that the im- 
 provements on our lots will reach your highest expectations 
 when next you come to Canada, which 1 trust will be next 
 summer. Uncle H. and family are all well; a reconciliacion 
 has been effected between Sarah and her husband, and she has 
 returned to live with him. Jonathan is studying medicine at 
 Rush medical college, Chicago. In winter Tom and I go to 
 cliurch, we have to talve turn about, as some one has to remain 
 at home to keep the fires going and attend to the animals. We 
 planted and replaced this fall some cedars that had died during 
 th.' sum. ner in the hedge around our dear mother's tomb, VVe 
 sometimes visit Mrs. McNeill; the kind lady who attended on 
 our dear mother during her illness. I trust Rupert's health will 
 not be injured by the hard study, but the greater the difficulties 
 the greater the victory. There fell about 8 inches of snow a 
 couple of days ago, but it has nearly all thawed away. During 
 the last few years there seerns to be less snow during the wintt^r. 
 Mr. Venner, the weather prophet says that during the next half 
 century the Canadian winters will be v^ery mild; also that there 
 is a probability of the rivers remaining open for navigation this 
 winter, but time will prove his correctness. Everything on the 
 farm is progressing fivorably. With love to my aunt and 
 Rupert. Your affectionate nephew, A. N. Howard." Changed 
 tune with our oxen with our neighbors, one day with the oxen 
 and myself being considered equivalent to three days worth of a 
 man. Invited father to spend Christmas with us, but he spent it 
 at Carmicheal's; cousin Sar^ih from Davenport, with Philip and 
 Walter spent the day with us; we all then spent the evening at 
 Herberts. London. December 4ch. "My dear Tom and Arthur: 
 Your joint letter has just been h^Mided in by the postman, with 
 one from your cousin Mabel. I was so pleased to hear from 
 
44 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ' 
 
 your uncle Richard of the great improvements you are making 
 on your farm; in a few years more you will begin to be com- 
 fortable. Mind you keep out of debt whatever else you do; 
 "the borrower becomes servant to the lender." Let nothing ever 
 tempt you to run into debt, ruin is sure to follow; the man tliat 
 owes nothing sleeps sound, out of debt and out of danger; better 
 to be a free man on a poor dinner in a ragged coat, than ride in 
 broadcloth with a full stomach and a sore heart; moreover, pay 
 day always comes when there is no money to pay.and if you owe 
 nothing all you have is your own, and he who has debtors has 
 unwelcome visitors; and if you wish to be glad to meet a friend 
 do not borrow money from him. I cannot make out how much 
 land is downright cleared out. Your aunt, Rupert and myself 
 would be delighted to be in the woods and see you all. Have 
 you planted any apple trees ? As soon as the woods are cut 
 down in Canada the climate will become much warmer. I felt 
 strong and well in the woods, the air seemed so deli^jhtfully pure 
 and fresh, so different from smoky, foggy London air. I should 
 like to get a farm and live in the co'jntry, your aunt Margaret 
 could attend to the dairy, and I could see after the men and plow 
 and reap wheat and oats; I should grow potatoes and cabbage, 
 keep fowls and pigs and sell them, and have plenty of sheep and 
 cows; I should have all my own mutton and beef, with butter, 
 eggs and cream. I fear I am getting very old, but I am always 
 hoping to live on a farm, and perhaps it may come to that at 
 last; although like a doctor's bread, he never gets it till he has 
 no teeth to eat it; and if I do not get a farm soon I shall go to 
 it at last with lean sides, creaking joints and a rheumatic old 
 fogy, fit for nothing else but to sit in a chimney corner and 
 grumble at everything. We had a telegram from New York 
 warning us of a terrible storm that would visit us on the 24th of 
 last month, which it did with a vengeance, many ships were lost 
 and houses and trees blown do^'n; our servants w?re so fright- 
 ened that they sat up all night. The price of wheat and bread 
 has risen in England. We are all well, thank God. Your aunt 
 sends her love. Give my love to uncle Herbert and his family 
 and to all friends, and belreve me your loving uncle, Jerrold 
 Goldsmith." During 1878 I kept my journal very irregular and 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 45 
 
 in March decided to discontinue it, 7th January, '78. When I 
 got up this morning the thermometer in the bedroom was 4 
 degrees below zero. "My dear uncle Jerrold: We read your 
 letter and thank you for your good advice and will try and fol- 
 low it. Ihe woodland has so many operations to go through 
 before it becomes cleared land that I am not surprised that our 
 description of the different operations pu/ .led you; as regards 
 how much land we have cleared since we came on the lots: we 
 have cleared and put under cultivation 13 acres of land and are 
 at present engaged in clearing 20 more; we have not planted 
 any apple trees, but will do so in the spring; a good orchard on 
 a farm greatly increases its value. I hope you will be able to 
 find a good farm as the change would no doubt be beneficial. 
 Cousin Clifford spent New Years with us. The weather here 
 now is very changable, this morning 4 degrees below zero, at 
 noon thawing, and to-night snowing and blowing in a most 
 wintry manner. With love to all. Your affectionate nephew, 
 Arthur." Tom has bought a cutter, or light sleigh, for which 
 he has paid $28. The Russians have captured a Turkish Pasha 
 and 30,000 men. Read a book, entitled, "Jesuitism in Europe 
 and America," which plainly shows their t afty and ambitious 
 policy, that of bringing all the world into submission to the 
 doctrines of Roman Catholicism, We have threshed and stored 
 away in a granary, 40 bushels of oats for seed. Allowed 
 Brodeurs to make rails on halves out of the cedar on the 20 
 acres we are clearing. Houde has bought some pine trees from 
 us for square timber; some pieces that had dccay<^d knots he 
 plugged up with pegs of wood, but the buyer .scovered the 
 fraud and cut him terribly in measuring the sound ones; truly, 
 honesty is the best policy. 29th Feb. Uncle Richard came from 
 Montreal; our house vvas in a terrible state, as we were having 
 tongued and groved floors put down, and also a flight of stairs; 
 he brought us a set of carpenter's tools from himself, and some 
 very nice furniture and household nic nacs, which our cousin, 
 Angelica Fothergill of Salford, England, had him buy for us; 
 also my aunt, cousin Mabel, and Mrs. Hay ton, uncle Richard's 
 sister-in-law sent us many articles and trifles that . 'ill greatly 
 beautify and add comfort to our bachelor's hall. We are truly 
 
46 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ' * ■' 
 
 blessed with many lovin^r and stauncli friends; uncle returned in 
 the morning. I often long for that time when we shcdl have 
 sufficient means to live in such refining and elevating society in- 
 stead of being; buried and continuously in the slough of humanity 
 in which we now exist. Houde only paid us $1 a piece for the 
 pine timber, large and «?mall, which was not enough. "Fredric- 
 ton, N. B. Dear Arthur, I hope you will excuse my not writing 
 before but I did not wish to write till I had renewed the 
 subscription to the "Youtli's Companion" I send you. As it is 
 too late to wish you a merry Christmas or a haDp) New Year, 
 I at least hope you have enjoyed those holidc.ys. I am still at- 
 tending the universit}' of New Brunswick, which is located here. 
 My youngest brother had an attack of dipthcria and after he got 
 better my mother and youngest sister took it. The weather 
 here as everywhere else is unusually mild although we have had 
 enough snow for good sleighing. There has been a great tern 
 ' perance revival here over 1000 people formed the club which 
 they have established, they are doing a great deal of good for 
 Fredricton; my little baby brother i.-> beginning to talk and walk, 
 he is about ten months old. This is all the news; 1 hope you 
 will WTite soon; ever believe me your sincere friend, Allen I Rob- 
 ertson." Mr. Willoughy held services fortnightly in our school 
 house also had a singing and confirmation class among some of 
 the younger members of the three English families on the range. 
 In a letter from uncle Richard he said "your uncle Jerrold takes 
 an interest in all your movements, and the most minute details 
 about the land are of interest to him." Also read a letter from 
 aunt Margaret: "My dear Tom and Arthur, my last week's mail 
 Angelica sent me a few £ to invest in household articles for your 
 comfort, will you please tell me what articles you require most 
 and I will send them to you; you ought to get a carpenter to help 
 you to finish your house inside, hope you will attend to this and 
 have it nicely finished and consider the importance of making 
 yourselves comfortable; we will be much happier here when we 
 know that you have your house nicely and comfortably furnished, 
 after that your farm work, clearing land &c. Do not forget to 
 write to Angelica, she takes a great interest in you, both for your 
 own and vour dear mother's sake; your affectionate aunt, Mar- 
 
HISTORV OF TIIK ri^EN'CII IN AMERICA.- 4/ 
 
 garct A. Goldsmith." "My dear aunt I read your letter and thank 
 you for your ^reat kindness in thinking so much about us; how 
 very good of Angelica to have such regard for our comfort, we' 
 shall certainly write to her occasionally. You are all so very good 
 to us that it fills us with the most earnest desire to make our at- 
 tempt at fanning a success, knowing how much it would please 
 you all; we will have our house fini hed inside as you suggest. 
 Everything is progressing favorably on the farm. With love to 
 all I retnain, ever your affectionate nephew A. N. Howard." 
 Received a circular from a conservative in Dudley: the conserva- 
 tive party is broken up and there is to be a "general election;" 
 the circular strongly advi^icd the people to sustain the conservative 
 party by voting for it and as good Catholics not to vote for the 
 Liberals or "Rogues," who as a party are denounced by their' 
 priests. Received a letter fro, n Angelica; "My dear Tom and Ar- 
 thur, I was so pleased to receive your letters by last week's mail 
 and to hear of your success, I heard from Mamma, of Clifford's 
 visit to you and how much he enjoyed it; hope he writes to you^ 
 regularly but I fear lis is rather lazy about it, as he scarcely ever 
 writes to me. Timothy was surprised at the large clearance you 
 are making; he would like to see Canadian woods very much 
 for he has only passed by them in the trains. Will you make ■ 
 any sugar this year? We have been greatly interested in read- 
 ing Mr. Meredith's book "to the Andes,and back," do you often 
 see him or any of the Aston people. You must enjoy the quiet 
 rest in the evenings, and I hope you still delight in the words of 
 God. Our baby is more than two years old and is so lively and 
 talkative. I have no news about your uncle Jerrold, with love 
 from Timothy and myself, your affectionate cousin. Arthur E. 
 Fothergill." I have so much work and so little time to spare 
 that I have decided to discontinue my journal gth December, 
 '78, I have changed my mind and recommenced my journal; it is 
 ight months and ten days since I left off writing in it; I shall 
 ive the chief events that occurred during that period. Mrs. 
 Doherty died; we went to the wake and funeral; the corpse was 
 n a coffin in the parlor, there were about seventy-five people 
 there, several prayers were said for the repose of her soul, I of 
 :ourse kneeled with the rest full of silent disgust at such non- 
 
48 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 sense; forsooth are the prayers of a few insignificant mortals 
 cipablc of changinf^ the just and unalterable decrees of a mighty 
 just and merciful God. All of the people except the members of 
 the family feasted, conversed, joked and drank in such a manner, 
 that in outbursts of their merriment I almost believed I was at a 
 wedding; it seemed to me that these people were '"Job's com- 
 foitersand that they came to have a good time generally instead 
 of out of true sympathy with the here ived family. 1 here were 
 3 meals during the night. It was truly a strange sight to me; 
 in the parlor the bereaved family sat in silent grief shedding 
 tears occasionally, and around them sat old married women 
 talking in subdued voices about the latest news and gossip. In 
 other rooms, middle aged men and women, with young men anH 
 women kept up a continual chatter of conversation, some in 
 subdued voices, whispering love seritences into the ears of their 
 sweethearts. The uproarious outbursts of laughter, together 
 with the coarse jokes that were uttered, made me shudder and 
 think how much of mankind were yet really in a state of barbar- 
 ism, "even though God had revealed to them alone the only true 
 religion." In a moment these people cease from their coarse 
 conversation and lewd jest and drop on their knees to utter 
 prayers to God. What blasphemy ! surely such prayers as 
 these must be an abomination in his sight. After breakfast and 
 prayers the funeral starteil for Aston; at the edge of the village 
 they were met by about 50 people on foot who joined the pro- 
 cession; when about two acres from the church the priest came 
 out and met the funeral with several singing boys, dressed in 
 white, singing Latin, for which especial honor this fraudulent 
 priesthood charged the snug little sum of $c,o. Now for a 
 secular undertaker to take people's money for such silly pomp 
 and show is bad enough, but when the chosen priesthood of the 
 meek and lowly Jesus, stoop to such low means of making 
 money, they truly deserve the contempt of all intelligent men. 
 The coffin was now placed close to the altar and several prayers 
 chanted over it in Latin, the priest keeping up such a continual 
 bowing and scraping that I almost thought he was a French 
 dancing master; he also smoked the coffin with burnt rosin and 
 a censor which cai^sed a horrible stench. I cannot see how they 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 4^ 
 
 think that such incense could be agreeable to the nostrils of 
 their Gotl. The pall bearers then placed the coflin in. the 
 grave, which was in the church, and read the services in Latin 
 over her. The privilege of burying her inside the church and the 
 services cost $200, truly this is a money making religion. In 
 March gave the job of lodging and burning the timber off the 20 
 acres ready for tlie harrow to a Ik'lgian for $5 an acre, we to 
 furnish the oxen; he is well educated but a very strange charac- 
 ter and can tell the wor^^t anecdotes I ever heard, some of which 
 however are very witty and laughable. When in Montreal this 
 winter I sa\v all the sights and had great amusement in tobag- 
 goning. In the early spring we set Hre to the timber on the 20 
 acres; it was truly a grand.,sight to see the flames leaping from 
 one brush pile to another and there was a strong breeze and the 
 whole 20 acres were in a short time in flames, which rose from 
 10 to 20 feet high and columns of smoke rising hundreds of feet 
 high, but to our sorrow the sight became more magnificent when 
 the fire rushed into the adjoining forest and all the woodlands 
 (v,i o M" lots bcc line a mass of flame except a portion that \vas 
 svvampy on 35. It was indescribably grand at night to see the 
 flames leaping from one tree top to another and rising very often 
 many feet above them; by morning the fire had ran over 4 miles 
 of woodland on which fortunately there was not much timber of 
 any great value, besides our neighbors and people for miles 
 around had also lit fires which had all blended into one greater 
 one, so that no one could prove whose fire had done the damage. 
 One man in another township lost 12,000 cords of bark, worth 
 ;$6o,ooo, which made him bankrupt. The Belgian employee as 
 much as 30 men and faithfully completed his contract; they all 
 slept down stairs in our hour>e which might have been taken for 
 a "dead house" at night with all the rows of bodies lying about 
 in every direction; he only paid the men 50 cents a day without 
 board. We unfortunately after sowing 12 acres of land had the 
 seed all burnt, the fire passing a second time over the charred 
 surface which still contained many particles of half decayed wood 
 and leaves; we had to sow it again but it was too late to ripen, 
 After the fire passed over the lots Tom and I decided the best 
 thing to do would be to sell the cut of the timber as the different 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 species of wood worms would destroy it even quicker than nat- 
 ural decay, but our uncles objected. About this time I organ- 
 ized with others an association entitled "Aston Young Men's 
 Association," with the following constitution: Resolved, That 
 this association repudiates all dogmas promulgated by the chris- 
 tian churches that are contrary to human reason and scientific 
 research, and utterly disbelieve that God has specially revealed 
 his will to any particular sect or body of men; that it regards all 
 sects and churches who cbim the right to dictate certain doc- 
 trines of belief to its followers (on pain of excommunication and 
 damnation for disbelief) enemies of civilization and humanity, 
 and will do all in their power to bring into contempt and destroy 
 said churches and sects, and use its utmost endeavor to persuade 
 all men to disbelieve the fraudulent revelations of all the bogus 
 sects and churches and adopt the most rational view of that ques- 
 tion; that God's revelation to man is found in the grand- works 
 of his creation alone and in the wonderful laws by which he 
 governs this earth and its inhabitants; that it accepts many of 
 the precepts and moral laws of the Bible as useful and beneficial 
 for man's guidance in life, but only consider them as the writings 
 of wise men and philosophers, which superstitious and ignorant 
 followers afterwards palmed ofi" on the semi-civilized world as 
 divinely revealed truths; that it will persistently advocate a meth- 
 od of education superior to that now in existence, a grand system 
 of national education that will only teach practical knowledge 
 and the already demonstrated truths of science and his- 
 tory as well as, an aocurate knowledge of the wonderful 
 laws by which all nature is governed, and try and im- 
 prove the schools of the world so that they will give the rising 
 generations an education that will enable mankind to attain to 
 the highest possible state of physical and mental perfection, that 
 it will try and demonstate to the world that it is only the good 
 moral laws and precepts of the christian churches that have 
 enabled them to retain their influence so long on the mind of 
 man, and that these same precepts and moral laws are not re- 
 vealed by any special revelation, but merely by wise and good 
 men making a proper use of the intellectual powers a great Crea- 
 tor gave them, and will try and convince all intelligent men of 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 51 
 
 the folly of attcniptin<; to solve mysteries that are too great and 
 ou^of the range of man's intellect, and the great folly of the 
 christians in shedding so much of the blood of their fellow men 
 and persecuting each other for some absurd difference they had 
 about the divinity of their God, and that it does not concern 
 man's happiness or improvement whether there is one God or 
 one thousand; all that man has got to do is to make a proper 
 use of the great gifts the Creator or unknown power has given 
 him and he wiil certainly be happy here and in the probable 
 hereafter; that it will try and hasten the day when priest or 
 parson will no longer be required, when every man will be a priest 
 unto himself in the glorious work of elevating himself and his 
 fellow men to the highest possible state of perfection; that each 
 member swears unceasing resistance to the fraudulent and tyr- 
 annical spiritual authority that has been usurped by the Popes, 
 Patriarchs, Bishops and Archbishops of every religious organi- 
 zation of the earth, and will always earnestly endeavor to free our 
 tcllow men of every creed and color from the thraldom of spiritual 
 si ivery; persuade all men "That the world is their country and to 
 do good is their religion." Signed, A. N. Howard, I. G. Goldsmith, 
 C. H. Carmicheal, W. A. Goldsmith. There were meetings for 
 a few months, but the association languished and died for want 
 of members. Uncle Richard and his family passed the summer 
 months at Norfolk and visited us while forest fires were raging, 
 but could not stay long as the atmosphere was full of smoke, 
 which hurt one of his eyes which is weak from over work. 
 There seems to have been quite a mania for the Houde girls 
 amongst the young beaus in these parts, much to the chargin of 
 other belies; as much as 15 young men visit there on visiting 
 nights, which are Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, 
 the remaining evenings are called "the evenings of the jealous," 
 on which no young Canadian goes to see his sweetheart. When 
 a young man enters one of the young girls receives his hat and 
 overcoat and stows them away on a bed in the corner, there 
 being no other convenient place to put them, she then returns to 
 her "cavalier" or first gentleman caller, but if the other is her 
 favorite he comes and sits by her and usurps her all to himself, 
 she generally asks the second one, if a favorite, to conduct her to 
 
52 insroRY of the French in America. 
 
 the waterstand for a drink (which is generally a rough wooden 
 stand with buckets of water on it) and then goes with him to a 
 different part of the room, leaving the poor disconsolate first 
 caller in a state of defeat after this little "coup de etat," to be 
 ridiculed by the other young people for having been made to 
 "eat oats," which is equivalent to the common English term, 
 "cut out." In fact, the two national sports of the French Cana- 
 dians consist of playing cards and making love. In the dry 
 months I deepened the course of the stream through our clear- 
 ance and in some places found beaver dams 6 ft. below the bed 
 of the stream with the marks of their teeth plainly visible on the 
 wood. The general elections came off in the spring, the Liberals 
 had only one majority, but their victory was an unsuspected 
 event. We squared the timber for a shed 75 ft. long, between 
 the barn and the house, and put it up with a "bee." One ot' the 
 men at the "bee" while jumping over the stream sank in the 
 mud on the opposite bank and lost one of his shoes in the mud; 
 while on his knees on the bank with his sleeves tucked up trying 
 to find his shoe, one of his companions gave him a shove which 
 sent him headforemost into the mud, this was greeted by roars of 
 laughter by the rest; when he crawled out of that slough he was 
 the most pitable object imaginable, and the volley of oaths that 
 he sent after the culprit, who ran away, was appalling even to 
 that crowd of rough men, especially those including the name of 
 the virgin, which name seems to be held with greater respect 
 among them than that of God, Some of the more devout 
 remonstrated when he uttered what they considered a terrible 
 oath, which translated literally means "Damn the Host," which 
 certainly from a Catholic point of view is one of the worst oaths. 
 The Orangemen tried to walk in the streets of Montreal and 
 were arrested by Mayor Beaudry, and the Lower Canadian Par- 
 Hament passed an act making it illegal for Orangemen to have 
 processions; much to the credit of some of the Liberals they 
 voted against the bill, although Catholics. I am not by any 
 means in sympathy with Orangemen, but I think they have as 
 much right to have their processions as the Irish Catholics, 
 The elections for the Dominion Parliament came oft and the 
 Conservatives defeated the Liberals with an overwhelming 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENXH IN AMERICA. 53 
 
 majority. The niain planks in their platforms were protection 
 for tlie Conservatives, and, free trade for the Liberals. In har- 
 vest I always took the lead at mowing, circlinf^ a piece and let- 
 ting the hired men follow me. 1 have found by experience that 
 if the farmer himself does not know what amount of work ought 
 to be done in a day by a man, that a great many hired men con- 
 sider it a "soft snap" and impose on him. It requires a great 
 amount of practice to mow in rooty and rocky land without 
 breaking or constantly blunting one's scythe. Had a "bee" for 
 mowing, the best mower around here challenged any man in the 
 crowd to follow him and circled a piece. I went after him, and 
 it was a race all day, but he could not get ahead of me, many 
 atiavj I regretted doing so and felt as if I would almost faint 
 from exhaustion, and at night every muscle in my arm ached; 
 t!ie str.iw averaged 5 ft. high, having erown on a dark, rich 
 alluvial soil. In the autumn I commenced digging a drain 10 
 acres long, 4 ft. deep and 3 ft. wide, which will drain a damp 
 portion of our clearance into the stream. During the summer I 
 went to several "bees." for logging, cutting hay, peeling hemlock 
 bark and building houses, and also instead of spending what 
 little spare time I had in self improvement I wasted it in flirting 
 with French girls and playing cards and other games, for which 
 I often dispise myself for not having firmness of character to 
 shun the worthless society with which we are surrounded. 
 Letters received in '78. "My dear nephews: What pleasure it will 
 give me to drop down some day on your lots and see your fine 
 house and barn and above all a lot of land cleared — good crop 
 bearing land, fiee from stones and brushwood; what a comfort 
 to you to know that every acre is a freehold forever. Have you 
 got legal power yet for clearing the brook ? It surprises me to 
 find it opposed for a moment, being a work so necessary, not 
 only for the redemption of land and the increase of wealth to the 
 country, but also conducive to health. I am quite sure that the 
 body of stagnant water I saw must breed fever and ague, exclu- 
 sive to the loss to the nation by keeping so much land waste of 
 such great fertility. I find Canada is sending over her sheep and 
 cattle in splendid condition; 1 hope this trade will increase and 
 that Canada, which I like so much, will flourish. I should like 
 
54 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 you to buy that cheap land you spoke of, or any that is a good 
 bargain; perhaps if you know of any you will write to me by 
 return of post, but I should not like to buy it unless it was con- 
 sidered very cheap; if you could bid for it at auction and I 
 would send you the money; uncle Herbert got his lot very cheap 
 in that way. Unimportant news. With fond luve to you both, 
 your affectionate uncle, Jerrold." i/ih Feb. '78. "My dear 
 Tom: I wish to congratulate you on conling of age and at the 
 same time to draw your attention to the fact that it is the most 
 important period of your life, how much your dear mother 
 would be pleased to do the same now if she was alive; bnt God 
 in his mercy has taken her from scenes and circumstances which 
 are almost breaking my heart as ihey did hers, but what 
 is her gain now is my sad loss. She is gone to her 
 heavenly home and eternal rest from ihe sins and sorrows 
 and vexations of this life to enjoy a purer and unalloyed happi- 
 ness after a checkered life of devotion^ and self-denial for the 
 glory of God and the good cf her fellow creatures, therefore I 
 should not murmur at the Divme will for her sake, though many 
 of the circumstances connected with it make me feel it mere 
 keenly, nor indeed murmur at all on my account, as I should re- 
 member that God's will is best in the end, but I do feel also that 
 this is a very solemn time for you, the turning point as it were of 
 your life, that which may stamp your future career not only in 
 this world but the world hereafter, for as we live so we dic- 
 (generally). Some may be brought to a sense of God's grace 
 and their own nothingness without him in their last days but it 
 is a fearful risk to run. God said "they that seek early shall 
 find me." Now I do not want to impute that you do not love 
 God, but as your father and one having gone over a great part 
 of the ocean of life I must know something of the rocks and 
 shoals which beset man and would therefore like to warn you. 
 In the first place example is said to be stronger than precept and 
 the surroundings here are very far from what tend to make a 
 man a noble man, a gentleman, let alone a christian. It is said 
 "by their fruit ye shall know them," and if you are a child of 
 God you cannot be happy in the midst of evil. A christian may 
 be in the world and may use the things of the world (in a mod- 
 
HISTORY OF 'HIE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 55" 
 
 erate and useful sense, not as the world generally do) but must 
 not be of the world: we are told also to "love not the world or 
 the things of the world," but to set our affections on things above, 
 heavenly things, sound principles which constitute the will of 
 God; to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness 
 and all things necessary will be added unto us:" the kingdom of 
 God is within us: heaven is above, when we submit to the reign 
 of Christ's Holy Spirit, sanctifying all our thoughts and aspira- 
 tions and bringing our wills into the subjection of the will of 
 God our Father just as he sets us an example "His servants ye 
 are to whom ye yield yoursjlves servants, to obey sin unto death 
 or God unto righteousness," also "he that knovveth his Father's 
 will and do2th it not shall be beaten with many stripes." God 
 often make^ the circumstances of this life prodnce bad stripes on 
 our consciences when we go against his will till he brings us in- 
 to discipline, industry is good and commendable, humble patient 
 industry becomes the christian, it may be slow but it is sure and 
 more likely to have God's blessing than impulsive and inordinate 
 ambition, which often overleaps itself and brmgs its own pun- 
 ishment as many speculators on this continent are finding to 
 their sorrow now, by trying to do more than their circumstances 
 would permit, often defrauding others to accomplish it or ma- 
 king hard bargains with their fellow-men; God's eye is on all our 
 works and his ear is open to the cry of the distressed to-day as 
 much as it ever will be; he may be slow but he will not pass it 
 over, sooner or later he brings it all out; there is nothing which 
 will not be revealed by him in his own good time and punished. 
 The true child of God's place is to desire neither poverty or rich- 
 es that they may not become "poor, or mean and steal," nor too 
 full and forget their God. A mans life does not consist in that 
 which he has but in that which he is in principles. Dr. Watts 
 says: "could I in stature reach the pole, or grasp creation in my 
 span, I'd still be measured by my soul, the soul's the stature of 
 the man. Too much riches are a curse and a heavy responsi- 
 bility, for "unto whom much is given much is required," whether 
 in talent of the mind or riches requires great wisdom and grace 
 to use them wisely for good; when life comes near its end we 
 arc but stewards over it and unless we make a noble use of it it 
 
t6 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 affords us no real or lasting pleasure; "we bring nothing into 
 this A'orld and we can take nothing out, but riches may produce 
 remorse if badly used and is apt to cause many snares and temp- 
 tations, if we have not the wisdom to make a right use of it. I 
 have read and know of many instances of young people going to 
 destruction morally, by too great and sudden acquisition of wealth 
 before they knew how to make a good use ot tt, and worse, in 
 some instances love of speculation, and intense ambition, in others, 
 all of which is quite contrary to the spnit of chiistiarity. Your 
 land is now all paid for, you have now a nice and easy prospect 
 before you, far better than many of your uncles when they be- 
 gan life, for your land is gootl arable land for the most part not 
 having so many stones as the home firm. If you act judiciously. 
 in a few years you will begin to realize money, then con^.es the 
 danger to the young and inexperienced; it is said the love of 
 money increases with the money itself, because it is the means of 
 indulgence in all worldliness; it is also said "to be the root of all 
 evil" in the power it gives and the abuse of it unless the possessor 
 is living under the fear and love of God; the fear of doing wrong 
 and the desire of doing right is not n itural to any of us even in a 
 regenerated state, we are prone to go astray without constant 
 reference to the word of God and a careful and serious study of 
 if to the young it may appear a dry book but it is not so, the 
 more it is read the more it will be found to be the fountain of 
 true life a self interpreting book, the most sublime soul-purifying 
 and comforting book that can be read as a guide in the affairs of 
 life as well as in the life to come. The world has its attractions, 
 companions and lawful duties, which when not ruled by order 
 and system which is Heaven's first law, they tend to distract and 
 divert us irom it; I find it so myself and always did through life 
 if not guarded against, but I thank God it is not new to me, I 
 have read much of it in my early days and it has beeii a great 
 blessing to me and I can truly say it has been a lamp to me in 
 my brightest as well as my darkest hours, its principles and pre- 
 cepts being a check and guide to me in all difficulties and temp- 
 tations, which naturally beset every one in all positions and 
 circumstances of life; no one can be truly happy without a Jvnow- 
 . ledge of it. You are now about to commence life on your own 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 57 
 
 responsibility, you are as it were a young human fruit tree just 
 transplanted and you will need care till firmly rooted in sound 
 principles; you have had some grafting of good things done for 
 you but you will find there will always be some pruning of un- 
 reasonable propensities, to do otherwise you cannot bear good 
 fruit. There is also the parable of the sower and the wheat; I 
 am anxious often when I think of you both (Arthur also) for 
 much good seed has been sown, but what of the fowls of the air 
 (bad company) also the weeds and briars of life (the cares of life) 
 choking it. Oh, my dear boy, I cannot give you the riches of 
 this life but 1 would warn you with all your getting to get un- 
 derstanding and wisdom, which is more precious than rubies; 
 the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; the wisdom of 
 the Bible is the swcetner of life; the Bible is the mirror of life 
 where every man can see his own character and above all God's 
 grace to fallen man and the principles by which regenerated mar> 
 may enjoy something of the Kingdom of Heaven, within us. 
 While in life serving God our reasonable duty is to glorify our 
 Redeemer as branches of the true vine of which he is the head; 
 our fruit should be goodness, truth, mercy, righteousness, broth- 
 erly love, and such like: in the Mosaic dispensation Ten Com- 
 mandments were given for that period, but in the christian dis- 
 pensation God has given but one commandment "to love one- 
 another," for it includes the whole law of God; love is the 
 fulfilling of the law and does mercy with all righteousness and 
 sees all christians as the children of one father redeemed from 
 the spirit of a sinful world which still offers us the same terms 
 which Satan was permitted to tempt our Saviour with, namely 
 "all those things I give unto thee if thou wilt fall down and wor- 
 ship me" he is still the Prince of power of this world, working in 
 the hearts of all who do not resist and reject him as the Saviour 
 did; even christians still are liable to do wrong and err as others 
 if they from any cause quench the strivings of the Holy Syirit 
 or neglect it, then he takes its place and they are his captives 
 for a time being led astray by some weakness, allurement or pro- 
 pensity; the sincere christian will be sorry and try to avoid the 
 causes that lead to it from a oure love of goodness and a desire 
 to please God, not for the mere sake of appearance or con- 
 
 8 
 
$8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA.jf 
 
 sequence only; the Lords Prayer is a key to that, it is a Bible in 
 a nutshell, as it were employing great principles, but the one I 
 allude to is "Lead us not into temptation;" that is the great thin^ 
 to know and what to avoid also; we cannot stand temptation 
 of ourslves; if we know anything to be wrong we should avoid 
 it and not stop to question it, but reject it at once as Christ did; 
 his purpose was to be our example as well as our Redeemer; 
 His sacrifice put away the wrath of God for original sin; His ex- 
 ample teaches us how to live as christian followers of him, a 
 peculiar people redeemed from the spirit of the world, sanctified 
 unto good works and while using the things of the world not to 
 abuse them nor let them ensnare us unto the ways of the world; 
 Christians should be an example to the world and not followers 
 of it; whatsoever we do should be done unto the glory of God 
 and for the God of mankind; no Christian can live to himself he 
 must live to and for God and mankind; we are bought with a 
 price, the price of Christ's blood and if we reject God's grace and 
 live according to the will of the flesh and not according to his 
 Holy Spirit can we wonder if he rejects us hereafter; we are cre- 
 ated in the image and likeness of God spiritually with a free will 
 of our own but are responsible for the use and abuse of it. I re- 
 gret that you have no better society; the society here reminds 
 me of Bishop Heber's hymn describing "Ceylon's lovely isle, 
 where every prospect pleases and only man is vile;" but there is 
 much to be thankful for, even here if there was only a right 
 spirit of reciprocity, but this cannot be where the love of God 
 does not abound, even those who have any little share of it 
 have something to do to preserve it, therefore temptations and 
 example of an injurious kind is much against you and the dan- 
 ger to the young of forming injurious and improper habits is 
 very great if not guarded against; habits are like a chain not 
 easily broken, therefore you should be careful not to have un- 
 necessary acquaintance with those who do not tend to exalt and 
 improve you; better have no con.pany than bad company. St, 
 Paul says let all things be done decently and in order; order is 
 m business what harmony is in music, it helps the memory some 
 time and promotes peace and happiness; promptness, punctuality 
 and conscientiousness are of great consequence also, the first 
 
filSTOR\ OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. $9 
 
 saves time, loss and accidents, the second respect credit and ease 
 of mind, the third the basis of sound integrity, without which a 
 man is worse than nothing: in work whatever is worth doing is 
 worth doing well and pays the best in the end; exaggeration, 
 prevarication and deceit are only the attributes of crafty and ig- 
 norant men, and those who would have a consience void of oftence 
 towards God and man cannot do so; the world's spirit is selfish- 
 ness, the Christians is self-denial; no cross no crown: a Christian 
 has three characters, first the child in the spirit to learn the father's 
 will, second the servant to do it and show it by his conduct, also 
 the soldier to conquer sin in ourselves and others by the gui- 
 dance of his Holy Spirit and word. I have written this to you 
 to warn you commencing the voyage of life, to lead you more 
 closely to the narrow road that leads to everlasting life that you 
 may not only be happy here but hereafter. I would like to say 
 more to you both but you will find better than my feeble words 
 can say in the New Testament, Psalms and proverbs especially; 
 read often, it is the chart of life and will assuredly make you hap- 
 py and good; it will bring order, happiness and peace to your 
 house; it is the root and foundation of all true greatness, 
 goodness and happiness; it is my only consolation after the dis- 
 appointments of life; my sincerest wish is for your spiritual and 
 temporal welfare, but remember that text "v/hat will it profit a 
 man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul." God 
 bless you both: your affectionate father, J. E. Howard." Mon- 
 treal Oct 1st 78. "Dear Tom and Arthur, father told me to write 
 and ask either of you to come into town for a few days, I expect 
 yon are not very busy as all your crops are in, we have been 
 having heavy rains lately. Edison the great inventor is seriously 
 ill. What do you think of the personel of the new cabinet? 
 The failure of the Glasgow bank has caused a great deal of de- 
 pression in the business circles of Scotland. Gas stock went 
 down 13 per cent here on account of the electric light, but it has 
 commenced -to go up again; if they use the telephone instead of 
 the telegraph it will do away with a great many telegragh oper- 
 ators; how strange it was for your colt to change from a dark 
 brown to a light grey. I must now close as I have to read not:es 
 for my lecture, with love from all your affectionate cousin, Cliff- 
 
6o HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ord H. Goldsmith." October 78 "My dear Tom and Arthur. 
 We expect father back from England in a few days, he says his 
 eyes are much improved he is anxious to return to his practice, 
 the Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise will arrive here by 
 the beginning of next month. The great Hanlan and Courtney 
 race was to have been rowed yesterday at La Chine, but the 
 weather was unfavorable so it did not come off, they will not row 
 unless the water is as smooth as glass; the betting is 3 to i on 
 Hanlan, which is absurd ; there are about 30,000 strangers in 
 town to see the race. I was pleased to see that the country you 
 live in returned a Conservative; it was a glorious victory. Mon- 
 treal returned 3 Conservative members by large majorities; there 
 was great excitement here at the time. I now attend McGill col- 
 lege; Flora and Mr. Butler have been staying with us for the 
 last few days. Your affectionate cousin, C. H. Goldsmith." 
 "Aug. '78. Horton House, Abbeydale, Salford, England. My 
 dear Arthur: I was so glad to get your letter and hear what 
 you and Tom are doing on your farms, Timothy is always in- 
 terested too, and likes me to read your letters to him; he is so 
 surprised at the quantity of land you have and to think of your 
 just cleared and sow 21 acres ! We had such fine weather for 
 haymaking and had about 15 tons. I suppose you know that 
 Mabel has come over and is paying us a visit now. It is so 
 delightful having her here, and she and little Constance are great 
 friends. On Tuesday she is going on a visit to uncle Jerrold. 
 ' We had such a nice trip to the lakes at Windermere, Derwent- 
 '' water; Mabel was with us and took many sketches. We noticed 
 •'' how beautiful all the trees and shrubs were in the lake district." 
 '■. Minor items end it. "Montreal, Nov. i6th. My dear Arthur: 
 When you were in town you spoke to me about selling the tim- 
 ber on your lots. I thought you knew best and consented, but 
 on second consideration think it is the most foolish bargain you 
 could make and that your land would be perfectly worthless; 
 you are aware that wood is getting scarcer every year in your 
 neighborhood, with another railway almost at your door aud the 
 great quantity the Grand Trunk consume annually, the wood on 
 your land must become valuable. If the timber rots as you say 
 it will make manure; it is worth more than twice what you pro- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 6l 
 
 ^ 
 
 pose to sell it for; with regard to buying those 200 acres from 
 Dolierty at 60 cents an acre think you had better have nothing 
 to do with it; you and Tom have entered into a joint partnership 
 to settle on and farm lots 34 and 35, as one of the partners I do 
 not think it the coirect thing for one of you to enter into any 
 speculation on his own account; remember neither of you are 
 land speculators, it is a question whether you have not too much 
 on your lands already. I know everything I say here is in ac- 
 cordance with your uncle's wishes and as he has left the matter 
 to my judgment I give you my advice in the matter and cannot 
 change unless he instructs me to do so. You do not say one 
 word about the Roman Catholic church tax you would have to 
 pay on the land." in a note at Christmas he sent us a present 
 of ^5; in June he wrote from Norfolk where he spent the summer 
 months with his family: "My dear boys I received yours of the 
 i6th, I hear you will have a great deal of trouble with the burn- 
 ing of the 20 acres, in consequence of the ram, we have had very 
 wet weather here: the frost has damaged the vegetables, Mabel 
 will spend the Summer and Autumn in England, R. I. Gold- 
 smith." P. S. Richard still coughs a great deal; I have not 
 decided on a farm here for Clifford as they are exhorbitantly dear. 
 London August 26th 78. "My dear Tom and Arthur. Your 
 letters were delivered this morning and gave me great pleasure: 
 it is always great happiness to me to hear of your clearing the 
 land and improving it: every man that clears an acre of land 
 confers a benefit on mankind; it is so much additional wealth ad- 
 ded to the country and while you serve yourselves you add wealth 
 and prosperity to the nation, besides it is your own free hold 
 forever and bye and bye it will be such a pleasure to look at the 
 wealth and estate you have created With your own hands and 
 brains; it requires great cleverness, skill and perseverance to 
 make a fine estate; after the rough work is over you can do the 
 ornamental part, such as planting shrubs and trees, and fiist of 
 all an orchard and a fruit and vegetable garden, A good fenced 
 in garden is a treasure. How the Canadians out far away get 
 bricks is not within our knowledge, here we require walls for 
 fruit trees, such as peaches, plums and grapes, probably wooden 
 fencing does as well. When you write to cousin Sarah give her 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 my love and say how glad I am she has a little daughter; .give 
 my love to uncle Herbert and his family. I am looking forward 
 to the pleasure of going with your aunt and Rupert to stay for 
 a time in Canada and build a hut, good bye, your affectionate 
 uncle, Jerrold Goldsmith." Received letter from Mr. Hogarth, 
 dated San Mateo, San Mateo Co. California, saying that he had 
 just returned from Arizona where he had the charge of a stud 
 farm for one of California's millionaire's, also a letter from uncle 
 Jerrold asking us to buy for him some cheap land and that he 
 would send us the amount; letter from uncle Timothv Howard 
 to father, Waterford, Ireland, "Dear Jonathan, Your's of the 29th 
 inst. reached me yesterday. Thursday is our only Canadian 
 post day; I enclose a credit letter on Montreal bank for £^ which 
 . I hope will help you; the season here promises well and I am 
 glad to hear that your prospects are favorable; the Church fam- 
 . ily would only be a drag on you, they are most helpless, neither 
 ' of the boys do anything and the girls weak and delicate; Beau- 
 fort was a clerk in a store for a short time at 3^. per week which 
 « was afterwards raised to 1 05. and Timothy received ;£2 as assis- 
 '. tant teacher in a school of design, but both are now doing nothing: 
 '_ they are not however dependant on their relations as when our 
 . sister Anne died she entrusted her money in my care, the interest 
 [ of which gives the children £4 los a month; sister Bess last 
 T month was 75. I am 72 and continue in my business; I sent you 
 " last week English illustrated papers, your affectionate brother, 
 Timothy Howard." June 78. My dear Tom and Arthur. We 
 are at present at Norfolk, Bruntfield Lake. Our cottage is very 
 [ pretty on the edge of the Lake; I have been twice out fishing 
 I with very little success. It rained all last night, whenever is 
 rains I think of your land that you have to clear: this part of the 
 country is very like yours, a good deal of rock and swamp, yet 
 ^ the land is very dear, from $12 to 1^25 an acre. There is one 
 farm here for which they ask ;^ 13.000, which amounts to ;^40 an 
 acre; the owner must be crazy to ask such a price although he 
 . says that the water power on it is the best in Canada. The rail- 
 way that runs from Sutton will pass through Norfolk. I think 
 Richard's cough is better since we came here; hoping to hear 
 from you soon, I remain your affectionate uncle, R. I. Gold- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 63 
 
 smith." 6th Dec. '78. Tom and I are cutting cord wood; we 
 have sold to Mr. Meredith. There are about 2 inches of snow 
 on the ground. Frank Dodsley, father's home boy has gone t3 
 work for Carmicheals for 1^15 a year with board and clothes. 
 In the Witness I see that the Marquis of Lome, the new 
 Governor General for Canada, with his wife the Princess have 
 arrivec^, thay received a grand reception at Halifax and at all 
 the chief towns on their way to Montreal, where they received a 
 magnificent reception; the whole city was illuminated and the 
 depot decorated with evergreens as well as mottoes and arches 
 across the principal streets; they left for Ottawa, the capital, on 
 Monday. The Eastern affairs look unsettled although every- 
 thing seemed to have been peaceably arranged by the Congress 
 at Berlin Our buckwheat was a heavy yield and we have occa- 
 sionally buckwheat cakes with maple syrup for a change. Uncle 
 Herbert is better from the effects of a severe fall he received, at 
 one time his life was despaired of. It truly takes very little to 
 extinguish the lamp of life when it begins to flicker in the 
 period of old age. Helped the G. boys to saw wood; it takes 4 
 men to work a sawing machine, i to drive the team, i to remove 
 the blocks when sawed and i to sit on a bar to keep the log 
 steady while being sawed. Had a Frenchman to kill our pigs, 
 he did not stun it before bleeding it as the English settlers do; 
 said that the animal did not bleed as much when insensible and 
 that the meat was not as white; he wanted to burn the hair oft 
 the pig with straw, the usual way they do it, but we preferred 
 having it moved with scalding water, as burning it off gives the 
 meat a disagrreeable flavor, nth Dec. Rained hard all night. 
 All t\\t snow is gone and the two streams on our lots are flooded. 
 Most of our evenings we spend in playing cards and flirting with 
 French girls. While cutting wood in the damp land of the 
 beaver meadows my boots get frozen so hard that I have to 
 thaw them out before I can pull them oft There has been 
 ^another fall of snow, just enough to whiten the ground; the 
 .evenings now are very long it gets dark at 4 o'clock, from this to 
 10 gives 6 hours for self-improvement, but somehow after severe 
 physical exertion all day, a sociable evening with our French 
 neighbors seems to have greater attractions to us than useful 
 
64 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 study. A Frenchman offered us 30 cents a hundred for the cut 
 of our ties, which we refused, as the usual price is $1 ; paid Mrs. 
 Brodeur 50 cents for a double knitted pair af woolen mits, 30 
 cents is the usual price. Tom and I cut 4^ cords of wood in a 
 Gay of ash which splits very easily. VVc have finished cutting 
 50 cords for Meredith; cut a supply of wood for father. , John 
 Kirwin has married Norah Doherty, although when quizzed 
 about him she indignantly replied that she would never many 
 an old bachelor like him. Went to Meredith's; talked in the 
 deaf and dumb alphabet to Jennie; asked Nicholas to come and 
 measure the wood we sold them. Mrs. M. asked me to a party 
 to be held in the village schoolhouse; Florence and Maud were 
 spending the evening at Willoughby's. 22 Dec. It has snowed 
 heavily all night; there are snow drifts 2 ft. deep. Of late I 
 have been thinking of leaving the vulgar and degrading associa- 
 tions with which we are surrounded and of trying to enter some 
 English millitary college. While at Houde's last evening I met 
 the lover of the eldest daughter, he seems to be greatly capti- 
 vated with her; his arm encircled her waist and her head rested 
 on his shoulder; every minute or so he would whisper loving 
 sentences into her ear; they passed the whole evening thus from 
 8 till 12, sitting in a corner of the room. For my part I would 
 not like to have to express the sentiments of my heart to the 
 being I loved, before a whole housefuU of people, and I think 
 even the most devoted of lovers would find it rather monotonous 
 uttering love sentences 4 hours a night, 4 nights a week for 
 several months duration. The father and mother generally after 
 a game of cards or so with some neighbor who has called, go to 
 sleep; the father on the floor by the stove with his coat under 
 his head, and the mother in her rocking chair. Dec. 24th. 
 Went to Aston and bought the ingredients for our Christmas 
 dinner. Went to Meredith's; played checkers and whist with 
 Florence, Alfred and Jennie. Mr. M. has just arrived from 
 Wyandotte Silver Smelting Works where he is employed ; went 
 to a party at the school-house ; the fair young ladies of Aston 
 were well represented ; presents were distributed to the younger 
 children from the Christmas-tree, after which many of the ladies 
 kindly favored us with singing and music and some of the gentle- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 65 
 
 men made speeches and related amusing anecdotes; after a pleas- 
 ant evening the assembly parted after singing "God Save the 
 Queen." Tom and I waited for mid-night mass; the church is a 
 fine stone building; besides the organ there was an excellent brass 
 band, which played some very fine music, but the service and 
 ceremony seemed to m<^ not as good as a poor pantomime, and 
 better suited with all its set forms and mechanical movements 
 for the worship in some Japanese or Siamese temple, than for 
 that of a church in one of the civilized nations of the earth; it 
 lasted nearly two hours and we were nearly frozen, there being 
 no furnace as yet in the church; it was amusing to see the 
 breath of hundreds of people issuing from their mouths as if 
 tliey wers smoking furiously. It was surprising to me how del- 
 icate ladies could stand such cold and there were but very (gw 
 of them that did not stay the service out. Next day dined at 
 G's; we conversed on school affairs and decided that it would 
 require great unity on the part of the Protestant families to keep 
 the school from falling into the hands of the R. C's., which if it 
 did we would have to pay taxes four times as high as we are 
 now paying. Read "Devereaux," a novel by Lord Lytton, 
 which gives a good portrayal of the crafty Jesuits; went to a 
 dance in the evening at Houde's; spent a pleasant evening 
 during the week at Meredith's, Miss Eliza Grant was there; 
 Mabel Willoughby and Florence played some nice duets; Nicho- 
 las promised to come and inspect the rails we had sold him; 
 Nicholas inspected the rails and but very few of them were 
 "culls;" he remained over night and we played dominoes, check- 
 ers and cards and related anecdotes till 3 a. m , also discussed 
 the state of society of the present day and what a great influence 
 the "almighty dollar" has in it; Nicholas has rather socialistic 
 views on the equality of all men; I argued that the barriers of 
 the different classes of society would never be brought all to the 
 Sime level for the very reason that all mankind can never be- 
 come equal in intellect, education, wealth or merit, but that the 
 day would come when all men of merit and worth would form 
 one distinct class of society regardless of wealth or high sound- 
 ing titles or names. Lent Nicholas several novels by Sir W. 
 Scott. The English are having a successful campaign in 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Afghanistan. Sunday, had a conversation with Tom about the 
 great inconsistencies of the hves of most of the followers of the 
 religions of the present day, who mostly believe that their 
 religion alone is the perfect one even though its fol lowers 
 are in a semi-civilized condition. Now I held that there 
 must be something essentially wrong with all the religions 
 of the earth and their system of training; the rising generations 
 or most of their followers would not be such worthless and mis- 
 erable specimens of humanity, as it must be acknowledged most 
 of them are. Their apologists however reply that it is not the 
 fault of their religions or their doctrines but that of mankind, 
 who will not follow or live up to them. Now I must say that 
 this is a base and lying excuse, for there have been nations in 
 Europe that have been the subservient and humble slaves of the 
 Catholic priesthood for the last looo years, in such countries as 
 Italy and Spain. Now if "God's most holy priesthood" in lOOO 
 years of instruction can produce no better or more civilized peo- 
 ple than the Spaniards or Italians, I think all truly liberal men 
 must acknowledge that it is high time for all intelligent men of 
 all classes of society to unite together for the overthrow of such 
 a worthless system and use the intellectual powers a Supreme 
 Being has given them in establishing a new system of training; 
 the rising generations that will produce better men and women 
 physically, mentally and morally than the majority of those 
 which the christian churches have produced; in justice however 
 to all the christian churches I must say that they bring much 
 evil reputation on themselves by not following the injunction of 
 that wonderful book their Bible: "Therefore come ye out from 
 among them and be ye separate saith the Lord;" in fact they 
 have admitted so many nominal christians into their churches 
 that the true christians form but a very small minority, the un- 
 godly and disgraceful lives of these nominal members combined 
 with the leading position they occupy in the churches has a most 
 injurious effect on the lives of the rising christian generations, in 
 fact if they continue to violate this wise injunction of their bible 
 all good men in future years will be ashamed to hq members of 
 churches that allow rascals for the sake of a few ^^looo to be 
 members of it, although they have risen to ignoble wealth and 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 6/ 
 
 power by defrauding and oppressing the more helpless portion 
 of humanity; told Tom that if we ever expected to become noble 
 and useful men we must cease drifting into the low manners, 
 habits and customs of the people that surround us and make an. 
 effort to acquire a love for the most useful and advanced studies 
 which would elevate us and enable us to become useful members 
 of the best of society, and that the only way for us to avoid a 
 dishonorable use of our spare moments would be to have ever 
 before us useful employment and recreation as well as honorable 
 auibition and high aspirations; Tom said with a smile why my 
 dear fellow to c-irry out such a course of action during life would 
 cause you to be regarded as a bore and disagreeable fellow by 
 most classes of society of the present day; imagine for instance 
 if in the society of ordinary ladies you refused to converse on 
 the light vapory and useless subjects which they discuss, how 
 soon you would be shunned by them (as "a disagreeable bear") 
 for the society of some one who would listen with profound inter- 
 est to the trivial incidents that occurred at the last party of Mrs. 
 so and so. While at Aston on the 31st saw the great prepara- 
 tions the Meredith's are making for a great party they are going 
 to have. In consequence of the arrival of cousins Richard and 
 Clifford we have improved our bill of fare as Richard is in very 
 delicate health and would require what we would consider as 
 delicacies; he and Clifford are thinking of becoming farmers; we 
 all dine at G's on Jan 1st, 1879. Nicholas came out for a load 
 of wood next day; in the evening I went to Meredith's to see if 
 they wanted any more wood; Mrs. M. thought they would buy 
 wood closer to their place; they wanted me to stay to the party 
 but said our cousins had just arrived and that I had promised to 
 spend the evening at my uncles. The roads are badly drifted; 
 upset once returning; have agreed to swamp 50 cords of wood 
 for Meredith's fjr $10; he has bought 2 ft. stovewood to be de-' 
 livered at his house for 90 cts. a cord; which is very low; Clifford 
 read an agricultural lecture aloud; it advocated econimization of 
 manure and the sowing of clover as a fertilizer, as its leaves de- 
 rive a greater part of its nourishment from the atmosphere. Of 
 late we have been cutting down and cutting in lengths the stand- 
 ing timb'jr on some land that we are going to clear in the spring, 
 
68 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 and chiefly spent the evenings in reading many of the useful and 
 choice works our cousins brought with them. For the last three 
 days and nights it has almost snowed unceasingly till it is now 
 3/^ ft, deep. One of Earl ]5eaconfield's novels appeared to me 
 rather smutty. Devlin asked me to break a "short cut" for him 
 to Aston with our oxen for which he gave me ;^i.50, but after- 
 wards regretted as I had a very hard ^ days work with him and 
 5 other men; were completely tired out when we reached Aston 
 at 8 p.m. the snow was damp and melting which is the best time 
 to have a snow road "broken." The five men walked ahead up 
 to their waists in snow and the oxen followed with a sleigh; slept 
 at Kirwin's, Delvin's brother-in-law, who keeps a store in Aston; 
 had a bad cold for several days after. 13th Jan. drove Richard 
 and Clifford to Montreal; I beat Dubue at checkers; he is the 
 champion checker player in these parts. We hired a man to 
 thresh our oats at $2.50 a day, we to board himself his team and 
 hired man; the first day we threshed 64 bushels; in the evenings 
 played dominoes, checkers and cards; Louis Brodeur talks of 
 going west and says it is impossible to make money here; spent 
 an evening at Houde's, there were six young men, so that 
 three of them were obliged to "eat oats" as the French girls 
 call it; the girls told our fortunes with cards and always 
 foretold that we would marry a girl with hair and eyes of 
 the same color as the pretty fortune teller; they also sang songs 
 mostly of a tragic or sentimental character. Received a letter 
 from Richard asking us to rent Sherman's or some other house 
 close to our lots. "The only excitement at our house is Flora's 
 baby. I cannot say how grateful I am to you both for the kind 
 way you put yourselves out to have us comfortable. There is a 
 hitch in the Soles farm which we intended to buy; some of the 
 cattle having the foot disease and she wont sell the place with- 
 out them. When I go out your way I intend looking about 
 Melford. I have finished sending out father's accounts and have 
 not much to do now; that specimen of stone found on your land 
 I showed to a mineralogist who pronounces it to be chlorite 
 mixed with iron pyrites and micca; its value is nil." "Dear Ar- 
 thur yours of the 20th inst. received. As no other house can be 
 had I think Sherman's will be the best as it is the largest; you 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 69 
 
 will please try and make it comfortable; whatever you spend I 
 will pay you when I go out; a few chairs and a table will be all 
 we will need, the rest we will bring from 'Montreal. You might 
 also have the well emptied and some lime put in it if it is not all 
 right; Clifford will go out with the things on Saturday, so a large 
 sleigh will have to meet him; will you go out on Monday ? 
 With love to you both I remain your affectionate cousin, Richard 
 I, Goldsmith." W. Charmicheal ran a few days ago with ^20,000 
 and there is great excitement over it. 22nd finished threshing 
 our grain, 154 bushels; had to draw one half of the threshing 
 mill to the next place he was going to thresh at; this is the rule 
 enforced by all those that go threshing about the country; put 
 the straw back again into the barn to prevent its getting wet. 
 Charmicheal's liabilities are over ;$2oo,oco, but the assets chiefly 
 in real estate are over $400,000; it was foolish of him to run a- 
 way; his wife and son brought him back from Chicago; he says 
 he was under the influence of intoxicants when he ran away. 
 The train Richard came out on took 7 hours, the usual time is 
 2^. I drew wood and helped Richard next day to fix up their 
 room in 6'herman's house; had many evenings at cards with our 
 cousins; the French games at cards are entirely different to the 
 English. There is much dissension about school affairs, some of 
 the Aston people want us to join our school to theirs as we have 
 only a few scholars, but the people of this school district want 
 to hold out as long as they can. Tom and I had a dispute about 
 house work; Uncle Herbert, Daniel Charmichael and the 
 Reverend L. C. Willoughby, are school trustees. At a 
 meeting they appointed father school teacher at $12 a 
 month; he will only have his two Norfolk home boys 
 to teach; the school is to be kept 6 hours a day. H. Carmichael 
 was the lowest bidder for furnishing the school wood for the 
 small sum of 90 cents a month. Feb. ist. The weather is 
 neither too cold nor too warm, but a delightful, invigorating 
 atmosphere, although a few days ago the thermometer went as 
 low as 16 degrees below zero; last evening we spent at Houde's, 
 there was a house full of relations and friends, the married 
 people spent the evening at cards and gossip, the young in 
 making love; we had two suppers, the last one at 2 o'clock, con- 
 
yO HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 sisting of pork, potatoes, bread, green tea, pies and maple syrup. 
 On Sunday dined at Rjchard's ; gave Ethel a book as a New 
 Year's present; sold the G's. loo bundles of straw, also some to 
 French Canadians; Houde has cheated me out of $2.t^Q on the 
 contract of rails I made with him, through not having a written 
 agreement; tried to persuade father and uncle H. to agree about 
 what hours he would teach the school; father begins at lO and 
 ends at 4, uncle wants him to teach from 9 to 3; I suc- 
 ceeded in persuadmg father to acquiesce. On Sunday went to 
 church and dined at Meredith's; could not wish to spend a 
 pleasanter afternoon and evening with nicer young ladies than 
 Florence and Maud Meredith, in fact, ever since I saw Morencc, 
 12 years ago, she has bee my beau ideal of feminine grace and 
 lovliness, and what is better still her accomplishments and intel- 
 ligence areas great as her physical beauty. Mrs. M. asked me 
 if I was not getting tired of farming in the backwoods; said I 
 was and that I thought ot entering the English army next spring, 
 as we expected my uncle to come from England; she said I ought 
 not to enter the army, but buy some farm in a nice location and 
 get married and settle down. Florence showed me 50 valentines 
 that she received; played checkers with Nicholas, also discussed 
 Darwinism. Read in the papers of a British defeat in Africa by 
 the Zulus, 500 British officers and non commissioned officers and 
 1000 men were killed, and the colors of the 24th regiment cap- 
 tured; a great dishonor to British arms to be defeated by almost 
 naked savages; the campaign in Afghanistan is not encouraging 
 as the troops suffer from the severity of the climate and want of 
 proper accommodation; Lord B's. government had better make 
 more successful arrangements or his party will be defeated at 
 the general election. Spencer's father, his wife, two sons and two 
 daughters have moved on to the range from Bowansville; he was 
 and old English soldier who married a French woman; the girls 
 are very plain brunettes. The Houde's are to have a dance on 
 Monday as Lent commences next day, after which 
 there will be no flesh eating or dances for forty days. 
 Sunday, i6th February. Tom is 22 years old to-day; it has 
 snowed for the last 5 days; dined at Richard's, conversed on pol- 
 itics, religion, agriculture and commerce; I ridiculed that part of 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. /I 
 
 the Episcopal catechism where the godfather has to renounce the 
 devil and all his works for his godch Id; next day the farmers in 
 our vicinity assembled together to snowplovv the roads with 
 their teams. We did not go into Montreal this quarter on account 
 of my aunt's illness, so uncle sent to us by mail the quarter's al- 
 lowance At present we are drawing lumber from the mill and 
 finishing the inside of the house; 2 5rd breakfasted at Richard's; 
 uncle Richard has come from Montreal, they are all going to 
 Lampton to look after a farm for Richard and Clifford; they all 
 took tea with us; conversed on Orangeism and the life of soldiers 
 of the present day; uncle read a chapter of scripture and prayers; 
 next evening went to Preston with Daniel C. and the Houde 
 girls to a dance; the country on this side of Preston is cleared 
 and the wind was piercingly cold; Daniel C. unfortunately upset 
 his sleigh but fortunately none of the girls were hurt; the master 
 of the house came out and gave us a hearty welcome and con- 
 ducted us to the supper room where we partook of tea and pies 
 and then went to the room where the dancing was going on; 
 some of the dances were new to us but as there was a young 
 man to call them out we made no breaks; I had a headache and 
 no wonder, the room was so hot and full of tobacco smoke; dur- 
 ing intervals between the dances songs were sung, some of which 
 were of the plus ultra Byronian style; slept in buffalo robes with 
 many other young men in the dining room. I find that father 
 has sent some of our dear mothers rings, broaches, &c., to his 
 relations; told him not to give away any more as we wished to 
 have them preserved; bought some brussels carpet, lace curtains 
 and hearthrugs from him. Received a letter from Clifford saying 
 that Jiis father had bought a farm containing 200 acres from the 
 Trust and Loan Co., one mile from Hartford and three from 
 Leamington; there is a nice wood on the farm and a good house 
 surrounded by beautifully hilly country; is only 5^ miles from 
 the city of Sherbrooke. "We are all much obliged to you for your 
 kindness to us while at Aston's, I think it improved Richard's 
 health; we will go on the farm on April 2, your affectionate 
 cousin, Clifford." Tom and I have finished the house ready for 
 lathing and plastering. A man offered father 20 lbs. rent for 
 every loo troughs in his sugar bush and to make 200 troughs 
 
72 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 besides, which good offer he foolishly refused. 2nd March, lovely 
 hay, the snow is thawing; drew 2000 ft. of spruce clapboards 
 dome which cost $6 a 1000 ft. bought /;ooo laths at $1, 25 
 cents a thousand, and lath nails at five and a half cents a 
 pound. Received a letter from uncle Timothy of Waterford, 
 informing us of the death of aunt Maud, to whom we used to 
 write in our younger days; she was an old maid. Daniel C. and 
 I started for Melford to visit friends there, met a drunken French- 
 man, who stopped our horse and struck it on the head, also got 
 a blow in the face in trying to pacify him; when sober he is a 
 really good natured fellow; took a wrong bush road and to our 
 disgust after driving 3 miles it abruptly ended among a tangled 
 mass of fallen hemlock trees; there are so many roads in winter 
 for lumbering purposes that it puzzles a stranger; nearing Mel- 
 ford there is some of the nicest scenery in the Province; maples 
 and evergreens are seen along the roadsides and cosy farm 
 houses surrounded by orchards. On arriving at Wakefield's, 
 the eldest daughter met us at the door with her sisters, 
 Sarah and Winifred; they are very sedate and religiously in- 
 clined girls and favored us with sacred music during the evening; 
 Daniel scarcely spoke a word the whole evening, I expect he is 
 bashful; went to the Scotch church the next day, the singing 
 was not as good as in our Episcopal church at Aston; I never 
 saw so many plain and plainly dressed ladies in an Englisn 
 church before; the sermon went to prove that there is a God 
 from the evidences of his works; David shocked Mrs. W, by 
 using some slang expressions, which I saw by the expression of 
 her face, as of course she is too ladylike to take marked notice of | 
 it; had a quiet tete a-tete on past events; she told me her hus- 
 band who died last summer, lost 1^9000 on a railroad contract, 
 that the railroad was now in bankruptcy, but that eventually 
 they expected to get the money; that night we went to the 
 Methodist church, very fair music and singing and the congre- 
 gation had a better appearance and were belter dressed than that 
 of the Scotch church, but the sermon was uninteresting. A 
 miner at the slate quarry lost |{ 1 200 by hiding it m the mattresi^ 
 of abed,ofw^hich his wife did not know and emptied the straw in 
 the rood. Daniel C. had an argument with his sisters about th^ 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 73 
 
 dlscipHue of the militia, which his sisters criticised ; he 
 was greatly annoyeJ, but the mother, however, stopped 
 the argument; even in the most religiously inclined families 
 brotherly love and harmony does not always exist; Daniel and I 
 have the same ideas on the Chinese question, that all men 
 should be allowed to come to tliis country as long as they 
 observed the country's laws; next morning took a pleasant drive 
 witli the girls in Wakefield's double sleigh; wrote in their 
 autograph albums which seems all the rage with many 
 young ladies of late; In returning home had a terrible time 
 of it; every secoml step the horse took it sank up to 
 its knees in the snow which is thawing. On my way back 
 heard thund.;r and saw flashes of lightning, an unusual oc- 
 currence at this tinij of year. Wrote to Uncle Jerrold; went to 
 Meredith's and played chess with Nicholas; Florence told me 
 that Rev. L. E. Willoughby was sold out for debt, but that his 
 wife bought all the things back; it is certainly a disgraceful state 
 of affairs for a minister of Christ: Mrs. M. told me of several of 
 his transactions which were not considered strictly honorable 
 and that some of his parishoners talk of getting another minister 
 in his place. After tea had an evening at cards and music; 
 Florence sang a song very beautifully, entiUed, "love me little 
 love me long;" coffee and cake were passed around at lo o'clock; 
 Nicholas sang some comic songs and Maud played several nice 
 duetts with Florence; returned home at 12. Went next day 
 with uncle to Doherty's to give a notice from Uncle Richard to 
 pay a certain amount he still owed on the bark. Old Doherty 
 is greatly vexed with his eldest son who married a French Prot- 
 estant although 'ihe has now turned Catholic. "March ;6. 
 Dear To.n and Arthur. Every day I have been intending to 
 [Write you ever since my return but only now succeed; at present 
 jWe are very busy getting ready for the farm as we have to buy 
 [everything; everything now is very cheap; I have been offered 
 -I new Warrior mower and an Ithaca horse rake for ;$8o, and a 
 econd hand mower can be bought for $2$; the "Buckeye steel 
 jiorse rakes new for ^20. a sulky plough for $t,o. We leave for 
 lartford on the 3rd, taking a car for our freight; there is great 
 
 xcitcment in .'■own about the new tariff and of course it does not 
 
 10 
 
ff 
 74 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 please everybody, there is one thing sure and that is that it will 
 make everything dearer than at present, bread must go up as they 
 have put 50 cents a barrel on flour; all grain is taxed and coal 
 50 cents a ton; this will effect wood in some districts; you will 
 see by my Uncle Jerrold's letter that I enclose, thinks of coming 
 out next summer; I suppose the house is very comfortable now 
 with its many rooms; the house on our farm is not finished out- 
 side; we are going to have it bricked and a veranda put up; it is 
 very well finished inside; the hardwood woodwork being excel- 
 lent; if the soil is as good as the buildings the place will do; the 
 barn is immense; you can drive nearly to the top of it, it being 
 against a hill, with love I remain your affectionate cousin, R. 1, 
 Goldsmith." "London March 79. My dear Tom and Arthur, 
 I received your nice letters and long account; your money seenis 
 a great deal swallowed up in labor such as chopping wood and 
 other work which I suppose you cannot find time to do your- 
 selves; Rupert . ^.d your aunt are well and send their love to you; 
 Rupert came up from Oxford yesterday during vacation until 
 the l6th of April next, when he returns. The weather continues 
 dreadful, now rain and hail and the air as thick as pea soup, it is 
 truly disagreeable, I should be glad to buy land but wo ild be 
 unwilling to keep on paying taxes for land that I could neither 
 use or employ, however if you hear of any cheap land for sale 
 let me know, although times may be hard for a while real estate 
 will be sure to treble in value later on; stick to yours and thank 
 God you are not in a pent up stifling smoky city like me, but in 
 a fine free open air, land all your own and plenty of healthy la- 
 bor to make you strong and sleep sound and live long; may you 
 do so and be happy is the prayer of your loving uncle Jerrold B. 
 Goldsmith." "Dear Tom and Arthur. We have decided that 
 the best place to buy a wagon is in Aston, please enquire the 
 prices for us; we have a hired man and wife for one year; we 
 bought a big Clyde mare for ^55 and a good set of double har- 
 nes for 1^24, with love your affectionate cousin, Richard I. 
 Goldsmith." I talked politics with uncle H.; he is a conser- 
 vative. 2 1st March, went to St. David; drove as far as Preston 
 then drove up the Black River several miles on the ice, then 
 turned off southeast on a main road or range that was 12 miles 
 
HI3T0RV OF THE FREXCH IN AMERICA. j^$ 
 
 lon^, straight as a crow could fly; th^ houses were not more than 
 two acres apart, many were very fine buildings of stone; it looked 
 like a long straggling village; Daniel who was with me got off 
 to work; our horses took fright at something and ran away going 
 full gallop for two miles when they collided against a load of hay 
 and broke the neck yoke, how fortunate they struck a load of 
 liay, if it had been of wood th jy would have been seriously in- 
 jured; paid 50 cents to mend neck yoke. The lime burner had 
 a kiln not quite finished burning; we fed our horses, bought 
 some bread and maple sugar and waited; on returning upset our 
 loid in crossing the Preston River; hid to pa;' a man 25 cents to 
 hel[) us to load it; the lime of St. David is superior to that of St. 
 Marie for fine work; returiied home at 2 o'clock. It seems as if 
 Canada's policy of protection do:;s not meet approbation in En- 
 gland. Rec Mved a letter from Tritz Mogarth, he has returned to 
 England. Nicholas came for a load of wood invited me to spend 
 the evening at their place; had an evening at cards; Flor- 
 ence is on a visit at Leniington with some friends; spent 
 the night there; the Meredith's live very plain for people 
 of their means, but they show their sense as too much pastry is 
 unhealthy; Nicholas lent mj a history of Greece; composed 
 sentimental verse while at M's. Sugar making operations have 
 commenced. Bought scantling from Guertin for;^3.50 per 1000 
 ft; bought a single wagon for Richard, with express box, two 
 seats cushioned, also a double tongue to hitch on a span as well 
 shafts for one horse, all nicely painted and first-class workman- 
 ship for ;^43. Went to Guernsey's; the girls played on the 
 organ, which music I do not care for outside of a church. Went 
 to the Lentel services that are held in the school-house and from 
 there to McDougalls and played checkers; spent next evening 
 at G's, Aunt quizzed me eibout Maud and Florence Meredith; 
 I do detest the low habit of quizzing, and see nothing to be 
 ashamed of for liking the society of sociable and refined young 
 ladies, which has a beneficial and elevating influence on the 
 rougher nature of men. The ancient Grecians were truly a noble 
 people and would put to shame many Christian nations of the 
 present day by their integrity, courage and patriotism. Mrs. 
 Houde told me, in the gravest manner possible, a story of a 
 
"j^ HISTORY or THE French in America. 
 
 young girl that danced the same day she took the Holy Commu- 
 nion, against her mother's wish, and said she would dance even 
 if she had to dance with the devil himself. When the dance 
 commenced a young man entered handsomely dressed and com- 
 menced to dance with her, but held her hand so tightly that she 
 -screamed; the others tried to free her hand from his grasp but 
 could not, so they sent for a priest, who by applying holy water 
 frightened the Devil away, but in going away ho took one side 
 of the house with him, and that during the rest of her life the 
 girl's hand was marked with the finger nails of the devil. I 
 smiled and said, Mrs. Iloude do you not think that the persons 
 who related it to you exaggerated ? to which she replied, I know 
 they did not, for my mother and several of my uncles were 
 among the spectators, and are good honest people who would 
 not lie about it. I told them that it might have occurred in a 
 similar manner to that of an incident in Spain: "A priest who 
 told a young man that the devil would carry away the oody of 
 his father from its grave if he did not pay for masses for the re- 
 pose of his soul. The young man sat up with a shot-gun and 
 hid himself by his father's grave, and when something appeared 
 resembling the christian idea of the devil he fired and wounded, 
 not the devil, but the same parish priest." April 3rd. It snowed 
 and blew so hard all day, that I was obliged to pass the day in 
 reading. Went to Meredith's in the evening, several young 
 ladies were there; had music and singing; the younger children 
 played philopcna. After tea we all went for a drive by moon- 
 light in a double sleigh; there w^as Florence, Maud, Mabel W., 
 two Miss Weldon's. whose father is station agent, and Nicholas 
 and myself. Met Richard Ba >n, who was coming to get Flor- 
 ence and Maud to attend the practice of church music, they 
 would not, however, forgo their drive. I treated the party to 
 $2 worth of confectionery and fruit. Stayed over night at Mere- 
 dith's; Florence remonstrated with Nicholas and myself for 
 playing chess on Sunday. I proposed to Mrs. M. to have a 
 sugar party at their place and that I would furnish the syrup, 
 she was delighted at the idea. I drove Florence to church; the 
 music and singing were very fine but the sermon uninteresting. 
 During the Lental services I attended them regularly. April 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 loth, a lovely d;iy; the sap will run well as it froze last night; 
 borrowed a small sugar kettle and went to Meredith's; Mabel 
 VVilloughby, Annie VV^eldon and two Miss Grants had arrived. 
 Nieholas and T made a fire outside and boiled two gallons of 
 syru[); when sufli :iently bo;lcd we poured it in pans full of snow 
 and |)assed it around; after having a niost agreeable time we ad- 
 journed to the drawing-room where Mabel \V. ani Florence 
 favored us with music and singing; to hear the powerful and 
 cultivated voices of Mabel and Florence is a rare treat, and any 
 one tliat does not enjoy good music is to be pitied. Good music 
 I think has a most elevating influence on the mind of man. 
 After tea we played whist, but when J'lorence commenced play- 
 ing a waltz the ladies msisted on our having a waltz and a few 
 quadrilles; one lady had to take the part of gentleman as there 
 was only Richard ]^acor, Nicholas and myself; at 10 o'clock 
 cake and cordial was passed around; Mr. Meredith is a staunch 
 temperance man and never allows wine in his house; I drove 
 Mabel home. 0'^ Sunday dined at Rev. L. C. VVilioughby's; his 
 second wife is a very kind and ladylike woman. I feel disgusted 
 with myself for the many precious spare moments I have wasted 
 of late; even in the superior society of Aston English people 
 one does not derive much advimtage as the chief part of their 
 conversation is of a frivolous nature which can never aid a man 
 in becoming useful and great; if I did not know better it would 
 not be so bad, but I love and wish to aid and maintain every- 
 thing that is good and true, and yet, at the same time, I have 
 not sufficient stability of character to keep me in the path of 
 duty, but I must and will mark out for myself a path in life and 
 adhere to it, and will shun and denounce everything that has not 
 an elevating effect on myself and the rest of mankind. On Sun- 
 day the church was decorated for Easter; some of my "Aston 
 acquaintances quiz me about the Miss Meredith's. No i;.true 
 gentleman would stoop to such low vulgarity. Read in 
 a book called "Rome as it is." It certainly always [^fills 
 me with indignation to read of that church "that declares it can- 
 not err in its spiritual instruction." All men that love civilization, 
 liberty and progress should use their utmost endeavors to over- 
 throw this and all other churches that keep men in the worst 
 
yS HISTORY OF the French in America. 
 
 form of spiritual slavery. Some of my French friends have often 
 said to me how cin\ you call us slaves when there are so many 
 clever and learned men in our church; I always reply it is [)ossi- 
 ble for a man to have a ^reai intellect and be a i)r()tound schol.ir 
 in most branches of literature and science and at tlie same time 
 be a regular fool in reli<^ion, for the very reason that he has been 
 taught from early infancy that it is a "mortal sin" to be«;in to 
 think for himself or doubt some of the absurd doetrines that his 
 spiritual dictators force him to believe on pain of "eternal dam- 
 nation." Received a letter from uncle Richard saying that he 
 ■would like us to go and see his sons soon on their new firm and 
 also that he had a scheme that he would tell us of Have clap- 
 boarded our house. 1 8th April, snow is disappearing rapidly; 
 went to a sugaring off at uncle Herberts. Wrote to Mills, the 
 deputy inspector of schools asking his advice on our school af- 
 fairs. At times 1 am filled with a desire to be something better 
 than a bush farmer amongst ignorant, superstitious iM-ench Can- 
 adians, and that there are less opportunities in this place to fit 
 myself for a higher position in life than in other parts of the con- 
 tinent. Drew manure on the meadows. Government surveyors 
 are surveying this part of the country for the purpose of making 
 a new map. Had to pay Houde ;^2.50 for our share for the 
 work he did in keeping the roads in repair this winter, as we did 
 a good deal of shoveling on them ourselves. Tom and I drew 
 out timber to make a veranda on 3 sides of the house; hired a 
 man to help us for 3 weeks for $8 and board. On Sunday Tom, 
 Daniel C. 3 Houde girls and myself went to a sugar party at 
 Brodeurs; in the evening there was songs and conversation that 
 would even horrify "such a bad man as Col. Ingersol," yet the 
 people belong to the devout and respectable class of the French 
 Canadians and are in good standing in the Catholic church, yet 
 were their conversation to be repeated in any Engiish house the 
 offender would be kicked out; to me it seems that it is the fault 
 of their religion and not that of the people; the church by grant- 
 ing absolution at stated periods makes the people regard sin as 
 almost a necessity and a thing impossible to avoid. It is sick- 
 ening to me to see people regularly confess and receive absolu- 
 tion and partake of "God's body" while their lives are most base 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 79 
 
 and woitMcss; many are habitual drunkards and of as low a 
 standard of manhood as one could imagine and still arc allowed 
 to remain regular members of the church. Hundreds of frogs 
 are croaking in a njighboring swamp which sounds very dreary, 
 Rtjceived a letter from uncle Richard saying that they were very 
 busy buying manure, stock and implements. Commenced log- 
 ging, which is very hard work. Our hired men seem to expect 
 that I should do as much as them, so I have to work pretty 
 l\ard to keep them up to the work, in fact take the lead. A man 
 man offered to hire for a year at $17$ '^'^^ board. Engaged Metz 
 Vincent foi a month at 510.50. The oxen's necks are swollen 
 from hard work; have to "chop land" till they are better. Had a 
 dispute with one of the hired men; I deducted 30 cents for two 
 mo nings he came too late, for which he exhausted the French 
 and English language in oaths and bad names. I have given up 
 going to see the Houde girls. 4th May, did not go to church as 
 1 felt too fatigued after a hard week's work. The English pros 
 pects in the Zulu war are improved. Hanian the Canadian cham- 
 pion rower has fine prospects, betting 4 to i on him against the 
 English champion; he beat the American champion before going 
 to England. Every evening m the month of May the French 
 go and pray at a cross in the centre of this range; it is called "the 
 month of Mary." The lovers have a great time escorting their 
 sweethearts to the cross to pray. Daniel C. escorted Alphosine 
 Houde; I hardly thought he would degrade himselt with such 
 barbaric superstition. On the 5th there xas thunder and light- 
 ning. 1 have come to the decision that the greatest hero is that 
 man who can maintain an unceasing conflict during life against 
 error in all its forms; this form of heroism is greater and su- 
 premely grander than the reckless courage of the hero that 
 rushes to the cannon's mouth. The musquitoes have arrived a 
 few days ago. Houde's pigs have greatly damaged our meadow 
 by rooting it. It has rained for the last two days. Metz and I 
 were trying to see who could chop the fastest, and in my haste 
 my axe struck a twig and swerved out of its course and descended 
 on my instep making a terrible gash; I made for the house 20 
 acres distant as fast as I could, jumping over logs and the blood 
 spurted from my boot every step I took; when I arrived at the 
 
So HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN A.MEKICA. 
 
 house I felt rather weak from loss of blood; bandaged the wound 
 tightly and tied a handkerchief very ti^;htly around my ankle 
 and sent for Dr. Bacon; he says I have cut an artery whicii he 
 tied with some silver wire and then sewed up the wound which 
 is 4 inches long. It was not as painful an operation as I had 
 imagined it would be. It is re^Jy too bad to be laid up thus at 
 the busiest season of the year. Read in "Rome as it is;" fiom 
 what I have read of this church and the effects of its teachings 
 on the French Canadians makes me look on it merely as an un- 
 provement on Paganism; the book truly says "Rome's intolerance 
 is only measured by its power." An impartial study of history 
 clearly shows this; but although its power is fast increasing and 
 it is making mighty efforts to retain its hold on the minds ot men 
 it will be of no avail, for not ioo,oO(^ churches of Rome could 
 arrest the grand march of civilization, for as the ages roll on men 
 will more and more make uso of clicir reasoning powers by which 
 all spiritual serfdom will be abolished, and the nations will cease 
 to hate and persecute each other on account of nonsensical doc- 
 trines as in the middle ages; for all men will be in honorable 
 rivalry in trying who can become the best and most noble people 
 physically, mentally and morally by a perfect study of the laws 
 by which a Supreme Creator governs the human race and our 
 planet. I can well imagine how amused the more enlightened 
 men of future ages will be at the absurdity of their semi civilized 
 ancestors, each trying to draw a picture to themselves of their 
 God and the unknown hereafter and then teach their innocent 
 little children that their poor neighbors are damned because their 
 imaginary picture is difterent to theirs. Have read much of his- 
 tory of late, among others that of Rome, from which it can be 
 seen that lust, gluttony and inteuiperance destroyed one of the 
 greatest empires of our earth. In some ways a soldier's life has 
 great charms for me, especially I think in a conflict for a just 
 cause, but to an honorable man it must be very distasteful to 
 fight for his country when it has undertaken an aggressive and 
 unjust war. The Afghan and Zulu wars are just over; the ob- 
 stacles oi climate, rugged country and warlike natives are at 
 length in a fair prospect of being overcome by the prowe5s of 
 British Arms; Beaconsfield and his policy it appears are grow- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 8 1 
 
 ing more unpopular with the British people; the Socialists are 
 takinjT very desperate means to try and gain concessions from 
 some of the European Soverigns. 12th May, it is very warm to- 
 day, the atmosphere is clouded with smoke caused by fires made 
 to clear land. Protestantism has made great progress in Canada 
 since it became a British possession; about 50 years ago Mon- 
 treal was almost entirely Catholic, to-day about ^ of its inhab- 
 itants are Protestants, and most of the chief business and enterprise 
 is carried on by them which is a most remarkable example how 
 liberty and education triumph over ignorance ar^d superstition, 
 and so it is with every country in the world whenever Romanism 
 has all to itself and the inhabitants yield unquestioning obedience 
 to its priests; the people are lower in the scale of cultivation than 
 in countries where Protesantism and Infidelity exist; the fol- 
 lowing countries prove the truth of this; Spain was once one of 
 the greatest nations of the earth but could not hold its power 
 against Protestant England, and as a people arc truly much in- 
 ferior than the English heretics; then Italy, the very center of 
 Catholicism was a few years ago one of the most celebrated 
 countries in the world for brigands,assassinations,vice and beggars 
 as W'U as for the ignorance of the mass of the population; then 
 aga i Mexico, Brazil, Chili and Peru are all under the absolute 
 spiritual rule of Romanism, and compare them with the worst of 
 the American States or Provinces, and even the Romanist him- 
 self cannot deny the great superiority of the Protestants, although 
 Brazil has ten times more natural advantages than most of the 
 Protestant American States; Romanism can of course boast of 
 some great and noble men, but these men were great and good 
 in spite of the degrading influences of the religion they believed 
 in; poor Gallieo's greatness and goodness cannot be attributed 
 to Romanism (his church) for it persecuted him to death. Pagan 
 Rome and Greece produced some of the greatest, purest and 
 noblest characters of the earth; yet no one would be foolish 
 enough to attribute their nobleness to the diabolical teachings of 
 their priests. It is perfect!) plain that the policy of Rome is to 
 keep the masses of the people in ignorance, which policy they 
 have carried out in all those countries where infidel or Protestant 
 
 influence is not felt and whose inhabitants have not had the 
 
 11 
 
82 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 courage to rebel against priestly tyranny as in France; see what 
 a country it has become since the revolution; a great part of its 
 inhabitants are infidels, but how much superior are they than 
 the poor, devout, priest-ridden people of Spain. Another feature 
 in the crafty policy of Rome is, that wherever Protestants or in- 
 fidels have any power and form a large portion of the inhabitants 
 as in Great Britain, the United States and Canada, they establish 
 their own schools and colleges to educate the children spirit- 
 ually as well as secularly, for fear the Catholics would patronize 
 the national schools or those of Protestants; thus, Catholics 
 where part of the population is Protestant, receive a sunerior 
 education than in those countries where the population is 
 entiiely Catholic and where the priests have everything their 
 own way. I predict that Italy through its being freed from 
 spiritual thraldom, will quickly lose the vice, ignorance and 
 poverty with which it was cursed under the infallible spiritual 
 rule of the Popes, and become a nobler, wealthier, happier and 
 more powerful people. One of the most degrading influences of 
 Romanism is the confessional; can anything be more disgusting 
 than to have a chaste and innocent young lady subjected to the 
 impure questions that ever}' priest is obliged to ask those who 
 confess to them. I could give hundreds of horrible proofs of 
 its degrading influence on the people of the middle ages, and 
 this, too, extracted from works of eminent Catholic authors of 
 good standing who would not have written so had not the con- 
 dition of the people been in a dreadful stale, but I cannot for 
 the sake of decency and virtue. I would suggest to all impartial 
 men to read well a description of the condition of Europe in the 
 middle ages, when Romanism reigned supreme, and compare its 
 degraded state to the more civilized state of the whole Christian 
 and Pagan world since the glorious light of Luther's reforma- 
 tion dispelled the dark clouds of superstition that darkened the 
 earth, and has made the last few hundred years the grandest 
 epoch in our earth's history. I have seen in the Province of 
 Quebec, hundreds of French Canadians, that were considered 
 devout Catholics who regularly received absolution and per- 
 formed the chief duties of their religion; yet such was the 
 depravity of their lives that some of the meanest infidels have 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. S$ 
 
 lived nobler and purer lives. What surprises me is the lov/ 
 standard of character generally amongst the Catholics of this 
 Province, who as long as they are not guilty of heinous sins 
 imagine that impure conversation and indecent jests are not 
 wrong, but merely "pour rire," as a young French girl once said 
 to mj when I used condemnatory language on an indecent re- 
 mark a young man had made. I have seen numbers of them 
 who lived ignoble and despicable lives, at the hour of death con- 
 fess, receive absolution and partake of their "bread god" and in 
 two instances recover contrary to expectation and lived the same 
 sinful and worthless lives they had done before their illness ; yet 
 these same men were allowed to remain members of the church 
 and partake of the "holy sacrament," which most Christians be- 
 lieve if taken unworthily "is taken to a man'i damnation." 
 Romanism also has been guilty of persecutions that have been so 
 cruel that even "devils" would be ashamed to acknowledge them; 
 and some of these diabolical, persecutions have received the 
 approbation of the Popes. Romamst apoligists assert that Pro- 
 testants have been guilty of persecution, but this does not 
 palliate their atrocities. It should also be remembered that 
 Romanism persecuted men for a contrary belief long before the 
 first dawn of the light of the reformati(.'n began to appear on the 
 earth, and therefore as the infallible church set a bad example 
 to the rest of mankind. It should also be remembered that the 
 early Protestants had great provocation. If Queen Elizabeth did 
 persecute the Catholics she was first set the example by her 
 bigoted and cruel predecessor. Queen Mary. It should also be 
 remembered that English Protestantism was weak, and numerous 
 plots were being made for its overthrow and that some of the 
 harsh laws that were made were really justifiable.from the fact"that 
 self preservation is the first law of nature," and Cromwell, if he 
 did persecute the Irish, had great aggravatton for doing so. His 
 co-religionists had been atrociously murdered with the expressed 
 approval of the head of the church of the meek and lowly Jesus. 
 But the great difference between the two religions is that the 
 Protestants almost universally are ashamed and lament of the 
 persecutions their ancestors committed, while many of the Ro- 
 manists glory in some of their persecutions and with lies and 
 
^4 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 quibbles deny others, attributing it to political animosity etc. 
 It is however an acknowledg>ed f^ict that there still exists at Rome 
 a medal in commemoration of the massacre of St. Bartholomew 
 Now supposing this massacre was done for political motives by 
 Frenchmen, when the infallible popes found out their mistake 
 why did they not destroy the medal instead of preserving it, 
 but even in this enlightened age many of its followers in different 
 parts of the world persecute Bible sellers and Protestant teachers 
 in various ways, but dare not take their lives for fear of arousing 
 the indignation ot the Protestant world; but men and priests that 
 would cruelly beat Bible sellers as they have done in Austria 
 and Spain would burn them if they had the power to do so. I 
 was pleased to see however that the American board of Foreign 
 missions have been trying to obtain complete religious liberty 
 for missionaries in Spain and Austria. It is a terrible condition of 
 affairs to have a Protestant traveller fined and imprisoned in Spain 
 in '82 because he could not consientiously takeoff his hat and kneel 
 in adoration to a God of bread. Any church that would tolerate 
 the Inquisition and not reprimand! its members for such diabol- 
 ical cruelty cannot of a certainty be inspired of God; a church 
 that would allow members in good standing to use thumb screws 
 to tear men limb from limb and burn them at tlie stake, with- 
 out a word of condemnatiou, deserves the hatred and contempt 
 of all civilized men. Yet this church declares that its spiritual 
 teachings have always been infallible — and has the barefaced 
 impudence to say that Luther's was a disastrous revolution. 
 The only way I can account for clever and good men believing 
 in this and other religious frauds is as I have before stated that 
 although they are wise and learned in all tranches of literature 
 and science they are childish fools in religion, having never been 
 allowed by their spiritual tyrants to harbor doubts or reason to 
 themselves as to whether this revealed rehVion is reallv true or 
 not. I have no ill feeling against the most devout of Romanists, 
 Protestants or Mohammedans; it is only against those religious- 
 frauds and imposters who for lust of geld and power try to keep 
 the inhabitants of this earth in a state of spiritual slavery. 
 Amongst Protestant Clergymen however I must say I have met 
 with many noble, generous-hearted men who Jiave devoted their 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ^5 
 
 lives to the glorious work of elevating their fellow men by teach- 
 ing chiefly the beautiful and grand moral laws and precepts of 
 that great moral teacher, Christ. Among the Catholic Priesthood 
 such noble men also exist, but I have never had the pleasure of 
 meeting one for they are n)uch scarcer than among Protestant 
 Clergymen on account of the more rigid ecclesiastical training 
 and tyranny they have to undergo, which in most cases dwarfs 
 and contorts the better sentiments of their nature, for it must be 
 remembered that as the peo[)le are under the priests so the 
 priests are under the bishops and so on till all is concentrated 
 under the one man and spiritual despot, the Pope. How hu- 
 miliating for a priest of intelligence to think I cannot use my 
 reason on religion or in any way use the gifts God has endowed 
 rne with but must without questions or doubts teach and preach 
 according to the ideas and wishes of my tyrannical superiors, 
 and even in fact in many of the church superior sects is this in- 
 tolerant spirit also shown, and the momeirt a clergyman begins 
 to use his reason on religion and deny the truth of some of the 
 absurd doctrines concocted in the superstitious brains of the bar- 
 barians of former ages, he is excommunicated and driven from 
 tiie sect to which he belongs How very despotic for most of 
 the Christian Churches to form councils, such as the council of 
 Trent etc., consisting of narrow minded ecclesiastics, who set 
 themselves up as the spiritual dictators of the rest of mankind 
 and promulgate doctrines according to their fancy and then take 
 away from their fellowmen the God-given privilege of freedom 
 of thought, and with lying threats of "eternal damnation" on pain 
 of disbelief force the majority of mankind to accept their ideas 
 as inspired of God, in fact in the middle ages the spiritual tyrants 
 were not satisfied with condemning (those who refused to be 
 slaves) to torment in the future world, but must roast to death, 
 all men who had the courage to think and speak for themselves, 
 but as the years rolled on great and noble men by a proper use 
 of the reason God endowed them with saw the unjust wicked- 
 ness of such despotism and through their efforts and the im- 
 proved religion of Protestantism, the Christian councils no lon- 
 ger roast men alive; they only condemn them to eternal 
 [)unishment in a future world for the terrible crime of not 
 
86 HISTORY CF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 submitting to their decrees, which were only the thoughts and 
 ideas of the minds of finite fellovvmen; yet the brazen-faced apol- 
 ogists of Romanism have the audacity to declare that their 
 religion is, was, and always will be unchangeable, if so why do 
 they not try and roast iheir enemies now as formerly, or sup- 
 posing for instance a party of Catholics were to commit such 
 an atrocity would not the Pope immediately excomniuaicate 
 them? Of course he would, then if an unchangeable church 
 why did he not excommunicate or at least reprove the villains 
 who committed such atrocities in the middle ages. The reason 
 is plainly this, then the Popes power was almost unquestioned 
 and supreme, to-day it is endangered by Protestantism and civ- 
 ilization, and in this enlightened age were they to encourage or 
 tolerate such barba-'ity 100,000.000 hearts and hands would be 
 united for his overthrow; yet even in this enlightened age much 
 bitter and cruel persecution still exists, several cases of which I 
 have myself personally witnessed; one case especially, that of a 
 relative of mine, a perfect gentleman and a throughly moral and 
 good man who moved in good society; till that moment he had 
 the moral courage to express his unbelief in some doctrines that 
 appeared to him absurd and improbable, from that moment the 
 circle of society and friends he had moved in thrust him out of 
 it as if he were a viper, and even one of his uncles told him that 
 he did not wish to have any one visit his house who doubted the 
 essential doctrines of Christianity, but such bigoted injustice and 
 cruelty although it may frighten and prevent some men from 
 using the reasoning powers God gave them cannot, and never 
 will, arrest the progre j of men's enlightenment, for in all ages 
 of the world ve courageous and conscientious men existed 
 who would bravely face the persecutions and contempt of the 
 ecclesiastical world, rather than fall out of the ranks of that no- 
 ble little band of workers who have ever claimed the right and 
 privilege of men for the pefect use of their reasoning powers on 
 all things spiritual as well as temporal, and have ever resisted 
 those tyrannical Christian councils who usurp to themselves 
 privileges that God h;.s given to all mankind. Fellow-citizens 
 of this great and enlightened age let it not be said in future ages 
 to the eternal dishonor of this age that its best society did refuse F 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. $7 
 
 to admit men in its midst because they boldly claimed the right 
 of enslaved humanity to think and reason for itself. In my 
 opinion however this little band of workers will, as they increase, 
 form a select society of themselves that will extend the hand of 
 fellowship to every fellow man rich or poor, as long as he has 
 done and is doing his level best to attain to the highest possible 
 state of manhood and will not close its doors on such and for a 
 slight differance of belief or wealth as the Christian society of 
 the present day has done to its eternal dishonor, but will of a 
 certainty refuse to tolerate in its midst all men who advocate 
 the right of any body or class of men to become the spiritual 
 dictators of the rest of mankind. Many Sectarians have often 
 sneeringiy remarked to me, what have you "unbelievers" done 
 for humanity, you do not build hospitals or schools, to which I 
 reply, how could we? We do not yet exist in suthcient num- 
 bers, besides we do not believe in having schools or hospitals 
 for any special class or body of men, we believe that all men 
 should act not as if they were some distinct race, separated from 
 the rest of mankind, but as if they belonged to one grand 
 brotherhood, created by one God and actuated with a generous 
 rivalry to see which can make the best study of his unchangeable 
 laws and become the most perfect beings of his creation, and 
 .therefore we liberally aid all good and charitable institutions 
 organized by Christians but at the same time are doing all in 
 our pc\ er to remove their most objectionable features and 
 unite them all in the grand work of healing and educating all 
 [diseased and ignorant fellow-men regardless of creed or color. 
 Our aim is not to become some distinct class or sect, but to pre- 
 [serve all the good moral laws and precepts of all religions that 
 hundreds of years of experience has shown to be useful and 
 
 )eneficial to mankind, and which are not the result of any special 
 revelation to man as all religious theologians assert, but merely 
 from a proper use of the glorious God-given gift of man's in- 
 tellect in the study of the unchangeable laws of nature. For 
 Instance, I ask the intelligent reader does he think God would 
 
 :ndow men with intellect reason and a discerning spirit and 
 jnake such revelations or special commands as "thou shalt not 
 
 :ill," and a hundred other laws winch the gifts he endowed man 
 
S8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 with were capable of discerning without any revelation; a proof 
 of this is seen in many of the barbarous and detestable laws of 
 marriage, etc., said to have been specially revealed by God to 
 Moses, which are far inferior to the more beautiful and just laws 
 made at the present day by civilized and humane men. Is it pos- 
 sibU* that God would reveal laws that are considered barbarous 
 and cruel by the civilized portion of mankind of the present day. 
 I think the reader will agree that they were merely created by 
 j^ome semi civilized philosopher and palmed off by him on a 
 Semi-barbarous people as a special revelation from God. All we 
 wish to do is to purge all religions of the supernatural absurdi- 
 ties with which they are cursed; and to convince Mohammedans 
 that dancing like mad men does not tend to God's glory or the 
 good of mankind; and to the Roman Catholics that the glorious 
 light of science and useful knowledge shining amongst men is 
 more pleasing to a Supreme power than the light of 100,000,000 
 wax candles; to the Jews that God has never been so brutal as 
 to take pleasure in the blood of lambs and turtle doves, and that 
 the incense of a beantiful and noble life is sweeter to God than all 
 the sweetest incense of the earth combined; and to the Protest- 
 ants that God takes no pleasure in a man casting himself on the 
 earth in abject humility crying/'vile ! vile ! unclean am I !" But that 
 all God requires vof man is that he should make a proper use of the 
 God-like attributes that he has given him and become the grand- 
 est being of all creation with a perfect knowledge of his duties 
 towards himself and the rest of mankind. This class of "free 
 thinkers" should not be confounded with apostate or bad men 
 of all religions who leave the sects to which they belong merely 
 because they cannot live up to some of the good moral laws and 
 precepts that are taught. This, however, I regret to say is gen- 
 erally the case, and all bad men who do not belong to 
 some religion are unjustly classed as freethinkers. It 
 must be acknowledged that this is unjust, for the true infidel 
 or free thinker is one who after he has exercised his judgment or 
 reason on the so called truths of supernatural religion, cannot 
 believe them and of necessity must reject and expose what he 
 conscientiously believes are errors and prejudicial to the interests 
 of humanity; yet I have heard a narrow minded christian remark 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, S^ 
 
 that he would prefer introducing^ a Turk into his family than an 
 infidel. The same spirit is exhibited in the education ot the chil- 
 dren of Chrisiians, tlieir minds are so prejudiced aj^ainst infidel 
 books that the average Christian lays one down with holy horror 
 on seeing its title, and I actually saw a Roman Catholic Bishop 
 who ordered his spiritual slaves to cease taking a x:ertain news- 
 paper bjcause it published articles criticising the Catholic 
 Church. Truly the Catholics of the Province of Quebec must 
 have very little manhood left to allow their priesthood to dictate 
 to them what newspapers they shall read; surely if human be- 
 ings, after attaining manhood and womanhood, are responsible 
 bemgs, they have a right- to use their own judgment as to what 
 they read; I must say 1 have been greatly surprised with the 
 agreeable contrast of the religious freedom and liberty of the 
 members of the Mormon Church, who buy and read what litera- 
 ture they choose; I have even seen in the houses of good 
 Mormons, the Tribune, a newspaper that never loses an oppor- 
 tunity of ridiculing and bringing into contempt the doctrins of 
 their religion; were the Tribune to publish such bitter articles in 
 iiie i'lovmce of Quebec, I am confident its establishment would 
 be attacked in 24 hours time, for I myself have witnessed a sight 
 I shall never forget, in a Trench Canadian store, that of a mob 
 who attacked a Bible seller and robbed him of his Bibles, which 
 they burned; I may also draw two other remarkably favorable 
 contrasts for this much persecuted people. The head of their 
 church allowed a Gentile Minister to preach against the Mormon 
 Church in the Tabernacle of the Mormons; this, for liberality, 
 has never been excelled in ecclesiastical history; also that of 
 apostate Mormons, lecturing and denouncing the religion they 
 once professed, without their lives being endangered or even a 
 single threat uttered against them. When I compare their 
 christian toleration and patience with the intolerance and blood 
 thirsty conduct of the Catholics in the Province of Quebec I can- 
 not help thinking how absurd it is for the Catholic Church to 
 have the cheek to come to Utah to try and convert a people 
 who are in every respect superior to themselves. Mem- 
 bers of this same infallible church in the Province of 
 
 Quebec mobbed a hall where Father Chiniguy, a reformed 
 
 12 
 
90 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 priest, was lecturing against the errors of Romanism, in Aston 
 village, and were it not that a few Protestants including myself 
 stood at the door with loaded revolvers I have not the slighest 
 doubt that Father Chiniguy's name would have been added to 
 the long roll of names of the noble martyrs that have been mur- 
 dered through the diabolical teachings of Romanism. Also 
 when Father Gavazzi, a reformed Italian priest, lectured in Mon- 
 treal, a youth 15 years of age died of the wounds he received in a 
 Catholic riot that occurred, he was a brother of the dearest friend 
 I ever had. Under the circumstances I do not think the reader 
 will blame me for entertaining a most profound contempt (not 
 for individual Catholics) but for the religion itself, which is 
 working quietly and energetically with one aim and object in 
 view, that of bringing all mankind under its rule. Imagine what 
 a condition the world would be in with a Pope and his few 
 chosen counsellors as the spiritual dictators of the world. Does 
 not the reader think that with such blasphemous power in their 
 hands and without any power to resist them that they would not 
 hesitate to severely punish all men who ridiculed and rebelled 
 against their decrees. Truly this world would be in a pitiable 
 condition if Protestantism and all the glorious work it has 
 accomplished was blotted out. Catholic apologists often say : 
 "Does not religious liberty exist in most Catholic countries of the 
 present day." But intimate association with good Catholics 
 proves that full and complete religious liberty is not given to 
 any Catholic now in existence; nor in the whole history of their 
 church can it be found that religious liberty was granted to 
 them. It is true, however, that most Catholics can if they wish 
 think as they please at the present day and use their reason on 
 the doctrines of their church, but the reader well knows that if 
 they do so they can no longer remain members of that church, 
 but are expelled as heretics and rebels against the spiritual 
 oligarchical government which that church lying asserts that 
 Christ, the great philanthropist and moral teacher, established 
 on earth, I would also ask some of these Catholic apologists 
 how they account for the remarkable fact that Catholicism and 
 its followers rigorously punished, in the most barbarous manner, 
 all heretics during the middle ages, and that they have only 
 
 I 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 9I 
 
 ceased their brutality and cruelty during the past few hundred 
 years since Protestantism and infidelity have become so power- 
 ful. I also ask the impartial reader how can he account for the 
 world of the present day being so much more civilized and im- 
 proved thnn it was in the middle ages, when Catholicism reigned 
 supreme over what was then considered as the civilized world, 
 and at the same time assert "that Protestants, Heretics and Infi- 
 dels are wicked and prejudicial to the interests of mankind," 
 whjn it cannot be denied that they have accomplished most of 
 these improvements and have a greater power and influence 
 than heretics ever had before during our earth's existence. It is 
 quite clear that the oligarchical form of spiritual government of 
 Catholicism is antagonistic and not in harmony with the true 
 s{)irit of all forms of republican governments, and better suited 
 tor the more uncivilizcrd one man form of government of empires 
 and kingdoms, for the reason that Catholicism elevates the 
 church above the state, and all good Catholics are taught that 
 they owe their first allegiance to the Pope, whom they re- 
 gard as Vicegerent of God. Now supposing that the Govern- 
 ment of this enlightened country at any time thought proper to 
 enact a law that was considered by the Pope as prejudicial to 
 the interests of Catholicism, but which the Government thought 
 necessary for the interests of a republican form of government 
 and the production of truly liberal and enlightened citizens. 
 Would not all "good Catholics" disregard the Government's 
 wishes, and at the command of the spiritual king of mankind 
 do all in their power to resist and defeat that law. so that a large 
 portion of the votes of the nation would be given according to 
 the dictation of a foreign power that maintains the interests of 
 Catholicism regardless of all others. Free thinkers and reform- 
 ers as a class should maintain an unceasing conflict, not only 
 against all religious errors, but against all the forms of error 
 with which this earth is cursed, and prove to the world that 
 nothing is gained by the mere performance of silly rites and 
 ceremonies, and teach to all mankind that grand truth, "that the 
 earth is their country and to do good is their religion." Tom 
 sowed 12 bushels of potatoes to day. Ine grass is growing fast 
 and the woodlands getting green. This dry weather we are 
 
92 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 having is very favorable for burnin<^ timber on the land. Whilj 
 I was laying on the veranda with my disabled foot I was struck 
 with the beauty of the scenery around our place. To the south lay 
 the dark-green primeval forest as far as the eye could see, brok- 
 en here and there by a village with its tin-covered steeple glitter- 
 ing in the sun, also several mountains towering high above the 
 solitude of the forest, till their summits were lost in the clouds. 
 In the east the view extends down a grass-covered hill, side to a 
 babbling, winding brook, across a valley with numerous beauti- 
 ful, evergreen and stately hardwood trees and up another hillside 
 till the view ends abruptly at the top of a hill in Sherman's 
 clearance with our cattle grazing in it. In the north the view 
 extends 4 miles across an almost unbroken forest; the chief object 
 on the north is the "Beaver Meadows," through which the brook 
 meanders through a stately grove of elms whose shade keeps the 
 carpet of wild grass beneath them of the brightest green. As I 
 watched the water foaming over the numerous rapids it remind- 
 ed me of the life of man, every part of earth the water rushed 
 over was passed forever, there was no turning back, on it rushes 
 till it reaches the depths of the ocean. And so with man, his life 
 glides swiftly onward, there is no recalling a day, an hour, a 
 minute once passed it is passed for ever; on it rushes until he 
 is hurled into that mighty ocean of an unknown hereafter. In 
 the east the view is obstructed by forest, in the hillside in 
 close proximity to the house. In reading ancient history it 
 appears to me that vice and intemperance were the sources of the 
 distruction of ancient nations. Those of the present day ought 
 to take warning of the danger of allowing vice and intemperance 
 to exist where temperance and virtue ought to reign. It is the 
 duty of mankind of this age to use its utmost endeavors to trans- 
 mit to the coming age a grander civilization and a nobler race of 
 people than that which our ancestors have transmitted to us. It 
 is truly very sad to see such terrible deterioration as that of such 
 a noble race as the ancient Greeks to their present low condition 
 in the scale of humanity. No man can imagine what exalted 
 and much nobler beings we would now be had all our ancestors 
 from the earliest ages used all the means in their power to de- 
 velop and improve mankind. The day, however, will yet come 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 93 
 
 when just and wise laws will be ma'ie to punish and prevent 
 everything that has a deteriorating influence on the human race 
 and rewards given to all those who materially aid the grand 
 work of developing and educating the huin:;in race to the high- 
 est possible standard of excellence. 15th May. The piece of 
 oats by the house is coining overground. I put some leaves of 
 the wild cucumber that a French quack doctor gave me on the 
 wound on my foot. Tom drove one of the Houde girls to Aston 
 which is very foolish; I would consider it a disgrace to be seen 
 in public with a vulgar girl like her; a gentleman cannot expect 
 refined laoies to like his company when he associates with such 
 society. The bare and desolate forests of a few days ago are 
 now clothed in green. Tom has hired two Frenchmen of old 
 France; they ridicule the priests, advocate national schools, and 
 have an intense hatred for all forms of monarchial governments 
 and nobility; the socialism of Europe is caused by an oppression 
 of the people driven to desperate remedies to remove their op- 
 pression, but of course "two wrongs never make a right." An 
 inventor has discovered a new means of guiding a baloon by pad- 
 dles. Strange how little progress has been made towards 
 perfecting aerial navigation. Some of the members of the Do- 
 minion Parliament are acting in a very ungentlemanly manner 
 by blackmailing each other. Read a book on predestination 
 A'hich had some plausible arguments, but it appears to me a 
 horrible doctrine and contrary to the alleged mercy of God, 
 that he would predestinate millions of souls to eternal punish- 
 ment; man I believe is a "free agent" and if he lives according 
 to the better sentiments of his nature he will in most cases be 
 happy here and in all probability in the great hereafter; no ar- 
 guments on earth would convince me that God ever doomed 
 any man to eternal torment without first giving him an oppor- 
 tunity to work out his own salvation. The Frenchmen working 
 for us for 35 cents a day and board are quiet, steady fellows. 
 "Hartford April 15th. Dear Tom and Arthur. You must 
 wonder at my not answering your letters before, but father 
 thought 1 had written and I thou^;ht he had and besides we 
 have had a visit from Angelica; just fancy she came over for 
 only one week's visit. The wagons here cost s8o, so we will 
 
^fjl ' HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 » 
 
 get one at Aston for;^50 I am sorry to put you to so much trouble 
 but hope some day to be able to reciprocate; we have bought 
 ^25 worth of manure; have paid ;^l.50 a cord tor wood and drew 
 it ourselves. You will like this place when you see it, I wish 
 we had you near us, when fall comes I want you both to come 
 and visit us, when I will show you a scheme we have on hand, 
 but if either of you could visit us during the Summer we would 
 be delighted to see you; Clifford joins me in love to you both, 
 your affectionate cousin Richard. P. S. Have bought two 2}4 
 Ayrshire cows for $7,$ each." Read a book on Scottish Pat- 
 riots, they certainly exhibited the most daring courage and the 
 noblest patriotism to preserve their country's independence. 
 Richard and Clifford have sown a small crop for a farm of 200 
 acres, only 15 acres in oats potatoes and peas and 12 in meadow, 
 the rest in pasture with about 30 acres in woodland. We can 
 hardly sleep at night from the bite of mosquitoes. Read a book 
 called "ruins of sacred and historic lands;" truly the architecture 
 of the present day is in m.any cites and countries (of even the 
 civilized portion of the earth) much inferior to that of the An- 
 cients; there are few buildings of modern times that could resist 
 the hand of time 3000 years. Tom has sown 13 bushels of oats. 
 Had a conversation with the G's. about the poor prospects for a 
 young man in this parish; there was a sucessful celebration of 
 the Queen's birthday at Montreal, over 10,000 people viewed 
 the parade of the Militia. Rev. H. Beecher and Marquis and 
 Princess were there. I was right in my conjecture, uncle Rich- 
 ard wants us to sell out and move to Lemington to be near our 
 cousins. I take great pleasure in reading Sir. W. Scott's poems 
 they are totally free from those objectionable features of most 
 poets who have generally at least a tinge of the Byron ian style; 
 have also been reading Shakespeare's plays a second time. 
 Argued with one of our workman on the advantage of temper- 
 ance, he says he is "too far gone" and has not the power to 
 resist the desire for strong drink, a truly pitiable condition for a 
 man to be in. 30 May. exceedingly hot for this time of year, 
 therrhometer 90 degrees in the shade. England has concluded 
 peace with Afghanistan on favorable terms, gains a tract of rug- 
 ged mountainous country that will form a natural defense for 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. . > 95- 
 
 India's Frontier. England at present seems to have a very 
 ag^gressive policy. Sold some seed oats to cur neighbors at 40 
 cents a bushel. Daniel C's mother is so angry with him for going 
 to "spark" French girls that she refuses to cook meals for him, 
 a truly sad state of affairs between mother and son. Are hav- 
 ing occasional light showers which will be of great benefit to 
 the crops. At a "logging bee" at Goldsmiths 29 log piles were 
 made they used a horse as well as our oxen. We have had 
 several frosty nights which has frozen all tender foliage. Tom 
 has had serious trouble with Metz Vincent about money he ad- 
 vanced him on work; have read many standard novels of late by 
 Chas. Reade; W. Thackeray and George Elliot. Arphosine 
 floude is deeply in love with Daniel C. they went yesterday on 
 a pleasure excursion to Sutton. Henry Milton arrived with a 
 letter of introduction from Mr. Sherman, I gave him all the in- 
 formation he required, he has bought the cut of the bark on Mr. 
 Sherman's lot. Sunday 15th June, to day is called "Fete de Dien," 
 the Canadians have great processions to their churches in honor 
 of their bread God to which they have the audacity to waiiC Prot- 
 estants to take oft their hats if they encounter the procession, 1 
 had my hat on one occasion knocked partially off my head 
 and when it passes all the people drop on their knees 
 on the dusty road. The weather is cloudy and only 60 degrees 
 above zero. Gave Tom Mallet a ditch to dig at ;^2.oo an acre 
 3 feet deep, I myself am also finishing the long ditch 
 I commenced through the clearance. Read the lives of 
 "Nelson and Collingwood," two of England's greatest naval 
 heroes. Herbert Charmicheal has returned from St. Louis, where 
 he could find no employment, and looks quite pile after the pri- 
 vations he endured. 20th of June although a cloudy day the 
 thermometer stands at 80 in the shade. Our oats look splendid; 
 the hay crop promises the best we have had for years; the French 
 Prince Imperial has been killed in Zululand, a pity seeing he was 
 a goodhearted, gallant young man; but of course my sympathies 
 are with the French Republic, I admire their policy and how 
 they have restored prosperity to the country; his mother fain- 
 ted when she heard the news and no wonder, the only child she 
 had Oh whom all her hopes were centered. I pity poor Mrs. C. 
 
g6 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMEKlCA. 
 
 she has a careworn appearance and although she his a violent 
 temper and is a very vulgar v/onian, this dojs not justify the dis- 
 respectful conduct of her son Daniel, who has commenced to drink 
 artd smoke since he associates with iloudes. Oh how things 
 have changed since my dear mother's death; the young people 
 of this place have all deteriorated since they have lost vhe eleva- 
 ting influence she used to exercise on them. I am sorry to say 
 Tom has also commenced to take a social c^lass; have tried to 
 persuade them to give up the habit; showed how it ruined hun- 
 dreds of thousands every year and that few men knew how strong 
 the habit becomes, till it is too late; thousands of talented men 
 have thought they could drink in m-)deration and bj safe, and 
 through it ruined themselves and their families; even the per- 
 nicious effect it has on others ought to make a good min avoid 
 it for the same reason that one of the greatest Christian teachers 
 gives, "if eating meat cause my brother to offend I will eat no 
 meat." Went to Mrs. C's. she appeared very jovial from which 
 I imagine she has been before the thi ne of Bacchus. Have giv- 
 en the job of plastering the inside of our house for $12, we to 
 furnish materials and a man to attend on the plasterer; Tom 
 Mallet offered his services tor $12 a month and board, but he is 
 so impudent that we dislike to hire him. But persons wishing 
 to get on in the world should not be influenced by their feelings, 
 all must be sacrificed excepting one's honor and health to climb 
 the difficult road to wealth. I often feel what a pity Tom and 
 I are not surrounded by better society, after having spent an 
 evening at Houde's or some other neighbor the shallow pleas- 
 ure derived while there is more than counterbalanced by pain and 
 regret afterwards for having wasted my time amongst them; have 
 read Tennyson's poems of late. While at G's they said the land 
 on this range was too rocky for successful farming; the Carmi- 
 cheal's have not paid their school taxes on account of some 
 quibble of the condition of school affairs; told him that any one 
 who for some trifling quibble would refuse to pay his taxes and 
 try to put our school into the hands of the R. C's. did not de- 
 serve the name of Protestant, and was a fool in the bargain, as 
 the taxes of the Roman Catholics are much higher than ours. 
 I am mixing the first "coat of plaster put hair in it to prevent it 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. [^^ 
 
 from falling; have also commenced clearing out the stream on 
 our lots, a very unpleasant job, we are up to our knees in mud 
 and water. Some French "bark peelers aie staying at our house 
 I write this while listening to their jabber, songs, jests, grinding 
 of axes and the frizzling of their pork, that is being fried for their 
 supper. Read of a machine invented in England that turns out 
 woolen goods, cottons and silk with only a few men to work it 
 while the old machine employed 30 men. The Zulus' are still 
 holding out, their King Cetawago has shown a considerable 
 amount of tact as general. Tom Murphy saw a bear, we chased 
 it in the raspberry bushes with a revolver and gun but could not 
 hit it. Tom's mother is a half breed Indian and he has inher- 
 ited miny Indian characteristics; he walks like one and is terribly 
 revengeful. I commenced cutting hay in the Beaver meadows. 
 It has commenced to rain in torrents; hope we will have fair 
 weather to save our hay. The Vincent family were all taken up 
 for being drunk and fighting in the streets, four of the brothers 
 and the father got released by paying a fine of ^4.5; Metz who 
 works for us escaped but was caught in the wood by two bailiffs. 
 I have at last persuaded the C's. to pay their taxes. The roads 
 are in a bad condition, especially the "big swamp" a mile long 
 is covered with peat to the depth of 18 ft.; some places the road 
 trembles when the wagons pass over it. Have hired the three 
 Houde girls to rake hay at 50 cents a day; they can perform 
 nearly as much work as a man; it is a very heavy crop this 
 year. I mowed three acres of father's hay in one day, worked 
 from daylight to dark; the hay was not a heavy growth and 
 the land entirely free from stumps and stones I felt completely 
 tired out at the end of the day. Sir Garnet Woolsley is in com- 
 mand of the British forces in Zulu land in place of Lord Chelms- 
 ford, who is the poorest Peer in Great Britain with the small 
 income of ^4000 a year. Letilier, the Lieutenant Governor 
 of the Province of Quebec has been dismissed much to the 
 disadvantage of the Liberal party with whom e was in sympathy. 
 Red cherries are ripe, they flourish in every clearance and grow 
 in great profusion by the road-sides throughout this part of the 
 country, but they have more kernel than fruit. I have been 
 
 appointed secretary to the English school. Have given out 
 
 ii3 
 
yi HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ' , 
 
 the cutting of some of our hay at 50 cents an acre. Have had 
 a great deal of work to do on our roads; in a letter dated 14th 
 July, Richard asks us to try and hire a boy out our way for him 
 says '*'our hay is nearly all in, only 26 loads double ones. 
 People say farmers are always great grumblers but I trust we 
 will not acquire the bad habit; our oats are well headed out. Mr. 
 Milton called in to have Tom write a letter in French to his 
 Sweetheart a French girl at St.Augustin. In making hay it should 
 not be allowed to get wet, especially after it is partially dried, 
 nor should it be drrcd too much, one day of good sunshine is 
 sufficient for an average crop but when a very heavy growth a 
 day and a half is required and it has to be spread over the ground's 
 surface. Gave one of Milton's bark peelers a job of clearing out 
 five acres of the stream, merely the timber that had fallen in and 
 the brush on the banks at $1 ciix acre. The Miss Carmichaels 
 have arrived from Montreal, being expelled from a ladies college 
 in Upper Canada. and are the wildest girls I ever saw, the youngest 
 s very good looking a "dare devil sort of a girl who swears like 
 a trooper; the other one is just as bad only that she is more of a 
 hypocrite; I thought what a pity these girls were not properly ed- 
 ucated, it certainly seems disgraceful for a man worth half a 
 million to let his children run wild; they were sent to school 
 of course but that was all, the rest of the tinie they spent as they 
 liked on the streets; their mother being deaf and an "easy going" 
 sort of woman, did not care for them and the father was too 
 much occupied in business, the consequence is the boys are the 
 wildest vagabonds in the city and there is no prospect of the girls 
 ever becoming ladies, although they are educated in most of the 
 accomplishments a lady should have. Had a school meeting, I 
 gave the trustees the amount uf the value of the dissentient prop- 
 erty in the parish, which amounts to 1^25,800; they struck a rate 
 of J^ of a cent on the dollar and decided to keep school at Mer- 
 edith's house. Tom Murphy discovered a nest of bees on 
 Sherman's lot; we went with lanterns at midnight and cut the 
 tree down and "smoked out the bees" and brought back two 
 pailfuls of honey. 12th September cut our buckwheat and 
 housed it; engaged Tom Murphy for three months at ;^io a 
 month and board. Have commenced cutting saw logs for a new 
 
J HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 99 
 
 barn wc are having built; th^ putting up of the frame and the 
 squaring of the timber we have given to a French Canadian for 
 540. The C. girls are thoroughly enjoying themselves in actend* 
 ing French dances and spending evenings at French houses. i6 
 September. Have commenced cutting our oat'*; gave Metz Vin- 
 cent the job of drawing sufficient stone for a stone stable 6 ft 
 high which we have decided to build on the hillside underneath 
 the barn. In the Autumn the game of "bluft with cards" for 
 apples amongst the French is very prevalent. Had a "bee" to 
 raise our new barn which is 40 x • 5c ft.; Tom would insist on 
 having whiskey for the men as they always have it at other 
 "bees. Several of the men stole the whiskey out of a cupboard 
 and got beastly drunk; the F'rench however are a good natured 
 people and there were no serious fights; had the crowd been 
 Irishmen I expect they would have been breaking each others 
 heads. John Murphy went in search of his son Tom (who had 
 went to sleep off the effects of the liquor in a mow of hay); by 
 taking a pitch fork and probing the hay; we however obliged 
 him to desist from this rather dangerous method of searching 
 for his son. Have hired two stone masons to help us to build 
 the stone stable under the barn. In several nights of the past 
 fortnight there has been a mild frost. There has been a revolt 
 at Cabul, Afghanistan, and the members of the English Em- 
 bassy have been murdered, it is however only a faction; the 
 Ameer still sides with the English. Received a letter from 
 Richard saying he "expected us to go and see them after our crops 
 were in. We had only one acre of potatoes and tried to keep off 
 the beetles by picking, but our efforts looked ridiculous so we 
 had to put on London Purple which destroyed them all and . 
 stopped our neighbors cattle from trespassing." The Senate of 
 Quebec have refused to give their sanction to the "bill of supply" 
 for the Lower House in hope to make the Liberal party resign, 
 but that party nobly holds out. Nearly all the elections that 
 have taken pK^ce^for 'mcipl^ers.siace, the la^t general election 
 shows that the '^ecJpfle hiive . cpnfijdjsnc^, m j^e party. We have 
 commenced to clear land behind th6 Bekv^r meadows. Went 
 with Tom Murphy. Jts>, y^i.CQariii 9^ south, ^ast direction east of 
 East Hastings; drove 40- mil6s and s^iw ^ome ..interesting coun-, 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 try with many orchards. Mr. C. came from Montreal, although 
 a very clever man he is very vulgar, for instance, in speaking to 
 me of his stepmother he said "her photo could be sold to frighten 
 away rats;" the whole family are vulgar in the extreme; the 
 boys talK about dog fights, cock fights, boxing matches, rows 
 in taverns etc., the girls cf their flirtations and their numerous 
 admirers, the father of "my walking down the street with the 
 honorable Mr. so and so and of dining with M. P's. and other 
 notable persons." Russian Territory is steadily approaching 
 India, much to the alarm of Russia-phohists. The Chinese 
 have recovered their Province from Russia. The Liberals of 
 Quebec have only now a majority of three but still hold out. 
 Uncle Richard sent us the following letter to him from uncle 
 Jerrold. "My dear Richard. 1 was glad to hear from you as I 
 have been anxious about your son Richard's health; the farm is 
 a good idea as it will be a healthy and useful amusement; I am 
 obliged to put off my visit to Canada till next summer when I 
 expect, please God, to visit you; this is almost certain as I find 
 my old illness returning and my former trip nearly cured me; 
 tell Howard's I hope to see great improvements on their farm. 
 Agriculture, and in fact eveiything is as dull as ditch water 
 here, bvit most wonderful of all my old practice has fallen down 
 to almost nothing; for 40 years it has been a little California to 
 me and why it should so suddenly collapse I cannot imagine, 
 prob ibly th.^ n ?w energetic practitioners are shelving as veterans 
 on the retired list; as far as I myself am personally concerned it 
 matters little as my bread is baked and dinner cooked, yet I am 
 so sorry to see so many better men than myself at the end of 
 •their career losing their practice and with nothing laid by for 
 their old age; trade is depressed all over the world except in 
 France, the country of all others whose ruin was predicted; 
 here in England it is awful, we have been badly used; every na- 
 tion has taken our money and in return, even our Colonies 
 actually prohibit our trade' -altli^ ugh we •ad'mif. all goods at 
 merely a nominal rave, or aU<)^ef4ier fpeef 'happv^ thrice happy 
 are you in Canada farming homesteads, out of turmoil and the 
 sight of misery; 1 "trust -you -vvili ' Veep ^n' .'a('cC)unfe''of the profits 
 on your frrm to giv^ m^ a'a-ieiea of the -profit and 'loss; you will 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. lOl 
 
 probably for the next two years spend a great deal of money be- 
 fore you get any returns, the hnglish laborers I fear are gone 
 into habits of lazy detnorilization, idleness, cheating and lying- 
 are their chief characteristics, and the servant "gals" are upstart, 
 impudent, reckless hussies, running about from place to place 
 careless of the future, never thinking of saving their own or their 
 employers money; they live flighty, flirting extravagant lives 
 and end their days in a workhouse, a sourse of annoyance all 
 their lives and at last an expense to the overtaxed middle class- 
 es. The floods, overflows of rivers, countries under water, and 
 storms have at last ceased; great fears are entertained of a bad 
 harvest and a general scarcity; I should think that breeding of 
 stock on your farm would be bjtter than raising corn; the 
 weather is fine but close and dull. You may bye and bye hear 
 of a war declared between Russia and ICngland. I shall be glad 
 to get a letter from To;n and Arthur although I owe them one; 
 love to your family and friends in Montreal and the Howards; 
 believe me always your affectionate brother, J. 1^. Goldsmith." 
 In a letter to us he says "if you nave as much rain as we have 
 it must prevent you from clearing out the stream; that will be a 
 rare piece of fertile land yet. I hope you will be able to use 
 the stream bye and bye for irrigating the adjoining lands; water 
 is a most valuable fertilizer over here and a little stream with a 
 dam to send it over the adjoining fields renders the property of 
 double value; that stream of yours looks to me like a tough job 
 to clear out, plenty of work late and early, but perseverance 
 will do anything. I hope you have no dealings with the stores 
 and that you do not run credit for a sin^jle farthing; the stores 
 and credit have been the ruin of thousands; better to live on a 
 dry crust with hard work than to eat fish and meat and be at 
 the mercy of a storekeeper; some of them have no more con- 
 science than a butcher's dog and no more feeling than a cobbler's 
 tapstone. I am sorry that I cannot go to Canada this year as 
 Rupert cannot be spared from his studies at Oxford. It was a 
 good idea to build another barn nothing better than plenty of 
 room, except it be plenty of stock and corn; I expect to see you, 
 please God, get rich and prosperous farmers with good clear fer- 
 tile land and plenty of everything, Rupert had a friend of his 
 
102 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 from Oxford here who is just saying what lucky fellows you 
 are, not livinfr in this smoky city where the air looks like dirty 
 pea soup, and they would like to go out there and plough and 
 
 ^ dig and cut wood on their own freeholds; his friend, Roberts, a 
 young man from Australia is longing to get back to his Austra- 
 lian fields; he hates London but must remain at Oxford Uni- 
 versity three years until he takes his degree; he says he would 
 not live here if he was made King of England. The Whigs 
 Radicals, Conservatives and Irish home rulers are the four po- 
 litical parties now agitating this country." The Elms, Hartford 
 Sept. 30th. "Dear Tom rnd Arthur. Yours of the — received. 
 I am glad to hear that you have all yonr crops in, we can't s:ty 
 the same as our corn now is only being cut; we had s'jch mii- 
 erable weather that our oats and buckwheat have only been in a 
 few days; we have commenced at our potatoes and then we have 
 mangolds and turnips which will take us three weeks to finish; 
 of course fall ploughing goes on at the same time and we have 
 commenced putting up a barbed wire fence. To-morrow 1 am 
 going to Montreal will return in about a week; could you come 
 and see us when I come back, by the loth. "Dear Tom and 
 Arthur; Richard left yesterday and did not have time to finish 
 his letter so he deputed me to do so; we will be at Lemington 
 Station to meet you when you come. The country here is look- 
 ing lovely, it is wonderful weather for Oct. 80 degrees in the 
 shade; excuse this horrid scrawl, your affectionate cousin, 
 Clifford." Had a discussion with J Murphy on Irish affairs; 
 proved to him from history that the first conquest of Ireland, by 
 Henry II received the sanction of the infallible Pope, Adrian; also 
 argued on religion, I told bim that it was plainly evident to un- 
 prejudiced and impartial minds that there was no perfect system 
 
 , of religion on this earth, nor even a perfect system of education 
 and that the degraded condition of the majority of Catholics and 
 other Christians was a plain proof of this; he argued that the 
 Apostolic Roman Catholic Church was the only true and per- 
 fect church and that its doctrines were exactly the same now as 
 in the time of the Apostles; I told him that some of the chief doc- 
 trines were perhaps the same, but that in its discipline and the 
 spirit that actuated the policy of the church were entirely dift- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. IO3 
 
 ercnt, that it forbids its priests to marry, which is only a com- 
 mand of the rulers of the church, for that Christ himself restored 
 Pope Peter's wife to him and never commanded any of his 
 teachers or preachers to abstain from marriage; and that Christ 
 commanded his teachers and Apostles to preach the Gospel to 
 all men without money and without price, but the Catholic 
 priests in this province would sell a poor man'j homestead for 
 the dues he owed his church, which was in direct contradiction 
 to the commands of Christ; and that in Italy the priesthood of 
 the Catholic Church had burdened the people with the expense 
 of building gorgeous and stately cathedrals, costing millions of 
 dollars, while the people were in a pitiable state of poverty and 
 ignorance, that of course this had nothing to do with the doc- 
 trines of Catholicism, but at the same time their unchristlike 
 conduct imd acting in direct contradiction to the beautiful spirit 
 and principles that pervade the true gospel of Christ ought to 
 cause them to be regarded, not as the ministers of Christ, but 
 as selfish and fraudulent priests; also that the more enlightened 
 religion of Protestantism with a praiseworthy liberality allow 
 men to a certain extent the use of their own judgment in apply- 
 ing the great truths of Christ's teaching to themselves as a guiae 
 through life, but that the rulers of Catholicism with a truly dog- 
 matic tyranny lay down the law to every member of their church 
 which they accept in humble childish faith as from God himself; 
 also ridiculed their diabolical belief that all men who absolutely 
 [refuse to believe their supernatural nonsense "'will suffer ever- 
 asting torment." Murphy said that he thought this quite right 
 hat a man should be punished for refusing to believe the truth, 
 ead in the Animal World, a Biitish newspaper published by 
 he society of the prevention of cruelty to animals. Uncle Her- 
 ert and Aunt Margaret told me that a young man could never 
 ^et with much success by living here. Have read the "History 
 bf France" of late. Tom has just returned from "The Elms," 
 ichard and Clifford's farm. I have named our place Elmbrook. 
 avid Grant, master of the Orangemen, has sued Mayor Beau- 
 ry of Montreal for illegal imprisonment, but lost his suit which 
 as for ;^ 1 0,000. The Afghan revolt is not quelled yet; several 
 giment.: have left England to reinforce the troops. The Zulu 
 
104 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. / v 
 
 war is over and the great savage Cetawayo is a prisoner. There 
 has been a murder in Montreal, one woman killed another. 
 The dead lock stiil continues between the Liberals and Legis- 
 lative Council, which has a faint resemblance to the English 
 House of Lords, they refuse to sanction the Bill of Supplies; it 
 is likely that Joly, the Liberal Primier, will appeal to the people 
 and be successful. The Russians are progressing very slowly 
 with their campaign at Merva and have suffered a defeat from 
 the Turcomonds. The Russian and British Empire are fast ap- 
 proaching each other, it is quite possible that there will yet be a 
 deadly struggle between the Lion and the Bear, Am suffering 
 from toothache, smoking somewhat eases it; have commenced 
 to build tramways into the threshing floorof the new barn; while 
 clearing land benind the Beaver Meadows I glanced around me 
 and saw land stretching away acres upon acres in every direction, 
 of a dark, rich, alluvial soil over six feet dtep which only requires 
 perseverance and hard work to clear and drain it and make it 
 some of the best land in Canada, I felt that we should give our 
 farm a longer trial betore we thought of leaving it; the ground 
 is very damp, at every footstep the water oozes out of the ground- 
 Grant's steam planing mill was burnt at Aston last week. As- 
 ton has a bad reputation amongst insurance companies; at one 
 time some refused to insure buildings in it. Tom and I discussed 
 the objections and advantages of going to live near our cousins 
 at Hartford. The objections are that land is very dear and those 
 farms that can be had cheap are exhausted and worn out; labor 
 is also very dear and we would have to adopt a more expensive 
 mode of living as the farmers around there keep up a consider- 
 able amount of style; the advantages would be improved society 
 and none of the drudgery that is on a bush farm. Trade and 
 commerce in Canada have begun to revive; the Conservatives 
 say this is to be attributed to their policy of protection, the Lib- 
 erals, that it is to be attributed to good crops and the economy 
 that all classes exercised after the hard times; perhaps there is 
 some truth in both their claims. The Liberals have suffered a 
 defeat in the German Parliament; the elections in Belgium have 
 decided in favor of national education. Edgeworth, of Richford 
 came and looked over the timber on our lots; I sold him all the 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. IO5 
 
 ash timber on 400 acres and 20 cedar trees for ^§50; bought cloth 
 for a tweed suit for $d.go, hning and buttons i^i.QO, tailor for 
 making it $y, bought a pair of rubbers 60 cents. On going over 
 our accounts found that we will be $2$ short this quarter, but I 
 thmk' my uncles will say nothing as we are making great im- 
 provements; wrote this in the cars on my way to Lemington 
 Oct. 30. This is a "mixed" train travels very slowly; left Aston 
 at 1 2 o'clock; the country on each side of the track between 
 Aston and Davenport six miles is unsettled, neither is it settled 
 between it and Dudley, exceptiiig a few farm houses; the pri- 
 meval forest has been cut away and there is a second growth of 
 poplar, birch and maple. The country is flat with a few knolls 
 here and there; nearing Dudley the land improves; Dudley is 
 an luiglish village, with three churches one Roman Catholic; it 
 is not as centrally situated as Aston and has not half as much 
 tradj; Livingston the next stopping place consisted of a few 
 houses surrounded by a dense growth ofTamarac, spruce and 
 balsam, the land is level and swampy; the conductor informed 
 me as we were traveling at the rate of 25 miles an hour; passed 
 over a small river and through some railroad cuttings from5o to 85* 
 ft. deep; the country commences to be more hilly and heavily 
 wooded with clearances here and there. We are now approach- 
 ing Melford and Rawlings and are passing through fine undula- 
 ting country and pleasing scenery with fine farm houses, orchards 
 and glistening streams; the river St. David divides Milford from 
 Pawlings; there is an English college here called St David's 
 college; it has many fine residences of brick covered with slate; 
 its trade is no longer carried on in the same manner as in vil- 
 lages but everything is sold separately; has dry goods stores, 
 groceries, hardware stores and confectionaries; has a bank and 
 three churches one Roman Catholic; the river is about three 
 acres wide; changed cars here for Lemington; since 1 left Aston 
 a little snow has fallen; there are three women close to me who 
 I imagine must be walking advertisements of some manufacturer 
 of perfume; it shows very poor taste to use it to such an extent; 
 the railway track runs parallel with the river St. David; there 
 are fine groups of cattle and sheep grazing in well fenced fielas; 
 in some of the flocks there are at least 50 to 75 sheep; the 
 
 14 
 
I06 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ' 
 
 country looks charming with its hills here and there covered 
 with evergreen groves; the river is getting smaller as we go to- 
 wards its source, the current is very swift and has many pretty 
 islands in it. On approaching Waterloo the country is very pic- 
 turesque; the river is covered with foam; there is splendid water 
 power here; to my discomfort a Frenchwoman came and sat in 
 the same seat with a brawling baby in her anus. The bed of the 
 river has huge rocks in it and looks very fine with foam and 
 w^ater dashing against them; the country is getting wilder the 
 clearances smaller and it is snowing considerably; the country 
 again commences to be more cleared and numerous little streams 
 join the river. At Benton there is a huge saw mill and immense 
 piles of lumber; the banks of the river after leaving Benton are 
 covered with a second growth; it was dark when we arrived at 
 Sherman, disembarked at Lemington; got shaved and bought a 
 pair of cloth gloves for 50 cents, it was 3 miles from Lemington 
 to Hartford, I rode with a farmer as far as Hartford, walked from 
 there to the Elms ^ a mile. Fred Steele a cousin of Richard's 
 was spending the evening at the Elms, he is studying for the 
 ministry at Lemington College. Had a warm discussion with 
 Fred on ritualism in the Church of England; went to church 
 next day at Marsdon, which consists of a grist mill, store, a few 
 houses and a small Episcopal chapel also a post office; the con- 
 gregation was small and well dressed and of better appearance 
 than is usual with rnstic congregations; the clergyman preached 
 a nice evangelical sermon, but Richard says he is high church 
 at heart but is afraid of displeasing the congregation; strolled 
 over the farm after dinner, most of the soil is light and sandy 
 and about ^ of the farm is lying waste, but by fertilizers and a 
 proper rotation of crops, Richard and Clifford expect to make it 
 a beautiful and fertile farm. Read some of the standard authors 
 till a very late hour in my room. Went for a drive with Rich- 
 ard next day, many of the farms around here exhibit a want of 
 thrift; many fields covered with moss and have not been culti- 
 vated during the last 10 years, but on towards Carlton the farms 
 were better cultivated, in fact Carlton is considered one of the 
 finest farming districts in Quebec. I am reading as much as 
 possible; all the new books I find in the library. Have 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. \oy 
 
 helped Clifford to cut some driftwood on the Salmon river also 
 brushwood along the river's bank. Had a discussion with Rich- 
 ard on the system, of promotion in the English Army. I said no 
 Duke ought to be allowed, as the Duke of Cambridge, to be 
 commander-in-chief of the British Army, unless he deserved it 
 by merit. Helped them^to pull out their mangolds and turnips 
 also to thresh their grain with a mill which threshes loo bushels 
 a day; they have 80 bushels of mangolds and turnips. Went 
 for a drive with Richard, saw some fine fruit farms also passed a 
 picturesque spot, a schoolhouse surrounded by forest with a 
 fine waterfall close to it; there are very few rocks in this part of 
 the country. Richard and Clifford take 21 English and Amer- 
 icm novvs[)apers and magazines; if I had means I would take all 
 tiiL' leading newspapers and magazines of the world and purchase 
 all historiccd and scientific works and write the best history of 
 the earth ever written. It seems sad to me that some of the 
 many men of wealth and leisure do not devote' their lives to the 
 classification of literature and scientific research; sometimes my 
 heart is moved by a.nbition andl think can I not rise to a higher 
 and more useful position in the world; I have often serious 
 thoughts of entering the English Army but I know my uncles 
 would be terribly indignant. On 17th left Richard's they invited 
 me to come next summer and that we should all go on a fish- 
 ing excursion to Lake Megantic; at the station were a band of 
 college boys playing lively airs in honor of a friend of theirs 
 who was going to England to enter the English Army. On 
 reaching Rawlings went to Melford to see the Wakefields; there 
 was a small party and dancing in the evening to which a few 
 friends were invited. Daniel VV. is at a military college at Que- 
 bec. Went out riding with Winfred W. next day and although 
 I consider nyself a fair horseman this young lady almost fright- 
 ened me the way she made her horse gallop across the country, 
 over ditches and everything else that came in our way, and up 
 a precipitous rocky range of hills to a slate quarry and visited 
 some of her friends who very kindly insisted on our taking lunch 
 before leaving. The manager told me that it would take ^80 
 worth of slate to cover a barn 40 x 50 ft. Miss W. is a very 
 agreeable companion, having good conversational powers and 
 
I08 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 n ne of the disagreeable aftectation that some city ladies have. 
 While at Sherman I was greatly struck with the remarkably 
 fine water power, it has one of the finest in the province; it's 
 main street has magnificent stores that would do credit to a city 
 of 50,000 population let alone lo.oco; is a manufacturing town 
 and one of the most progressive in Canada. I am greatly sur- 
 prised at the great superiority of all the English towns compared 
 to the French. Rawlings is one of the prettiest and neatest 
 towns in the province, and has an almost wholly English pop- 
 ulation. While at Montreal I received the quarter's money 
 and read a book entitled the "British Legion in the Spanish 
 war;" both Uncle Richard and Jerrold served as surgeons in it. 
 Mr. Hayton uncle's brother-in-law, consul for three of the South 
 American Republics and Denmark; in Montreal related one 
 evening some of his adventures in the Danish war while the 
 gentleman were having their wine, but after adjourning to the 
 drawing room the conversation among the ladies was not so in- 
 teresting or useful, being composed chiefty of those "little 
 nothings" which almost universally pervades the conversation 
 of the best society; I trust however, for the interests of hun^nrly 
 that the good society of future years will not allow "society gos- 
 sip" to form the chief material of their conversation. The eldest 
 Miss Wakefield only gets ;$I4 a month for teaching 30 scholars; 
 what a shame to pay a teacher (who in a great measure forms 
 the characters of the rising generation) less than a man v.ho digs 
 ditches. The Liberal party has been overthrown, some of it's 
 members turned their political coats and deserted their party 
 like craven cowards; I am exceedingly sorry as I am confident 
 the majority of the Liberal party had the true interests of the 
 country at heart and not so many public leaches as the Conser- 
 vatives. On my return home skidded logs on an average 80 logs 
 a day with two men the oxen and myself, but the ground is very 
 rough and unfavorable; pork is very cheap $'^.']2 for 100 lbs. 
 Tom and I talked about our future plans; I advocated a pro- 
 gressive policy to put up every stitch of canvass before the breeze 
 of enterprise which would either waft us into the harbor of suc- 
 cess and wealth or into that of bankruptcy. About this time (as 
 hundreds of other young nen have done) I wrote many love 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, IO9 
 
 £o:"inets which I will, however, not inflict upon the reader. Mrs. 
 Grant and her two agreeable daughters olTered to make what- 
 ever pastry we might need for Christmas. Received a letter from 
 G. Barclay saying that Minnesota was a grand country and that 
 we ought to sell out and go there; we take Harper's Weekly 
 one of the best illustrated papers in the U. S.; Ethel received a 
 sewing machine from her father, cost $45. As we had no work 
 of our own I went to worK at Roussin's shanty for cutting 
 and skidding logs; scrambled a mile over logs and through 
 brushwood till we reached it at dawn, but found that they had 
 men enough. Have at last received Uncle Richard's approbation 
 for the sale of the cut of the timber on our lots for $500; Roussin 
 would not give any more on account of most of the timber being 
 destroyed by hre on the 400 acres. While spending an evening 
 at Meredith's Mrs. Meredith told me that two beautiful young 
 ladies were coming to visit them at Christmas and said I must 
 come and spend a few days at their house, which with thanks I 
 accepted. Received a letter from Fritz Hogarth, he is again in 
 his native land, Germany, but thinks of returning to America, 
 as the prospects cannot be very good there. "London — My 
 dear Tom and Arthur. Your dear uncle wishes me to say how 
 pleasant it was to receive your last letters and we are all very 
 glad to hear that your farming has been so successful; may God 
 bless and prosper you in all the undertakings in the approaching 
 New Year is our prayer, dear Tom and Arthur, your affectionate 
 aunt, Margaret Goldsmith." In .'i letter from Uncle J. he says, 
 "Now I look upon you two lads doing a great service to the 
 country, you are redeeming from the wilderness a great property 
 and by your efforts adding forever to the wealth of the nation 
 besides making a most honorable provision for yourselves.; every 
 stroke of work will tell to your honor and profit; talk of soldiers, 
 heroes and great generals, why the man that adds one acre of 
 land towards the everlasting support of the people, deserves more 
 honor than 100 soldiers; he kills no fellow creatures makes no 
 widows or orphans, but adds to the wealth and happiness of the 
 land he lives in; although officers are a necessity and deserve 
 some honor in their place. We have more frost with snow. 
 Your letters were only received this morning, the postmaster 
 
i lO HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 says that it takes from 12 to 14 days for a letter to reach it's des- 
 tination in Canada; your farm ought soon to begin to pay, but 
 sooner or later it is sure to do so, provided you work for your- 
 selves, but if you depend on paid labor you mu^t expect to be 
 always in difficulties, the man that depends on the labor of 
 others is in danger of debt and live a most un.satisfactoiy life; 
 labor strengthens the body and contents the mind as well as fills 
 a man's purse; this rule hold> good in everything especially 
 farming; if you are once et down as men that cannot work your- 
 selves, every, one will impose upon you. Uncle Richard has 
 made me very unhappy by telling me that your Cousin Richard 
 is in consumption; it will relieve my mind to hear about him. 
 We, like you, fear that Russia is so aggressive and treacheious 
 that we will have to thrash her which she deserves for she is a 
 cruel and diabolical power; we also expect a fresh dissolution of 
 Parliament and a fresh election; Russia hopes that the Whigs 
 vi^ho are it's friends will come into power and allow it to continue 
 it's encroachments towards India. The son of the Czar and the 
 war party at his back will find themselves mistaken, for any par- 
 ty that favored Russian aggression could not remain in 
 power in England. Your aunt is playing at the piano and sing- 
 ing that beautiful hymi "I will arise and go to my Father." We 
 have a piano also in the dining room, your aunt is so fond of 
 music and we have so many visitors. To-morrow is the Lord 
 Mayor's day; we all send our love to you and pray God to keep 
 and guard you in the ways of truth, love, peace and happiness, 
 your most affectionate uncle, J. B. Goldsmith." ''Elmbrook Dec. 
 30th. Dear uncle. Many thanks for the illustrated papers you 
 sent us. I write to you on a subject which I trust will not dis- 
 please you, that is to ask your consent to give up forming and 
 enter some military college; I have always had a wish to enter 
 the army, but when our dear mother was alive I could not think 
 of leaving her alone so that when Uncle Richard proposed to sell 
 us lots 34x35 I decided that it was the best I could do, as we 
 would be near our dear mother; after her death however I could 
 not give up farming until we had paid Uncle Richard for the lots, 
 but now that he is just paid I feel free to express to you my de- 
 sire to enter an English military college. You may no doubt 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. . lU 
 
 think it strange that I should wish to abandon farming after hav- 
 ing said so much in praise of it to you in my letters; I have 
 nothing howe/er to complain of our success smce we settled on 
 the lots, as they are worth over ^^2000 and we are almost out 
 of debt, but when I compare the society of ladies and gentleman 
 with that of the people around here i am disgusted and think 
 what is the use of living in this world without a perfect educa- 
 tion, without which the greatest happiness of man is lost, namely 
 the true enjoyment of associating in the best of society; I know 
 there are a good many disadvantages in the army, the worst of 
 which is that a person might be maimed and have to live the 
 rest of his life in a miserable and almost helpless condition; I also 
 know that the army is no place for one who is not willing to sac- 
 rifice everything for his own and his country's interests, except 
 his honor, but I will willingly undergo an/ amount of hard- 
 ship and hard study to raise myself to a useful and honorable 
 position of ind nendence; there is a military college at Quebec 
 where those th t enter have nearly all their expences paid by the 
 government, and also another at Kingston, Ontario, where the 
 cost is only nominal, I would however prefer to pass at some 
 English military college; if pleasing to you I would give Tom 
 my half of the land as he intends to continue farming; I trust 
 you will haVe the kindness to grant my request and I assure you 
 I shall do all in my power to pass a successful examination. 
 We spent Christmas sli Uncle Herberts; the snow roads are in 
 good condition but the weather is exceedingly cold as much as 
 40 degrees below zero; wishing you all many happy returns of 
 the season, with love to my aunt Rupert and yourself, I remain 
 your affectionate nephew, Arthur N. Harvey." Wrote also to 
 Uncle Richard on the same subject. Mr. and Mrs. Meredith re- 
 quest the pleasure of Mr. Thomas and Arthur Howard's com- 
 pany on Monday evening the 29th at }4 past 7 o'clock. Staney 
 Brae, Dec. 26th 1876. Went to the party with Tom; had a most 
 enjoyable time; there were about 80 people present; after dancing 
 till 12 supper was then served, consisting of two sorts of soup, 
 three sorts of meat, fowls, fish, pastry and every sort of cake im- 
 aginable, oysters, numerous sorts of fruit and nuts for dessert, 
 in fact everything that couid be desired except wines and other 
 
112 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 liquor, as Mr. Meredith is a strict teetotaler; had the .sitting room 
 and the drawing room to dance in; some of the aged lacnes and 
 gentleman played whist and conversed together. On New 
 Year's day made calls on all my Aston friends with Mrs. Will- 
 oughby, as Rev. L. C's. horse is sick; Mien called on Meredith's 
 and spent a delightful afternoon, skating on some good ice close 
 to the house, also tobogganmg and suowshoeing; towards even- 
 ing had music and smging; Mabel Willoughby and Miss Bacon 
 of Toronto, who is a charming young lady without any false pride 
 or reserve are visiting at Meredith's; aft.^r dinner a party of us 
 drove to an amateur theatrical at Pieston. Went to a church so- 
 cial next day held in the school-house, all the English families 
 contributed the necessary amount of cake, fruit refreshments etc- 
 A few days after went to a select party at Meredith's. Mave 
 had an unceasing round of festivities for the last three weeks in 
 Aston and on our range amongst the French. W hile at Uncle 
 Herbert's a few days ago they said much in disparagement of 
 this part of the country; I said bush farming is all very well in its 
 way for men that are capable of no higher occupation than that 
 of a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, but those who have 
 higher aspirations should devote their lives to higher pursuits, 
 and supposing we do spend our lives here and become wealthy 
 what advantage would it be to us, for we could not mix in good 
 society as our manners would be too coarse, for we cannot con- 
 stantly come in contact and associate with vulgar people without 
 deterioration in their manners and character; the first thing a 
 man should acquire is a good education; a man may lose every- 
 thing else by unforseen circumstances but can never be deprived 
 of a good education; the chief cause of ignorance and vulgarity 
 among formers as a class is because it is possible for him to make 
 a living without education or being a gentleman; in most other 
 professions man must of necessity have a good education and be 
 a gentleman to succeed; I said to the Goldsmith boys we can 
 trace back our noble ancestors to the time of the Crusaders, yet 
 think how low our branches of these families have fallen until 
 we are to-day little better than common laborers and with our 
 ordinary education and vulgar associations can never expect to 
 rise from this despicable condition unless we make a determined 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 113 
 
 effort to do so; we should awake to the sad reaUty '.hat we have 
 just arrived at the threshold of manhood and have scarcely ac- 
 corr>^>lishcd anything. While spending an even.ng at Meredith's 
 I was introduced to a Mr. Vansanford and his daughter he owns 
 a large farr. at Lexington, which is a fine farming country; Miss 
 V. has very interesting features, but is very delicate and as "pale 
 as a ghost." Went the same evening with a large party of As- 
 ton ladies and gentlemen to a ball at Preston; next day joined a 
 party of young ladies and gentlemen at skatmg, on Aston river; 
 in the afternoon played checkers with one of Aston's champions, 
 but lost three games out of five; was surprised at the tasty man- 
 ner in which he nad turnished his house, with articles wi.^h are very 
 rarely seen in the houses of the lower class; forgot to mention 
 that a fiiw evenings before Christmas I, with a party of young 
 gentleman brought a load of evergreens to the parsonage where 
 we, aided by a bevy of fair young ladies to make wreaths etc. to 
 decorate the church; at a concert in the Town Hall, comic songs, 
 humerous readings, duetts and songs by ladies were sung; Mr. 
 Bramult was the greatest gentleman favorite; a Miss Kate Watts 
 rjad a poem by Longfellow, entitled "Hiawatha," which was a 
 decided failure; Florence Meredith sang several songs and re- 
 ceived thunders of applause, bemg acknowledged as the general 
 favorite. G's. sent us a present of some pork, having killed two 
 pigs that weighed over 700 lbs. This is a custom among the 
 French people to send a piece of whatever animal they kill to 
 their nearest neighbors. In speaking of the best soldiers of 
 Europe I argued that French soldiers were too excitable, too 
 easily elated and depressed to be considered as the best. I gave 
 the job of making shingles to Louis Brodeur, and to do the 
 boarding and shingling of the new barn for ^40, which is very 
 cheap; we furnish the "cut" of the cedar and of course the boards 
 and nails at that price. The campaign in Zululand is over at last; 
 terrible railway catastrophe in Scotland; largest bridge in the 
 world gave way, precipitating the train into the river 90 ft. be- 
 neath; 300 lives lost. 15th Jan. 1880, lovely weather, not enough 
 snow to make good roads in the woods, where it requires more 
 snow than on the level main roads; aunt and uncle quizzed me 
 
 about Florence and Maud, told them that if lOO people were fool- 
 
 . i6 
 
I 14 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ish enourh to quiz me It would not prevent me from enjoying^ 
 their charminfT and good society, or that of any other amiable 
 young ladies I was acquainted wilh. Cliinged time with G's. to 
 help them to cut wood with their sawing machine; most of the 
 English young men here have by constant association with the 
 French deteriorated so much as to frequently use vulgar and 
 coarse language; there is one feature however I respect in the 
 English in these parts, is that they respect the presense of ladies 
 and women and never utter coarse language in their presence, 
 which is more than I can say for the French. At present Tom 
 and I are drawing lumber to the sawmill for our barn; while spen- 
 ding an evening at Andre La Rivere.s, he and his brother- in law 
 and some other men used such outrageously indecent and 
 and filthy language in the presence of his wife that even I, ac- 
 customed as 1 am to hearing such language amongst them, was 
 horrified; I would not have thought that even the lowest speci- 
 mens of humanity could utter or tolerate such language, yet this 
 woman seemed greatly amused and laughed heartily at it, yet 
 they are the most devout family of Catholics on this 
 range (12 miles long) as the reader must acknowledge when I 
 tell him that in two years they have not missed one Sunday at 
 church or failed in making their confessions and receiving ab- 
 solution, and observe all the holidays and feasts in a most rigid 
 manner, in fact they are considered by all their neighbors as the 
 most devout and pious couple that live on this nmge. Oh Ro- 
 man Catholicism ! with your teachings and discipline, cannot 
 make nobler men and women than what I have seen of your fol- 
 lowers in Quebec or read of them in Poland, Austria and Spain, 
 the boasted mfallibility of your teachings must of necessity be a 
 mere collection of fraudulent lies and the religion of the majority 
 of your followers the mere performances of rites and ceremonies, 
 in place of a beautiful and noble life which is far more pleasing 
 to God than all your hastily muttered prayers and prolonged 
 feasts. Have papered our house. "Montreal. My dear Arthur. 
 Nothing could have given me greater surprise than the receipt 
 of your letter, in fact I think of nothing else, and I hope you 
 will pardon me when I tell you that I laughed heartily when I 
 first read your sentiments on military glory, I am sure that your 
 
HliJTOKY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. II5 
 
 Uncle JciTold or any one that knows anything of mihtary life 
 will tell you that it is all a lie and in reality one of the meanest 
 professions that was ever studied, that man who can practice the 
 greatest amount of chicanery and deception, makes the best gen- 
 eral, and any honest man in the army to-day will tell you that 
 {promotion ^oc:i by fivor to-day as it always did, King William, 
 that preceded the queen, asked an old lieutenant why he was so 
 bald, because he replied "so many junior members of the pro- 
 fession are stepping over my head." A young man in the army 
 or Udvy to-day vvitliout influence or a great deal of money stands 
 a poor chance of promotun. If a man's country is in need of 
 assistance during an invasion or otherwise there are times lie 
 may bj c.iUed upon to serve, but that has never been the case 
 during your lifetime or mine; during the present time there are 
 thousands of young men that have served in the army that are 
 walking about unfit for other occupations; were I to go to-day 
 to Llie young officers in the different branches of the service, I 
 could get 10,000 from the rank of captain to ensign that would 
 be delighted to change positions with you, I could get the same 
 uainber of young men in Montreal, and many of them with good 
 salaries that v/ould be only too glad to jump at the chance you 
 want to kick from under your feet. Supposing that it were 
 possible to have a commission placed in your hand to-morrow I 
 would not advise you to accept; why did Mr. Bentley leave the 
 service; he was in the Royal Engineers, proving that he was a 
 man of brilliant abilities; it was because his father became bank- 
 rupt and he could not live on his small allowance; why did your 
 cousin Fred Sanford leave ? because his private income was not 
 sutHcient; besides at the end of the four years it would take you 
 to pass, you would be too old, as to the Canadian service, a man 
 would be foolish indeed to trust himself to their tender mercies. 
 In your letter you ask a straightforward question will I consent? 
 I say no, neither as an officer or as a private, for the simple rea- 
 son that you would soon get sick of it, and it would be exposing 
 you to many unnecessary temptations that you are now free 
 from; in your present position your regular income and your 
 prospects are excellent; if you are tired of the locality I would 
 not be opposed to your moving, but do not throw away your ad- 
 
Il6 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 vantages and the fruit of your hard work. Should you and Tom 
 think of leaving I would advise you to divide your land into 
 four lots of lOO acres each, build a cottage and plant an orchard 
 on each, and I will have no difficulty in selling them for you, but 
 this I would not do if I were in your place without your Uncle 
 Jerrold's consent, for he has both your interests at heart and 
 loves you with a father's love, had it not have been for him you 
 and I might have been in different circumstances to-day, you 
 are now following one of the most noble and honorable of all pro- 
 fessions, one that the late Prince Albert was proud to cultivate; 
 three of a gentleman's sons in Montreal are giving up their sit- 
 uations in banks and going on farms without prospects as good 
 as you have; so far as society is concerned I think you are 
 tolerably well off; there are some very nice pople in Aston, 
 Willoughby's and Meredith's; as far as the matter of education, 
 it is in your Ovvn hands, you can in your spare moments per- 
 fect yourselves in all the higher branches of education, as for your 
 manners they are more gentlemanly and graceful than those of 
 many young men who mix in the best society in Montreal; the 
 true Christian is always a gentleman and that of the purest type, 
 he has dignity and self-respect without pomposity or frivolity; 
 he has natural ease which always gives natural grace; as to your 
 future prospects socially, I think they are very good; then you 
 can get your farm improved and a new house built, I can intro- 
 duce you to good society where you can choose a nice wife with 
 a little money, that will be always useful on a large estate like 
 yours; the iact is Tom and you have been working too hard and 
 living too economical and you have got downhearted, but you 
 must shake off this fit of the blues and take a brighter view of 
 things, and in due time with God's aid and blessing all will be 
 well. Your Aunt Mabel and Flora unite in love; I forgot to say 
 that Flora's husband he.s been ordered to Michigan by the rail- 
 way authorities, and although his salary as manager there will be 
 greatly increased we shall feel lonely at their departure. 
 Your loving uncle, R. J. Goldsmith." Richard Bacon who is 
 studying for the ministry says, I ought to study for law. Daniel 
 C. has gone to live in Montreal; he has taken a photo of his dear 
 Alphosine with him and kissed her before a crowd of amused 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. II7 
 
 spectators on the railway platform before leaving, telling her to 
 remain "tonjours fidele," Received a terribly indignant letter 
 from Uncle Jcrrold which has been mislaid; the next one was as 
 follows. "My dear nephews. I have been sorry for feeling an- 
 gry with Arthur, although my feelings of anger arose from my 
 love for you; for through my long life of experience I have al- 
 ways found that the man who cries for the moon is the most 
 intolerable; he is always a nuisance to himself and his friends; 
 I mean such a one as always thinks of doing impossibilities and 
 never sticks to one thing. It is generally caused by vanity and 
 an idle roving disposition; fellows who can do nothing always 
 tries to do everything and nothing cures them. And finding 
 dear Arthur before he has perfected his education writing to the 
 public papers I feared he was wasting his strength by trying to 
 jump to the top of the house instead of beginning at the foot of 
 the stairs, thousands of such men are about here every day in 
 rags and starvation. To be truly great is to do the work before 
 you; to be good is to love God and your neighbors and be con- 
 tented. To be safe it to Iiave an unwavering faith in Christ. 
 Mistaken ambition and misapplied energy has been the ruin of 
 half the world; so I beseech you my dear boys to beware of cry- 
 ing for the moon like senseless children, and if you should take 
 it into your heads to do anything great or glorious try the first 
 steps of the ladder or you will be sure to fall never to rise again, 
 which God forbid. The ground here is covered with snow and 
 we suffer a great deal more from cold in England than you do 
 because we are not provided against it; our stoves and fireplaces 
 are all small; Rupert is on a visit at Wissenden Hill, Trow- 
 bridge Wells, Kent. I shall be glad to get letters from you 
 about your farms and all the news, your Aunt Margaret likes to 
 have me read them to her; and I like them too for they are good 
 clever letters and most interesting to us; your aunt unites with 
 me in kindest love to all; and always believe me your sincere 
 friend and loving uncle, Jerrold Goldsmith." Notwithstanding 
 these good kind letters I cannot, and will not give up my pro^ 
 ject, not at least until I have positive proof that it is utterly un- 
 feasible, 5o I have written at greater length to both my uncles, 
 and to the colleges at Quebec — West Point and Kingston. Jan. 
 
1 l8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 I4tli. "My dear Arthur. Doherty called and paid the balance, 
 which leaves a bill due by you on your lots of $130. I was 
 amused at your ide^s of the requisites to get on in the army, if 
 you suppose that the best men are promoted or that promotion 
 goes by merit you never made a greater mist£d\e in your life; 
 why is the Duke of Cambridge the commander- in chief of the 
 British army. Lord Chelmsford sent to South Africa, or even 
 why did the Iron Duke get command of the army in Portugal, 
 because the Marquis of Wellsley was hi) brother and had a seat 
 in the House of Peers. There are very few persons by force of 
 character get on in England, P" ranee or the United States; nor 
 you cannot name a single man that has got on in modern times 
 in the United States or P"* ranee that has not been educated at 
 West Point or the PIcole Polytechnic. During Napoleon's time 
 it was different, yet f;ven he had a first class military education, 
 was trained *'to arms" from his earliest bovhood, and in his first 
 career was backed up by Madame De Stael and soii">e of the first 
 women of the P2mpire; it is true he had the genius 10 take ad- 
 vantage of the situations; he took the tide at the flood and led 
 on to fortune. How many millions have perished under hun 
 whose history is unknown, who probably may have been more 
 worthy in ever/ respect. Lord Chelmsford acknowledging his 
 incompetentency in the Zulu war has, or is about to have, a 
 command given him over the heads of other men, but in your 
 case it is entirely out of the question, you would be too old as I 
 have said before, at the expiration of the four years study; I think, 
 18 is the age, and for the whole of Canada the ]3ritish Govern- 
 ment only gives four appointments each year; one for the engin- 
 eers, one for the cavaliy and one for infantry; this according to 
 merit out of 300 or 400 applicants. We are all well here; I hope 
 to see you in P'ebruary; I am glad you have made the house so 
 comfortable; I trust you have raised sufficient wheat and vege'.a- 
 bles for yourselves; your aunt has a splendid receipt for curing 
 meat. I suppose you heard of the death of the wife of your uncL' 
 Dr.. Goldsmith in Ireland. With love to Tom believe me to 
 remain your affectionate unc'e, R. I. Goldsmith." Carmicheal's 
 have allowed lumbermen to live in the English school house but 
 have told them they cannot stay there unless they pay a suttlcient 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. II9 
 
 sum to have it insured in case it was burnt throufjh c-irelessness. 
 Father, one evening I was going to Aston, quizzed me about 
 Florence, which I told him was a very ungentlemanly and a low, 
 mean habit, that for my part I did not care, but that idle rumor 
 might reach her cars and cause her pain, for ladies are more 
 sensitive than gentlemen; also that no true gentleman should 
 use language that might possibly hurt a lady's feelings; that it 
 was riglit that young gentleman should take pleasure in the so- 
 ciety of young ladies apart from any motive of love, for that 
 gentle and graceful manners refine and add grace to the harsh- 
 er and rougher manners of young men. Alas ! why promise, 
 strive and hope, and still go on from bad to worse; unhappy is 
 the wretched man that cannot guide himself aright, but slowly 
 drifts on rocks and strands; truly his is a wrecked and ignoble 
 life. Skidded logs for J. Murphy with our oxen; he has taken a 
 large contract from the proprietor of a steam saw mill at Rich- 
 ford. Tom is drawing ties by the 100 and I am chopping cord- 
 wood; went to several church socials where the refreshments 
 consist of cake and coffee; the ladies chiefly favor the company 
 with singing and music, the gentlemen by humorous readings 
 and recitations. Have lately got a boy from Norfolk Distrib- 
 uting Home. Sold Guertin some Elm trees at 40 cents a tree. 
 Herbert C is in love with Margaret Guernsey; told me he pre- 
 fers her to Cousin Ethel for the latter is too "stuck up;" perhaps 
 the reason he thinks so is because she will not tolerate his vul- 
 garity. Houde's eldest son has been married. Daniel C. was 
 "garcon de honeur" with Alphosine as "fiUe de honeur;" at the 
 festivities in the evening one of the women guests was so over- 
 come with intoxicants that she had to be carried out of the room 
 where the dancing was going on; in justice however I must say 
 that such cases are not numerous among the French I have 
 associated with; a French club has been started, it has a very 
 fine building with reading room, billiard room and private rooms 
 for meetings, some of its not active members arc English, but I 
 think it shows very little spirit on their part to submit the list 
 of books they intend to purchase, to the parish priest for his 
 approval before buying them, yet of course they are not so much 
 to blame; for a literary society started in an adjoining village 
 
I20 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 met its death through not submittinjj to the dictation of the 
 priest, for they bouglrt some works of an infidel tendency ind 
 were ordered to remove them from their hbrary which much to 
 their cre^'it they refused to do, the priest however was not to be de- 
 feated and in the parish church next Sunday advised all young 
 men that were good Catholics to have nothmg more to do with 
 an association that kept in their library books that ridiculed the 
 doctrines of their "holy church" the consequence was, the ranks 
 of the association was daily thinned by deserters, but of course 
 the poor fellows cannot be blamed so much, for any young man 
 who should boldly stand up in defiance of the "Holy priesthood" 
 would suddenly be brought to his knees in penitent iiumiliation; 
 by first refusing to him the '"Holy Sacrament" for any man 
 incurring this penality is looked upon as worse than the vilest 
 criminal, and is immediately shunned with holy horror by all 
 his countrymen, the reader must acknowledge that the average 
 man has not the moral courage to sacrifice on the altar of 
 truth, the fellowship c.nd respect of all his nearest and dearest 
 friends, and place himself in the cruel position of being in the 
 condition of an exile in his native land; there were however a 
 few noble spirits in the association who preferred liberty to any- 
 thing else, but I am sorry to say they might almost as well 
 have tried to kick against an iron wall as against the priesthood;, 
 for they had to suffer that quiet form of persecution tnat is al- 
 most equivalent to that of former ages. I was myself personal- 
 ly acquainted with one of them, a very moral and intelligent 
 young man who kept the best store in the village; but from that 
 day that he was man enough to claim for himself the God-given 
 privilege of liberty, his custom gradually dwindled away and 
 I he young lady to whom he was engaged turned him from her 
 fuher's house; he was truly an exile in his own country, and 
 shunned and despised by the friends and playmates of his child- 
 hood; with a burning contempt and hate for such a religion he 
 came to the United States, a land of liberty and progress, even 
 though freethinkers and heretics are so numurojs in it. 13th of 
 Feb. If this snow continues it will put an end to sleighing. 
 On Sunday the two Miss Guernsey's visited us; their style of 
 conversation was something like this — I like them style of cups 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 12 1 
 
 I aint going to; you dont say ! well I declare; dear me; did you 
 ever ? this tea is awful strong; oh my ! well well ! and their 
 laugh was like the report of a Woolich infant; of course I like 
 to hear ladies laugh when it is like the music of a silver bell; 
 but harsh discordant giggling laughter is disagreeable even in 
 the most beautiful of women. Have read Rokeby, one of Sir 
 W. Scotts poems which Florence advised me to read, it is her 
 favorite. Three Irish Canadian feminine friends visited us from 
 Richford, the wife of a tavern keeper and her two daughters, so 
 highly perfumed that it pervaded the whole atmosphere of the 
 parlor, after they had been within it for a few moments; but one 
 cannot approach within lo ft of the mother without smelling an 
 abominable odor of gin, the poor woman is a hard drinker, but 
 is nevertheless endowed with one of the warmest Irish hearts I 
 ever met. I merely mention this to show that no man who truly 
 loves the honor of his family or the interests of humanity, should 
 engage in this traffic of selling slow poison to his fellowmen; it 
 also reminds me of a striking imaginary comparison my father 
 made of it, that 'all spirituous liquor was the blood of the devil." 
 Received numerous valentines, some very flattering and nice, 
 and some very disagreeaple ones. I often spend an evening 
 with Mr. Mc Dougall at Checkers, was introduced to his daugh- 
 ter who is on a visit there; and had "an evening at cards." She 
 is a very affable and agreeable young lady; father has been ad- 
 vising me not Lo try and enter the army, but to study for law. 
 We have some trouble in driving one of our young horses with 
 an older one; have to equalize their strength by shortening the 
 Whipple tree on the oldest horses side. Uncle Herbert asked me 
 in a contemptuous sort of a way what young ladies I would go 
 to see now that the Miss Meredith's had gone to college; I felt 
 like telling him it was none of his business, but this would never 
 do, for greyjiairs must and ought to be respected even if they do 
 grow on the heads of clowns and donkeys. The Socialists have 
 made an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Czar of Russia. 
 Have borrowed books from father on chemistry, practical geo- 
 desy, trigonometrical surveying, geometry, mensuration, and 
 other books pertaining to the profession of civil engineer, am 
 also taking lessons in French and of late have made it a practice 
 
 16 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 to read only French newsphpers which is a moans of perfecting 
 my knoA^ledge of their language; had a conversation with father 
 on the cruel harshness of the christian society of the present day 
 in keeping true and good men and women out of its select circles 
 because of a slight difference in their social standing, that I 
 hoped to see the day when the leading spirits ot the best of so 
 ciety will say to all good men and women our circle is open to 
 all gentlemen and ladies who have- cultivated manners and are 
 good men and women, and we will not exclude you even though 
 you cannot afford diamon^'ls :md costly silk; how many noble 
 and elegant ladies are duv^.i to despair and ruin tlirough 
 being shunned by their former christian friends, after the un- 
 avoidable bankruptcy of their husbands or fathers; is it not the 
 place of their wealthy lady friends to come to them and say, we 
 insist upon your still moving and associating in our circle of 
 friends, even if you come in the plainest' and coarsest of apparel, 
 for although we admire and appreciate beautiful and costly ap- 
 parel o'jr greatest admiration, love and respect is reserved for the 
 grand and God-like attributes with which the characters of every 
 good man and woman are endowed, and would it not be the 
 duty of these ladies the victims of some unavoidable calamity to 
 have the moral courage to wear only that style of apparel suited 
 to their reduced means and lAso to associate with as much ease 
 and grace among their richer friends as formerly; and the duty 
 of all gentleman to be as gracious to the poor lady as to the 
 richer one, to show all men that they have greater admiration 
 for true worth of character than for costly dianjonds or 
 silks or satins. It is an outrage to the better sentiments of 
 mankind and contrary to the beautiful maxims and precepts of 
 Christ; for the christian society of the present day tolerate in its 
 midst vulgar and unprincipled men and women who have risen 
 to ignoble wealth through defrauding their fellow men, and yet 
 at the same time refuse admittance to the honorable men and 
 women of the poorer classes, but I must not omit mentioning 
 one of their most cruel and unjust rules, that of '"visiting the sins 
 of the father" on his innocent offspring, for instance, the children 
 of gamblers; uvindlers, drunkards etc. are not tolerated in the 
 society of the children of the better classes, good society has no 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 123 
 
 plac. jr them, they must either have no society at all or mix 
 with the vilest of the vile, this is a cruel injustice, for in many 
 instances the innocent wife and children of such villians love and 
 admire what is good and true, and the cliildren would become 
 noble and useful members of society if the christian society of 
 the present day were not so int(;lerant and cruelly select; why 
 should the host and hostess of that ciiristian mansion that is to 
 be the scene of a delightful party to-night, in sending out their 
 invitations, pass over the names of the wife and children of a no- 
 torious drunkard and gambler, who live but y^ a block away 
 and who is nobly doing her utmost to educate her children to 
 become useful and honorable members of society; would it not 
 be far more God-like to receive them occasionally with a hearty 
 welcome to their stately christian homes, and show the poor 
 children of th.it gambler the beautiful fruits of industry and vir- 
 tue, and would It not be more Christ like for them to say to 
 iheir children, whenever you meet the children of that gambler, 
 our neighbor, be just as polite and. gracious to tiiem as if they 
 were the children of the greatest gentleman '\n this city; 
 they are trying to be good and true men and women ,and 
 It IS your duty with your greater advantages to do all in 
 your power to help them you must exert to the utmost 
 all your influence to make them become refined ladies 
 and gentlemen by gently reproving and teaching them the 
 usages of the best society, and make it your duty to give them 
 your perfections without acquiring any of their imperfections; 
 would not mankind generally be much nobler and happier from 
 such a course of instruction than from that which 
 most Christians give their children of the present day, viz: "My 
 dear children yt^u must not speak to the children of that low, 
 depraved gambler." Thus the followers of the meek and lowly 
 Jesus build up an almost insurmountable wall between what is 
 good and true and what is wicked and depraved and because 
 poor innocent litde children are born on the wrong side of that 
 wall, they (instead of doing all in their power to aid the poor 
 little innocents to cross over it) by their inhuman indifference 
 and pride keep millions of their fellow creatures on the wrong 
 side. Truly their Christianity must be with the majority of them 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 almost a dead letter when "Christ's head of the church" would 
 bles«5 cruel Phihp of Spain and persecute noble. Gallieo; or when 
 the enlightened Protestants would bow humbly to such as the 
 Duchess of Hamilton and pass without notice the virtuous and 
 good women of an humbler position in life; or Christ's so called 
 priesthood bless such a woman as the degraded Isabella of Spain 
 and burn to death such a glorious woman as Joan of Arc. 
 Father, however, only partially agreed with me; said that some 
 unfortunate beings were judged too harshly by society, who 
 does not always take into consideration that many children are 
 led astray by evil associations as well as inheriting very often 
 the failings of their parents, ist March; the snow is nearly all 
 gone. While at Merediths, Mrs. M's. mother came into the 
 room to get the Orange Sentijiel, an Orangeman publication, 
 published in Ontario; she spoke to me as follows. "Oh, how 
 har you, Mishter Howard. Shure its a long time since I saw 
 you. What splindid weather this is." I saw plainly that 
 Nicholas was on thorns, and he cut her conversation short by 
 asking her to have the kindness to leave us alone as we were 
 about to play a game of chess. There are few families in the 
 world that have not a skeleton in the closet. Nicholas since he 
 has been to college is not so choice in his language and must 
 have met some wild young felldws there; he is, however, I am 
 glad to say, a model of politeness before his mother and sisters; 
 in my opinion he is too much petted by his mother. Read 
 "Handy Andy," one of the most laughable books I ever read. 
 5th March; inquired the price of steers i year old, for Richard's 
 farm; they ranged from $Z to $\2. 8th of March; was very 
 warm and close the first part of the night, froze towards morn- 
 ing and commenced to snow this forenoon. The inhabitants 
 have commenced to tap their sugar bushes. Received an 
 answer from the Secretary of War of the U. S. saying that there 
 would be no vacancies for foreign appointments till 1882, so 
 that destroys all prospects of my entering West Point. I had 
 written to that college and received a prospectus. If I am too 
 old to enter the Canadian or English colleges, I shall have to 
 abandon the idea. Father has had only 6 bushel of wheat from 
 3 sown; this sort of farming does not pay. The following: con- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 12$ 
 
 versation occurred between Tom and a Frenchman in the 
 dining-room while I am writing this, so I record some of the 
 Frenchman's remarks: "This is cold weather for boots like 
 mine. I just called in to light my pipe. My feet are nearly 
 frozen, the d — d shoemaker made my boots too tight; I should 
 have moccasins. I do not like Canadian tobacco. I am glad 
 1 am finished swamping rails, for it is d — d mean work; I came 
 near gettinq; my horses' legs broke amongst the roots and rocks; 
 some of the rails I had to draw on my back as far as ^ of an 
 acre. You'll have more timber than you need for your barn 
 from 390 logs. I have sold my rails to Frechette for ^4.50 a 
 hundred, he ships them to the old parishes where he gets a big 
 price, he also ships squared timber for the frames of barns and 
 houses. While at Houdes the other evening, Alphosine acci- 
 dently tread on her brother's toe and he made a most disgust- 
 ingly vile remark. Extract from a letter to Uncle Jerrold: **A 
 man requires the society of gentlemen and lady friends to be a 
 perfect gentleman, education alone is not sufficient; even sup- 
 posing I had a perfect education, I could not pass my life 
 among the vulgar people that surround us without contracting 
 some of their vulgar habits aud ungramatical language. Every 
 day of our lives we hear vile and degrading language and the 
 most gross breaches of the usages of the best society of the 
 present day. Now if I was a man with a will of iron, muscles of 
 steel and the heart of a diamond, I might not be influenced by 
 such associations, but no ordinary man situated as we are could 
 pass his life among such associations without undergoing a 
 terrible deterioration. Recived a letter from Uncle Jerrold, in 
 which he said I was jackenapes and that some of my ideas were 
 diabolical. According to newspapers the Nihilists of Russia aim 
 at the overthrow of religion as well as that of the Emperor. 
 Received an answer from my letter to Woolich. "Horse 
 Guards War Office. Sir: I am directed by the Field Marshal, 
 Commander-in chief, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 
 of the 2 1st ultimo, addressed to the Governor of the Royal 
 Military Academy, and acquaint you in reply that a British 
 Canadian is eligible for admission to the British Army. The 
 regulations for admission to the Royal Military College and the 
 
126 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Royal Military Academy are enclosed and will give you all the 
 iniformation you require. I am to add that the pay of a 2nd 
 Lieut, in the infantry is 5 s. 3 d. per day. I am, sir, your 
 obedient .servant, J. N. A. Dillion." General Regulations for 
 the Government of the Royal Military Academy at Woolich : 
 The Royal Military Academy is maintained for the purpose of 
 affording a preparatory education to candidates for the Royal 
 Artillery and Royal Engineers. This education will be chiefly 
 technical and will in no obligatory subject be carried beyond the 
 point useful to both corps alike. Regulations for admission, &c.: 
 Admission to the Royal Military Academy as cadets Avili be 
 granted to the successful candidates at an open competitive 
 examination. The examinations will be conducted by the Civil 
 Service Commissioners, and will be held twice a year, namely, 
 in Dec. and July. Notice will be given from time to time of the 
 day and place of examinations and for the vacancies to be com- 
 peted for at each examination. The limits of age will be from 
 16 to 18; the candidates being required to be within these limits 
 on the first day of Jan. next, following the winter examination; 
 and on the ist of July for the summer examination. The can 
 didates for admission to the Dec. or July examination must send 
 to the military secretary, and later than the 15th of Oct. or 15th 
 of May respectively an application, to be accompanied by the 
 following papers: {a.) An extract from the register of his birth, 
 or in default, a declaration made by one of his parents or guar- 
 dians before a magistrate, giving his exact age; (/;.) A certificate 
 of good moral character, signed by one of his tutors, or the heads 
 of the schools and colleges where he has been, and at which he 
 received his education from his 12th year to the date of appli- 
 cation, or some other satisfactory proof of his good moral char- 
 acter. The number of trials will not exceed three. All candi- 
 dates will be inspected by the Medical board, and no candidate 
 will be allowed to proceed to examination by the commissioners 
 unless certified by the board to be free from bodily defects ail- 
 ments, and in all respects as to height and physical qualities, 
 fit for Her Majesty's service. Cases of exceptional short- 
 ness will be refered to the War Office for special con - 
 sideration. Candidates will be required to satisfy the 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 12/ 
 
 coniiiiissloncrs in the followinfj ^subjects: (ist.) Mathematics, 
 viz: (a) Arithmatic and the use of common logarithms; (d.) 
 Algebra, including equations, progressions, permutations, 
 and combinations and the binomial therein; (c.) Geometry up to 
 the standard of the 6th book of Kuclid; (//) Plane Trigonometry 
 including the solution of triangles; 2nd. French, German or 
 some other modern language the examination being limited to 
 translation from the language and gramatical questions; 3rd. 
 Writing English correctly in a good legible hand froni dictation 
 and English composition; 4th. Ihe elements of Geometrical 
 drawing, including the construction of plane scales and the use 
 of simple mathematical instruments; 5th. Geography; a thorough 
 knowledge of each of the four branches of Mathematics will be 
 required. The commissioners may, however, if they think fit, 
 dis[)cnse with this preliminary examination except as regards 
 Mathematics. English composition and Geometrical drawing in 
 case of my candidate who has satisfied them on a previous oc- 
 casion. No marks will be allowed for the above preliminary ex- 
 amination excepting for Mathemetics (2,000); for English com- 
 position, (500) and for Geometrical drawing, (300). The future 
 examination will be proceeded with immediately on conclusion 
 of the preliminary examination. Candidates who fail in their 
 preliminary examination will be informed of their failure as soon 
 as possible and they will be released from further attendance. 
 The subjects of the further examination and the maximum num- 
 ber of marks obtainable for each subject will be as follows: ist. 
 Mathametics, viz: Further questions and problems on the subjects 
 of the qualifying examination and the elements of the following 
 subjects: Theory of Equations, Analytical Geometry, Conic Sec- 
 tions, Solid Geometry, Differential and Integral Calculus, Statics 
 and Dyn unics. N. B. In all subjects great importance will be 
 attached to accuracy in numerial results; 2d. English and Eng- 
 lish literature, limited to specified authors and English history 
 limited to fixed periods being notified before hand (2.000) num- 
 bers required in Mathematics, (2,000) in English; 3rd. Classics, 
 viz: Latin or French, a candidate will not be allowed to take up 
 both, (2,oco) marks in each of these; 4th. French, the examina- 
 tion to be partly colloquial, (2,000); 5th. German, the examination 
 
128 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 to be partly colloquial, (2,000); 6th. Italian, Russian, Spanish or 
 Hindoostan, either of these at option, the examination to be 
 partly colloquial; 7th. Experamental science, viz: {a.) Chemistry 
 and heat or (/\) Electricity and magnetism, (2,000) marks in 
 these as well as the optional languages; 8th. General and Phys- 
 ical Geography and Geology, (2,000); 9th. Drawing free hand. 
 A certain number will be deducted from the marks gained by 
 the candidate in the preliminary examination in Mathematics, 
 English composition and Geometrical drawing. The resulting 
 total will determine the candidate's place in the competitive list. 
 The successful candidates being those who stand first on the list 
 up to the number of vacancies competed for. Optional subjects 
 in Mathematics. Detailed syllabus. Further questions and 
 problems on the subjects of the qualifying examination. Theory 
 of equations, first principals witn easy exercises. Analytical 
 Geometry; problems on straight line and circle Conic Sections; 
 Elementray properties with easy problems, both on Analytical 
 and Geometrical methods; Differential Calculus, Differentiation 
 of functions of one independent variable; Taylor's and McLen- 
 rin's theorens, applications; Maxima and Minima ot Functions 
 of one independent variable; method of Infintesmals, first princi- 
 ples with easy applications; tangents and normals to curves; 
 involutes and envolutes; Integral calculus; Elementray integra- 
 tions; intregation considered as summation; rectification and 
 quadrature of plane curves Statics; equilibrium of forced and 
 comples in one plane; friction, center of gravity; mechanical 
 powers; problems on Elementary Statics; the Graphical or Geo- 
 metrical method of treating such problems should be studied as 
 well as the Analytical to applications of the differental calculeus 
 will be required; Dynamics, Elementray principals projecticals; 
 motion of a heavy particle on a smooth curve; centrifugal 
 force; simple pendulum, problems and exercises. No applica- 
 citionsofthe differential calculus will be required. Terms of 
 payment for cadets at the Royal Military Academy are regulated 
 by the following articles of Her Majesty's warrant of Dec, 1870. 
 for the pay and promotion of the army. The payment on behalf 
 of a cadet is as follows: for the son of an officer in the army or 
 navy, who has died in the seivice, and whose family is lett in 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I29 
 
 pecuniary distress subject to the approval of our Secietary of 
 State, ^20, and so on in proportion up to i^8o; for the son of 
 an admiral, or of a general officer who is colonel of a regiment, 
 or in receipt of Indian Colonel's allowances, ;i^ 80 a yr; the son 
 of a private, ;^I25; the pay of a cadet is 35 per day, it is assured 
 to cover the expenses of regimental clothing, messing, washing 
 and other contingencies; all other necessary expenses of this 
 nature as well as weekly pocket money, postage of letters, boot- 
 makers and tailor's bills for repairs etc.; which cannot be covered 
 by his pay, shall be chargable to his parents or guardian in ad- 
 dition to the regulated contribution, a sum of ;^25, to cover ex- 
 penses of uniform, books etc., and bring with him all the articles 
 of clothing of which he shall receive notice, and which afterwards 
 mu'jt be kept up at his expense. He shall also be required to 
 pay the regulated contribution in advance for each half year he 
 remains under instruction, and a deposit of ;^5 for contingent 
 expenses. The Field Marshall, Commanding in chief will be the 
 president of the Academy. The Academy will be under the 
 control of a governor appointed by and responsible to the Sec- 
 retary of State for war through the Field Marshall, Commanding- 
 in-chief. The organization will be on a military basis; cadets 
 will form one company mnder a Captain assisted by 4 Lieut, 
 charged with the disciplineant of studies and the drill, one of 
 whom will be Adjutant and Quarter mastei. The professors 
 and instructors may either be military men or civilians; they will 
 have limited power of punishment, within and without the halls, 
 at the discretion of the Governor, to whom they will report all 
 punishments they may inflict. The Chaplain will be specially 
 appointed by the Secretary of State and will give instructions in 
 classics. No professor will be allowed to give private instruction 
 to a cadet at any time to prepare candidates for admission into 
 the Academy; the Governor will have absolute power of rusti- 
 cation and removal, and also of sentencing a cadet for misconduct, 
 to lose places in the list of'successful candidates for commissions; 
 when expulsion is necessary the case will be referred to the Sec- 
 retary of State through the Field Marshall Commanding-in-chief; 
 the name of such cadet will be made known to the First Lord of 
 the Admiralty, and to the Secretary of State for India, to prevent 
 
 17 
 
) 30 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 his being admitted into other branches of Her MajcJty's service 
 course of instruction will be 2^ yrs.; if any student fails to come 
 up to the required standard of 2 examinations or be found un- 
 able to qualify in his studies fo** a commission within 3 yrs., to 
 be counted from the comnenccment of the first term he joins, or 
 to acquire a sufficient proficiency in military exercises he will 
 be removed: no extension of the period of three yrs. will be 
 granted from any cause except illness; the following subjects will 
 form the course of obligatory studies; first mathematics, includ- 
 ing a thorough knowledge of plain trigonmetry, practical mechan- 
 ics with the application of machinery; 2nd fortification field and 
 permanent, such a course as is suitable to cadets, qualifying for 
 the artillery and the requisite amt of geometrical drawing; 3rd, 
 artillery, such a course as is suitable for cadets qualifying for 
 engineers; 4th military drawings with field stretchings and rccon- 
 noissance; 5th military history and geography; 6th French or 
 German at the students choice; 7th chemistry and physics; 8th 
 drills and exercise; in addition to this, students will be allowed 
 to take up certain voluntary subjects; no obligatory suhj ct shall 
 gain cadet ranks unless he obtain a minimum of i half marks in 
 it; no cadet will be insured a commission unless he qualify by 
 obtaining at least i half marks in obligatory course in mathe- 
 matics, mechanics, fortifications and artillery, and i half of the 
 total aggregate of the marks alloted to all. the obligatory sub- 
 jects; no voluntary subjects shall gain a cadet any marks unless 
 he obtain a minimum of at least ^ of the marks, assigned to 
 that portion of it in which he is examined; the marks gained in 
 the voluntary subjects will be added to those obtained in the ob- 
 ligatory subjects, to make a second total according to the 
 which cadets shall be finally placed. The Academy has 19 Pro- 
 fessors; the Governor has ^1500 a yr. inclusive of all allowances 
 except quarters, in addition to his unattached pay as general 
 officer. Sec. Treasurer ;^400 Capt. of Co. 12s. and regimental 
 pay, also forage for one horse, quarters, fuel and light, and 2 
 soldier servants; Lieut's 4^. Highest pay of Professors, £$5^ 
 lowest ;^3 50; a cadet is removed from the Academy for moral 
 or physical unfitness. Copy of a letter sent to Uncle Richard. 
 Feb. 3rd., "My dear uncle, I reed, your letter yesterday and 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I3I 
 
 was sorry to hear of Uncle Timothy's v.ife's death, also that 
 Richard's cough is worse, was pleased to hear that we may ex- 
 pect a visit from you shortly, please send postal card a few days 
 before and either Tom or I will meet you at the depot; you 
 name the Duke of Cambridge as a proof that promotion in the 
 Knglish army is by influence and not by merit, and certainly it 
 is a very strong proof, as he never gained the position he now 
 holds by rendering any service to his country, but only through 
 influence, but then we should remember his position is only 
 nominal for he has never seen active service, and were a great 
 war to break out and threaten England and her colonies, be would 
 not have the ability or experience to guide the movements of 
 the army, and some other general better suited would be chosen; 
 some time ago when there was danger of war between Elngland 
 and Russia, it was not the Duke who was to have command of 
 the forces, but Sir W. Napier, and supposing there had been a 
 war and any vtctories had been gained, it would not have been 
 the Duke but Napier that would have had the honor of them; 
 England in time of war must of necessity only regard true merit 
 in preferance to any influence; Nelson, one of England's great- 
 est heroes had to struggle for a long time without the aid of in- 
 fluence, but his courage and ability triumphed overall; the Duke 
 of Wellington may have gained some advantages through the 
 influence of Lord Welsley, but if he had not possessed ability 
 and merit, the appointment would have only been a disgrace 
 instead of an honor to his name, therefore, influence without 
 merit is far inferior to merit without influence; if a man through 
 ambition cultivates whatever abilities he has he will quickly find 
 friends who will lend him their influence, but as you say, the 
 first thing a young man should do is to educate himself; as the 
 age in the U. S. is from 17 to 22, I am certain I can by a little 
 hard study, fit myself to pass the primary examination, and if 
 you and Uncle John will have the kindness to consent I shall 
 go immediately to the U. S.; become a citizen and by a little 
 skillful manoevoring get appointed by one of the members of 
 Congress in some of the States; I know well that no man can 
 succeed who has not a fixed purpose in life, but would make 
 this mine and would spare no effort to make it a success; I hope 
 
132 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 you will pardon my alluding to the subject again aftar your 2 
 refusals, but I still hope you may yet consent, when you see 
 how dear the object is to us; I have received prospectuses from 
 Kingston, West Point and Woolwich military colleges; at West 
 Point the age is from 17 to 22, which puts it within my reach; 
 the cadet receives 1^540 a year, commencing when he enters the 
 college and which is ample to pay all expenses; hoping soon 
 to hear from you, I remain your affectionate nephew, A. N. How- 
 ard." When I wrote to the President of the United States I 
 forwarded him the following letters, but i have already men- 
 tioned of the answer I received. I was informed that there 
 would not be any vacancies for foreign appointments before '82 
 and that placed all hopes in that direction out of the question. 
 Head Quarters; Newburg, 23rd June 1883. Sir; I was yester- 
 day favored with your letter of the i2th of February, and this 
 day I transmitted the papers which accompanied it to the Pres- 
 ident of Congress with a letter of which the enclosed is 
 a copy. Your early attachment to the cause of this 
 country and your exertions in relieving the distresses of 
 our fellow citizens as were so unfortunate as to be 
 prisoners in Ireland, claim the regard of every American and 
 will always entitle you to my particular esteem. I shall always 
 be happy in rendering you every service in my power. Being 
 with great truth, sir, j'our very obedient servant, George 
 Washington." Mr. Reuben Howard. Headquarters, Newburg, 
 23rd June, 1783. Sir: I do myself the honor to transmit to 
 your Excellency, a copy of a letter I have received from Mr. 
 Reuben Howard of Cork, Ireland, and sundry papers which 
 accompanied it. The early part this gentleman appears to have 
 taken in the cause of this country, and his exertions in relieving 
 the distresses of such of our fellow-citizens whom chance of war 
 threw into the hands of the enemy, entitle him to the esteem of 
 every American, and will doubtless have due weight in recom- 
 mending him to the notice of Congress. I have the honor to 
 be &c. G. Washington. His Excellency, the President of Con- 
 gress. By the United States Congress, assembled July 18, 1783. 
 On report of a committee to whom was referred a letter of the 
 23d of June, from the Commander-in-chief, enclosing the copy 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. Ij^ 
 
 of a letter from Mr. Reuben Howard, merchant, in Cork in the 
 Kingdom of Ireland, and other papers. Resolved, That the 
 Commander in-chief be requested to transmit the thanks of 
 Congress to Mr. Reuben Howard, and express the just sense 
 Congress entertain of the services he has rendered during the 
 late war to American prisoners. Chas. Thomson, Secretary. 
 Sir: I am honcM'ed with the care of transmitting to you the en- 
 closed Resolution of Congress, expressing the sense that 
 August Body entertain of your goodnesss to American prison- 
 ers. Impressed as I am with sentiments of gratitude to you 
 for this expression of your benevolence. I feel a very particular 
 gratification in conveying to you the thanks of the Soverign 
 Power of the United States of America, on an occasion which, 
 while it does honor to humanity, stamps a mark of particular 
 distinction on you. Wishing you the enjoyment of health with 
 every attendant blessing, I beg to be persuaded that I am, 
 with every particular respect and regard, sir, your most obedient 
 servant, G. Washington. Mount Vernon, August. 1784. Sir: 
 Capt. Stickney has presented me with your favor of the 25th of 
 May, together with the mess beef and ox tongues, for which you 
 will please accept my best thanks, I don't grow tobacco, nor 
 am I possessed of a lb. at this time, otherwise I would have the 
 pleasure of consigning a few hhds. to your address, under full 
 persuasion that no person would do me greater justice in the 
 sale of them. Wheat and flour of last year's produce is either 
 exported or consumed, that of the present year is not yet in 
 market. What prices they will bear is not for me to say. But 
 though I do not move in the mercantile line, except in wheat, 
 (which I manufacture into flour,) I should, nevertheless, thank 
 you for any information respecting the price of these articles. 
 With very great esteem and respect, I am, sir, your most obedi- 
 ent servant, G. Washington. General Washington subsequently 
 presented Reuben Howard with a gold ring in which was set a 
 minature portrait of himself which is still preserved in the family. 
 These letters were printed for private circulation only amongst 
 the members of the different branches of the family. G. N. 
 Howard, (grandson of said Rueben Howard) merchant and vice- 
 consul for Prussia, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Brazil and Meek- 
 
134 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 lenburg Schwerin at Cork. Have been reading the Histories of 
 Germany and Spain of late. Mrs. M. has asked me to spend a 
 few days at their house at Easter. Father has received a letter 
 from Jim Parker, the first settler in these parts, he has discov- 
 ered a mine in Colorado, and has had a village that has sprung 
 up around it named after him. Some iron ore has been dis- 
 covered near Aston and is being drawn to McLean's foundry at 
 Durham. Went to Davenport to see cousin Sarah; went with 
 her husband to the neat little church in the village; it is free for 
 the use of all Protestant denominations, which shows how the 
 divisions between the Protestant churches are being removed 
 and that the differences between them is only nominal. It seems 
 that these divisions amongst them has been a source of strength 
 and aided their remarkiible growth and the glorious work they 
 have accomplished. In this the first era of their existence they 
 have accomplished double the amount of growth and good than 
 the early Christian church did; let the reader study impartially 
 both periods and he cannot be otherwise than of the same 
 opinion. Was surprised to see Mrs. Cross, who was one of the 
 first settlers on our range, teaching Sunday school; in former 
 days she had a tongue like a two-edged sword, but I suppose 
 advancing years has induced her to put it to better use than 
 "back-biting her neighbors." Called at Devlin's and was sur- 
 prised to see a picture of "God, the Father." What terrible 
 blasphemy! According to their own scripture, Moses could not 
 look upon the glory of God; if so, how could any human artist 
 paint the features of Him; and does not their own scriptures 
 say, "Thou shalt not make any graven image, or the likeness of 
 anything in heaven above or the earth beneath; or bow down to 
 them or worship them." Yet I have seen hundred ot these de- 
 luded people kneel down with the most disgusting servility 
 before the image of some saints who were only weak and finite 
 men like themselves. While speaking with Meredith's hired 
 man he told me that Nicholas hardly ever does any work, but 
 gets it all done by hired help and is most of his time reading or 
 smoking in his room or under the shade of some trees. If he 
 continues thus he can never become a prosperous farmer. "The 
 Elms,. Dear Tom and Arthur: Your letters received. We 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, I35 
 
 have bought 5 steers this spring for ^15 each, they are small for 
 their age having been brought up on straw, but all who have 
 seen them think they are a great bargain, as we can get at least 
 double for them next fall; we have 6 steers, 2 heifers, 4 cows, 3 
 pigs, 10 sheep, 2 colts and 2 horses, which is very little stock 
 for a farm of this size; it is enough, however, until we have 
 enriched the soil, after which we will have 3 lots of steers, 30 
 always maturing 3 years and ready to sell. There is little 
 money to be made in this Province by raising grain, it pays bet- 
 ter to fatten cattle for the British market. In your letter you 
 still appear anxious to buckle on armor. I fail, howe\^r, to 
 understand your patriotism, as you are as willing to enter West 
 Point as an English one, where you would have to sv/ear allegi- 
 ance and fight against England if called upon to do so. I think 
 the idea of your getting into West Point is an impossiblity, for 
 each state can only nominate i or 2 names. When I was in 
 New York the number of applicants was over 2000 for that state, 
 and it was by competitive examination held by the members of 
 Congress. I think the President only appoints ambassador's sons 
 and merely for the educational facilities of the institution and 
 occassionally some relative, when there is a tremendous rumpus 
 in the papers. You say at Kingston military college the expense 
 is nominal, that is right, only as far as instruction goes. Our 
 friend Mr. R's son is going to leave on account of the expense, 
 but is a miserable place at any rate and not worth entering; if I 
 were in perfect health to-morrow I could not get into the army 
 if I wished to, bemg too old as you are also for the Canadian and 
 English military colleges, and I hardly think you could get an 
 American member of Congress to appoint you (a stranger) when 
 he has to deny 100 of his countrymen every yr. A friend of 
 mine, D. D. Turner, a graduate of Cambridge would have paid 
 any amount of money to get into the English army and although 
 only a few years older than the appointed age he could not suc- 
 ceed, besides it is a miserable life at best, I have personally known 
 several officers who left to go to college to study for a profession, 
 and I entirely disagree with you about pooV uneducated people, 
 there is no where that a real gentleman shows more to advan- 
 tage than among the lower classes, "honor and shame from no 
 
136 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 condition rise," act well your part there all the honor lies." As 
 for study, all our great scholars have been self-taught; you can 
 study anywhere and if you have a taste it will always be a 
 pleasure; I think Clifford and I can hold a much more easy and 
 independant position as farmers than military men; in a great 
 many cities the principal people will not call on the military or 
 invite them to their houses, on account of their being too dis- 
 sipated; your cousin Mr. Fothergill tells me that this is the case 
 at Salford, England; ifj-ou and Tom make up ycur mind that 
 you would like to try legitimate farming in a cleared country I 
 would write to Uncle Jerrold if you should wish it; I have a 
 nice farm in view for you of 200 acres, 80 cleared and rolled, 
 with a fine rich soil that can be purchassed for less than ;$2O00; 
 the great thing in buying is to see that the fences are good and 
 that the stables, pastures and meadows are in good order, for if 
 they are not you will lose 2 or 3 yrs. in trying like us to get 
 them in order again; Cliftord and I were much interested in 
 your 2 pieces of poetry entitled "the Scottish Knight," and the 
 "Irish settler;" I am now interested in reading a "history of 
 our own times" by Justin McCarthy, he is a Liberal and writes 
 very impartially, giving praise to Beaconsfield as well as to Glad- 
 stone; at present our men are drawing rails and manure. The 
 U. S. army is so small (24000) that I fail to see how they give 
 e'iiployment to all the graduates every yr.; in time of peace va- 
 cancies are not plentiful; the yr. before last the officers of the 
 U. S. navy were not paid, as the Congress had not voted money 
 for that purpose; with love to you and Tom, your affectionate 
 cousin R. I. Goldsmith." Tom and I have been making rails, 
 also draw logs for Guertin's mill •and made "sap troughs" at the 
 rate of 50 a day in ash timber trees of medium size, cut in 2^ 
 ft: lengths, split in 2 halves and "hollov/ed out" with an axe and 
 adze. "The Elms, Feb, Dear Arthur. The Kingston Mil- 
 itary College leads to nothing, after cadets have finished their 
 study, 3 or 4 if up to the mark, and those the best out of the 
 whole co'lege get employment in the English army; kind 
 to Canada, we pay for their education, then England takes the 
 best away if good enough for her;) the Canadians v;ill not stand 
 this much longer. England will have to ed'Kate her own sol- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 137 
 
 diers, (volunteers are enough for us.) A. and B. batteries ia 
 Canada very seldom have a vacancy, so with an average of 30 
 scholars each yr. at Kingston, the chance of being one of the 
 best 4 is very poor; the col'e^e at Quebec is only for training 
 volunteer officers for Canada I believe; even if you were young 
 enough to enter, tlie life would disgust you. in time of peace (a 
 time we all hope for) an officers duties is a little fatigue drill 
 dancing and drinking, the latter you have to pay for whether you 
 drink it or not. There are religious men in the army but they 
 are few and far between, and are generally considered out of 
 place, as it puts them in a false position. If England makes an 
 unjust war against another nation you cannot even raise your 
 vo'ce against it in protest, and every man you kill is a question 
 bjtwecn yourself and your maker, although you gain some med- 
 als and applause at the time, you will finally learn that the ap- 
 plause of society is too often the applause of the devil; by judic- 
 ious reading and avoiding bad society, and being just in all your 
 dealings, you will always find yourself respected by that society 
 most worth cultivating, and you will eventually secure to your- 
 self an honorable position in this Canada of ours, which is yet 
 in its infancy, and which if we could only realize it, our individ- 
 ual conduct will either make it a good or a bad country. To 
 enter a ball room with brassy assurance to be smiled on by a 
 a people both artificial in manner and appearance, and to mix 
 in society made up of wealth, dishonestly acquired in most 
 cases, is ambition that would soon wear out: there is a society 
 however not numerous, but select, which consists of true men and 
 women who judge each other by what they are, they believe 
 that a gentleman is a man educated in his own language, leads 
 an honest life and above all things is sensitive with regard, for 
 the feelings of others, all this I believe you have Arthur, but 
 what I would suggest is, that you move to a cleared farm where 
 less work would bring a greater return, and where you would 
 have a more congenial social atmosphere; with your large in- 
 come you could keep a housekeeper and live in comfort, while 
 the proceeds of your farm would enable you to make an annual 
 bank deposit; 1 believe where you are you are wasting your time 
 and money, and the Frenchmen should you become intimate 
 
 18 
 
138 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 with them will ultimately drag you down to their level: you 
 must excuse my going so much into the sermon business, but 
 had I no regard for you I would not do it; we have bought a 
 Suffolk sow for Siy, also a Durham 9 yr. old cow for $26 also 
 lo^tons of hay at II4 aton, to draw it ourselves. Hope you will 
 decide to come and farm near us, your affectionate cousin R. I. 
 Goldsmith." It is perfectly absurd for Cousin Richard to 
 speak of military men in this way, for as the world is not 
 civilized enough to abolish war military men will rank as 
 they always have in the world's history, as one of 
 the best and highest classes of society, brave and gallant men 
 possessing that grace of manner and stately demeanor that wins 
 for them so much admiration and respect in the best society in 
 the world. And I confidently assert that more true and perfect 
 men can be found in the army than in any other class of people 
 in the world, and that not i lady in 20 would prefer the society 
 of your ignorant and boorish farmers to that of men in the army, 
 therefore I maintain that this preference shown for the society 
 of military men by the most refined and perfect ladies all over 
 the world is a certain proof that military men are as a class the 
 most perfect gentleman, to this of course there are exceptions, 
 there being in the army as well as all other professions a certain 
 class of men who bring dishonor on their fellow-oflicers who 
 despise their low ungentlemanly conduct, and would not toler- 
 erate them in their midst if it were possible to remove them from 
 it; there is however a rigid Puritanical class of society, whose 
 homes are too solemn and its inmates too grave and devout to 
 tolerate the bright sunshine of the witty and charming conver- 
 sation of these perfect gentleman, but that class of society may 
 rest assured that even if they did invite them these military 
 gentleman would no more think of going to spend an evening 
 in their Puritanical drawing-rooms than they would of spending 
 it in the cell of a dark and gloomy prison. Extract from 
 letter from Uncle Richard dated April ist. ''Tom and you 
 have done a great deal of valuable work on your lots 
 which will tend much to your ease and comfort hereafter. I 
 ftel like a bird out at Richard's farm. Liberty is a sweet 
 thing, especially to those who have been enslaved to many of 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1 39 
 
 the foolish usages of civih'zed society. I am glad to hear that 
 poor Parker has fallen into luck, poor fellow has suffered much 
 from the tribulation an vicissitudes of life, but I always consider- 
 ed him a clever, shrewd man. My son Richard, while out west 
 for his health, gave a very doleful account of that country, and 
 said he had no doubt the time would come when the tide of emi- 
 gratiom would turn ba^ a east; said ha saw more idle people 
 seeking bread in (California than in any other part of the world. 
 In Lower Canada now the rush seems to be for Manitoba, and 
 were it not for bad water and scarcity of timber it would not be 
 such a bad place There are several in Montreal that, have 
 returned in disgust. Few can tell better than yourselves of the 
 trials and hardships in a new country. Most of your hardships 
 are now over and in another year or two your farm will begin to 
 pay. Excuse my saying that in your composition you have one 
 bad habit that of dropping your articles and consonants; this 
 custom is only adopted by illiterate Americans; you say, "at 
 saw mill;" "for new barn;" otherwise your composition is exce-j 
 lent; of course I know there are few men whose composition is 
 perfect, but I know you will receive these remarks in the spirit 
 of love in which they arc given." Have piled our timber at 
 Roussin's saw mill. Walter Bacon has written a novel and 
 published it; the Bacon family are all very clever, and with only 
 their widowed mother's aid have educated themselves. Since I 
 last wro'.e in this journal I have gone to concerts, balls, private 
 paities, church socials and private theatrical entertainments and 
 played a "checker tournament" with all the best English checker 
 players of Aston, and came out i the lists as champion of the 
 English players, a truly empty honor for a man to waste many 
 precious hours in acquiring. Oh, inconsistent man that I am! 
 Have heard oaths and vile conversation amongst the French, 
 and in the best society of some of Aston's English ladies have 
 seen so called christian ladies that one day sang praises to God 
 in his church and spent the next in standing and speaking evil 
 of their neighbors. In justice, however, I must say I have met 
 with some beautiful exceptions, but regret to say they are very 
 few. At the English schoolhouse I saw a panoramic view of the 
 "Holy Land," which was very instructive. Spent a most enjoy- 
 
J^O HISTORY OF THE FRENXH IN AMERICA. 
 
 able evening at Merediths; lo or 12 intimate friends were tlierc 
 from Preston, Richford and Aston; passed the evening in Hsten- 
 ing to singing and music, playing whist, and a few waltzes; after 
 a choice supper at 1 1 o'clock we dispersed; I returning on foot 
 7 miles over a road ankle deep in mud greatly regretting that I 
 had not accepted the invitation to stay all night. I went next 
 day with a Frenchman to attend to the boiling of the syrup; 
 had a sugar party in the English schoolhouse, at which a most 
 unfortunate quarrel occurred between two young gentlemen (so 
 called.) Mr. C. was sitting on a barrel and Mr. N. asked him to 
 get off as he wanted to get some articles out of it; Mr. C. did 
 not immediately comply and Mr. N. shoved the barrel and 
 knocked it over, at which Mr. C, who is very quick tempered, 
 of Irish descent, made a hard snow ball and let fly, almost stun- 
 ning Mr. N. and giving him a black eye; fortunately no ladies 
 were present and the aftair was hushed; they are both aspirants 
 for the fair hand of Miss Mabel Willoughby, which in a measure 
 may account for it. 8th April; beautiful, mild weather; have 
 commenced drawing out manure on the meadows. It a.'^trni.'-hes 
 me how Frenchwomen swear and imagine there is no haim in 
 it; such expressions as "My God," "Saviour of God," Holy 
 Ghost," Holy Virgin," Good God," Jesus Christ," &c., are all 
 hourly and commonplace terms with them. I must say to the 
 credit of English and Protestant women, that I have never met a 
 respectable women among them that would be guilty of such 
 language. Have read Tennyson's poems, but prefer those of Sir 
 W. Scott and Lord Bvron. This afternoon snow fell 2 Vz inches 
 deep. There was a delightful little party held in the English 
 schoolhouse at Aston this week. Had a dispute with Tom 
 about his horses; he says that I must not take them to go to 
 the villagfe without asking his consent; told him that I had to 
 pay half the expense of feeding them and that it was only just 
 that I should be allowed the use of them once or twice a week. 
 The Liberals have defeated the Conservatives in England by a 
 large majority. Herbert C. had a sugar party, but it was a 
 decided failure, even though he had printed and distributed cards 
 of invitation, as but few representatives of the fair sex were at it; 
 Nicholas M. and Adam Grant who came to it, stayed over night 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I4I 
 
 at our house and played cards, dominoes and sang comic songs 
 and related some anecdotes that would have been more appro- 
 priate in Charles the Second's reign. Tom and I have com- 
 menced cutting timber on land we are going to clear; we have 
 given Freddy Burke 20 acres to clear at $$ an acre; it is where 
 Roussin's lumbermen have removed most of the timber. Bought 
 2 calves at the village for 50cts. each; Jimmy Burke lias been 
 released and is more depraved than when he entered the peni- 
 tentiary, and uses most horrible language in general conversa- 
 tion. I have persuaded Mrs. Meredith to teach school, that is, 
 her own children in her own house, for the sake of not letting 
 the school fall into the hands of R C's. Have joined the French 
 club, which is named St. Andre. Have been deepening the 
 course of the stream lately; which i«i cold work, up to one's 
 knees in water and mud. The Meredith's went one evening this 
 week to attend a "May Queen" celebration; Florence and Maud 
 are coming back in June and will, I suppose, be full fledged, 
 graceful and charming young ladies. Freddy Burke has broke 
 his contract; Meredith's have bought a farm adjoining theirs, 
 185 acres wiih small house, barn and stable on it for ^1600; 
 it is very cheap being only one mile from Aston village; 3 years 
 ago the old Frenchman that owned it offered it to me if I would 
 pay him ;^20o a year for life, which I refused and he died a year 
 after. Walter Goldsmith dined with me at Merediths and is 
 extremely bashful with young ladies. Croquet is all the rage in 
 Aston now; country villages are always behind the time in 
 everything, especially F'rench Canadian ones, lawn tennis has 
 been in vogue in other places long ago. While out on a boat- 
 ing excursion some of the English young men decided to take a 
 bath as it was 6 miles up the river and far away from civilization; 
 the Frenchmen had each a small piece of dark cloth attached 
 with a string around their necks with the name of the Virgin 
 sewn on it; I was informed the little piece of cloth came from 
 the robes of the bishop of this diocese and cost 5octs. each, and 
 that any Catholic found dead without this badge of Catholicism 
 the body would not be buried in consecrated ground; I expect 
 this only holds good for the ignorant French in this Province, 
 for I hardly think that intelligent Catholics in the U. S. or Eng- 
 
142 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 land would pay 50ds for a little bit of the worn out robe of a 
 bishop; they, however assured me that all Catholics wore this 
 badge in all parts of the world. The water was not very cold 
 considering it was the lOth of May. Have made a pleasure boat 
 to keep on Aston river; have christened it "Grace Darling.'' 
 Metz Vincent has married; I pity the poor creature whoever she 
 is. We have been very busy of late clearing land, drawing lum- 
 ber for the new barn, fencing, ditching, and repairing our main 
 road. Had a dispute with Vincent's; they took the contract of 
 clearing 3 acres of land, commenced work at 9 in the morning 
 and quit at 4 in the evening and still expected to make big 
 wages, but discovered their mistake as they only earned at the 
 rate of 3 Sets, a day, and were so enraged they threatened to 
 thrash me within an inch of my life. Have of late been trying 
 to organize a volunteer corps. Received the following letter: 
 "St. Jean. Sir, your letter of the 31st of May has been received 
 and I have noted its contents which I have transmitted to the 
 brigade major of the military district No. 6, to be forwarded to 
 Ottawa for the consideration of the minister of militia. I have 
 the honor to remain your obedient servant, Lieut. Col. Doherty, 
 Of late Tom has had morning and evening prayers regularly; 
 our hired boy Jerrold is very useful about the house; have con- 
 tributed $$ annually to the Norfolk Sheltering Home for Orphans; 
 Nicholas and I often attend the St. Andre club and play billiards, 
 cards, checkers, &c., and read the newspapers which are chiefly 
 in French. Rev. L. C. Willoughby does not denounce error 
 enough in his sermons; his sermons would I think be very suit- 
 able for angels to listen to but are not practical enough for frail 
 and mortal man After the services a child was christened; this 
 has always seemed to me a ridiculous ceremony; the idea of a 
 babbling infant being received into the church of Christ and 4 
 adults taking vows on themselves that this child will renounce 
 the devil and all his works when perhaps it will live to be a 
 housebreaker or a murderer, and what seems still more absurd is 
 that I have seen many godfathers and godmothers both in the 
 Church of England and the Catholic Church make this impossi- 
 ble promise when they themselves had not renounced the works 
 of the devil. I have actually seen at the Catholic Church in this 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1^3 
 
 parish an inveterate drunkard and wife beater allowed by the 
 parish priest to stand up as godfather for a poor innocent httle 
 infant; I thought at the time the poor little thing would be better 
 without any godfather at all than to have such a brute as this. 
 Mr. Milton is staying with us a few days till he has sold a small 
 quantity of bark that still remains on Sherman's lot. On the 
 24th May there was a pic nic at Preston in honor of the Queen's 
 birthday. Commenced to sow potatoes in the new land but 
 found it so rocky and rooty that I decided to give out the job to 
 T.ouis Brodeur; he is to sow 12 bushels of potatoes and give us 
 40 this fall. Uncle Richard has been out to see us. "i8th June, 
 Dear Uncle, I Iiope Flora has perfectly recovered from the shock 
 her nervous system received from the fire; how very brave her 
 husband was to rescue her from the burning house; how fortun- 
 ate her furs and jewelry were insured. We have been very busy 
 clearing land since you left us; have so\^n it all except a small 
 piece we have reserved for turnips. Our crops consist of 16 bush, 
 of oats, 2 acres of buckwheat, several acres under oats and i^ 
 under potatoes. The Colorado beetle has not yet made its ap- 
 pearanee; our crop of hay promises to be one of the finest we 
 have had for many yrs; in many places it is 2 J'2 ft. high; I expect 
 both barns will be full as the old barn is half full from last year. 
 Have also done much work at clearing out ihe stream; the black 
 alluvial soil we dig out of its bed will form good top dressing for 
 the highland meadows. We are raising 9 calves on milk and 
 Indian meal. Our "home boy" is very useful, keeps the house 
 
 idy and cooks the meals; we will have to feed, clothe and give 
 lim schooling for the first 3 years and after tnat pay him wages. 
 L:.st week I heard of a great bargain of land, 1 500 acres well 
 :overed with timber for ^^i per acre, is situated in the Co. of Suf- 
 blk and within 4 m. of a rly; some of the land is low and has 
 jood pine timber on it, but the greater part of it is bigh land 
 covered with sugar bushes; one of the lots is within one mile of 
 Richford; public roads pass by all the lots; I think it is a great 
 
 argain and that even the timber on it will be worth in less than 
 5 yrs the price that is now asked for it; the annual tax on this 
 property is rather high now on account of the rly tax but alto- 
 gether does not exceed ^30 a yr; the titles are all without a fiaw; 
 
144 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 what I propose is that Tom and I buy this land; he will sell it 
 payable in 5 annual installments of;jg3i4, which includes interest; 
 this wc can easily meet with the returns from our farm and in- 
 come. Now that I cannot enter the army I want Tom and my- 
 self to be somethinfT more than market gardeners, to possess one 
 of the finest estates in this part of the country. I hardly think 
 you will object to our taking advantage of this great bargain 
 which will be a good and safe investment for all our spare cap- 
 ital during the next 5 yrs. It seems to me that good land well 
 watered and timbered at $\ per acre is the best investment a 
 man could make; however we leave it to you. decision. Tom 
 unites with me in love to you all, your affec. nephew, A. N. How- 
 ard." Mr. M. sold his lot situated 2 m. from Aston for $800; 
 during the copper mine mania he refused $10,000 for it which he 
 must now greatly regret. The flies are very troublesome to the 
 animal world and men at this time of yr. While working at fa- 
 ther's by an almost 'perpendicular rock, 30 ft. high, it reminded 
 me of my younger days when us boys divided in parties under 
 the Union Jack, with stars and stripes, with wooden swords; 
 used to take great pleasure in attacking a minature wooden 
 fortress in its summit and burning it. Played croquet at Guern- 
 sey's with Mary G., went to Meredith's, listened to music and 
 singing,Maud showed me some sketches she took while in Ontario. 
 After tea had outdoor games with Nicholas and a cousin of his 
 from Scotland; Maud and Florence are delightfully unaffected 
 and were the apparently pleased spectators of our atiiletic sports; 
 had an interesting 2 hours conversation with Maud, Mabel, Flor- 
 ence and Nicholas on the veranda in the cool evening air of early 
 summer. At church next aay the 2 Bacon's officiated, one of 
 them has been ordained a clergyman. Daniel C. has bought 
 what is known as Dupries farm from the B. A. Land Co; 100 
 acres for $4SO, 8 yrs to pay for it without interest; it has a fine 
 sugar bush some hemlock bark and is heavily covered with tim- 
 ber. I hoed fathers potatoes for him. I have resigned the sec- 
 retaryship of the dissentient school and been elected trustee. 
 Went to a "bee" at Carmichael's, the dinner and supper were 
 very poor, lewd jokes and oaths were numerous throughout the 
 day. Received a letter for our boy from his widowed mother in 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I45 
 
 Liverpool. Wc commenced cutting our hay on the loth July; 
 Tom is still thinking of leaving this place and going out west; 
 offered to rent me his half if I would clear 10 acres a year on it, 
 I refused. Had an argument with J. Murphy about Gallieo, he 
 tried to persuade nie that he was cannonized as a saint by the 
 church, told him that instead of being made a saint he was per- 
 secuted by the bishops of the church and imprisoned for having 
 the moral courage to assert a scientific truth that "the world re- 
 volved around the sun insteid of the sun around the earth. loth 
 Jily, dear uncle, we received your letter last Saturday and apol- 
 ogize for not answering it sooner, the reason was we were busy 
 all week cutting and saving our hay which will keep us busy for 
 at least 2 months as we will have to cut father's hay for him, of 
 which he has about 6 acres and 38 acres of our own. I regret 
 you have decided against our buying the land but of course as 
 [you say any business that is stretched too much is likely to break. 
 iWe hdve had very dry weather lately, there has been no rain for 
 several weeks. My uncle Herbert has not yet returned from his 
 jvisit to his son the Dr. in Iowa. A great many farmers around 
 [here have great difficulty in getting laborers for haying on ac- 
 [count of so many being employed at bark peeling, unimportant 
 jitems close it. Daniel C. and I have in contemplation another 
 'isit to Wakefield's, he became hopelessly in love with the eldest 
 laughter several yrs ago, but of course she rightly considers her- 
 self far above him, is fairly educated and has ^$2000 in her own 
 lame but is very plain and freckled, red hair and protruding 
 ^eeth; I trust it is not the ^2000 he is in love with, for my part 
 iltho I like money exceedingly for the great advantages it can 
 purchase I am confident I never could be mean enough to try 
 ind persuade an ugly young lady that I loved her for the sake of 
 paltry ^2000. I can understand genius and talent making a 
 lan love an ugly lady, but in my opinion riches, never! Nicho- 
 ls and his cousin Morton from Scotland often come to see us. 
 ^hile looking over a photograph album with Florence and 
 laud one evening, Maud made some indirect remark about 
 -ichard Bacon's photograph at which Florence blushed deeply, 
 ^hich filled my mind with the most painful of thoughts, 
 >ut never mind "faint heart never won a fair lady," 
 
 19 
 
146 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 SO I must strive on manfully through life, battling unceasingly 
 against its many difficulties and temptations, and live to be 
 worthy of her even if I do not win her, true love has an eleva- 
 ting and enobling influence on mankind, but man should not 
 allow even it to gain an overmastering influence upon him, for 
 in so doing it oiten ruins weak men's lives, for instance, those 
 men and women who say "because the dearest object of our 
 affections did not recriprocate them we have lost all ambition 
 in life," are truly to say the least, weak and puny specimens of 
 manhood and womanhood. The beetles have appeared on the 
 potatoes, Louis B. has applied Paris Green to them. Mortin, 
 Nicholas' cousin is "very green" while at our place Nicholas 
 persuaded him to try the experiment of sleeping in a tree saying 
 that trappers and huntersoften did so and enjoyed it, he belongs I 
 should say to the middle class of the Scotch people, and is 
 thoroughly honest and a good hearted fellow. At Carmicheal's 
 "mowing bee" I took the lead of 20 men and none of them could 
 keep up with me, and am now acknowledged as ths best mower 
 in these parts. Mr. Bacon, telegraph operator of the St. Norbcrt 
 Rly. is engaged to Miss Grant; if some lovers only knew how 
 absurd they appear in the eyes of the world they would not 
 act as if they were the only happy individuals in ex- 
 istance. Sold Mr. Grant 2000 bundels of hay for $120; spent 
 the evening there, played cards and talked nonsense with the 2 
 Miss G's, who are terribly affected and would make good dis- 
 ciples of the aesthetic Oscar Wild, laughed at poor jokes, heard 
 pretty lips use bad grammar, sipped wine, nibbled cake and 
 passed a moderately pleasant evening. 9th Aug.; the oats in 
 the back clearance are nothing extra, and the potatoes almost a 
 failure, so we did well not to sow them ourselves; Tom is now; 
 glad he took my advice. Went to a picnic of St. Andre's club; 
 on Pine Island, situated in the river that runs from Richford to 
 Preston; there never was a gayer party of young men, as,. 
 we ascended the river next day with our well filled lunch bas- 
 kets singing French and PInglish songs; on reaching the island] 
 for the first time in my life I partook of a small piece of "frog'sj 
 leg" which a party of those who went out fishing had cooked in| 
 butter, it was perfectly delicious, and tender as a chicken, and li 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 14/ 
 
 shall always defend Frenchmen hereafter when I hear them rid- 
 iculed for eating frog's legs, the flowing bowl was also passed 
 around with many a boisterous shout, and most liquors from 
 champagne down to whiskey, and beer were largely partaken of, 
 I however with a few others did not imbibe, which was very for- 
 tunate as many of the gayer spirits were so intoxicated that in 
 going down the river we had all we could do to keep them from 
 getting drowned; have hired Mrs. Vincent to do the washing 
 and mending of the clothes for Tom, myself and our hired boy, 
 for 35cts. a week; while at La Rivere's conversed with him and 
 his brother-in-law on religion and morality; so disgustingly low 
 were their ideas on these subjects that I look on them as but a 
 few degrees better than the brute beast, for when men's intel- 
 lectual faculties are crushed and enslaved to this extent they lose 
 all their worth and beauty, and reduce man from being one of 
 the noblest of God's creatures to that of being one of the most 
 servile and debased; told G's of a concert going to be held at 
 Davenport, they talked of going 2nd class, I said a young man 
 should not travel 2nd class, a millionaire might afford to do so but 
 not a young man who has yet to make a position and friends in 
 the world, and I thought it unwise of a man to pass many hours 
 in a vulgar atmosphere for the sake of a few shillings; went on 
 a visit to Hartford; there has been t>T)hus fever at Lemington 
 college through bad drainage; I find that one of the Bacon's a 
 student there "cribbed" and was nearly turned out of college for 
 it but the exammers took pity on him as it would nearly ruin his 
 prospects in life, besides they are short in their supply of candi- 
 dates for the ministry; drove to Johnsville, some fine farms and 
 pretty scenery, deep ravines with groves of woodland not very 
 far apart. Clifford and I went to Carlton which is a magnificent 
 farming district, has some of the finest rural scenery in the prov- 
 ince; every valley has its stream or river, and most of the roads 
 are arched over by stately avenues of trees; the whole country 
 is a network of well tilled fields interlaced with groves of prime- 
 val woodland which resembles many parks as the ground under- 
 neath is free of brushwood and covered with grass on which 
 large herds of cattle graze; Carlton has an excellent young 
 ladies' college. Mr. Christie's farm buildings look like a small 
 
148 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, . , 
 
 village with its many roofs and tall chimneys, for cooking roots 
 for cattle; his workman's cottages, bains, graneries, stables aiid 
 his own house and that of his sons, are all well surrounded with 
 a stately grove of trees; no sand is seen here as at Hartford, and 
 the few rocks that were here have by thrifty industry been built 
 into walls, so evenly that they are an ornament the country; 
 Christie is the richest and best farmer in Canada, yet strange to 
 say he has a very poor education, not even a good elementary 
 education; has made most of his money in the shoe business 
 and is now one of Canada's Senators, ist Sept.; went on a 
 pleasure excursion to Norfolk; the excursion is in aid of an 
 R. C. church that is being built there. On leaving Aston the 
 land on either side is sandy; most of the primeval forest has 
 been cut away and a second growth taken its place. Where 
 St. Herbert rly. crosses our "range" the land becomes more 
 rocky with a rocky ledge ico ft. high, and the soil also improves 
 this I have noticed is generally the case, that wherever rocks are 
 the land is scarcely ever poor or sandy, pass Leurier's brick- 
 yard and pver the stream that runs throucrh our land, also over 
 Guertin's river a branch of the Richford river; the country now 
 becomes more cleared and level but looks bare with no primitive 
 forest in sight, before reaching Richford pass through several 
 deep cuttings with board fences 12 ft. high to prevent the snow 
 from drfting in; are now in sight of Richford, a pretty view, the 
 r'wy runs along the river's bank which is about 100 ft. above the 
 river; Richford is a pretty village in a valley wi'th a steep range 
 of hills on either side; after leaving Richford the country be- 
 comes exceedingly rocky; passed a few small whitewashed 
 houses in a clearance, forest right up to the track on one side 
 and a small strip of clearance on the other; the train travels 
 quickly considering the many curves in the road; this road i<? 
 well fenced in with board and wire fencing; small clearances on 
 the left; the land is still considerably rocky; cleared land on both 
 sides for a short distance; forest again on both sides, no swamps 
 as yet seen, all high land and hardwood timber, pass through 
 some deep cuttings in rock so high that we cannat see the top 
 of it from the car window; some fine fields of grain and the 
 houses of new settlers; a fine grove of maples and much cord- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I49 
 
 wood along the line; have reached cleared country again with 
 some ledges of rock in it; arrive at South Rich ford, a small stop- 
 ping place with a few wooden houses and a consic'erable quantity 
 of bark and ties; country is getting more level and of better ap- 
 pearance; a great many board fences to keep the snow from the 
 track; primeval forest on either side, but clearances can be seen 
 on rising ground in the distance; on both sides a splendid growth 
 of forest clearences, again newly cleared with stumps and stones 
 in it; a range of hills in the distance, forest and clearance alter- 
 nately; pass 2 small stopping places; there are a number of 
 Frenchmen yelling in the car next this one; they have imbibed 
 somewhat too freely, a clearance growing up in second growth; 
 country getting more and more cleared, cross a stream, country 
 beginning to look more attractive, numerous streams, land low 
 and marshy and covered with brushwood, clearances again with 
 rocky land; the smoke from the engine is very unpleasant as all 
 the windows are open; arrive at Warrington, a very straggling 
 town; pass what some Eastern yankees call a "bone orchard;" 
 the country we have passed through is far from picturesque or 
 offers brilliant prospects to intending settlers; have entered wild 
 wilderness again, trees of stunted growth, scorched by fire, clear- 
 ances newly made, stopped at a small station, forest again on 
 either side. The country now suddenly changes, and the scenery 
 becomes interesting; Norfolk village is surrounded by 14 hills; 
 passed by Bruntfield Lake, one of the most beautiful in the Prov- 
 ince of Quebec; its surface is dotted with dozens of islands; Nor- 
 folk is a scattered village; hired a boat with some of my French 
 friends for 75cts., rowed to one of the islands where there was a 
 fine sandy bottom with water only 4 to 5 ft. deep for acres in ex- 
 tent, where we bathed; there was a boat race in the afternoon; I 
 rowed about the lake by myself, amongst its beautiful little islands 
 for 2}4 hrs. without stopping; 300 people dined in a beautiful 
 grove, many dined at the hotel, a remarkably good one for such 
 a small village; after that there was a bazaar where christian 
 ladies sold things for double what they were worth, and never as 
 a matter of course would give you back small change if any was 
 coming to you, I have also noticed that with these religious un- 
 dertakings they generally chose the brightet and most good look • 
 
150 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ing ladies to induce foolish young men to be more lavish with 
 their money on that account; they also threw tickets for watches 
 and then the fortunate one who threw the hightest number with 
 dice received it; I must say this seems to be a low way of mak- 
 ing money to build a house for God; they were also several 
 speeches made, one speaker reproved the French for coming to 
 the U. S.; towards the close a most beautiful young lady went 
 through all the crowd soliciting subscriptions for the church; it 
 was amusing to see how many young men by their manner gave 
 her to understand that they gave the money for her sake. Read 
 "'History of our own times" by J. McCarthy, England may well 
 be proud of her orators, statesmen and heroes. 8th Sept., smoke 
 of brush fires so dense that we cannot see 5 ft ahead of them. 
 Houde's wells have dried up, he draws water from our streams. 
 The French Canadians are a very productive race; the clergy 
 encourage them to "increase and multiply" as it all adds to the 
 power of their church; in conversation at G's I discovered that 
 in our range, 12 miles long, with several hundred people on it 
 there is not a single Frenchman that cannot say he has never 
 been drunk; the government ought to legislate against this grow- 
 ing evil. The English have routed the Afghan Insurgents; Gen, 
 Roberts is a clever general; Baroness Burdett Coutts is deter- 
 mined to marry her secretary, Mr, Bartlett an American, against 
 the advice of the Queen and her friends; she is an old maid over 
 60 yrs., and worth several millions. Spent an evening at Mer- 
 idith's; from the top of their house (which commands a very ex- 
 tensive view of the entire surrounding country) we saw the light 
 of bush fires in all directions, which illuminated the distant hori- 
 zon somewhat as sheet lightening does. Spoke with Mr, M. on 
 politics, he is a staunch conservative but agrees with me that no 
 Englishman should vote otherwise than the Liberal ticket in this 
 province, for in reality the Liberals are the Conservative party 
 and the so called conservatives, ultermontanes, or in other words 
 that party supported by the influence of the priests. Mrs. Har- 
 rison was on a visit there; Mr. M. sang a German song with 
 Florence, after which Florence sang one in Italian; without doubt 
 she has a cultivated, sweet and powerful voice; Mrs. H. sang, 
 her voice has something strained about it, still I imagine she had 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, I^I 
 
 a fine voice in her younger days. Two train of thoughts occu- 
 pied my mind that night before going to sleep, the first was, to 
 sacrifice everything to mount the ladder of fame, to make that 
 my aim and let nothing else divert me from it, the 2nd was, to 
 pass through life in a peaceful quiet manner, or to use a prayer 
 book term "be satisfied with that state into which it has pleased 
 Gcd to call me." Had an hrs. conversation with Mrs. H. next 
 morning, she is a kind hearted lady, and exceedingly well read; 
 it did not require long acquaintance to engage in friendly con- 
 versation in America, as is generally the way with ladies in 
 England; she was an agreeable exception to that class of ladies 
 who can converse on nothing else than the senseless gossip of 
 society. On reaching the church was informed that bush fires 
 were burning near our place; came home at full speed on horse- 
 back; 2 miles of country was literally covered with flames; at 
 times I thought I would be suffocated, but got through at last 
 and found the fire raging on both sides of the road quite close 
 to our house; Tom with other men were on the roofs of the 
 buildings with buckets of water wetting the roofs, and others 
 were hauling water with teams, I started with a party with axes 
 hoes and spades, and dug trenches in the earth to stop the ad- 
 vancing flames; the ground is so dry that the decayed vegetable 
 matter on the surface is almost impossible to extinguish; Kirwin 
 came from Aston with men to help us, he was very drunk but 
 had just enough sense to be in great fear that the bark on his 
 lots could be burnt; fortunately it rained towards morning which 
 enabled us to take a rest; Clifford C. has gone to the exhibition 
 at Montreal, the first time he has travelled in a rly, since he was 
 an infant 20 yrs. ago; I also know of a young lady in Aston who 
 has never seen a steamboat; went to the exhibition in Montreal, 
 hotel prices are very high; bought a tweed suit af'the Boston one 
 price clothing store" for $8.50, the dearest suit I ever bought for 
 it only lasted 2 weeks wear; entrance fee to the exhibition is 25 
 cents; for a description of it I give a letter I wrote to Uncle Jer- 
 rold on my return. "Dear uncle. I have to apologise for not 
 answering your kind letter sooner but I waited till Tom returned 
 f^om Montr al, we both went to an exhibition held there during 
 Sept. which was a success considering that there was one held 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 at Toronto at the same time; I enclose in this letter a plan of 
 the grounds; no. i is the road leading to Montreal; 2, the road 
 to Mt. Royal; 3, road in front of exhibition grounds leading to 
 St. Lawrance Main St ; 4, restaurants, side shows and gambling 
 dens; 5, cabstand, 6, board sidewalk in front of exhibition; 7 and 8 
 a fence 12 ft. high in the front of the grounds with 2 gates for 
 foot passengers entering, and 2 for exit; 9, building with post- 
 office, telegraph office and rooms for exhibition committees and 
 secretaries; 10, an enclosure containing a captive baloon which 
 made ascensions nearly every day; 11, refreshment tent; 12, a 
 seat; 13, the right side of exlnbition grounds with a shed run- 
 ning the whole length for cattle, some of which were thorough- 
 breds, also 2 wagon roads for entering the exhibits; 14, 
 a ring for the inspection of cattle; 15, a watering place; 
 16, an open ^enclosure in which were cultivators, har- 
 rows, mowing machines, rakes, thieshers, patent churns, 
 in fact nearly all the modern appliances of agriculture; there was 
 also an apparatus for makmg sugar by evaporation by steam 
 in pans instead of over a fire in kettles as formerly; 1 7, a shed 
 with a central passage through it which contained nothing but 
 pigs of all sizes and breeds, some of which had a hideous appear- 
 ance, so fat that their eyes could hardly be seen, but everything 
 was perfectly neat and clean; 18, a restaurant at which a very 
 fair meal of bread, meat and vegetables with cofiee or tea could 
 be had for 25cts.; 19, an exhibition of tombstones; 20, the 
 building containing mechanical and manufacturing departments; 
 21, refreshment tents; 22, a restaurant, 5octs. a meal; 23, back 
 part of exhibition, a wagon entrance in it and a shed running 
 parallel with it, containing cattle and Shetland ponies; 24, rail- 
 way platform; 25, Manitoba car' containing its agricultural ex- 
 hibits; 26, left side of exhibition with a shed similar to that on 
 right side, containing mostly heavy draught horses with a few 
 exhibits of thoroughbreds and racers; 27, a building filled with 
 sleighs, carts, carriages, wagons, gigs, and almost every style of 
 vehicle imaginable, also saddles and row boats, some finely built 
 ones of cedar costing as low as ^32; 28, the crystal palace, a 
 curiosity in itself, having been built in 8 days, the ist story hati 
 a large assortment of furs and fur clothing of every description, 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 153 
 
 a large collection of pianos and organs with lady and gentlemen 
 performers; soaps, confectionery, drugs and chemicals, all 
 arranged with great taste; immense glass show cases with every 
 make of biscuit imaginable, dry goods of all sorts, hardware, 
 bells, saws and ioo other diftcrent hardware articles, also an 
 altar and images of the R. C. church of such miserable work- 
 manship that 1 believe were the great Grecian sculptors still 
 living they would die of disgust. On the 2nd floor was an art 
 department containing thousands of beautiful pictures and paint- 
 ings, a department for sculpture, also photography, stationery, 
 minerals, fancy work, stuffed animals, small machines such as 
 sewing a-id knitting machines, &c., musical, brass and stringed 
 instruments, also a department containing every style of ladies' 
 and gentlemen's dresses, also hundreds of smaller exhibits too 
 numerous to mention; but I need not give you a minute des- 
 cription for you have seen exhibitions in Great Britain that 
 would make 3 of this; sufhcient to say that it was a success and 
 a credit to a colony of 4,000,000 inhabitants, but it is almost 
 certain that ere another century passes the exhibits of Canada 
 will equal if not surpass those of any European nation; 29, a 
 fountain; 30, tents of newspaper reporters; 31, ice water; 32, 
 first class restaurant; 33, Manitoba hall, in which I was surprised 
 at the size of products that had been harvested 4 weeks before 
 maturity. It seems strange to me that thousands of French 
 Canadians emigrate annually to the U. S. when we have millions 
 of acres of fertile land in our own country; the majority of the 
 clergy also strongly condemn their leaving this country, but it 
 is the high wages that tempt them across the border, also all 
 their children can get employment in factories as young as 7 
 years. 34, ring for the inspection of horses; 35, a restaurant. 
 The day the Governor General arrived there were 75,000 people 
 in the grounds; minor news closes the letter. I regret now 
 having come in so early as all the exhibits have not yet arrived. 
 The flags of most nations are flying and liquor of all sorts flow- 
 ing, and what with the hum of machinery, the banging of ham- 
 mers, the neighing of horses and noise made by other animals, 
 with the buz of human voices, renders it almost a second babel; 
 
 a brass band plays constantly in the grand pavilion. Visited the 
 
 20 
 
154 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 W^//«^jj printing establishment, it employs 120 hands; saw a 
 monster Hoe printing press which turns out newspapers almost 
 faster than they can be counted; paid locts. admission to the art 
 association and saw thousands of beautiful paintings, water 
 colors, etc. Have seen some good plays at the Academy of 
 Music, the best theatre in Montreal. Went through the McGill 
 college grounds, they are very beautiful, with green grass, shady 
 walks, vine covered bowers and arches, summer houses, foun- 
 tains, flower beds, etc., the college buildings are of stone and 
 look very imposing on the side of the mountain. There are four 
 different classes of seats in the Academy ot Music, orchestra 
 boxes on either side and overlooking the stage, ^5 each; dress 
 circle seats immediately in front of the stage, $i; general admis- 
 sion, 50cts., and "up amongst the gods," or in the "nigger 
 heaven" as it is called in the U. S., 25cts.; for my part I prefer 
 the general admission ticket, that is of course when not accom- 
 panied by a lady, as the seats are just the right distance from 
 the stage to see the actors at an advantage and the seats are just 
 as comfortably cushioned; the orchestra boxes are richly fur- 
 nished, soft carpets, luxurious sofas and chairs and costly cur- 
 tains that can be opened or closed at pleasure, and in them sat 
 some of Montreal's richest citizens with their dignified and 
 beautiful wives and daughters; up amongst the "gods" were 
 chiefly college students, policemen, cabmen and laborers, and 1 
 am glad to say no women; there were no cushions here and saw 
 dust was on the floors; all the seats in the theatre are like a 
 semi-circular stairs, similar to those in a Roman amphitheater. 
 After returning home I decided to return with Tom and a party 
 of Aston friends to the exhibition; write this on board the cars 
 "en route" for Montreal; between Aston and Preston the country 
 is flat with very few clearances and much of the forest has been 
 cut away and damaged by fire; crossed the Preston river on a 
 bridge about 80 ft. above it; the country has a bare, barren 
 appearance and has numerous small whitewashed houses. Pres- 
 ton has a small Episcopal church, a large R. C. one, and Morri- 
 son's large extract factory with a few saw mills forms the chief 
 support of the village; flat uninteresting country covered with 
 occasional clumps of poplar groves. Many passengers have to 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 155 
 
 stand for want of seats; large tracts of land growing up in pop- 
 lars; most dreary looking country between Preston and St. 
 Leonard; are now passing through a district burnt black as 
 cinder; after passing St. Leonard the country is more cleared 
 and there arc some fine, good-sized fields; fine farming country, 
 but too flat to be picturesque; this part of the country once 
 formed some of the best agricultural land in the Province, but 
 the French have destroyed its productive powers by taking crop 
 after crop, year after year without rotation of crops or manure, 
 and the country which might have been made very beautiful 
 looks about as uninteresting as one could imagine, with the 
 monotonous similarity of its little whitewashed houses, large 
 plain looking churches and its numerous whitewashed crosses 
 with a jauntily painted cock on the top of it, how this bird can 
 advance interests of christanity I cannot imagine unless it be 
 to remind these devout christians of the base treachery their first 
 infallible Pope, Peter, was guilty of to his Lord and Master; I 
 have often heard lecturers and orators eloquently describe R. C. 
 Churches as "Poems in Stone;." this, however, cannot be applied 
 to the majority of R. C. Churches in Canada, especially in the 
 country districts where the most of the churches resemble large 
 stone or wooden barns with a steeple on one end of them and I 
 can well imagine how much it would try the christian patience 
 of the many saints of the past years if they could but see the 
 horrible caricatures that the R. C. Churches exhibit of them in 
 the country villages of Quebec. The greatest part of this 
 I country is cleared but the farmers show a want of taste by cut- 
 j ting away all the trees and not leaving or planting any on their 
 farms which would greatly add to the beauty of the country;, 
 clearances grow less and second growth of poplar takes their 
 place. The country from Aston to St. Jean^ is very levd. Mr. 
 Morrison, the best citizen Preston had, died yesterday; he was 
 a true christian and a good man. Have reached cleared level 
 country; no taste shown; the farms have been divided year after 
 year till many of them are actually one acre wide and a mile 
 long; the country has the appearance of being covered with 
 numberless roads running parellel with each other. St. Jean is 
 a very old town and has several convents and seminaries where 
 
I 56 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 the pliable minds of the rising j^eneration arc moulded and fash- 
 ioned according to the will and pleasure of the tyrannical rulers 
 of Roman Catholicism; the country about the tow n is somewhat 
 more interesting as there is greater variety among the houses. 
 The clearances now stretch away for miles on either side almost 
 as far as the eye can reach; the cars shake so much that it is al- 
 most impossible to write pass several small stations that are sur- 
 rounded by a few small whitewashed houses, a store and church. 
 The country now begins to assume a finer aspect with groves, 
 green fields, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep; passed a dried 
 up river; it is the dryest season we have had for many years; now 
 come in sight of Bethel mountain, which rises abruptly from the 
 surrounding country and look very fine covered with trees which 
 grow almost to its summit which is enshrouded in a beautiful 
 mist of many colors and the sun shines brightly down upon it; 
 pass through a small tract of second growth forest; cleared coun- 
 try again, its English settlers have left many beautiful pine and 
 elm groves; arrived at St. Lawrent where Mr. Waldon has moved 
 to as station agent from Aston, much to our regret as he was one 
 of the most energetic church wardens of the English church, it 
 is however a promotion for him. This is a very pretty village of 
 tastely built stone and brick houses surrounded by a beautiful 
 undulating country thro which the broad and placid current of 
 the Bethel river flows, which forms a pleasing scene with the 
 numerous little pleasure boats and steamers plying up and 
 down its surface. The country between Montreal and Bethel 
 river is flat with some nice groves here and there; cleared land 
 can now be seen as far as the eye can reach v/ith small herds of 
 cattle grazing upon it in many places. The quality and smooth- 
 ness of the surface of the country from St. Jean to Montreal 
 ought to make it one of the best farming districts in the province; 
 passed a small village, many farmers have stacks of fodder out- 
 side, many houses have chimnies built the whole height of the 
 house at one end of it, a few of the houses are thatched; another 
 small village; nearly all French villages are named after some 
 Saint; passed the Victoria bridge, the largest tunnel bridge in the 
 world, and entered Montreal the commercial metropolis of Can- 
 ada; passed thro a manufacturing portion of the town and reached 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH FN AMERICA, 157 
 
 Bonavcnturc depot, a very unsightly depot for a city of 150,000. 
 Our party of Aston young men decided to economize and went 
 to a cheap lodging house where for a large room with 6 beds in 
 it we paid $^ for 3 nights. We were all pleased with Lotta's act- 
 ing but were disappointed with the play entitled 40 days around 
 the world. We take our meals at a 15 cent restaurant, meat, 
 vegetables, coffee, bread and butter, all neatly served and of good 
 quality for 15 cents. I cannot see how they make it pay even 
 tho they are well patronized as many as 50 dining at the same 
 time. Saw the torpedo experiments in the harbor which blew 
 an old ship over 100 ft. high out of the water. The price for tin 
 type photos in Montreal is I2)^cts. Had a glorious view of the 
 surrounding country and Montreal from the observatory on 
 Mount Royal through seme powerful opera glasses; saw the 
 illuminations on Dominion square, which were of all sorts of 
 fanciful and fantastic devices, hundreds of rockets and fire 
 baloons ascended in the air, some of the latter so high as to 
 almost look like stars. Tom has gone to Charlesburg on a 
 visit to Mr. and Mrs. Bentley. On my return I found that 
 Timothy Somerset, father's hired boy whom we had left in 
 charge of our place had deserted it and returned to father's; I 
 thought it very inconsiderate of father to allow him to do so. 
 I replaced some decayed planks in the stable floor and made a 
 gate for the encrance leading to our house, also made picket and 
 rail fence in front of our farm; we are having very bad weather; 
 in the evenings read Rollin's Ancient History. Louis Brodeur 
 came to dig the potatoes, but found them such a poor crop that 
 he asked me to release him from his contract, which I of course 
 did, as the crop is worthless through no negligence of his; we 
 will dig the best of them ourselves and leave the rest in the 
 ground; Dined at G's. on Sunday; they live better than they 
 used to; have pastry, different sorts of meat, etc., more frequently. 
 If abstaining from meat is rewarded in another world, Tom and 
 I will have a great many marks to our credit as we have scarcely 
 tasted it all summer, our diet consisting almost altogether of 
 bread and milk; no, I take back that remark, we will derive no 
 credit for it, for we do not believe that a Great Creator takes any 
 pleasure in seeing his children abstain from a moderate use of 
 
158 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 good and wholesome food, I played croquet with Ethel; she 
 seemed to have less of that grave sedateness that usually 
 characterizes her manners. Had a lengthy discussion with 
 father on the condition of ancient people and those of the 
 present day; I said that the ancient Greeks and Romans 
 although Pagans, were in many respects; nobler and more 
 civilized nations than among the nations who are guided and in- 
 structed by the infallible R. C. church of the present day. Re- 
 ceived a letter from Jonathan Goldsmith, who 4 yrs. ago worked 
 on his father's farm; he is now a doctor m Benton, Iowa, has 
 bought out his brother's practice, who has moved to Galena. 
 Have hired father to teach the English school for 2 months for 
 $20, and Miss Guertin a French Protestant to teach in another 
 part of the school district for 4 months at jg 1 2 a month, and Flor- 
 ence Meredith to teach for 2 months at th^ir house for 20; this 
 division was necessary on account of the dissentient scholars 
 being so scattered. Have bought lot 19, next Uncle Herbert 
 for $800, payable in 4 yrs., have named it "Oak Hill;" trappers in 
 early times gave it that name on account of a majestic grove of 
 oaks that grow on a hill that commands a very magnificent view 
 of the surrounding country; about 80 acres of this 200 acre lot 
 are cleared and contain a fine orchard of 80 trees, and a very 
 nice house and barn; it is one of the most beautifully situated 
 farms in this part of the country, the clearance having in it nu- 
 merous fine groves of butternut, cherry and maple; 50 acres are 
 covered with a large sugar bush of maples, averaging 50 to 90 
 ft. high, and the pastures abound with springs of clear ice cold 
 water; the back of the lot is covered with valuable hardwood 
 and softwood woodland; the distant view from the summit of 
 the hill is exceedingly picturesque and beautiful; to the south-west 
 is Richford, with its glittering steeple and sparkling river; in the 
 distance are the summits of Mounts Bethel. Royal, St. Peter and 
 other mountains; to the west lies Aston village, and several 
 smaller ones; to the south-east are seen the towns of Melford 
 and Rawlings and the hilly country which surrounds them, on 
 which herds of cattle can be seen with the aid of an opera glass, 
 between the hill and them, lies a valley in primeval forest with 
 clearances interspersed in it; to the north-east the view extends over 
 
History of the French in America. ij9 
 
 primeval forest to the villages of Dudley and Davenport with the 
 Cleared land in their vicinity; the chief draw back is that year 
 after year crops have been taken from this once fertile soil till 
 nature refused any longer to repay a thriftless farmer's toil, but 
 it has lain idle for a few years and has recuperated some of its 
 former fertility. Mr. St. George, the agent for it, reserved the 
 right to the original owners of half the profits from any mineral 
 that might be discovered on it, also the right of first mortgage 
 till the place was paid for; the deed of sale cost $$, which I had 
 to pay. Rev. L. C. W. complimented me on my enterprise and 
 said he hoped to see me a wealthy farmer yet; showed him a 
 letter to the Montreal paper that I had written condemning 
 the system of Catholic education in the Province, and found 
 that his sentiments coincided with my own. Met Miss Kate 
 Watts, who told me that she had been introduced to Tom at Mr. 
 Hartley's. I was mnch disgusted last week in reading a Protes- 
 tant newspaper, T/ie Christian Weekly] which says of a picture 
 of Christ by Gustave Dore: "the face, the crown of thorns, the 
 bleeding brow, satisfied the ideal even better than that of Gui- 
 de's Christ, which is so universally admitted to be the nearest 
 approach to it." What nonsense, to say that it is the nearest 
 approach to it when it is well known that no reliable picture of 
 Christ descended to this age, nor is it at all likely that humble 
 and great philanthropist ever went to the expense of having a 
 portrait of himself painted, and I know that a Protestant editor 
 is too much a man of intelligence to believe as the French Cath- 
 olics here do, that "when the Virgin wiped his face with a hand- 
 kerchief the portrait of his face was miraculously left upon it;" 
 and what also appears more absurd to me is, that although I 
 have seen hundreds of Christ's pictures, the great majority of 
 them have but little resemblance to each other. Went to the 
 Guy family entertainment in Aston Town Hall; the scenery 
 and acting was very good; there was a skillful violinist who with 
 his violin imitated a cock crowing, a door on rusty hinges, and 
 2 pigs trying to pass under a gate; there were also athletic per- 
 formers who exhibited extraordinary strength and agility. At 
 present we are chopping cordwood for Roussin on ou- own lots, 
 on land we intend to clear, at 75cts. a cord. Louis Brodeur's 
 
l60 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 wife has a mournful expression on her face of late, as her hus- 
 band is becoming an inveterate drunkard; truly from the beggar 
 to the king, all men have their sorrows and difficulties to contend 
 with; what strange beings men are, some have boundless am- 
 bition, but not a proportionate amount of talents, and likebaloons 
 of weak material, their ambition drives them so high that they 
 burst and fall down in ruin; others have great talents, but have 
 no energy or ambition to make use of them, and others appear 
 to be totally indifferent through ignorance and the influence of 
 evil associations to all that is beautiful and good. In a letter 
 from Cliftord he says; "I and Richard were at the exhibition and 
 stopped at our uncle's Dr. Steeles houst.; all ourcropj were very 
 good except the potatoes, those Wvire too dry for roots; our fill 
 ploughing is nearly finished; have sold our sheep, they destroy 
 and unfit pasture for cattle; there has been fine weather for some 
 time past, but it has now turned wet; our new barn and stable 
 are nearly finished." Houde's have moved to "the White river," 
 a tract of land situated in the center of the triangle formed by 
 Aston, Preston and Richford; in one day they moved away; 
 a French Canadian can almost leave his place of residence as 
 quick as an Arab can; thus we have only Andre La Rivere as 
 neighbors now; Moise La Rivere having moved away some 
 time ago, losing all the improvements he made on his farm, their 
 wives used always to be quarrelling. Gave G's cedar timber to 
 make shingles from, for the new barn they have built; they have 
 no cedar on their lot which is nearly all high land and under 
 hardwood. Our old homestead has lost the neat appearance it 
 used to have when our dear mother was alive, though it was in 
 the backwoods, everything indicated taste and refinement during 
 her life, and best of all, her loving, gentle spirit had an elevating 
 influence on us all, the whole community has deteriorated since 
 her death. Read a letter for Joe Vincent's wife from her sister- 
 in-law — "My dear sister i rite you a few lines to no if you are in 
 good helth as this leaves me at present. Sari an is get- 
 ting on well he sends his love to you also metz sends 
 his best complents to you all. Marie and osine send their best 
 love to marie. 1 sends my love to you all; tell Joe, Metz says 
 they must have a good spree together next time he com^s here^" 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. l6l 
 
 I 
 
 Miss fiuertin gave up teaching the school, because some of the 
 parents said she had no diploma; this however is unnecssary for 
 a school that does not receive aid from the government, and 1 
 am confident her education was suffient to teach the scholars, 
 some of whom are not out of the 2nd reader. Received a regis- 
 tered letter from Uncle Herbert notifying me to prepare material 
 for a fence between his lots and mine; Uncle Richard thinks I 
 have acted unwise in buying Oak Hill; told him that now I had 
 decided to become a farmer I had determined to make it a success, 
 also, that activity and enterprise were necessary in life, and that 
 if we did not keep our energy and income fully employed we 
 would be in danger of taking life too easy and spending our sur- 
 plus money in unnecessary luxuries, whereas if we had obliga- 
 tions to meet, it would increase our thrift and energy; while at 
 Meredith's one evening, talked on politics with Mr. M., and later 
 in the evening on the exhibition church concerts and bazars to 
 be held at Durham with Mrs. M.; Florence and Maud had an 
 oyster supper before leaving. "My dear Tom and Arthur, I have 
 understood from several friends here that hay is going to be very 
 dear this winter, they are buying it here and shipping it to Eng- 
 land, I write these few lines to put you on your guard, for buy- 
 ers are going around buying the contents of barns; I have no 
 news. Flora and baby are still with us; when I last heard from 
 Uncle Jerrold they were all well; I have had letters from Richard 
 and Clifford, they are both in good .spirits, I think from Richard's 
 letters that he is somewhat better, this damp weather is trying 
 for weak lungs; the ground here is slightly covered with snow, 
 with much love to you both, your affec. uncle, Richard I 
 Goldsmith." Had a long discussion with Uncle H. and Auut 
 M. on the many inconsistancies of many of the christian churches; 
 two of their pigs died almost immediately after they were fed 
 this evening, both exhibited the symptoms of poisoning, it is 
 thought that some Paris green must have fallen accidentally in- 
 to their food. Ethel, Phillip, Walter, Clifford C. and myself 
 played cards, later on in the evening tried to organize a class 
 for study for the purpose of perfecting our education; brought to 
 their notice that nearly all the great men and women that the 
 earth produced were educated, and in many instances self- 
 
 21 
 
l62 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ^ 
 
 educated, that we never could expect to make a success of life 
 if we did not posess a thorough education, without which we 
 could not associate with those people from whose society both 
 pleasure and benefit is derived, who, instead of dragging a man 
 down lower, as some society does, elevates and enobles him, 
 developing all those good qualities that are necessary, to form a 
 noble manhood and womanhood, that our first great difficulty 
 would be, to exercise that amount of self-denial and discipline it 
 required to enable us to say, I will devote every moment of my 
 life to what I consider as useful and good, and will always be my 
 earnest endeavor to avoid in thought, word or action, everything 
 that my better sentiments tell me are useless, no matter how 
 pleasing or harmless they n ay appear to be, if we once made 
 this resolve and firmly adhered to it we would soon acquire a 
 love for everything that is useful and beautiful, and studies and 
 conversation, that we may now regard as uninteresting and te- 
 dious, would soon be considered by us as recreation and pleasure; 
 that none of us could expect to become anything great or good 
 without unceasing industry, and a perfect economization and 
 proper nse of every minute and moment of our existence on this 
 earth, that there is enough precious time wasted on this earth to 
 make every desert a garden of fruitfulness, and to banish all pov- 
 erty, ignorance and misery, from the face of the earth; that it is 
 our duty as rational beings to use all the means within our power 
 to elevate ourselves aud our fellow-men" to that glorious God- 
 like position that God ordained that every man should occupy 
 on this earth, and which all men and women would occupy now 
 if they made a proper use of the glorious gilts God has endowed 
 them with; that we cannot justly offer such excuses as "have no 
 time, or do not posess the proper opportunities as others;" this 
 is not the real cause, in 9 cases out of 10 the real cause is, want 
 of true ambition, energy and perseverance, how will these ex- 
 cuses defend young people who indulge in silly games and con- 
 versation when it would take 20 such lifetimes as theirs to ac- 
 quire all the useful and elevating knowledge that now exists on 
 this earth; that young men cannot expect to be much better than 
 boors or clowns when they gaze vacantly into the fiie in the 
 evenings after their day's work, or waste their time in senseless 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 163 
 
 chat, losing the splendid opportunities that the long Canadian 
 winter evenings afford; the cost of the best educational works 
 are so low that it places them in reach of all classes of society; 
 that it IS a disgrace to the present age, the manner in which 
 even the members of the best society waste their time while their 
 education is only superficial. We failed however to organize a 
 class. E.xtract from lettrer to Clifford: "I offer as an excuse for 
 my not writing sooner, our distance from the post; bad roads 
 and extra work caused by the approach of winter, you can easily 
 understand that to miss Saturday's mail causes a week's delay as 
 we only go once a week to the village." ist Nov. rose at 6, 
 sharpened our axes; Vincent's called for our washing at Mr. V's 
 request, gave him a French bible; cut a cord of wood each dur- 
 ing the day. 2nd Nov ; commenced working at a shanty for 
 making saw logs that has been made on Houde'a lot by Mr. J. 
 Y. Morrisson, nephew of the Mornsson who died this fall, he 
 owns a sawmill at Preston, Mr. Baldwin, son-in-law of Mr. M. 
 deceased, is manager of the mill and lumbering operations; he 
 came to this country a poor lad and rose by degrees, married 
 Mr, M's daughter, and is now a wealthy man. I get 75cts. a 
 day and board; our usual bill of fare is pea soup, potatoes, green 
 tea, bread and syrup; the men for cutting the logs are put in 
 "gangs" of 3 in number, one to cut the butts and tops of the 
 trees, and measure and mark the logs in 12 ft. lengths, the 
 2 others saw them. The walls inside of the shanty are filled up 
 with berths above each other, with a little straw underneath, and 
 our overcoats over us, form our complete keeping outfit; 
 when I say that 60 men sleep in a shanty 20 by 30 ft. with a 
 fierce fire burning all night, the reader can imagine how close 
 and warm it is. 1 have at the request of the son of the boss 
 joined his gang at skidding logs; I find I am quite a favorite with 
 all the men as I join them in their jokes, games and anec- 
 dotes. It is quite a sight to see the men kneeling at their morn- 
 ing and evening prayers with their eyes wide open; beads in hand, 
 taking cognizance of everything that occurs around them, and 
 even while on their knees will occasionally make some remark 
 in the secular conversation and immediately after rising from 
 their knees commence using indecent language and oaths, yet 
 
164 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ^ 
 
 these men are not considered as reprobates by the holy church 
 but are respectable members in good standing to my own per- 
 sonal knowledge; in evening conversation some of the men began 
 speaking of Protestantism and said that Protestants "were the 
 servants of the Devil " Eat our dinner in the woods when we 
 are far aA^ay from the shanty; I was surprised how much frozen 
 pork and bread I could eat at noon; hard work and exposure to 
 cold requires solid and substantial food. 3th Nov. raining hard, 
 we all asked the boss for a task to have our day count; he gave 
 each team and 4 men 50 logs to skid; the boss also gives out 
 small contracts for cutting logs at $$ per 100; the boss has de- 
 cided that 2 men is sufficient to roll the logs on to the rollways; 
 because I dulled my axe and took an hour to sharpen it the boss 
 wanted to deduct )^ of a day, so I left and commenced plowing 
 at Oak Hill; had an argument with Murphy at Langevin's, his 
 neighbor, who is a liberal in politics; the argument came to a 
 close at 12 by l-angevin saying that a freemason could be a good 
 Catholic, at which Murphy put his fingers in his ears saying that's 
 enough! that's enough! Made a olowing bee and plowed several 
 acres on Oak Hill. Told Florence that we could only keep the 
 school open 2 months as the funds of '.he school had been much 
 diminished on account of several dissentient rate payers having 
 sold their land to R. C's; said it was immaterial to her. Mrs. M. j 
 asked me to a party on Dec. i; have been plowing on Oak Hill 
 with our oxen of late, but snow prevents further work, Mrs. 
 Mortemain who has charge of Norfolk Distributing Home came 
 to see Jerrold; she visits all the Home boys to see that they are 
 well treated. Went to Meredith's, played whist with Florence, 
 Mrs. M. and Maud, Florence also favored us with music and 
 singing. Tom hus sold the two colts to Mr. Baldwin, one nearly 
 a yr and the other 5 months for ;g6o. 20th Nov. heavy snow 
 storm; read history; Persians, Egyptians and Carthagenians are 
 far inferior to the ancient Greeks in civilization and virtue. Ex- 
 tract from a letter to Clifford on war: all lovers of virtue, liberty 
 and progress should use their influence towards encouraging the 
 civilized nations of the earth to abolish war and adopt the more 
 humane and civilized method of arbitration. If even 3 of the most 
 civilized nations declared that war must cease their influence and 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1 63 
 
 power would be sufficient to prevent all civilized nations from 
 going to war and eventually induce all civilized nations to dis- 
 band their armies and have only a police force to preserve the 
 peace among the lawless portion of its citizens; this would save 
 the civilized world millions of money annually as well as put to 
 nobler use the energies and talents of millions of men; the great 
 difficulty to suppress war is to get a few of the most powerful and 
 civilized nations to make an earnest eftort for that purpose, th'i 
 done the object is more than half accomplished, yet it should not 
 be difficult to suppress war among the christian nations, for it is 
 in direct contradiction to their religion as well as to the better 
 sentiments of humanity. It is a great inconsistency to allow na- 
 tions to murder thousands of men wholesale and not to ailow 
 individuals to do it in retail, who are punished with death for what 
 in many instances may justly be termed retail war, even though 
 they had great provocation; yet nations are allowed to waste 
 millions of money and murder millions of men for the most trif- 
 ling of causes. The cost of actual war is not the greatest but 
 that of keeping large standing armies, some nations keeping y^ 
 a million men in a state of idleness which heavily taxes the re- 
 maining citizens to suppoat tbem, also the loss war always causes 
 when it passes through a land, cities are burnt, the harvests are 
 spoiled and the nations wealth wasted by war'*^ turmoil. There 
 have been enough proofs however of its cruelty and destructive- 
 ness in the hi.story of the world to leave only one argument for 
 it that is "that it is a cruel necessity that cannot be done away 
 with," a senseless argument at best, as there has never been a 
 real effort made to accomplish it, therefore until a great many 
 attempts are made and are failures, then and then only will the 
 "cruel necessity" argument have an appearance of truth in it. If 
 the nations can have international postal regulations and laws for 
 the pursuit of criminals from one country into another; why can- 
 not civilized nations abolish war as slavery and many other cruel- 
 ties have been abolished. It simply needs one united earnest ef- 
 fort of a few of the most civilized nations to remove from the civ- 
 ilized world this error and disgrace of the age we live in. The 
 certainty of the great increase of happiness and prosperity of na- 
 tions thro the blessings of peace should make all civilized nations 
 
l66 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 unite and decide on some means of preventing the devastation 
 and ruin caused by war in the civilized countries at least. While 
 at Meredith's Florence gave me a letter to give to Maud at Rev. 
 L. C. W's, but as I had several other engagements I forgot to do 
 so, on arriving home enclosed it with the following note and had 
 it posted by a neighbor. "Dear Miss Meredith, I apologize for 
 my great negligence of yesterday evening in not giving to your 
 sister the note you gave me; a mistake like this in commercial 
 transactions might be overlooked but with a lady it is inexcusa- 
 ble; trusting however that you will accept this expression of my 
 regret for my great forgetfulness I remain yours sincerely, A. N. 
 Howard." I have again entered Morrison's shanty. Nicholas 
 came out to see us, was surprised to see me working at the shanty; 
 had a discussion with the clerk of the shanty who is a bigoted 
 Catholic, one of those I saw that burned the bibles of a bible seller 
 in Delage's store; it was on the temporal authority of the Pope; I 
 argued that even a devout Catholic could not with justice advo- 
 cate temporal power for the Pope; the clerk said Ferdinand of 
 Spain gave the Pope a certain amount of Terri'-.ory and what right 
 had the Italians to take it from him, I replied P^erdinand could 
 not give what did not belong to him, kings, emperors and princes 
 only rule "by the consent of the people" and have no power to 
 transfer their authority to another unless it receives the sanction 
 of the people, but allow for arguments sake the Italian people 
 consented to this transfer it only gave the Pope power to rule 
 as long as his government pleased the people or at least the ma- 
 jority of them, the moment the majority thought his temporal 
 rule injurious to the country they had a perfect right to take away 
 his temporal authority; in barbarous ages it might have been 
 different when people were fools enough to believe kings reigned 
 by divine right but in this enlightened age monarchs can only 
 reign by the consent of the people. The Italians under the Popes 
 were in a pitiable state of ignorance, superstition and vice and 
 crime flourished throughout the land as is generally the case 
 where liberty and liberal education have almost ceased to exist 
 (Clerk) whose fault was this; it was the Pope's; all the schools 
 excepting a few of the higher institutions of learning taught 
 chiefly to the mass of the population how to repeat their cate- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1 6/ 
 
 chism and prayers in the same manner as they now do in this 
 province; even when Engh'shmen wanted to light Rome by gas 
 tlie Pope would not permit it; is it to be wonderad that the peo- 
 gle rebelled when they saw nearly all other nations ahead of them 
 in prosperity and happiness, (Clerk) but it was not the Pope who 
 prevented the progress of education, he has always encouraged 
 it. How then is it that the inhabitants of protestant and infidel 
 countries are more enlightened; prosperous and educated than 
 those under Catholicism, even the most partial Catholic has to 
 acknowledge this, for the condition of the European and Amer- 
 ican protestant and catholic nations of the present day clearly 
 make it "a self evident truth," but we need not leave Canada to 
 see how much superior the republican form of spiritual govern- 
 ment of protestantism is to the one man ecclesiastical government 
 of Rome; compare protestant Ontario with Catholic Quebec and 
 even you cannot deny that the protestants are better educated 
 and more prosperous in Ontario than the French catholics of 
 Quebec, (Clerk) are not the Jesuits the best educated men in the 
 world; not the best but one of the best educated class of men as 
 are also the priests of your church, but this has nothing to do 
 with the masses of the people and if catholics are well educated 
 in Gt. Britain, Germany, France, the United States and a few 
 other countries they are indebted to modern civilization and pro- 
 testantism for it and not to their own church, but I have diverged 
 from the subject of our discussion, which is did the Italians have 
 a right to rebel against the temporal authority of the Pope. I 
 claim that as the Pope did not govern them according to the 
 wishes of the majority of the Italians the people had a perfect 
 right to deprive him of his authority and establish another sov- 
 ereign of their own choice; since they have done this Italy has 
 begun to improve, schools are being established on a more liberal 
 basis and the nation is rising rapidly in power and importance in 
 Europe and will be no longer a bye word among nations as a 
 people worthy of contempt for having fallen from being the great- 
 est nation of the earth to one of the weakest and most contempt- 
 ible. In the middle of Dec. I worked for Murphy with our oxen 
 at skidding logs. Herbert C, seems to be in love with Margaret 
 Guernsey; I am sure I do not admire his taste; in the first place 
 
l68 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 the girl does not care for him besides she is an invalid subject to 
 fits and is a plain uneducated girl. Went to a party at Mere- 
 dith's on Nicholas's birthday, several Aston and Preston people 
 were there, had an enjoyable evening; dancing, music and con- 
 versation; J. Murphy was staying at Brodeur's, but quarreled 
 with Mrs. B. because he said she was ignorant in arithmetic — 
 Eve's proud spirit rose within her. With haughty step she 
 crossed the room; with anger in her hazel eyes, she on old John 
 pronounced his doom. As I do not know ho'.v to count, you 
 from my house can now depart, and live with those that better 
 count; thus through your fault old friends must part. Worked 
 a few weeks for Murphy; had a most disagreeable time skidding 
 logs in frosty weather on low, swampy land for $2 a day for our 
 oxen and myself, and have had since then a very bad cold. 
 Murphy is greatly pleased with a speech of Mr. Bright of the 
 English Parliament, he said: I am sure Ireland will get home 
 rule and that the Queen will favor it. Could not convince him 
 that the Queen had nothing whatever to do with it. Received 
 circulars from G. Ghaffe of N. Y., about phonography, offering 
 to sell a book for $2.10, or to give a primary course of instruc- 
 tion by mail for ;$ 10 or a 3 months course for $2$; sent two beau- 
 tiful Christmas cards to Florence and Maud, cost ^5, also some 
 nice ones to the Miss Grant's and Mabel W. G. boys say they 
 do not care whether Richard or Clifford come on a visit here or 
 not, because they never invite them to their place; they should 
 remember that people must have passable manners at least to be 
 invited into good society. Wrote to uncle Jerrold a long letter 
 defending my purchase of Lot 29. People are very unwise to buy 
 goods on credit, have discovered that there is $20 difference be- 
 tween our account at Delage's store and his one; storekeepers 
 generally charge higher for each article when sold on credit 
 which quickly mounts up. The English Liberals do not believe 
 that England's interests require "the sick man" to be doctored to 
 keep him alive. The Quebec government is going to give grants 
 of phosphates to agricultural societies instead of money, which 
 is a good idea. The Conservatives throughout Canada are jubil- 
 ant over the success of their policy of protection, also the success 
 of their premier sir J. Macdonald, in forming a company of mil- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I69 
 
 lionaires in England and the U. S. for the construction of the 
 Canadian Pacific railway; it is to build the rly in 10 yrs and re- 
 ceives certain grants of land, portions of the road already cOn^ 
 structed by the government and a bonus of money. Went with 
 a party of the shanty men into the French country to St. Leonard, 
 they bought several bottles of whiskey "pour nous rechaufifer," 
 or in English to keep us warm; reached the house of the boss 
 at \2 at night, his mother got up and gave us for supper bread, 
 milk and pork, a rather disagreeable mixture; slept with his son 
 Joseph on a buffalo robe on the floor. This is a strange country; 
 to-day I was in coarse overall clothes working with common la- 
 borers, to-night taking a drive through the country with our hand- 
 some sleigh, fine horses, silver mounted harness, a $60 fur overcoat 
 and a ^200 gold v. atch, and I am now sleeping like a tramp on the , 
 floor with a coat under my head for a pillow; such is life with its 
 upsand downs pleasures and vexations, happy is that man that can 
 accommodate himself to its many changes; this is a nice farm with 
 comfortable barn, stables and house all whitewashed as usual, but 
 very neat and clean; the farm is all cleared except a sugar bush; this 
 part of the country is all cleared except a small strip of wood- 
 land here and there reserved for fuel. St. Leonard is comprised 
 of only a church, a few houses and a store, all whitewa.ihed, 
 church, houses, fences, well, poles etc.; went to mass with the 
 family; the priest, a clever and eloquent man, preached a very 
 argumentative sermon in defense of Romanism, almost thought 
 he had preached it specially for me; after mass the sons ot th6 
 boss attired themselves in the gayest of apparel and asked me if 
 'vien tu avec nous pour avoir egard a les filled' or in English, 
 'will you come with us and pay attention to the girls." Of 
 course as they had five nice looking sisters I could not commit 
 such a breach ol ettiquette as to leave them, although it would 
 have been more agreeable to Tne to have driven with the boys 
 10 or 12 miles, and seen some more of the country; one of 
 the sisters however rewarded me with her company the whole 
 of the afternoon and evening, even though 12 or 13 young beaus 
 came from the surrounding country, I am afraid however that 
 she thought I was dull and uninteresting, for although I tried 
 
 my "level best" to make my conversation as interesting as pos- 
 
 22 
 
170 HISTORY OF THE FREN'CH IN AMERICA. 
 
 sible, it is utterly beyond my conversational powers to confine 
 my conversation for 6 long hours to endearing sentences and 
 sentimental flattery, the reader can well imagine the predicament 
 I was in, sitting there by that girl with 3 or 4 young men doing 
 their utmost to make me "eat oats" or in other words, have her 
 leave me and go and converse with one of them; and what add- 
 ed to the awkwardness of the situation, general conversation is 
 not considered polite, each beau must confine his attention and 
 conversation to "his own girl." If it had not been for the ex- 
 perience and knowledge of French customs and manners that I 
 acquired from the Houde Girls, I believe I should have been 
 driven to despair, and have left the house with some excuse and 
 an apology. Spent Christmas day partly at father's and Uncle 
 Herbert's; I begin to think that Uncle Herbert's love for us is 
 not very great; he wrote to uncle in England saying that we had 
 sold rails to Meredith's at 5^ price, which had not one word of 
 truth in it, for we cleared $20 profit on the rails we sold them; 
 paid Guertin what we were owing him, he is the most obliging 
 and kind-hearted Frenchman I ever met, and in justice I must 
 also say, one of the most devout Catholics. Uncle Richard's 
 supposition that hay would be dear is incorrect, as it only sells 
 for $$ per 100 bushels of 1 5 lbs. Visited Mr. Dolliver, an honest, 
 genial old farmer,the family consisting of brothers, sons, nephews 
 and uncles, forms a compact and neat little settlement of 20 
 families, all of the same name, who support a neat little Episco- 
 pal church of their own. I pay the village barber 5octs. a month 
 for hair cutting and shaving; I often feel that if I could only act 
 according to the better sentiments of my nature, how much better 
 and truly hnnpier I should be. Jan. i8th '81. "My dear Tom 
 and Arthur; immediately after receiving your letters I had your 
 buildings insured for $1000, cost ;$io for 3 yrs. Our new barn 
 at the "Elms" when finished will h&ve a stabling capacity for 80 
 head of cattle; the building cost an unusual price as there was 
 not enough water in the rivers, and for what little spruce and 
 hemlock lumber the millmen had, they charged ^10 per 1000 It; 
 the day is not far distant when spruce or hemlock will be worth 
 i520 per 1000 ft. at your place; must now close this note; love 
 from your aunt and cousins to you both; your affec. uncle; R. 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I/I 
 
 S. Goldsmith." The Elms, "My dear Arthur, we have bought 
 5 tons hay at $7 a ton, and hardwood stovewood at $2 a cord; 
 the best quality of horse hay is |>i a ton higher; lately there has 
 been a great many auctions around here, but the things a^e sold 
 at full value, as the friends of the seller buy them in when enough 
 is not bid for them; I was sorry to hear that you had bought 
 Oak Hill, as you will be likely to have .lOuble with the G's; we 
 have had our stables whitewashed inside, as it makes it lighter 
 and destroys vermin; we have had the barn-yard fenced to have 
 a place for the cattle to sun themselves in, without going astpay; 
 with love from Richard and myself, I am your ever loving cousin, 
 C. H. Goldsmith." Montreal, 6th Nov ; "my dear Tom and Arthur, 
 in reply to yours of the 30th I herewith enclose you $42, and 
 have given you credit for the $6 you sent me for insurance, and 
 the $24 on the account you owe me, which is now only ^134, 
 I should have asked one of you into town this quarter, but Flora, 
 her nurse and baby,with the houseful of other guests are with us 
 and there are no spare bedrooms at present, but I shall exf>ect 
 both of you in on a visit at Christmas; I was sorry to hear that 
 you had bought lot 29, you are crowding a heavy burden 
 on your shoulders, I expressed my opinion fully and freely on a 
 former occasion, on the subject of buying more land; lot 29 was 
 the most objectionable lot you could have bought, for the sim- 
 ple reason, that a week after you take possession, your Uncle 
 Herbert and family will quarrel with you; take my advice, throw 
 this burden off your shoulders as quickly as you can; had you 
 got it for nothing it would have been an injury to you; you have 
 more land in your lots than you will ever require; your affec. 
 uncle, R. I. Goldsmith." If I am to be eternally dictated to in 
 this way, even though it is by kind and lovmg uncles; I shall 
 be obliged to go out into the world alone; I can use my own 
 judgment and be dependant on no one. London. "My dear 
 Arthur; I received your letter in the IPeek/y Star on the system 
 of education in Quebec; do not be angry with me when I tell 
 you that you never can be a successful writer; I thought you . 
 had passed that infant age when every young donkey fancies 
 himself a poet or an author, or destined to do great things, the 
 moon fit generally lasts up to the age of 14, but seldom does the 
 
172 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 dominion of donkcydom bother a man at your time of life; mil- 
 lions of letters have been written on the same subject, but a more 
 common place, childish, drivelling letter I never saw, if I were 
 not your friend it would be much wiser on my part to say nothing 
 against your letter, for it is human nature to have bitter feelings 
 against anyone that upsets the hobby of another, but I have done 
 my duty and told you the naked truth, however disagreeable; I 
 hope the land you have bought will not with your other farm be 
 too much for you both, although a great bargain; however as 
 you have bought it, stick to it, and let the world see that you 
 have not made a foolish transaction, which I trust and hope you 
 never will so far as poor human vanity can go, still I 
 must say I have every confidence in your manly good sense, 
 perseverence and steadiness, and I believe the many prayers of 
 your dear mother's loving heart, will and have been heard, and 
 that you will be good and happy; with much love to you both, 
 your loving uncle, Jerrold B. Goldsmith." He does, I must say 
 play havoc with my essay on education, but I shall yet show 
 him that I will, and shall be a successful writer, I am glad at all 
 events that he is favorably disposed to my purchase of Oak Hill, 
 if I can only bring Uncle Richard to reason about it, I will work 
 early and late to make it the finest estate in these parts. In a 
 letter from Uncle Jerrold to Uncle Richard he says, "if I could 
 get a large tract of land bye and bye I would purchase it. It is 
 very unfortunate of me, not to have invested my money in gas 
 shares, during the scare or panic on the discovery of the electric 
 light, they have risen 33 per ct. since then; possibly electricity 
 might some day supersede gas; but I do not see why electricity 
 may not be applied to gas in its present form, and so increase its 
 illuminating power; I suppose the Howard boys' father does not 
 interfere with them now; in a letter to Tom and I he says, "we 
 have had potatoes exhibited here (larger than your body) from 
 Southern America, but there are drawbacks in these countries; 
 the atmosphere is overcharged with electricity, human life is 
 much shorter, the human passions are violent, and life is every 
 way unsafe; on my fields I should prefer the small and more 
 numerous vegetables which are more life- nourishing and whole- 
 some than the big and less abundant ones of a more enervating 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 1/3 
 
 climate; Gqd has given to every part of the world, blessings irt 
 difterent forms, in Canada you have long cold winters, but a clear 
 invigorating air which produces vigorous nerves, and stro ig 
 limbs with a clear complexion; I would rather live in that Can- 
 ada of yours than to be a dried up, cynical profane Yankee with 
 his shrivelled belly, yellow skin and nose-trumpet slang, too of- 
 ten giving to the world, utterances offensive and immoral; you 
 write sensibly and truly on the condition of Ireland. On what 
 part of the map can you find "no man's lar.d?" Ans.: in Ireland 
 with the Irish." What's mine is my own, but what's yours is 
 everybody's else; what confusion there is in Ireland, first land- 
 lord's, then farmers, then tillers, and last of all a class of thieves 
 and cut-throats. Waterford, Nov., 1880. "Dear Arthur; your 
 long and interesting letter arrived, and was not less welcome 
 for being very unexpected, Tom and you seem to have had a 
 hard struggle at first on your land, but you appear to have suc- 
 ceeded well, I should like to go and see you, but I never expect 
 to have that pleasure as I have not been in good health for the 
 last few yrs.; I was very sorry to hear of the death of your mother, 
 I had reason to know what a terrible loss it must have been to 
 you, it is no wonder that you who had no opportunity of study- 
 ing Irish affairs should think some of the demands made by the 
 Irish people to be unjust, even many people who have lived all 
 their lives in Ireland have not been able to agree about the Irish 
 land question, let alone Home Rule, with regard to the land, it 
 seems to me that the Irish farmers have from generation to gen- 
 eration doiiC nearly all that has been done towards reclaimmg 
 the land from a state of bog and forest to its present state, and 
 have built most of the barns, houses and fences on it; the present 
 sevants, representin^j t^oth themselves and their ancestors have 
 a large claim to a grtiat part, perhaps nearly half of the present 
 value of the land, yet they have almost no legal claim, and this 
 is what causes the bitterness of feeling between landlords and 
 their sevants, feeling that in many cases they have been legally 
 robbed of their life's labor by unprincipled landlords raising their 
 rent; I agree with you that there is not much use trying to fix 
 rents by laws; what I desire to see is, the same thing that was 
 done in Prussia 70 yrs. ago with most satisfactory results; the 
 
174 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ' 
 
 Prussian Government took up the estates of the large landlords 
 giving the owners bonds for the full value of their land and al- 
 lowed the servants to buy the farms, paying the price to the 
 government in yearly instalments, so that now Prussia is a coun- 
 try of contented pleasant proprietors, and Gt. Britain and Ireland 
 are almost th, only European countries in which almost all the 
 farmers do not posess their land; France is another country 
 that has been greatly benefited by the conversion of sevant farm- 
 ers into proprietors of the land they cultivate. Elmbrooke 15th 
 November '80. Dear uncle; yours reed, last Saturday, with 
 quarterly allowance enclosed; some time after Christmas; either 
 Tom or myself will be able to accept your kind invitation. I re- 
 gret that the purchase of Oak Hill is against your wishes, and I 
 suppose I shall have to dispose of it if you so decide; we have 
 rented .one of the sugar bushes on it for 50 lbs. of sugar, and the 
 man has "to rig the bush himself;" there has been small snow- 
 falls last week, but they have disappeared as quickly as they 
 came; xtracted from the guide book of Montreal in a condensed 
 form for the information of the reader, "Montreal derives its 
 name from Mount Royal, the name given to a mountain in its 
 vicinity, by Jaqu Cartier, (on his visit to the town of J j- 
 chelaga, situated at the base of the mountain) in 1535; it is sit- 
 uated on an island formed by the confluence of the Ottawa and 
 St. Lawrence rivers; in 1628 it only consisted of 3 or 4 log houses: 
 in 1642 Maisoneuve and his 40 associates planted the colony of 
 Vilie Marie de Montreal, to them belongs the honor of being 
 the founders of this city of palaces; it was surrounded by hos- 
 tile savages for 120 yrs. and struggled through the vicssitudes 
 of floods, earthquake and war until 1747, when it was described 
 as a city containing several churches; colleges, and houses of 
 stone and wood neatly built, and surrounded by a high wall and 
 ditch. In 1760 it, with the rest of French Territory fell into the 
 hands of the English; the first newspaper established in Mon- 
 treal was an English paper, named "the Gazette" in 1778. Its 
 contemporary, "the Herald was first published in 181 1; in 1801 
 two acts of parliament authorized the formation of a company 
 to supply the city with water, and another act granted the pe- 
 titions of the citizens to remove the fortifications; the first steamer 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. i/S 
 
 that navigated the St. Lawrence was built by an Englishman, J 
 Molson. in i8o9,which was 2 yrs. after Fulton's successful efforts 
 at steam navigation: Canada's first bank was the bank of Montreal, 
 established by English-Canadians in 1817, with a capital of only a 
 few hundred thousand, and it has increased to Si 2,000,000 in 1880; 
 Montreal's streets w.ere lighted for the first time in 1 8 19; 2 years 
 later the lachitie canal was commenced; in 1850 a provincial ex- 
 hibition was held; in '56 the grand trunk railway was opened for 
 travel; in '60 the Prince of Wales opened formally Victoria 
 bridge, one of the wonders of the world, being 9,000,000 ft. long; 
 in 1760 its population numbered 3,000, in 1880, 150,000; the 
 value 01 its imparts in 1833 were valued at ;^5, 160,000, in 1853, 
 ;ii5 1 6,000,000, and in 1873,^54,287,000; its imports in 1833 were 
 $3475,000, in 1873, Mo.460,000; in 1833 it had 133 sea going 
 vessels, in 1873, 720; it is noted for its excellent quays, which 
 ar J built of limestone and forms a continuous display of masonry, 
 unequalled on this continent; there are at present 5 lines of 
 steamers plying between Montreal and Great Britain; Montreal 
 was not incorporated until 1832; the largest theatre only seats 
 I2C0 people; its largest church 12,000, and is 255 ft. long and 
 has 2 towers 220 ft. high, its bell weighs 29,400 lbs.; Christ's 
 church is 187x70 ft. and its spire 224 ft.; some of the railways 
 are G. T. R. R'y of Canada; South Eastern; Quebec, Montreal 
 and Ottawa; Bo.ston & Montreal Air line; Deleware and Hud- 
 son Canal R'y. Some of its markets cost over ^ of a million 
 dollars; the mills and water power in its vicinity give employ- 
 ment to over 10,000 persons; it has 3 telegraph companys; its 
 street cars pass at intervals of 8 minutes. Letters that I rec'd 
 in 1880 that I forgot to enter in their right places: "Grange, 
 Watcrford, Dec. '80. Dear Arthur, I send you and Tom the 
 history of Ireland, by A. M. Sullivan, M. P.; I recommend you 
 to skip the early part of Irish history and begin about 1000 A. 
 D. Mr. S. as you will perceive is a Catholic, but I think he is 
 very fair ni'"' ded. Notice his remarks about Henry II, and the 
 Roman invaders of Ireland, who got beyond his control and 
 quarreled amongst themselves. Sullivan thinks Henry would 
 have ruled Ireland well if he had time to attend to it. I see col- 
 lections are being made for the Parnell defence fund in Canada. 
 
176 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 A few days ago I attended a meeting where he spoke, 10,000 
 people were present, your cousin, truly, E. Howard." March, 
 1880; extract from letter from uncle Jerrold: "Since I heard of 
 Arthur's mad army freak I thought it right to make enquiries 
 and find that an officers pay is only 5s and 3d. for the first 3 
 years, and that he has to pay 5s. a day for his mess, and that no 
 man can remain in a regiment under ^200 a year. Army life is 
 unhealthy shabby, monotonous, mean and subservient drudgery; 
 in a table published, out of the whole British army only 3 have 
 risen from the ranks to colonel; the pay of a colonel here is little 
 iitore than what a good mechanic can earn. Arthur is not fitted 
 for the army; the polished humbug and flattery of their artificial 
 manners would not suit him; neither would the change of 
 climate, damp beds, poor diet and close air suit his body; he 
 would pine for his farm and freedom and forest and die." Ex- 
 tract from a letter from Uncle Richard: "Would you please try 
 and get some contractor out your way to take a contract of build- 
 ing a barn on the Elms for us; the lowest bidder arouud here 
 was $650. I expect to go out and see you shortly, Arthur can 
 drive back to town with me; when I see you we shall have a 
 long chat about farming prospects." Extract from letter from 
 uncle Jerrold: "And the bright day will come soon when 
 emperors and kings will cease to iet men to cut each others 
 throats and call it heroism. How is your uncle Herbert's 
 daughter? Does she know how to make butter, cheese, and how 
 to manage a dairy? Does she know how to manage -a garden, 
 how to make and mend clothes, cook food properly and keep 
 accounts? If she does not know everyone of these things 1 
 shall not leave her a penny in my will." April, 1880. Dear 
 Arthur: Yours in pencil received; Mr. Murphy who addressed 
 it reduces me in the social scale, he calls me Mr. Goldsmith, 
 putting aside my right to M. D. Mr. i.i only used to address 
 servants or very humble individuals, we are all esquires now a 
 days. In the U. S. they have a good plan of putting the name 
 alone without any appendages. I do not care how I am address- 
 ed, but some people are very sensitive on this head, I trust you 
 will be able to hire young Murphy for us as we like him very 
 well, he is a good, steady fellow. Our neighbor, McLaren, will 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1 77 
 
 not have his line surveyed, will not take a notice and will not 
 allow the surveyor to run the line; this will put us to the trouble 
 of getting an order from the court. There is a good deal of 
 trouble in this world." From uncle Jerrold: "If you have any- 
 thing to do with your father in business transactions, you are 
 forever ruined, both in comfort and prosperity; he is one 
 of these unfortunate and unlucky men that drags everyone 
 down that has anything to do with him; so surely as you let him 
 get his little finger in your affairs he will worry you to death. I 
 have no personal enmity against this unsettled and unmanage- 
 able man, but I should regret to see you involved in the discom^ 
 fort and hardships your mother suffered Never of course see 
 hiai in want of the comforts of ufe, but if you enter into any 
 agreement or have any dealings wi'^h him whatever, I shall only 
 say good bye to all, and you may say good bye all happiness 
 and prosperity. If he makes any proposals to you, just listen to 
 him, but make no decided answer but let him go on until he 
 starts something fresh, and so on." Horton House, Salford, 
 England, Feb. 1880. "Dear Arthur: It was such a pleasure to 
 hear from you, for though 1 am constantly hearing of you and 
 Tom from them all at home, still it is a greater satisfaction to 
 get a letter from yourself sometimes. How improved your farm 
 must be; Mama says she wishes it was near the Elms so that 
 they might see more of you. You must be surprised to see 
 Richard and Clifford hard at work on their farms after seeing 
 them play at farming with you, I suppose that none of you are 
 busy yet, but our land is being prepared already though it is 
 only the loth of Feb ; we are having quite mild, spring like 
 weather; our baby is such a pretty little creature and Constance 
 is delighted to have a sister; she will be baptized, Angelica 
 Theodora; would not your dear mother have liked the names; 
 I feel our children have had a great loss in her removal, for she 
 would have prayed for them. I always think of you, especially 
 in that prayer in the morning service, "And make thy chosen 
 people joyful." 1 trust you and Tom are filled with joy at 
 Christ's love for you. We are going to a drawing-room meet- 
 ing to hear an account of the American church in Asia Minor, 
 It is interesting to hear about christians in all parts of the world. 
 
 23 
 
1^8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Timothy is very fond of travels and has made such a correct 
 map of the latest explorations in Asia. Hoping to hear soon 
 from you, and with Timothy's love and mine, I remain your 
 affectionate cousin, Angelica K. Fothergill." Letter from a 
 former neighLor, Ned Blake, to father: Chohdoes Falls. N. 
 Y. Mr. Howard, my dear friend i sit down to rite you there few 
 lines hoping to find you in good health as it leaves me at pres- 
 ent, we are all well and the children is all well and we got two 
 of them working in the factory and last pay day my oldest boy 
 got $8; we got here all well and like the place well enough so 
 far and I have been working for the farmers ever since. 1 came 
 here and I got $i a day, and write to me as soon as you get this 
 letter and let me know how the foHvs is, and let me the news all 
 about the plase i levt, and let me know how Dinnis Doherty get- 
 ting along and let me know all the particulars about the farm 1 
 and please rite as soon as you can and rite a longer one and let 
 me know all about the country and give my best respects to all 
 who inquire for me and no more at present from your friend Mr. 
 E.Blake. Don't forget to write soon now." "June 1880, Dear 
 Tom and Arthur, you should have asked my consent before buy- 
 ing that land; I again strongly advise you to have nothing to do 
 with it; never go into debt if possible, debt is the ruin of this 
 country and the people in it, it drives thousands annually out of 
 house and home, you are not land speculators, you have 400 acres 
 of land which is ample, more than enough, devote all your ener- 
 'gies to the improvement of that land, make it a good farm in 
 eveiy sense of the word; every cent you can spare for the next 
 10 years invest it on your land. That f^irm, if you continue as 
 •you have been doing, will make a fine estate for you in future 
 years, that will be the pride of your eyes and the joy of your 
 ■heart. You must bear in mind tiiat farming is the most useful 
 and honorable of all professions; there are scarcely any real 
 farmers in this country, the majority are too ignorant and too 
 conceited to be taught. After your place is improved you can 
 sell it and move to another locality. But heretofore it has been 
 all drudgery, now you are only on the threshold of farming and 
 you will take more pleasure and interest in it every year; your 
 land is better and stronger than anything around the Elms." 
 
-HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I79 
 
 Elinbroke, Dec. 1880. "Dear Edmund: I have to apologize for 
 not answering sooner your letter of the 1 2th inst. Was sorry to. 
 hear that your health is worse of late, but hope it will improve 
 and that you will soon come and see us, as I believe the change 
 of air would do you good. Aston, though not a fine or rich 
 country, has at least, pure air and good water,, the two greatest 
 essentials for the health of man. Many thanks for the papers" 
 and pamphlets you so kindly sent us; I agree with you that land- 
 lordism is injurious to the prosperity of a country as is also the- 
 law of entail which is in a great measure the cause of large estates; 
 there cannot be a single doubt that 10,000 acres cun be better 
 cultivated by a large number of small farmers who possessed their 
 land than under the management of a single lanclord; Belgium, 
 France and other countries are clear proofs of this. The law of 
 entail is the chief cause of the formation of two extreme classes 
 of society, one extremely rich and the other extremely poor; this 
 state of affairs should be discouraged by civilized governments, 
 for the great wealth of the rich encourages them in unnecessary 
 extravagance and the poverty of the poor keeps them in ignorance 
 and misery, therefore it is the duty of all governments to maker, 
 laws that give equal opportunities to all glasses of its citizens, the 
 English government is in many ways to blame for the poverty 
 and discontent of many of its subjects in Gt. Britain as well as 
 Ireland and especially for the trouble they have brought upon 
 themselves in governing Ireland unwisely; they have in many 
 ways been unjust to thv) Irish people, and no people can be expected 
 to bear injustice without resistance and rebellion; the interests of 
 the empire demand that better laws should be made in favor of 
 the agricultural classes of the whole united kingdom, which would 
 enable all classes of its subjects to possess the land they cultivat- 
 ed, for even tho the resources of the nation arc great and many 
 agriculture, and it alone is the backbone of its strength as well as 
 that of all other nations, but at the same time all the world can 
 clearly see that Iingland will never dismember her grand empire 
 or lose control of a single foot of her territory as long as she aas 
 power to keep it together; with the distant colonies she must of 
 necessity give tliem Home Rule on account of the distance from 
 the seat of government; with Ireland however it is entirely difter- 
 
l80 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ent, for centuries it has formed a part of the nation and to give it 
 its independence would be to create a menance and source of 
 danejer in close proxi.nity to the seat of government of the em- 
 pire; all that Ireland can ever expect is to have the same privil- 
 eges as all the other subjects of the united kingdom and an equal 
 amount of representation in the British Parliament in propoition 
 to their population as compared with the rest of the population 
 of the united kingdom, and none of the nations of the earth 
 can dare to remonstrate with England for doing so, for 
 there is not a nation of the earth who has not acquired a portion 
 of its territory by unjust conquest, and if all unjustly acquired ter- 
 ritory had to be returned to the origi..al owners it would throw 
 the whole world into a terrible state of confusion, even this great 
 and glorious United States would have to be dismembered and 
 give back the brightest jewel in their posLcission New York to the 
 Dutch, from whom it was unjustly taken by the use of main force 
 by the English. I was surprised to see in an article in the Nation 
 you sent me headed the burglaries iu France, as regards the ex- 
 pulsion of the Jesuits why should that newspaper be indignant at 
 this course of action of the French republic when even the infalli- 
 ble popes have in past y/s expelled the Jesuits from Rome. If 
 such men as Mr. Sullivan and the editor the Nation adorn their 
 religion with falsehood's pride and praise their country beyond 
 the limits of truth and moderation what might we expect from 
 such men if their party once had absolute power; a glance at the 
 earth's history on similar occasions gives us the correct answer; it 
 is not such men as these or the language that they use will free the 
 ish people; if the English are really so 'tyrannical, cruel and 
 unjust;" let the whole nation rebel for if their cause is just they 
 surely ought to have a larger battle field than a cabbage 
 garden. If their cause is just and they are as a people 
 noble and courageous they must and will succeed, but 
 if they hold vile doctrines of intolerance and think more 
 of country heads than educating themselves, and take un- 
 fair advantages to shoot landlords from behmd hedges, and praise 
 the iniquitous doings of their church in former days, and declare 
 that whoever willfully refuses to bow his neck to the slavery of 
 their chuch, is lost; what better can they expect when they de- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. l8l 
 
 fend and praise the tyrannical Pope, who even blessed Phillip 
 and encouraged him to try and take away from the spiritual 
 revolutionists of Fngland the liberty they had gained, and are 
 guilty of as many inconsistancies if not more than those whom 
 they style their oppressors; robbers that are robbed cannot be 
 pitied; assassins that are assassinated deserve the same; tyrants rul- 
 ed by tyrants deserve their fate,for if these tyrants ruled the other 
 tyrants Ireland still would be in a sad state. No people can 
 ever rise to an honorable position among the civilized nations of 
 the earth, until they are a better educated people than thousands 
 of the Irish are to day; their clergy ought to take this matter in 
 hi.nd, and have them taught a little practical and useful knowledge 
 as well as the doctrines of their religion, which would prevent 
 the humiliating disgrace of this intelligent and noble people, of 
 seeing their countrymen becoming the political dupes of such 
 political intriguers as John Kelly of New York, which brings 
 upon this class of their countrymen the contempt of ail respect- 
 able Americans. For some Irish agitators I have great respect, 
 but for such men as Mr. S. and the editor of the Nation I have 
 profound contempt, for these men have thrive parts of bigotry 
 to one of patriotism, and seem to be perfectly incapable of speak- 
 ing on national affairs without being influenced by religious fa- 
 naticism, and led by it to the greatest exaggeration. Mr. S. in 
 the 1 8th chapter of his history says, "Wexford ! Glorious Wex- 
 ford! Now showed that one of Ireland's 32 counties could suc- 
 cessfully engage more than one quarter of England's army; well 
 and bravely Wexford fought that fight; it was the wild rush to 
 arms, of a tortured Peasantry unprepared, unorganized, unarmed." 
 This statement condemns either Mr. S. or the Irish people to de- 
 serve the contempt of all truly honest and brave men; if the first, 
 as a falsifier of his country's history; if the second, as a miser- 
 able people, full of internal dissensions unable to organize any 
 united action against those that they consider as their country's 
 oppressors, for if Mr. Sullivan's statements are true that "the un- 
 organized Peasantry of one country could resist more than one 
 quarter the army of Gt. Britain/' England could not resist the 
 united action of Ireland's 32 counties. I was also much amused 
 at another portion in the same chapter where he says, "the Pope 
 
iS2 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 had been utterly misinformed antl kept in the dark by Ilcnry 
 the 2nd." Now it ai)pears to me that if a Pope can be deceived 
 and fall into error in simple temporal aff.iirs, that he cannot be 
 infallible in .s[)iritual thin<;s, which are so much more difficult 
 and impossible for the finite mind of, even a Pope, to comprehend, 
 also in the same chapter he says, "they are full of the most 
 powerful invocations of the saints, and in all other particulars 
 aie exactly such prayers, and express such doctrines as are 
 taught in the unchanged and unchangeable Catholic church." 
 This false and absurd statement can only be received as truth by 
 men who have been taught from earliest infancy that such is 
 really the case, but never by men who carefully study both sides 
 of a question and impartially use their judgment on it; a clever 
 Catholic of ours defends Mr. S. in the following slippery manner 
 by saying that, "Mr. S. only spoke in referance to the great dog- 
 mas of religion, and had no reference to the discipline of the 
 church." If so he should have said, '"as are taught in the Cath- 
 olic church, whose dogmas are unchangable," but even suppos- 
 ing that this was his meaning, it still contains the same amount 
 of fak-chood-, for the dogma of "thj immaculate conception of the 
 virgin" did not exist in the church but has only been promu'- 
 gated quite recently. The Canadian Pacific Kly. is in course of 
 construction and will be completed by 1 891; the Co. has reed, a 
 bonus of $25,000,000 and 25,000,000 acres of land, man}' think 
 tlie government has acted unwisely in granting such a large mo- 
 noply to the Co. who are to own and work the road forever, and 
 have power to run several lines to any part of the dominion; it 
 has also the power to prevent the building of rival lines for sever- 
 al yrs.; there are advantages and disadvantages on both sides, but 
 if the Co. acts at all justly it will be of great benefit to the country, 
 as the great North-West will be opened up much sooner than if 
 the government had to construct it; this, with tiie Panama Canal 
 are the two great works now in progress in America. Business 
 is briskening up, especially the lumlaer trade in this part of the 
 country, there being as much as 5 shantie.s for making logs in 
 the vicinity of ou>- lots, but the snow is not yet deep enough for 
 lun.bering purpose.'^; wishing you all many happy returns of the 
 sea.'son, I remain, your affec. cousin, A. N. Howard." P^xtract 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1 83 
 
 from letter from Uiiclo Jerrold. *'It appears to mc that a great 
 many Canadians emigrate to tlie United States; I see by tlie 
 census that more emifi;rate from Canada to the U. S. than from 
 En^huid to Canada, but many of these are merely emigrants 
 from luigland to the U. S., who pass through Canada; as far as 
 I could see /vhen I was in the United States there seemed to be 
 more misery and poor creatures in New York City out of work 
 than in London; I meet persons (who have come back) every 
 day who give a bad account of the U. S.; the weather here is 
 good and the harvest and crops a good average wheat and hay 
 are good, both in England and Ireland, but I regret to say 
 the potatoe disease has appeared in Ireland, and they expect a 
 scarcity; this people are unfortunate because the lower class of 
 })cople are an idle, thriftless, quarrelsome superstitious and dirty 
 ])eople, who are difticult to deal with, roving from one place to 
 another and never set their minds on what is before them, but 
 dreaming and planning something fir of{ and out of their reach: 
 they will not pick up half-pence under their noses but look far- 
 ther off for gold, and get nothing at last. The nasty humbug 
 beggars are accusing every on-j in England of their misfortunes, 
 all of their own making; the Yankees seem the only people that 
 can manage to keep them in any decent order; out West they 
 shoot down all men who are quarrelsome, yet the Irish are a 
 curse even to the United States; still with all their bad habits I 
 hold that the Irish are fast improving under English rule, 
 through the country being over populated it is a hard struggle 
 for life. Sir. VV. Raleigh intioduced a curse when he brought 
 into Ireland the potatoe; it is an uncertain and p.^rishable pro- 
 duct, and cannot be used like corn in trade and barter. How 
 sad it is that your cousin Richard is in such delicate health, I am 
 afraid his passing as an M. D. in Montreal, New York and Lon- 
 don was too much for him, but I trust his visit to INIexico will 
 do him good. E. Howard sent me a pamphlet on the treatment 
 of tried prisoners in Ireland; "during cold winter nights prison- 
 ers have had to lie down on the bare prison floors with only a 
 rug that weighed four pounds as a covering." Dr. McDonnell 
 says, "I found prisoners with cold extremities, shrunken features 
 and chattering teeth." If such is the case the prison officials 
 
184 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 are cruel and unprincipled men, Hamburg, Germany, Nov. 1880. 
 "Dear Friends: It is a long time since we heard from each 
 other. Since I last wrote to you I have been married and am 
 living here; I have started an export business and am doing 
 well. How is it that neither of you have taken steps in the 
 matrimonial line? I tell you a man does not know what life is 
 till he is married, especially if he has a good and loving wife; 
 I assure you nothing on earth would induce me to change back 
 to my former life again. How are you getting along now? 
 Drop me a note and let me know about your doings and yuur 
 prospects. With pleasure I think back to the time that I lived 
 at your old homestead, when your good mother was alive, i 
 was then a boy and alone in the world; I shall always feel grate- 
 ful for the kindness I received at your house; let us keep up a 
 correspondence and always remain good friends. You have fol 
 lowed me through my meandering across the Continent of 
 America, through England, Norway and Sweden, and buck 
 again to my native land; so I trust you do not want to drop me 
 now. I am always glad to hear from you and your doings and 
 you have my best wishes for your future prosperity; remember 
 me kindly to all friends. Trusting to hear from you soon and 
 that this will find you in good health, I remain, your sincere 
 friend, Fritz Hogarth." We have beautiful singing in St. Mark's 
 church at Aston, of the lady voices those of Mabel and Florence 
 are the most cultivated and powerful. Have spent several pleas- 
 ant evenings at Meredith's playmg parlor croquet with Mabel, 
 Florence and Maud, they are all charming young ladies; Maud 
 has all the life and spirit of a school girl. Kirwin's lawyer, 
 Limard. sent me a lawyer's letter informing me that Kirwin was 
 about to enter an action against me for defamation of character 
 for $$00; the same afternoon I met the lawyer on the street, he 
 said with a bland smile, Mr. Howard, do you not think you had 
 better come to my office and try to make a compromise with 
 Mr. Kirwin I replied, I have nothing to compromise with Mr. 
 Kirwin. All I said in his store was: Mr. Kirwin you are 
 fortunate in having such faithful clerks, if you can always have 
 such good ones you will make your fortune some day yet. Our 
 hired man had drawn some wood there and the clerks marked 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, I85 
 
 the amounts of each in a pass book as the man arrived, and when 
 the settling day came, Kirwin wanted to pay for two loads less 
 than the amount the clerk had marked down. But I must say, 
 Mr. Limard, that I am exceeding sorry that times are so hard 
 with you that you are reduced to take such a case as this in 
 hand. He replied that I might have to be sorry for myself 
 whea I had the costs to pay. The affair, however, ended there 
 and I firmly believe, to use a common term, that it was a "put 
 up job." 29th Dec. Tom left with Metz Vincent for Chinton, 
 40 miles from here, where there are some rich English farmers, 
 one especially, who ships several tons of maple sugar of his own 
 make to the Eastern U. S. States annually; a few poor French 
 Canadians live there who are mostly day laborers. Clifford C. 
 has been drunk and fired off a revolver about a dozen times as he 
 drove madly along the range; this is the first time an English 
 resident has degraded himself so low ; he has a bruised face and 
 two black eyes through a fight he had with his drnnken French 
 companions. New Years Day, 1881. Spent the day at G's and 
 fathers; went to a church social in the evening at Mr. Hume's the 
 station agent; we had the usual church social refreshments, 
 sandwiches, cake and coffee; Florence sang some very amusing 
 Scotch songs; the evening passed in pleasant conversation and 
 music and closed with "God save the Queen," and "Auld Lang 
 Syne." I never leave the beautiful and elevating society of 
 Florence without having my heart filled with good and noble 
 aspirations; may a Higher Power bless and preserve her from 
 all the greater trials and sorrows of life, and enable me to be 
 worthy of, at least, her friendship by using aright whatever 
 talents I may possess for the benefit of myself and fellowmen. 
 Tom returned next day from Chinton; he gives a horrible des- 
 cription of the manners and conversation of the French families 
 he visited there; even though he is my brother and I have never 
 had any reason to doubt his varacity, I could not believe that 
 fathers and mothers would tolerate such conversation* in their 
 families were i^ not that I have seen the same in a lesser degree 
 in this part of the count; ^', Letter from uncle Jerrold in Feb. 
 1880, that I omitted to place in the journal of that year. "My 
 Dear Arthur: If you could by any possibility become an officer 
 
 24 
 
1 86 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 after many years of humiliation, your position would not be so 
 independent as that you hold to day. I must say I am greatly 
 disgusted at the wicked sentiments and diabolical trash in your 
 letter, where you talk the old rot and base cant of fools about 
 the glory of killing your fellow -creatures. There is no glory in 
 your yearnmg to fight for your country, at least at the present 
 moment in a time of peace; if the interests of your country re- 
 quired it in time of war it would be altogether different; I am 
 sorry to say there are too many young fools like you in this 
 country; take my advice, remain on your farm where you will 
 be more useful as a producer than as an exterminator in the 
 army. Let every cobbler stick to his own last. The man that 
 wearies of the work before him always thinks he can do some- 
 thing better; it is a sure sign he is fit for nothing. I have been 
 in the army myself and I shall never forget how I have been 
 humbled for want of money and also by the petty tyranny and 
 annoyances of those over me, even though I was well introduced 
 and a classical scholar. How I longed for some honest calling 
 to be rid of the swearing, ribald and senseless men about me. 
 If you want to be a hero obey God's commandments and pre 
 duce smiling fields; if you have the material of a hero in you 
 conquer the woodlands and wilderness you possess; there are 
 enough brutes of the hero stamp already — too many ready for 
 bloodshed and battle without another cionkey to stain his hoofs; 
 much better to draw a cart and more pleasing to God and useful 
 to humanity than braying out ridiculous bombasts of war and 
 destruction. Alas ! Poor Mr. H. was always hatching some 
 addled egg of this sort, some petty project out of the usual track 
 of sober business, and so he was always an unsuccessful, 
 troublesome, unhappy man, ever failing, always grumbling, 
 always dependent, and at last a burden on his wife, who had to 
 support him out of her income. Whatever you do I hope God 
 will keep and protect you, your loving uncle, J. B. Goldsmith. 
 What a Iiappy position you both have now, honorable, peaceful 
 and innocent, and how useful to your country; every acre you 
 redeem is wealth and power added to the nation. If you are 
 called on to fight for your country I am sure you will do it, but 
 heaven forbid that you should ever long for a soldier's life as a 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1 8/ 
 
 proffession or means of self glorification." Read a life of Napo- 
 leon, by a Catholic; it gave him great abuse and in a most 
 absurd manner tried to show that his treatment of the Pope was 
 rev/arded by God with his downfall. Went to Melford with 
 Philip and visited our friends there; in its immediate vicinity the 
 country is beautifully hilly; in crossing the range of hills we had 
 a superb view of the village of Melford and the town of Rawlings 
 in the valley beneath, with the stately and placid river of St. 
 David flowing between them Went to the quarry, several 
 miles distance, up hill all the way; they were the steepest 
 hills I ever drove up. The process of quarrying and 
 splitting the slates was interesting to see; there were cranes work- 
 ed by an engine to hoist the slate out of the quarry which is over 
 200 ft. deep and 30(3 wide; I ascended on a load of slate out of 
 the quarry, the wire cable was only i inch thick and vibrated un- 
 pleasantly as the basket swung over the yawning chasm, I felt 
 how foolishly rash I had been when informed that 2 men had been 
 killed and one disabled 3 weeks ago by the breaking of the ca- 
 ble; went to the cemetery and saw some fine monuments but 
 thought at the time that the grandest monument of all is to deserve 
 the gratitude and respect of future generations. Pine has been 
 sold by some of our neighbors at 5 cts. a cubic foot or 25 cts. a 
 standard for the cut (standing in the woods); I am getting more 
 disgusted with the French girls around here; for vulgarity, lack of 
 modesty and frivolty, I have never seen their equal; they may be 
 refined and educated French women in the country districts of 
 Canada, but as yet I have never seen one nor have I seen a French 
 Canadian in the country villages and rural districts who would 
 not use obscene language in the presence of his wife and sisters; 
 some English and Americans are also addicted to this bad habit 
 but I have always noticed that they showed their respect for the 
 gentler sex by abstaining from it in their presence, not so with 
 the French Canadians, fathers, brothers and lovers all freely in- 
 dulge in obscene conversation and jokes without the slightest 
 restraint in the presence of their mothers, sisters, sweethearts and 
 wives. At a social at Meredith's I was greatly ashamed of the 
 awkard manner of the G. boys, who did not know what to do 
 with their hands and feet or take a proper part in the general 
 
1 88 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 conversation; all young men should be able to walk about, sit or 
 stand in a drawing room with a perfect easy and unconscious 
 grace and be able to converse and maintain an interesting conver- 
 sation with ladies, old as well as young; of course there are hun- 
 dreds of other accomplishments a young man should study and 
 acquire but until he acquires these two he can never truly enjoy 
 the society of ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Meredith has commenced 
 a course of very interesting historical readings at the socials on 
 early Canadian history. Extract from a letter wrote to Edmund 
 in Oct. 1880. "It is actually 6 yrs since I last wrote to you, since 
 then we lost our dear mother, the greatest loss a young man can 
 have, a loss which nobody but himself can estimate, he never 
 knows her real value till she is taken from him, and thus I feel if 
 I ever become a good and useful member of society it will, next 
 to a higher power, be all due to the beautiful example and wise 
 instruction I received from my dear departed mother. If mothers 
 only knew how much the civilization of future generations de- 
 pended on their example and teaching they would soon fully ap- 
 preciate the glorious duties they have to perform in the woik of 
 elevating and perfecting the human race by mouldmg, fashioning 
 and encouraging the pliable and delicate minds of the rising gen- 
 erations to love and admire everything that long human exper- 
 ience has proved to mankind as useful and good, and to abhor 
 everything that long experience has shown to be prejudicial to 
 the interests of humanity; how much better and practical this 
 would be than to teach the innocent creatures a lot of ridiculous 
 prayers to saints and catechism composed of a number of imag- 
 inary doctrines; everlasting honor is due to all the christian 
 churches for whatever good they have accomplished by teaching 
 their good and beautiful moral laws and precepts, yet at the same 
 ' time all intelligent men who study the present civilization of the 
 human race come to the positive conclusion that Christianity has 
 only accomplished an atom (as it were) in the glorious work of 
 perfecting the human species, and that the age is fast approach- 
 ing when the most civilized portion of mankind will only teach 
 their children the practical truths of this life and give to them 
 such a perfect system of education that it will develop the phys- 
 ical and mental condition of the human species to the highest 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, I89 
 
 possible state of perfection. I can easily imagine how these noble 
 women and men of future ages will look back with pity and con- 
 tempt on the histories of most of the religious dupes of the pres- 
 ent day and especially on the history of the devout catholics of 
 this province who mumble long and useless prayers.waste precious 
 time in keeping too many holy days and listen to the same mon- 
 otonous latin service every Sunday and to long sermons on the 
 worthless and imaginary doctrines of their church and actually are 
 told to abstain from wholesome meat on Fridays and in Lent, 
 but are allowed to drink poisonous whiskey and chew filthy to- 
 bacco, and their poor little children are in thousands of cases 
 only taught to repeat lon^ prayers and a useless catechism. 
 Truly we can never expect our race to become noble beings 
 through the teachings of churches that tolerate such a state of 
 affairs. Some devout catholics have told me that there may be 
 errors of discipline in their church, but that the dogmas (which 
 are of more consequence) are perfect. Now I would like to 
 know which is of the most importance to mankind, the practical 
 self-evident truths of life, or the imaginary truths of the bogus 
 dogmas that most religions have promulgated. I think that 
 eventually all intelligent and unbiassed men will acknowledge 
 that the essays written on hygiene have done more good for 
 mankind than all the imaginary spiritul dogmas promulgated by 
 the thousands of religions that have existed and do exist on 
 this earth. I see by your letter that you are very patriotic, this 
 is much to your credit as it is one of the noblest sentiments that 
 ever actuated a man's heart; Ireland is certainly in a deplorable 
 condition and in need of legislative measures to redress the griev- 
 ances of the people, but I must also say that many of the demands 
 of Irish politicians are simply absurd namely "that as the Irish 
 people owned all Ireland once all the English should be dispos- 
 sessed of what they have owned hundred of yrs; the government 
 will however, in my opinion, aventually make laws in England 
 as well as in Ireland unfavorable to the preservation of large es- 
 tates; no government should allow to exist the law of entail, this 
 of itself is the chief tause of all the large estates in Gt. BritaiD; 
 it seems to me that strong drink, superstition and ignorance are 
 greater enemies to Ireland than the English people; some Irish 
 
190 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 patriots ought to encourage education for without a liberal edu- 
 cation they will never be able to gain complete liberty or preserve 
 it when acquired. I was greatly interested in the book you sent n^»e; 
 all this author's works are favorites with young people, he is in fact 
 the boys novel writer. I shall never forget how much I enjoyed 
 reading "midshipman easy," small details close the letter; while 
 at Meredith's pursuaded Mr. M, to let Florence teach the school 
 as she will only have to teach her brothers and sisters and that it 
 was the only means we had of keeping our school from falling into 
 the hands of the R. C's. While conversing with Florence and 
 Maud they told me that Mabel W. is teaching Aston school and 
 that she only received $ic^ a month; said it was greatly to her 
 credit also that this was an age in which most people considered 
 it a disgrace to be mere consumers and give nothing in return in 
 which they agreed reminding me of their father's maxim "from 
 the kitchen to the piano." Extract from letter to Ui cle Jerrold, 
 "Does it not appear foolish to make young men study Latin and 
 Greek before they are thoroughly instructed in their native lan- 
 guage, and other studies of more consequence, jespeciaily when 
 thousands ot these young men that .study these dead languages 
 have no use for them in life; if there are fine, eloquent expressions 
 in T-atin or Greek let them be preserved with the languages 
 for those that have the time and think it worth their time to 
 study them, but not to oblige those who have other aims and 
 views, and who wish to make the most of a short existance on 
 our globe, but the opinions of individuals will not be of much 
 avail, it is only when a large proportion of society adopt differ- 
 ant opinions on this subject, then, and then only will this error 
 in modern education cease; in the mean time young men have to 
 submit to the laws of society which are absolute. The improv- 
 •ments on our farms are progressing, this yr. we have sold 2000 
 bushels of hay, and by February we will be clear of all debt, clear 
 of all debt did I say, oh, no, we still have a debt, a debt we can 
 /•never pay, 'tis to you dear uncle, a debt of gratitude, for you have 
 always acted a father's part towards us, without asking any re- 
 turn, or imposing a single condition on us, therefore, dear uncle 
 I trust that we may both be spared for many yrs., you to enjoy 
 life and see the benefit caused by your bounteous hand and gen- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. l8f 
 
 erous heart, and Tom and I to prove our gratitude by our earn- 
 est endeavors to become honorable and useful members of society, 
 and when the dark periods of life appear, for this life is not all 
 sunshine, for all men from the beggar to the king have their 
 faults, difficulties and aspirations, true thoughts will help to sus- 
 tain us with a dear good uncle and loving mother. In a letter 
 from Clifford he says "can neither of you pay me a visit for a 
 couple of weeks, it seems a long time since I saw either of you, 
 we shall have a good time together." Extract from a letter from 
 Uncle Richard, dated i8th Jan. '8i. "Your Uncle Jerrold has 
 censured me for "allowing Arthur to buy that lot" 1 told him I 
 knew nothiiig about it, that the deed had been signed before I 
 knew anything about it; he also asked for information, if it was 
 true that Arthur sold rails to Meredith for half price." I told 
 him that it was not so, some spiteful person must have written 
 falsely to him about it; I regretted to hear that Arthur worked 
 out by the day with your oxen; there should be no necessity 
 for hiring yourselves out to any one, in doing so you lower your- 
 selves very much. I do not agree with your Uncle Jerrold 
 "that Arthur should keep the land" / say get rid of it as quickly 
 as possible^ if you keep it you will have trouble with your Uncle 
 Herbert, besides you have sufficient land for your labor and 
 capital. Richard is staying in t3wn and goes out driving every 
 day." On the 19 Jan. attended the birthday party of Florence 
 and had a most enjoyable time; also attended a general mission- 
 ary meeting at which 7 clergymen of different Protestant denom- 
 inations spoke; while at a Church Social at Mr. Wheeler's, Dr. 
 Bacon, Nicholas and myself conversed by ourselves about the 
 Arlington scandal, he is secretary, and treasurer for the munci- 
 pality, and has been guilty of conduct that has brought shame 
 on his wife and children; a dressmaker of this village has sued 
 him and brought his name before the courts; his wife is nearly 
 broken-hearted; they belonged to a very small but select circle 
 of the best French society in the parish, and he also holds a lu- 
 crative position as inspector of schools; strange to say that every 
 secretary of Aston muncipality, 4 in number, have absconded 
 during the last 25 yrs., and that one has fallen into a worse dis- 
 grace. Montreal, 2nd. Feb. "Dear Tom and Arthur; we shall 
 
igi , HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. \ 
 
 be happy to see either of you at your eadiest convenience, we 
 had a letter from Clifford, who would like very much to have 
 one of you go and see him; I should like one of you to visit 
 Clifford; we have plenty of room in our house now as we have 
 no visitors; poor Richard is very low, it gives him hard work to 
 get up stairs." Five days later he writes, **I enclose you your 
 quarterly allowance, was glad Tom went to see poor Clifford, 
 poor fellow, he must have been lonely out on the farm alone; 
 Richard is very weak, his strength is decreasing. We have had 
 a great deal of trouble heating our house this winter, sometimes 
 too hot, sometimes too cold, also much annoyance with our 
 servants." Extract from letter from Clifford; Feb. 17th. "Tom 
 and I were to the poultry show at Sherman; there was the best 
 selection of poultry I have ever seen; lom will return on Tues- 
 day; you will of course be charmed to hear that I accompany 
 him; the weather has been very pleasant." Horton House, 
 Abbeydale, Salford England. "My dear Arthur, I enjoyed your 
 last long letter, and wonder I have not answered it sooner; I 
 write now especially to wish you and Tom a happy New Year; 
 I was surprised at your not being quite satisfied with your farm 
 life, for certainly the want of congenial society is a serious draw- 
 back, but still it will be possible for you to remove, and I sup- 
 
 i pose your land is increasing every yr. in value; your cousin Ru- 
 pert also wished to enter the army, but he is too old; he has 
 been staying with us lately, after taking his degree at Oxford; 
 he is going to become a barrister; I was pleased to see how 
 strong and muscular he looked, all the students at Oxford take 
 plenty of exercise. The governor of the university made the 
 students make a road down to the river; he said they were tak- 
 ing a great deal of useless exercise, and that they ought to turn 
 their energy to some account, We have had some bitterly cold 
 weather, but are enjoying a thaw now; it came just in time to 
 
 , prevent a water famine in London, for it was feared the main 
 pipe would soon freeze, which it did at Plymouth, causing a great 
 deal of inconvenience. How do you like Rev. L.W,s. 2nd wife? I 
 suppose his little daughter is quite grown up now; do you ever 
 go to hear Cannon Baldwin preach when you go to Montreal? 
 I remember my dearest Aunt Sarah used often to attend his ser- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. I93 
 
 vices and Bible readings, and liked his evangelical preaching so 
 much; it is well to be stirred up and kept in remembrance of 
 spiritual things by some earnest fellow Christian. I wish you 
 could see your sweet little cousins, Constance and Dora, they 
 are sweet, fine childran; Timothy joins me in love to you both, 
 and I remain, your afifec. cousin, Angelica E. Fothergill," I sent 
 a valentine to Florence. While attendmg the service at St. Mark's 
 Church it seemed to me very inconsistent of its members to all 
 reply when the minister read "Thou shalt love thy neigfhbor as 
 thyself," **Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep 
 thy law." Many of them have been saying this for the last 15 
 yrs. and yet they have never made the slightest effort to be of 
 any benefit to the large masses of ignorant and superstitious 
 people about them; and what is worse, by their indifferent, luke- 
 warm, half-hearted religion, bring dishonor on the church to 
 which they belong. Extract from an essay I read at a church 
 social: "I feel confident that you are all interested in the great 
 advance education has made, and is making every day towards 
 that period in our earth's history ,when those who are in ignorance 
 still remain, will have no one but themselves to blame. No el- 
 oquence can convince the world of the benefit of liberal educa- 
 tion better than the world's progress in wealth, inventions and 
 commerce since the reformation; since which period a better and 
 more liberal system of education has been adopted. The world's 
 remarkable progress in civilization since Luther's reformation 
 can only be attributed to two causes, namely, greater liberty 
 and a more thorough education. Though a great and glorious 
 work has been accomplished by them, it is but a fractional part 
 of what they have yet to aomplete; the. tyranny, ignorance and 
 superstition are still ascendant on our earth, casting a gloom 
 over some of its purest portions, they will soon be dispelled and 
 vRnish, as the light that dawned at the reformations spread 
 throughout the earth. This heaven-sent reform has changed 
 the whole course of Christian history — a history that at first was 
 the grandest of the earth, but afterwards became as cruel and de- 
 graded as that of the Pagans, and in many instances more so; 
 oh! so-called Christianity, how many pages of your history., 
 stained and darkened with blood, cruelty and superstition, will 
 
 25 
 
J 94 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 you have to account for in that last and terrible day, whose hor- 
 rors you strive to make your followers fear; yet by your doings 
 and example one might imagine there was not a God of justice, 
 to punish your many crimes. Any impartial person can read 
 with interest, pity and admiration, of the wars and courage of 
 ancient Greece and Rome, for they, in their religion hid a God 
 of war; but cannot read without horror and contempt the history 
 of the Popes and Monarchs of the middle ages and those of the 
 present day, who believe in a gospel of peace, and at the same 
 time allow millions of their fellow-nien to be murdered; and in 
 the middle ages committed atrocities worthy of *'imps" and 
 "devils." We cannot expect the world to hecome civilized at 
 once by the influence of the purer religion of Protestantism. 
 Education and liberty, though their work is slow, it is certain and 
 sure. The greatest religious ecclastical despotisms wilt either be 
 buried or destroyed by them; even in this desert of vulgarity 
 and ignorance their light has begun to dawn. A desert of vul- 
 garity and ignorance ! You may reply, how can this be ? Are 
 we not the subjects of one of the most civilized countries m the 
 world? Are not our neighbors the believers in a church that 
 declares it cannot err in its doctrines ? Do we not live in an age 
 that claims a great advance beyond the savage age that's past ? 
 How then can you prove that we live in a desert of vulgarity 
 and ignorance ? Very easily my friends, very easily. Have you 
 ever taken a tour throughout this province, and seen this people 
 in a semi-barborous state, with their intellects darkened by the 
 power of superstition and ignorance ? have you ever gone to one 
 of their school examinations ? where you would see a sight that 
 would astonish you; where you would see school examiners 
 listening to the teacher examining her scholars; in the gravest 
 manner possible, and in most cases give a satisfactory report of 
 their progress; yet these men could no more read or write than 
 they could decipher the hieroglyphics on an ancient Egyptian 
 tomb. To the Cure of course it was a matter of indifferance; he 
 is satisfied as long as the scholars can repeat their prayers, at a 
 speed that defies the most skillful phonographer to report them; 
 he does not even take the trouble to have the prayers pronoun- 
 ced properly, but allows the scholars to disguise their language 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, I95 
 
 with a squeaking twang, somewhat like that of a heathen Chinee, 
 If you have noticed this system of education in our benighted 
 province, you will also no doubt, have noticed its effect on the 
 inhabitants, and cannot have failed to have noticed the manner 
 in which they patronize art, and that in most cases the produc- 
 tions of their artists are nothing better than horrid daubs. Per- 
 haps on entering the house of a well-to-do farmer your curiosity 
 was aroused at seeing a picture of an ordinary looking man sit- 
 ting on the clouds, and made a disrespectful remark about it, 
 thinking that it was merely a representation of "old father time,'* 
 when to your astonishment the lady remarks: "oh no J that's a 
 picture of God." I can well imagine your reply: "what! the great 
 Jehova ! The Almighty Creator of our universe ! it cannot be; 
 pardon me madam, but you must be mistaken. To which she 
 replies: "well sir, perhaps it is not exactly like him, but I don't 
 see any harm in it, it makes us think the oftener of him." On 
 leaving that house a total change takes place m your mind; you 
 begin to feel contempt and disgust for the so-called "perfect 
 church," and if you have travelled amongst the ruins of ancient 
 Greece and Rome, or seen som^e of their noble looking Gods, 
 you would no doubt exclaim: "those noble Pagans of ancient 
 days were able to make finer and nobler looking Gods than the 
 ChristianPagans of the present day;" as our neighbors are chiefly 
 coniposed os this class, it will cause no surprise here this evening 
 when I say that I cannot count a single individual of education 
 among them, until I became acquainted with your interesting 
 community, which appears to me as an oasis, when compared 
 with the surroundings; here are at least a people that can speak 
 their native language correctly without using those expessions 
 that would arouse the indignation of Lindley Murray at seeing 
 the beauty of language disfigured, that he in its purity had ever 
 sought to preserve; here youth, manhood and old age, meet to- 
 gether for their mutual edificarion and pleasure; here a few united 
 families established their church under the greatest difficulties; 
 a church that has always uph(jld the glorious principles of liberty 
 and education, a church that where ere its steeples are seen civ- 
 lization and prosperity reign; when the influence of our church 
 is more extended, and more (:ommunities like this established, 
 
I96 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. k * 
 
 then will education's civilizing influence have power to do its 
 noble work. Ladies and gentlemen, as lovers of liberty and 
 progress, we have a great and glorious work to do, in advancing 
 the interests of humanity in the land in which we live, if we, as 
 Protestants with all our greater advantages of superior education, 
 and greater spiritual liberty, are not guided by our better sen- 
 timents, we can never expect our fellow-countrymen to adopt 
 our more rational and civilized religion, we should not be sat- 
 isfied with having hired missionaries to enlighten the world, but 
 every one of us that loves truth and humj.nity, should by our 
 noble and useful lives be missionaries in the grand work of lib- 
 erating all the spiritual slaves on this earth, by extending to them 
 the hand of fellowship, and inviting them to come forth out of 
 their servile and debasing spiritual serfdom, under the despotism 
 of a fraudlent priesthood, and live in the glorious liberty and be 
 guided by the noble spirit that every man posesses in an unde- 
 veloped state, let us not be deceived as our Catholic neighbors 
 are, by thinking that our religion is perfect, and that its truths 
 are alone sufficient to convert all men, and eventually enable it 
 to become all powerful on this earth, for nothing is more absurd 
 and impossible; if Protestantism does not continue the grand 
 work it has commenced, but advocates merely a milder form of 
 spiritual serfdom than that of Catholicism, and attaches more im- 
 portance to vague and uncertain, supposed to be revealed truths, 
 than to the practical and self-evident truths of life, it, like all 
 other religions, will be scornfully rejected and overthrown, by 
 the more civilized men of future ages. The superior religion of 
 Christianity triumphed over Judaism, and the more rational re- 
 ligion of Protestantism has made a more wonderful progress 
 than that of Catholicism during the short period it has 
 existed, but if its grand army comes to a halt in the 
 march of freedom and human liberty, hundreds of thou- 
 sand's of humanity's patritots will step out of the ranks 
 and continue marching onward and upward until they 
 become the freeest and grandest creatures of God's creation; 
 let us be in the advance guard of this glorious (inited army (that 
 is to be) and become protestants in the truest sense of the word, 
 protesting not only against the errors of Catholicism but against 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. IQ/ 
 
 everything we consider erroneous. In a great measure the en- 
 lightenment of the French in this province depends on the exam- 
 ple of the English Canadians, therefore we should strive our ut- 
 most by useful and noble lives to win their admiration and respect, 
 which would do more good than the employment of hundreds of 
 missionaries. The government of the country cannot be expected 
 to accomplish much for the advancement of the people or to adopt 
 a compulsory national system of education for the very reason 
 that the majority of the members of parliament are the slaves of 
 the clergy and subservient to their will, from this it might appear 
 that there was little hope of bettering the people's condition but 
 on reading history we find that there are two ways by which ec- 
 clessiastical tyranny is generally overthrown, firstly by rebellion 
 against the unprincipled priesthood whose chief aim is to keep 
 the people in a state of spiritual subjection, or secondly thro the 
 priesthood being obliged to encourage among their followers a 
 more liberal education through the pressure brought to bear on 
 them by the liberal influence of protestantism and infidelity. In 
 the revolution in France in 1789 we have a remarkable instance 
 of the desperation and cruelty to which an ecclesiastically and po- 
 litically oppressed people can be driven by the tyranny of their 
 spiritual and temporal rulers; tho the deeds of the revolutionists 
 were bloody and cruel no impartial person can deny the fact that 
 altogether it has been a blessing rather than a curse to France; it 
 was as a terrific thunder storm, frightful at the time but an absolute 
 necessity to clear away the enormous clouds of ignorance and 
 superstition that hid in darkness the whole of France; since then 
 France has become a grander and happier nation and ranks to day 
 (notwithstanding its infidelity) as the most civilized of all the cath- 
 olic countries of the earth; in Italy also the grand desire in the 
 hearts of the people for liberty upset the infallible tyrant from his 
 temporal throne, since then that unfortunate nation has begun to 
 recover some of its former greatness; all those who have studied 
 this ^question acknowledge that such revolutions as the above 
 would in all probability have occurred in Canada had it not been 
 taken from France by England, to use a vulgar but very forcible 
 expression the clergy under English rule "could not get enough 
 rope to hang themselves," as they did in Italy and France, for it 
 
198 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. » v 
 
 was quite natural for them in adopting a policy for the church to 
 retain the sympathy and affection of the people as much as pos- 
 sible by a wise and judicious policy and besides they knew unde: 
 a heretic government they could not t/ranize over the people as 
 under devout Catholic governments which are very often the ser- 
 vile servants of the church; in such countries they can of course 
 assume a more domineering policy; it was also quite natur?! when 
 a heretic power had conquered the country, for the people them- 
 selves to be fillcj^ with thoughts of how they might preserve 
 "their religion, their language and their institutions," instead of 
 joining their fellow-countrymen across the ocean in the cry of 
 "Liberty, Fraternity and Equality." Thus through our conquest 
 of the country almost all hopes were cut off of the people ever 
 freeing themselves from priestly rule by rebellion, for as I have 
 already said its conquest by heretics created a bond of sympathy 
 between the priesthood and the people. Thus the chief ho[>c of 
 the improvement and enlightenment of the French Canadians 
 depends on English influence and example, which, alas! many 
 Englishmen, unworthy of that honorable name, have not given 
 to the Canadian people, but by their despicable lives have 
 brought shame and dishonor on their religion and nationality, 
 and many Frenchmen are, through their inconsistencies, kept 
 from professing Protestantism which is now the purest form of 
 christanity. In fact the followers of Protestantism can never ex- 
 pect to do away with priestly tyranny, superstition and ignorance 
 until the majority of them make the grand resolution to become 
 individually the friends of humanity by becoming the most 
 noble men and women on the face of the earth. There is, 
 however, already a visible improvement throughout the province; 
 the priests are obliged to encourage a more liberal system of 
 education, fearing that their children would attend our schools 
 and colleges. That day is fast approaching when the education 
 of our French Canadian countrymen will consist of something 
 more than counting beasts and saying prayers. They have 
 already several fine schools and colleges and will ere long be 
 able to compete with u? in the race for knowledge as their 
 mother country does with ours across the ocean's wave. Some 
 expressions I have used in connection with the religion of our 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1 99 
 
 Canadian friends may seem rather impolite and appear to them 
 as an insult, but I do not mean it thus and would not intention- 
 ally hurt their feeling;s, and I am certain if they try and show us 
 the errors of our religion we will not be offended, but will be; 
 grateful to them for showing us whatever errors it may contain, 
 for we all acknowledge that it is far from being perfect. We 
 should all remember that this is not an age in which errors can 
 be hid, whether they be spiritual or temporal they are certain to 
 be found out by the light of civilizatio i and judged accordingly, 
 by mankind. We should not be offended at what another says 
 against us, if it be true the remark ought to do us more good 
 than harm, if not true our conduct and lives ought to be suffi- 
 cient to prove it false, in which case our accuser should rather 
 have our pity than our hatred. Thus 1 would have our Cana- 
 dian friends act. Let them study their own history and ours 
 impartially and consider the low condition of the great portion of 
 their people, and if they can prove that my statements are false,, 
 in that case I deserve their just contempt; if not let them do. 
 away with those doctrines and customs that dishonor both their 
 religion and nationality, and join their Saxon brothers in the- 
 grand work of liberating mankind from the most objectionai 
 features of the thousands of religious sects that exist at the 
 present day. Ladies and gentlemen, should not we try and 
 accomplish our fractional part in this grand work, by earnestly 
 striving to put to a nobler use all our spare time than we now 
 make of it, and unite with our French friends in forming a liter- 
 ary association with a public library containing all the best mag- 
 azines and newspapers as well as most of the best books on the 
 most useful subjects of the day. A library that our village 
 would be proud of, which would preserve many of its young 
 men from the low degrading influence of bar-rooms, and many of 
 its young ladies from wasting many hours in reading sickly, 
 sensational novels. Will not ours be the deepest of ingratitude 
 if we do not take advantage of the glorious opportunities that 
 our age affords us — an age of cheap literature, clever authors, 
 eloquent orators and excellent newspapers, that are capable of 
 imparting knowledge and pleasure at the same time; yet if we do 
 not avail ourselves of these, and pass through life in a careless, 
 
20O HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 sluggish way, in senseless conversation and silly games, without 
 a single aspiration to become nobler men and women than our 
 ancestors, will we not deserve the everlasting contempt of future 
 generations." It was well received by those present and did not 
 ^ seem to give oftense to three French Catholics who were there; 
 several days after this 1 canvassed and had 23 gentlemen and 19 
 ladies subscribe their names to the following document: "We, 
 the undersigned, hereby agree to pay an entrance fee of ^i and 
 a monthly fee of 25cts. to form a literary association in this vil- 
 lage, the entrance fee to be paid at a public meeting to be held 
 on the 20th of March, ii?8i,at the English schoolhouse, at which 
 the laws and by-laws for it will be made." Of the names 8 were 
 French gentlemen and 4 French ladies. Have been working for 
 Houde of late at ;$5.50 per week and board myself. He ;ind Mr. 
 Frechette are making squared timber for building purposes and 
 fence rails to sell in the cleared country about St. Jean; have 
 also let out contracts for squared timber at i ^^cts. per ft. lineal 
 measure. While at Houde's Mr. Houde made a remark to his 
 wife at which all his family, sons and daughters laughed. It was 
 of the vilest description, language that it would be imposssble 
 for me to give the reader an idea of; I would not have thought 
 that Houde would utter such language in the presence of his 
 wife and daughters, as he is considered a very respectable and de- 
 vout catholic by the majority of Canadians in these parts. Saw 
 the announcement of Richards death in the newspaper; I need 
 hardly say how sorry we were for he ever was a kind, dear and 
 good cousin to us. Tom and I wrote uncle Richard as follows: 
 "Dear uncle, I cannot tell how surprised and grieved I was to 
 hear of the death of Richard; none bnt those who knew him in- 
 timately can know how great your loss has been. Though 
 death has removed him from the busy .scenes of life, and time 
 may shroud his name with oblivion, the memory of his name 
 will always live in the hearts of his friends, who could not do 
 otherwise than love and respect him. Trusting that you 
 will all receive consolation from that unfailing source 
 from which it may be obtained. I remain, ever your 
 afftc. nephew, A. N. Howard." "Dear Arthur, I received your 
 kind letters of condolence on the de;ath of your dear cousin, al- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. . 201 
 
 though I have been expectin^r the blow for the last 3^ yrs., yet 
 when it came we felt the shocV severely; dear Richard's end 
 w<is peace, he died in the Lord, with the sure and certain hope 
 of the resurrection from the dead, throui^h the redemption of our 
 blessed Siviour; may God Lless you b3tli is the constant prayer 
 of your athicted uncle, R. I. Goldsmith." VVaterford, 5th March. 
 "Djar Tom, I had a long letter from your fither a couple of 
 weeks since; he commenced in March l88o, and finished in March 
 1 88 1, in the last part of his letter h^ informs me that he received 
 a letter froin Ethel Ch irchill, suggesting her brother Beaufort 
 going out to help him, and leirn farming, and that he would 
 write to him and was pleased with the idea, I, however do not 
 approve of the movement, but am powerless in the case; Beau- 
 fort has been out of employment for the last 12 months, business 
 got damped by the land league and Home Rulers, but there is 
 not much work in him anyway, and I doubt much if he is likely 
 to do any good, or make himself useful to your father, but as 
 you may not have heard of the matter, I thought it well to ap- 
 prize you, as it seems from Ethel Church's note, that he offers to 
 give Beaufort half his cattle and land, and teach him farming; 
 there was some correspondence carried on previously, but I did 
 not expect it would amount to anything, now however it seems 
 settled and I cannot prevent it; when his mother, your aunt, Anne 
 Churchill, was alive, she asked me to take charge of what prop- 
 erty she had, and I have had it in charge ever since, and have 
 been endeavoring to make the children do something for them- 
 selves, but they do not seem to have any life in them, and are 
 living on the interest of the money their mother received at the 
 death of her husband, who was, as I suppose you have heard, a 
 mirine surveyor for the British government at Canton, China. 
 We are having just noNV a run of very keen Easterly winds which 
 are very trying, almost worse than frost and snow; Edmund says 
 he will write to you shortly; I suppose you heard of the terrible 
 death of your uncle Capt. Richard Howard; fell between his ship 
 and the pier in one of the East Indian Ports, and was crushed to 
 death; his wife is now stopping in London with a married sister, 
 who is not very strong. We were surprised to hear from your 
 father that Arthur had been trying to enter the army, I should 
 
 26 
 
202 . V HISTORY OF. THE. FRENCH IN, AMERICA. 
 
 »• 
 
 not have thought an energetic young man like him would like 
 a profession with s© much idle duty as t;he army.has now — ^and 
 I hope may remain so; in the tnial and, man,yfacture of arms 
 there is interesting and valuable progress going, pn tp encourage 
 ihterest in an mtelligent mind; war is brutal in all that belongs 
 to it. I am writing for this post and must conclude; yours affec- 
 tionately, Timothy S. Howard." On the 20th March I had the 
 schodl-house in Aston prepared for the meeting of the literary 
 association, that was to be; only five that had subscribed their 
 names arrived, and immediately comtpenced to run down the 
 project, offering as many objections as they could, and Mr. Wheel- 
 er, our school trustee said they would charge ;$25 a yr. rent for 
 the hall over the school-house; I used all the persuasion I could, 
 but could not get them to organize, although there arrived suf- 
 ficient to do so; there is great scandal about St. George and his 
 wife, who are always quarrelling and making peace again, this 
 time St. George has engaged a lawyer and his wife has returned 
 home to her mother. "The Elms, March 20th. Dear Tom and 
 Arthur;' I must apoligise for not having written to you sooner. 
 As you suppose, I got a great shock when I arrived in town and 
 uras ni^t by Aunti Prim who told me that poor Richard had died 
 that morning) although I knew that he was very ill but I had 
 np idea he was as bad as that, it must haye been a great relief to 
 him,'he suffered so much and so long; we miss him very much; 
 It seems as^'tif there was a blank that can never be filled; what a 
 ibold morning it was when I left your place, 17 deg. below zero; 
 We nave been having very good \yeather for sugaring here lately, 
 the roads are almost bare in many places; wagons are used be- 
 tween here and Sherman; there is very little frost in the ground; 
 While in Montreal i of your horses was drowned in drawing 
 togs on the ice down the river, what a disgraceful thing, the 
 assassination of the Czar of Russia; it was doing evil with the idea 
 that good might come of it. The Land League appears to be 
 Subsiding, the Coercion bill seems to have frightened them into 
 th'ore moderate language. I got a great bargain the other day, 
 3 tons of straw for ;g>5; straw is ;^6 a ton at Sherman; could not 
 Arthur pay me a visit in the beginning of April; must now close 
 as it is bed time; yonr affec, cousin, Clifford H. Goldsmith/' 
 
HlfetOBiV OF THE FRENCH L^ AMERICA. 203 
 
 . ' . - , ,'■■'' .■•■.' 
 
 Wboden troughs are used in the old system of making sugar, 
 and the trees are tapped by making a small sloping cut in the 
 tree with an axe, and placing a '^spout" underneath it; the boil- 
 ing is done in i»'on kettles over an open wood fire; when the sap 
 
 ' begins to ascend in the maples, which is generally in the middle 
 but often in the first part of March, the trees are tapped; the 
 woodeh troughs are easily got at, as they are always stood up 
 by the tree the Autumn before; after the trees are all tapped, the 
 sugar maker cleans out all rust out of his kettles by polishing 
 them with a brick, and clears away the snow from the fire place 
 which has two forked posts on either side, with a pole across, 
 from which the kettles are hung; Pine, Balsam, Ash, Brasswood 
 and beech, are the usual woods used for troughs; a good work- 
 man can make 50, but the average is 30 per day; the camp is 
 generally built in the center of the sugar bush, there is also a 
 revolving post with an arm fastened to it, on which the sugaring 
 off kettle is hung, so that immediately when the sugar is finished 
 it can be swung off the fire; large, heavy logs are placed on tl;ie 
 outside edge of the fire, and 4 ft. of cordvvood burnt between them; 
 "tapping" with an axe, kills the trees quicker, than; with an 
 auger, the cut also being exposed to the sun dries up quicker; 
 the camp must always be built close to water, in some, cases it 
 is a mere shelter of boards, in others^ a small log building; a dis- 
 advantage of troughs is, that much sap is wasted. by the^n-yp- 
 setting when the snow melts, also in emptying it into the buck- 
 ets, when gathering it, 3 troughs are placed to a large treci, 2 
 to an average one. and i to a small one; the means of holding 
 the sap at the can^p, is generally a long trough, and sometimes 
 in hogsheads; a piece of coarse canvass is generally used,, to 
 strain the sap, and a piece of flannel to strain the syrup; the sap 
 is generally gathered by hand, hut often with a horse and sleigh 
 fastened on it; a piece of fat meat is hung over the bqiling syrup 
 to prevent it from boiling over; eggs are often used to purify the 
 
 ' syrup, by raising a scum on its surface, which is skimmed off, 
 the boiling syrup is tested by blowing it through a small hole 
 
 ■ in a wooden "pallet;" "not quite done yet, but soon will be, he 
 mutters," after a few minutes he tries it again, and a white silken 
 bubble floats upon the air. The boys now get tins of snow and 
 
204 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 prepare to make "wax," as it is called here by the Enfrlish; they 
 pour some syrup on the snow but it does not crystalize, after a few 
 trials it partially crystalizes, and makes "wax," the sugar maker 
 judges when it is sufficiently boiled by testing the brittleness of 
 the wax, and when finished is swung off the fire and gently 
 stirred till it is partly crystalized and is then put in moulds. Old 
 Brodeur has suffered great agony for several days past from in- 
 flammation of the bowels, yet his family sent first for the priest 
 and for the dotcor several hours after. On the doctors arrival 
 he indignantly said, had I been sent for a few hours sooner I 
 could have saved his life. The poor old fellow looks ghastly, 
 
 • the cold sweat of death is on his brow, his hands are ciasped in 
 ■ agony, his features pale aad shrunken, without doubt death has 
 
 ' him in its grasp; he is unconscious and raving and strange to say 
 ! he raves in English, on accouiu I suppose of his having an Eng- 
 lish nurse. His wife who has been on a visit in the U. S. arrived 
 in the morning just as he died; the son started off immediately 
 for the essentials for the funeral. Many a pleasant hour have I 
 ' passed with the poor old fellow in listening to his early experi- 
 ' ences in the backwoods; he was a jolly, honest and liberal old 
 i man, remarkably so considering the superstition and ignorance 
 
 • he was surrounded with all his life. That night I went to his 
 wake; there were about forty people praying wiien I entered; I 
 knelt with the rest; La Berge lead the prayers at such a break- 
 neck pace that even the most skiliful linguist could not tell 
 whether they were the prayers of Frenchmen or the Hottentots 
 
 • of Africa. La Berge went as' ep by the stove- when the prayers 
 ^' were over; Joe Vincent applied a heated poker to his bare feet, 
 
 the effect was startling, La Berge sprang to his feet with a vol- 
 •• ley of oaths in French and English; he used the most terrible 
 '' French oaths from "twist God" to "d — d virgin." The first ap- 
 *-' peared to me more ridiculous than terrible as it merely meant 
 ' the twisting of a piece of blessed bread, but to an R. C. who 
 believes it to be truly the body of God, it is certainly an awful 
 oath. The females constantly indulged in such choice expres- 
 sions as "My God, Savior of God, Holy Spirit, Holy Virgin, 
 etc.," in fact the general conversation was but a few degrees bet- 
 ter than that which might be expected of savages. The next 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 20$ 
 
 timp they prayed, La Berge, the blasphemous wretch had the 
 audacity to ask for mercy on the dead man's soul, when his own 
 liad most need of it. The on.'y appearance that a dead man was 
 in the house was that white sheets hung from the ceiling around 
 the bed and one over the corpse with a gigantic cross upon it. 
 Suppressed laughter and course language were indulged in all 
 evening. The corpse was put in the coffin at 3 o'clock; they 
 were going to put i!" on the baie shavings in the coffin till one of 
 the Carmicheals suggested that a white sheet be thrown over 
 them. Mrs. H. came and took a feather pillow from under his 
 head and replaced it with a straw one; this v/as very practical, 
 but I think it .showed a want of feeling. Next evening as the 
 funeral passed the country people took off their hats. I was 
 greatly disgusted at the short work the priests made of the cere- 
 mon)' over the remains of this worthy old man as compared with 
 the ponip and ceremony cf Mrs. D's funeral; but of course this 
 religion is a lucrative trade and must be carried on on a strictly 
 business-basis. I did not care about his being deprived of pomp 
 and ceremony, but what filled my soul with indignation was the 
 thought that this so-called priest of God will mutter no long 
 prayers for the repose of this man's soul, but chanted masses 
 and repeated long prayers for Mrs. D's soul because her family 
 could pay ;$200 for ther Does the reader think that a just God 
 will allow these ;$200 [ ayers to cause him to make a distinction 
 between those two souls; I think not and cannot believe that any 
 intelligent being (except blind with fanaticism) believes that a 
 man's condition in future life can be benefitted by the prayers of 
 a fellow finite man and still much less by prayers that are pur- 
 chased by filthy lucre. And yet it was only a short time ago 
 that 1 read in an Eastern newspaper that the catholics were work- 
 ing in the greatest harmony with the other christian sects in the 
 good work of trying to convert the "Mormons." whose religion 
 in my estimation is in most ways infinitely superior to Catholicism 
 and more in accordance with the scriptures, and A^hose people 
 are in education, thrift, industry, honesty and temperance vastly 
 the superiors of all the catholic nations of the earth wherever 
 that dogmatic church receives unqestioning obedience from lis 
 children. I cannot hc'p thinking how absurd and inconsistent 
 
206 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN N\MBRICA, 
 
 .•■/'•.... „ ■ . ' 
 
 it is for some of the leading men in this great republic td enter- 
 tain such a bitter hatred and foolish fear of the Mormon church, 
 and at the same time maintain neutrality and in many cases ex- 
 hibit friendship towards Catholicism, which with its barbaric 
 ceremonies and awful power is a far more dangerous enemy than 
 Mormonism ever could be to civilization. Is it wisdom or 
 justice for such a paper as the Salt Lake Tribune \o make such a 
 clamor about the danger of Mormonism and totally ignore the 
 frightful increase of Romanism which is far more despotic in 
 giving religious liberty to its followers th-^n is the Mormon 
 church. The gentlemen of the Tribune well know that no man 
 can think for himself on religion in the Catholic church; the 
 doctrines have all been cut and dried by its dogmatic councils, 
 and have to be swallowed without questions by its followers on 
 pain of being expelled as heretics. Surely if the Tribune wishes 
 to defend the true interests of humanity it ought to attack the 
 abuses that exist in other churches as well as those which it 
 claims exist in the Territory of Utah. If the Mormon church 
 has a hierarchal form of government of apostles, patriarchs, 
 bishops, elders, teachers and deacons, it should be remembered 
 that they are manly enough to earn their own living and preach 
 the gospel according to scripture, "without money and without 
 price;" nor do they wear gaudy robes, nor have the people to 
 kneel before them as they pass through the streets as is the case 
 in some countries of Europe and which I have myself witnessed 
 in Quebec. In fact the Mormonchurch might well be called a 
 spiritual republic, as all men possessing ability have the oppor- 
 tunity of being elected to some office in the church, and I have 
 noted with great pleasure the treatment the poorer classes of the 
 people receive when they call on the heads of the church, there 
 is none of that false sanctmonious dignity that is affected by the 
 catholic bishops I have seen; nor is their any of that cringing 
 reverent awe in the faces of their visitors that I have seen in the 
 miserable, priest ridden slaves of Quebec while they stood in the 
 presence of their bishop. But I do not want the fair minded 
 reader to misunderstand me as will the reader of a narrow mind, 
 who will at once come to the conclusion that these favorable com- 
 parisons are drawn merely as a matter of policy, but I merely do 
 
HISTORV OF. THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 20/ 
 
 it in justice and out of admiration for this conrageous people 
 who have thrown down the^jauntlet to the whole world in de- 
 fense of their^convictions, and'Ifeel confident that a people who 
 have saffered and accomplished as much as they have are 
 capable of exerting a great and powerful influence in this earth 
 therefore I wo.uld like to see this people happy, 
 united and animated with a worthy ambition and stern 
 determination to prove to the world the falsity of the 
 slanders that have ^cen heaped upon them by sects and 
 individuals who are in many ways inferior to them and more ad- 
 dicted to ridiculous and worthless pomp and ceremonies than the 
 Saints, which appears to me attach more importance to the prac- 
 tical truths of life than many of the other religious sects; in fact 
 what I read of this people before coming here I imagined I would 
 find one of the most superstitious and degraded class- of people 
 of all the christian churches, and to my most agreeable astonisl 
 meat I found a people vastly the superior of the great majority of 
 the catholic nations of the earth; this superiority appears to me 
 of still greater credit to the priesthood of this church v/hen I con- 
 sider that a great many of the Saints are composed from the poorer 
 inhabitants of Europe, and when I have entered the neat and com- 
 fortable homes of these emigrants Irom all parts of the world and 
 heard from their own lips how prosperous and happy they were, 
 and attended their mutal improvement associations and saw young 
 ladies ahd gentlerqen address the audience extemporaneously on 
 scientific and literary subjects I thought to myself how appropri- 
 ately the words of that great teacher Christ could be applied to 
 some of the bigoted sects and individuals that are trying to con- 
 vert them: "Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam that is in thine 
 own eye and then thou shalt see clearly to remove the mote from 
 thy brothers." I trust however when I bring before the public 
 the history of Utah and Mormonism I am now engaged on to 
 clearly show from an impartial gentile point of view how many 
 pages of this people's history deserves the respect and admiration 
 of the world." On our way back from the funeral met the funeral 
 of a man that died of delirium tremens; have commenced draw- 
 ing manure to Oak Hill with our oxen, Tom is drawing rails for 
 Houde with his team. The Nilhists of Russia threw glass bombs 
 
208 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 at the Czar and nearly blew off both his legs, they were ampu- 
 tated but he died, 20 persons were killed and wounded. Ilanlan 
 the Canadian oarsman is champion of the world; at times I feel 
 disgusted with myself for having remained so long in the con- 
 taminating society of this place, however as there is no possibility 
 of my entering the army 1 will now devote my life in trying to 
 make farming a success, that is if our kind uncles do not interfere 
 too much with the management of our farms, if they do 1 shall 
 abandon farming and study for some profession. 24th March took 
 a trip to Quebec, after I changed cars at Rawlings I took notes 
 of the scenery, country iiilly, spruce and balsam, second growth, 
 not a picturesqe landscape by any means, many of the clearances 
 are newly cleared, some rocky ledges appear through the hills, 
 woodland on the right clearances on the left, no primeval forest 
 in sight all second growth, forest and clearances intermixed, all 
 the clearances have stumps in them, some neat clapboard houses, 
 forest on both stdes, railway passes through a valley, very unin- 
 teresting country, second growth witfi strips of clearances here 
 and there, the houses are chiefly frame and are better than the 
 log houses of far back settlements, a very high range of hills on 
 the left, a narrow strip of clearance on both sides, pass the first 
 brick house, large railway cuttings, clearances and woodlands 
 interspersed, a beaver meadow and small stream, brushwood on 
 both sides, clearances with a few dilapidated houses and nice 
 looking farms, second growth again, a few clearances with aver- 
 age looking farms and a distant view on the left of a long low 
 range of hills, farm houses, deep railway cutting, land newly 
 cleared, some house in them painted a flaring red. second growth 
 and clearances interspersed, ravine and hills with little rills, edges 
 of ground on either side obstruct the view, country newly cleared, 
 it would make-rfine farming country if properly developed; arrived 
 at Waterford 72 m. from Pt. Levi; saw mill, bark, ties and cord- 
 wood near it, some fine views of hills in the distance, underbrush, 
 country much wilder, a few clearances, country hilly, medium 
 looking farm houses, a small stream, light sandy soil, hardly any 
 stones; red seems the favorite color with farmers in these parts; 
 tumbling down looking farm houses, a thick growth of balsam 
 trees about 30 ft. high, view of hills in the distance, there are a 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 209 
 
 great many cuttings on this line, a few clearances, view obstruct- 
 ed on either side by rising ground, miserable looking clearances 
 and brushwood intermixed, view of church steeple in the far dis- 
 tance, miserable clearances, dilapidated houses, brushwood.cleared 
 summit of a hill in the far distance with houses on it; a drunken 
 man has raised a row in the car, the air is full of tobacco smoke, 
 the floor thickly covered with tobacco spits and half intoxicated 
 lumbermen are yelling what I expect they imagine "are the sweet- 
 est songs imaginable " yet poor but respectable farmers wive§ 
 have to sit for hours in such an atmosphere as this dreary unin- 
 teresting country; it is amusing to hear the loud and animated 
 conversation carried on by the people, lumbermen relating their 
 experiences last season during their lumbering operations on some 
 of the large rivers in the province, old farmers with their short 
 clay pipes, home spun clothes and dog skin caps discussing pro- 
 foundly the latest politics and a few well to do commercial French- 
 men with that air of dignity that shows how much superior they 
 consider themselves to farmers and laborers; numerous fine farms 
 on the right, desolate wild country on the left, country now more 
 level covered with tamarac and poplar second growth, clearances 
 and brushwood alternately in the distance, a ridge of hills with 
 houses on it, scrubby brushwood, a small sugar bush with a farm 
 house, second growth, dreary swampy country covered with tam- 
 arac and poplar; arrive at St. Andre, has a bark factory, a small 
 river runs through the village, has some very nice houses and a 
 few city-like houses, ridge of hills on the right running parallel 
 with the rly, clearances here and there on its summit, brushwood 
 on both sides, a stream with a saw mill on it, ridge of hills again 
 in sight on the right, can see an immense distance on the left 
 over a vast unbroken forest, a cross at a corner where several 
 roads meet; a Frenchmen tells me that these crosses (which ex- 
 ist all over the country) "are for the people to assemble at and 
 say a few prayers when the weather is so bad as to prevent them 
 from going to church;" surely God would be just as pleased to 
 have them say their prayers at home as to wade over muddy 
 roads to say them before a piece of whitewashed timber in the 
 form of a cross; pass a village with stacks of hemlock bark, rly 
 ties, cordwood, rails, &c.; a prettily situated village in view in the 
 
 27 
 
210 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 .distance, some sugar bushes; I have never before gazed towards 
 the horizon and seen such an extensive and unbroken tract of 
 forest, houses on the summit of the ridge to the right, some pretty 
 little houses but generally too close together as about St Jean; 
 the boy that sells candy, fruit, stationary and newspapers must 
 have a good opinion of the capacity of the passengers purses, he 
 passes around so often; brushwood obstructs the view, rocky 
 •land in a half cleared condition, over the ridge, of rising ground 
 bti the right, brushwood and clearances interspersed; arrived at a 
 small village 49 m.from Pt. Levi, has a church and a tannery, is 
 a small loose stragglinjr village with much, bark and cordwood 
 about it; the same continuous range of hills are still visible on 
 the right; the. country is newly settled here, pass a small saw mill; 
 second growth of ash and balsam with farms here and there; ano 
 . ther small village with acres upon acres covered with stacks of 
 hemlock bark, the largest part of this village is I hear ^ of a 
 mile away, another village consisting of a few houses; hotel, store*, 
 postoffice and depot, another small collection of houses, stunted 
 evergreens,small clearances second growth, a stopping place, a few 
 houses, forest trees are somewhat larger, range of, hills on the 
 right level and swampy on the left; a Frenchman has just remarksid 
 that great numbers of that people were going to the United States; 
 pass through a very extensive bog covered with peat, stunted 
 spruce and balsam, very level and uninteresting country; a small 
 village; the range of hills on the right deiserve the nameof qipun^ 
 tains; pas.s thro a large swamp covered with stunted balsams, 
 spruce and tamarac, cleared land, a mountain on the left, high 
 rocks, towering at least 100 ft. and in some places several hundred 
 ft. above the rly on either side; arrive at Pt. Levi, which consists 
 of a long row of straggling houses at the foot of an immense 
 rocky cliff that overhangs it; the harbor, of [Quebec ig 2 miles 
 across, its greatest depth is 28 fathoms; iho the water is fresh 
 the tide rises from 17 to 24 ft. the harbor is large enough to con- 
 tain the whole British navy; in 1844 the county of Quebec con- 
 tained 45,000 pop. the city and suburbs 43,000. 28,000 being Can- 
 atdians of French origin, 8,000 British of which 7,000 were Irish, 
 1,500 natives of England and the rest Scotch; 36,000 of the city's 
 pop. belong to the church of Rome; crossed the harbor in a 
 
% HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 211 
 
 handsome ferry steamer; went to a cheap boarding house, paid 
 25 cts a meal and 25 cts for bed; theFc is on!/ one theatre which 
 is French; asked fDr tiie nearest .stationers and fuund it ^' of a 
 mile off also that all the stores were closed altho it was only S. 
 o'clock; read in the Mercury, a very small English newspaper, 
 published in Quebec; next day had only fried cod and bread and 
 tea as it was * un journee maigre" or in other words a day of 
 fasting; took a walk on Dufferin terrace, which is a beautiful 
 promenade in summer, it is on the side of a steep hill along the 
 edge of which an ornamental ftnce runs; there is also an elevator 
 to carry people up and down from the upper to the lower town: 
 a few years ago a man slipped on the edge of the clifTand rolled 
 over, he could not regain his legs and rolled to the bottom and was 
 killed; passed a garden in which were the monuments of Wolfe 
 and Montcalm, the brave' English and French generals that fell 
 in that battle that gave to England the possession of "the Gibral- 
 ter of America;" there were several cannon on the terrace point- 
 ing over the lower town on to the river; on mounting a long 
 dizzy 'flight of stairs i-eached fhe citadel from which a glorious 
 panorama of the country lay before 'my eyds',' the interior of the 
 citadel i^ at least' 20 ft. below the surface of the llill on which it 
 is built and is encased with thick walls of cut stone; acircuituou^ 
 road goes around inside of the citadel, passed the soldiers quar- 
 ters and arrived at a covered gateway andasked a sentry if stran- 
 gers are allowed to visit the citadel, he called out the sergeant 
 who invited me in while he finished his breakfast of herrings, 
 bread and coffee after which he ordered one of the soldiers to show 
 me about the citadel, saw a great many "cannon and howitzers and 
 large piles of shells, and some cannister shot, as well as a cannon 
 captured from the Americans, and the spot where Mbntgomery fell; 
 also guns captured from the French anB Russians; the officers, 
 instead of each having a separate house, all occupy apartments 
 in a very fine, large building; some of the married ones have 
 houses in the city; the stables are built of stone, and contain 
 some very fine horses; saw the entrance to the underground tun- 
 nel that leads to a round tower in the direction of the plains of 
 Abraham, and the powder magazine «; started for the falls o( 
 Montmorenci, 8 miles distance down the North side of the St. 
 
212 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ^ 
 
 Lawerance; paid the cabman ^?, drove across the St. Charles 
 River, was surprised at seeing so many dogs used for drawing 
 small carts; somewhat over lOO yrs. ago, ladies in Queb c used 
 to drive in sleighs drawn by dogs; Charlevoix says "that horses 
 were first introduced in 1665;" drove along the road called "Le 
 Chemin de Beaufort." The farms are very narrow but have nice 
 houses, all of them have chimnies ant. open fire places; there 
 are numerous stone houses, and those of wood have in many 
 instances the Italian style of roof, many of the houses deserve 
 the name of country gentleman's mansions, surrounded as they 
 are by trees, gravel walks, &, In some placts there was 6 ft. 
 deep of snow, and we drove over the highest fence.^, in other 
 places it was quite bare; passed Beaufort Lunatic Asylum, which 
 has a capacity for 400, is a very imposing building of cut stone, 
 surrounded by beautiful grounds, river St. Lawerance in sight; 
 the meadow land slopes gently towards the river's edge; passed 
 a large stone church at Beaufort village, also one of the smallest 
 churches in the world, only 12 ft. square; reach the park-like 
 grounds that surround the falls, in which there is a hotel, where 
 strangers register their names, and pay 25cts.; citizens of Quebec 
 are admitted free; the prevailing trees in the grounds above the 
 falls, are Spruce, and Arbor- Vitae, also Aspens, Alders and 
 mountain Ash; a ravine runs from the St. Lawerance river in the 
 shape of the letter V, the sides of the ravine are almost perpen- 
 dicular, about 300 ft. high, and covered with evergreen shrubs; 
 the river falls perpendicularly, nearly 250 ft. high at one pitch; 
 the St. Lawerance only falls 160 ft. at Niagara; the waters below 
 the falls were white with foam. Returned home on the 26th; 
 there are 17 rly. stations between Rawlings and Point Levi. Ex- 
 tract from a letter from E. Howard. "We are much less dis- 
 turbed in Ireland than you may perhaps think; the outrages have 
 been much exaggerated for political purposes; no one, out of 
 Ireland can form an idea of how things are here; it was very 
 cold for Ireland last January, ice 6^ inches thick." From 
 Uncle Richard, "A patient of mine has bought land from Mr. 
 Baker of Richford; could you without inconvenience let me know 
 what the quality of the land is; I had a very kind loving letter 
 of sympathy from your Uncle Jerrrold a few days ago; I paid 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 213 
 
 him jC2C00, that I had borrowed from him; I suggested to him 
 to have i^iooo here, but he said I could do so if I gave him 8 
 per ct, for it; as that was impossible, I sent it over to him; I could 
 get a promise of 12 or even 15 for it, with the greatest prospect of 
 losing interest and principal; Montreal bank at par is paying lO 
 per ct., but the stock is selling at 186, which makes it scarcely 
 4}4 per ct.; as things stand here, all securities are very shaky, 
 and the man that can invest his money or his own labor in his 
 own property is lucky. I have been attending the hospital since 
 the 1st of Jan., my tim- expires on the 1st of June. I, and your 
 aunt are going to the U. S. to see Flora and the addition to their 
 family; I should like Arthur to visit Cliftord before your busy 
 time commences; I have a notion of selling tlie Elms if I can 
 get a purchaser, and try and get him a better farm if possible, 
 near Montreal; as you may imagine, we are very lonely here 
 now; with love to you both, in which your aunt unites dear Tom 
 and Arthur, your loving uncle, R. I. Goldsmith." For a belief 
 in God, revelations we do not need; the universe and all that in 
 it exists, are the revelations we receive. Had an argument with 
 father, that a people had a perfect right to rebel against a mon- 
 arch, and even destroy him, if he infringed on the liberties of the 
 people. "Grange, VVaterford, March '8 1 . Dear Arthur, I should 
 have answered your long letter sooner, but have had an unusual 
 amount of correspondence of late; even now I fear I am unable 
 to answer your letter at any great length; I agree with some 
 things you say. as to the undesirability of long estate, and on 
 some other points, such as the horrible loss caused by war, but 
 I suppose we must continue to diff.r about many things in Ire- 
 land; the Irish Catholics have never been allowed to govern 
 themselves like other countries, and have not the self restraint 
 and moderation in expressing themselves, that comes from ex- 
 perience in self government; it is quite likely that Ireland would 
 make many mistakes if she set about managing her own affairs 
 all at once, just as a man who puts on skates for the first time; 
 but the experience gained in floundering about is useful, and in 
 due time I expect we would do fairly well; at present, Irish af- 
 fairs are entirely managed by Gt. Britain, and we have no chance 
 to learn how to manage them, in fact Irish questions in parlia- 
 
214 HIS'i;ORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMEklCA. 
 
 ment, are generally settled in a way contrary to the expressed 
 wishes of a majority of the people; if any Canadian province 
 Were treated in the same way, I am confident that in a few years . 
 its people would be as dislojal as the Irish; the Boers in Tians- 
 vaal are good Protestants, but that does not prevent them from 
 fighting for their liberties, rather than allow themselves to be 
 annexed rnd ruled by the British grvernment, and nearly all the 
 civilized world admires them for their indep ndant spirit. Last 
 January we had some of the coldest weather that has been known 
 in Ireland for 60 yrs,, there was ice 6 inches thick over a ford 
 near here, and snow lay on the ground for a week, the roads 
 being in a good condition for sleighmg; quantities of ice float 
 doWn the river, vfhich is over a furlong wide, at VVaterford bridge- 
 it has not been frozen over since 18 14, and ice is not even float- 
 ing on it more than once in 10 yrs.; there is a factory in town 
 for making ice, to be used in bacon curing in summer, but quite 
 lately a cargo of several hundred tons of ice was discharged at 
 the quay from a Norwegian vessel. "You would be surprised at^ 
 all the earth (three ft. thick at the base) and stone fences (called 
 ditches) dividing the fieldsin this country; they waste much room^ 
 but where a man does not own his farm, he cares 4ess about- 
 economizing the land; in England the feudal system of Scvant' 
 farming does less harm than in Ireland, because the British- man*-' 
 ufacturers and commerce, give employment to those^ Who canndt 
 find work on the land, but Irish manufacturers and com- 
 merce were almost destroyed by British laws in the last century, 
 and have never since recovered, besides Ireland isnaturally poorer 
 in mineral wealth than Great Britain, so that in Ireland nearly 
 every farmer's son or laborer's son has to find work on the land 
 or emigrate, which state of affairs has caused an unnatural de- 
 mand for farms and tempted Irish 'lanolords to constantly raise 
 tlieir rent. When bad seasons have come landlords have in 
 many cases heartlessly turned out those peasants who could not 
 pay their rent, and 30 years ago- this resulted in many thousands 
 of men, women and children dying in the ditches or in emigrant 
 ships, yet the Irish people had raised more food than was suffi- 
 cient to support themselves in those terrible famine years, but 
 the corn and cattle which they raised were nearly all shipped oft 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 21$ 
 
 to England tO' pay Kent's, while the' pfeopid Were left to starve, 
 and their houses pulled down to prevent them from going back 
 •to live m them. If Ireland had been a self-governing country, 
 no such laws would have, been permitted tj exist as those by 
 which Irish landlords confiscated all improvements made by 
 their teneats and raised their rents to starvation point; but then 
 as as now, Ireland was governed by the Imperial Parliament, 
 which has always been ignorant of the wants of the Irish people 
 and has always governed Ireland in support of the interests of 
 the landlords. LJntil the ballot act was passed, lo or 12 years 
 ago, the Irish people had not even the means of voting for mem- 
 bers of Parliament of their own choice without a prospect of 
 being evicted by their landlords. Now things are changed for 
 the better in some respects. We have for the first time a pretty 
 compact body of men in Parliam^nfe really representing the wish- 
 es of the Irish -people and determined to win from an unwilling 
 government some substantiil reform of the land laws, which Gt. 
 Britain has forced on us against our wishes. The Irish people 
 are also determined not to go on paying high rents to which the 
 landlords have no moral claim. What Parnell and the I-and 
 Leaguers demand is that the Irish tenant farmers should have a 
 legal right to buy the landlords' interest in the land they culti- 
 vate, so as to put an end to this miserable Irish land question in 
 the same way that the same question was settled in Prussia 70 
 years ago. As regards Mr. S, he being a religious man, is like 
 many other religious people, both Catholic and Protestant, a 
 little superstitious in somft doctrines, but I think he is freer from 
 bigotry and intolerance than most Protestants. I myself am 
 about as far from being a Catholic as any one I know, but I 
 v/ould prefer to entrust my religious and political liberty to such 
 men as Mr. S. than half the Protestants I have met, so far as my 
 knowledge and observation goes, and I have lived 30 years 
 among them. Irish Catholics as a body have no desire to perse- 
 cute Protestants, which is remarkable, considering the amount of 
 persecution they have received at the hands of the Protestants. 
 Catholic worship was forbidden under heavy penalties, and 
 Catholic priests were hunted down like wolves in Ireland in the 
 last century, but the Irish Catholics when in power under James 
 
2l6 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 II did not attempt to persecute the Protestants for their rehgion. 
 It is also remarkable that the first community to establish com- 
 plete religious liberty was the Catholic colony in Maryland, 
 under Lord Baltimore, in 1670. Their example was followed by 
 the Catholic governor of New York and the Quakers under 
 Penn some years after, while Massachusets bitterly persecuted 
 Quakers and other sects. In Eastern Canada in past times the 
 Catholics, although in a majority, showed no desire to persecute 
 the Protestants. We are all prejudiced more or less, and there- 
 fore in his case we must make allowances for his prejudice. Open 
 rebellion for Ireland is not a wise course of action, the odds 
 against her is too great; agitation both in and out of Parliament 
 and passive resistance to unjust laws as is now carried on b - the 
 Irish people are much better weapons for a weak nation against 
 a strong military and naval power like Great Britain. The Irish 
 have, I am sorry to say, often been divided in times past, but at 
 present and for many years about five- sixths of the people have 
 been united in their demand for se^^ 'crnment such as is 
 possessed by the Canadian Provinces. Ireland would I think be 
 more loyal to the Imperial Parliament if allowed to* manage her 
 own affairs of which most of the members of the Imperial Par- 
 liament know so little. I fear that mutual jealousies among 
 nations will for a long time prevent any such arrangement for the 
 temporary or permanent abolition of war as that which you have 
 so carefully sketched. Your affectionate cousin, E. Howard." 
 While playing checkers with Dr. Bacon, Dr. Oliver entered; he 
 and Dr. B. are warm friends; Dr. B. nursed him when he was 
 half dead from delirium tremens and preserved his life when his 
 wife and prosperity friends deserted him. Poor Dr. O. is a tal- 
 ented man and once had n very extensive practice, but through 
 drink and opium is a miserable wreck. The Guy Family enter- 
 tainment has again visited Aston; the most amusing part to me 
 was Mr. Guy, Sr. who imitated every laugh (so naturally) from 
 infancy to tremulous old age that he took the house by storm; 
 those of warm hearts and temperaments enjoyed a hearty laugh, 
 and even the most phlegmatic of the ladies and gentlemen con- 
 descended to allow the risible muscles of their faces to slightly 
 move. While at Grant's Miss E. Grant wanted me to subscribe 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 217 
 
 for a newspaper at $1.30 a year and that I would get 2 chromos 
 worth $1 with the paper; told her I could not see how the pub- 
 lishers could carry on such a business without bankruptcy. 
 Spent a pleasant evening at Meredith's; Mrs. M. is suffering 
 from a bad cold she caught while dancing at the Town Hall. 
 Mrs. Murphy tells me that Kirwin is a brutal and drunken hus- 
 band to Nora Dob^' ty. Spoke with Mr. M. who was under- 
 brushing near the juse; Cold weather this afternoon, Mr. Mur- 
 phy. ''Thin indadc you re right thare, its the quare conthrarey 
 weather we have been having of late. How's youre father and 
 brother ?" "Quite well, thank you." "And you uncle's people, 
 how are they?" "All quite well, thank you; I suppose you in- 
 tend to clear this piece of land this year?" "Yes, this spring if 
 I can manage it. Did you hear anything of Ireland in the 
 papers of late ?" "Yes I received several Irish papers a few days 
 ago; the coersive measure passed and seems to have frightened 
 most of the Land Leagures into more moderate language. The 
 Government has bought 100,000 acres of land from some of the 
 landlords and are gomg to sell it to Irish peasants; this is a 
 proper move in the ri^^ht direction, but what is 100,000 acres 
 amongst a few million people." "Yes, youre right there, and 
 shure its a disgrace how some of the land league members have 
 deserted their leader." "Well, I see nothing surprising in it. 
 Mr. Parnell might have known that the most devout Irishmen 
 think more of their religion than of their country, and that it 
 would give them offense to see him associate and receive such a 
 good reception from the red republicans, who are looked upon 
 by all good Catholics as most ungodly and wicked men. Par- 
 nell has also through this cause lost the sympathy of many 
 of the clergy." "Well, yes, I suppose he should not have 
 gone near those French who hate and would overthrow 
 all religion if they could; still I think that the chief 
 cause of the desertions was the bribery and the British 
 gold. Arlington the municipal secretary called to take 
 the census. The French are very gay of late, have dances sev- 
 eral nights in succession, danced up to 12 o'clock and then stop- 
 ped as Lent commenced; one young man less devout than the 
 ' rest proposed that they should dance a few hours .more which all 
 
2l8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 the young women refused to do and appeared honified, yet these 
 same women and girls laugh heartily at songs that are 50 degrees 
 below decency. It'Seemf? so absurd that people should surfeit 
 themselves with fodd and 'amusements for the several days pre- 
 ceding Lent and then 'deprive themselves of many of the God- 
 given comforts for 40 days. Extract from a letter to Edmund: 
 *'The Irish can never expect England to give them their entire in- 
 dependence on account of its close proximity to England; let us 
 hope however that the Irish will ere long succeed in getting jus- 
 tice; how much better for Great Britain and her colonies if her 
 statesmen could be brought to see that their policy is unwise on 
 account of its being in two opposite extremes, in Ireland too op- 
 pressive and in Cani*da too indifferent, causing the majority of the 
 Irish to be always in a state of discontent and the Canadians to 
 look on England's hold on the country as merely nominal; this 
 can be clearly seen by reading some of the leading newspapers 
 in both countries; in Ireland columns full of bitter reproaches 
 against the government and in Canada articles on annexation to 
 the U. S. or of appointing a Canadian governor, also supposit4i>ns 
 as to whether Canada will be annexed to the U. S. or< b.^come a 
 nation of herself; one would think "John Bull'' wisould h-a^ve ac- 
 quired wisdom by the war of 1775 but he setims to.have forgotten 
 it and to-day is in a fair way of losing one of the most valls'ablb 
 of his possessions through foolish indifference this' tima irffetCcid 
 of unjust taxes and stupid obstinate rulers as in 1775; j^ist tliiink 
 of one of the leading English newspapers said sometime ago that 
 "England did not care if Canada was to become an independent 
 nation or be annexed to the U. S." I cannot agree with you on 
 the question of protection, I am of the opinion that it is of im- 
 mense benefit to young countries with their resources in a yet 
 undeveloped state, especially where there are other countries (in 
 close proximity) with their industries already established and ca- 
 pable of retarding the undeveloped industries of their neighbor 
 by flooding their markets with cheap goods. There are, I think, 
 3 periods in the existence of some nations as regards protection, 
 firstly when a country has only a few inhabitants, then of course 
 nearly all manufactured goods have to be imported from other 
 countries, there not being a sufficient number of consumers to 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA 219^ 
 
 make the "home market" large enough to make home industries 
 worth while, the 2d period is when the country becomes more 
 thickly inhabited and a greater revenue is required to make rail- 
 roads, deepen rivers^and harbors and ,make. canals, ike How is 
 this revenue to be ira.ised? this.is the(liiiestion tlwt has given birth 
 to protection; the protectiontsti siys ^5 koi6,qoo,o(jq are required 
 to perform these many public works* vv|jich ace "absolutely neces- 
 sary for the development of the courtt«ytriour jioljcy isito raise a 
 great part of the amount by imposing a duty on,. a(il> imported 
 goods that can be manufactured with profit at home • instead of 
 raising the whole amount by direct taxation, from which the na- 
 tion only derives the benefit of the amount of work done on the 
 public works, whereas by raising part of the amount by an in- 
 creased tariff we give an impetus to home industries by infusing- 
 enterprise and confidence into capitalists who at once build fac- 
 tories and are enabled with the tariff's aid to compete with foreiga 
 industries that are more firmly established and who manufacture 
 in such large quantities that even for a cent a lb. or yd. clear j rofife 
 they can afford to export their goods to foreign markets and hold 
 those markets for many yrs against the feeble competition of the 
 undeveloped home industries under the theoretical advantages of- 
 "free trade;" the tariff is not at first so high as to be prohibitory 
 but is only gradually increased each yr as the productive power 
 of each industry is capable of supplying the home market; this 
 policy is strictly adhered to till every profitable industry produces- 
 or manufactures sufficient to supply the country's wants; this is 
 not accomplished for many yrs as the inhabitants, or at least a- 
 portion of them grow wealthier; they indulge in costlier jewelry, 
 furniture, dress and in fact everything they use and possess, on 
 all these the protectionist imposes a duty, that is on all that can 
 be manufactured with profit in the country and by so doing hastens 
 the development of the industries of the country and at the same 
 timj derives a revenue sufficiently large to construct all the nec- 
 essary puolic works; the moment of course that the home indus- 
 tries wholly supply the home market the government's revenue 
 from the tariff is nil and the nation enters upon the 3d period of 
 her existence; her statesmen have now to satisfy themselves whe- 
 ther her manufacturers can compete successfully without the tar- 
 
220 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 •■*'■■ 
 
 iff's aid with the industries of the adjoining countries; if her 
 neighbors are less wealthy and powerful she of necessity will 
 have to continue protecting her industries until she can per- 
 suade her neighbors to adopt free trade; if however her neighbors 
 are about her equal in development and wealth free trade is the 
 most advantageous policy for all parties, but with nations situated 
 as the United States was 40 yrs ago and as Canada is. to-day free 
 trade meant that their inland prosperity should he sacrificed for 
 the trivial advantage of getting a greater amount of return cargoes 
 for their commercial navy by buying manufactured goods in for- 
 eign countries instead of having them manufactured in their own 
 towns and cities. No v in the name of reason and common sense 
 which is of most importance to Canada and the U. S their inland 
 prosperity or the prosperity of their commercial navy; surely the 
 prosperity of about 5,000,000 sq m. of inland territory is of more 
 importance than that of the inhabitants of about 10,000 miles of 
 sea coast with a few seaports and a few thousand seamen; ships 
 and seapoits would not have developed the U. S. as protection 
 has done or induced the surplus population of Europe to emigrate 
 to it in preference to other countries, or caused the annual emi- 
 gration of thousands of F Canadians to its thriving manufacturing 
 centers from Canada to its New England States, which are inferior 
 to Canada in soil and not much superior in climate. It was the 
 great stagnation in Canada's labor market that caused them to 
 do so for naturally as a class they have a great aversion to emi- 
 gration on account of their devotion to their language, religion 
 and institutions. During the last few years however our govern- 
 ment has adopted a national policy viz protection, which has had 
 the beneficial effect of starting manufactories and opening old 
 ones that had been closed during Mackenzie's suicidal policy of 
 allowing American goods to enter Canada at 18 per ct. ad val- 
 orem while the Americans charged us 35, but his stubborn per- 
 sistance in this policy gave him and his party an overwhelming " 
 overthrow in the last general elections by the conservatives who - 
 had adopted protection as one of the planks in their political 
 platform; since then thousands of Canadians are employed in 
 Canadian factories instead of being obliged to emigrate to the U. S. 
 with England I acknowledge it was totally different, when she 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 221 
 
 first began to advocate free trade, there was no other nation then 
 in existence that could compote with her industries, she had 
 then, as now the greatest fleet in the world, that could land her 
 exports in colonial and foreign ports cheaper than the goods 
 could be manufactured by the undeveloped industries of those 
 countries; it was therefore to her advantage to persuade all her 
 less powerful neighbors to adopt free trade; the keen and sagac- 
 ious Yankees however were about the first to perceive that Eng- 
 land, by carrying out this policy would be able to keep most of 
 her surplus population at home, in her manufacturing towns, 
 and retard the development of U. S. industries by crowding her 
 markets with cheap goods, they also saw that protection was 
 the only means of preventing this unfavorable state of affairs, 
 and adopted it with the present grand result. The best policy 
 for the U, S tc-day would be. to maintain a tariff equal to that 
 which all other nations levied against her goods, but as a matter 
 of course adopt free trade if possible, with such countries as 
 Japan Chin?., the South American Republics and Brazil etc, and 
 sell as much goods as possible to them before they devolope their 
 own industries, but the moment they begin to tax American 
 goods, to retaliate by taxing theirs. When all the civilized 
 nations have through the beneficial means of protection, caused 
 each nation to be self sustaining by manufacturing all that is 
 possible in each of their own countries, the tariffs can then be 
 removed as useless, but kept in readiness in case the industries 
 of the country commenced to languish or be crushed by those 
 , of other countries, for all men who have studied the ques- 
 tion must acknowlege that it is wiser, juster and more advanta- 
 geous that each nation should manufacture everything for itself 
 that can be profitably produced in the country. Why should 
 England manufacture all the cutlery of the world, and possess the 
 sole advantage of that mdustry? why should the U.S. not man- 
 ufacture her own when she has all the necessary materials at home; 
 if England alone possessed the only coal and iron mines in the 
 world, then it would be more natural for her to do all the manu- 
 facturing for iron manufactures. Of course in all natural and 
 artificial products there are some articles that a nation cannot 
 produce or manufacture with profit, such articles as a matter of 
 
222 HISTORY OF THE FREN'CH IN AMERICA. 
 
 course the nations should not tax each other, for It would be 
 very foolish indeed for them to tax these imports, making them 
 unnecessarily dearer for the nation's inhabitants when no earthly 
 good could be gained by it, as from natural causes the nation 
 would never be able to manufacture or produce these articles 
 with profit. There is also another feature to be noticed, that is 
 in cases where one of the products of a nation is in danger of 
 becoming exhausted, for instance, if the United States or Canada 
 became alaimed at the rapidity which their forests were being 
 cut down, their government would have a perfect right to im- 
 pose a prohibitory tariff on all the lumber exported to European 
 countries, and even pass a law allowing no one of its citizens 
 to cut down a tree without planting a young one in its place, 
 but of course in such articles as cattle or wheat, no restrictive 
 laws are necessary, as thcs^ countries have an almost unlimited 
 supply. In my opinion, in future yrs. protection will almost 
 universally be adopted by weaker nations, as a, safeguard to pro- 
 tect their manufacturers and mechanics from the uneqirfal com- 
 petition they have to maintain against those of wealthier, and 
 more powerful nations; when I say universally I' do not include 
 a;:y of those petty states or nations, that can never expect to 
 have sufficient population to make all home industries profitable 
 or practical, as a matter of course when the majority of nations 
 have adopted protection, it will no longer be an increaser of rev- 
 enue, but its most valuable and important use, it will always re- 
 tain that of being a preserver of the balance of manufactures and 
 commerce between all the nations of the earth, and as such, its 
 value and efficacy will each yr. become more generally known, 
 till the great majority of statesmen and politicians will have to 
 acknowledge that protection as a preserver of the balance of 
 trade is as necessary at the present day, as were the wars 
 of the allied powers of Europe with Napoleon the Great 
 . to preserve the balance of pov/er in Europe. From an address 
 , of the Irish Home League I extract the following: "in 1782 
 Grattan and the volunteers won for Ireland glorious freedom, 
 and laid it down as an incontrovertable truth, that no body of 
 men on this earth has the right to make laws for this kingdom, 
 but the king, Lords, and commons of Ireland; but in 1800 Pitt 
 
JirSTOtiV OF THfi F'ftENCH IN AMERICA. 223 
 
 and Castlcreagh, by bribes and bayonets destroyed the glorious 
 fabric of Irish liberty; in l8^l 50,000 armed men are in Ireland, 
 35,000 soldiers and 15,000 military police; public meetings have 
 been prohibited and di.s[)er.sed; smce 1S41 Ireland has lost 
 3.000,000 inhabitants by emigration and fimine, till now we 
 have on y 167 inhabitants to each square mile, while Belgium a 
 smiller and less fertile country has 439; the population of male 
 voters in Gt. Britain is 2 to 5 of the male population; in Ireland 
 only I to 5; in England and Scotland the police are the servant* 
 of the local representatives, in Ireland they are under the com- 
 mand of a central executive." Extract from a letter from E. 
 Howard. "The disadvmtaij-s of the law of entiil can be seen 
 by the rapid manner in which property accumulates in one family, 
 it is in fact nothing but a remnant of the fjudal times, it is sim- 
 ply iinpossible that a tenant firmer can take as much interest 
 in improving and benefiting the farm he rents as the farmer who 
 owns his farm, this I think is part of the cause of the thousands 
 ofi hovels that disfigure the farms of Ireland. Only two ways 
 exists fdr'Englan'd to pre!>erve Ireland as a part of the empire, 
 first by «evere laws -and .i' large military force, to keep the op- 
 pressiedi people down by physical force, but by this means there 
 wouM f^Jways be the danger of an enraged Peasantry determined 
 on feven-ge; rising with one accord and filling the land with blood 
 artd'^muixler, or if the military succeeded in keeping the Peasants 
 in 'subjecti'on, the Peasants would have to adopt the second al- 
 t©rnative, that of wholesale emigration from their native land, 
 wh'ich has a. ruinous effect on Great Britain's strength and pros- 
 perity,* ifon- every thousand' subjects that leaves Great Britain's 
 shores decreases the nation's greatness and increases the strength 
 of America, hastening' the development of the grand and won- 
 derful resources of a country that will, in all probability, take 
 England's place as the greatest power of the earth ere another 
 half century has elapsed. The British government, however, is 
 slowly adopting the second and best way of preserving Ireland 
 and uniting it in sympathy and nationality with England, that is 
 to govern it with the sternest justice and give all classes of peo- 
 ple (by wise laws) the opportunity of becoming patriotic and 
 prosperous citizens. When this is done it should bring to 
 
224 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 speedy justice and punishment all those who by contempt and 
 intrigue are enemies to the laws of our great Empire. Some 
 of the ultra landlord party in Ireland appear to think that they 
 have been treated rather severely; they should resiicml.er, how- 
 ever that danj^orous diseases require desperate remedies. Let 
 us hope, however, that when the Irish begin to feel the benefits 
 of the wise and lenient laws that are being made for them that 
 they will not be unreasonable or unjust, but become industrious 
 and patriotic citizens. If they do not and think they can force 
 England to give up what she has possessed hundreds of years 
 and acquired no more unjustly than half the territories now 
 possessed by the christian nations of the world, they will dis- 
 cover their mistake as the years roll on and that the sons of 
 England would not permit even Gladstone to give away what 
 our ancestors fought and died for and for which England would 
 face the whole of Europe to morrow if they dared to interfere or 
 dictate to us. The British government should, however, en- 
 courage the reclamation of every foot of waste land and awake to 
 the reality that it can never be as great a country with a few 
 hundred millionaires and millions of beggars as it can with less 
 extravagantly rich land holders and a more fair distribution of 
 land among all classes of its people. Great Britain is capable of 
 sustaining several million more population than it at present con- 
 tains; therefore the English government should adopt every 
 means in its power to make the country sustain as great a popu- 
 lation as possible, for one happy and contented subject in Great 
 Britain close to the seat of power is worth five subjects in the ^ 
 colonies. Yet at the same time it should not show an apparent 
 indifference to the colonies, but take in hand the management of 
 all the foreign policies of the colonies, allowing them to send a 
 certain amount of representatives to London, a city by no means 
 unworthy to be the capital of the greatest empire that has ever 
 existed. Doing away with the volunteer system in the colonies 
 and replacing them with regular British troops who would not 
 sympathize with the colonists in event of rebellion, and have 
 colonial troops distributed in Great Britain, the heart of the em 
 pire, and Australian and Canadian troops in India where there 
 would be no danger of their sympathizing with the Hindoos. 
 
niSTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 225 
 
 And Hindoos and Mohaninidans would make good soldiers for 
 Ireland and Great Hntain, as ihey would be less likely to sym- 
 pathize wilh the people in event of riot or rebellion. It cannot 
 be that British statesmen have not noticed the dangerous spirit 
 of independence exhibited by Canadian politicians of late years, 
 which is caused by Kngland's unwise colonial policy — a policy 
 that directly encourages the colonies to become full fl.'dged 
 nations instead of forming one grand united empire with liie 
 mother country. It is quite time that English statesmen should 
 awake to the reality that the loss of Canada, India and Australia 
 would be the deatli blow to the earnest hope of every patriotic 
 Euglishinaii, that is that the British empire should continue to 
 be tlie grandest power upon this earth for centuries yet to come, 
 which she cannot be in event of the loss of her colonies and even 
 less than that. England by herself in future years could only 
 exist as one of the sjcond rate powers of the earth. When her 
 stupid king lost th: United States she lost one of the brightest 
 gems of her empire's crown. A country of 3^ million square 
 miles in extent, with a climate unsurpassed for ihe production of 
 every kind of grain, fruit and vegetable required to gratify the 
 wants of the most luxurious and fastidious; a country with thou- 
 sands upon thousands of navigable rivers; a country now con- 
 taining 50,000,000 intelligent, industrious and energetic inhabi- 
 tants who are perfectly acquainted with its wonderful natural 
 resources, and are yearly adopting the best and wisest means for 
 their development. Under these circumstances and knowing the 
 ^ effjct that the example and success of the U. S. will have upon 
 India, Austrilia and Canada, should not the English government 
 use the greatest wisdom in its colonial policy, seeing that the 
 separation ofthisgre.it empire by the vast oceans will be always 
 a source of weakness, and that nothing but a mutual spirit of 
 patriotism between the colonies and the mother country, and the 
 wisest of legislation can keep united the grandest and mightiest 
 empire that ever existed." 1 went to Leamington on a visit to 
 Clifford; next day went to church at Marsdon; had a conversa- 
 tion with Mr. C., he is a member of the Episcopal synod; said 
 he had brought before that body a motion to have the posting 
 of secular notices on their churches prohibited, as he thought it 
 
 i 29 
 
226 HISTORY OF THE FRENXH IN AMERICA. 
 
 was sacrilegious; also said that a steeple to their little chapel 
 would be an improvement. Clifford supposed they would put it 
 on the end facing the road, which Mr. T. said would not be 
 orthodox. Read in some of J. Carlyle's works, one of the great- 
 , est writers of the present day; a history he wrote of Frederic the 
 Great is used as a text book in the schools of Germany. Visited 
 some sugar bushes with Clifford; many of them resemble parks 
 and have comfortable sugar shanties, with the lately invented ap- 
 pliance called "evaporating pans." The sap is let into the pan 
 from tanks by turning a tap, the pan is divided into compart- 
 ments and placed on brickwork, one end considerably higher 
 than the other, the sap enters the highest and comes out in syrup; 
 have visited several picturesque ravines heavily wooded averag- 
 ing about 1 50 below the surrounding country with foaming streams 
 in them, have also went out boating and duck shooting. Clifford 
 and I tried to make a geneological tree but got somewhat con- 
 fused in arranging the different Aryan, Semetic and Inrainan 
 branches of the human race. Uncle Richard camefiom Montreal, 
 visited a neighbor of Clifford's with him who is sick, he has been 
 6oyrs on his farm which altho once good land is utterly exhausted; 
 Cliftord has rented 30 acres of meadow for ^45, which I consider 
 too much considering its quality; made a collection of specimens 
 of forest wood for uncle, he left in the evening; Cliftord and I 
 have boxed considerably of late with boxing gloves. Rev. Morely 
 Punchon the great Methodist preacher is dead; have been read- 
 ing some of Edgar Poe's poems of late, a pity that such a great 
 genius should have not met with better success; one entitled the 
 Raven is very beautiful; had an argument with Clifford saying 
 how science now clashed with sacred history and that from the 
 the formation of the different stratas of the earth it was clearly 
 proved by scientific men that the world was never created in 6 days, 
 he said he had heard religious apologists affirm that 6 days meant 
 6 periods of time and not 6 dayS; told him that I considered that 
 a mere eqivocation for the commandment given to Moses clearly 
 said "for in 6 days God made heaven and earth the sea and all 
 that IS therein and rested on the 7th day, therefore thou nor thy 
 servant shall do no manner of work, &c;" now if 6 days meant 
 long periods of time how could man abstain thousands of years 
 
' HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 22/ 
 
 from work when he rarely lives to be 80; read a book by Prof. 
 Dawson entitled "the origin of man," it is in harmony with sacred 
 history, he is one of the most learned men in America. There is 
 a great temperance movement amongst the Catholic clergy of this 
 diocese and I am sure it was greatly needed. Extract from letter 
 from Clifford dated April ist. " I'he river here is clear of ice, the 
 grass is quite green already." Extract from letter from Edmund: 
 *• The commercial and manufacturing prosperity of Ulster are 
 partly the result of its linen trade which was not interfered with 
 by the British government while the woolen and other manufac- 
 tures in the south of Ireland were intentionally destroyed by hos- 
 tile legislation; the rate of fire insurance in Belfast has for several 
 years btcn very high owmg I believe to the habit which some 
 Bjlfdst business men have of burning their buildings when busi- 
 ness is bad; Ulster men are clever and energetic at business and 
 rather inclined to boast of their success but 1 do not care for or 
 esteem them in other respects, altho I have met some agreeable 
 exceptions to what I consider the general standard of Ulster char- 
 acter; I do not see that :>trong drink can be any part of the cause 
 why Ireland is behind Gt, Britain commercially seeing that of the 
 2 countries 1 believe Gt. Britain to be the most drunken, altho 
 both are bad enough and I think you will find that from Brazil to 
 Mexico the catholic countries are more temperate than either 
 Canada or the U. S. although commercially less prosperous; last 
 summer I spent several pleasant weeks in London and saw and 
 heard many of England's famous men in the Houses of Parliament; 
 the English have concluded peace with the Boers. Rules I have 
 adopted for daily observance: to rise every morning punctually 
 at 5 o'clock, take a bath and observe scrupulous care in my toilet 
 which increases man's health and longevity, devote }4 an hour's 
 quiet thought in planning out how much useful work and good 
 actions I can accomplish during the day, to never allow trivial 
 incidents to prevent me from performing the daily duties of my 
 life, that I think the j4 hour spent thus is more pleasing to a 
 Supreme Power than in mumbling monotonous silly prayers to 
 God, the Saints and the Virgin, as the majority of the nominal 
 christians do which must be an abomination to the Supreme Be- 
 ing when he knows that the majority of these men and women 
 
'228 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ' ' 
 
 maVe no determined effort to make a proper use of the gifts he 
 gave them; in all my conversation and actions to avoid as much 
 as possible everything from which no actual benefit can be de- 
 rived, to perform everything I undertake in as good and short 
 time as possible, to keep ever before me the thought that every 
 minute I waste and every useless word or thought I indulge in 
 is a sin to a Higher Power, humanity andmysell, never to hastily 
 utter a sentiment or perform an action that 1 am in doubt of its 
 worth until I have submitted it to the rigid examination of my 
 reasoning powers and to cast it away if it meets the disapproba- 
 tion of my reason and better sentiments, to earnestly encourage 
 in myself and all men an ardent love and devotion for every time 
 that our reason tells us is beautiful, good and henjficial to man- 
 kind, and to cultivate in myself and others an intense hatred and 
 abhorcnce for everything that our reason clearly shows us is de- 
 trimental to the interests of humanity and to do all in my power 
 to remove from our earth whatever is prejudicial to the interests 
 of the human race; to always, on all occasions and in all places, 
 denounce in as forcible and polite language as possible whatever 
 I consider as wicked and foolish, that I will never cast myself 
 down with a base sense of defeat and shame in my heart or cry 
 out that I am a lost and helpless creature, for my reason clearly 
 shows me that every man is endowed with noble attributes and 
 gifts in an undeveloped state, that if he only makes a proper use 
 of these he will and can become a noble and god like being, that 
 I shall never lose an opportunity to hasten that day when every 
 man will be absolutely, spiritually and politically free, when popes, 
 bishops and christian councils will no longer dictate to mankind 
 what they are to believe, a day when all men will be taught that 
 a noble and self reliant people making a proper use of God's gifts 
 is more pleasing to him than the degraded condition of the ma- 
 jority of the present race who are a cringing, servile, superstitious, 
 helpless, ignorant class of slaves under the usurped tyranical power 
 of hundreds of fraudulent hierarchal governments, to always keep 
 before me the thought that no man has ever been truly learned and 
 that all men that live can learn from day to day on this side of the 
 grave; (manuscript missing). During the latter part of March cut 
 firewood for our own use, made rails and drew manure to lot 19 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. . 229 
 
 from Houdes place: ni the evening^ studied gramnitr, rhetoric, 
 Litin and French; fro;n a discussioa I had with father it is ab- 
 solutely necessary for Gt. Britain's prosperity and greatness to 
 have a contented, prosperous and patriotic Peasantry; the Eng- 
 lish people will ere long see the necessity of developing to their 
 utmost the agricultural resources of the British i^les, and that 
 agriculture is of even greater importance than commerce or man- 
 ufactures, as the latter has always a certain amount of uncertain- 
 ty about them, especially since the new policy of protection has 
 come into existence, which in my opinion has and will, seriously 
 affect England's export trade; in future yrs. when all is colonies 
 and most of its foreign customers have developed their manu- 
 ficturing industries by protection, there also cannot be a doubt 
 that when the U. S have finishtd developing their industries, that 
 it will becom^i a successful competitor with England in the mar- 
 kets of the world, the greater natural resources o( the U. S. will 
 then more than counteract the advantages Gt. Britain derives 
 from her more central position, and the better development of 
 many of her industries to that of the U. S., besides it is almost 
 certain that most of the nations ofthe earth will adopt protection 
 when they see the beneficial eftect it has had and does have, on 
 those nations that adopt it, for this reason England should not 
 place too much trust in manufactures as a means of retaining 
 her surplus population at home; she may for some yrs. more do 
 most of the manufacturing for India and Africa, but even these 
 countries will in a kw yrs, awake to the advantages derived from 
 manufacturing for themselves, therefore under these circumstan- 
 ces it is the height of madness in the English Government to 
 tolerate landlordism, under which system Gt. Britain can never 
 support as large a population as under the freehold system; it 
 ought to do away with all laws restricting the sale of large estates 
 and their subdivision amongst all the children in equal shares, 
 also that every man that owned a large estate should allow none 
 of it to be kept in useless preserves for shooting game, and should 
 keep his large estate in just as useful a state of productiveness 
 as that ofthe small farmer, or in event of his not doing so, to be 
 obliged to sell the greater part of it, in fact a law should be passed 
 in a country so thickly populated as Gt. Britain that would allow 
 
230 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 no man to own over 100 acres; the government should also re- 
 ward with large premiums all farmers who keep their farms in 
 the highest state of cultivation, and fine all those whose land is 
 in an imperfect state of cultivation; it should also do all in its 
 power to increase the subdivision of land, by increasing the fa- 
 cilities for its transfer, and not have the transfer of a few acres 
 of land cost ;^50 as it now does in Gt. Britain; manufactures have 
 however done a great deal for Enj^land's greatness, it has em- 
 ployed several million of her surplus population, ahd is the 
 chief cause of her maritime greatness by giving her commercial 
 navy employment; when modern manufactures were in their in 
 fancy England with her central posi'-ion, enterprising civilized 
 inhabitants and wealth, was able to take the lead in manufac- 
 tures, and supply its colonies and foreign nations for many yrs. 
 with its manufactured goods, and by these advantages and start 
 it has become the greatest commercial nation of the earth. As 
 to the present strikes in the large manufacturing centers of Gt. 
 Britain, they have been only caused by a temporary com.riercial 
 depression that has visited nearly every civilized country on the 
 face of the earth, which has been brought on by want of thrift 
 and extravngance, but to all appearance the commercial crisis is 
 quickly passing away, and again the light of the furnace and the 
 sound of the hammer will be heard throughout the land; of 
 course it is plain to all who take an interest in the subject that 
 England will have to find new markets for her goods as the yrs. 
 roll on, as most of the European nations and Englands colonies 
 have begun to manufacture for themselves, but for many yrs. to 
 come England will rank as one of the greatest manufacturing 
 powers; the superior quality of her goods will enable her to sell 
 considerable quantities for many yrs. to those nations whose in- 
 dustries are only oartially developed, besides this as the millions 
 of inhabitants of Asia become civilized they will buy largely of 
 European manufacturers and for many yrs. be profitable cus 
 tomers until they commence to protect their own industries. 
 While spending an evening at Meredith's Nicholas inadvertent- 
 ly made use of a very vulgar expression in the presence cf his 
 mother and sisters, who censured him severely for it, he of course 
 apologized and appeared greatly ashamed; this comes from being 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 23 1 
 
 only a gentleman in society and not one at heart, alas how many 
 families there are whose manners are only for society, and not 
 for every day life, a gentleman who is not as courteous to his 
 mother and sisters, and even to the poorest of his lady acquain- 
 tances as he is to a duchess or princess, deserves rather the name 
 of a despicable hypocrite than that of a gentleman. Several of 
 the oldest French settlers have died on our range this Winter and 
 Spring; gave Joe Vincent and Jim Spencer the "job" of making 
 several acres of fence on Oak Hill, ;^i. 50 for making new pick- 
 et and rail fence for an acre and $1,10 for rebuilding an old pick- 
 et and rail fence, all the material of course was drawn on the. 
 ground for them; while unloading some shingles that I sold to 
 Meredith's I discovered that Herbert Carmichael had written a 
 lot of trash on one of the shingles about Florence and myself; 
 I wrote underneath: H. C. should keep his witticisms for ser- 
 vant girls and bar maids who would no doubt appreciate them. 
 I have decided if Uncle Jerrold and Richard will not force me 
 to sell Oak Hill, to become the best farmer in these parts and 
 go to an Agricultural College a few months every wmter and 
 study agricultnre from a theoretical as well as practical point of 
 view, but if they continue to dictate to us about the best way o( 
 farming, which they know less about than myself, having never 
 had any practical experience, I shall give them back all they 
 have given me and whatever I may have earned myself and start 
 out into the world on my own resources; aunt and uncle are 
 becoming very devout, and have family prayers every Sunday; 
 I have noticed that even the most wordly people turn their 
 thoughts to religion as old age advances upon them. Oh 
 inconsistent religions! When will you so educate your followers 
 that all their lives will be so beautiful, noble and exalted, that 
 they will not be filled with doubts and fears at the approach of 
 death, but with calm unfaltering courage leave this battle field 
 of life, like heroes and not like cowards, but what better can we 
 expect when these fraudulent churches teach their dupes that to 
 eat a little piece of bread and confess with humility our sins to 
 a fellow man. is as necessary and even more so than a noble 
 life, for these priests teach "that a man who lives a noble and 
 exalted life is damned if he refuses with scorn their prayers and 
 
2-32 ^ HISTORY OF THE FREN'CH IN AMERICA. 
 
 aid," and yet believe that God created all intelligent ir.en 
 as responsible beings, who have to render no one an 
 account but himself, and that no prayers or intercessions 
 bought with gohd can better his condition, in the great 
 and mysterious hereafter. Old Doherty, who is 72 years 
 old, has married again to a widow 32 years old with four children, 
 much to the indignation of his two sons. Bat and Dennis, who 
 fear they will lose the property he possesses. Bat tells me he 
 sold j$(Soo worth of produce off his farm of 75 acres last year, of 
 which $2CO was derived from honey. As uncle Jerrold now as 
 well as uncle Richard insijits on my selling Oak Hill I have con- 
 sented, but will give up farming and stutly for some profession. 
 Part of a conversation with father: The cause of the low posi- 
 tion that most farmers occupy in society is the want of a higher 
 system of education amongst them. This defect is chiefly 
 caused by careless indifference, and partly by the occupation 
 itself, which men can follow with even moderate success without 
 even a common school education. But education is necessary 
 for the profession of agriculture, and even if it were not, farmers 
 should educate themselves to become gentlemen if nothing else. 
 Beaufort Churchill has arrived and is thinking of buying Little- 
 ton's place from Koussin for $2,000; and for cash he would sell 
 it for several hundred less. It is a valuable property, on the 
 edge of the village, 60 acres in extent, 10 of which are in wood- 
 land; a brickyard on it; a beautiful large house on it, with man- 
 sard roof, galleries, verandas, and surrounded with a grove of 
 stately trees with delightfully shady avenues, and grounds taste- 
 fully laid out in gravel walks and flowerbeds. 17th of May. I 
 will have to make what I can out of Oak Hill this summer. I am 
 now living on it while I plant the spring crop. On the 20, Tom, 
 our hired boy and myself planted 20 bushels of potatoes, Joe 
 Vincent and Jim Spencer made 22 acres of fence besides what 1 
 made myself; I objected to part of the fence they had made in 
 the woods where the poles were too far apart which would allow 
 calves to get through, and in other places where they had merely 
 made a "slash fence" of brush instead of poles, the former only 
 lasts one year as the weight of the snow crushes it down in win- 
 ter. I had difficulty in training a young horse to plow with one 
 
. HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 233 
 
 of the old ones, but after three days I succeeded and can plow 
 without a driver. The Kims. May loth. P. S. I have sown 
 several acres in grass seed which is very difficult to sow in 
 windy weather. We have had only two showers this spring and 
 are very much in want of rain; father and mother have returned 
 from Port Huron; Flora has had a little son; in about a fortnight 
 D. V. 1 shall have all my pressing work done; we had a most 
 welcome rnin last night, like Kpp's cocoa, grateful and comfort- 
 ing; this part of the country is looking green and pretty now; 
 the postscript of this letter is like a school girls, almost as long 
 as the letter. C. H. Goldsmith." While driving home I was 
 surprised to see how much the Aston end of our range is 
 deserted; only one French family in 6 miles of country filled 
 with small deserted clearances; those, that left were merely half 
 lumberers and laborers; later on I have no doubt a better class 
 of settlers will settle on this land, but not until the splendid fer- 
 tile lands of the great Northwest are settled. Took a ride across 
 the country last Sunday to see some French friends; in returning 
 a magnificently grand thunderstorm overtook me; I was nearly 
 thrown from the horse through a flash of lightning in front of us 
 on the road which caused the horse to suddenly rear on its 
 hunches; It is quite natural, however, that a dumb beast should 
 be afraid, but I think in man such fear is absurd. I was much 
 amused at the way the French young ladies shrieked, "My God, 
 how terrible !" whenever there was a crash of thunder. Next day 
 four French wometi came 3 miles with some cows tliat I had 
 agreed to pasture for their husbands on ot 29; their conversar 
 tion was so disgustingly low that even I, unsensitive being that I 
 am, was filled with astonishment and contempt when I considered 
 that they are regarded "as respectable women and devout mem- 
 bers of an infallible church; had a conversation with Israel Du- 
 fresne, his opinions are very barbarous as regards his duties to- 
 wards his children, upon my word if a brute beast could speak 
 it would describe its duties towards its oftsprinp- a somewhat the 
 same manner. He said "I feed and clothe my children and have 
 them taught their catechism and prayers, surely no one can call 
 me a bad father;" truly this is a strange age, civilization, liberty, 
 virtue and education are advancing side by side with barbarity, 
 
234 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 immorality, tyranny, superstition and ignorance; went to a private 
 party at Aston in company with Niciioias, Florence, Maud, Mabel 
 W. Miss A. and Mr. M. and Mr, C. (who are tryin<; amateur 
 farming on Christie's farm) in a double carnage; while we young 
 gentlemen were taking off our overcoats in the gentlemen's dres- 
 sing room Nicholas made a remark about a lady acquaintance 
 worthy of one of the gayest and most unprincipled courtiers of 
 either Charles II. or Queen Isabella's court; heaven knows I am 
 bad enough but I have never said nor ever will say anything 
 ■ against a lady that I would be ashamed to repeat in her presence; 
 whenever I associate with true ladies they exercise an elevating 
 influence on me and I would no more think of uttering anything 
 improper against them or in their presence than if tliey were so 
 many angels; after much dancing and a most enjoyable time gen- 
 erally and a sumptuous supper we returned home at 2 in the 
 morning. Extract from a letter to my cousin Ethel Churchill: 
 "You will no doubt be surprised to receive a letter from me as I 
 suppose you have forgotten by this time our earl/ corres- 
 pondence in childhood; I now write at your brothers request 
 with the hope of persuading you to come and live witli hirn in 
 Canada, he arrived here on the 29lh and since then 1 have ben 
 showing him different farms about the country, one of which he 
 prefers to the rest on account of its being situated on the edge of 
 Aston village which has over 2,000 inhabitants and is a centrally 
 situated and rising town well connected by rly with most of the 
 leading towns and cities in the province and has one of the finest 
 markets in this part of the country, it has aiso a small select circle 
 of society which as a rule is not met with in rural tcvv'ns, I men- 
 tion this as with ladies this is generally the first consideration; 
 (gave an elaborate description of Lyttleton's farm) from what 
 your brother tells me it appears that he would like to become a 
 farmer for those that really Hke it it is one of the finest and most 
 independent professions a man can follow; in following most of 
 the other professions and trades a man is dependant on the public 
 for his living whereas with a farmer it is exactly opposite; kings, 
 statesmen, doctors, lawyers are all dependant on the farmer for 
 their sustenance, banks may fail, stocks become worthless, goods 
 decrease in value, house burn and ships sink but a good farm can 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. SjJ 
 
 never be lost except through the fault o{ its owner; it has ofterk 
 been a surprise to nie that farmers as a class arc so much 
 infjrior to other professions or even tradesmen and me- 
 chanics intellectually, but I am glad to say the farmers of 
 this country are at last beginning to see the necessity of 
 a thorough enducation, without which no man can attain 
 to tliat position that every man with true ambition should, 
 amongst his fellowinen of the present age. We saw the owner 
 of the farm who asks ;^6oo for the place, a very low price, but a 
 rather large sum for your brother to pay, cash down. Your 
 brother thought that you and your sister would be kind enough 
 to lend him ;$2,ooo and reserve to yourselves the right of first 
 mortgage on the place. In doing this you would incur no risk, 
 and at the same tiau have a beautiful hoine to live in without 
 paying the enormous rent you are now paying in Ireland, and 
 you would be able to live at about one-half the amount it now 
 costs you and get 6 per cent, interest on this safe investment of 
 your money. In event of any failure on your brother's part the 
 rigUt of first mortgige would secure to you your money, but I 
 thmk that this is scai :ely possible as my brother and I com- 
 menced under less favorable circumstances and have succeeded 
 in a most satisfactory manner. Land in Canada is certain to 
 rise in a few years, when emigration from Eastern Canada to the 
 great Northwest ceases, which at the present time causes a great 
 many eastern farms to be thrown upon the market. From a let- 
 ter to uncle Richard: "Mr. St. George, from whom I purchased 
 Oak Hill, has written to me saying thac if 1 desire he will give 
 me 8 years to piy for the place instead of 4. I had written to 
 him saying that I did not wish to dispose of the valuable hard- 
 wood timber on the place at the exceedingly low price it now 
 commands; also that a longer term of payment would enable me 
 to adopt a better system of cultivation and feed the produce on 
 the farm insteiJ of selling it which is certain in the course of 
 time to impoverish the best of land, I merely state this to show 
 you that I did not make a foolish bargain in purchasing this val- 
 uable and beautiful estate and that it was easily within my power 
 to pay for it; however, as you and uncle Jerrold have command- 
 ed me to sell it in many of your letters, I submit and will say no 
 
236 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMEKICA. 
 
 more on the subject. I send you an account of my expenditures 
 on the place: F*irst instalment on the land, ^100; to notary for 
 making deed, $5; for provisions for a plowing bee, $1.50; for 
 snow plowing main road during the winter, iJ»i.50; for nianuie, 
 $S for 35 double loads; wire for fence, $1.25; 16 bushels of seed 
 potatoes, $7.50; 24 acres of fence, ^21; 29 bushels of oats, ;$ 10,50. 
 Fortunately the late frosts did not damage any of our crops as 
 they were not over ground; the orchard is heavily loaded with 
 apples, but the plums were destroyed by the frost." From a let- 
 to Clifford: "On Oak Hill I have sown 22 bushels of oats, 15 
 of potatoes, and am at present preparing 3 acres for buckwheat; 
 the rest of the farm is in meadow ami pasture. When will the 
 Jews, Christians, Mohammedans and Pagans stop their senseless 
 wrangling about imaginary doctrines and revelations and devote 
 more of their time to the more practical and glorious work o( 
 elevating the human race and beautifying this earth. Mr. Mere- 
 dith has contributed $iS towards painting the inside of the 
 church afresh and I have collected $14 towards it. Beaufort C. 
 is stoppmg ^ith us at present; he seems a half dead and half 
 alive sort of a fellow, with no energy or ambition; a lukewarm 
 individual of a somewhat religious turn of minr'; showed him all 
 the sights of Aston; descended No. 5 shaft at the copj er mines, 
 300 feet deep; the mine is only partially worked, the four other 
 shafts are full of water." Extract from a letter to uncle Jerrold, 
 5th of June. "We received last week the quarterly allowance 
 that you so generously send us; we did not go to Montreal this 
 time as we were too busy at work on our farm planting the 
 spring crops. This spring has been very unfavorable for clear- 
 ing land on account of the wet weather in May; the rain, how- 
 ever, has been of benefit to the hay crop, which to all appearance 
 will be very heavy. The fertility of the lowlands on Elmbrooke 
 is astonishing, year after year they produce heavy crops of hay 
 without manure. Most of our clearance in Elmbrooke is under 
 hay which is one of the most profitable crops around here; in 
 fact we are obliged to hay the land the first year it is cleared and 
 keep it under hay and pasture until the sturiips have sufficiently 
 decayed to have them removed, this generally takes 6 or 8 years. 
 Although the clearance on Oak Hill is some of the highest land 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 237 
 
 in this part of the country and has not been manured for many 
 years the crops are in excellent condition. We have taken a 
 great many animals to pasture as it is one of the best and cheap- 
 est means of enriching an impoverished soil. Have visited Clif- 
 ford since dear Richard's death; he, poor fellow, appears very 
 lonesome as Richard was his inseparable companion for the last 
 few years after his health began to fail.." Montreal, 17th June. 
 "Dear Arthur, your uncle Jerrold still insists on your selling 
 Oak Hill, in this I think he shows his foresight and profound 
 judgment. The crops will have to pay you for whatever you 
 have spent on the place, you have no further interest in the lot 
 so ce.' se bothering about it." While at G's my aunt quizzed me 
 about Florence and Maud; I grew indignant and told her I did 
 not see anything ridiculous in my preferring the company of re- 
 fined and amiable young ladies to that of vulgar, ignorant coun- 
 try girls. Andre La Rivere had a bee; 15 men v/ere at it; in 
 the evening played cards, sang songs, etc.; there was not enough 
 of the fair sex present to have a dance. A few rules I have add- 
 ed to those already mentioned: **Never put off till to-morrow 
 what I can do to-day;" "To be affable and courteous to all men 
 and try to be agreeable and good company to all classes of peo- 
 ple; Devote from 7 to 10 each evening to literature; Never to 
 spend $2 where $1 is sufficient; To cultivate the habit in reading 
 of skipping whatever is uninstructive and useless by which I 
 shall be able to accomplish 5 times as much good reading; To 
 avoid all ostentatious display in dress or otherwise which is a 
 sure sign of a weak and vulgar mind; To always keep alive 
 within me an earnest and honorable ambition to accomolisii all 
 I can for myself and the age I live in." June 15th; part of a 
 btter to Uncle Richard: "We are at present sowing buckwheat; 
 the weather has been very warm of late, without any rain, which 
 if it continues will seriously damage the hay and grain crops on 
 high lands." Extract from a letter from Clifford: "Very few 
 people believe that war can be abolished; it is just as impossible 
 to abolish the war of nations as that of individuals, it is impossi- 
 ble for us to change human nature. When a nation's govern- 
 ment or king becomes enraged against another whom they think 
 they can beat, then they will have war and no treaties can pre- 
 
238 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 vent thefn. You can no more stop war than you can stop mur- 
 der. In ancient times their weapons were so clumsy that com- 
 paratively fjw were killed, but now they kill many in a shurt 
 time, I think we shall have war until the time of the millemum. 
 The only way to prevent war that I can think of is for some one 
 to invent a weapon so deadly that one man armed with it would 
 be equal for a million similiary armed. This would put a stop 
 to it as it would be sure death to all parties engaj^ed." Jn answer 
 lo the above: **I cannot a|»ree with you that it is as easy to 
 abolish the war of nations as that of individuals. For a govern- 
 ment that governs with wisdom and justice can easily pre- 
 vent insurrections and rebellions amongst the people 
 it rules but could not prevent the individual crime of murder or 
 entirely suppre: s it; 1 think it is absurd for you to imagine 
 that it would be as difficult to persuade the Christian govc 'i- 
 ments of the world to abolish war, as to persuade all men to 
 cease from murder, for in the first case we have only a few thous- 
 and intelligent men to convince, who as a rule strive to make 
 laws for their country's good; whereas in the latter case millions 
 of ignorant and wicked men would have to be reformed; I still 
 maintain that if 4 nations like England, TVance, Germany and 
 the United States, formed a treaty between each other to settle 
 all further disputes by arbitration, and do away with the awful 
 expense of their armies, that no power on earth could dare attack 
 them even though they did not have a single soldier; the mil- 
 lenium arguments are simply ridiculous, the idea! Civilized 
 men forsooth, must continue murdering each other for the sake 
 of fulfilling some ancient prophecy, this is as bad as the 
 scriptural defense of slavery, "a servant of servants shall he (the 
 Negro) be." 1 feel confident that long before that long expect- 
 ed Christian period arrives, the more civilized portions of our 
 earth will have abolished this cruel relic of barbarism. Uncle 
 Tom of Waterford writes. "Beaufort's father's family are all ex 
 tremely delicate, and Beaufort himself is too weak to stand hard 
 work, besides nearly all his money would be taken up in pur- 
 chasing the place, and Beaufort could never direct even the 
 hired men; it appears to me ridiculous.that he should own a farm 
 let alone manage one; if Beaufort was a man likely to put his 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 239 
 
 shoulder to work and stick to it, I shoukl be glad to see him 
 settle down near you " From Uncle Jerrold; "at least half of 
 the pr()[)erty in Gt. Britain is "held in tiust,"and a man who vio- 
 lates this trust is liable to penal serviiude; I have bought O.ik 
 II ill from you and will hold it in trust f(jr you; your Uncle 
 Peter's family have very little more allowed them than you, and 
 they have not only saved money but have most nobly, like fine 
 hardvvorkinjx independent souls, written to s.iy tiiat they only 
 require for the present ^^"3 a month; in another case where 1 have 
 been making an allowance to one of my f.imily he has with the 
 manly spirit of the Goldsmith family, which has ever distinguished 
 our name as hard workers and self-reliant, with perhaps one 
 exception, sent me back the whole of the yrs. allowance, and 3 
 pairs of bracelets, of diamonds, pearls and emeralds, with 2 em- 
 erald rings for your Aunt Mary, in acknowledgment for her 
 kindness to him while in London; I do not say this by way of 
 hinting at any return; my only and greatest reward will be to 
 see that what I do now for those I love will I.e of use , and jjlace 
 the dear ones, my own good relations and the children of my 
 darling sister in a free and independent position; you can redeem 
 Oak Hill later on if you wish, by paying me 6 per ct. interest on 
 what 1 pay Mr. St. George." This is one of the many letters 
 that Uncle JerroM has written to me saying that I could keep 
 the place, but Uncle Richard is determined that I shall not keep 
 it, because I did not ask his consent, and he thinks he knows 
 best, although I have given him practical proofs that it is one of 
 the cheapest and most beautiful farms in this part of the country, 
 in fact parts of both their letters to us of late have been extreme- 
 ly hurtful to my feelings; he and Uncle Richard well know that 
 Tom and I have worked like slaves and even deprived ourselves 
 of the common neccessaries of life, to make our efforts at bush 
 farming a success, and yet they sometimes write to us as if we 
 were idle and extravagant, for my part I will not stand it much 
 longer. Extract from a letter from Uncle Jerrold: 'T protest 
 against Arthur's acting contrar}' to your Uncle Richard's wishes 
 in keeping that lot, and have written to your uncle to the same 
 affect, once more for all I repeat to you again and for the last 
 time, as I hope it may not be neccessary again, you must be 
 
240 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 solely guided by what your Uncle Richard says in all your trans- 
 actions, you may remember in my letters to my dearest sister, 
 your good mother, I wished to let her see that the annuity of 
 ;{^iOOa yr. was right, as I knew she always felt a reluctance to 
 incur obligations to any one, but in her last letter to me she an- 
 nulled and repudiated this by saying, she only accepted my gifts 
 as a token of my brotherly affection, and added, that so far as 
 her whole life went, that it was she who was indebted to me, at 
 the same time it is but fair to tell you, that in event of my death 
 I had provided absolutely for the payments, although as the case 
 stands 1 have not executed any deed or stamped document, so 
 that as matters stand at present my income to you is not com- 
 pulsory, and depends on your acting with that care and prudence 
 for which 1 have hitherto esteemed you, God forbid that anything 
 should arise to prevent me from performing towards you what 1 
 consider as my sacred duty and promise, and which it would pain 
 my heart to discontinue, and which please God I shall never do; 
 do oot take this m anger, or as a threat, it is only intended in 
 kindness and love; you will be glad I know that your cousin 
 has passed his examination at Oxford; we have had all day and 
 all night the most violent thunder storm I have ever seen in Eng- 
 land, the great downfall of rain has done good to the land; f hope 
 you will soon be able to make a little money out of your land; 
 it looks odd to us in England where we pay heavy rents and 
 awful taxes and yet save money; told Uncle Richard that the 
 fact of so many farms being to let is greatly exaggerated, as he 
 would find very soon if he came here to buy or rent one; for the 
 land Arthur has bought I shall pay for, deducting 6 per ct. in- 
 terest from your annuity, and so save any expense.' "July loth. 
 Dear uncle; I received your letter a few weeks ago, but 
 waited till Uncle Richard came out and arranged about 
 the lot. I have to thank you for your generous offer to pay for 
 Oak Hill and give me time to pay for it at six per cent, 
 which offer I would have accepted had not uncle Richard pes - 
 tively forbid me to have nothing more to do with the lot after th s 
 fall after I have taken the crops off of it and he has repaid to me 
 the ;$ioo I paid to Mr. St. George on account. The potatoes are 
 in fine condition and the Colorago beetles are kept from doi.ig 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 24I 
 
 damage by applying Paris green and London purple to the leaves 
 with a watering pot; the hay crop I am sorry to say is much in- 
 ferior to last yr. about ^ less; as regards running into debt you 
 say truly that it Is the source of rum to thousands, that is to those 
 who become debtors thro reckless extravagance; with us how- 
 ever it was entirely different, I went into debt for Oak Hill it is 
 true, but it was one of the cheapest bargains I have seen for many 
 yrs. in this part of the country; I did it with the best of inten-. 
 tions to have an estate that I would be proud of when you came 
 to see us; I had decided to throw my whole energies into farm- 
 ing and make it a success; such a debt as the one I incurred I 
 am proud of and if no farmer were allowed to incur such debts as 
 tlijse few of them could rise above the position of market gar- 
 deners and laborers. It is true we have 400 acres besides Oak 
 Hill but it would cost us more to clear loo acres of it than thv> 
 whole 200 acres of lot 29 with 100 acres cleared on it free from 
 stumps; I cannot tell you how my uncle's persistent refusal to 
 allow me to keep this beautiful farm has dampened my hopes and 
 hurt my feelings but I have had to submit altho I could have 
 paid for the farm easily from its own resources alone in the 8yrSi 
 I had to pay it." "Elmbrooke June 22, dear uncle Richard, I. 
 of course will have to submit to your decision about Oak Hill' 
 but at the same time I would respectfully remind you that what 
 you call unwise land and property speculation has been the very 
 means by ^'hich you have amassed the greatest part of your 
 present fortune; I will as you say devote a little more time to 
 mental culture without which not even the man most perfectly 
 endowed with physical gifts can ever expect to rise much higher- 
 than a common laborer; the progress of the man now-a-days that 
 depends on physical labor alone for the accumulation of wealth 
 as compared with the man that uses his brains is as the progress 
 of the carrier pigeons of former days compared with the electric 
 telegraph of the present day; a man at best working every day 
 for 50 yrs could only accumulate by rigid economy and high pay 
 about ^15,000, which is but a trifle as compared with the vast 
 fortunes amassed in a few yrs by men who use their brains as 
 well as their hands; with but few exceptions most men to meet 
 with more than ordinary success in life must have a good educa- 
 
 i 31 
 
242 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 tion, it is the most necessary of all things before a young man 
 devotes all his energies t<D any other particular object. Uncle 
 Jerrold speaks about our having so much hired labor but you 
 well know that I and Tom with one boy cannot save 70 acres of 
 hay alone. In earthing up our potatoes we used the cultivator 
 you gave Uncle Herbert and found that it w?.s a great economizer 
 of labor, we have also -put floors in the mows of the new barn. 
 4th July, since last I wrote in these pages I have been in one con- 
 tinued round of business, pleasure and hard manual labor; I have 
 taken 3'horses and 11 cows to pasture and had some lively elec- 
 tioneering to keep our school from falling into the hands of the 
 R. C's, have struck a rate of 2^ mills on the dissentient prop- 
 erty and decided to keep the school open 4 months in some cen- 
 tral place in the parish; have been many times at Meredith's 
 during the spring and early summer, they have had a great many 
 visitors as much as 14 staying at their house at one time. Re- 
 ceived an introduction to Mr. B. brother to Miss Brown of Tor- 
 onto of happy memory, whom I shall never forget, what with 
 evenings at cards, rides and drives thro the country, picnics, cro- 
 quet, lawn tennis, and conversaziones,we all had a most delightful 
 time. Mr. M. had a severe accident, nearly broke his arm and 
 received many bruises by falling thro the floor of a chemical 
 works at Montreal, he is a chemist as well as a mineralogist and 
 has been making several experiments lately. President Garfield 
 has nearly lost his life by the hand of Charles Guiteau, either a 
 lunatic or villain, has shot him in the groin, the ball has not yet 
 been extracted; a new invention is to be tested by which the doc- 
 tors expect to be able to locate the exact position of the ball 
 without probing the wound. Wrote to Mr. Blair, secretary of 
 McGill College, to send me a prospectus of the College, as I have 
 decided to go to college; study for some profession and give up 
 farming, in which I say to a person who has capital and respect- 
 able neighbors farming is an independent and honorable profes- 
 sion but this is not the case with those who have no capital and 
 are obliged to live amongst a vulgar community. "Montreal, my 
 dear Mr. Howard, we were all indeed deeply grieved when your 
 mother was called to be with Jesus and I well understand how 
 truly you miss both her affection and wise counsel, but you have 
 
> 
 
 HISTORY or THE FRENCH IN AMERICA^ 245 
 
 one to go to all the day long who is n>ore than a mother to those 
 who really trust and seek his counsel, and I trust you will look 
 to him before you take any step in the purpose you now speak 
 of, as regards the information you require I may say that the 
 course of a student desiring to enter law is to attend the chambers 
 of an advocate and for which he is indentured for 4 years, one 
 yr allowed him, if during his course he takes the degree of B. L. 
 A. which takes 3 yrs. to attend lectures and examination in every 
 session in March, the student attends these lectures during the 3 
 yrs of his indentureship; I send you a calendar which explains 
 examination; the fees for lectures are the two first $$ and $20. 
 A lawyer might take you into his office for your services though 
 in some you pay to be indentured, of course y ou have to board 
 yourself; you ought to consult your uncle Goldsmith who would 
 I am sure do all he can for you; it is astonishing the number of 
 well educated young men who take to farming, prefering the 
 independence of the life to the busy and trying life of profes- 
 sions; that is a good aphorism "man wants but little here below 
 nor wants that little long;" the blessed return of the Lord Jesus ' 
 for his believing people may be this )'r., and then dear friend we 
 shall with your precious mother pass an eternity of happiness 
 with him "who washed us in his own blood and made us kings 
 and priests unto God, and his Father" &c.; Rev. I chapt. 5 and 6 
 verses; we are just at the end of the journey, our lamps are bnrn- 
 ing with oil, (the spirit,) and we shall enter in when he calls. 
 Your affectionate friend, W. C. Blair, Sec." Have also read 
 Tom Moore's poems, his longest is Lalla Rookh, which brings 
 Eastern scenes to perfection before the eyes; have been 
 reading Byron, there seems to me a tinge of saoness about many 
 of his poems. "20th July. Dear Tom and Arthur, the only 
 way I can account for your Uncle Jerrold's letter, saying that 
 you could keep Oak Hill, is that it was written 2 days af- 
 ter he wrote to you, all you have to do in the matter is to write 
 to him, stating that the property has been bought for him in my 
 name, he ought to understand my sentiments by this time for I 
 have written several times to him saying, that if you kept the 
 property it would rUin you, and put you on the road in 5 yrs.; 
 you have plenty of land, one acre of your land on lots 34 and 
 
t4A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 35 is worth the whole of the 200 acres at Oak Hill; it is also too 
 near your Uncle Herbert, and there has been too much quar- 
 relling already; when you bought that land you were what Mr. 
 Gladstone calls "land hungry;" it would have made you what 
 Western people call, "land poor;" should your Uncle Jerrold 
 desire to keep the lot, I shall have the deed made in his name." 
 ^Montreal, July 30th. Dear Tom and Arthur, I have just reed, 
 a letter from your Uncle Jerrold, he has again changed his mind 
 and says he intends to keep the lot for a few yrs ; I find from 
 sad experience that it is easier to buy property than to dispose 
 of it, the Elms farm costs me £72 a month, besides keepmg up 
 the house, then there i«; my city and sea-side residence to keep 
 up; I have had several advantageous offers for Oak Hill, and 
 have again written to your uncle trying to persuade him to sell 
 it; for you to keep it would only make slaves of yourselves; all 
 I have said on this subject has beeen prompted for your sole 
 benefit; I may have been mistaken but time will tell." The Prin- 
 cess Louise and Prince Leopold her brother, have left Canada 
 for England; there is some scandal between Mr. Chaplean, Prime 
 minister of Quebec, and another M. P., Vrhich is not very credit 
 able to Canadian Statesmen; Mr. C. thinks his work ought to 
 be sufficient to pay for his board, but father does not; received 
 several Land league circulais from E. Howard, the Irish Peas- 
 antry have certainly grievances to complain of, but many of them 
 have been redressed by Gladstone's government; by the census 
 of 1880, Canada has 4.350,933 population; in 71 — 3,670,000; 
 Bradford, our county has 21,199, in 'yi — 19,177; a very slow 
 increase in 10 yrs.; there is considerable excitement about an 
 infidel M. P., Mr. Bradlaugh, who refused to take an oath on 
 account of conscientious scruples; a suit was brought against 
 him for sitting in the house without taking an oath, and he 
 was fined, although he afterwards consented to take the oath; 
 it was decided by the House that as he had once refused to take 
 it he should not be allowed to take it, 20 policemen prevented 
 him from entering the House, Lord Seibourne and many other 
 eminent lawyers are of the opinion that the House exceeded its 
 lawful bounds of power in refusing to allow Bradlaugh to sit in 
 the House after he had been honorably elected to the Parliament 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 245 
 
 by the people. I had an argument with father, and said that all 
 men irrespective of their religions, or belief should be allowed to 
 have a voice in their country's government as long as they 
 kept the secular laws, and were worthy citizens. An Insurance 
 agent wanted me to insure my life, I said if I was a married man 
 I might consider it my duty to do so, but as I had no one de- 
 pendant upon me I did not care to pay $60 a yr., even though 
 the money would be refunded to me in 20 prs.; although hun- 
 dreds of speeches have been made on Protection, thousands of 
 clever men in both the Conservative and Liberal party, hold di- 
 rectly opposite views on a subject that is of so vital importance 
 to the manufacturing and commercial prosperity of their coun- 
 try; the adoption of that policy however, has had a most bene- 
 ficial effect on the country. 30th July; have hired a man at $26 
 a month and board; some Sundays 1 go to church and spend 
 the afternoons at Mr. Dougalls, playing checkers with him and 
 other players on his lawn, which is a rendevous for the best 
 players of Aston. Have given the job of cutting some of the* 
 hay on Oak Hill to Fetreault on halves; wild raspberries sell at' 
 25cts. for 5 gallons. Helena Wakefield is on a visit at G*s., she 
 is a sensible, religiously inclined young lady, but alas, has red ■ 
 hair and a freckled face, which spoil the effect of a good figure 
 and intellectual brow; have had a picnic and a few private par- 
 ties for her benefit. I paid Mrs. Vincent to repair the rooms in 
 father's house, as Mr. C. expects his wife to arrive shortly; have 
 nearly f'.nisned excavating the earth to a depth of 3 ft. out of 
 our stable to make it have a height of 7 ft. Nicholas came out 
 to see us with a friend, shot at targets, boxed, wrestled, played 
 cricket and performed other athletic sports, such as lifting 
 weights, throwing weights and movements on a horizontal bar; 
 my aunt and Ethel passed, my aunt looked as astonished as if 
 we were Earth men from Africa; this will give her fresh fuel to 
 throw on her altar of gossip. "Cork, August '81. Dear Uncle 
 Jonathan, I asked Uncle Timothy for information about Beau- 
 fort, but he never answered my letter. I have to give yoii a scold- 
 ing for the nonsense you have thought of, and putting into Beau- 
 forts head such nonsense as those nice young men in Aston vil- 
 lage, if I ever go to America it is for a home, not to be married; I 
 
246 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 thought you quite a different man, than to talk that 
 trash, when 1 was on a visit with you and Aunt 
 Sarah in London, you never spoke thus to me, nor will 
 I or Angelica stand it, nature seldom changes with 
 the climate. We never intended leading a life of celibacy while 
 in Ireland but once we set our feet on American shore we will 
 lead such; do not think for one instant I am in play, we do not 
 eare how fine your young Americans are for we do not want 
 them, we will refuse to go if we hear any more disgusting low 
 talk, perhaps if Beaufort was not married he would not be in such 
 haste to marry now; it is for our health we should go out and 
 not for our marriage, for I am far from being strong; we have 
 chosen where we will love and have resolved to love our choice, 
 uncle Jonathan; let me tell you that job has been taken off your 
 hands; give us a solemn promise that you will never utter such 
 trash again; love to Beaufort, Tom, Arthur and yourself, your 
 affec. niece, Ethel M. Churchill. I am really ashamed that father 
 did not exhibit better taste than to write thus to ladies who are 
 old enough to be the average young man's mother; he once at 
 least was a gentleman in manners but from constant vulgar asso- 
 ciations during the last 20 years has greatly deteriorated. From 
 Clifford: "The Elms, Aug. 23, '81. I only finished haying on the 
 5th; the first yr we got 20 loads off this place, last year 29 and 
 this yr 58, off of 6^2 acres of clover, the first cutting yielded i6 
 double loads and 2 single and the 2d cutting 9 double loads and 
 yet there will be a good aftermath; we have put up 3 miles of 
 fencing this year. President Garfield is, I read, in a very pre 
 carious condition. Hay is selling here for |> 10 a ton. Has your 
 poetic muse been awakened lately if so plea'Je favor us with a 
 copy. Mother, Flora, and I of her children have just left, Mabel 
 and little Angelica are staying with me. From a letter to uncle 
 Richard I have had an offer of II900 for Oak Hill from a reliable 
 party who will pay half down, so if uncle Jerrold has decided to 
 dispose of it he should not lose this good opportunity; we have 
 just finished cutting some swamp grass w^hich makes good fodder 
 for cattle; some of our oats will be ready for harvesting in a few 
 days." Received a postal card from Dr. Bacon and Mr. Mere- 
 dith, church wardens for St. Mark's inviting us to a meeting to 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 24/ 
 
 to be held in the church on church affairs; its members 
 are |> 1 80 in arrears of their dues; the envelope system is not a 
 success, it does not gratify human vanity as well as an open silver 
 salver. We have to go twice a week to the village for bread as 
 it gets mouldy if kept longer. Poor Dr. Oliver is dead, a man of 
 brilliant talents, splendid education and capable of being an or- 
 nament to his profession had not his health and reputation been 
 blasted by the use of opium and whiskey. The Meredith's have 
 been invited to a high toned picnic of select French people at 
 which Mr. Mignault, member from our county is to be present. 
 We pay 15 cts a dozen for eggs; we rise every morning during 
 haying at ^ past 4 and work till ^ past 7. The dramatic club 
 of St. Andre cleared $75 at their last entertainment which is ac- 
 counted for as it was in aid of the church and of course all the 
 faithful attended. i6lh Aug. the whole atmosphere is full of smoke 
 a sign th2t forest fires are at work. Philip G. brought us some 
 bear's meat which is as tender as chicken but to me had an un- 
 pleasant wild flavor. Roussin has had a beutiful fountain placed 
 in his lawn, he is one of the most liberal and energetic French 
 citizens in Aston In our spare time we are stumping our clear- 
 ance. The P^nglish Lords and Commons cannot agree on the 
 Irish Land Bill, but they will of course give way to the will of 
 the Commons. The forest fires have run all over our clearance 
 and done most valuable work by burning all the stumps out. 
 Sarah is on a visit at Uncle Herbert's. How quick time 
 flies, it seems but a short time ago all G. children and our- 
 selves used to sit in the orchard in the cool air of a summer's 
 evening and talk together about the great things we were going 
 to accomplish. Childhood is truly a very happy period in one's 
 life; joy and pleasure is less counteracted by the cares and vex- 
 ations of life. Went to Brodeur's to borrow an ox yoke; we 
 broke our own in pulling stumps; Louis was making rails for a 
 hotel keeper of Aston. Mrs. B Sr. tried to blow the dinner horn 
 but failed; I pitied the sad look upon her face. Well do I remem- 
 ber years ago the strong, clear blast of that horn for three-fourths 
 of a mile distance, when she used to call her poor old Antoine 
 to dinner; but age has taken her teeth away leaving her a gray- 
 headed, sad old woman. Broke Brodeur's yoke; ichis makes 3 
 
248 . HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 OX yokes in 5 hours; all the ornamental trees we left in the 
 clearance have been destroyed by fire. Daniel C. and I went to 
 Davenport to a pjc-nic; the grove in which it was held had too 
 much brushwood for comfort; there were about 50 people in all, 
 mostly of the middle class as could be seen from the ungramati- 
 cal way they spoke. Old men talked agriculture and politics 
 old matrons of gossip and "garden sass," the young men and 
 girls amused themselves singing to the music of an old organ 
 that ommitted the most heart-rending sounds as an ostentatious 
 young girl, with as many grimaces as a French dancing master, 
 played thereon, and looked around occasionally with that self 
 consequential air that led one to believe that she actually thought 
 we were all enraptured with the music. There were also several 
 young children who appeared to derive great amusement from 
 the, numerous swings attached to the branches of the trees. I 
 organized a set for croquet, and with ' Florence as my partner 
 played a few games, but the afternoon passed in a most intoler- 
 able dull manner. In the evening there was music, singing and 
 ^hort orations in the church, and I must say I never heard such 
 a great variety of miserable, squeaky voices. One clergyman, 
 from Rawlings. was ungentlemanly enough to criticise a short 
 speech Rev. L. C. W. made, but he being the meekest man I 
 ever .saw or expect to see, never uttered a word; the proceedings 
 closed with **God Save the Queen." As all the apples are being 
 stolen on Oak Hill I have sold them to Fetreault for $5. A 
 comet is visible every evening m the vicinity of the "Great Bear." 
 Head an old book called "Old Eritz," an historicnl novel of 
 Germany. In reading books of life 250 years ago, one gets a 
 good opinion of the increase of the morality of mankind. Feni- 
 ans have had a fiendish plot to blow up English public buildings. 
 Garfield it is thought will recover; his life has been one of noble 
 self denial and heroic courage. Russia, through nihilism, is in a 
 yery unsettled state; France from a steady policy of international 
 improvement has suddenly become the most aggressive nation of 
 Europe, We are stumping every day; most of the stumps come 
 out easily as the light, alluvial soil is nearly all burnt away from 
 the roots; those that are difficult we pile the extracted stumps 
 around them and burn them. Sold our oxen to a butcher for 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 24^ 
 
 o as they were getting old; Tom is private secretary and 
 writes many of the love letters for the young Frenchmen in 
 these parts; our blacksmith charges 2 gets, for putting on a new 
 shoe and locts for putting on an old horseshoe. Met poor Mr. 
 Robert St. George; habitual intoxication has given him a fear- 
 fully wild and ghastly look; he is now really nothing better than 
 a walking tempefcnce lecture. The fires that have raged in the 
 woods the last 3 weeks have been almost extinguished by heavy 
 showers. A Frenchman passed with a load of 85 bushels of 
 charcoal for which he expects to get $10 from a tinsmith. 25th 
 Aug. Have commenced harvesting the oats at Oak Hill; have 
 hired Mike Murphy by the month; the G. boys make a great 
 pet of Sarah's child that is on a visit at their place; it is a very 
 old fashioned little thing; G. boys have changed work with us at 
 harvesting. There are several picturesque roadways through 
 Oak Hill, over-arched with grand old beech and maple trees. 
 Lent G's our mare to draw bark, as one of their mares has had 
 a foal. Our blacksmith does not temper the drills we send him 
 properly, which causes us a great deal of inconvenience in dril- 
 ling the rock in our well. Extract from a letter from uncle 
 Jerrold to uncle Richard: "My dear Richard, enclosed is a letter 
 of credit for the Howard lads; I wish the understanding to be 
 always maintained that Tom and Arthur do nothing without 
 your consent; If they do I will withdraw all assistance from 
 them. Tell Arthur if he intends to speculate it must not be on 
 hard earnings." I am certain that I never asked him for money 
 to speculate, and that he made that offer himself However, this 
 ends it, I will take no more favors from either of them, and will 
 go to some college as soon as possible. Received a letter from 
 Florence; she will teach the school again this year. Uncle 
 Richard writes that uncle Jerrold has decided to sell Oak Hill 
 in London. While on a boating excursion on Richford river I 
 was greatly surprised at the natural talent displayed by a young 
 lad 6 years old who lives there, who can take good sketches of 
 nearly everything on and about their farm. Clifford C. through 
 a cramp was nearly drowned had not Philip G. rescued 
 him. Uncle and aunt have returned from a visit to Davenport, 
 where they say tho yield of apples and plums will be enormous, 
 
 32 
 
250 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Father and G's have had another difference about the fence; I 
 warded off a quarrel by repairing the fence. While driving to 
 Aston with Mr. Churchill I was astonished to see him on one 
 occasion gaze upward, and discovered he was engaged in pray- 
 er, although driving over an uninhabited road; I told him it was 
 not a very suitable place for performing his devotions, and th it 
 he ought to bear in mind that wise injunction of St. Paul: "Let 
 all things be done decently and in order." 30th of Aug; G. boys 
 are changing time with us and are helping us to stump our 
 clearance, which is very laborious; spent a pleasant evening at 
 Meredith's; Nicholas and Mabel W. are great friends of late. 
 Mabel wants hirn to give up smoking, and broke a cigar holder 
 he had, for return for which he broke her bracelet. From ap- 
 pearances I believe that both their parents would be delighted 
 to hear of an early engagement. Spent the evening at Vincent's; 
 the filthiness of the conversation of the family and the numerous 
 young people assembled there was disgusting. I can under- 
 stand how a person can utter an oath or even vile language in a 
 moment of fierce anger, but to do so day in and week out with a 
 relish for it as if it was the most brilliant wit, makes it appear to 
 me that filth and depravity must have taken a fearful hold on 
 these peoples' hearts. Since Houde's have left Tom has com- 
 menced to spend an evening occasionally at Morean's, who has 
 three charming daughters, one blonde and two brunettes; it is 
 the great rendevous for all the young beaus of the range. Our 
 oats in the back clearance has been fearfully trampled by bears 
 and is extremely difficult to cut. Received the calender of Raw- 
 lings College; tuition for the Art course is only $20 a year and 
 board and washing ;$2.70 a week. Wrote as follows: "Dear 
 Uncles: From the recent letters I have lately received from you 
 I plainly see that we can never agree as regards my 'modus 
 operandi' of farming, therefore, taking this into consideration, 
 with the great disadvantages here of vulgar and bad associations, 
 I have decided to discontinue farming and study for some pro- 
 fession. I need hardly give you any reason'^ for my wishing to 
 perfect my education, for you have both experienced the pleasure 
 and benefit derived from it in vour intercourse with the world. 
 Perhaps you may reply, why not perfect your education and be 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 2$ I 
 
 a farmer still. I reply, this might be possible for a genius poss- 
 essed of brilliant intellect and great physical endurance, who 
 could handle the axe and plow all day and afterwards devote 
 half the night to study; but even such as he would lose much 
 time and suffer great inconvenience without the aid of experi- 
 enced professors. As 1 have not the means to pay college ex- 
 penses and carry on farming at the same time, I have decided if 
 you both consent, to sell my half in Elmbrooke to Tom. I would 
 not take an art course, but devote all my time to the obligatory 
 subjects necessary for the profession of law. Do not think be- 
 cause I wished to change from farming to the army and now to 
 law that I do not know my own mind, and will always keep 
 changmg about, which ruins all chance of success in life for those 
 that do so. I only gave up the army when I was convinced of 
 its impossibility on account of my age. The total cost for the 3 
 years course of lectures at the university and at lawyer's office 
 will be ;$68o; nearly double which amount I can get by disposing 
 of my half in Elmbrooke, its stock, implements, etc. While at 
 McNeill's at Richford he told me that he had money to loan at 
 fair interest. 1 am afraid that no no such offer will be made to 
 me when I part with my half of Elmbrooke, for no matter how 
 honorable a man may be. matter of fact business men naturally 
 dislike lending money even to their most intimate friends when 
 they have nothing but their honor to offer as security. McNeill 
 and his hotel have such a comfortable, genial appearance that 
 they more resemble the English inn than the American hotel. 
 I have been exceedingly busy of late finishing harvesting, pack- 
 ing up my personal effects, balancing our account books, and " 
 making a list of everything on Elmbrooke as regards stock, im- 
 plements, household furniture, etc., and placing a fair valuation 
 opposite each article. Tom reduced my valuation about half, 
 and even then made objections to buy, I told him that it was 
 immaterial to me, for although my uncles might prevent me 
 from selling my half in the land they could not that of the 
 moveables on it. Tom at last consented and gave me his note 
 for them at half the price I valued them at. Wrote to the prin- 
 cipal of Rawhngs saying, that I should attend it as soon as it 
 opened. Sept 7th; cut buckwheat at Oak Hill; in raking buck- 
 
?52 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 wheat it is best to do so while the dew is still on it as it shells 
 less. "McLean St. George, Esq. Dear Sir: I have written to 
 my uncles stating that you have no objection to being paid cash 
 down for Oak Hill. Should I or my brother hear of anyone de- 
 siring to purchase land I shall mention to them the lots you 
 referred to in you last. There are, as I suppose you have already 
 noticed, two extremes into which farmers and land holders run; 
 the first, a want of enterprise and lazy contenttnent on acquiring 
 sufficient land to provide them with an humble living. In the 
 second, an excess of enterprise in acquiring more land tlun they 
 can properly manage or cultivate. Of the tvo, however, the 
 first predominates in the Province of Quebec, whose 
 farmers subdivide their land to such an extent that 
 many of them occupy no better position than that of com 
 mon laborers, which position they deserve as they disregard 
 the advantages of education and have no ambition. Mike Mur- 
 phy, our hired man, has cut his foot with an axe, while cutting 
 the roots of stumps; I went to St, Marie to rent a house close 
 to Meredith's, for Florence to teach school in, as some of the 
 rate-payers have complained about Meredith's house not being 
 in a sufficiently central position, the place has greatly changed 
 within the last few yrs.; the splendid growth of primeval hard- 
 wood forest has almost disappeared, and been replaced by large 
 clearances, but the village remains unchanged, is still one long 
 straggling street; the enormous church appears to me far too 
 costly for such a small place; apple and plum trees are loaded 
 with fruit; the wheat crops in these parts is a fair average, but a 
 small extent is under it, the wheat has nearly been destroyed 
 in some countries in Europe, especially in England, where heavy 
 rains during harvest did great damage to the crops; it will have 
 to buy from India, Russia and the U. S., the latter country is 
 one of the greatest exporters of agricultural products. In one 
 orchard the ground is strewn with plums spoiled by mildew; all 
 these windfalls the farmers feed to the pigs; this however is an 
 extraordinary yield, which only occurs in 3 or 4 yrs.; some yrs. 
 there are no plums at all when there are severe late frosts; the 
 largest number of trees in an orchard seldom exceeds 50. Glow- 
 ing descriptions of facts like these in rly. guide books etc. often 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 253 
 
 give people in other countries a false idea of America; I have 
 known emigrants who expected to have wild turkeys, peaches 
 etc., for the mere tiouble of shooting and collecting them; many- 
 Europeans appear to forget how vast a continent this is, and 
 that all forms of climate are in it. A French peddler rode part 
 the way home with us, he told me that he has peddled in this 
 part of the country for the last 30 yrs., and that he has only just 
 made enough to live on. which was all he cared for; I replied 
 that if all people thought thus that this would be a wretched 
 looking earth, that I thought it was every man's duty to acquire 
 wealth, learning, and everything else that is useful and good, in 
 as great a degree as is possible, as long as they are acquired 
 by honorable means. Herbert C. who was with mc said, father 
 sing us a song, the term "father" is used by all French-Canadians 
 to old men; he sang a song of his own composition, from 
 which I saw that he possessed considerable education and 
 natural talent; how sad it is to think that many men and women 
 who might form the brightest human gems of this earth, remain 
 all their lives in the mud at the bottom of the river of life; he al- 
 so sang a revolutionary song of Papinean's time, *'vvhen a party 
 of French-Canadians rebelled against F^nglish rule, and hoisted 
 in several villages the tri-colored flag and cap of liberty, and a 
 solemn oath was taken under it, to be faithful to the revolution- 
 ary principles of which they were emblematical;" he also sung a 
 song about Father Chinguy, the great French- Canadian apostle 
 of temperance in his early days, and now a reformed priest, who 
 is doing great good by exposing the errors of Romanism, by 
 lecturing all over the world. The Witness ^ the paper we take, 
 is one of the best in Canada, has correspondents in England, 
 France, Ireland and all the Canadian provinces. Tom gave me 
 a note for $185, ;^ 100 of which was money I advanced the firm 
 when we first entered partnership; the balance for my half of all 
 the movables on Elmbrooke, it is ridiculously low, but of course 
 I prefer selling even at half price to my brother, than to put him 
 to any inconvience. Received a letter from Uncle Pichard, 
 which in the first part says, he thinks I must be crazy, and in 
 latter part that I may possibly succeed, but that I must not be 
 rash, and acquire a thorough knowledge of Latin and French, 
 
254 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 by taking lessons from Rev. L. C. Willoughby, who is a good 
 classical scholar, which is belter than going to college; also re- 
 minded me than I would be nothing "better than a tramp if I 
 sold my half of our fine estate." Paid Rev. L. C. my weekly 
 subscription to date, $3.57; Tom and I pay towards the en- 
 velope system of St, Marks, i6cts. a Sunday; settled up all my 
 business affairs preparatory to my departure for Rawlings col- 
 lege. Father showed me some relics of my dear mother's early 
 life, paintings that she had taken oi Alpine scenes, and a. por- 
 trait of herself, when 18 yrs of age, by an Italian; as I gazed on 
 that beautiful portrait, I could almost have wept when I thought 
 of her having her luxurious home, to give her hand and affec- 
 tions to a man who, although he had magnificent prospects, as a 
 civil engineer, lost them all through his want of energy and 
 slothfulness, and at last became dependant on his wife's income 
 for his support; a man who would take solemn vows upon him- 
 self to "cherish, honor, support and protect" a lady, and who 
 through any fault of his failed to do so, does not deserve the 
 name of man, let alone that of a gentleman, yet to my daily dis^ 
 gust do I see men who are in good standing in the Christian 
 churches, break these solemn vows, as well as the hearts of the 
 fair beings whose lives are sacrificed through their worthless- 
 ness. Father, who saw how dear the portrait was to me, kindly 
 presented it to Tom and I. A phrenologist has made his ap- 
 pearance in Aston, and is reaping a bountiful harvest of 25cts. 
 for exaniinmg the organs of people's heads, he has a chart show- 
 ing the three great organs, intellect, feeling and propensity, with 
 their numerous subdivisions, and where the organs are to be 
 found in the human head; truly there are a great many ways of 
 making money. On arriving at Rawlings, wrote to Uncle Rich- 
 ard. "Dear uncle; your letter reed, to day, from which I was 
 sorry to hear that you had been suffering from pain in one of 
 your eyes, also that my letter was written in such a decided 
 manner, but how could I do otherwise, I merely wrote saying 
 that I wished to study for a profession; you might merely think 
 it was a foolish idea of mine, instead of being the fixed purpose 
 ofmy life, and decide accordingly, whereas by your knowing 
 that it is my unalterable decision, and that I am willing to de- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 25$ 
 
 vote yrs. of hard work to make it a success, you will be more 
 likely to consent to my abandonment of farming for law, at which 
 more favorable opportunities occur for associating with men of 
 culture, which is of the greatest importance to a young man 
 with his character, ideas, education, manners etc. yet to acquire; 
 hence my hasty decision on a subject I should have decided yrs. 
 ago, and which I must now accomplish with as little delay as 
 possible, as in a few yrs. more it will be too late, as my charac- 
 ter, manners and habits will be irretrievably formed and fixed; 
 when I reed, your letter it was too late to follow your advice, of 
 studying with Rev. L. C, W., as I had already written to the; 
 Principal of Rawlings college, saying that Iwould go there for 
 the term ending Dec. 24th; I need not say how pleased I was to 
 hear that you are not altogether opposed to my studying for 
 law, and I will adopt the most inexpensive means for obtaining 
 the object in view, as regards the balance we owe you, I will 
 at farthest pay you in a few months, when I shall sell the 
 produce of Oak Hill; the most important of what are to form my 
 studies here will be Latin, Rhetoric, Logic, Philosophy, and 
 mathematics. A lawyer here has offered to lend me his books 
 and allow me to attend his office free of charge, he says in Eng- 
 land they always charge for such a privelege, but not as a rule 
 in (Canada;. I shall try and follow your advice by being "calm^ 
 steadfast and steady," not forgetting that a man's associations in 
 a great measure form his ideas, habits and character for honor 
 or dishonor, according to his choice of "them; when I left home 
 all the harvesting was finished, except a small field of oats not 
 yet ripe, also a large tract of land, stumped and ready for sow- 
 ing next Spring; your affee. nephew, A. N. Howard." I am 
 quite astonished at the deserted and seedy appearance of this 
 college, which has only two youthful professors who 
 have not any college degree, and in fact are preparing 
 for McGill university themselves. Prof S. however is an M. A ; I 
 was greatly astonished and disgusted at the conversation at 
 the dinner table and should not give it to the public even tho it 
 was the conversation of so-called professors and a lady, to a crit- 
 icism made by Mrs. S. on Prof, R's character, he replied. "Oh 
 do not be too hard on me I know a nice little scene that occured 
 
256 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 one night to you; since writing the above have decided that the 
 remainder of the conversation was not fit for publication. Next 
 morning the conversation was even worse and decided to return 
 home and study under Rev, L. C, W's tuition till I collect suffi- 
 cient money to pay expenses at a college in Montreal; told prin- 
 cipal S. that the college had been misrepresented to me in the 
 calendar and that I considered myself justified in leaving it. On 
 my return to Aston wrote to Uncle Richard: "dear uncle on ar- 
 riving at Rawlings college I discovered that it had been greatly 
 misrepresented with the one principal as the only professor in it 
 qualified to give instruction and only 2 students, besides the Ian- 
 guage of all of them was so disgustingly vulgar and indecent that 
 I could not stay there so I shall take lessons with Rev. L C. W, 
 for a time when I hope you and uncle Jerrold will consent to my 
 selling to Tom my half of Elmbrooke to pay college expenses in 
 Montreal; I enclose you $$0 out of which you can send me a 
 Latin and French dictionary, the balance can go on what 1 owe 
 you. While at Meredith's Florence told me of an amateur the- 
 atrical entertainment to be given at Durham and wanted me to 
 take a part, told her that I greatly regretted that I could not do 
 so; borrowed several histories in French from Flcence; Mrs. M. 
 told me their library was iit my disposal for which I thanked her. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Churchill arrived from Quebec this morning with 
 a young nephew of his wife; Tom and Walter went to the exhi- 
 bition at Montreal. Rev; L. C, W. charges $4. a month for 3 hrs 
 tuition a week; Mabel is 'taking lessons in Latin with me. "Dear 
 Arthur I rec'd the post office order for ^50 for which I have given 
 you credit; Clifford is coming out shortly to spend a few days 
 with us, on his way back he will leave the books at Aston station; 
 you write wildly in your letters but it is for want of knowledge 
 on the subjects you write about; you do not want to go to col- 
 lege if you did you would be a dunce all your life; taking young 
 men into college is one of the crying evils of this country and is 
 the cause of the professions being crowded with young men that 
 aie not as well educated as tinkers apprentices in Europe. We 
 liave had a sick house here, Flora's 2 children are with us, the 
 baby is very sick; Tom has just arrived, I asked him what books 
 }'0u had and you seem to be well supplied; I would advise you 
 
•> 
 
 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 2$/ 
 
 to stick to your farm and prepare yourself for your primary ex- 
 amination in your spare time, 4 branches will be enough for you 
 to work yourself up in in one season, English, French, Latin and 
 Geonietry; next yr 1 will send you a paper of requisites for the 
 primary examination; half an hour twice a week with Rev. L. C. 
 VV. will be sufficient for guidance and correction." "Dear Arthur 
 I atridge shootmg is in full swing now I suppose; we have finished 
 our harvesting and got 26 double loads of oats this yr where we 
 got 21 last year; our crops this yr are about as follows, hay, oats 
 and turnips, very good potatoes and buckwhat good, peas and 
 barley half a crop, corn fair considering it was damaged by late 
 frosts. President Garfield seems in a very precarious condition, 
 one day the papers say he is in a fair way of recovery and the 
 next that his life is despaired of; if it had not been for the won- 
 derful strength of his constitution he would have been dead long 
 ago; it would have been good if they had given Guiteau 20 or 20 
 lashes a day for 3 weeks and then hanged him, wretches like him 
 do not care for hanging but rather like the notoriety of it. They 
 have passed the Irish land bill in the House of Lords and now it 
 remains to be seen whether the Irish can discover fresh griev- 
 grievances. Had a discussion with Langevin he said Oh! what 
 filthy blasphemy for your bishops and priests to have wives 
 and at the same time say Saint mass, I replied that the celibacy 
 of the clergy was only an ordinance of the church, that Christ 
 never condemned it and would not have restored Peter's wife to 
 him if he disapproved of his Apostles having wives, that St. Paul, 
 one of the greatest of Apostles says, even in the Roman Catholic 
 version of the bibl?, in the 3 chap. 2 verse of Timothy: "It be- 
 hooveth a man to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, 
 prudent and chaste." I study regularly 5 hrs a day mostly in the 
 evening, continue working on the farm' with Tom at stumping, 
 plowing and ditching. 29th Sept have commenced to dig our 
 potatoes; had an argument with father, I argued that there cannot 
 be a particle of a doubt that the U. S. with its thousands upon 
 thousands of miles of inland navigation, its millions of acres of 
 fertile soil, its vast forest and rich mines and its energetic educated 
 inhabitants, will become in another 50 yrs the wealthiest and 
 most powerful nation in existence. The G's have swamped all 
 
 33 
 
258 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 their bark, told them they could have their.cows pasture on Oak 
 Hill for the rest of the autumn; while at Vincent's Mctz was 
 shouting and cursing in a horrid manner but after a time fell down 
 in a beastly state of intoxication; Louis B. was also drunk, I helped 
 him back part of the way in search of a bag of provisions he lost. 
 On arriving at Joe Vincent's found him and -our hired boy dead 
 drunk; 5 or 6 drunken men and boys were rolling about on the 
 main road uttering obscene and blasphemous language, one of 
 the boys that was drunk was a mere child only 10 yrs of age. I 
 was disgusted to see Herbert and Clifford C. setting with the 
 Vincent girls with their arms around their waists whispering the 
 empty ideas of their idiotic brains into ears that were far too eager 
 to listen to £uch sentimental trash; the girls I am sure had no 
 charms to encourage love or even admiration but were brunettes 
 frightfully pockmarked and one of them made such attempts to 
 smile that it was positively painful to behold; Joe Vincent soon 
 staggered around with a small demijohn full of whiskey treating 
 the women as well as the men; I told the women that they ought 
 to set a better exampie, that drinking intoxicants at best was only 
 a useless habit to some and ruin and destruction to others, and 
 that it was the duty of cry true man and woman to avoid that 
 which does not benefit themselves and is a source of destruction 
 to others. Had a conversation with Murphy on Irish affairs, told 
 me that he had seen Irish laborers sit down to a dinner of pota- 
 toes and buttermilk, that the potatoes were boiled in a large pot, 
 and that the potatoes were thrown in heaps on a long table and 
 eaten without the aid of any dishes or knives or forks; conversed 
 with the G. boys on the Colvin Guernsey scandal; Mr. C. is an 
 ardent admirer of bacchus and venus and hence the scandal be- 
 tween him and Miss G. Devlin offered Tom the chopping and 
 drawing of cordwood 4 miles at ;$ 1.90 a cord. Mr. B. Mr. Church- 
 ill's relative came out to see us, he is a jolly rollicking young Irish- 
 man. Mr. and Mrs. C. are sight-seeing at Montreal; was invited with 
 Mr. B. to Meredith's, had a delightful evening, Florence sang 
 some of Arthur Sullivan's latest songs; Maud is in Montreal, 
 it is feared her lungs are seriously affected, from a cold she 
 caught while skating at Toronto, she is under the treatment of 
 Dr. Hoadly, one of Montreal's most skillful physicians; yester- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 259 
 
 day we had the first snow storm, is considered a very early fall, 
 as it is only the 5th ot Oct., but it has all melted away; Mr. H. 
 and I went ont riding, he is a superb rider; and no wonder hav- 
 ing ridden after the hounds on his uncle's estate; attended an 
 English ball at Aston school-house; there were many Richford 
 and Aston people there; Mrs. Burnett of Richford has a fine 
 physique but by no means of an etherial form*, it however is well 
 proportioned, and well set off by a close fitting black velvet dress; 
 her husband gets $1,000 a yr. as manager of Sharps tannery, 
 which he spends to the last cent "cutting quite a dash," Miss 
 Moore wore a brown satin dress, has a fine figure, but her fea- 
 tures are too angular, the length of her nose alone being suffi- 
 cient to dispel in her heart any hopes of becoming the belle of 
 Aston, although she has a heavy bank account; Miss La Ro- 
 cheile is short in the extreme, has somewhat too stout a figure, 
 weak looking eyes and an unpleasantly long face; Miss Vin- 
 berg is possessed of striking ugliness, her face is extraordinarily 
 long and of a concave formation, with a nose in the center of the 
 concave; like that which little boys put on snow men, her figure 
 is gaunt and angular, but her eyes are the crowning point of hid- 
 eousness, and glitter like those of a serpent; her escort Mr. John- 
 son, has legs like broom-sticks, square jaws, bony cheeks, and a 
 nose that looks as if it had received a blow from a 12 lb. ham- 
 mer; a receding forehead, and a mustache so waxed that the 
 ends of them would pass through the eye of a needle, and seems 
 to have lost all control of the risible muscles of his face, as it 
 continually wears what cannot truthfully be called a smile; Mrs. 
 Moore has an ordiiary figure, oval face, and with a little more 
 flesh on it and color in it, would make a fairly handsome woman; 
 Miss McNeill has an apple dumpling figure, looks like a sack of 
 flour bound tightly about the center, a short stubby nose and 
 protruding teeth; there were of course many beautiful women 
 but I would as soon attempt to describe some beautiful flower 
 as them; there were 20 couple in all, the music consisted of 
 violins, harps and pianos; the Harpers were Italians passing 
 through the village; we all went to a grand supper at Waterloo 
 hotel, on returning found that the Harpers had not tasted the 
 supper that was sent to them, on being asked the reason why, 
 
26o HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN. AMERICA. 
 
 they replied, gentlemen we nave played all over the world, in 
 London, New York and Paris, and can truly say vve have never 
 been treated as rudely as we have been here, we have always 
 been asked to take refreshments with the rest of the guests and 
 a musician, allow me to inform you, is as respectable as any of 
 the guests here this evening; some of the so-called ladies turned 
 down the corner of their mouths and whispered, the idea ! that 
 such seedy individuals should be asked to supper with the other 
 guests. I thought to myself, in the age of chivalry no musician 
 would have been treated thus, but the matter of fact business 
 people of the present day, laugh at the nations of former ages; 
 during the rest of the evening I could not help looking occasion- 
 ally towards the Harpers, a spirit of pride seemed to pervade 
 their music that seemed to say, onr professicfn is honorable and 
 wer!e not ashamed of it. "Dear Arthur; I reed, a few days ago 
 a letter from your Uncle Jerrold for you which I herein enclose, 
 I was very sorry to see by it that your letter had upset him very 
 much, I was not at all surprised, when I thought of your sayings 
 and doings for the past yr., I came to the conclusion that your 
 mind had come a little off the balance, I trust it was only a tem- 
 porary abberration and that you are all right again, this, in my 
 opinion is the most charitable view in question, otherwise some 
 of your acts were unpardonable, for instance, your abandoning 
 your good brother as if he had no more claim on you than a 
 rat; in your Uncle Jerrold's letter he says he would like 
 to lease Oak Hill to your Uncle Herbert, if I will guarantee the 
 intetest at 6 per ct." "Sept. 27th. Dear Arthur, before you 
 string together a few nonsensical sentences on the assumption 
 that you are a man of genius, pray learn to write aud speak per- 
 fect English, also see whether your mighty genius can accom- 
 plish a thorough knowledge of the Latin grammar and syntax, 
 this you ought to try before you begin to prophecy and launch 
 out into ruin; do you think your health can stand close confine- 
 ment? or do you think yourself capable, at all events try at home 
 first, just as your Uncle Richard and I did in our younger days; 
 as far as I can judge from the weak and washy style of your 
 writing, that you are not the right sort either mentally or phys- 
 ically, to enter upon the hard and dangerous road of literary or 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 26 1 
 
 professional competence, much less eminence, but certainly it is 
 only right that you should try what you can do at home, nearly 
 all, indeed all the great geniuses that have risen from lowly or- 
 igin, have gained a certain amount of proficiency during the 
 spare hrs. from labor and business; you have not given any sign, 
 you are only the same Arthur that left your mother's tuition; see 
 what you can accomplish first, and avoid your father's destruc- 
 tive fault, of bei Mg Jack of all trades and professions, and master 
 of none, all to the loss of those that were foolish enough to help 
 him, and to his own ruin; I have so much trouble and turmoil 
 of my own that I must request you to cease writing to me as 
 this ends our correspondence; your well wisher, J. R' Goldsmith" 
 from a letter to E. lio^^ard; ''Ireland with proper land laws could 
 support a population twice as large as it has to-day, how much 
 better would it be for England to have this larger population of 
 contented patriotic subjects improving and increasing the pro- 
 ductiveness of their small farms, instead of the small population 
 it now contains, ^'^ of which are oppressed and discontented, 
 with a few thousand lords and landlords with their mansions, 
 parks, hounds and scores of servants, which do more harm to 
 Gt Britain than all the Land Leaguers combined; no one believes 
 the boast of some of these great lords and landlords "that Eng- 
 lands greatness would be gone forever if they and their system 
 was done away with," is not the producer, whether he be farmer, 
 mechanic or laborer, of more actual benefit to the country than 
 20 lords or landlords who consume and waste the wealth of the 
 country; for instance, like the Duke of Hamilton, in Scotland, 
 who raised his tenants rents in some instances from i^i8 to ^85 
 to meet the losses he incurred through horse racing and gam- 
 bling; his only excuse for raising his tenants rent was, because 
 they built comfortable houses on their holdings; is not injustice 
 like this sufficient to paralyze the enterprise and energy of the 
 best of tenants; there cannot be a doubt that the free- hold system 
 would make Gt, Britain a greater and more prosperous nation, 
 "Dear Clifford; Tom will accept your kind invatation to go "and 
 have a good time shooting partridges with you" but not until a 
 piece of fall ploughing is finished on Elmbrooke, where the fire 
 burnt the earth to the depth of a foot on over 1 5 acres; we have 
 
262 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 nearly finished pilirtg and burning the stumps and roots that re- 
 mained; it has greatly improved the appearance of the place; the 
 potatoe crop on Oak Hill was very good. 150 bushel; the ex- 
 pense was as follows; seed, 15 bushels $7.50, planting, 3 days 
 work, $2, earthing them up 53.34. applying London purple and 
 Paris green ;$2.20, manure $4, digging them out ;$io. 
 The London Times asserts that the new land act is very nearly 
 a direct confiscation of property by act of Parliament, the writer 
 however appears to only think of landlords rights and utterly ig- 
 nores tenants wrongs. One of the bells of Aston church weighs 
 2000 lbs. and cost ^8700. I now go Yiiore regularly to church. 
 Florence is suffering from a severe cold and had her head all 
 bandaged up which gave her a rather unpleasant appearance, if 
 such a thmg were possible; for she has such lovely ey*. s that were 
 all her other features plain they alone would redeem the rest; let 
 not the reader imagine that this is my own partial opinion for I 
 have heard strangers say that they never saw such beautiful and 
 expressive eyes. Have had wet weather, drizzling rain for several 
 days; have had several boxing bouts with the G boys of late bare- 
 handed but I am no match for them as they are over 6 feet high 
 and proportionally well developed; vvent to a bee of Andre La 
 Rivere to clear land, his bill of fare at bees is considered the best 
 given amongst i-he French: pork, beef, chicken, potatoes, soup, 
 sauces, bread, butter, tea, sugar, milk, hot buns, apple and raisin 
 pie; played a game called "bluff," which resembles the American 
 game of "poker," in which game the player must never allow his 
 face to be an index of what his hand contains; I have known a 
 man with a pair of tens by having the nerve to raise the bet make 
 .his opponent who had a flush throw down his hand and allow his 
 opponent to clear the table; this in French interpreted literally is 
 called "eating a spruce;" while at Rev. L. C. W's I listened to 
 Florence and Mabel play a few duets and sing, I thought at the 
 time that if my dear mother had been preserved to me or that I 
 had the gentle and civilizing society of sisters like these good and 
 accomplished young ladies I would be much the better for it, but 
 it is quite probable I would be no better than the majority of 
 b 'Others and often treat them in a most unkind and ungentlemanly 
 manner. The amateur dramatic troupe of Rawlings gave a per- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 263 
 
 foi mance in Aston town hall; Florence sang a song that received 
 great applause; uncle Richard drove past our house with uncle 
 Herbert and borrowed our lanterns; I saw him drive pass our gate: 
 with a sigh of regret for I know it is because he is displeased 
 with me that he does not stop at our house as he used to do for 
 he dislikes staying at uncle Herbert's who has married beneath 
 him in Ireland to a woman belonging to the middle classes, who 
 tho a respectable and good woman often uses vulgar language 
 which sounds unpleasant in the refined ear; uncle Richard invited 
 me to go up to uncle Herbert's and spend the evening there; 
 uncle discussed Russia-phobia, landlordism, and told a most 
 laughable anecdote about Jay Gold, illustrating the danger of 
 having so much capital of the country in the hands of one man; 
 next day he visited me and walked over the clearance on Elm- 
 brooke and was greatly pleased at its improved appearance since 
 we have stumped a large portion of the clearance; while at Wheel- 
 er's I heard father talking against Tom and I, saying that we 
 should help him to work his place; told him afterwards that he 
 had no right to run down his sons to the world and had no real 
 cause or grievance to do so. The British empire has the largest 
 empire in the world, 8,700,750 sq. miles; Russia, China, the U. S. 
 and Brazil rank next in order. Mijud Meredith has returned in 
 perfect health. It has.commenced to freeze hard during the nights; 
 we v.'ill soon have finished our stumping. One thing 1 do not like 
 about uncle Herbert's family is that they always try and get the 
 lion's share from another in a bargain and always begin a couple 
 of hours later than when we work for them. The traveling troupe 
 called the Guy family have advertised for Aston again as a 
 "highly moral entertainment;" by a proper use I think the stage 
 could be made of immense benefit in educating the lower class 
 of people by representing truly the beauty of virtue and the hid- 
 eousness of crime. At a bee at Carmichael's there was quite a 
 drunken row amono the men, Joe Vincent flung a cat at another 
 man but he missed him and struck me in the face, scratching my 
 face in a most frightful manner, a fight ensued but we were separ- 
 ated by the rest; in the evening there was a dance and card play- 
 ing, one half drunken scoundrel managed to get into a room where 
 the girls and women's hats and shawls were, and threw them 
 
264 HISTORY OF THJL FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 as well as every man's hat he could find into the well, 
 which is 35 ft. deep; some hats and bonnets were borrowed 
 from a neighbor and the rest had to go home bareheaded on a 
 frosty night. "My dear Tom and Arthur 1 have been informed 
 that there is ^1200 worth of wood on Oak Hill, how would it do 
 for you and Arthur to keep it and dispose of the wood, but I fear 
 it would interfere with your other farm and that it would require 
 capital to have the wood cut, should you think you can manage 
 it and make money by it, you can consider the matter and I will 
 write ^.o your uncle Jerrold about it, but you must remember )ou 
 only go into it as a speculation and will have to get lid of the 
 land as soon as possible." Have just finished reading all the vol- 
 umes of Rollins Ancient History. 2d Nov, it freezes at night but 
 is bright and sunny during the day. Kxtract from letter Irom II. 
 Howard: "I agree with you that Gt. Britain is suffering from the 
 restraints imposed on agriculture by British laws; I care very 
 little about military supremacy which is usually a temptation to 
 a nation to do wrong as Gt. Britain has been doing lately in Af- 
 ghanistan and Zululand and as France is now doing in Tunis; 
 France has been more happy and prosperous during the last 10 
 yrs since her defeat by Prussia than before; Gt. Britain is now so 
 strong that she doe*^ not cart? to conciliate Ireland by allowing 
 the Irish to manage their own affairs; we o'ught to have a local 
 parliament in Dublin as they have in the other colonies; remem- 
 ber that nearly all the news your hear and read in the newspa- 
 pers about Ireland comes from London and is prejudiced; there 
 has been quite as much excitement and disturbance in England 
 at times of agitation for vaiious reforms as we now have in Ire- 
 land but the English understanding their own affairs never thought 
 it necessary to loci: each other up without trial as they have at 
 present locked up some 250 Irishmen. The U. S. have never 
 been able to compete with Gt. Britain in selling manufactured 
 goods in foreign countries, the cause I think that protection by 
 raising the cost of wages as 11 as everything else has raised the 
 price of all American maiiufacture so that England can undersell 
 America nearly everywhere, high wages are of little use when 
 the price of nearly everything you have to buy is also high; 
 England by buying American corn and beef cheap without duty 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 26$ 
 
 is able to manufacture goods more cheaply than America not- 
 withstanding landlordism, which tends to raise the price of food 
 in Gt. Britain; Americans do not seem to understand this bad 
 effect of protection and they have gone on injuring themselves 
 and other nations by it; American shipping has dwindled almost 
 to nothing because it is cheaper to build ships in England and 
 Canada; there is lots of coal and iron in the United States but 
 the high cost of labor (the result of protection) keeps them from 
 being used as they might be. While I-ouis Hrodeur was working 
 for us was surprised to discover that there can be such a thing as 
 a "half holiday," that it is a sin to work in the forenoon but not 
 in the afternoon, truly the priesthood are getting it d /n to a 
 pretty fine point. Miss Guernsey tried to drown herself but her 
 courage failed and she fell in a fit on Mr. Wheeler's veranda: 
 8th Nov. Tom and I have commenced plowing; have to clean 
 the horses legs from mud and moisture every evening; care- 
 lessness in doing this gives horses sore legs; I finished collecting 
 all the old corrrespondence at Father's, many letters and papers 
 he would not give me, which I expect vvere full of criticisms on 
 himself. 1 2th Nov , froze hard last night and has commenced 
 to snow to-day; there is much dissension among the French 
 people, some of them want to have the school-house moved closer 
 to the East end of ihe range, which is more thickly inhabited; 
 some of the R. C's. are trying to have our school fall into their 
 hands, so we must be on our guard, and do all our business ex- 
 actly up to the letter of the law; have heard from Mrs. Brcdeur 
 that Percile Vincent has my grandmother and mother's wedding 
 ring, that Tom Somerset's father's hired boy stole from a ward- 
 robe; I went to Vincents, and to avoid any unnecessary trouble 
 I paid her $ i to give it up; one of Andre's calves came back to 
 his farm with a dead cat tied to its tail, a very mean action for 
 one neighbor to do to another; Fancher, an old lumberman says 
 that shanty work does not pay, that a farmer is far better at home 
 all winter, even if he only feeds his animals and works around 
 his house, he says he will give up lumbering, which causes a 
 great wear and tear oki clothes, horses, harness, sleighs &c. As 
 the afternoon was stormy, I classified my journal for the yrs. 
 
 from '75 to '80; Tom and Clifford have just arrived from a po- 
 
 34 
 
l66 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 litical meeting held at Aston Town Hall. i6th Nov., the snow 
 has disappeared, it froze so hard last ni^ht that we will not be 
 able to plough to day, but the weather is gloriously bright, clear 
 and exhilarating. The outlook on my prospects of late are 
 somewhat gloomy, both my uncles have ceased to write to me, 
 but I feel confident that shortly I shall be independent of them 
 all; have decided in my studies and reading never to pass a word 
 or sentence until I fully comprehend its meaning, and to strive 
 always to keep my footsteps in the path of duty, no maf.er how- 
 alluring mc(> be the path of pleasure. "Elmbrooke, Dec. 26th 
 '81. Dear uncle, we received your letter on Saturday, and wish 
 to thank you for the unchanging interest you have always taken, 
 and still take in our welfare, also for the Christmas present you 
 •so kindly sent us, Uncle Jerrold has not written either to Tom 
 or myself for several months, from which I imagine he niu'*t be 
 greatly displeased with me for having decided to study for a 
 profession instead of remaining a farmer on Elmbrooke, which 
 seems to have been his earnest wish as regards us both; I can- 
 *not tell you how much I regret having to act with apparent in- 
 gratitude in not fulfilling his wishes by doing .so, but in reality 
 it would have been far more unwise and ungrateful of me to 
 spend a life time among people and associations that have always 
 had a degrading effect on the character of all those that were 
 obliged to associate with them, and among whom not even a 
 Christian gentleman could live for a number of yrs , without hav- 
 ing his character and manners most unfavorably influenced by 
 the vile associations with which he would be surrounded, how 
 much more injurious must those associations be to a young man 
 of an impressive age, with their characters but impartially formed 
 and without the necessary safe guard of a good education, that 
 they should escape deterioration, is nearly as great an impossi- 
 bility as that of holding a cambric handkerchief in a smoky room 
 without getting it discolored, no society at all, would be a great 
 er advantage to many people living in rural districts of this part 
 of the country, than that which they have the misfortune to live 
 in, the influence of which it is impossible to avoid unless one 
 makes a hermit of himself, as life in the country is totaHy differ- 
 ent from that in cities, where one can choose his own acquain- 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 26/ 
 
 tanccs from a greater variety of people, and avoid the acquain- 
 tance of even a neighbor without giving offence; in the country 
 on the contrary, to avoid the acquaintance of a neighbor is about 
 the surest way to make an enemy of him, and in most of the 
 rural districts in this province there is really no good society at 
 all to choose friends or acquaintances from, and the individ;jal 
 who at first would have preferred good society, generally from 
 long acquaintance becomes accustomed to that which surrounds 
 him, and in most cases gradually deteriorates, until he almost 
 reaches the same level as that of his associates; however as I 
 have not been able to act according to yours and Uncle Jerrold's 
 wishes as regards KImbrooke, I have decided not to trespass 
 any further on the great generosity that my Uncle Jerrold has 
 always shown to our family, and which if 1 did, would entitle me 
 to the just contempt of my friends, for being so base as to receive 
 money from a benefactor after I had lost his esteem and affjction, 
 therefore under the circumstances, and as so much of his money 
 has been spent in Elmbrooke and intended for no other purpose 
 than to make it a fine estate, I resign my half in Elmbrooke to 
 you and Uncle Jerrold in equal shares, of which when you in- 
 form him you will greatly oblige me by expressing to him my 
 sincere thanks for all the kindness he has shown us since our 
 dear mother's death, and which I shall always think of with the 
 deepest gratitude." All my expenses for labor, seed &c. on 
 Oak Hill ;^8i. 36, and over $40 of this was permanent improve- 
 ments, and my receipts too were $175, which left a fair profit. 
 Extract from letter from Uncle Richard: "should you require 
 any more books, send the name of any you may require, as I 
 may have it in the house, I think there is nearly a cart load of 
 eoucational books in my book case, if not I can get whatever 
 you want at the book stores; do not be in too great a hurry to 
 study, you have abundance of time for studying, if you had more 
 your mind would get fatigued, you will get on much better as 
 you are I know from experience, I hope you will use your 
 judgment and only study essentials, I must congratulate you on 
 your spelling, you hardly ever make a mistake in your letters, 
 in fact few letters written, even by the average gentleman of the 
 present day, will bear criticism." "22nd Dec. '81. Dear Mr. 
 
268 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Sherman, I am sorry that neither. Tom or myself could avail 
 ourselves of your kind invitation before this on account of our 
 fall work, such as ploughinjj, stumping and preparing our win- 
 ter's supply of wood, as well as having our grain threshed, on 
 Oak Hill I raised 150 bushels of oats; 1 will certainl)' go and 
 visit you by the first good sleighing, of which strange to say 
 there has been none around here so far; the like of which has 
 only occured once during the residence of one of our earliest 
 settlers; I am not certain whether Tom told you in his last let- 
 ter that I have decided to study for law, it will take me several 
 yrs. as by my wishing to do so I have displeased my uncles, and 
 of course can no longer honorably accept the income they have 
 settled on Tom and I for life, so 1 have given up to them all my 
 claims on Elmhrooke, and will in future depend on my own ex- 
 ertions alone; I was thinking that perhaps you would have the 
 kindness to give me employment in ) our factory, I would not 
 care what start iv was to begin with, and later on you might find 
 something better; reply at your earliest convenience, and oblige 
 yours truly, A. N. Howard." "St. Liboire, Jan. 12th 1882. 
 Dear Arthur, I should have answered your letter sooner but 
 have been away at Montreal and Charlesburg on business; 1 
 would give you employment but it would be such as I would be 
 ashamed to offer to you, such as firing the boiler' for which we 
 pay $1 a day, and for easier work in the factory Sects.; I could 
 have given you the working of the pin at $1 50, but that is 
 gone now; we hope to have the pleasure in a short time of see- 
 ing you both at St. Liboire; Mrs. Sherman joins me in love to 
 you and wishing that th ^ New Year may bring you every hap- 
 piness, your sincere friend I. Sherman. P. S., tell Tom I wish 
 he could sell my land next yours." 13th Jan.' embarked on the 
 •10.35 train going East at Aston; Tom and Philip came into the 
 car to bid me good-bye; I now start in life a second time with 
 only ;$j.25cts. in my pocket, no matter how buoyant one's hopes 
 may be, one can never leave old friends to seek new ones with- 
 out a feeling of regret; for the last few weeks before leaving I 
 cut cord-wood for Devlin, but he is to pay Tom for it; I left 
 with Tom a photo of our dear mother, he has promised to send 
 me a copy of it; on arriving at St. Andre found to my disgust 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA'. 269 
 
 that I was too late for the train that goes to Ariing- 
 ton, and That I would have to wait until Monday morning; 
 put up at a first class French hotel for 75 cts. a day 
 board and bed. The French here seem to put on 
 more style than at Aston, handsome fur caps and overcoats are 
 quite numerous; I was surprised to see what a number of well 
 dressed young men assembled in "gents parlor" and had their 
 drinks brought to them from the barroom, this seems to me an 
 improvement to drinking it at the bar; there is glsoa "ladies pari 
 lor" where the young beaus of the village bring their sweethearts 
 and treat them to wine, on Sunday especially when young beaus 
 are returning from mass with their fair ladies; in the evening I 
 sat in the barroom and listened to the conversation of its frequent- 
 ers, which was chiefly on politics, horse racing;, lumbering and 
 reminiscences of old settlers; the French around here seem to be 
 more respectable than at Aston; my bedroom was handsomely 
 furnished and had a luxuriously soft bed; cannot imagine how 
 they make ends meet at 75 cts. a day; the telegraph operator, 
 who is English, tells me that there are only a few English families 
 here; saw a whale pass thro on the cars for Montreal, about $Q 
 ft. long and 81^ thick in the middle of the belly; I am informed 
 that there is a superior court stationed at St. Simon 3 miles from 
 here and that 12 lawyers reside there; had an interesting conver- 
 sation with a Frehchman from old France, he says that when he 
 first came to America he often threw the cup of water from him 
 in disgust when he thought of the wine beverage in his own dear 
 France; wine is to a Frenchman what beer is to a German a sub- 
 stitute for water; told me that a majority of Frenchmen in the 
 cities and towns had no respect for religion, he spoke dispara- 
 gingly of Manitoba, told him that I did not think that Senator 
 Cochrane, the greatest farmer in Canada, would not spend thous- 
 ands of (^ liars there if he did not have great expectations of the 
 country, lold him that St. Andre had been opened up for 50 yrs. 
 whereas Winnipeg had its first settler only a fews yrs ago and has 
 to-day 25,00 pop. while St. Andre has only 1,000 and that thous- 
 ands were mild e every month by individuals who bought land 
 there a few yrs ago, and that many young boys of to day would 
 live to see Winnipeg with a greater population than the city of 
 
270 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Quebec. After leaving St. Andre the country is cleared on both 
 sides with stunted softwood here and there; the country is very 
 flat (the conductor tells me that Mr. Milton was sent by Mr. 
 Sherman with ahorse and sleigh for to drive me from Arlington 
 to factory village) softwood forest on either side; this train only 
 carries i first class and i 2d class car with only 3 first class and 
 10 second class passengers; it is only a short branch hnefrom St. 
 Andre to Charlesbuig; still flat and uninteresting country cov- 
 ered with softwood forest averaging 30 ft, high; most of the stop- 
 ping places are only composed of a few houses and are called 
 •'flag stations;" the country from Arlington to St. Andre is nearly 
 all swamp, that is close to the track, farther back from the track 
 the country improves I hear and is well settled, in some places 
 pass peat bogs a mile or so in extent; arrive at Arlington which 
 consists of 25 to 30 houses; had to walk 8 miles to Sherman's as 
 my funds are reduced td 25 cts. passed over slightly rising ground 
 in sight of Arlington covered with a fine sugar bush, the rest of 
 the way passed thro slightly rolling uninviting country covered 
 with stunted softwood forest with numerous clearances inter- 
 spersed; on nearing St. Liboire the country becomes more hilly 
 and picturesque; St. Liboire is a small village of whitewashed 
 houses of one story, street with an unsightly whitewashed church 
 which forms a striking contrast with the very handsome house of 
 the priest who owns the best farm in the parish; from St. Liboire 
 to the factory village is a mile and a half along a road on the edge 
 of a bluff 50 ft. above the surface of St. Herbert river and a bluff 
 above it 80 ft. high on Ihe opposite side. Mrs. S, received me 
 cordially and invited me to stay at their house till I could find a 
 comfortable boarding place; their house is comfortably and taste- 
 fully furnished altho only a small villa, surrounded by a beautiful 
 grove of pines; it appear to me to have more real comfort and 
 home appearance than many stately marble faced mansions I have 
 seen; it appears to me as if years of practical experience had been 
 .spent in concentrating to the greatest advantage everything nec- 
 essary to beautify their charming little villa in as small a space as 
 possible; no one in my opinion but a true artist can properly fur- 
 nish a house to the greatest advantage no matter how much money 
 they may possess; I spent the afternoon and evening in the draw- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. . Z7l 
 
 ing: room in interesting conversation with Mrs, S. who is one of 
 natures gentlewomen; much of the conversation was on past events 
 and incidents in both our lives, she is in my opinion a model 
 christian lady; had the nominal half hearted Christianity of the 
 present day more like her mankind would be the better and hap- 
 pier for it, yet this christian lady has such a high ideal of what a 
 christian ought to be and such a great amount of christian hu- 
 mility that I confidently believe that she regards herself as one 
 of the worst christians in Christendom. The next day I com- 
 menced superintending the piling of cordwood until Mr. S, ar- 
 rived. Clifford and I had commenced writing to each other in 
 French before my departure from Aston; I give a specimen letter 
 translated literally: "Dear Clifford I received your letter with 
 great pleasure the day before yesterday and thought it would be 
 good practice for us to write to each other in French language, a 
 language that the English of this province should be acquainted 
 with to render more easy their intercourse with the French Can- 
 adians; I am making fair progress with my studies but have been 
 disappointed many times by Rev. L C. W. not being at home; I 
 assure you it is no light affair to walk 14 miles on a muddy road 
 and then be disappointed; my father still lives at the old home- 
 stead and is greatly obliged for your good wishes; Churchill who 
 I believe was "born tired"' is going to Peterboro, Ontario, where 
 his wife's brother lives; in m/ opinion we are bles'..ed with an 
 aesthetic in Aston named Miss Gran!: but I do not like her man- 
 ners or conversation, there is too much of the "utterly beautiful" 
 about it; this winter is certainly one of the strangest that the var- 
 iable climate of this country has ever given us. "Jan. 13th, '82, 
 dear Arthur, I rec'd your letter also the copy of the lot Oak Hill; 
 in your letteryou say you renounce all claim to Elmbrooke but 
 you cannot do that. I hold the land in trust for you and Tom by 
 the authority of your uncle Jerrold, and it was always under- 
 stood, even before your dear mother's death, that this property 
 was always to have been a home for Tom and yourself. Your 
 uncle's motive for so arranging it was fearing that at any time 
 either of you might be tempted to part with it. From your let 
 ters to me I have come to the conclusion that your mind is oft 
 the balance at present and has been for some time; I should ad- 
 
lyi , HtSTORY OF Tllfe FRENCH IN AMEklCA. 
 
 vise you to avoid all excitement for a year or two; work steadily 
 at your farm and make a comfortable homestead for yourself and 
 while you are doing this learn to read and speak English and 
 French correctly. You may say, look to your own son. I 
 know it, but this is not my fault, I have given him every faculty 
 for acquiring." When Mr. Sherman, he and Mrs. S. decided 
 that firing was too hard and dirty work for me and gave me the 
 job of superintending the piling of the hemlock bark into stacks 
 as it is drawn here. From a letter from K. Howard: "Remem- 
 ber that the prosperity caused by protection is paid for in tax- 
 ation by farmers. If protection is any good why not allow each 
 Province of Canada to protect itself And even the county of 
 Bradford, should it not tax Montreal goods and set up factories 
 for itself, and if Canada was annexed <-i the U. S. ought she not 
 still to tax American manufactures or if not, why not? "Klm- 
 brooke, dear Arthur, I have just received your letter and as I am 
 confined to the house on account of a sprained ankle I take the 
 opportunity of writing to yd\i; I do not think you are acting 
 wisely for the sake of 60 cts. a month to be at the trouble of buy- 
 ing provisions and having them cooked for you, if that French 
 family live like ordinary mortals $t^ per week is cheap enough; 
 it seems to me that you did not get my uncle's letter by your 
 saying that you would have nothing to do with Elmbrooke altho 
 'I enclosed it in mine; he wrote to me saying that he held the 
 land in trust for us so that it is still yours; you allude to my 
 having a fit of the blues, heaven knows I have reason enough. 
 This has not been a good winter for teaming; I do not think my 
 team will earn what I expected they would. After you left I 
 started to get out those ties, and left Jerrold, our boy at hoine; 
 when I came back 1 found that a great many of the potatoes 
 were frozen on account of his not keeping the fire going, so I 
 saw right oft that I could not get along that way so I went and 
 moved all father's things down here; he will sell his fodder to 
 settle or help to settle his accounts. Montreal, Feb. i6th, 1882. 
 "Dear Arthur: I send by book post to day, a French and Ger- 
 man dictionary, $1.75; a Latin grammar, 25c. and a French 
 grammar, 25c. There are translations of the classic poets pub- 
 lished, but it would only be a waste of time studying over them; 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 27J 
 
 take a Latin sentence and by the aid of your dictionary and 
 grammar work it out until you see the relation, bearing and sig-* 
 nificance of every word. Your writing is bad, and never will be 
 better until yon begin from the beginning, just as if you were a 
 child commencing to write; adopt for a model a standard style, 
 Payson and Scribner's nation il system of penmanship is the best 
 and generally used in this country. A friend of mine, who is now 
 a judge, declared to me that it was owing to his being a good 
 writer that he got on the bench. I think you heard me tell of a 
 man named Murray who graduated with first class honors at 
 McGill college; at 32 he could neither read nor write and gained 
 his livelihood by mending shoes; in a few' years he was gold 
 medalist in medicine and took the Shakspeare medal for English 
 literature and English composition. I can remember the day he 
 came into my surgery with a pair of shoes under his arm; he 
 was an untidy and unkempt specimen of humanity. I could 
 scarcely keep from laughing when he told me that he wanted to 
 be a doctor, for on examination he did not know his letters. I ad- 
 vised him to learn to read and write and then come and see me 
 again. On his return in a few months his progress was so great 
 that I could not help taking an interest in him. He could play a 
 little on the violin; I advised him to learn notes and take lessons 
 and learn the rudiments of music so as to be able to teach. He 
 had only taken a few lessons when he formed a ciass and was 
 learning and gaining money at the same time. He then got into 
 a French college on condition that he was to teach music, for 
 which he received board and instruction in French and Latiri; 
 so that it was his music that was his actual stepping stone to 
 success. It is on the same ground that I advise you to become 
 a good penman; as a colateral accomplishment it may get you 
 into a lawyer's office and enable j^ou to make as good wages as 
 •what you are at and learn the practice of law at the same time; 
 Since I last wrote to you I went out to Aston and paid for Oak 
 Hill. I must now conclude; with love from all here, I remain, 
 your affectionate uncle, R. I. Goldsmith." In a letter before 
 leaving Aston, he says he believes that I am in love with one of 
 the young ladies in Aston, which caused you to be dissatisfied 
 
 with life in the backwoods. Elmbrooke, Jan. 2. ''Dear Arthur, 
 
 35 
 
274 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMEKICA. 
 
 I enclose you a letter from uncle Richard. From what he says 
 you will perceive that thing's will not bd as you said. He writes 
 to me .sayinjj that he thinks Uncle Jerrold has "dropped us," and 
 it looks very much like it as he does not write to mj eitlur. 
 You are all right by this time; I suppose you have got a good 
 place, but it is different with me, and to say the least, my pros- 
 pects are not promising. I also received a note from Clifford; 
 he is to be out in a fortnight. Djvlin has not yet paid for the 
 wood you chopped. You might have bearded out and saved 
 me the trouble of sending those blankets to you. Your affec. 
 brother, T. G. Howard." From a letter from uncle Richard, 
 dated 8th Feb. "With regard to the remarks I made to you in 
 my last letter you mu-st admit that your acts jusli^jd .me, but as 
 I probably have not been able to see the whole side of the ques- 
 tion, I may not have been able to judge. Yourself and Toni 
 were the only persons I have spoken to. Clifford may have 
 read your uncle's letters, he made seme remark td that effect, 
 but I know he would never say to a stranger thitt he thought 
 you crazy. Mr. Meredith dined here last Sunday; your name 
 was not mentioned in my hearing. Your uncle Jerrold has 
 directed me to lease Oak Hill to your uncle Herbert and send 
 him the interest semi annually; you can guess what that will 
 end in, your uncle Herbert will have the use of the lot and will 
 have to pay the interest. . I am glad to see tliat.you have been 
 so fortunate as to ,get such an excellent post, and I have no 
 doubt but that it will lead to something better. Your, cousin 
 Flora is living in town and has a very fine house on Mackay St.; 
 your aunt and Mabel h ive not been very well this winter, but I 
 am happy to say are much better, they both unite in love to you. 
 Since Clifford has come in town he looks very much paler, the 
 town air does not agree with him; he returns to the Elms shortly 
 Your affec. uncle, Richard." "Dear Tom, I received your letter, 
 and thank you for being so prompt in sending the. blankets. 
 None of the French people in this little village are rich enough 
 to furnish more than one bedroom, so I have to furnish it my- 
 self Mrs. Gaudette, my landlady, charges me 40cts. a week for 
 lodging and cool ig; for washing I have to pay 25cts. and for 
 provisions about ,^1.75. I have been very busy lately and some- 
 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 2/5 
 
 times have had to work till 1 1 o'clock, sup,?rintcnding men, cov- 
 ering bark piles; when I work till 1 1 it counts for a day and a 
 half, [his will only last a few weeks while the habitants are 
 rushing in their bark. Some days as many as 320 loads of bark 
 have bjen measured, b:;sidjs cordvvooJ, therefore you can see 
 tli.it my job of "wilking boss" is vjry h ir J on the legs an I 
 throat; I have worn out a pair of boots and trousers since I have 
 arrived and never have more than 5 hours sleep for the nights; 
 the bark does not come in very late. I go to St. Liborie and 
 take lessons in French from the notary there. As regards Elm- 
 broolve I will have nothing more to do with it; of course it is 
 rather hartl for om to lose 5 years hard work on the place, but 
 I prefer doing this than to be under a co.nplimjnt to any one. I 
 hope the Frenchmen who are indebted to me for farm produce 
 paid you. 1 perceive by your letter that you have a fit of the 
 blues, for which there is no occ.isio.i. Wishing you the greatest 
 of success on Eimbrooke, I remain your affectionate brother, A. 
 N. Howard." 6th Feb. 1^82. "Dear Uncle, your letter received, 
 by which I perceive that that the deeds of Eimbrooke are so 
 m^de out that I cannot transfer my half in and of my own accord; 
 this, however, does not affect iny decision of transferring my half 
 of it in equal shares to you and uncle Jerrold, on account of my 
 imbility to carry out your wishes and the many obligations I 
 am under to you boLh, therefore, I would be greatly obliged to 
 you both to do as you please with it and say no more to me 
 about it. I would also deem it a great favor of you to discon- 
 tinue making remarks by letter of your opinion of my mental 
 equilibrium, which to say the least, are not gentlemanly. There 
 are too many such foolish individuals at the present day, who, if 
 a man goes out of the beaten track of the common herd of 
 humanity say he is a crank, crazy or eccentric. Tom has, I sup- 
 pjse, told you of my coming to St. Liborie to work for Bently & 
 Co. I now earn about $1.10 a day, but Mr. S. has promised me 
 t!>e post of pan man when the first vacancy occurs, for which 
 $1.50 is paid for the easy occupation of sitting on a chair all day 
 and testing the extract occasionally with a barkometer, and at 
 which I shall be able to make great progress at my studies. At 
 present I find tinie enough to take 3 lessons a week from a 
 
ty6 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 French notary, I enclose $$ to buy me a French dictionary 
 and grammar. I assure you I Jim grateful to you for your kind 
 letters, which I could hardly expect after the ungracious manner 
 I treated you and uncle Jiirrold; however, what is passed can 
 never be restored, but the present and the future may be pre- 
 served. Have the the kindness to continue your advice and 
 criticisms and I shall do my utmost to show you that I appre- 
 ciate them. If uncle Herbert is mean enough to take the use of 
 Oak Hill and allow you to i ay the interest. I shall make it good 
 to you, but only for the first year, after which it can be 
 sold or let to some Frenchman, who would be only 
 too glad to get the uac of the place for such a trifling sum; 
 my hours of work are from 7 to 6. "St. Liboire, Feb. loth. 
 Dear Tom, yours reed, yesterday, was sorry to hear that you 
 had sprained your wrist; the $$4 that is due to me by the hab- 
 itants, you can have the use of a yr. or so as, I do not require it 
 at present; your note to me is to be paid in 2 yrs. in semi annual 
 instalments commencing from the 1 2th Sept. '81; it certainly 
 looks unfavorable Uncle Jerrold not writing to you, but I am 
 confident that he is too just to make you suffer because I dis- 
 pleased him, and 1 am certain that you and your children (if you 
 ever get married) will get my half of the income as well as your 
 own, as he told me when he was in Canada that if one of us dis- 
 pleased him the other would get the whole portion; 1 also feel 
 confident that my uncles v^'ill not accept my half of Elmbrooke; 
 if they offer to give it to you, I ask you as a favor to accept it 
 without any compunctions of conscience, for I positively will 
 have nothing more to do with the place, and you might as well 
 have the bmefit of my five yrs, hard labor as Uncle Herbert; for 
 if my uncles do not take it it will be given to either you or Uncle 
 Herbert; you ought not to be discouraged, for with the double 
 income and that estate, you will be able to live like a country 
 gentleman, and farming is rising every yr. -in the estimation of 
 the world, as a profession; even my short success on Oak Hill 
 ought to convince you that money can be made at it; I read in 
 the paper the other evening of a farmer near Montreal who made 
 $So clear profit from a single acre of land: few professions or man- 
 ufacturing enterprises can equal that, so be not discouraged, let 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 2/7 
 
 you and father live in harmony and help each other along; tell 
 him for me to keep his valuable hardwood timber as long as he 
 can. for that in 5 yrs. it will be worth 4 times as much as it is 
 now, also to sow some of his land in potatoes, and not be airaid 
 to plant 4 or 5 acres, as with Paris green and London purple the 
 beetles can be easily kept from them, the beetles will frighten 
 many farmers from sowing a large crop, and in consequence 
 their price will be high; please, like a good fellow give up even 
 a moderate use of spirituous liquors, even though you feel con- 
 fident that you will never drink to excess, even a moderate use 
 of them is a waste, for the most eminent of chemists and physic- 
 ians have clearly demonstrated that the process of making spir- 
 ituous liquors removes almost all the nutriment from them, and 
 there is nothing in them to benefit man either physically or 
 mentally, therefore as a useless habit it ought lo be avoided, and 
 still more so for the thousands of fellow- men it destroys." The 
 factory village must look well in Summer when the long avenue 
 of trees are in leaf; the factory is quite close to Mr. Sherman's 
 house, on the river with a large chimney over 100 ft. high; both 
 Mr. aud Mrs. S. treat me as an old friend; Mrs. S. showed me 
 their house, it is the most compact and snug little villa I was 
 ever in, although in the country it has all the appearance of a 
 house in the city, with its chandeliers and supply of hot and 
 cold water; the large open fireplaces in ail the rooms has a most 
 cheerful and homelike appearance; the furnace in the cellar keeps 
 the house a warm and even temperature in even the coldest 
 weather; it is .'Surprising what beautiful homes can be had even in 
 the country amongst farmers, if they only possessed more taste, 
 and were not so indifferent to home comforts; Mrs. S. gave me 
 a condensed history of her life, she has great conversational 
 powers, and is an extraordinarily well read woman, and can con- 
 verse on the late'st scientific discovery with as much ease as on 
 the ordinary chit chat of a drawing room; I cannot say how 
 pleased I am to meet a lady who takes an interest in, and can 
 converse inielligently on the leading subjects of the day, with 
 how much more profit can a gentleman spend an evening in the 
 society of such a lady as this, than with the average lady of the 
 society of the present day, who waste much of their lives and 
 
2/8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 that of their fjentleman acquaintances in conversing on lifjht 
 vapory nothings, this I consider is much to her credit, as all hjr 
 life she has had vety dehcate health; there are large platforms 
 12 ft. wide and lO ft. long to pile the bark op, the platform is to 
 prevent the loss of the small pieces of broken bark, and to keep 
 the bottom of the piles from getting wet it is piled in 3 rows on 
 the platform 15 ft. high; I have to make the farmers pile it $ ft. 
 high with the white side of the bark down; the reader can im- 
 agine what an unpleasant task it is to lun around amongst 150 
 farmers who are hurrying as fast as possible to unload, to pjr- 
 .suade them to pile the bark properly and report to tlie cashier 
 the names of all those who do n.->t fulfil their contract by {>iling 
 the bark properly when they unload il; after it is 12 ft. high I 
 have a number of men on top of the stack to receive and pile 
 the bark as it is thrown Lo them by the farmers, and although I 
 try to be as courteous and good natured as possible, many of 
 them swear at me in a most horrible manner; Mrs. S. says I ought 
 to follo'.v a commercial life, and hinted of my keeping a store 
 for Bentley and Co. at a village where they have paper factories; 
 from 30 to 40 barrels of extract are t'irned out every 24 hrs ; in- 
 side the factory there are employed i engineer, i pui man, 1 fire 
 man, I man to atter.d the leaches, i man to pitch the tan bark 
 out of the leaches, i "little pan man" to keep the liquor running 
 properly through long sloping boxes with ice in it; in running 
 through these the sediment is removed; i boy to fill the barrels 
 from the tanks, one wood drawer to drav wood to tl^e furnaces, 
 I bark drawer to haul the bark to the miljs and i man to feed 
 the mills; 1 boss cooper to examine the barrels before leaving 
 the factory; 4 teamsters with double teams to draw the liquor to 
 Arlington station and 6 coopers to make barrels besides a hostler 
 for Mr. S , who carries the mail and does odd jobs for the fictory 
 also 2 carpenters; Mr. Holden is the book keeper and cashier, 
 and Mr. Milton, the man who manages their bark shanties for 
 them, and goes about the country giving contracts for bark to 
 the farmers, and M. Alfred Young is 'he clerk who meas- 
 ures the bark and wood and aids Mr. Holden in shipping the 
 liquoi; Mr. Holden's house is richly furnished, but most of the 
 paintings and portraits are out of proportion with the size of the 
 
HISTORY OF THE FKENCH IN AMERICA. 2/9 
 
 house, as they arc legacies from his aunt in England who owned 
 a large in.uision; Mrs. Holden is a sister of Mr, Milton who has 
 married a French girl; iloldjn h:is 3 children; Mr. Walts who 
 m, mages the Cos. store has a wife and only one of his daugh- 
 ter-;. Lving with iiim, Miss Kite Watts whose name I have al- 
 ready mjiUionjd in my journal at Aston, so in all there are 4 
 English fimilie-;; Mrs. S said she would hive had me board at 
 tiieir housj had not her health been so poorly, nothing can ex 
 ceed the kind m inn^^r of Mr. and Mrs. Sherman since 1 have ar: 
 rived here. S-'iit Florence a beautiful birth day card on the 
 29th Jan. The factory uses aiout 30 cords of bark a day; on 
 SuntJay afternoons I t.ike an occasional stroll out in the country 
 towards St. Auj;ustin, for j)irt of the way is very hilly with steep 
 ravines 150 ft deep; most of the farmers here derive great profit 
 from the money paid out by the Co. ior bark, cordwood, stove- 
 Wood and labor; Mrs. S. invited me to dinner and to spend the 
 evening at their iiouse while Mrs. Bjntley was there, a very 
 haiidsome lady with a fine figure approaching embonpoint, has 
 inherited all her mother's intellect, and is a lady of the highest 
 culture with very graceful and unaffected manners; she gave mp 
 a nice description of Cha/lesboury and the different classes of» 
 society in it, that there are criy 500 English people there who 
 are divided a nongst 3 churches, PresLyterians, Episcopalians 
 and Methodists; while I am writing this my landlady and her 
 husband are saying their prayers at a terrible rate, some of them 
 they repeat as often as 7 times, which seems to me absurd; I 
 suppose they e.xpect by constantly repeating them to tire out , 
 the patience of their God and make him consent; Mrs. S- says 
 that we shall drive in their carriage to Charlesbourg next Summer 
 which 1 shall greatly enjoy as I always take great pleasure in 
 seeincr new scenery and new faces. The other evening while Mr. 
 Gmdette was praying some very long prayers that required much 
 repjtition, he indulged in an occasional remark in the conver- 
 sation going on between his wife and myself, and then indulged 
 in a joke which made us all laugh heartily, still at the same time 
 I could not avoid thanking that such prayers as those were not 
 in harmony with the precepts and comrnandments of the founder of 
 Christianity, Christ; had a pleasant evening skating with Miss 
 
280 HIPTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Watt and Johnny Morrisson on the St. Norbert river; Johnny is a 
 son of J. Y. Morrisson of Preston, whose wife died several yr.i. ago. 
 since which Mrs. S. has taken charge of him; Mr. S. had to act 
 as a witness in a^recent boiler explosion in which a mill proprie- 
 tor sued a boiler Co. for damages thro the explosion of a new 
 boiler bought from them which was guaranteed to stand a certain 
 amount of lbs. of steam but failed to do so; I perfectly agree with 
 Mrs. S. that Mr. Middleton and A. Young have associated so 
 constantly and long with French Canadians that they have become 
 completely Can«dianized in their conversation and manners; 
 Young often goes to see ihe French girls which Mrs. S. does not 
 like; Mr. S. is so economical that he does not keep a watchman 
 for the factory on Sunday but goes to see that all is right him- 
 self; the tan bark is carried by an endless chiin from the mills 
 into the leaches and after the juice is extracted the bark pitcher 
 empties it thro a hole in the bottom of the leach on to another 
 endless chain that carries it over the furnaces where there are holes 
 in the brick work covered with iron covers which the fireman re- 
 moves occasionally and shovels in tan bark which saves a great 
 deal of fuel, but too much of this damp cannot be thrown in at 
 one time for it would deaden the fires; Mr. S. has shown me his 
 studio where he has a great number of paintings and water colors 
 by himself, some of his English landscapes are really beautiful; 
 some of his paints and colors cost as much as 60s, an ounce; 
 Mrs. S. lends me all the English newspapers and magazines they 
 take; I am especially interested in the "Truth," a fashionable rad- 
 ical journal; bread, potatoes, pork and tea is my usual fare; I 
 sometimes drink koka but think it has a mawkish taste as com- 
 pared with cocoa, chocolate, tea or coffee. The doctor of the vil- 
 lage lives in a plain wooden house and his personal appearance 
 is worse, he has a very red face and bloated figure altho not more 
 than 30 yrs; his wife is very handsome but has a sad, careworn 
 appearance in her face that is pitiable to behold; while at Dissett's 
 store one of the loafers there made a vile remark on the doctor's 
 character which brought a tell tale blush npon his face and he 
 laughed uneasily to aftect an indifference that I know he did not 
 feel. Mr. Beniley has been here and said that the farmers who 
 had taken contracts for drawing bark would have to be hurried 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 28 1 
 
 up; have had so:ne very cold weather lately as low as 30 deg. be- 
 low zero. From a letter to Rev. L. C. W. please find enclosed 
 my weekly subscription to St. Mark's church for the 2 months 
 ending Feb. i. From a letter to Tom, do not refuse my half of 
 Elmbrook^^ if it is offcired to you for nothing would give me greater 
 pleasure tiian to see you in possession of the whole estate; you 
 cannot now complain for want of snow for we have it now in abun- 
 dance much to my disgust in the mornings when I have to get 
 the men to shovel it ofif of platforms 1000 ft. long; I have had a 
 very hard time of it for the last 2 weeks, the farmers in their hurry 
 to get in their bark are very unreasonable, I have to keep on a 
 brisk w-ilk all day from 7 to 6 amongst 150 teamsters and never 
 take more than 20 minutes to dine. I have been very poorly of 
 Lite with a cough and pain in my chest; I need not inquire about 
 fathers health as he has not had a days ill health in 5 yrs. 
 Sunday 26 Feb. the average cost of my weekly board for the last 
 6 weeks has only averaged ;$[. 30 a week. I had a fight with one of 
 the farmers, he flung his bark on the ground any way without 
 piling it, I asked him polite'y to come back and do so, he replied 
 only with oaths and filthy names, I started for him and just as I 
 got near his sleigh received from him a blow on the head with a 
 stick out of the rack of his sleigh which almost stunned me and 
 before I knew where I was we were engaged in a rough and tumble 
 fight, I found to my disgust that I had caught a tartar, for the 
 dirty brute caught hold of my ear with his teeth and had I not 
 immediately placed my 2 thumbs on his wind pipe and choked 
 him off I am confident he would have bitten off a piece of my ear, 
 hostilities now ceased and I went to the office and told the cashier 
 to deduce 25 cts from the price of his load, which he did; 415 
 loads came in that day. Mrs. Bentley owns 18000 acres of land 
 in her own name. The priest of this parish is the only one that 
 is allowed to sell spirituous liquors; he only sells it in small quan- 
 tities for medicinal purposes. From a letter to uncle Richard, as 
 regards my leaving father and Tom the circumstonces I think jus- 
 tified my doing so, firstly because I believed I could succeed bet- 
 ter elsewhere and secondly because you and I could never agree 
 as to how we should conduct our business; from the picture you 
 drew in your letter you must think I acted in a most heartless 
 
 36 ' 
 
282 • HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 manner, you say I left an afflicted brother and helpless father to 
 get on 'Ji^ best they could, if I did leave them it was in comforta- 
 ble and easy circumstances; I left rny brother with a fine farm all 
 paid for, good buildings, stock, implements, plenty of fodder, 
 grain, buckwheat and vegetables and ^$50 in money, and I myself, 
 when I arrived at the end of my destination had only 25 cts. I 
 must say if you consider me heartless in acting thus that you en- 
 tertain a most false and unjust view of the case, and as regards 
 leaving a helpless father, he has a ;$iooo farm, stock, fodder, im- 
 plements, comfortable residence, etc. and only owed $18; I think 
 if there was any one to pity that it is myself for having lost 5 yrs 
 of my life in the backwoods without any benefit to mysell; if I 
 did take a note from lorn for my half of the stock, implements, 
 furniture^ library, etc., this surely was the least I should get after 
 5 yrs hard work, besides ^100 of the note he gave me was money 
 I advanced the firm when we first went into partnership 6 yrs ago, 
 and this is all I have to pay whatever I owe you and make my 
 first deposit towards college expenses; if however Tom is in need 
 of it I shall give it to him; since I have arrived here nothing can 
 exceed the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. S. Mr. S. has kindly p om- 
 ised to try and get me the position of bookkeeper in one ot l^eiit- 
 ley & Go's factories at a salary of 600 a yr. I enclose you ;$2 to 
 get me "Havet's French Manual;" the week before last the factory 
 here was flooded, the ice on the St. Herbert river being obstruct- 
 ed by rocks below the factory which flooded the villag." to a depth 
 of 5 ft. 1 have still a bad cold caused by going thro the heavy 
 masses of ice and water to one of the factory buildings to attach 
 a rope to a fire engine to drag it ashore and to aid Mr. S. to stop 
 the engines and let the steam out of the boilers before the water 
 rose over them which kept me 2 hours in wet and icy clothes. 
 Mr. S. is a very cool and brave man and was greatly disgusted at 
 the cowardice of the French employees who were afraid to enter 
 the factory but I must acknowledge I myself felt great fear but 
 was ashamed to show it, whert the buG^e masses of ice 20 ft. hiij^h 
 piled one upon ♦^he other dashed against the wall of the factory, 
 breaking the thick timbers as if they were so many straws, and 
 causing loud explosions as the water rushed thro the red hot 
 furnaces; the Co. will lose several thousand dollars. Aston, March 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. . 283 
 
 2d, "Dear Arthur, I was glad to receive a letter from you and I 
 hope that you will succeed well, you arc youn^ and active and 
 perseverance will tell in the end, especially where you recognize 
 the eye of God over you; I am pleased to know that you still 
 take an interest in our little church; your cousin ICthel Goldsmith 
 i > still spending- a week at the parsonage with Mabel. Florence 
 Meredith has not returned from her tour among her friends, Maud 
 is improving slowly but has to be veiy careful; we are all well 
 and jo"n in kind regards to you, may God bless you, yours truly, 
 L. C. VVilloughby. "My dear Arthur I reed yours of the 2 1st 
 ulto. and would have answered sooner but have been very much 
 occupied lately in m iking an exchange for my farm the Elms, 
 with a French Canadian for some cottages in the city; you know 
 wh.it a tedious people they are to do business with; I get 4 cot* 
 tages and a vacant lot for the Elms farm as it stands, land, houses, 
 implements, stock, furniture, beds, bedding, crockery, cutlery, 
 stoves, etc., reserving the library, pictures, guns, fishing tackle, 
 and a young horse and I pay him $4,(^00; the purchaser, Mr. 
 Barort, has a mighty soft thing of it, but since Clifford left it I 
 found it an elephant on my hands and was glad to get rid of it. 
 There is this difference in my present position; the cottages 
 will bring in some return and the l^lms cost me ;$6oo a yr to run 
 it; you savin your letter that I and your uncle could sell your 
 half of Elmbrooke, 1 have no right or claim to do so, as your 
 Uncie Jerrold is the only one that could sell it, and I am sure he 
 never will nor intends to; for the last 30 yrs. he has been advan- 
 cing money to your family, influenced only by motives of brother- 
 ly love to your dear mother, the same love and bounty he has 
 contioned to your brother and yourself, and you abandoned the 
 place and left your poor afflicted brother and helpless father,- 
 but now that Torn has possession of the place and has manful- 
 ly djtermi ed to remain on it, should you ever be sick or the 
 hand of affliction placed on you I have no doubt you would find 
 a home and a weltome from hitn; Aston is one of the healthiest 
 spots in the world, that is why I sent my dear son Richard there 
 to recuperate his health, and that was one of the reasons your 
 dear mother lived there; every one of your brothers and sisters 
 died in London before your parents went to live there, and be- 
 
284 - HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 fore you went there you were so frail and delicate that I did not 
 think it possible for you to live; it was from congestion of the 
 spine that Tom lost the use of his leg. And now that the pomps 
 and vanities of this world have induced you to seek your fortune 
 in pastures new and untrodden, may your Heavenly Father pro- 
 tect you is the sincere wish of your affectionate uncle, R. I. Gold- 
 smith. P, S., your aunt and Mabel are well and unite in love," 
 "Dear Tom, I reed, your letter yesterday and am greatly sur- 
 prised with its contents, you ask me "to settle up like a man," a 
 difference in my expenditures compared with yours while I lived 
 on Elmbrooke; you say the accounts prove that I spend more 
 on clothes than you did, what if I did, do you think I will pay 
 you for some trifling extra amount I spent on clothes more than 
 you did while I was pulling stumps, clearing land and digging 
 ditches on the land that you are now having the use of for 
 nothing, and will eventually posess as your own; I positively tell 
 you that I never shall, for it would be a clear proof that one How- 
 ard was becoming a fool and the other a rogue; 1 can honestly 
 say from my heart that I will in my straightened circumstances 
 help you and father as much as I possibly can after li. ving paid 
 my just debts to Uncle Jerrold and Richard, for I never mtend 
 to die I cent in their debt, but to pay a cent for any of the cloihes 
 or food I used during the 7 yrs. 1 worked on Elmbrooke I never 
 shall, but will appeal to my uncles, in whose justice I have great 
 confidence, but were such a thing possible that they should de- 
 cide against me, justice I can easily get elsewhere, exactly 7 yrs. 
 ago I commenced working on Elmbrooke with ^160 of my own, 
 you commenced without a cent, to-day I have only your note 
 for two hundred odd dollars, and you have the whole of )'our 
 own and my labor as well as the half of the estate, and yet you 
 are actually mean and foolish enough to think you can make me 
 pay for clothes I wore out in clearing the land that you now own 
 and cultivate free of cost; for those 7 yrs. I bore "the burdai and 
 heat of the day" and did more than a partners share of work, 
 working harder than the average farmer in that part of the 
 country, and am proud of those 7 yrs, of industry and economy, 
 even though I reap no benefit, my brother will; I would never 
 have mentioned this had not your meanness driven me to it, so 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 285 
 
 now my dear Tom I think you can understand me on this sub- 
 ject; firstly that I have decided to pay all money obligations that 
 I may owe my uncles, secondly that if they refuse to take my 
 half of Elinbrooke I give it to you, and thirdly, that you will 
 never mention this subject to me again." "Dear Mrs. Meredith, 
 In a letter I reed, from Tom a few days ago he informed me that 
 you were surprised at my leaving Aston without bidding you 
 good-bye, which certainly I should have done, but I am willing 
 to apoligize for this breach of etiquette and trust you will pardon 
 it, I assure you it was not because I had forgotten the great 
 kindness and friendship I have experienced from you, but mere- 
 ly because circumstances unavoidably prevented me, and 
 caused me to commit this act of discourtesey to you, 
 whom I have always considered as one of rny best and truest 
 friends, however. I entertain the hope that in a few yrs. I shall 
 have the pleasure of spending many pleasant evenings with you 
 and your family, until then I shall always think with gratitude of 
 your generous hearted hospitality, that ever extended to me a 
 cordial welcome to enjoy the society of your family and friends, 
 wishing you and yours every success and happiness I remain, 
 your affectionate friend, A. N. Howard," I have such a pain in 
 my chest and a bad cold that Mr. S. excused me from work to- 
 day; it is no wonder I have had a bad cough for the last 7 weeks 
 after so much hardship and exposure, the Dr. agrees with Dr. 
 R. of Quebec that my right lung is very weak and that I must 
 be careful, avoiding sudden changes of temperature. On re- 
 turning Mrs. Gaudette said the piiest could have cured me better 
 than the doctor, also told me that a priest can stop a fire or flood 
 and can even if necessary bring to life a dead man; Mrs. Bobaire 
 a neighbor of Mrs. G's. is a great gossip, her eldest son is only 
 13 3'rs. of age, yet I never saw such a vicious looking young ras- 
 cal in all my life, he has been accused of crimes that would even 
 make a wicked man shudder, Mrs. S. very truly says that he has 
 eyes like a serpent. 17th March, lovely weather, sun rather too 
 hot for snow roads to last for any length of time; while at Mr. 
 Sherman's house Mrs. Bentley told me that she had met Flor- 
 ence Meredith at a Calico ball that was given at Charlesbourg, 
 Mrs. Holden also spent the evening there, but appears to be of 
 
286 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 the opinion that gravity and silence with affectation is the heifjht 
 of gentility, and formed a great contrast to the easy and graceful 
 converation and depoitment of Mrs. S. and Mrs. B., Mrs. li. kind- 
 ly invited me to go and see her at Charlesbourg; how the cur- 
 tain rises and falls, and the actors change their positions on this 
 world's stage, exactly 14 yrs. ago this accomplished lady was the 
 daughter of a settler in the backwoods, to-day in her own right 
 and name she is worth $50,000, she dresses in the heiglit of fash- 
 ion and I must say has a fine appparance, her frank, benevolent 
 features with sparkling intellic^cnt eyes and the unaffected grace 
 of her deportment, with her well cultivated conversational powers 
 makes- her society truly delightful. Dined at Mrs. Sherman's 
 on Sunday, the dinner consisted of roast turkey, vegetables, 
 sauces, jellies bread and butter, pastry, preserves, and tea; while 
 spending an evening at Mr. Sherman's we had a lengtliy con- 
 versation on political economy and religion, Mr. S. believes that 
 rich people are perfectly justified in buying rich jewels, laces, 
 pearls &c.; I atlirmed that any gentleman or lady who would 
 spend several thousand dollars to gratify their barborous vanity 
 in wearing apparel were sinning ag.u'nst themselves, their fellow- 
 men and future generations, that ideas that encouraged poor 
 women to sacrifice their eye-sight and a whole life time over a 
 fdw pieces of miniture lace work were to say the least vain and 
 selfish, and that all reasonable men ought to acknowledge that 
 no man has a right to keep expensive shooting preserves, while 
 his fellow-countrymen are leaving their native land for want of 
 a piece of ground to call their own, I maintained that all those 
 who spend their money or time extravagantly without first con- 
 sidering the most profitable and useful means of using it, were 
 from a rational and even christian point of view, committing a 
 sin by not using their talents and gifts to the best advantage; 
 Mr. S. from his expressed opinion clearly shows that he dojs not 
 believe in eternal punishment, as regards all the sorrow and sin 
 tn the world, 1 said that some Christians argued that the exis- 
 tence of sorrow was necessary for joy, that repose is not fully ap- 
 pieciated until fatigue has been fully experienced, and that sor- 
 row is as necessary to the world as are the darker shades to a 
 perfect painting; in reference to gentlemen I said, that half the 
 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. ' 28/ 
 
 .so-ailletl gentlemen of society were not gentlemen at heart, that 
 they only possessed the outer polish for social occasions, and 
 that at other times they were actually selfish and even brutal, 
 that a man who is only polite to ladies and who would not put 
 himself to inconvenience to perform an act of courtesy to a poor 
 woman, should no more be called a gentleman than gold plated 
 ware should be called true metal, that another more worthy spec- 
 i lien of man is th-j thoroughly kind-hearted man who has all 
 the natural qualities of a gentleman and that delicacy of feeling 
 that prevents him from hurting the feeling of others, yet this man 
 with all his delicacy of feeling and unselfishness of soul cannot 
 be called a gentleman if he does not possess the necessary amount 
 of education and outward polish. While the factory is stopped 
 1 am watchman so that I lose no time, I have to keep ten furnacea 
 and 3 stoves going to keep the brick work and pipes from getting 
 frozen; the water rose gy^z ^^- i'l the factory. A great scandal has 
 occurred here lately, Mrs. Defosa, daughter of Mrs. Gaudette, has 
 left her husband and charges him with drunkenness, jealousy and 
 laziness, the 3 greatest faults a husband could have; the priest 
 came on Sund.iy and tried to persuade her to return but this she 
 refused to do; said she would go to him during the week and 
 confess to him all about it; she told hiiTi with tenrs in her eyes 
 that if she was to be damned she might as well be so quietly alone 
 than with her husband, for she said I can never fulfill my religious 
 duties while I live with him; I advised Defosa to give up drink 
 and try and win back the respect and affection of his wife and 
 that I would persuade Mr. S. to give him the custom of the fac- 
 tory; he is a blacksmith by trade. Have pkiyed checkers French 
 st)'le with many of the best player.^ in these parts. Mrs. S. has a 
 choice selection of the works of all the leading poets, which she 
 kindly lent to me. Mr. S. is quite indignant at the masons who 
 do not want to build the brick work on what they call a "rotten 
 founddtion." Mr. S. says he will sacrifice good workmanship for 
 the sake of getting extract to supply the Go's customers. In many 
 points on the inconsistencies of the christian churches Mr. S. and 
 1 agree. Mrs. Gaudette was going to have her daughter sleep up 
 stairs in a garret; I of course would not allow such an arrangement 
 and said I would vacate my corner of the undivided room down 
 
288 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 stairs; I have in fact in some small houses seen as many as 4 beds 
 in one undivided room whicli formed bed rooms, dining room, 
 living room, kitchen and reception room. This neighborhood is 
 divided into 2 parties, one takes Djfosa's and the other his wife's 
 part, the latter call Defosa a "sans coeur" for not leaving the coun- 
 try instead of trying to oblige his wife to return to him. i March, 
 has rained hard all day, my gang of 20 men in tlie morning has 
 diminished to l in the evening, and no wonder for flesh and blood 
 does not relish the discomfort of being like a half drowned rat all 
 day, still of course as the farmers continued to arrive witli loads 
 of bark we had to remain out in the rain to pile it. Dun and Mar- 
 tin, the 2 engineers, and myself have been removing the rust from 
 the engines and machinery and oiling it; after the flood had sub- 
 sided the bark contractors made a road across the river by chop- 
 ping away the huge blocks of ice and pouring water on the broken 
 places at night to have them freeze over. Mrs. S. is very sick. 
 One of the factory hands has died from congestion of the lungs. 
 Mr. S. says that a love for painting apart from the money gained 
 by it is necessary to make a good artist. Mr. S. and 1 took a 
 drive to Arlington by a new route, passed chiefly through low 
 land covered with tamerac, balsam and spruce not over 30 ft. high, 
 also a small collection of houses with a very handsoaie church of 
 cut stone ana over 3 streams that run into the Brisbois river, in 
 which he says there are trout and proposes that I shall go fishing 
 and boating with him next summer in his Indian canoe. This 
 factory ships extract to many countries in Europe but chiefly to 
 the U. S, and England; one of the partners is a Mr. Yankton of 
 Boston. Its average expense for merely the bark and wood it 
 buys and labor is ^225 a day. l March, Davenport, dear Arthur, 
 'T have been working here with my team drawing bark; I could 
 have got $40 a month from the log shanties but the work would 
 have been too hard; I make here 1^3.50 a day so that if good roads 
 continue I shall clear a few dollars; uncle Richard and Clifford 
 have been out since you lefc; the ties I sold to the rly Co. have 
 not yet been culled or paid for; some weeks the roads are so bad 
 that I can only team 3 days at a time. Montreal 28th March, 
 from uncle Richard: "The money your uncle Jerrold advanced 
 to you I do not think he will ever allow you to repay it, his only 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 289 
 
 object was to aid you and Tom to make Elmbrooke a permanent 
 home for you both; when I write to him I shall have much pleas- 
 ure in doinjT as you advise. In a letter to uncle Richard I ex- 
 plained how Tom unjustly wanted me to pay for extra clothing 
 1 used while working on Elmbrooke. In a letter to Tom I said 
 tell father that he ought to remember I am his son even tho lam 
 not his eldest one, and that I feel hurt at the way he has neglected 
 me, that I am not jealous but that I do not think it looks well 
 for him to give you all his advise and counsel for the past 6 yrs. 
 and take hardly any notice of me. In conversation one evening 
 at Mr. Watts he said that this world would be better and happier 
 if there miver had been any form of religion in it, altho most re- 
 ligions have been the cause of great atrocities still we should be 
 impartial enough to give them credit for whatever good they have 
 done. ' Wrote a long letter to Angelica, my cousin in Salford, 
 England, giving a brief review of the events that occurred to me 
 during the past 9 months, and wrote as follows: "Mr. L. C. Wil- 
 loughby's id wife is 'an American lady and not liked by some of 
 his parishoners, however in my opinion she is an amiable lady 
 and perfectly fitted for the difficult position she holds, that of be- 
 ing a poor clergyman's wife, his daughter is no longer a child 
 but is an interesting and intelligent young lady and is apparently 
 religiously inclined; I have only once had the pleasure of hearing 
 Canon Baldwin preach and was much impressed by his earnest- 
 ness which is a pleasing contrast to the formal and automatic 
 sermons of a great portion of the Catholic and Episcopal clergy; 
 many thanks for the photo of the beautiful park like landscape 
 'aboAJt your residence; the F Canadians will, I fear, admire the 
 beauty of ornamental trees when it is too late, for their settlements 
 Hay^ generally a bare and uninterestingappearance through their 
 Wavi/t of 'taste in destroying all the forest and not even planting 
 an ocdasional ornamental tree to take its place." From a letter 
 from Clifford April 3d: **I have owed you a letter for some time 
 and have kept off answering it from one cause or another hence 
 the delay; how do you like your present occupation; I suppose 
 you wont be so busy how that the snow is gone; the weather is 
 nice and mild here now and the snow is going fast and the street 
 
 cars running on wheels; I am glad to hear that there is a proba- 
 
 37 
 
990 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 bility of your becomincj a bookkeeper for one of Bentley & Go's 
 factories; I suppose tliis h.»s been a bad winter for lumberinf^ as 
 there has been so little snow and the roads have been so much 
 broken up by thaws; I go to the gymnasium here as often as I 
 can to keep my muscle up; the Oxford crew has won the boat 
 race by 6 lengths, this is the 3d yr they have beaten Cambridge 
 in succession; there are a gre it many emigrants coming out from 
 England to Manitoba this summer; they say that the prairies of 
 the northwest are capable of su[)porting a population of 50 million; 
 one batch of settlers have just left Liverpool, Kng. bringing ^145,- 
 000 with them; the opening of the northwest will be a grand thing 
 for Montreal as most of its exports will flow thro this port. The 
 Canadian Pacific RIy will be finished D. V. to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains by next fall, Tom says seed oats sells at Aston for 45 cts. 
 a bushel this spring. Mr. S. informed me that he intends to let 
 me take Dun's place as engineer when he" goes to St. Augustin 
 to quarry a channel in the bank of the river for a pulp factory 
 there; have conversed about religion with one of the brick layers 
 in the factory, he believes in the persevering powers of the "scap- 
 ular," which he says preserves men from drowning when they 
 fall into water: I laughingly told him that according to statistics 
 as many Catholics were drowned as Protestants; told him I was 
 thoroughly disgusted to see that the followers of such a "perfect 
 church" as his should believe in such absurdities; most religions 
 have so nmch superstition and error that a great portion of the en- 
 hghtened of mankind secretly despise them in their hearts; there 
 cannot be a doubt that we are gradually approaching another great 
 era of reform in the history of our earth. From a letter to Tom; 
 'T am sorry to see that you still try to make me pay for the ex- 
 tra clothing wore on Elmbrooke; I do not think you will ever 
 get riches or happiness by any such means as this, it is only the 
 thoroughly honorable and upright man that can receive true en- 
 joyment in after, yrs., from the fruit of honest industry; of late I 
 have had a hard time working early and late sometimes until ^ 
 9 p. m„ on account of the shoit time in which Mrs S. wishes me 
 to have the factory working, so as to be able to fill their orders 
 for Hemlock extract so as not to lose thtir customers; the fac- 
 tory has been worked by 5 boilers of late, while the furnaces of 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 29I 
 
 the Other 5 are being repaired, and only turns out a small quan- 
 tity of extract; my cough is worse than it was so that I must 
 take more care of myselt", I trust that you and f- ther have good 
 iicalth and live happily together; this Co. only pays its men once 
 every two months; of late I have been trying a vegetable diet 
 and find it very much cheaper." "Staney Ikae, Aston April 14th. 
 Dear Arthur, Maud and I wish to thank you for the beautiful 
 E.ister cards you sent us, also for the Christmas cards which are 
 lovely; Mama received your note some time ago and says that 
 is all right, she will be glad to see you whenever you come back, 
 1 have Duly returned from my visit to Charlesbourg, La Colle 
 and Montreal last week, I had a very pleasant time, and Maud 
 is now in Montreal where she will remain for a month or so, 
 hoping you will be successful in all that you undertake, I remaia 
 yours truly, F. J. Meredith." I thatik Heaven that with all my 
 faults 1 possess the ennobling influence of a pure and unchanging 
 love for this dear creature, one of the loveliest beings in God's 
 creation; nevei can I forget the gentle emotion that filled my 
 heart when I first saw her, even though I was yet a child; Dante 
 Was a lover at 10 yrs. of age, but was unfortunate in his affections, 
 1 trust that mine will not be the same but that I shall become 
 worthy of her, and succeed in winning her respect, admiration 
 and lovre; I am glad to say that since I have been here I have 
 honestly done my duty to my employers, and have made it ai 
 rule to take as rr.uch interest and be as zealous as if I was work- 
 ing for myself; the snow is nearly all gone and the ice has left 
 the river, still the weather is very chilly; the masons have finish- 
 ed repairing the furnaces; there was a fire in a pile of tan bark 
 in the factory to day, and I worked so hard in helping to ex- 
 tinguish it that on arriving in my room I fainted; what causes 
 mj most uneasiness is the incessant cough I have with a pain 
 in my chest. The people here are nearly as low as those around 
 KImbrooke, every day I hear foul and disgusting language; Mr. 
 S. has told me not to work in cold or damp places, also that 
 whenever I had time, to learn the running of the engine^* from 
 Dun; we cleared out the blacksmith shop, sorted the iron and 
 implements that were all washed together by the flood, also 
 cleaned aut the well by the river's edge, that supplies the fac- 
 
292 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 tory with water. Mr. libideau, one of the pan men, and myself 
 are making a boat, the cost of the lumber is only ^i; a checker 
 player in these parts made a checker board out of 482 pieces of 
 wood and sold it for ^50; in the latter part of March saw the 
 strange occurrence of a snow storm and/^^^^h under. 28th April, 
 my health has been steadily growing worse, byave decided to go 
 to Montreal to-morrow; have spent many eveniri^« at Mr. Sher-' 
 mans, and played chess with Mrs. Sherman, have also read many 
 interesting books, one by Everett the learned blacksmith enti,;Jed, 
 "chips from many blocks," which contains much sound reas^i^. 
 On my arriving at Montreal my uncle told me there was nothing 
 serious, that I merely had a bad cold. Received from Mrs. Bent- 
 ley on my way back a very kind reception, she showed me her 
 studio which is in the top of the house, and commands a mag- 
 nificent 'view of Charlesbourg and the River St. Lawerance. 
 Since my return I have worked at odd jobs around the factory. 
 Elmbrooke May 2nd. "My dear Arthur, I have been wishing 
 for a long time to write to you but I have even less leisure here 
 than at the old place, and as I wanted to write you a long letter 
 I kept putting it oft, but I feel I can do so no longer; I am sorry 
 to say I lost on the straw I bought from you, as it now sells in 
 the French country for ;^i a single load; Tom would not allow 
 me to bring any of my fodder to his place, for fear of getting the 
 *'bx eye daisy" on Elmbrooke; you say in your letter to Tom that 
 you have never been the "fair hatred boy" with me, which I think 
 is very unkind of you, if you will only reflect, you will see that 
 ' I have done more for you than for him, as much as I could pos- 
 sibly do in my straightened circumstances with little or no re- 
 sources, it therefore grieves me sorely to have you make such 
 a remark, it must be either through jealously or your extreme 
 impulsiveness; you are blind to the real facts of your dealings 
 and conduct to others, why should you be jealous, I have never 
 done so much to please him as to please you, (he never asked 
 me,) and I only expressed my sympathy to him on account of 
 his lameness; I do not blame you in the least for choosing 
 another occupation, but for the abrupt and inconsiderate manner 
 of doing so, I never expected you to remain a farmer, but for 
 your intense ambition to gain notoriety, and impatience to make 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 293 
 
 a fortune before you knew how; we might have all been so much 
 better off and happier, and you still would have had good oppor- 
 tunities to study for law. which though I do not think much of 
 for a vocation, still I prefer it to the sea or army; if you had not 
 persuade'.! Tom to start for yourselves on Elmbrooke, aud sunk 
 so much money on so many buildings, and had remained with 
 me for 2or 3 yrs. longer, it would not only have been to my benefit 
 but to yours also; you shonld have helped me to make more im- 
 provements on my farm before moving to your own; it was your 
 duty to do so, and I could have kept you if I liked until you 
 were of age, but from the refractory way you went on and the 
 paper you so very cunningly got me to sign giving you power 
 to act, trade and buy for yourself, I saw that there was no use 
 in trying to do so, besides your disposition in aiming more after 
 quantity instead of quality of work, did not suit me, as I was 
 more acquainted and suited to the European style of farming, 
 than to the rough and ready way of bush farming; if I could get 
 you to see the sad effect of your erratic and impulsive character 
 of disposition, not only to others but to yourself, which must 
 cause you great difficulty in improving and developing the abil- 
 ities that you have; you must remember that there are more 
 idols than those of wood and stone, most men have big or little 
 ones peculiar to themselves, honor, wealth, pleasure and fame, 
 are numbered amongst them, all of which we are told to beware 
 of; we must seek God's glory and not our own; God has the 
 most right to it, as being not only our Creator but our father, 
 who surrounds us with Gvcry blessing, but he has made those 
 blessings dependant on bur own industry, for he put us into this 
 world in his own image and likeness, spiritually gifted with cer- 
 tain powers and abilities, and a certain amount of free will (where- 
 in we resemble him) to be used in control of all things given in- 
 to our power, which should be used to God's glory (not ours,) 
 and in so doing we are all bound to regard each as his children 
 and consequently brothers; in the Saviour's parable he compares 
 the Kingdom of Heaven to children playing in the market place, 
 and when he fulfilled the laws of a just and Divine Father in our 
 stead (whose eyes cannot behold unjustly) by his life example, 
 teachings, and ultimate suffering on the Cross, by the blind Jews 
 
294 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 for exposing their pharasaic unrij^hteousness and degeneracy, 
 he reduced the whole Mosaic commandnients to 2: "to love God 
 with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves;" love is the 
 fulfilling of the law, love and charity are the same in cffjct, there 
 are no extremes in either, therefore inordinate ambition is un- 
 lawful for it requires covetousness to help it on; covetousness 
 is idolatry, our desire is to exalt ourselves above others, 
 for notoriety is making an idol of fjme; the man with 
 the humble desire to do good, God always exalts in 
 due time, and the proud he always abases sooner or later; besides 
 inordinate desires lead to unscrupulous conduct towards others. 
 You seem to think I do not care for you, but you little know 
 how much you are in my thoughts day and night, and Tom well 
 knows when your first letters arrived you seemed to make your 
 case so plausible about what you spent for clothing on Eltnbrooke 
 that I pleaded with him for you. but^ when I caine to get a full 
 insight of how the cas? stood I decided that you only study your 
 own gain. I was sorry to hear yuu had a bad cold, remember 
 you have not a constitution that can stand wet clothes or excite- 
 ment; do not follow those visionary ideas of vegetarianism, man's 
 constitution requires bread meat and vegetables, but each in mod- 
 eration to keep him in health and strength, do no be "penny wise 
 and pound foolish;" you will perhaps think I have written se- 
 verely to you, but I do it for your good and no one would more 
 heartily rejoice at your success than I, but I fear you are too 
 visionary to succeed in life without your uncle's advice and 
 mine to check your impulsive spirit; be humble and patient, let 
 honor not fame be your guiding star and you will succeed; your 
 affec. father, J. E. Howard." Read this quietly and seriously; 
 P. S. 'T am in sympathy with you and wish you well, be true to 
 God, your fellow men and yourself and you will become a pros- 
 perous and happy man." I have no food for my pigs, I was 
 thinking of buying grue or moulie in Montreal, but Tom ad- 
 vises me to buy your buckwheat, I could only give 40cts. a bushel; 
 I did not let my sugar bush this season being a poor one. In a 
 letter from Tom he says: "potatoes are rising in price and I shall 
 sell yours, I sold your oats for 32Cts. a bushel; have you made 
 up your mind as regards the extra clothes you wore while you 
 
niSTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, ,29$ 
 
 lived on Elmbrooke. in reply I say, in a former letter you ask 
 me if I am willing to -lengthen the time of paymeut for your 
 note, this I am perfectly willing to do although you have treated 
 me in a most unbrotherly manner; as regards your unjust claim 
 I have consulted Uncle Richard, he told me that it could not be 
 legally collected and advised m^ not to pay it, he informed me 
 that Uncle Jerrold or himself will never touch my half of Elm- 
 brooke, and that jou are to have the use of it for life and to 
 your heirs at your death (if you have any;) he also tells me that 
 Uncle Jerrold continues the income of ^300 a yr. to you. From 
 a letter to Angelica Fothergill: 1 have just returned from Mon- 
 treal where 1 enjoyed a few days visiting at my Uncle Richard's; 
 to all appearance Protection has been of immense benefit to Mon- 
 treal, there is scarcely a factory closed in the city and very little 
 unemployed labor. 1 was delighted to hear that you and Mr. 
 Fothergill are going to visit Canada this Summer, what pleasure 
 you will have in meeting all your old friends. Have of late been 
 removing the huge masses of ice that broke in one side of the 
 factory. ''Dear father, I reed, your letter, and am thankful for 
 your good advice, I regret that my remark in Tom's letter hurt 
 yo.ir feelings, for I really do wish to do my duty towards you, 
 for 1 can never forget how much my dear mother impressed the 
 necessity of this duty on me, and though I have been somewhat 
 wild and reckless I shall never forget the counsel and noble ex- 
 ample she gave her children, not merely when they had arrived 
 at the age of manhood, but from their earliest infancy she did 
 her utmost for her children's spiritual and temporal welfare, by 
 following up her precepts (by what is even more essential) a 
 beautitul and holy example, of all the blessings I ever had I shall 
 always feel most grateful for the gift of such a mother, When 
 I first sat down to write you I am afraid my feelings overcame 
 my reason, Lut the thought came into my mind, I must try as 
 much as possible to write as my dear mother would have wished 
 me to; so I smothered all my indignation and will try and write 
 in as proper and respectful a style as possible and candidly tell 
 you the cause of my displeasure. Your letters are written h\ 
 such a way th?t one might imagine I was in danger of the gal- 
 lows, or the vilest of the vile; you may not think so but I see it 
 
296 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 in this light, an impartial stranger, from your letter would come 
 to the conclusion that I had scarcely any conscience or honor 
 in me, which is only a polite way of calling a man a rascal; for 
 the last 7 yrs. you have always industriously examined my busi- . 
 ness transactions and life, and could only find one tainted morsel, 
 which yvou seemed to take great delight in bringing under my 
 nostrils, in this business transaction I erred, not from a business 
 point of view but that of honor, by buying your hemlock bark 
 and making ^2$ profit on it, although you were going to sell it 
 to a stranger for less than ! gave you, still I should not have 
 nnado that sm^ll profit on my father even though I did lose some 
 time in disposing of it, but since I have repaid you the amount 
 why did you write to my uncles about it, tell it to the Aston 
 people and be always casting it n\ my face; this surely is not act- 
 ing a good father's part, and why say that 1 alone was the cause 
 of our moving to Elmbrooke. Was not Tom the first lo leave 
 the homestead, and did I not do better to persuade him to come 
 back to Elmbrooke, than to accept that position ^is clerk in New 
 Brunswick by which he would have, been separated from his 
 mother; but it seems to have been my f^Ws^tb'be your scapegoat 
 ever since I was a child, you should rfer^entbgr" however that I 
 have left Aston and those, constant recrirrffa^tlotis.^ therefore 1 
 will hear no more of them, please never again^'4i^^'.^U5h"'an,.ex'- . 
 pression as "sympathize with you" for I am not in'ih^ydb^^tidrt^,^ 
 to want the sympathy of any one; you think I am tto,,tfe.^|U'^v 
 for giving away my half of Elmbrooke but I would no,t OTK?j(ie f %}(4 ^ 
 the best man hving my liberty to think and act as I pfease^^^^, 
 the best estate or income in the world; if my uncle had allowed''' 
 me to use my oA'n judgment in farming I wonld have made it a 
 success, and repaid in a few yrs. every cent of Uncle Jerrold's 
 income to us, it was an injurious kindness in them with their 
 want of knowledge in bush farming, to try and direct our system 
 of farming; I do not blame Uncle Jerrold for this, for he thought 
 Uncle Richard capable of advising and directing us, but the 
 cleverest men living cannot direct a business, army or any un- 
 dertaking unless they are at the seat of actfon themselves; a 
 striking proof of this can be seen in the late American war,as long 
 as the movements of the army were directed by men in Wash- 
 
I. 1 . '. Vi , 
 
 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 29/ 
 
 in^ton it met with defeat, but the moment the iiidependant spirit 
 of Gjn. Grant demanded absolute command victory was his re- 
 ward; and I assure you that although my ambition and actions 
 may not be "pur et sans reproche" hke tiiat of Bayard's, I trust at 
 least to meet with tolerable success and accomplish some good 
 for myself and fellow-men. As it is inconvenient for Mrs. Gau- 
 dette to give me board at her house, after I commence to run the 
 engines for the night from i p. m. to i. a. m. I shall board at Mr. 
 Le Blanc's directly opposite the factory. Regulations I have 
 written out for my guidance in running the engines: on Mon- 
 day morning take packing out 3 glands on the small en- 
 gine, and repack them with oiled hemp, this has to be done once 
 a week as also all the many other glands on the engines; the 
 gland on the liquor pump has to be packed whenever it leaks; 
 the 4 glands on the air pump have to be packed every 4 weeks; 
 the glands on the little and big engines ha^'-^ to be packed as 
 much as the lengths of the bolts will allow.and care must be taken 
 not to have the gland projjct so much that it would strike the 
 piston where it enters the gland; see that the spout on the top 
 of the dall and the valve below are in working order, if in pack- 
 ing the gland of the liquor pump the screw does got turn easily 
 turn the fly wheel of the big engine; when the starting valve of 
 the big engine leaks take it apart and put a new piece of rubber 
 between the joint, take the cover ofT the condenser and remove 
 any dirt that may have accumulated on the strainer; avoid letting 
 the cover rub against the rubber band between the point of the 
 condensor,also to have the well cleaned of any particles of dust that 
 may have fallen on the point of the condensor as this would pre- 
 vent the cover from being air-tight; great care must be taken 
 while examining it, as it being situated in the cupola of the fac- 
 tory is in an out of the way place where the fire would not be 
 noticed until it was too late; the oiling of machinery comes next, 
 that of little and big engines and the shafts of the grinding mill, 
 while the engineer is doing this he h is to go out occasionally 
 into the iire rooms and see that the fire man, bark grinder and 
 leach man clean the ashes properly from off the grates and that 
 the furnaces are filled with dry wood and lighted, also that 
 the ashes are cleaned out beneath the' boiler once every 2 weeks, 
 
 38 
 
"^CfB HISTORV OF THE FRENXII IN AMERICA. 
 
 this artd the cleaning of the grates is a terrible undertaking, the 
 men have to go into the hot brickwork of the furnaces on their 
 hands and knees, and so great is the heat that they can only re- 
 main a few minutes at a time, the engineer has also to see that 
 the leach man and bark man the oil machinery in their part 
 of the factory; the engineer now puts a wooden plug in the low- 
 er end of the big engine's exhaust pipe, as the accumulation of 
 water has all drained out of it by this time, and lets a small quan- 
 tity of steam into the cylinders of the engines to warm their; 
 the big engine can be started with 40 lbs of steam, and the little 
 one with 60; starting the big engine enough steam must be put 
 on at once to make the large fly wheel re- olve slowly, for if 
 enough is not put on, it only partially moves the fly wheel and 
 gets the arm of the engine out of position, in which case it has 
 to be put in position again by using a small bar on the shaft of the 
 eccentric rod or large bar on the fly wheel, which causes a*great 
 deal of unnecessary delay; care must be taken not to open the 
 valve too suddenly or too much, as this deranges the "governor"; 
 the two escape valves at the end of the cylinder have to be 
 opened before starting to let the accumulated water escape; the 
 water glands of the pump have to be packed once a week, and 
 it has to be started, pumping immediately after starting the big 
 engine to see that it is in working or- r; when steam escapes 
 from any of the glands tighten the screws with a wrench but 
 avoid making them too tight, which would break the piston; 
 also that the edges of the gland never touch the piston, which 
 through friction in a short time would wear it out; in starting 
 the water pump, the valves that convey the wat r into the boilers 
 farthest from the pump have to be opened first; in starting the 
 little engine or "air pump" the air valve has to be shut and the 
 starting valve turned 3 times around to the left, after which the 
 air valve has to be opened and closed alternatelv until the action 
 of the pump is felt, and then left shut while the pump is work- 
 ing and open when not; when the stream is high the boilers 
 should be filled with water, they should be more than ^ full or 
 go lower than 3 inches in the glass gages; the gages indicating 
 the depth of water in the boilers should be emptied occasionally in 
 case of their being choked with dust; when the steam gets as high 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 299 
 
 as 60, the safety valve on top of the boilers shouliJ be carefully ex-" 
 amined; if the steam does not escape through theju.iii stopping the 
 engine leave the arms in good position, a quick movement of the 
 eye and arm is neccessary lu do this properly; before stopping 
 the engines always open the "escape valves," after shutting off 
 the steam from the little engine the exhaust pipe hi^s to be open* 
 ed; after the air pump is started throw a little water into the 
 spout over the dall and make the p jmp go faster until the water 
 appears, when a signal is made to the pan man of its ftppearc^OP^iJ 
 whenever the water ceases to flow in the dall, open and close al- 
 ternately the valve that lets water into the vacuum, oil the- 
 machinery once a day at ii o'clock, before stopping the big em 
 gine ring to the grinder to cease throwing bark into the mills* 
 and allow them to become empty, for if the engine is stoppedj 
 with bark in the mills they would get blocked; the signals fromj 
 the pan man's room to the engineer are: i ring of the bell to stop 
 or start the air pump, 2 rings, a little slower; 3 a Utile faster aJi4 
 4 rings, close the exhaust valvt ^he air vessel of the liquor pump 
 has to have a cup of water por ud into it to start it pumping;} 
 pump water into the extra big boiler at the same time as into t|^^ 
 10 other boilers, as it would force the pump too ifluch to pump( 
 into it alone; the valve on the water pipe of the big boiler has |:o| 
 be opened only half a turn, the blow ofi valve of the big boij^^ 
 when it is worked has to be opened every day to blow the sc;di-7 
 ment out of the bottom of the boiler, this has also to be done^ 
 with all the other boilers when the ste^m is high, so that w|ie;), 
 fresh water is pumped in, it will not lower the steam too ^??4^ch) 
 commence filling the boilers at 10 o'clock so as to have t^etH 
 full when aext engineers come to take charge; whe^i the 1^^^ 
 valve of the water pump does not work unscrew it and pla^Ge 4 
 bucket of water under it which makes the pump work, tlie §f^}^ 
 rule applies to the air pump of the pan; tlie big boiler sJk>u14 
 never have more than 40 lbs. of steam. I have a lazy ^mma,fii 
 I often go on the top of the furna.cies and find him asleep aii4 tlm 
 "tan holes" in the top of the furnaces with 5^1 tl^ tan bark ^f nt 
 out of them, and the flames escaping from tliem which cools tliQ 
 furnaces and lowers the steam, explained to him that ao fji^ttc,r, 
 how much wood he burns, a.s long as he allows these holes, €91 
 
3CK) HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 burn open he would never be able to keep the steam high, he 
 gave an impudent answer to do it myself, told him I was easier 
 on him than Martin the other cnjTineer was on his fireman, for 
 I helped him to fill the furnaces occasionally, he ^ave me some 
 more impudence at which I told him he was a fat, good for 
 nothing lazy rascal and that he xitjht go home, I then sent for 
 the man whose business it is to replace these n^en who get sick 
 or leave their work; the hot humid atmosphere of the factory is 
 telling on my health; the pan man tells me that brandy, milk 
 and eggs beaten together will cure my cough, another man pre- 
 sented me with some wild roots; gave Mr. Sheiman notice that 
 I could not work next week on account of my health, he says he 
 will write to Charlesbourg for another engineer, and when I come 
 back he will give me an easier position, but he advises me to 
 become a farmer: nothing can equal their kindness to me since 
 I have been here, Mrs S. sends me every day many delicacies 
 from their table, but the oppressive, humid heat of the factory 
 has completely taken away my appetite; last week made 1 1 5 
 barrels of extracts of liquor of ig}4 degrees by the barkometer, 
 which has been the best week ouring the past 5 months; there 
 has been great rivalry between the 2 ''shifts," the other '"shift" 
 has taken advantage cf ours by taking the strongest liquor to 
 boil and leaving, me the fires in a low condition, and very little 
 H'ater in the boilers, which obliges me to pump water into them 
 on arriving, which as a matter of course lowers the steam and 
 prevents my pan man from taking as much steam as he wants 
 to boil the liquor, we are however 5 barrels ahead of them 
 during the week, but burnt a few cords more wood than the 
 other shift, Mrs. S. told me that I would soon get acquainted 
 with the tricks of factory life, and that the only way I could 
 bring the other engineer to his senses was to do the same as he 
 did and boil down all the strongest liquor first, leaving him 
 the weakest which would soon make him act square. 
 From a letter to Tom: just think of it! I have to get up every 
 Sunday night and run the engines from }4 past 1 1 until i o'clock 
 the next Monday, and all the other days of the week have to 
 run them from i in the night until i in the day, no joke I 
 tell you, 13^ hours to be surrounded by steam, the smoke of 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 301 
 
 kerosene lamps and the smell of oil &c., but I expect to pet 
 the job of book-keeper of the Pulp factory at St. Augustin 
 V'hcn it is built; it appears to me that I could not live long 
 in the damp hot air of this factory; I had to discontinue walk- 
 ing to the village to take lessons ii French as it was too 
 much for me, but I dcvoi . ok st of my spare moments to 
 study by myself I suppose you heard of Mr. Bentley's fac- 
 tory being burned, fortunately it was insured for 10,000, which 
 will not however cover the loss; as it is now 7 p. m. I must 
 go and take some rest, as I shall be awake at 1 1 p.m. to go to work; 
 I shall try and hold out this week, but if my cough and appetite 
 does not improve I shall go to Montreal; my honest opinion on 
 agricultural and factory life is, that any man who owns loO 
 acres or even 50 of good land would be foolish to leave it to 
 work in a factory, and that if he worked as regularly on his 
 farm as fictory men do, he would be just as well off, and 
 what is still of more consequence, be a a healthy man. I 
 trust that you are well advanced with your Spring work and 
 that you will take an honest pride in trying to be the best 
 farmer in your part of the country. From a letter to father: 
 please tell Tom to pay Rev. L. C. W. what I owe him, al- 
 so ask him if he received the amount I sent him. I hope 
 Tom will continue a subscriber to the church, I think it is 
 his duty, it being the nearest Protestant church to his place 
 and also because our dear mother is buried there; the bal- 
 ance of the money he received for the produce of Oak Hill he 
 and you will please spend in beautifying the spot where the ob- 
 ject of our united love rests." June 3rd; for the last 2 weeks I 
 have been holding out against an incessant cough and pain iti 
 my chest, for I am unwilling to give up being engineer, which 
 gives me 50cts. more per day. Or.e of the coopers has just re- 
 turned from Norbert from a week's spree, as he could not buy 
 liquor from the priest, he kept himself in a partial state of intox- 
 ication by drinking large quantities of Cambell's quinine wine, 
 one day he drank as much as 6 large bottles. June 7th; Mr. 
 Sherman's hostler drove me to Arlington; I write this in the 
 waiting room waiting for the train; yesterday we burned 4 cords 
 of wood and made 13 barrels of 19^ deg. extract; the liquor too 
 
302 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 that wc used for the first 3 barrels was very weak, as the leaches 
 were 3 hours behind time through the breaking of the endless 
 chain that carries the ground bark from the mills into the leaches; 
 we also had great trouble with the pipe that supplies the factory 
 well with water from the river; 1 had over 25 times in the night 
 to g'j out with a boat into the middle of the river to remove the 
 mud and bits of wood washed against the orifice of the pipe; the 
 reader can well imagine that to leave the hot and steamy factory 
 and go out into the cold night air had a most injurious effect on 
 the bad cold I now have. Mr. S. ha.> given me a leave of ab- 
 sense for 5 days; the train has arrived at last, bought a second 
 class ticket for Dumas landing for 45cts.; Mrs. S. asked me to 
 call and see Mrs. Bentley on my way to Montreal; the country 
 after leaving Arlington is flat and uninteresting with a few small 
 clearances; some nice looking farm houses on both sides, a thick 
 second growth of soft wood on either side; pass a small "flag 
 station," fly. ditches full of water; yrs. will pass before the land 
 is reclaimed, as it has the disadvantage of being sandy as well 
 as swampy; some nice clearances with ordinary houses on both 
 sides; the ranges run at right angles with the rly; St. Remi has 
 a church and a large extent of clearance about it; its houses are 
 mostly whitewashed; country cleared on either side with good 
 looking farm houses; arrived at St. Heuri; the farms are divi- 
 ded into narrow strips and extend a great distance from the 
 track; St. Gertetude is a compact village with a fine church and 
 convent, also a friar's school; the houses are all of wood and 
 whitewashed, which gives it a neat monotonous appearance; the 
 soil is of a dark rich color and is celebrated for producing hay; 
 pass by a beautifully picturesque little river and lake surrounded 
 by handsoTie groves of hard -wood, the first I have seen on this 
 line since leaving St. Andre, 70 miles from here, cleared country 
 with numerous houses in the distance; the country become.*; un- 
 dulating and is more thickly settled; approach Dumas lan>diftg; 
 Charlesbourg is to be seen across the river St. Lawerance and 
 has quite an imposing appearance, being situated on rising ground; 
 the train runs out into the river on a pier, at the end of which 
 the passengers embark on a steam-boat; the most conspicuous 
 •objects in Charlesbourg as seen across the river are its catJie- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 303 
 
 dral, convent and seminary; Dumas Landing lias a market, 
 a church, and is a collection of whitewashed houses; bought a 
 tweed suit for $8, a stiff felt hat for $2.40; received a cordial 
 welcome from Mr. and Mrs. Bentley, and after lunch started for 
 ^lontreal, rly. tare ^$2.80; the country has a flat, rich dark soil 
 with the usual uninteresting French style of house; the remains 
 of stumps in some fields, from which I conclude that it has not 
 been cleared very many yrs. but this was only a small strip of 
 country; the land is ploughed in long .strips divided by deep fur- 
 rows, ditches as well as fences divide the farms; river St. L. can 
 be seen in the distance; a large sand bank runs paralkM with the 
 rly. on the right; I have been informed that this country yields 
 quantities of hay but doubt it from, the quality of the soil, which 
 is very sandy land covered with a second growth of soft-wood; 
 the appearance of the country is spoiled by the want of taste of 
 French farmers and the numerous fences; many parts of the 
 land is exhau.sted with moss and brush wood growing over it; 
 quite a number of barns are thatched; the only animals I have 
 .seen so far are flocks of sheep; atrip through this part of the 
 country would damp the ardor of many would-be farmers; the 
 appearance of many of the hou.ses around here are a disgrace to 
 the fine country and the people, for it has been settled at least 
 200 yrs.; have passed numerous collections of houses but the 
 train did not stop; it has just now stopped at St. Louis; a large 
 village with more convents than factories, and more priests than 
 school teachers; I hope the day will come when this supersti- 
 tious people will become so enlightened that they will refuse to 
 pay their hard earned money to these religious frauds to travel 
 in luxurious first class cars, repeating so many dollars worth of 
 prayers every five minutes they travel, for the repose of mothers, 
 fathers and relatives of the poor French farmers; the blue sum- 
 mit of a range of hills can be seen on the right, and the river 
 St. L. on the left; this line has fine passenger and drawing room 
 cars; crossed a muddy little river, wonder of wonders ! a factory 
 chimney in sight; soil sandy; farm houses somewhat improving; 
 a pretty view of a blue range of wood-lands seen over the top of 
 woodlands on the right; clearances extend about a mile distant 
 on either side; have passed a few small villages cultivated on 
 
304 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 small streams; range of hills becoming more visible on the right; 
 rolling country, very sandy, growing up in soft wood in many 
 places; houses and clearances agani in sight; barren sand again 
 which has not the strength to grow even brush-wood; mother 
 nature here kindly tries to hide the poverty of the soil by a 
 growth of stunted brush wood; farms again; a riy. depot, what a 
 phenomena, that they should exist in such a barren country; 
 desolate country with a growth of tamcracs and willows here 
 and there; pass through a large peat bog, one end of it is culti- 
 vated; country rapidly improving; La Assomption, a small vil- 
 lage s'.jrrounded by some rich fiv^lds; second growth is cut into 
 cordwood in some places and piled along the line; another small 
 village called Lavaltrie; the train hands on this line are great 
 swells, dress in daik blue cloth, brass buttons, imitation diamonds 
 and flashy neckties; pass a river on which laige quantities of 
 saw logs are floating; another small village; country steadily im- 
 proving; arrive at Terre Bonne; most of the villages are back a 
 distance from the rly., having been built before the rly. was; a 
 muddy river; a mountain to the left; \'ill arrive at Montreal at 
 4:50, making the distance cfQO miles in 4 hours; pass a quarry 
 and a ledge of rocks, the first I have seen on this line; groves of 
 hardwood which have a fine appearance; country begins to look 
 picturesque with its hills, dales, streams and rivulets; St. Vincent 
 de Paul has a large penitentiary, numerous maple groves give a 
 fine appearance to the country; land could not he better than 
 that which we now pass; the first branch rly. I have seen joins 
 this line; pass several small villages, stony land; many stone 
 walls, not enough stones to prevent ploughing; cross the river 
 Ottawa; quarries for stone; Mount Royal in sight; land in fine 
 state of cultivation; houses built of stone, enter Mile end; pay 
 5cts. fare in an omnibus to go at least 2 miles to the center of 
 the city. Uncle Richard asked me if I liked my new occupa- 
 tion better than farming, said I did not, that I only looked on it 
 as a stepping stone to something better; he said I was fortunate 
 to get i^i-So a day, as few situations in the city commanded that 
 price; uncle again examined my lungs but said as usual that I 
 had only a bad cold; went to St. Georgie's Episcopal church, a 
 very handsome stone building covered with variegated slate and 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 30$ 
 
 beautifully finished inside, stained ^lass windows, pictures, etc. 
 the cliurch which will seat over looo was so full that chairs had 
 to be placed in the aisles; Carniicheal preached a very eloquent 
 sermon, his main art;un)ent was "that righteousness was neces- 
 sary ami profit.ible in this World; he also .spoke on men over- 
 taxing tliJM' energies both mentd and physical, for what iloes 
 wealtli profit with a ruii.ed constitution;" als<i ^ave some facts 
 about the increasinj^^ amount of lunacy m Candida, he also elo- 
 quently and feeliir^Hy a[)pealed to the conjjrej^ation to turn their 
 backs on unprofitable unrighteousness and follow their Saviour's 
 ex im.ile by which tlijy would be ha[)pier in this world as well 
 as the next; Clifford had an argument with Uncle Richard and 
 myself about the French Canadians, who he said were inferior 
 in intellectual power to the Saxons, we maintained that naturally 
 they were not so, but that ignorance and superstition was the 
 cause, also criticised the policy of "armed defense" of Christian 
 nations which keeps millions of the best bone and muscle of this 
 earth in a state of idleness, while millions of acres of land arc 
 waiting for the hand of man to convert them into fields of golden 
 grain. Went to hear a New Orleans Minstrel troupe at Theatre 
 Royal; the bayonet exercise and the singing of one of tl;e men 
 wli.) iaiitateJ a fe.n lie voic-* wi^ allthit wis interesting, I lefl: 
 before it was half over; visited the water works; the present con- 
 sumption of water is only 9,000,030 g.illons every 24 hours, in 
 Sumner l3,0(X),ooO on account of the streets having to be watered; 
 in winter a great amount has to be used, as the water has to be 
 kept running in some of the pipes to prevent freezing; uncle told 
 mj that he p lid ;^3o,ooo for some property a few days ago to 
 complete a block ot buildmgs that he owns; my aunt says he 
 ouglit to give himself rest from speculation and his practice, as 
 he has sulHcient to live in ease and luxury for the rest of his 
 life; uncle told me that if I could acquire a thorough knowledge 
 of French and the hardware business, he could get me a position 
 that would comaiand $I003 a yr. in this city, I visited the art 
 gallery vvhich every yr. is increasing its fine collection ofpain- 
 tings; { went to Aston and found Tom sowing oats on the home- 
 stead, helped him for a quarter of a day; before leaving, when I 
 
 asked him to renew his note he told me to go to the d — 1; sad 
 
 39 
 
'306 HISTORY OF THE FRENXH IN AMERICA. 
 
 were my thoughts as I heard these words and looked towards 
 the old house and remembered how Qyrs. ago our dearest mother 
 was at the window smiling lovingly on us as we returned from 
 our boyish labor, thea we were young and innocent without the 
 knowledge of the depravity of the people of this earth; we were 
 then too young to see through the false gloss that hides the 
 vileness of the lives of ^ of the nominal Christians of the present 
 day; invited the G. boys to come down and spend the afternoon 
 at Elmbrooke, conversed pleasantly with them all until 4 o'clock 
 when they left; I consented to pay Tom for the claim he had for 
 the extra clothing I wore while on Elmbrooke, and he renewed 
 his note to me foi ;S^202, half payable in Feb. '83 and half in Feb. 
 '84; father is so changeable, he now says to me, "Tom has treat- 
 ed you unjustly and I will leave all the home farm to you;" told 
 him that I did not want it, that he might leave it to Tom and 
 aid him as much as possible to become a successful farmer; 
 while waiting next day for the train at Aston played checkers 
 with Dr. Moore, a French-Canadian educated at McGill univer- 
 sity and a very liberal man; saw a little bear in a cage at Aston 
 station, it was very cross from the constant teasing the people 
 gave it; on arriving at Montreal to convince myself of the sound- 
 ness of my lungs I went to Dr. Howard, he lives in a stately 
 mansion of cut stone, and his reception room is superbly fur- 
 nished, drawing room with a richly furnished private office next 
 to it; he is one of the cleverest and most popular Dr. in Montreal, 
 he said "I detect a slight weakness of the right lung and advise 
 you to give up the occupation you are now working at, if you 
 do not the result will be serious, I would also advise you to move 
 to a milder climate; paid him his fee $$, and he gave me a 
 prescription on a drug store for a cough mixture; met Mrs. Mer- 
 edith, had a long conversation while walking down Beaver Hall 
 hill; told her that I intended never to return to farming, she in 
 formed me that the family would all move into Montreal this 
 winter, and invited me to call on them when I came to the city; 
 forgot to mention that while I ivas at Uncle Richard's I met 
 Angelica whom I had not seen for 16 yrs., she is such a gentle 
 and affectionate cousin, she conversed a long time with me about 
 my dear mother and said that she had always acted towards her 
 
HISTORV OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 3O7 
 
 a mother's part, that whatever desire she had to be a true Chris- 
 tian was the result of my mother's advice and counsel, before 
 parting she made me promise to continue my correspondence 
 with her; met Mr. J. Y. Morrisson, he tells me that their factory 
 in Pennsylvania turns out lOO barrels a week and employs only 
 1 1 men inside the factory. There is no leach pitcher, by open- 
 ing a trap door the tan bark falls out of the leaches of itself and 
 slides down an inclined plane over the furnaces; the valves are 
 so centralized that one man is sufficient to run the pan and 
 engines; Mr. M. says the country has a fine appearance, but that 
 the soil is of an inferior quality; he is a free trader and believes 
 that Canadians should be allowed to buy their goods wherever 
 they can buy them the cheapest, While I was in Aston I was 
 horrified at the terrible effect that the constant use of intoxicants 
 is having on Mr. McDougal, he was once one of the handsomest 
 and noblest looking men I ever saw, but now his face is fear- 
 fully flushed and bloated, and the once almost perfect symmetry 
 of his physique is totally destroyed; I felt disgusted with the 
 weakness and folly of nature when I saw how quickly the beauty 
 of this man's figure and face were being destroyed, his intellectual 
 powers becoming deadened, and a piece of God's most glorious 
 workmanship being lost for all that is good and true on this side 
 of the grave; paid a visit to a friend on Beaver Hall Hill, was 
 quite astonished to meet his daughter, a beautiful and accom- 
 plished young lady, who when I met her 9 yrs. ago was a little 
 child, and was agreeably surprised to find that she could con- 
 verse intelligently on the leading subjects of the day, in fact she 
 told me she had the most profound contemf.t for young gen- 
 tleman who could converse on no other subject than society 
 gossip; I am sorry to say however, that so far as my 
 experience goes, such sensible young ladies as these are very 
 scarce and not often met with. On my way to the Richliew 
 Navigation Co's wharf I bought a very nice umbrella for QOcts. 
 and paid a watch maker $1 for cleaning and putting a new glass 
 into my watch; as 1 had 2 hours to spare went in the street cars 
 to Hudon's cotton factory, but on account of being a stranger I 
 could not get a pass to inspect the inside of the factory, it is 720 
 ft. long and Ii8 wide and 5 stories high, employs 11 20 women 
 
30S HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 and manufactures 48.000 yds. of cotton per day; left Montreal on 
 board the Quebec, a t^ood view of Victoria bridge, behind us St, 
 Helen's island rises hii^h out of the river on the ri^ht with s(.me 
 bouses on it; Lon^ucil ferry is on our ri^ht; fine nsidenccs on 
 eacn bank of the river with shacle trees aiound them; a chuich 
 on the left, no hills in si^ht. Montreal, situated as it is at the head 
 of navigation, aud possessing such an enterprising class of citi- 
 zens is certain to maintain its position as tlie ccmmercial metrop- 
 olis of Canada for yrs. to come. Fine houses, pretty groves and 
 gentle rolh'ng country on either bank; Beloil mountains to be 
 seen on the right in the distance; Point Clair village on the left 
 with a few houses and churches; rising land on the left, shore 
 obstructs the view; houses on either bank at intervals of about 
 3 acres apart; a light-house, small village and convent to the 
 lett; close to Pointe du Tremble; 2 light houses in view on the 
 left; passed between 2 small islands, also isles Vercheres and 
 Deloric; Chj.rlesbourg is 90 miles from Montreal and the same 
 from Quebec; between Vercheres and Quebec there are 43 light- 
 bouses; this steamer can accomodate 600 passengers with sleep- 
 ing berths, is worth about ^i6(),coo; there is a barroom and 
 permanent book seller on board; the bill of fare covers 2 pages of 
 letter paper size and extra page for wines and liquors, only a few 
 botels I have been in equal it; at .Sutton the river Richelieu con- 
 nects Lake Champlain with the St. Lawerance; there is a rly. 
 from here to Aston; while waiting here I watched a steamboat 
 being loaded with pigs, calves, sheep and lambs, which reed, 
 very rough treatment; I also noticed fish on hanks still alive 
 quivering with agony and dying a horrible and lingering death; 
 without doubt the great Creator is greatly displeased with this 
 sinful cruelly of his so called chikiren; pretty houses with groves 
 about them on either bank; the soil is very fertile between here 
 and Berthier; many young ladies were out in boats upon the 
 river; there is an excellent Kngiish college hire; some of the 
 islands are submerged and only the tops of bushes can be seen; 
 a gentleman on board has a boat he bought at Berthier made of 
 Spanish cedar, red cedar and English oak beautifully painted 
 and varnished with a patent contrivance that enables the rower 
 to feather his oars with the greatest ease, for which he paid ^ico; 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 3O9 
 
 arrived at Isle au Paix, which is 9 miles long and 4 wide, and 
 contains a church and a whole parish which is formed of excel- 
 lent farms and neat farm houses; ocean steamers can only pass 
 in the channel on 1 side of the island; I Mmost imagine I am in 
 Holland as we leave Herthier, land and water is so nmch mixed; 
 the deck passengers ot this boat are dirty miserable specimens 
 of humanity; the river is divided into 2 channels by islands 
 covered with stately elms, under which numerous cjttle are 
 grazing; 1 hear that many of them get drowned by venturing 
 too far into the water; the outline of the shore on the right is in- 
 distinct in the f;r di^itanee; we have entered Lake St. Peter; a 
 thunder storm has just ceased and a beautiful rainbow is in view; 
 pass a "light ship' permanently moored with a lantern in its 
 mast head, also several bouys to direct the course of vessels into 
 a sale channel, they are placed every Spring by the government 
 along the course of the river and have to be removed every fall 
 as the descending ice would carry them away; Lake St. Peter is 
 9 miles wide and 25 miles long; this steamer goes at about the 
 rate of 12 miles an hour and burns 12 tons of coal each trip of 
 90 miles; its engine driver has ^50 a month and board; the 
 steamer has now stopped at the mouth of the St. Norbert river 
 where there are 6 large steam saw mills; the country here al- 
 though flat is interesting on account of the numerous grove*?; 
 there is a French college in the village of Norbert 2 miles from 
 here; there are some lovely little islands in the mouth of the 
 river covered with willows which form a wall of green, rising 
 perpendicularly from the water's edge; the steamer does not 
 usually stop here but at Port St. David at the outlet of the St. 
 David river; along the banks of the river there are no moun- 
 tains, no grand primeval forest or stately residences to relieve the 
 monotony of the scenery, still however the St. Lawrence is one 
 of the grandest rivers in the world. Next morning I was awoke 
 at the hotel by the sound of the martial music of the Christian 
 idolaters of Charlesbourg, who on this day bow down and adore 
 a piece of bread, to adore the sun or moon or even animals is 
 bad enough, but in my estimation a piece of bread is about the 
 most aLsurd God the dupes of priest-craft ever worshiped; on 
 my way to Mr. Bentleys passed the "reposir" of which they 
 
310 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 were taking a photograph and its numerous images; Mr. and 
 Mrs. B. introduced me to several of their Charlesbourg friends 
 also to Miss Bentley who is about a.^ plain an English young 
 lady as I have ever seen, her features are long and angular and 
 her complexion is abominable, but she is well educated and 
 very much accomplished and a most agreeable companion; in 
 her opinion most of the wooden houses in Charlesbourg have a 
 temporary appearance as compared with those of Gt Britain; 
 there are several large saw mills in this town owned by English 
 speaking people, which export millions of feet of lumber annually; 
 they are situated at the mouth of the St. Maurice river. I never 
 saw a lady or gentleman devote so much care in training their 
 children as Mr. and Mrs. Bentley; they do not seem satisfied 
 with leaving their instruction entirely in the luu .., of the teach- 
 ers of ; first class school, but supervise it themselves and act as 
 if they felt how much the future character of their children de- 
 pended on their example and instruction. I now see how Mr. 
 B. accomplishes so much reading, he devotes all his spare time 
 to it and reads systematically only that which is useful,and skips 
 over all the trash. Mrs. S. favored us with some music and 
 singing, as well as Miss Bentley, the former has a very silvery 
 cultivated, though not powerful voice; Mr. B. also read for our 
 benefit choice selections of a most amusing character, out of all 
 Mark Twain's works; their sweet little son and daughter appear- 
 ed to take as much pleasure in them as ourselves, and when I saw 
 this man full of business |cares and with very little time to call 
 his own, spend one hour in helping and encouraging his little 
 son to become acquainted as perfectly as possible with his lessons 
 for school to-morrow, and the mother do the same wi!h the 
 daughter, I could not refrain from expressing my admiration, 
 when they told me that the duties of society or business were 
 not allowed to interfere with the hour they daily devoted thus 
 to their childrens welfare. Later on in the evening I had an in- 
 teresting conversation with him on the manufacture of paper 
 and was told that there are 940 paper factories in the United 
 States, the largest of which turns out 4 tons a day, I am now 
 at work again running the engines, both Martin and myself find 
 it very diffcult to "keep up the steam" on account of the bad 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 3 I I 
 
 wood we use; I only pay Le Blanc ;^2.co a week for board. 2 1st 
 June; the trees are all in leaf. Mr. and Mrs. Bentley have in- 
 vited father and Tom 01 visit to their place; Le Blanc's little 
 son, 9 yrs. of age, murders the Latin language every evening by 
 repeating long prayers for the benefit of the family, in a sort of 
 Latin jargon. In a circular published by E. Howard he 
 says that "Irish bouroughs"have less than as many parliamentary 
 voters in proportion to the population as English boroughs; 
 Dublin, with a population of 267,000 in 1871 had only 13,590 
 voters for parliamentary purposes, and of municipal voters only 
 5000; in Leeds in '71, with a population of over 259,000 it had 
 49,000 parliamentary electors and over 50,000 municipal. Ex- 
 tract from a pamphlet by E. Howard entitled, "Irish grievances 
 in 1882" with some remarks on Home rule; true liberty only 
 exists where there is cheerful obedience to just and wise laws, 
 (Bacon;) English land laws have been enforced in Ireland for cen- 
 turies against the wish of the majority of the Irish people. Since 
 Mar. 1st, 188 1, every Irishman is liable to imprisonment without 
 even a form of trial, merely on the secret sworn information of a 
 policeman, and locked up during the pleasure ©f the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant's secretary, who is an Englishman; over 500 persons are 
 thus incarcerated in Her Majesty's jails in Ireland, amongst them 
 3 highly popular M. P's. No man is allowed to carry arms 
 without a license, and in education although the Irish people 
 have long desired a public system of education for their children, 
 the British government have endeavored for the last 50 years to 
 force on them a more or less purely secular education; also the 
 pettiest acts of Parliament for local purposes bridges, canals or 
 gasworks, must be squeezed by their promoters at a great rost 
 of time and money through that lumbering, overworked machine 
 the Imperial Parliament. In Gt. Britain owing to the partial 
 prevalence of household suffrage 2 men ont of every 5 have 
 votes, in Ireland where household suffrage is unknown only one 
 man in 5 has a vote, The local government and finances of 
 Irish counties are managed chiefly by grand juries appointed by 
 the high sheriff of each county; the grand jurors are nearly all 
 country gentlemen and either landlords or land agents, most of 
 them being Protestants and Tories, while the rate payers whose 
 
312 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMEhlCA. 
 
 money they expend are mostly Catholics and home rulers, ex- 
 cept in Ulster; about 9 out of every 10 magistrates in Ireland 
 who administer justice in the police courts and at the petty ses- 
 sions are Prote>tants and Tories, while three fourths of the 
 people to whom justice is administered are Catholics; magistrates 
 and judges nearly all belong to the landlord class in sympathy 
 and relationship. In Gt. Britain when a change of government 
 takes place from Conservative to Liberal, the character of the 
 Executive changes also in sympathy with the change of 
 ministry. In Ireland the Executive is practically the 
 staff of government officials at Dublin Castle who always 
 are Tories of an advanced (backward) typj. ■ The police force in 
 Ireland, instead of being controlled as in Gt. Britain by the local 
 authorities in each town or county and unarmed except with 
 truncheons, are under the control of the Tory officials at Dublin 
 Castle, and armed with rifles, swords and bayonets and drilled 
 like an army, and frequently act without regard to the wishes of 
 the elected local authorities. As a result the Irish police, though 
 not more effective in proportion to numbers than the British 
 police in detecting crime, are most successfully employed in dis- 
 persing unarmed and peaceable public meetings, and in occasion- 
 ally shooting or stabbing to death any riotously inclined peasant. 
 Reforms of nearly all these grievances have been repeatedly ask- 
 ed for in Parliament by Irish members, but hitherto without 
 avail. All bills intended to remove or lessen the evils mention- 
 ed have over and over again been introduced by Irish members 
 and been supported in all cases by a majority of Irish members, 
 but the votes of English and Scotch, members have invariably 
 swamped the Irish vote. The coersion act of 1881 passed 
 although 38 Irish members voted against it and only 16 in favor 
 of it. On the other hand. Ircotland practically enjoys home 
 rule. Scotch affairs as a rule are ananged in Parliament in 
 accordance to the wishes of the majority of the Scotch members, 
 who meet unofficially before hand under the presidency of the 
 Lord Advocate, who is himself a Scotch M. P., and arrange the 
 main principles and chief details of Scotch legislation, which 
 arrangements are generally but little interferred with by the 
 House of Commons. Home Rule is proposed as a remedy for 
 
1 
 
 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 3I3 
 
 the present unsatisfactory slate of aftairs in Ireland; that Irish- 
 men should manage their own local affairs as is done by the in- 
 habitants of each State of the American Union. This would 
 relieve the British Parliament of niuch trouble and annoyance 
 which it at present incurs in endeavoring to n.anage the legisla- 
 tive business of a country of which it has but a very slight 
 knowledge. In a letter from Tom, dated June 3rd, he says: I 
 have now finished sowini^ father's farm. On Elmbrooke all T 
 have sown as yet is 2 acres of wheat and 2 bushels of oats as the 
 land is so wet, but I hope to finisix all except the buckwheat next 
 week. This Spring there were terrible bush fires; 'the fire^burn't 
 over the woodlands on every lot on our rangfe' for a distance of 
 7 miles; for 2 days and a night we had to battle with the fire* ' 
 wood and tie contractors lost several thousand dollars worth of 
 timber. I have sown i^ acres of potatoes and 16 bushels of 
 oats on father's place and have hired Perreault for 5 months. 
 Th^ supply of ice is getting low; Le Blanc is making a wooden 
 drain to carry cold spring water to the factory; met the youngest 
 Miss Walts who tells me Maud Meredith is to be married to 
 Mr. Bacon of Toronto, but this I do not believe as he is too 
 young, only 16 years of age. Sunday, 3d July; I told Thibideau 
 and Le Blanc, both devout catholics, that their doctrine of the 
 "real presence," appeared most disgustingly absurd to the great 
 majority of Protestants, Le Blanc — "Did not Christ say; 'This 
 is my body.' " Myself — "But he also said, T am the way, the 
 truth and the life.' Yet no one would believe that Christ was a 
 road, or believe that he was a vine* because he said, *I am the 
 vine and ye are the branches.' He merely spoke figuratively as 
 they have always done and still do in eastern countries." I also 
 ridiculed the absurb nonsense of having holy water, prayers for 
 the dead, penance, days of fasting, etc. Mr. S. came 3 times to- 
 day to have me aid him to secure with ropes the wooden dam 
 across the river to prevent dt fr,oi;ii being Washed away; also said 
 he could find no one eise tothelpjiim do ft. I felt it rather hard 
 to be deprived of my Sunday's rest, but an employee might as 
 well give up all hopes of gaining his empldyer's confidence and 
 esteem if he does not determine to devote himself entirely to his 
 employer's commands, and even have the keen perception to 
 
 40 
 
314 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 discern the meaninpj of even his slightest hint, and to anticipate 
 as much as possible all his wishes. Youns^ man, whoever you 
 are, if you are working for an employer or a firm that is worthy 
 ofyour esteem, never be satisfied with barely doing your duty, 
 but let no effort of yours be spared to ple.isc thjin, and you will 
 be certain to meet with success in life. A man should never be 
 servile, yet at the same time, if he is determined never to put 
 himself to inconvenience for the benefit and pleasure of his em- 
 ployers how can he ever expect them to take more than an ordi- 
 nary interest in his welfire. Mr. S. has a very strong tempr^rr 
 when it is aroused. A coachman left the leachroom vvindows 
 open, and Mr. S. remarked that it would pay him to keep a man 
 with a bayonet to make the idle vagabonds do their duty. A 
 man has succeeded in getting a license to sell spirituous liquors 
 in St. Liboire, much to the indignation of the priest, who will 
 lose a handsome revenue by it; however, I think it would be 
 more appropriate for him ^.0 deal out to the people his so called 
 spiritual truths instead of spirituous liquor. Many of the^French- 
 women here tell me that they are glad a bar-room has been 
 opened in the village, as their husbands, who must have liquor, 
 were obliged to club together and buy 5 or 10 gallons at Nor- 
 bert, 25 miles distance, which only caused them to drink harder. 
 The bar-room will. I think, be injurious to the young men who 
 have not yet acquired the habit and who would never think of 
 spending several dollars at one time for whiskey. Rather 
 unusual, dismal wet weather for the month of July, but Mr. 
 Vennor, Canada's weather prophet predicted it and has gained 
 considerable notoriety by his weather predictions. Mrs Defosa 
 has been ordered by her parish priest to appear before "the 
 Grande Vicarre;" he, however, does not deprive her of the rights 
 of her church, even though she still r-^fuses to return to her hus- 
 band. I spend an occasional evening at Mr. Watts'; his two 
 daughters and neice are more to be admired for their sociability 
 than for their beauty; also spent an evening at Mr. Holden's 
 whose neice is on a visit with him; one evening I was there he 
 asked his wife to play a new piece, by Arthur Sullivan, which I 
 thought she sang very nicely considering the few times she had 
 sung it. When she began to re-sing the piece, Mr. H. remarked, 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 315 
 
 "Oh, pray do not inflict us with it a second time," which to say 
 the least was a cruel and un'^jentlemanlv remark to a woman 
 who almost adores him. She flushed crimson and her eyes 
 flished indij^nantly as she replied: "Very well, my dear, but it 
 was at your own request I sang it." While at Mr. Sherman's 
 while Mr. and Mrs. B. were there, Mr. H. informed us that a 10 
 ton stoij hid bjen tikjn out of the r.ver it Ch irlesDourg, to 
 which I rephed tiiat the ancients almost performed as extraordi' 
 nary fe its in architectural science as are acco nplished at the 
 present day. Tiie cordial reception I always receive at Mr. 
 Sherman's and from Mr. and Mrs. Bjntley fills me with admira- 
 tion for ladies and gentlemen who are just as polite and gracious 
 to me as 10 their most f.ishionable acquaintances, although I am 
 reduced to the low positon of a common laborer. Whenever I 
 converse with such ladies and gentlemen as these. I leave their 
 presence vviih an ardent ambition and determination to rise 
 above the adverse circumstances that have surrounded me since 
 childhood. Read a life of Wellington; accordi:^g to the author, 
 he was one of the most exemplary heroes that ever existed. 
 Have taken several boat excursions in my new boat with the 
 Miss Watts' and their cousin, Miss Meklejohn; on one excursion 
 down the river we disembarked and ascended a high plateau of 
 land from which there was an extensive view in all directions, 
 not even a smgle mountain or hill to relieve the monotony of 
 the fringe of trees that surrounded the horizon; the view, how- 
 ever, up the river towards the factory is very nice. The precipi- 
 tous banks of the river, covered alternately with trees, bushes 
 and green grass, with cattle grazing here and there; the bright 
 green islands in the river and the factory village in the distance 
 peeping from amidst a grove of Elms and Pines; in walking 
 through the village we saw several of the factory coopers stag- 
 gering along the streets under the influence of intoxicants. Next 
 dav I hired a team and went to St. Au2:ustin; passed some neat 
 farm houses and excellent crops; the country, however, is very 
 thinly settled as yet, and no wonder considering the tremendous 
 strength and perseverance a man requires to clear up a farm of 
 even 50 acres, on account of the dense growth of spruce and bal- 
 sam whose stumps are so close together that a harrow cannto 
 
3l6 HISTORY OF -tliE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 pasj over the land, nor can it be sown ar. hardwcod land until 
 the stumps are rt moved, ^o that the tin ber has to be cut down 
 and left thus a few years for the stumps and roots to partly de- 
 cay to make them easier to extract. The averaj;e height of the 
 tr^ei dbes not expeed 40 ft.; what surprises me is that balsams 
 grbw here on high land as well as on low and the most of the 
 high ground has no hardwood on it. The whule country from 
 Arlington station to Hall's island in the Hriscbois river, 25 miles 
 apart, has only two slight dlevaticns and in the whole distance 
 there is not a mile of woodland that deserves the name of forest, 
 and in the whole of those 25 uniles hardly a load of stones could 
 be gathered, but the soil is in most places sandy. The horse 
 was a miserable old nag and I had to walk the gieatest part of 
 the way; the loneliness of this part of the country spoils its ap- 
 pearance. After dinner at Dun's house we went with him 1 3^ 
 miles to the falls on the river which are about 60 Tect in height 
 and about i acre wide and look very beautiful; the canal Dun is 
 niaktng in solid rock to convey the water from above the falls 
 into the pulp factory, and when fini.'-hcd will form one of the 
 finest water powers in the Province; the turbine wheel is of im- 
 mense size, as also are the two stones to grind the wood to pulp. 
 Mr. B's factory at Charlesbourg made i ton per day which was 
 made from rags, a sort of grass that grows in the vicinity and 
 from pulp. Had to walk the whole 15 mile drivings back and 
 left the old nag and teamster behind me and arrived just in time 
 to begin work in the factory. Martin and Defosa are working 
 in the pan at one of the drums which are of copper as well as 
 the lining of the pan and,, all the pipes through which the liquor 
 jiasses which makes them very expensive; also had the ashes 
 swept off the bottom of the boilers so that when the flames and 
 heat struck them wou'd heat quicker. Mrs. Watts tells me that 
 Sam Burne^ is dead; he was was a talented, jolly, good-hearted 
 fellow, but fa^t living killed him at 35. There was quite an im- 
 posing ceJebratii^n of St. Jean Baptise at Norbert; it is the nat- 
 lonldl holiday of thd French Canadians. What between mosqui- 
 toes and bugs ^at LeBlanc's I cannot sleep at night, but with 
 some carbolic acid I have exterminated the latter. In a conver- 
 sation with Mrs. Bentley and Mrs. S. 1 said I was surprised to 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 3I7 
 
 find Charlesbourg, one of the oldest towns in Canada, such a 
 sleepy looking place; I was somewhat disappointed with the 
 view from the steeple of the Cathedral which is 200 ft. high, a 
 few ship's sails and the St. Lawrence river was all that I could 
 see to relieve the monotony of the bare and level horizon; I was 
 also surprised to see so few factories in such an old town which 
 had such great natural advantage* to start with, but the Saxon 
 Protestant superiority of Montreal's English citizens triumphed 
 over the natural advantages of Charlesbourg by deepening the 
 river's channel and building magnificent stone quays they suc- 
 ceeded in making their city the commercial metropolis of 
 Canada. Even still Charlesbourg has the great advantage of 
 having sea going vessels laying at anchor in front of it all night 
 on account of the oifficulty of going through I^ake St. Peter at 
 night time, yet the citizc^ns of Ch irlesbourg never took advan- 
 tagii of this or built quays for the vessels to stop at. if it had 
 done this it might have become a great port; but no, its citizens 
 mostly all belonged to a religion that has blighted the prosperity 
 of greater cities than it is, and through which the suicidal sight 
 is seen to day of shipping goods 90 miles past Charlesbourg 
 and hack again, all because its citizens have not the enterprize 
 to make it what it ought to be — the commercial center of the 
 country in which it is situated. This may yet be accomplished 
 as it has a few hundred energetic English citizens who have 
 successfully applied to Parliament for the deepening of the har- 
 bor. Although these few English only form one-sixteenth of 
 the population, they take the lead in all its great works. Mrs. B 
 told me that the small, plain church I had seen near the cathe- 
 dral was one of the oldest in Canada; said I was against the in- 
 creasing expensiveness of christian churches, and referred to St. 
 George's church as an example; the church itself cost over 
 5500,000 and its pastor gets ;$6,ooo a year; some of the members 
 pay as much as ;^500 a year to the church alone not including 
 the great amount they give in charity and to the mission fund; 
 in my opinion some ofthe money spent on costly churches and 
 expensive stained glass windows might be more profitably ex- 
 pended in supporting a superior class of free schools that would 
 be able to compete with the convent schools of the French, 
 
31 8 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 which would have fjreater cffjct in removing the credulity and 
 supjrstition of thjir fellow countryman thj French an J Irish 
 Catholics. Also discussed the w.int of taste exhibited in most 
 of the Catholic churches in the Province, all tlieir interiors beincr 
 in most cases too fl ishy and j^audy, and that the interior of the 
 majority of their country ciiurches were monstrously scjuire and 
 plain. Mrs. H. tells me that Mr. 13 has studied book keepin<ij 
 and French since he has com;iienced business, not having 
 studied it enough while at VVoolich military college; he also 
 takes the leading leather paper and scientific journals and has 
 lost most of his I{lnglish restive since he has come in contact 
 with the free and familiar business .r.en of America. I'rom Tom, 
 dated July i6th. "Was glad to hear your cough is better; I 
 have earthed up my potatoes 3 times and finished sowing buck- 
 wheat, now I am getting ready for haying, which I am glad to 
 say in spite of all the bad weather, is a fair crop." libideau, 
 the pan man has gone to do mason work for Mr. H. at Port 
 Neuf I presuaded Mr. S. to give poor Defosa the charge of the 
 pan; he used to have it formerly, but was discharged for drunk- 
 ncss. Defosa belongs to the Society of St. Joseph, and has great 
 confidence in the efficacy of the prayers of its members and in- 
 formed me that at his death he will have a certain amount of 
 prayers said for the repose of his soul free of charge. Defosa 
 says he is too wicked to pray to God alone and therefore re- 
 quires the intercession of saints to aid his prayers. I ridiculed 
 such prayers as useless. The Isot's have been barbarous enough 
 to try and get some strangers to keep their daughter who is 
 dying of consumption at their house till she is dead. Mr. VV. is 
 in Montreal buying goods for Bentley's store. On my way from 
 the village met Defosa; he noticed that 1 had a bottle of vhiskey 
 in my po ket which Mr. LeBlanc had commissioned me to get 
 for him; he asked me to let him see the bottle for a moment anl 
 before 1 could prevent him one-fourth of the contents of the 
 bottle was down his throat; he returned it to me with a look of 
 shame on his face, for he knew that he had done an act unusual 
 even to drunkards, but what will a man not do when constant 
 gratification of his appetite has almost extinguished all honor 
 and self-respect I often go out rowing in my boat, but have to 
 
HISTORY OP THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 3I9 
 
 use a pole in ascendinpj the rapids; we are having occasional 
 showers during July vvilli bright, warm ucalhcr, but not at all 
 sultr\ ; Defosa makes a very bad pan man. Dun, the engineer 
 says if Mr S does not allow him to worl< at St. Augustin he will 
 go to Lake Superior where there is a great demand for miners 
 and good mechanics Spent a Sunday afternoon with Mr. S. in 
 gathering beautiful ferns for Mrs. S. Mr. S. showed me a paint- 
 ing he is engaged on which is 4x3; it is of a range of mountains, 
 the summits of whieh are surrounded by fleecy clouds through 
 which the moon is shinmg dimly; there are two cataracts with a 
 canoe load of hunters below them; the sides of the mountains 
 are covered with dense forests, and when finished will, I have no 
 doubt, form a fine painting, LeBlanc's brother-in-law, Mr. 
 Chutie cUied to see him with his son who is studying for medi- 
 cine at Laval university; they are both Liberals m politics and 
 religion, which is an unusual occurrence among the French 
 Canadians. LeHIanc said that he would never vote before ask- 
 ing his confessor's advice and defended his position by quoting, 
 "Whatever ye shall bind on e<»rth shall be bound in heaven;"which 
 Chutie and myself ridiculed. T hree batches of liquor are made by 
 each "shift" and strained and passed through boxes in which the 
 sediment settles, and the 3 batches are all boiled together in 
 the last part of the 12 hours shift; I am beginning to get 
 tired of the sameness of the diet at Le Blanc's, for the last 3 
 days the same little piece of pork has been placed on the ta- 
 ble before me with watery rice soup of a mawkish taste, whicli 
 is served out to us twice a day; on Sunday we have beef or 
 rr.utton. While Martin was at Quebec I ran the factory 32 
 hours without a rest, kept myself awake by reading a histor 
 of James the II and 40 yrs in Turkey, from the first I de- 
 rived a very unfavorable opinion of James with his vacillating 
 character, from the second, a good idea of the habits and 
 customs of the Turks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Greeks and Arme- 
 ans In running the afternoon shift it is necessary to see 
 that the leach pitcher does not allow too much tan to go on 
 top of the furnaces, as it gives great trouble in covering the or- 
 ifices in the furnaces, through which the tan falls on the fires; 
 also that enough damp tan is left over the furnaces to prevent it 
 
320 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 from catching fire; a sharp lookout must be kept to pump enough 
 water into the boilers to "blow them ofif." and have enough in 
 them to commence on Monday morning; when the liquor is 
 finished boiling by 12 o'clock the valves of the pan have to be 
 opened and the valve that allows water to go to the condensor 
 has to be partially closed; after sufficient water has been pumped 
 into the boilers the dampeis of the chimney must be raised their 
 full height and the doors of the furnaces opened to draw the 
 heat out of them, also the red hot coals stirred to make them 
 burn quicker; the men fill several barrels of water in different 
 parts of the factory in case of fire, the men then go to sleep and 
 the engineer awakes them at 3 o'clock, and sees that they haul 
 out the hot ashes out of the furnaces with hoes with long handles; 
 the engineer then takes a tour of inspection throughout the fac- 
 tory to see that there is no danger of fire, and that all the doors 
 and windows are locked. I explained to Mr. Comeault at his 
 request the state of affairs between England, France and Egypt; 
 explained how France and England were interested in Egypt on 
 account of the money their subjects had invested in the country, 
 that Europeans had been massacred at Alexandria, and that they 
 wanted to have a more honest administration of the country's 
 revenue, so that there might be some possibility of their subjects 
 getting back the money they had lent in Egypt, also explained 
 the importance of the Suez canal to England as a short route to 
 India. An Episcopal clergyman who holds services fortnigiitl^^ 
 at St. Andre, calls here on his way to Charlebbourg and holds 
 services here, he is one of the oldest Protestant missionaries in 
 the province, he preaches a very good sermon from the text 
 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your 
 good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven," after 
 the service he baptised Mrs. Holden's little infant Had a con- 
 versation with the minister on the probabilities of the French- 
 Canadians preserving their language and instititutions; he has a 
 gloomy opinion of the prospects for the future success of Prot- 
 estantism and English predominance in this province; I pre- 
 dicted that 2j^ millions of Frenchmen could not preserve their 
 language surrounded as they were by 55 million English speak- 
 ing people, that they might preserve it for a time but that con- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 321 
 
 stant association with Americans and the Enj^h'sh people of Can- 
 ada would cause it to become nearly extinct ere another cen- 
 tury had elapsed, also that Romanism was making mij^hty efforts 
 to become all powerful in the Western Hemisphere. In speak- 
 inj^ ot Lcyard's book on antiquity, to my surprise Mr. S. said 
 that that Scriptural passage about "eating locusts and wild honey" 
 really meant locusts instead of the locust bean as I had always 
 imagined, also that the Ancients used the same means of transit 
 that is used to-day, for moving a heavy weight, a gang of men 
 with ropes in front and a fulcrum behind; by an allusion 
 to St. Anne de Beaupre the conversation turned on mir- 
 icles; Mr. S. and the minister said the age of miracles was past, 
 I replied that from a Christian point of view miracles were just 
 as possible to-day as in the earlier days of Christianity; in the 
 minister alluding to the sun standing still in the reign of Heze- 
 kiah .Mrs S. smiled incredulously, and remarked that his sun- 
 dial niust have been out of order; he does not think that a Su- 
 pieme Creator was unable to stop the earth's motion, but that he 
 did not and would not reverse the order of his unalterable laws 
 to remove the sinful unbelief of a semi-barborous king, the more 
 I see of such unbelief as this amongst the followers of religion 
 the more I am convinced that Christianity will be purified more 
 and more each year of the supernatural superstitions that have 
 descended to us from our barborous ancestors, or that if Chris- 
 tianity refuses to be purified of these, ere a few more centuries 
 have elapsed there will be another reformation almost as great as 
 that of Luther's; let us hope that it will do as much good in re- 
 moving the cobwebs of ecclesiastical lies from the eyes of man- 
 kind as vvas accomplished by the glorious Protestant reformation. 
 On leaving they came into the garden with me to admire the 
 brilliant auroro borealis, which they say some suppose to be the 
 reflection of light from lar^e tracts of ice. Have of late been 
 reading a work by Butler; newspapers take different views of 
 it, some itnagine it to be a defense of Christianity, others "a cov- 
 ert attack upon it;" in many ways I agree with the author that 
 "truth must be maintained in religion as well as everything else;" 
 why should any doctrine be forced on mankind if it is hard to 
 believe and contrary to human reason, even 'though the priest- 
 
 41 
 
322 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 hood declare that it has been especially revealed by God; God 
 is not so inconsistant as to make great laws and then reveal doc- 
 trines that are entirely contradictory to them. The Roman Cath- 
 olic church tried to keep science and scientific men under its 
 control, and even imprisoned men and roasted them to death for 
 giving to the world scientific truths that were contradictory to 
 their absurd teachings, but it was of no avail, not even to the 
 mighty tyrannical church oi Rome could resist the grand prog- 
 ress of science and modern civilization, and to-day it acknowl- 
 edges as scientific truths what it once declared to be heretical 
 and false; thus the progress of truth, civilization and science goes 
 on year after year independent of all the religions of the earth 
 and any church that refuses to bring itself in harmony with them 
 will be crushed beneath them and destroyed, and as the ages 
 roll on every religion, belief and doctrine that are contrary to 
 science and human reason will be swept from the face of the 
 earth. Oh what a beautiful world this would be if the followers 
 of all religions would cast away their absurd and imaginary Gods 
 and only believe in one Supreme Creator and teach their future 
 generations how to become noble men and women, by giving 
 them a perfect knowledge of the practical truths of life, instead 
 of long and useless prayers to saints, pages of Catechism etc.. 
 how quickly then would peace and happiness appear and hatred 
 and discord vanish if man had been taught to be guided only by 
 his reason and better sentiments, instead of by a tyrannical and 
 fanatical priesthood, there never would have been those religious 
 persecutions and atrocities that even the "ungodly infidels" are 
 ashamed of. The pilgrimage to St. Anne de Beaupre came off, 
 1,500 people went, but out of all the pilgrims not one was cured, 
 which Le Blanc informed me was for want of faith; on the con- 
 trary I believe they have too much credulity. Rev. E. Chilling- 
 worth and Miss Mavor have arrived on a visit at Sherman's, the 
 latter I have met when a little child. Rev. E. C. is over 6 ft. 
 high, has black hair, whiskers and mustache, and has a frank 
 and pleasing countenance; Miss M. has a light olive complexion, 
 a pretty physique and a sweetly melodious voice, which are 
 somewhat counteracted by a slight squint and her nose (from an 
 accident, is somewhat bent to one side; had services on Sunday; 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 323' 
 
 Miss M's voice is very rich and powerful and can ascend to the 
 highest note without any apparent effort, Mr. C. preached ex- 
 temporaneously on the life and character of St. Peter and exag- 
 gerated his virtues and talents to a most absurd degree, I doubt 
 if even an R. C. priest v/ould have preached more nonsense; one 
 would imagine from his sermon that St. Peter was a being of su- 
 perior creation to the rest of mankind; I thought to myself at the 
 close of the sermon when some ladies quietly remarked to each 
 other "what a beautiful character St. Peter had," that if that Sainti 
 could be brought back and introduced to them that they would 
 be greatly disappointed; I however admired the apparent sincer-* 
 ity of the Rev. C, C. and feel confident that he imagined that every 
 word he said was truth. I thought to myself what a wonderful 
 creature is man, he can be trained to be one of the noblest beings 
 of all creation or one of the most despicable, and in most cases 
 it depends upon his parents and instructors whether he is to be a 
 degraded heathen, a superstitious Catholic, a half enlightened 
 Protestant or a grand noble being.who allows none of the fraudu- 
 lent revelations or commands of ecclesiastical tyrants, either an- 
 cient or modern, to dictate or interfere with his reasoning powers 
 or freedom of thought. The more I see of the present state of 
 Christianity the more I am convinced that the most enlightened 
 portion of mankind are rapidly advancing towards another period 
 of reformation which will completely remove the bogus revela- 
 tions and absurd superstitions that remained after the most out- 
 rageous of them had been removed by Luther's reformation. Mrs. 
 S. invited me to dinner; Miss M. told me that Herbert Carmichael 
 acted like a regular spooney and actually had the cheek to pro- 
 pose to a lady friend of hers. In the evening read in a book on 
 New England life by Mrs. H. B. Stowe, Mr. S. amused us con- 
 siderably by his perfect imitation of Scotch, Irish and Dutch 
 brouge. Rev. C. C. and Miss M. are to be married next week; 
 they have been intimate friends since childhood; as they passed 
 Le Blanc's he appeared horrified that a priest of God should dese- 
 crate himself by marriage, I replied that even from the Catholic 
 translation of the bible nothing could be found in favor of the cel- 
 ibacy of the clergy for in Timothy 3 chap. 2d verse of their bible 
 Paul savs: "It behooveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the 
 
324 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 husband ofone wife," also said that the celibacy of tlie clerrjy was 
 only ordained of the church and was not scriptural, that ifa \ oung 
 minister felt he could do more good and preach the [n)spel with 
 greater ease by remainiuLj unmarried he iiad a [)erfcct ri<Tht to do 
 so, but if he felt influenced by one of the noblest sentiments that 
 a Supreme Creator gave to n)an and loved a good young lady 
 why should he not marry her and by their gootl and holy life set 
 a bright example to their parishoners, and who would be more 
 fitted in visiting their parishoners to take the hand of a sister in 
 trouble or disgrace than the wife of the minister and with good 
 advice and loving words plead with that sister and bring her back 
 to a noble and useful life; I iilso maintained from a Pjotcstant 
 point of view that the heads of the church had no right to make 
 ordinances contrary to scripture which the church itself had given 
 to the world as a book divinely inspired; 1 do not hesitate to say 
 that the Saints take a logical view of this text and can defend 
 themselves against any other christian sect in controversy on it. 
 The Catholics inconsistentlv acknowledge that St. Paul was di- 
 vinely inspired and yet at the same time their clergy refuse to 
 obey his command by living a life of celibacy, which from a scrip- 
 tural point of view is far more contradictory to its teaching than 
 the interpretation the Saints give it namely, "that a bishop i.hould 
 be the husband of .' t least one wife." The human race h.owever 
 will as it gets more civilized cast away with disgust and indigna- 
 tion all the fraudulent, barbarous and blasphemous so called rev- 
 elatio s of our savage ancestors, but to accomplish this all men 
 with the interests of humanity at heart must fearlessly and per- 
 severingly raise their voices in favor of truth, liberty .aid reason, 
 and not through the cowardly fear of being unpopular and un- 
 fashionable hide fiom their fellow men their lionest contempt for 
 a religion that asserts that God created the atrocious laws of war, 
 divorce and slavery that are found in the 4 books of Moses; some 
 christian apologists say that those laws were created for the 
 savage people of those days which is as much as to .'^ay that God 
 wmked at their wickedne-'^ and tolerated laws in former dajs 
 that all civilized men now regard as brutal and unjust. Let the 
 liberal reader study thoroughly the so-called laws of God revealed 
 to Moses and compare them fearlessly and impartially with 'le 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 325 
 
 civilized laws of the present day and in 9 cases out of 10 the bet- 
 ter sentiments of his nature will revolt against tli«j diabolical sav- 
 a<^e brutality of laws that set a price on the head of slaves and 
 reduced the fairest, purest and gentlest sex to a .state of slavery 
 and lielpless dcpendancy on her husband; even in the new and 
 improved dispensation of Christ women do not get perfect jus- 
 tice for ui ICphesians 6tii chap, and 22d verse it says: "wives sub- 
 mit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord, for the hus- 
 band is head of the wife even as Christ is head of the church, is 
 subject unto Christ so that the wives be subject unto tiieir hus- 
 bands in everytiing," and in thi next ver.-<e it only says to the 
 husb.md '*love your wives," Thui through all the figes of chris- 
 tian iiistorv wonKin has been re^iarded as an inferior creature de- 
 pendant on man and has not been allowed to speak in churches 
 or occupy the position she is entitled to, that of being a man's 
 partner and peifect equal. It is a well known fact that until 
 quite recently the women of Christianity never received as 
 good an education as the men and merely occupied the po- 
 sitions of housekeepers and drawingroom ornaments in their 
 husbands homes. Dun is comini? back next week and I can- 
 not say that I am sorry as the damp hot atmosphere of the 
 factory is unhealthy for me and I still have a most irritating 
 cough; I have also some trouble as regards my eating ar- 
 rangements, Mrs. Le Blanc washes her children, handles the 
 baby and then cuts bread for our dinner without washing her 
 hands; also saw her eldest boy who washes the dishes pick 
 his nose while putting some dishes in the cupboard. Mr. 
 Ihibideau is an expert fisherman and has caught several mask- 
 longe that weighed 2^ to 3 yi lbs. each. Sherman's have had 
 several lady and gentlemen guests of late, among them Miss 
 Crandal, a young lady of plain but pleasing features and a 
 poor physique; also a Miss Miller, formerly a Miss Mavor, who 
 against her will received the attentions of Walter Crandal, she, 
 however, was indifferent to him; he then in desperation flirted 
 with several other ladies to try and make her jealous, but with- 
 out success; after which he became deeply enamored with 
 Mabel VVilloughby; she, however, only received his attentioiis 
 with a sisterly, friendly contempt; he in disgust and dispair mar- 
 
326 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ried a Miss Price, whose amiability is unbounded, but whose 
 physical beauty is utterly bankrupt, having a chubby, flabby 
 face frightfully marked with the smallpox and a short, stout 
 physique. Have read many of Charles Dicken's works of late, 
 and give my humble opinion that he is the king of character 
 describers. During the last few weeks we have been repairing 
 the factory; there has been two boiler makers from Pt. Levi to 
 repair the boilers, some of which kaked; have collected an im- 
 mense amount of reliable facts and statistics for my history of 
 the world, especially from Australian newspapers which I take 
 and those of Gt. Britain and Canada. Mr. LeBlanc has given 
 me a Jules Verne description of a trial of Socialists in Europe 
 which says, "that the culprit struck his two cuff buttons together 
 saying, 'thus shall perish all who resist our efforts to liberate the ' 
 oppressed people,' and that he and the whole court was blown to 
 atoms " Although explosives are being improved yearly I ridi- 
 culed the idea of their being so powerful as this, and told him 
 that the miserable little French paper that his wife reads to him 
 was guilty of gross exaggeration; Clutie, his brother-in-law is 
 in sympathy with the republican party in France, which is a 
 rarity among French Canadians; he says the crops are splendid 
 at St. Monique and invited me there. Miss Kate Watts told me 
 that I was a regular hermit for not coming to see them oftner; I 
 replied that after working 12 hours out of the 24 I had very little 
 time left for sleep, study and visiting. Mrs. S. informed me that 
 several of Mr. B's fashionable relatives from England were on a 
 visit a his house, and that unfortunately Mrs. B. was suffering 
 from Canadian cholera as well as several other people in Charles- 
 bourg; Mrs. S. takes great interest in reading about the faith 
 cures. Received a letter from Mr. Hogarth saying that he was 
 coming to America I answered giving him all the information 
 he required, asking him for a description of life in Germany. The , 
 Stratford Herald, Ontario, says: "We let even the Indians 
 govern themselves, and yet some people have doubts whether 
 the Irish are fit to govern them^'elves. Let them try and if they 
 do not do it well they alone will have to bear the consequences." 
 I reply that the writer of the above cannot have the interest of 
 our empire at heart. The idea! "Let them try, they alone will 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 327 
 
 have to bear the consequences." In the first place, Gt. Britain 
 has not enough territory around the center of its vitality and 
 power. The const:int emmigration from Gt. Britain is a proof of 
 this. Is she then to part with a quarter of the whole united 
 kingdom? and have only 99,325 sq. miles of territory instead of 
 121,138, a loss of 32,513 sq. miles, capable of sustaining 10,000,- 
 000 inhabitants. Is this a small item to . nation that has been 
 the first rate power of the earth for many years, but through a 
 mad colonial policy can have little hope to continue so much 
 longer; her legislators have been indifferent to the preservation 
 of the mightiest empire that ever existed; they lost the grand 
 opportunity of allowing tlie greatest colony, the U. S. to be 
 represented in the Imperial Parliament. Those days are, how- 
 ever, past and the Englishmen of the present day are determined 
 not to allow the Irish to become a free and independent nation, 
 for the very reason that they could not be trusted in event of a 
 war and what is still worse Ireland in all probability would form 
 a stepping stone and recruiting field for the enemies of the British 
 Empire, besides Britain herself would lose Ireland as a recruit- 
 ing field from which she gets some of the best of her soldiers. 
 Ireland, however, as well as England is in leed of just laws to 
 do away with the feudal evil of landlordism. I have been paid 
 by the company for the last 9 weeks and sent $']Q to uncle 
 Richard to put in the bank for me; during the last 9 weeks I 
 only spent ;^i; I am proud of my economy. Poor Defosa still 
 drink** heavily, and one morning in a fit of the blues said, I have 
 a great mind to clear off to the States. I told him he should 
 have taken my advice and not try and force his v le to live with 
 him through the influence of the priest and Grand Vicaire, that 
 he should first live a better life which w^s the only way to 
 win back his wife's afTection and respect; when she would 
 say to herself my husband has acted nobly and conquered 
 his faults, I now see I have wronged him; I should not have 
 left him alone in temptation and despair, I should have remained 
 with him and with unceasing love, gentleness and good advise 
 have tried to aid him to reform; I tell you Defosa, you have 
 both acted wrong, and the one that first redresses their faults acts 
 the most noble part, regains the admiration and respect of 
 
328 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 their ftUow-men; but even supposinjr all the wrong was on your 
 wife's part, you should as lier husb.uid use your utiiio»t efforts to 
 reform her, but this you Well know is not the case, thou^^h she 
 has her faults and has been foolishly influenced by your step- 
 mother, she still loves you, and if you only act a manly noble 
 part, you will be able to correct her faults as well as your own, 
 and live a happy life with a wife that you should be pioud of in- 
 stead of doing what you now propose to do, travel about the 
 world a discontented miserable man; perhaps you may '.hink it 
 Strange for me to advise you and taUe n(;lice ol your greatest 
 fault, but if you do you should bear in mind that if only peJect 
 men reproved the faults of others, faults would remain lorever 
 iinreproved; a man who would injure a ielluw man's character 
 by speaking of his fiults deserves the contemj t of all honorable 
 men, but any man that reproves his brother's faults in piivate 
 and persuades him to abandon them, is a friend of humanity, and 
 the sympathy and advice he extends to his feliow-man elevates 
 his own character as well as his friends; to illustrate more clear- 
 ly 1 shall suppose that you are extravagant, and by false gener- 
 osity are certain to end your days m poverty, and llr-it 1 am av- 
 aricious and miserly, we are friends and often meet, it is your 
 duty to keep constantly bringing to my notice that I am guilty 
 of false economy, and fc^.olishiy depriving myself of the coniltdts 
 of life, thus by blendmg our two extreme opinions together, in a 
 friendly manner we persuade each other that we have str lyed loo 
 far from that grand word, moderation. Read a book c.illed ' John 
 Inglesani," which gives a good portrayal ol the events and char- 
 acters of the Crommelian period in English history. Letter from 
 Unc'.e Richard, dated Oct. 1st. *'Dear Arthur, enclo.^ed it. a re- 
 ceipt in full for the payment of the money you owi-d me, and the 
 balance of the amount you sent me, $46.37 1 deposited at 3 per 
 ct interest, when you make the sum a little larger I will invest 
 it for you at 6 per ct., I could get 7 or 8 but not en such secur- 
 ity as 1 could lecommend; Tom has just gone home, he came in 
 to see me about the wages of the men he has hired which amounts 
 to $50; it grieved me to see him look so wan and anxious, 1 know 
 his debts are a grieveous burden to him; the dear fellow, when 
 he spoke of the necessity of a man on account of his lameness, I 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 32Q i 
 
 01 : i . ,. 
 
 could s^e'a tear in' his eye .wjiicU made my heart ache, ^26 a • 
 morith for hired 'help and aothing comingf in is a serious state of 
 afitalrs;rnay'the Lord strengthen, a,i;id comfprt him and put. it 
 into his fri^hds hearts to assist hjm; kind sympathy is a good 
 thiiig but you know it will not , ipake, the pot boil, la the mean 
 timfe I have advanced him su Hi cient money to pay|h'is Vnostpres^ 
 sin^ debts. 1 propose to you thaf: if yon wilf, fcir^i^^e' hirri thc> 
 debt he oWes^you I will also forgive him what 'He bwe's'me, by < ; 
 . so doihg'WC will take a. great load pffhis shoulders; please God 
 I shall ndt be in such tight cirQU nstances in a yh or so as at 1 
 preseiU most of my money is invested in property; as regards 
 your claim on your brothe^r, you ^can never collect it as the prop- 
 erty \k s6 held by your Uncle J^rrold and I that' if you sUed him . 
 you tould'not touch the. 1 nd^, besides if all'yoUr friends know 
 th^t you re'fusedto help your br(?ther they wbiald condemn you; . 
 I tell you that if you refuse to aid your brother you will be hooted 1 
 out of the society of your friends, and their doors closed m your 
 face as 'if you \l^'ere a venomous viper; I l<now my dear Arthur 
 that none of tiiese remarks can or will be applied to you, I am 
 m^ereiy showing you the other side of the que^ition, and you 1 am 
 certain Will grant my. request aid 5e;nd , nie his note to you for 
 ^265 and' I'shaU send, it.to. hiin with a, receipt' for whaithe owes 
 nie, aft^r all it^ will only be an mveslment, for if either of usAvere 
 sick 6r sore* we vi^ould be isuie of a home arid a 'welcome with 
 libm; I am glud to,seathat,yoLi h^ye been able tb mike a good 
 beginning with regard to saving mpney; after a little time after it 
 accumulates ft will make you indepiin^dant of your situation; 
 ther6 is'no money- so valuable as,t|iat, made by your oWn' honest 
 industry. ' The exhibition, wa^ not as good' as u'sual; we have 
 some friends from* New York city ^tayin^ with' us just now; I 
 iope during the winter you will be able to jpay us a ^isit; we ex- 
 oect Mabel home next month fro.m En,giandj yoUr alUnt and Clif- 
 "ord u'nrte in love; believe ime to remain dear* At'thur, your lov- 
 ing un'cle, Richard Goldsmith..", Fjrom a letter in i-eply: '*! was 
 extrentely sorry to hear of Tom's difficulties and I assure you I 
 never would have asked him to,g,ive me a^note for n'ly half of the 
 movables on Elmbrooke, had I not tljiougnt that Tom ahd father, 
 with what they possessed, and Tom's income frbrii England, 
 
 42 
 
330 HISTORY OF TriE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 could live in a most comfortable manner until I got a start in the 
 woi Id, but it seems I have been mistaki-n, so 1 consent with 
 pleasure to your generous ptoi)o>.ition; truly mine would be the 
 deepest of ingratitude did I hesitate a moment to consent, even 
 if I had lost all sense of my duty and affjction to my fithcr and 
 brother, the inlluence alone of your life's example should have 
 made me readily consent but I am happy to say I love my brother 
 and wish to do my duty towards my father." From a letter from 
 rTom. "I am not progressmg as fast as I wish with harvesting . 
 as it has not stopped raining for some time past, I have the bar- 
 ley, buckwheat and 2 acres of oats out yet anil ripe for these 2 
 weeks past; I have been working a gr.inary in the shed and 
 lined the corners with tin to [)revent rat^ and mice from enterin;^; 
 I have had p.-jor health of late, lost 20 lbs. in weight during the 
 summer; only weigh 120 i)ounds." In a letter to Mr. Hogarth, 
 lold hini that the grand primeval forests around Aston had al- 
 most disappeared, and tangled trunks of trees heaped in confu- 
 sion one on another had taken their place, and in many places in 
 a charred and blackened state, and advised him to settle in Man- 
 itoba. IVlrs Fairburn has returned from Fngland, a long jour- 
 ney for Mrs. Sherman's mother who is over 80; told Le l^lanc 
 that from my j)oint of view not all the prayers of all the saints 
 and priests that ever existed could better the condition of man in 
 the other world, and that all the excommunications of all the 
 religions of the earth could lessen the happiness of a good 
 man's hereafter, even though he ridiculed their supernatural lies, 
 also that I was greatly disgusted while at the parish church to 
 see lazy vagabonds, drunkards, blasphemers, slanderers and men 
 living in open sin, go and kneel v/n'h the most devout and pure 
 and eat what they believed to be the real flesh of a merciful and 
 loving God, that if these men were filled with sincere contrition 
 and desire to lead a better life the sight would not be so disgust- 
 ing, but that they had not, for I had seen many of them that came 
 from that table with the taste of the flesh yet in their mouths bt- 
 £\n to laugh and utter stinking jokes, that would do credit to the 
 vilest scoundrel on the face of the earth, and that same evening 
 get beastly drunk, and yet the priest knowingly allows the body 
 of his God to be thus defiled, told him that the priesthood of his 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 33 I 
 
 cliurch prcfcrrt'd to possess power, wealth and influence for their 
 church even thouj^li they sacrific:'d purity and the approbation, 
 of a Supreme Cie.itor. While at service at Sherman's the bin^- 
 in^ was very feeble, Mr. S. pd>sed around a plate to collect nioiiey 
 ft)r the lii.shop of Alj^oma's yacht, whieh he is to use for mission 
 purposes on the i^real lakes, when the plate reached Mrs. VVatt9» 
 she had no money and to make matters worse siie said "1 have no 
 money but will bi in^ you some to morrow." I felt both admira^ 
 tion and pity for poor Miss Kate VV. who blushed to the roots of 
 her hair at the stupidity of her mother, and she must have blushed 
 in earnest for me to have noticed it, for her complexion is. a dark 
 olive. In a conversation with Mr. Holdcn he said he was dis- 
 «rusted when a eiiild at bein^ij confirmed against his wishes, and 
 with the evident hypocrisy of many of tliose wiio professed to be 
 Christians, and from his remarks I saw thtt he is inclined towards 
 Djisiii, but at the samj timj hi acknowljd^^js th.it Protestant-, 
 ism is the purest, noblest and most elevated religion on the face-, 
 of the earth; and says he will have his ciiildren tauj^ht that rC'^ 
 lij^ion for their mother's sake and their own, on account of the, 
 gre.it prejudice that exists at the present day against those whoi 
 do not belong to some special religion or church, From a letter 
 to Tom; "Oct. 13th '82. I was sorry to hear that you are un-. 
 well, now do not kill yourself with work, remember that if you, 
 manage well the inc(nne and property you have, you will be in, 
 independ.int circumstances in a few yrs ; physical strength is a 
 mere "bagetelle" when compared to those mental qualities Miafr 
 have raised thousands of men from poverty to afflujnce; if you. 
 could only resolve to spend money for what is absolutely useful' 
 and necessary and make no improvements on your i' nd that did 
 not give 5 per ct. with the outlay, you would be certain to suc-< 
 ceed. Reed a letter from Uncle Richard saying that you were 
 rather short of capital, and generously proposing to cancel your-, 
 debt if I would do the same with your note, which I did with the 
 greatest of pleasure, although you may think I should have giv- 
 en it to you of my own accord, and that I was rather close in my, 
 transactions with you, but I assure you no one takes a greatec 
 interest In your welfare than I do, and this is perfectly, natui;a,l 
 seeing that besides myself you are the only one in our family 
 
:? 332 ,., ..,I^;STORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 ' *• ^r' T \. 
 
 • that remains In this country to preserve the honor and reputa- 
 . » tation, of oyr family,, this I' ti^Ust My dear Tom you wi,ll.^ccom- 
 I plish by becoming an ettergetic knd prosperous, fartrier, and liv- 
 , ing|thfi,lijre dfa perfect gentltman; you haver vile .'jiirroun dings 
 ,and a?soci9|tes^ break ' awajl^ from their contaminating influence 
 I fejit they ^dr^g you'd6wh td tlieir'own level) if you W|iiph to. live a 
 .,.\happy ,9fld, li,onoraDle life^ dVbid the. low and vulgar ^soc,iety of 
 ii lyoiiffipei^bf^prs, aivvay^ dtck^ neatly, gb to St. Mark's (phurch 
 i4^,!reg;u,lAriy,jOiji account of thci ^ocid sbciety y/oiKwill a?qe^ there, 
 I .fivjsjtat l^ast oiice a week sbmte' of 'the most refinct^ fti^d agree- 
 • t-able p?,op\e ^n ^ Aston and try' and Improve your mai;ipcrs and 
 \ iCO«ivqrsa,t,ioiial powers sb ai io miike^your sociiety ,ag^•evpble to 
 t .all; dp, P9t ^think you hdVe' succeeded until your conversation 
 . and fna^ner$ ^re equall)^ intcfi^esting to^ fetble 3Q^nd lo,**sweet 
 ^i^teeniito dp this systenlatic-ally deW)te 2 hours, a c^ay ^o read- 
 r, ing; first of, all, periect yobr^^lf in the practical kpowle.dg^ requir- 
 , 1 ed ip the profession of agHculturd, so that you,ca,n foll,o\y it with 
 --success, a,nd , speak in'telligeittiy'iabotat dt in , society, ,thejn keep 
 ^ iyQur?elf,\Y,e|l(gpund'dd ort the leAding subjects qf theiday, giving 
 them yQV>r serious co'ns(d6rati6n'\v.henevdr you can dp sp, instead 
 1 '.of thinking about silly '"^hit chat" let your thoug^i? (^well on 
 igrand apd ysetul subjects, on your way to .Or frorq market, or at 
 your ^Tiqals or everi'atVbrk^brt your fahn, employ your thoughts 
 in fprip^ng your oplrii'on^ on 'the great events and; questions of the 
 (day, .using, truth, arid justifce as your guides^; of. course while you 
 are ^t >vorl^ you' should rieveir' allow your thought? to ipjure the 
 quality pf your work', SuclV a's making ;crooked, furrows &c., but 
 the,c9mmeijcial, profession^!' or laboring, nianx who cap /do a per- 
 fect .day.s work at; his pk*6fe'^sibn or trade and i at t^e ?ame time 
 hc^vq 3,or 4 hours seribhs'thoiS^ht on worthy >3ubjqcts,.has add- 
 ed 4 ho,"n to his lile;'s6'me m^ by 'systerpatiieally doing this add 
 as mup^.a^ 29 yrs.to their lives; above lall things;, in conversation 
 ini society pqverbe'om to sf)eak dn a- subject, before you have 
 ithought it,9U^, if yoii doit' will not be considered interesting and 
 iwijl ,bq criticised afterWcircls; my life still runsi injthe same groove, 
 l.2,houts work, 6 houVs sleep and' -6 hours-.for taking meals and 
 Study,. anflai^ pccasiohal Evening 'at Mr. -Shern^an's or WattF; 
 tell father I am going to s^iid him ^ money /shortly ^ also that I re- 
 
 • \ 
 
 n. 
 
 » 1 
 
 I I 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 333 
 
 quest hiHitb attend St. Marks chur^l|,. which deserves to be en- 
 couraged in the good work it is doing, for although wd chnnot 
 "'agreei with ^11.' ititeaqhes^, it, is ^ perfectly justifiable to encourage it 
 • for the great amount of] good it dccOmplisnes. Went to a husk, 
 ing party at Mr. Cliities ^t St. Moni'gue With Le Biano and sev- 
 ' 'tiral olhers.drove througji a level couhti'y in' ci' Nortb-wcsterly 
 
 • 'direotioni, in whicJi,,thQre |Was considerable attiOunt 'of second 
 
 ' "pjrowth and wood la^t;! interspersed until we reached duties farm, 
 
 '"prettily situated on the, edge of a! dee^ rkvirie surrounded by a 
 
 ' grove of'pine.j^in, which gr^V^ an enoi^molis Vine with its brtinches 
 
 ' spr^cading through t}ie bfanches of the trefes; it bears very small 
 
 grapes., Arrived at tjie house singmg" a ^g'Jiy 'Frfnoh 'Song; the 
 
 ' 'hiusking /vyas going on in the back kitdheh, thdru were about 30 
 
 * persons chiefly, young people; most df thi young girls were 
 > 'dressed in cahco, Ipolying very neat With pieces of lace and rib- 
 
 'bonadbrningi their, costumes; Mrs. Clutic conducted me, into the 
 ' living room and .took, my gloves, hat' and ON^^rcoat; had she had 
 'any daughters, sufficientljy^ old they ' would have performed this 
 - 'duty, on r.eturning she intr(j)duced nie to Mfss 'Le Blanc, a very 
 ' sociable little "brunette/' with whorri I Sbon Commenced an an- 
 imated conversation; Sjhe , shortly aftel* 'introduced me to her 2 
 ' sisters who. wore merino dresses 'And were' dressed with great 
 ' taste, having even dainty^ little gold watched, theyoould speak 
 'English better than JFrench, an'd appear* to 'Be grejltlybenefited by 
 ' their long residqnqe in the New England" states; yet as is usual 
 'With factory. girl^ they spend all their nioney On dress; it some- 
 ' what aimused.me to think that these girls at home live on buck- 
 ' wheat cakesi and fat, pofk, and theh ' appear at' a husking party 
 ' (much to. the cbagrji), 0|f^iyal belles) dressed like ladies; the con- 
 '■ 'versatidn as is usual, with young Canadiah people* was not gener- 
 ' al, 'each young m^r^ conversed only to his Companion,. in an un • 
 ' dertone with only .an occasiopal reinark to those sitting near 
 ' him; the convers^tio|i was better thati 'is Usual among the Cana- 
 dian people, .in fact thpre were only a feW dozen or so improper 
 ' remarks,: and these, were only a few degrees below decency; the 
 ' evening might h^ve passed thusj'h^d there 'not 'bden in the com- 
 pany a young mai> w,hom the girls regarded As a "polisson," 
 : dome of the girls |wop}d npt sit by him, he revenged himself by 
 
334 HISTORY OF the French in America. 
 
 grossly insulting them by the use of horribly indecent language, 
 at which one of the young men, whose companion he insulted, 
 challenged him out to fii;ht, which however Chutie prevented; 
 some of the couples worked industriously at husking corn, but 
 many others passed rr.ost of the time in whispering sentimental 
 nonsense to each othei; after the husking had been finished, 
 boiled corn and salt were passed around, after which there was 
 dancing until one o'clock; went to church next morning with the 
 family, country slightly undulating; the valley through which thj 
 Norbert river runs is about 150 below the surrounding country 
 and half a mile wide, country sandy in some places and dry in 
 others; a few well cultivated farms and many deserted and ill 
 xept; St. Morigue having no rly. or market to infuse life into it 
 is a very stagnant little village with an enormous church, the in- 
 side especially is very tastefully finished. I also imagined I was 
 in a Greek temple when 1 gazed on the large Corinthian pillars, 
 the whole height of the interior of the church and painted so 
 well that one miyjlit almost imagine them to be marble; the ser- 
 vice as I have previously remarked resembled an uninteresting 
 pantomime; there was no sermon, the priest made a few remarks 
 against certain people, who left before the service was over and 
 said it was wrong for the followers of the true church to show 
 Protestants and barbarians such a bad example, he also 
 read a "bull" from the Pope to which many of the poor 
 deluded creatures listened as if the words were from God himself; 
 he also published 2 banns for marriage; the paintings were of a 
 somewhat superior sort and nearl/ life size of Saints, Apostles, 
 etc, with gorgeous gilt frames; a minature of St, Peter's Church 
 at Rome m giit extends nearly the whole length of the. church 
 behind the altar and cost I was informed several thousand dol- 
 lars; there was a good choir and a fine organ; in going out of 
 the church I was somewhat amused to see the coarse figures of 
 the rough farmers which a few minutes before had removed a 
 quid of filthy tobacco from their mouth, dip down into a dirty 
 looking stone basin into holy water and make a sign of the cross 
 and immediately after the white and dainty fingers of a lady go 
 through the same operation. The reader can imagine how holy 
 and clean that water was after the fingers of 400 people had been 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 335 
 
 dipped into it; there were very fjvv men dressed in homespun or 
 with heefskin moccasins which most French fanners went to 
 church in a few yrs ago; in aU the congregation I only saw one 
 be;iver hat which was woi n by the lawyer of the village, soft felt 
 and cloth cips bemg mostly worn; many of the women wore 
 flaming shawls and the old fashioned bonnet, all the young bt*lles 
 of course dressed in the latest style and the young beaus in dark 
 dress suits with enormous rings and watch chains and their hair 
 saturated with hair oil; the majority of the men lit their briar and 
 clay pipes on coming out of thj church. Called at the postoffice 
 which was also a store, it was full of people who had come a di'^- 
 tance from the country, who were buying groceries and other ar- 
 ticles; stopped at Le Blanc's house which his Americanized daugh- 
 ters have made look very neat with a Si 25 organ, rag carpet and 
 numerous nick nacks of their own construction; they sang to my 
 surprise several English songs. On my -way back a very large 
 and savage dog rushed out from a iiouse and kept jumping at us 
 behind the wagon and was only rendered more furious by several 
 blows of the whip, finally 1 made them stop the wagon and I 
 jumped out on the road with my overcoat on my arm, the dog 
 for a moment appeared astonished but kept running towards me, 
 I then ran quickly forward and threw the heavy overcoat over him 
 beneath which l\e struggled several moments before he could get 
 it off; it was comical to see the puzzled undecided look he had 
 then on him, when however I rushed forward at him yelling in a 
 horrible manner, the last vestige of his brute courage disappeared 
 and he ran for his life in the somewhat similar manner that Mark 
 Twain's ''yaller dog" sneaked into Noah's Ark. The overcoat 
 idea I derived from a friend who told me "he would not be atraid 
 to face the fiercest dog with a good heavy overcoat." On arriv- 
 ing at factory village spent the evening at Sherman's; Mrs. S. 
 Mrs. B. and myself conversed about the strange anecdotes that 
 are looked on by many as authentic of which I give this sample. 
 "The wife of a sea captain on Monday evening saw a white object 
 flic thro the room and said to her friends my h isband is drowned, 
 when true enough the news arri^/cs that he was drowned on the 
 same day, same hour and same minute, that his wife saw the 
 white object which some people imagine was the spirit of the 
 
'''"•1.1 ... I 
 
 336. ... ,ji . HISTORY Bl^t^EFkENCH IN AMti;klGA., ^j,, , .., 
 
 dead man; they 3eem,;tq be offHe.cxpinifen that the spirit of.h.u,man . 
 beings have. ppwerjt9 ijiflu^nce the thoughts of their friends whp, 
 havb a great\many, thougfits in com'mon 'with' thetnj .a4so icon,- 
 ver^ed wi4:h Mr^. 3., pfhow'di'fificult'it fs tor' a lady to become .a, 
 model ho.stess;;$hj^,kindly invit^'m'e t'cipiass GhristmaslatChailes^ 
 bourg. .."Wentto,^ hpf?^ rac6 at' St-'LlbbiVej there* were 0Alyr2 
 horses, that cou,ld, be ^called ^odd trbtiiers; t'he highest pursei\y^s 
 $2y, the entnancp fpe ,for spec'tiators oh foot I'o tts; wagons, aSiCt^s; 
 thejudges standiwas of rough lumber; there 'was q bell .maij to , 
 rin-g back ^the uneyi^n and jfaTse starts;' -^hdre wfere several hundred, 
 peopleiin their bps.t costume a'nd wagbrts; toivards.^the close there 
 was no such>thing, ,^s ,ordqr or any poss'ibility of keepir^g Xh,e , 
 course clear o^ ,t,h,e excited peopjie Who Were 'veiry nearly junoy.er 
 by the. men who raced on horseback. H.' MiltOn's wiifd deserted 
 him. for aiwhjle b^c^uj^^ he objecteq t6 her'going'^ to. confession; 
 she 'turned Protestant to g^et him a'nd rtbw' has turned* back; J 
 think it served hi^ fjgl^t., ? think if I loved ^.womnn\ enough to , 
 marry her that I ^yould ajlso love' her enough tO' respfect her i\e- 
 li^ious conviction?. Letter from Cliflfbrd: "'My deai^Arthui%,father i 
 tells nie that he: wrote, to you some' time ago a:nd'had no,ans\yer, . 
 as theyiarei nqt always i-egular at a cbunirypestoffite Icojiclucjled , 
 that either ycpu (^jid pot get the letter or 'that you had. laid .it aside 
 and overlooked, it; father tells me that^he offered to forgive Tc;m 1 
 what Xom o\yes him if you would do thd same; I feel sure knoyv- . 
 ing lyou as I hav^idope for so many yrs ^nd always having foujid, 
 you of a kind anid hospitable disposition, that you have not chang-. 
 ed since then ^nd that you will do as father proposes; if Toiin jcan. 
 start free of debj: there is reasonable 'i!)r6spe'cts' of 'his being able, 
 to make . the favm p^y expenses; ' wb HaVe"been 'having lovely 
 weather here lately; I, suppose yOu have been hunting, this fall} 
 Irec'd a' beautiful ;^^9 dcpuble barrel shdtguh from father pn my 
 2 1 St birthday;, I should like to visit yoii but fear I. caaann.t find 
 time." Engiand ;se9m|^ to havie got cohiplete exjntrol of Egypt, 
 •and France and the other powers are left irt the told, which .they 
 -certainly. deserve. There has been competition: between the Q. 
 P. R, and the G. T. R. between here and Ottawa, they each 
 advertize 2 fast daily express trains which is a good thing for 
 the public. Tom received the full income from Uncle Jerrold. > 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, '337 
 
 In a second letter to uncle Richard sent a receipt for Tom's 
 debt to me and said the first letter must have gone astray." The 
 ext;avatiori of a channel through a ledge of rock to divert a part 
 of the current of the Brisbois river over a precipice cost ^^3,000, 
 but it will form a magnificent water power with a fall of 45 ft. 
 steam is considered too expensive to be used in the^manufacture 
 of pulp; there is an excellent market for extract which en- 
 ables this company to dispose of it as fast as it is made. The 
 country around here is level and uninteresting, in most places a 
 sandy loam with an occasional patch of clay or rich alluvial soil; 
 the highest elevation does not deserve the name of hill, from it 
 one can gaze to the 4 points of the compass without seeing a sin- 
 gle break in the forest that extends around the horizon; the val- 
 ley through which the Norbert river runs has a fine appearance 
 which greatly relieves the flatness of the surrounding country, 
 on an average is 60 ft. below the surface of the adjoining coun- 
 try; the rivers current is very swift in dry seasons, its volume is 
 ;^3 less than in spring and fall; maskinonge, pickerel, white fish, 
 and trout are caught but not in great numbers; duck shooting is 
 ,a favorite sport. Of late I have had a fine opportunity to im- 
 prove the fluency and correctness of my knowledge of French, 
 as a student from Laval who is studying medicine with a doctor 
 in the village is boarding at the same house I do, he speaks to 
 me in English and I to him in French and we have made it a 
 rule to correct each others mistakes; I was surprised at the su- 
 perior class of books he has, mostly from Paris; French literature 
 yet occupies the same position amongst the French of this prov- 
 ince as English Literature does amongst us. It is truly won- 
 derful how education dispels superstition and bigotry from a 
 naturally liberal mind. The chief drawback to the enlighten- 
 ment of the French Canadians is their blind unquestioning be- 
 lief in the doctrines and customs of their forefathers, im- 
 agining them to be perfection, which belief is encouraged 
 by the clergy as it destroys all spirit of enquiry which 
 a tyrannical priesthood so much dread; the members of 
 ther little community here are far from being wnanimous in 
 their religious beliefs, i of them riducules everything of a relig- 
 ious nature, the rest are composed of 4 members of the chruch of 
 
 43 
 
33^ HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 England, a Presbyterian, 2 Congregationalists and I Methodist; 
 2 of the Protestants are married to R. C's , and 2 more are De- 
 ists at heart, through the influerjce of a book called ''the fair ha- 
 ven" by a Mr. Butler of London. From a letter to Clifford. "I 
 greatly regret that you are unable to join our party to hunt car- 
 ibon, though a rather fatigumg and uncertain sport, the game 
 and excitement more than compensates for the fatigue." The 
 comet caused quite a sensation amongst the most ignorant por- 
 tion of the French here, who declared that it was a certain sign 
 of war, ana would not believe me when I told them that astron- 
 omers could predict their appearance; strange how some people 
 will believe in nonsense and not in science! Also said that 
 every yr. or so there was always some war in progress on the 
 earth and that comets appeared frequently, but that there was no 
 connection whatevef between .them; but even among English 
 people there are ladies and gentlemen who are somewhat super- 
 stitious, some time ago an English lady in Charlesbourg aston- 
 ished me by saying that she believed that a departing spirit could 
 communicate with a person it loved, and that even living spiiits 
 can influence each others thoughts, as an instance she told me, 
 that she had a very dear friend in Germany that she had totally 
 forgotten, but suddenly thought of him a (cw days ago and re- 
 ceived a letter a few days after saying he was coming to Amer- 
 ica to see her. Mr. Yankton, son of a partner of this firm, who 
 has travelled all over Europe is staying here at present, although 
 a graduate of Harvard I do not like his manners or style of con- 
 versation, he is what I should call an * upstart American," and 
 speaks as if all mankind were fools except the American people; 
 good American society I imagine would not tolerate him in its 
 midst, for the rules that govern it are almost the same as those 
 that govern the society of Europe. A few weeks ago the R. C's. 
 had a great revival here which lasted a week, the preaching was 
 done by two Jesuits on different subjects, such as communion, 
 confession, prayers to saints &c., they devoted 3 afternoons to 
 preach, the first afternoon to old people, 2nd to middle aged and 
 3rd to young people. Le Blanc the firm's carpenter told Mr. 
 S. that he had worked a long time for his body and must 
 now work a while for his soul, so Mr. S, gave him a week's leave 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 339 
 
 of absense; the church was crowded, farmers left their grain 
 that had been cut all the week; the Jesuits tcjld them, "take care 
 of your soul and God will take care of your grain;" during the 
 wet^k I .500 men, women and children feasted on tlie flesh of their 
 God; only 2 farmers in the whole parish who did not partake of 
 "Le bon dieu;" and for whom I have a hearty respect; they in- 
 curred the displeasure of the priest by not paying to him the 
 custoftiary tithing from their farms, which is i bushel out of every 
 26. Fiom a letter from Tom. "1 have been busy stumping all 
 week, have been all right again as regards my health, and have 
 gained 4 lbs. since this Summer; Uncle Richard told you the 
 truth when he told you that I was short of capital, I had Perre- 
 ault for 5 months which came to ^130, then in hayii g I had 
 another man for 5 iveeks, and I had a bill for wagon reapairs for 
 $^0; I expect to be able to commence lumbering next week and 
 earn something; I expect to sell some potatoes, 1 grew 80 bags; 
 the old barn is full of hay and half the new one of hay and grain; 
 I have done some fail ploughing in the land you stumped; I am 
 very much obhged to you for being so good as so cancel my 
 note, father unites with me in love to you; ever your affec. brother 
 I. G. Howard." From a letter from Clifford, dated Oct. 25th '82. 
 **You are right about American society, one can scarcely dis- 
 tinguish the American gentleman who mixes in the best society 
 from an English gentleman; there may be some slight differance 
 of accent or otherwise but it is hardly noticeable; the same rules 
 govern them both; that abominable class of Americans who are 
 continually boasting of their money and how they made it &c. 
 are perfectly insufferable, and are not tolerated in the best so- 
 ciety of the U. S ; the weather has been lovely here of late; I see 
 there is a rebellion in the South of Egypt, and their leader claim- 
 ing to be a prophet is marching with a large force on Cairo, when 
 he meets the British troops he will order a "right about face," 
 "quick march." "26th Oct. Dear Arthur, I was much pleased 
 to receive your talented and well written let'.er, and with it also 
 your generous assistance enclosed. I shall write to Tom telling 
 him he is relieved of the debt; I am happy to say your Uncle 
 Jerrold is going to give hin^ your half of the income. I believe 
 as that lady does of whom you mention in Clifford's letter, and 
 
34<^^ HISTORY OF THE FREN'CH IN AMERICA. 
 
 will demonstrate to you my views on the subject when next you 
 come to see us; in Jiaste I remain your afifec. uncle, R. I. Gold- 
 smith." Last week the factory underwent repairs, the masons 
 repaired the brick work around the furnace doors and made 2 
 'new furnaces, the carpenters put in new flooring in some places, 
 repaired the hquor tanks, leaches and water drains; 2 boiler ma- 
 kers took 2^ days to put a 20 rivet patch on one of the boilers 
 that leaked; the 2 engineers, Mr. S. and myself worked at repair- 
 ing pipes and valves, and examined all the machinery; I of course 
 acted as an assistant; the inside of the pan that boils the liquor 
 is over 10 ft. in diameter; in some places the excrescense on the 
 bottom of the boilers was 3 inches thick; this week I have to 
 "chink" the new coopers shop with flax straw, which I first thresh 
 and then drive in between the logs with a wooden wedge and 
 mallet; in the night time I occasionally "pitched" 2 leaches, a 
 leach is a tank 8 ft. deep md 14 in diameter full of steaming 
 tan bark; only 75cts. is paid to throw the tan out of it, it takes a 
 man of good physical endurance to throw 2 of them out in the 
 hot, steamy atmosphere. I buy my provisions for my own use 
 now and have them cooked which cost me ;$i.40 a week, and 40 
 cts. for cooking them and lodging. On October 2nd '82 a non- 
 religious system of education was adopted throughout the whole 
 of France; under it images of St. Mary, crucifixes etc. are re- 
 moved from the schools, and scholars are not permitted to make 
 the sign of the cross, which must be a great hardship to ignorant 
 and devout people who are of the opinion that the nation will go 
 to destruction if religion, politics and education are not under 
 the control of the priesthood. Surely there is enough bigotry and 
 and lack of brotherly love in the world without trying to increase 
 it by separating the children of the same nationality and sending 
 them to sectarian schools to be taught to believe that all men are 
 to be damned who refuse to believe in the doctrines of one par- 
 ticular sect; what in the name of reason is the use of having 
 priests, nuns and monks if they cannot teach religion without 
 forcing themselves into the schools with the crafty desire to so 
 educate the rising generations that they can exercise an almost 
 unlimited power in temporal as well as spiritual affairs; France 
 is acting nobly in deciding that all her children are to be educated 
 
HISTORY Oi' THE FRENCH IS AMERICA. 34I 
 
 together and that the pubh'c money is not to be paid to teach her 
 subjects to hate each other or to learn the absurd and useless 
 prayers of a bloody and fanatical religion. If I*' ranee can carry 
 out this system she will become a happier and grander nation, 
 by teaching her children that patriotism, virtue and liberty are 
 to be preferred to bigotry, superstition and credulity. And yet 
 I have met Protestants who were foolish enough to prefer having 
 a false and absurd religion taught than no religion at all, but I 
 feel confident that the day is not far distant when the tide of 
 public opinion will ebb the other way, and all mankind will 
 acknowledge that this earth contains such a great number of 
 self-evident truths that man is only wasting his ti.iie to pay any 
 attention to the imaginary revealed truths of the bogus religions 
 of the earth. "Dear Uncle, I was pleased to hear that Uncle 
 Jerrold intends to continue the full income to Tom, as it will 
 enable him to continue farming without having to undergo those 
 difficulties that beset all farmers, that of farming without capi- 
 tal, but in reality the success of the most successful farmers 
 is mainly due to this cause, as from necessity they quickly learn 
 one of the most valuable lessons of life, that of producing the 
 greatest effect from the least amount of means. If man gave this 
 subject more thought there would be less of that unfortunate 
 class of people who attribute their want of success in life to the 
 will of Providence when in reality the cause is mismanagement 
 or idleness. I have seen some extreme cases here, two Canadi- 
 ans who told me that their Cure told them that their Savior beg- 
 ged his bread on earth as an example to poor people to be con- 
 tent with their lot. This of course to a certain extent is the duty 
 of all men, but the great fault of most Christians is that they do 
 not conscientiously draw the line of distinction between what is 
 "God's will" and man's neglect. I have often been amused when 
 a Canadian would say to me in a tone of self-satisfied, pious 
 resignation, "If I am poor and miserable in this world I shall 
 have all the more enjoyment in the next, and the wicked rich 
 man will have to endure the torments of purgatory." I only 
 send you $25 this time as my wages are 40cts. a day less than 
 when I ran the engines, also my board is $2.50 a week. From 
 a letter to Clifford: "As regards Egyptian affairs I have not had 
 
342- HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 much time to study the question. It appears to me, however, 
 that the use the Gladstone government made of the island of 
 Cyprus shows that his criticism on its acquisition by the Beacons* 
 field government was unjust; also some of his speeches on the 
 note of credit for the Egyptian war shows great mconsistency to 
 his opinions when a leadc;r of the opposition." Read in the 
 paper that Florence and Maud Meredith attended a fox hunt in 
 Montreal. In another letter Clifford says, "A slate quarry h as 
 been discovered near yo'jr place. I have bought a property at 
 the corner of Oaig street, from father for $10000; I have paid 
 $3,500 cash, the balance 1 pay in 9 yean r.l c pc: (t The prop- 
 erty brings 'n\ $1,000 a year; he sold it to me for what he gave 
 for it." We have had a few slight falls of snow lately which has 
 made pretty fair sleighing on roads that are free from stones and 
 ruts; 1 have helped LeBlanc to make a new endless chain to 
 draw the tan from the leaches over the furnace. Had service on 
 Dec. 1st; 1 1 attended; I was struck with what intense interest 
 old age listens to the preacher's voice. I discussed A'ith the 
 clergyman the absurdity of singing such prayers as "Lord have 
 mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this law." That even 
 from a Christian point of view singing was more adapted for 
 praise than for prayer. Mr. Yankton can play chess with both 
 Mrs, S. and myself at the same time on two diftjrent boards and 
 win every game; he is also a crack shot and can shoot a bottle 
 every time it is thrown up into the air. The factory is stopped 
 for want of bark; I am in charge of the factory and keep small 
 fires burning and open the valves occasionally to let steam into 
 the pipes throughout the factory to prevent them from freezing. 
 It snowed two inches last night and the weather is quite mild. 
 Extracts from a book written by a French bishop; entitled, 
 Criticisms on Protestantism. "Protestantism is an easy religion 
 for life but not for death." I Ho not believe that the avenge 
 Protestant dies a more wretched death than a Catholic, "When 
 a Catholic turns Protestant it is apostacy, but when a Protescant 
 turns Catholic it is a conversion. Protestantism is not a religion 
 but a combination of sects; it is not an institution but a revolt. 
 Protestantism and Protestants are not the same God, and the 
 church loves Protestants like other men, but hates Protestantism 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 343 
 
 as it is a revolt. The following is all that is necessary to believe 
 to be a good Protestant: Luther created our religion and estab- 
 lished it in the world. A Protestant is one who has been 
 baptised or not baptised, it is all the same, he believes what he 
 likes and does what he likes The mark of a Protestant is a 
 horror for a cross, a hatred for Saint Mary, the Pope and the 
 saints, as well as a forgetfulness for the poor samts in purgatory; 
 this is the true doctrine of Protestantism. The salvation of a 
 Protestant in errror is possible, but that of one in heresy is im- 
 possible, for he revolts against God and the church. No 
 Catholic turns Protestant from christian motives or does so from 
 conscience, Catholicism receives through conversion some of 
 the most enlightened Protestants, the most leirned and disting- 
 ushed for their morality; whereas Prot stantism only receives 
 the weeds thrown from the garden of the Catholic church. The 
 majority of those that leave the Catholic church do so for wick- 
 ed and unlawful purpose-^. During the last 25 years the flower of 
 the English nobility have abjured their heresy." He says "the 
 poor Protestants in France have 1 jft the church for worldy gain." 
 How about Cardinal Manning in England, he truly has had a 
 rise in the world since he became a Catholic. **A Protestant can 
 never declare what his belief is. Oar church nses Latin be- 
 cause it is apostolique and nevcT changing in her doctrines. The 
 lan<xuage is dead and does not change and is marvelously adapt- 
 ed for a church that never changes. If our church had adopted 
 Fre-^ch instead of Latin it would have had to change the sacra- 
 ment of baptism over 250 times. Protestants have, grand houses 
 but thfir churches are nude and bare; everything must be ex- 
 tremely simple in their religion; would it not be more simple 
 still if there was neither religion or temple. It is no use for 
 Protestants to say God does not require pomp and grandeur, did 
 not God demand it and accept it in the temple of Solomon and 
 did he not accept incense and myrrh at Bethleham. A perfect 
 sign that the Catholic church is the true one is that is always 
 attacked by Turks, Pagans, Protestants aud Revolutionists, but 
 this we expect for Christ said, 'You will be hated of all men.* It 
 is also impossible that God would choose such vile characters 
 as Luther, Calvin or Henry the VIII to reform His church. 
 
344 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Protestants have no respect for God, they preach in theatres, 
 hotels and other unconsecrated buildings. The Protestant sects 
 all acknowledge that all that is necessary for salvation is found 
 in the Catholic church, therefore they act in direct contradiction 
 to their principles in trying to tear away souls from the Catholic 
 church. When the Catholic church converts a Protestant from 
 Protestantism it saves a soul that the church believes would be 
 otherwise lost, and makes the convert believe more than he used 
 to, whereas the Protestants instead of adding to tbeir convert's 
 faith, make it less. The Apostolique Roman church, founded 
 by Christ and governed in his name by St. Peter and the 
 Soverign Pontiffs and their successors, have preserved the doc- 
 trines of the church unchanged for the last 1 8oo years. The 
 Popes and councils of the church have labored without ceasing to 
 improve the discipline of the church and change it when needed, 
 partictularly the council of Trent, which effectually reformed the 
 discipline of the church. Luther and his followers pretended to 
 reform the tenants of the faith, but instead of a reform they made 
 a revolution which deformed everything and carried all faith 
 away. Catholics are often divided on minor points, but never 
 on the doctrine of their church, for all good Catholics bring any 
 doubtful doctrine to the tribunal of the Pope and bishops, a tri- 
 bunal always living and always assisted by God, and in particu- 
 lar on the interpretation of the scriptures. The Protestants on 
 the contrary without this rule of faith, are as St. Paul says, 
 'Carried about by every wind of doctrine,' and notwithstanding 
 the Bible whigh is in their hands believe to day what they re- 
 ject to-morrow; whereas the Catholic's rule of faith is for all 
 Christians and is an institution divine that cannot be rejected on 
 the pain of losing one's soul. The Bible is truly the word of 
 God, but cannot become our rule of faith as the Protestants use 
 it. for Jesus Christ did not say to his apostles, go colport the 
 Bible, but 'go and teach all nations;' ?lso, 'to those that listen to 
 you I will listen.' The Bible cannot be a rule of faith because 
 its religious teachings are not clear and complete; the whole book 
 is only an account presented for the edification of the faithful 
 the Bible can never be a rule of faith for it contains a multitude 
 of difficult passages that from their Divine depth cannot be in- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 345 
 
 tcrprcted by even the most profound of intellects; the word of 
 God cannot be the rule of faith for if it was, ignorant people that 
 cannot read v/ould be without the means of salvation; the Prot- 
 estants do not know for a certainty that the Bible is inspired, 
 whereas the Catholics know it is for the church tells them so, In 
 speaking to Le Blanc about the book I said, if by credulity your 
 church means faith, and by servilitv obediance, then let them be 
 swept away the sooner the better. In a letter to Clifford. Prot- 
 estantism is the moral pressure that is and is gradually straight- 
 ening out the crooked barbarism of all the supernatural religions 
 of the earth. Received leave of absense from Mr. S. for a few 
 days at New Years and started for Montreal; met Rev. J. C. P. 
 our priest of St. Liboire in conversation he said religious educa- 
 tion was necessary in the schools for the welfare of a nation, al- 
 , so that there was more crime in Protestant Upper Canada than 
 in the Catholic province of Quebec, which statement I have since 
 discovered to be incorrect. On arriving at A^ton found it some- 
 what changed, and many of my old acquaintances gone away, 
 hired a horse and sleigh for $1] father, Tom and Philip G. were 
 at Klmbrooke and gave me a warm welcome; father appears as 
 young as ever; visited Uncle Herbert's family, and I spent a few 
 hours pleasantly there; Tom showed me a letter in which Uncle 
 Jerrold sent his love to me; left next morning for Montreal at 
 3.30 a, m. and arrived at 6; drove to the Richlieu hotel, it is on 
 the European plan and charges from $1 to ;^2 a day for rooms; 
 it is a very fine building with handsome tesselated floors, a bar- 
 bers shop, telegraph and telephone office, billiard room, a lunch 
 bar, superbly furnished parlors and a beautiful garden on the 
 roof, full of the choicest flowers roofed in with glass, from which 
 a fine view can be had of the city; its bill of fare for dinner con- 
 sisted of several sorts of soup, meat, vegetables, fowl, fish, pastry 
 and dessert, which consisted of apples, oranges, pears, grapes nuts 
 etc.; as I viewed the city from the garden of the hotel and con- 
 • sidered that it is 600 miles from the sea and reached by a channel 
 partially artificial, and has a harbor that is ice locked for almost 
 half the yeir and that notwithstanding these disadvantages is 
 one of the greatest shipping ports on the continent, with 7 lines 
 
 of transatlantic steamers; and maintains competition with cities 
 
 44 
 
3^6 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 of larger population and fjrcater natural advantaj^es; I was filled 
 with admiration for its English, citiz-jns who dccipencd the St. 
 I.awerance river, built handsome stone quays, and own all the 
 great manufacturing industries of the city. Father gave me a 
 letter when I left as he did not have time to tell me all his com- 
 plaints. "Dear Arthur, I intended to write to you a long time 
 ago, and I am sorry to say I will not be able to pay you what 
 1 owe you this yr.; I have had to sell my pigs to help to pay my 
 debts and only killed one Spring pig for ourselves; we might 
 have had 4 or 5 had Tom done as I wished; I raised a nice little 
 piece of corn by my own industry as well as clearing up the 
 ground for it, and some blue buckwheat about an acre in all, but 
 the buckwheat was too late as he would not give me my half and 
 I had to superintend his hired boy, who attends to the animals; I 
 wanted to have some pasture for my pigs in the Summer, but he 
 made me shut them up and I had to get feed at the store all Sum- 
 mer and sold the pigs at .v. loss in the fall; he sent my sheep to 
 pasture at Goldsmith's, through which I lost one of the lambs; 
 lie had a fine crop of oats and potatoes off my place though he 
 pretends not, and yet he wants me to sell my hoise to pay the 
 balance of my debts, which was incurred through his neglect; 1 
 am not well of late, yet he expects me to see that the hired boy 
 does his work properly; I have told him that if things do not 
 change I shall take a situation m Montreal; I refused to sell the 
 cut of the ties on my lot and gave them to him; he wanted 
 me to raise money on my place of which there was no ne- 
 cessity as he gets regularly from England $300 a yr.; and now 
 that I know that you and your Uncle Richard have cancelled 
 his debts to you, I shall certainly in my will leave the Home 
 farm to you, for I consider you have been treated with the great- 
 est injustice, to get no compensation for your 5 yrs, haid work; 
 I was very mnch pleasrd with your letter and advice to Tom he 
 is getting so vulgar of late, and I told him it was no wonder you 
 did not agree together on the differance in your accounts; I told 
 him that he associated more with the French that; you did." 
 Bought a fine dress suit for ;^ 16.50, the merchant asked $20 but 
 on my saying it was too high and leaving th.e store he called me 
 back and commenced reducing his price, until he came down to 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 34/ 
 
 the price I paid for it; paid $$ for a very fine pair of French 
 calf slices. 'I hj troupe of aciresses and actors ot Kmiiia Abbot 
 are stopping at tills hotel; I tirove from the hotel to tlie theatre 
 in an omnibus with them and licard some of the wildest and 
 most reckless conversation imai^inable; in ju>^tice however I 
 must say that many of them were di{j;nificd and lady like; Kmma 
 Abbot has a wonderfully sweet voice but not quite as powerful 
 as that of Patti, it rose however hi^h enouj^h to fill the theatre 
 with melody and then died away, until I almost believed that no 
 human voice could sound so sweet and so low; I tried to find Mr. 
 Meredith's hou^e but could not find ihe name in the directory; 
 went to Uncle Richard's where I reed, a cordial reception, and 
 remained for dinner; they told me they admired my independent 
 spirit and hoped 1 would succeed; I informed the n that the firm 
 of H and Co. was in a shaky condition and that I intended to go 
 to Manitoba shortly; uncle said he would give me letters of in- 
 troduction to friends of his in VVinnipcrr. On my way back to 
 St. Liboire I saw doubtful characters in the car, but what sur- 
 prised me most was that the railway conductor (who ought to be 
 a gentleman) sat down beside them and conversed in the loudest 
 and most disgusting manner possible, without any regard for the 
 presence of the other ladies and gentlemen in the car; had I had 
 any lady friends with me at the time I should have threatened 
 to report his conduct to the superintendant of the railway at the 
 next station; paid 75cts. to be driven 8 miles from Arlington to 
 the factory village; Mr. Milton has received a leave of absense 
 from Mr. S. to hunt Caribou; I measure bark in his place; when 
 the bark is at all mildewed and curled up like stove pipes, I de- 
 duct ^ the bulk and often jS^ to make allowance for the holes ia 
 the load; the Frenchmen only swear at me and call me vile names 
 for doing this, but some hot blooded Irishmen threatened to 
 "thrash me within an inch of my life," in fact one fellow tried to 
 do it and succeeded in giving me a black eye and bruised face; 
 I had the satisfaction however of drawing his claret by the time 
 Mr. S. arrived and separated us; Mr. S. said he did not want to 
 buy mildewed and curled up bark and that if he was not satis- 
 fijd with the measure he would go and sell it, if he could to the 
 Yankee buyers. The parish priest told me that "Protestants were 
 
348 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 united on one subject alone, that of hatred ofthe Catholic church;'* 
 Mr. S, one evening showed his disrespect for Scriptural truths by 
 saying of a captain that sat on a safety valve of a Mississippi 
 steam boat while racing with another steamboat, that he went 
 up like Elijah, for which Mrs. S. gravely reproved him; Miss 
 Kate Watts is trying to form a little literary society among the 
 II English people here; had a warm discussion with Le Blanc; 
 he was terribly indignant because I said I saw nothing wrong or 
 contrary to the spirit of Christianity in Luther's marriage to a 
 nun. From a letter to Clifford. "I am at present superintending 
 the piling ofthe bark in huge stacks as the farmers draw it in, 
 to see that the couple of hundred teamsters pile their bark 
 properly, and that the 30 bark pilers do not "loaf" too 
 much; if you intend to hunt Caribon with me come here 
 as soon as possible as the season closes in a few weeks." 
 The weather here is very severe; one night I had to 
 sleep in my overcoat although I had two blankets, a quilt and 
 a buffalo robe; my landlady is so stingy that she does not keep 
 a fire burning at night. I heard the poor little children crying 
 from the cold in the other room. On getting up in the morning 
 at 4 o'clock I found the thermometer in my room 25 degrees be- 
 low zero; it was only 35 outside. French Canadian girls and 
 women in the country districts are almost utterly devoid of that 
 beautiful delicacy that is to be so much admired in English 
 ladies; I hear language every day since I have associated with 
 them that clearly confirms my belief that the majority of the 
 French women of this Province are vastly inferior to English 
 women in delicacy.* The bishop of this diocese in a sermon in 
 the parish church said, "The Catholic who acts upon, speaks or 
 writes his own opinion regarding anything that effects the doc- 
 trines ofthe church ceases by that fact to be a good Catholic." 
 From a letter to Tom: "There is a great excitement here at 
 present; this is such a Conservative stronghold that two Con- 
 servative members ran opposition to each other instead of a Lib- 
 eral and Conservative, but the chances of the success of one 
 of them is small, for 20 years ago he had the misfortune to 
 be a member of the Free Mason lodge, and most of the French 
 are so superstitous and bigoted that they entertain the opinion 
 
HI3T0RV OF THE FREXCIi IN AMERICA. 349 
 
 that whoever becomes a Free Mason sells himself to the devil. 
 In fact, his opponent said publically, "A man that enters a 
 wicked society in opposition to his church is not worthy to 
 represent in parliament the faithful and devout Catholics of this 
 parish." This remark was received by cheers from some and in 
 silence by others. The other candidate replied, with tears in his 
 eyes, that he acknowledged his sin of having once been a Free 
 Mason, but that he had sincerly repented of it and was now a 
 good and dutiful son of the church, in proof of which he read 
 a certificate from his parish priest of his having performed his 
 religious duties faithfully for the past lo years. Approving 
 cheers from his partisans greeted this remark. Although the 
 priest's candidate is very unpopular with many of the people for 
 having voted for the sale of a Canadian government railway to a 
 
 • syndicate. I am confident he will be elected as the priests are 
 quietly working in his favor; they cannot, however, openly curse 
 the rouge party as they used to do, since the Pope sent them an 
 order forbidding them to enterfere in elections." Feb. 3. Went 
 to duties at St. Monique; our sleigh nearly went through the 
 ice several times in driving across the Norbert river. The people 
 were in a great state of festivity and had any quantity of gin, 
 whiskey and wine, "pour le Jour gras" for "the days of feasting" 
 before Lent; conversed with an intelligent young French girl 
 who is a Protestant at heart on account of the beneficial influence 
 she derived from associating with Protestant girls for 8 years in 
 
 * the United States; she has been educated at a convent and said 
 that no Protestant who valued the truths of his religion should 
 send his child to be educated at a convent, for that she her 
 self had seen the mother superior encourage and persuade 
 Protestant girls to attend the Catholic services, and even teach 
 little Protestant girls Catholic prayers, although she had solemn- 
 ly promised the child's parents not to interfere with the child's 
 religion; conversed about the priests' political candidate for this 
 parish who voted in favor of selling a government railway to 
 Senecal, a second Boss Tweed, who pocketed i ^ million dollars 
 at the expense of the Province through the transaction; card 
 playing, singing songs and relating smutty stories was the order 
 of the evening; some of these stories would have made even 
 
350 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 Cleopatra or Lady Hamilton blush to the roots of their hair, 
 yet the French maidens of even sweet sixteen, seemed to thor- 
 oughly enjoy them, with all their superstition and ignorance. I 
 take great pleasure in spending an evening occasionally in study- 
 ing the bright and dark characteristics of this gay and hospitable 
 people. Have spent many pleasant evenings at Mr. Sherman's, 
 where Mr. and Miss Morrison are on a visit; in a discussion 
 with our "occasional minister," he told me that confession was of 
 great benefit to the Province of Quebec and that it would not be 
 inhabitable without the sin restraining power of the contessional. 
 1 replied that it was a barbarous and degrading system, and that 
 modern freedom and liberty were more suitable for civilized men 
 than a debased and servile Christianity; also in a further discus- 
 sion of the rapidly increasing power of the church of Rome on 
 this continent; I remarked that if the rate of decrease in native 
 born American children continues, by the year 19S2 there will 
 not be a single infant remaining among the families of the better 
 class of Americans; and that on this by no means slender basis, 
 the church of Rome rests its arrogant boast of possessing the 
 entire control of this continent in another century; and that it 
 was the duty of every enemy of priest-craft and spiritual tyranny 
 to prevent this grand Continent of ever becoming the home of a 
 race of '^ervile and credulous slaves. From a letter to Clifford: 
 "I regret that you are unable to come and see me as you would 
 have a good time hunting caribon, snowshoeing and skating; a 
 caribon has been killed here by a farmer; it had become 
 entangled in a number of upturned trees; since I last wrote to 
 j'ou a lady from New York has been on a visit at Mr. Sherman's; 
 I was greatly pleased with her manners, they were such a con- 
 trast to those of Mr. Yankton, who seemed to be suffering from 
 anglophobia. Last Sunday, I with a party of young men went 
 a 25 n^ile race to St. Norbert on snowshoes; 1 arrived the first, 
 in 5)^ hours time; I did not see any grand primeval "forest; 
 most of the way I followed a range that is named "Le petit Saint 
 Esprit;" this road is called "the little holy ghost," as there is 
 another road a few miles west of it that is called "the big holy 
 ghost;" for such a devout and reverent people I think that such 
 names are improper. The country looks very uninteresting, it is 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 351 
 
 very flat .'ind covered with a secDaJ growth of willowi, balsams, 
 spruces and pines here and there between the clearances; the 
 farm houses are all of the same sizj atid appearance and give an 
 uiifivorable opinion of the taste of their owners. On approach- 
 ing Morbert, however, the appearance of the farm houses and 
 country improves; the country becomes quite undulating and 
 the firm houses larger and less plain; only saw two brick houses 
 in the wliole distance; in one house, I entered there was a grand- 
 father only 39 years of age; most of the houses were filled with 
 children. St. Norbert College is 300 ft. long and 5 stories high 
 and had 300 students last year. 40 of whom were Irish- Ameri- 
 cans. The kitchen was one of the dingiest I ever entered; the 
 only ornaments I siw on the bare walls were caricatures of God, 
 St. Mary. and Saints, and absurd pictures of the heart of God 
 with the blood trickling from it; I did not have time to enter the 
 chapel libr.iry or museu n. The tin covered roof of this college 
 can be seen from lake St. Peter on the St. Lawrence. Norbert 
 has only 7 stores, i of them wholesale and retail, and 5 saw 
 mills which, as is usually the case, are run by English capital; 
 its market is open 3 times a week; it has a ^^w shabby hotels, a 
 church and a population of 3,000; a very small newspaper is 
 published in the old college building which is lOO years old; the 
 present college has been established 60 years, and a student tells 
 me that they often have to eat rancid butter and badly cured 
 meat. The crust on the snow was so hard as to almost allow 
 one to walk on it. without sno.v shoes. The election came off, 
 and, although Mr. Hilbert's election was annulled by the courts 
 last year on account of corruption, the devout people have re- 
 elected him in preference to his opponent, ''who once committed 
 the horrid crime of being a Free \iason." Tiie poor ex-Free 
 Mason went so far as to get adocununt from his parish priest 
 containing the following clause: "Since Mr. Danseran has 
 solemnfy renounced Free Masonry and declared in public that 
 no good Catholic can belong to it or any other secret society; 
 and has puLlicly fulfilled his religious duties for the past 10 yrs. 
 an9 conducted himself like a man sincerely attached to the 
 Catholic fiith, he ought to be considered as having recovered 
 his good reputation among the faithful." Yet notvvith- 
 
352 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA, 
 
 standing this, Mr. Baron, Vicar General of the diocese said in a 
 sermon on the Sunday preceding the day of the election. "The 
 fear I have of the influence of free mason lodges on any man that 
 has even once belonged to them is a sufficient reason for me to 
 refuse my vote to any such man." I was perfectly disgusted dur- 
 ing the election campaign at the manner in which religion and 
 politics were mixed and at the outrageous way they slandered 
 that honorable and useful society of free masons. Much to lum- 
 berers regret Mr. Venner's prediction of a thaw in February has 
 been verified. I went up St, Norbert river some time ago and 
 received 1500 saw logs for Bentley & Co; the country consists of 
 a somewhat cleared oleateau cut up at distances of 2 miles with 
 precipitous ravines over 100 ft. deep and heavily wooded which 
 looked very picturesque- in one place I could see the blue outline 
 of hills in the distance beyond St, Andre; saw a few comfortable 
 farm houses but the majority were miserable log shanties; on ar- 
 riving at the shanty in the midst of a dense forest I dined with 
 the shanty men on pea soup, pork, potatoes, bread and green tea, 
 the usual diet of lumbermen; 6 men came with us and shoveled 
 off the snow from the rollways while the contractor and myself 
 measured the logs at the smallest place and strictly adhered to 
 the letter of the contract, a copy of which I had with me, stating 
 that no logs would be accepted from the head of the trees which 
 would be knotty for the purpose the company wanted the lumber. 
 From a letter from Clifford, March '83: "Dear Arthur, I have 
 just been shoveling snow to get my muscle up, so you must ex- 
 cuse my hand if it is shaky; I was much pleased to get your let- 
 ter with the interesting description of your snow shoe tramp; I 
 agree with you in deploring the dense ignorance of the French 
 Canadians; the only remedy I see is government or public schools 
 over which the clergy could have no control, and I believe that 
 this can only be brought about by the people themselves when 
 they get their eyes opened by going to other countries, Reading, 
 etc; they are. about 200 yrs behind the French in old France and 
 the English people of Canada. Let us hope that there are 
 brighter days in store for them. Bright made speeches all over 
 England saying that force is no remedy for Ireland, well, they 
 tried this plan and what was the result, in a few months the coun- 
 
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 353 
 
 try was in a fearful condition, worse than it .has been since 48, 
 outrages in all directions; then force ;vas tried as a remedy and 
 in a short time the country was comparatively quiet. Law and 
 order must be preserved in any country if it wishes to enjoy pros- 
 perity. When a country is ii|^ revolution the tu%ulent spirits get 
 the upper hand and they ai^^ not the ones that conduce to a 
 country's prosperity. I myself agree with father that the law of 
 entail ought to be abolished and that there ought to be some law 
 to discourage a man from owning more than lOoo acres, when 
 the owner died the property of course to be left to his children 
 and soon become divided up. It is of course a very difficult prob- 
 lem aiid all kinds of suggestions have been made on the subject; 
 one thing certain is that they cannot take the land from the pres- 
 ent owners without paying them for it." From a letter to uncle 
 Richard: "The mijlions of £ that England spends annually on 
 strong drink woulqi be better employed in building pyramids for 
 the money spent o^ them altho a waste, would not fill the king- 
 dom with murderers, wife beaters, paupers and idiots, as the 
 money spent on spirituous liquor does. How very foolish for a 
 so called civilized arid christian nation to have thousands of pau- 
 pers in its midst an^'have to buy grain from foreign countries and 
 yet at the same tim^ legalize by legislation the pernicious waste 
 of grain by manufacturing beverages, that the most eminent 
 chemists and physicians have proved to be injurious to the hu- 
 man race; England h?.s, tps-have wheat shipped to her thousands 
 of miles across land and water ail because its "highly civilized 
 people" drink an unhealthy beverage of their own brewing in pre- 
 ference to water, the purest, cheapest and healthiest beverage in 
 existence. Unforseen business difficulties made it no longer ad- 
 visable that I should remain in the service of Bentley & Co. so I 
 bid farewell to my kind friends Mr. and Mrs. Sherman and de- 
 parted for the great Northwest,which offers greater advantages to 
 young men than the Province of Quebec. The reader and I must 
 now part for we have arrived at the end of "Six Year's Life and 
 Travel in the Province of Quebec," but I shall ag^in have the 
 pleasure to appear to the public in a few months to solicit their 
 patronage for another work entitled "Four Years in the Great 
 Northwest."' 
 
 46 
 
V' 'v:. 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 H 
 
CJ 
 
 w 
 
 pq 
 W 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 CJ 
 
 1—1 
 
 > 
 o 
 
 W 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 u 
 
 H 
 
 C/5 
 
 H 
 
 <: 
 
 H 
 
 if) 
 
 < 
 
 D 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 3 
 
 CO 
 
 
 CO 
 
 F3 
 S 
 
 C<1 
 CO 
 
 c» 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 <M r-iN (N 
 
 O O c 
 
 t: ;g >o Q CO ■* 
 
 CO QO 
 
 2J CO cc^ind 
 
 05 C^CJ _< ,_( CO 
 
 (N 
 
 
 
 §Oc0OO 
 © CO © O 
 ,©,0© © 
 
 ^ jOcooco 
 
 -^^ CO CO C*5 (N 
 CO 1-. 
 
 :r^ © CO CO !>. 
 
 ;* 05 C(5 ;0 -^ 
 
 '^^i-^co CO c^ 
 (M © 
 
 Oi © © CO 00 00 (M 
 00 <N iQ CO 00 ■* X 
 © (N -^ <M © 
 
 © © © © 
 00 CO «M »Q 
 »0 (N © (N 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 © 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 © 
 
 CO 
 
 © iO©S 
 
 CO i--^©^© 
 
 © (rfi->rao' 
 no ^ c^ c-j 
 
 8 
 
 © 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 0) 
 
 O 
 -(J 
 
 nJ 
 
 0) 
 
 J3 
 
 09 
 
 aa 
 ■*» 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 ;-( 
 
 ;-! 
 <v 
 
 CO 
 
 :;S^ 
 
 0) 
 
 >• 
 
 o 
 
 130 
 
 CD •» 
 
 
 © 
 © 
 
 00 
 
 13 
 
 -t-» 
 
 m > '" 
 
 1—1 '"' 
 
 0) 
 
 o 
 
 O S DO 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
O Q 1- 
 
 cTo Iff 
 
 
 CI 
 
 I- W 
 
 €©■< 
 
 
 §5 
 
 © g O CC 
 
 0) JSS o « a 
 
 
 5d^,! 
 
 «• -M m 
 
 t^ Q <-1 
 
 I— I I— i s 
 
 ^ to 
 
 -c o ° £ s 
 
 •5 s o ^m 
 
 S X X c^ 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 P^4 
 
 ^ 
 
 > 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 r^ 
 
 1— ' 
 
 
 -/: 
 
 
 i/i 
 
 ei 
 
 C) 
 
 (a 
 
 ^ 
 
 u 
 
 o 
 
 << 
 
 
 O 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 <: 
 
 2 § 
 
 < 
 D 
 
 Ph 
 
 O 
 
 Ph 
 O 
 
 u 
 
 H 
 
 t-H 
 
 < 
 H 
 
 CO 
 
 2, 
 
 Ox" 
 
 
 8 
 
 § 
 
 m 
 
 < ^ 
 
 u 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 
 i-o" 
 
 QC C 
 
 CC r-i 
 
 ^^ j^-* A^ ^*' .'"'^ •'^ ^^ ^^ I '^ 
 
 X o C: C: - Ti C C i- 
 
 O f-" <M 't >r 
 
 l-H 
 
 o5 
 
 Oo 
 OS 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 '3^ ce 
 0*5 
 
 
 -a 
 
 '^ 
 
 c3 
 
 J- £-.2 CUO r-*^ 
 
 o 0-% ocq S"^ 
 
 O O s-i !- O c o* 
 
 2h a- :x. 23 ffc P-. ^i*'. 
 
 as ■ 
 0) 
 
 o 
 
 ^1=^ 
 
 X 
 
 2^ 
 
 O O OS O 
 
 > 
 
 
 A^. 
 
 o o 
 
(N too ;c 
 
 •^ 1^ 2 ''" 
 
 ro X o 
 
 
 if; 
 
 5S 
 
 c5 
 
 O X 
 
 ^fr'*i-fr 
 
 C c3 
 
 'o C 
 
 c o 
 
 K go 
 
 > > 
 
 02 
 
 Ori2 
 d OC GQ 
 
 jfr-w-ri 1-H ri j^o X 'O X 
 lo i-H f-^ ri 
 
 
 
 Qo 
 
 0; 
 a: 
 
 C 
 
 o 
 H 
 
 <A 
 
 X 
 
 2 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 o" 
 
 s^o s 
 
 a 
 Q o E 
 
 ;5 p— ct X c 
 
 -1^^ 
 
 . - 1^ i — 
 
 ^ CI. > g.^ 
 "S c '15 S^ a; 
 
 O O 
 
 
 .£ C -43 O - 
 
 /; (E fc. -; O 
 
 a^-"? a £ ;: 
 
 .^^ c s ^ ^ 
 
 <^ I— < ^-^ i-i- r- 
 
 < 
 Q 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 I— t 
 
 I— H 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 u 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 < 
 
 CD 
 
 
 8 
 
 S 
 S 
 
 S 
 
 i;T! 
 
 5 -"^^ 
 ?rrr9 
 
 ^ -= I ?' I 
 
 '- i-O xo 
 
 X 
 
 ^ 
 
 X 
 
 y. 
 
 i /i •^ 
 
 — .3 ^- — 
 
 r", "-- 5 M s 
 
 •y. 
 
 - , ^ ^ M c o 
 
 K 
 
 
 c ? o-^*i 
 
 ^ C' 
 
 , ^ i: rt cs . o « t 
 
fc 
 
 
 . 
 
 o 
 
 
 J 
 
 w 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 •8 
 
 w 
 
 
 I 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 s 
 
 
 £ 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 .2 
 
 Q 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 • 
 
 < 
 Q 
 
 1 
 
 w 
 
 < 
 
 • •» 
 
 Q 
 
 :z 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 <: 
 
 
 H 
 
 Q 
 
 1 
 
 O 
 
 iz; 
 
 o 
 
 :z; 
 
 < 
 
 
 HH 
 
 
 o 
 
 P-. 
 1— ( 
 
 
 Ah 
 
 HI 
 CO 
 
 PQ 
 W 
 
 • 
 
 
 :d 
 
 S 
 
 in 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 
 0) 
 
 
 
 P^ 
 
 
 <y 
 
 O 
 
 
 •s 
 
 Ph 
 
 
 ■e 
 
 1^ 
 
 • 
 
 o 
 
 HH 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 (/5 
 
 
 •4X 
 OD 
 
 H 
 
 
 TS 
 
 p^ 
 
 fl 
 
 J 
 
 O 
 
 . 
 
 « 
 
 Ph 
 
 
 • 
 
 Ph 
 
 X 
 
 
 • 
 
 W 
 
 
 O* 
 
 CSI 
 
 3 
 
 CO 
 
 <s 
 
 SOOgiOOlO 
 OQOOO 
 O O O <M I> 
 
 off:iooo 
 
 O p ,-H CT> 
 
 CO 
 
 OQ 
 
 o 
 
 '4 
 OQ 
 
 Q 
 
 oo^ 
 
 o o 
 
 OQ 
 
 to aQ_ 
 ■M +j rrt 
 
 u u, ii 
 
 2 2* 
 
 « a 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 en 
 
 CD 
 
 a 
 5o 
 
 o o 
 
 0) 
 
 CG 
 
 '^ o T-< o o c^ o 
 
 CO o lyD O O -^ CO 
 "^ O ID O l^ I— I t^ 
 
 r-i 00 
 
 'Is'" 
 
 05 
 
 o " 
 
 o 
 
 p^ 
 
 m cs 
 
 o 
 
 >• o 
 
 t^ m u 
 
 OQ 
 
 u 
 
 o 
 
 O 03 
 
 m 
 
 o o a> 
 
 Ph 
 
 be a» 
 
 cs (h 
 
 a a* 
 
 Ph 
 
 ,0 !» 
 
 
 0) 
 
 2 oj 
 
 9) 
 
 O OQ 
 OQ fl) 
 
 t; > 
 
 
 »H 50 »- 
 
 O.'i-l 
 
 
 Q PTi :^ e^ ^ ^ ^ x: J3 
 
 
 O <0 
 
 o 
 
 Pi 
 
 0) 
 QQ 
 
 111 -M 
 
 H«0 
 
■4^ 4^ .4^ -f^ 
 ^ IH «M U 
 
 o o o o 
 
 O4 O. &. Oh 
 X ^ l>< >< 
 
 m m m m 
 
 Ih ~ U h 
 
 0000 
 
 Cu C^ Cl. cu 
 
 d >< a « 
 
360 
 
 STATliJnCS. 
 
 STATISTICS OF MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIKS 
 
 OF OUEBEC. 
 
 \\\>ulcii ( iooil«, yiU 
 (yuttoii Faoton«?8 
 
 1861. s 
 
 3,827,008. 
 
 . . 1880. . 
 
 • • 
 
 7 
 
 1882. 
 
 2 J 
 
 Out Mills 
 
 12 
 
 4.>0 
 
 810 
 
 SS 
 
 ■ 47 
 
 .") 
 
 214 
 
 «;o 
 
 Hi 
 
 . 7 
 
 2.-I 
 
 ()0 
 
 tories 14 
 
 302 
 
 
 t'loiii" and (hist Millti 
 
 • 
 
 
 Stiv Mills 
 
 
 
 (Warding ami Fulling Mills 
 Woolen Factories 
 
 
 
 
 
 I )istillerit's 
 
 19 
 
 , 
 
 Tuunciies 
 
 
 Fouutlries 
 
 
 
 Bi'c\\ flies 
 
 
 
 Kdgo Tool Faetoiies 
 
 ('a l)inet Factories * 
 
 
 
 
 • • • . ( . 
 
 ( 'aniage Factories 
 Agricultural Implement Fac 
 Miscellaneous Factories 
 
 
 
 
 . ' :■ 
 
 
 
 liutton Factories 
 
 
 47 
 
 (/heese Factories 
 
 
 
 '. ' 278- 
 
 Tobacco Factoiics 
 
 
 ■ 7;')!), 000 
 S4,4S4,000 
 .2;0!>6,000 . 
 
 
 Tol)acco Manufactured, Ihs 
 
 
 
 F'xport of Manufactures 
 Distilled Si)irits, gals 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 SELECTED ITEMS OF INTEREST ON 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 In 1064 wheat nas sown in Canada for the first time; farmers carried arms 
 to defend themselves from sa\ages. It was not until 1854 that the feudal system 
 was abolished; under this system the farms were burdened with enormous taxes. 
 Total number of Helds in '~A wiis 2,220, possess«d by 1 10 Leigneui's and about 
 72,000 renters; the area occupied vas 12,828,000 acres, half of which was rentetl. 
 Number of acres under cultivation in '01 was 13,128,000. In 1852, Quebec had 
 244,000 under wheat; 955,000 under oats; 75,000 under buckwheat; 139^000 under 
 barley; 83,000 under rye; 15,000 under corn; 118,000 under potatoes. Nation- 
 ality: The F'rench Canadian gain in Montreal has increased from 53 to 50 per 
 cent.; if they rule the city its rapid progress will end. Manufactures: A St* 
 John tomato canning factory put up 23,000 cans in 1882. The capital of Quebec's 
 cotton factories in 1 882 was !$2,000,000. In a woolen factory at Sherbrooke, the 
 output of cloth is 800,000 yds per year; in it 000 hands ai'e employed and over 
 800, 00 lbs. of wool is used The wool is all imported; Canadian wool being too 
 long to make nice cloth or neat, smooth finish necessary; for popular goods Cape 
 wool is used, which diminishes half in cleaning and working. Sherbrooke has 
 also a flannel mill, employing Ho hands, with an output of 300,000 yds. The 
 largest knitting factory in Canada is at Chaticock, it turns out 400 dozen shirts 
 ana drawers per week. Since the recent extension of Valleyfield cotton factory, 
 
STATISTICS. 361 
 
 1,231 hands ^ro employed; tlie new Reutiun will bo devoted to the manufacture 
 of colored 'ind dyed g.K)dd, hitherto not inudo in Canada. A Canadian cheese 
 factory received I,4>'.>,0JJ lbs. of milk and made 14J,UJJ lbs. of cheese; average 
 amount of mdk to make a pound of chjes ;, ll)-3J Ibd. In Canada 2,030,000 ft. of 
 luiiDJt- 14 a.iaiiilly nuaiit'ajtiu'^d. MiiJella.iejiH prjd.uts, stutidCijs and facta 
 fnun the yoar 1817 to I8t). — 'Jiaada'd oxj)>rti of fur ranked next to thoieof tim- 
 ber; tliQ fur consisted of bear, stag, elk, deer, fox, martin, wild<cat, mink, a great 
 variety of the weazel spjciis, bjavor and ottor. Tiie agg'regate value of tlio trade 
 wa^ l.)0,03J pounds Hterling, annually according to the < caprice of fashion. 
 Another articlj of export for that pariod was pot and pear a.nh.. , 1,000,000 lbs. 
 turkey is frozen annually in Canada and Maine for New York markets. Many 
 be'J keepers in Canada feed their bees for a part of the winter on sugar. Review 
 of Canada's wars and rebellions. — In 1007 war between the Frenqhand Indians; 
 in 1020 Quebec surrendered to the English; in 10.S2 Englan<I renounces all claims 
 to New France; in 1({4() Inilians destroy muny French settlements; Krench mili- 
 tary force in 1U87, 2,(K)0; in 1090 the Indians destroy Montreal; same year the 
 French and their Indian allies destroy many EiigUsli settlements and villages; 
 in KiOOSirVV. Philipps an<l Iket attacked Quebec and lost 1,000 men. The 
 English and French at this time paid the savages high premiums for the scalps of 
 Freiichmen and Englishmen; same year the Fiench defeated 700 English before 
 Montreal; Kostonians commence tiie subjngatiun of Acadia; The Frei^ch armtd 
 force on the St. Lawrence river now numbered 4 800; the English teiiit. a fjeet 
 and 4,000 infantry against them, but a storm destroyed a part of the fleet; the 
 Frencli had 100 cannons on the ramparts of Quebec. In 1720 the English and 
 French fortiHed stragetic places on the lake frontier of Canada; in 1745 a war 
 broke out between England and France; the French and savages of Canada in 3 
 years made 27 raids on English settleuients. In 1750 Marquis Montcalm arrived 
 in Canada with 1,400 men and 1,.S00,000 in specie; the whole French army num- 
 btyed 12,000; in 1759 adilitional forces were sent from France; in all the early 
 engagements the French were successful; in 1758, the 5th year of the war, the 
 forts '^\intenac, Duquense and others surrended to the English, as a whole, how- 
 ever, the French were superior to them in military glory. Towards the close of 
 tlie war the French forcas numbered 15,033, the Knglish 30,030; the Frencii were 
 defeated, the Governor and 3,000 French people returned to France, the remaiur 
 der became British subjects. During the American revolution. Quebec was un- 
 8Ucc3saftiHy attacked by the 'Americans; front 1S12 to 1814 there was desultory 
 warffire along the American and Canadian borders, in which the Americans were 
 generally the losers. From 1832 to 1837 portions of Canada were in a state cf 
 rebellion; in the most serious engagement 100 men were killed and 370 wounded. 
 A cartridge factory has been started at Quebec by the Dominion Government 
 which manufactures 50,000 cartridges a day. In 1804, British North America 
 posaesd^^d 533,033 man capable of bearing arms, but had only at that period 
 30,000 militia, on account of the apathy of the government and people to keep a 
 militia organization in a proper condition. Revenue, Debt, Expenditure and 
 Financial Review of Canada. — In 1832 revenue $2,003,000, expenditure $2,058,- 
 000; in 1862 revenue $12,293,000, expemliture $13,290,003, debt $70,935,000; 
 rev. in '80, $33,300,000, exp. $27,000,000. Quebec crown lands in '82, $1 ,000,0CO 
 The Dominion subsidy to tne Quebec government under theB.N.A.act is $969,000, 
 Quebec's debt in'82, $15,000,000, chidfly incurred in rly enterprise. Since the debris 
 of the crash of '75 has been cleared away, there has been a super abundance of 
 capital seeking iuvestmeut in Canada. The great increase in wealth as indicated 
 
 46 
 
362 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 l)y bank deposits was the outcome of the economy forced upon the peop'^ Hy the 
 depression of 1875 to 1878, and the bountiful harvests ot 1879-80 81; but the 
 totore of capital has been drawn upon in the establishment of new enterprises, ex- 
 tension of foreign and home trade, land investments and railway construction. 
 A comparison of the banks in Canada in Sept. 1881 and 1882 will show the occa- 
 sion of the advance in the rate of interest: Due by banks in Canada to banks in 
 the U. S. Sept. 1881, $90,982; in 1882, $62,422. Due banks in the United 
 Kingdom in 1881, $1,447,174; in 1882, $2,205,208. Circulation in 1881, $27,481,- 
 000; in 1882, $1^1,458,000. Quebec dep its in 1881, $83,418,000; in 1882, $99,- 
 734,000. Specis in 1881, $6,205,000; in 1882, $7,621,000. Dominion notes in 
 1881, $10,540,000; in 1882, 11,545.000. Due from banks in Canada in 1881, $7,- 
 621,000; in 1S82, 99,430,000. Due from banks in the U. S. in 1881. $19,388,000; 
 in 1882, $14,371,000. Due from banks in the United Kingdom in 1881, $4,285,- 
 000; in 1882, $1,144,000. Advances on stocks and bonds in 1881, $I0,205,0(K); 
 in 1882, $15,931,000. Commercial discounts in 1881, $10,205,000; in 1882. $152,- 
 080,000. The cash reserves of the banks including specie, dominion notes and 
 balance due from other banks in 1882 was $44,511,00); in 1881, $47,967,000. In 
 the foreign exchanges in 1881 the balance in favor of Canada was $22,188,000; 
 in 1882 only $13,344,000; on the other hand loans have rapidly increase<l, the 
 discounts of '82 exceeding those of '81 by the large sum of $29,555,000. A free 
 trade paper says, the old Canadian tariff in '81 wouUl have yiekled enough to 
 meet the ordinary expenses of the Dominion government. The large surplus of 
 over $6,000 for '82 represents so much over taxation. The capital of 13 leading 
 Canadian banks amounts to $41,570,000; discounts, $1,113,000; liabilities of 
 directors, $6,638,000- From >gistered letter department in 1871, the Canadian 
 •government received $367,000, and in '81, $841,000. The deposits in M(mtreal 
 District Savings Bank in Dec. '82 amounted to $6,000,000 deposited by 26.000, 
 depositors. The first year protection was in force the Canadian receipts only 
 amounted to $23,307,000 against an expenditure of $24,850,000, which the Lil^r- 
 erals noticed with great jubilation, but the years '80-'81 placed a different face 
 on the matter, the receipts running up to $29,635,000 against an expenditure of 
 $25,502,000. It gives Canadians satisfaction to see a decrease of $61,000 in the 
 imports of Montreal Port in Dec. '81. Canadian revenue for Nov. '82: Customs, 
 $1,820,000; excire $054,000; postoflice 107,000; public works, including rlys., .34,- 
 800; misscellaneous 166,000, total $3,099,000. The following is a statement of the 
 value of goods that entered the Dominion for consumption for the month of Oct. 
 '82, exclusive of British Columbia: total dutiable goods $7,648,000; free goocls 
 2,955,000; coin and bullion except as coin $6,161. Statement of the banks of 
 Canada for Nov. '82: capital paid up $60,930,000; Dominion government deposit 
 $8,891,000; provincial government deposits $2,160,000; deposits to secure con- 
 tracts $152,000; public deposits $97,052,000; loans from other banks 1,367,000; 
 due banks in Canada $1,267,000; due banks in the U. S. 162,404; due banks in 
 the United Kingdom 1,992,000; other liabilities $551,374; assets, specie 
 $6,648,000; Dominion notes 11,025,000; notes from other banks $6,893,000; due 
 from banks in other countries 12,09,000; due from banks in the United Kingdom 
 2,834,000; government debentures 1,021,000; foreign securities 1,479,000; loans 
 fo government 1,639,000; loans on stocks and bonds 15,834,000; loans to munci- 
 
 Eal corporations 2,154,000; loans to other corporations 11,162,000; loans to other 
 Einks 559,00; discounts current 445,696,000; disceunts over due unsecured 1,- 
 448,000; discounts over due, secured, $1,728, 000; real estate 1,398.000; mortgage 
 dn estate sold 746,000; bank premises 3,102,000; other assets $2,251,000; total 
 
STATISTICS. 363 
 
 $233,203,000; directors liabilities 9,354; expenditures for Quebec government for 
 '81 : public debt 82»,UJU; legiaiatiuu $^37,134; civil government $179,000; udniin- 
 iaLiuiioii ot justice ^ySU.OOU; police otficiuis, Quebec and Muatiui, lo,uOO; rciurui- 
 utuiies 44,000; inapectiunot public ottices, travelling expenses, etc. ,9,800; educatii u 
 342,000; spjcial lU>nian Catholic educational fund for schools of art and scientea 
 oOO; literary and scientific institutions l^J.-'^OOi boards of art and manufactures. 
 10,000; agriculture 97,000; immigration and repropriation 14,000; colonizatioa 
 8,240; public works and buildings 1,212,63; charaties 298,299, miscellaneous 27,- 
 199; pension fund 8,385; muncipalitics tund 144,000; Crown land department 
 102,126; Quebec ofiiciid gazette 13,776; stamps, licenses, etc,, 2,724; special po-, 
 lice revenue purposes 4,146; marriage licenses 6,000; loan to Papist fathers 10,-' 
 000; payment of revenue oflicera out of collections made by them 16,306; Quebec^ 
 Ottawa, Montreal and accidental rly. expenses, trattic, etc., 7i.3,0OO; repayments 
 of temporary loans 871,000; consolidated rly. fund 911,000; deduct warrants out-* 
 standing 3,082, balance $379,000. In '83 the debt of the Dominion was $200,000,- 
 000; some papers say that Eastern Canadians are looking up too much capital 
 in tiie North-West an«t that it"may bring on a financial crisis. The Dominica-, 
 government spent on government bon<is in '82 $511,852. The Canadian Indian 
 fund held in trust for Indians amounts to $3,147,000. Canada's total imports for 
 1883, $91,611,000; of which $36,704,000 was from the U. S., in 1880 Canada bad 
 311 banks, in '68 Canada had 81 postottices; saving banks, in '81,304 with $4,175,-: 
 000; <leposits in 1880 had 5,600 postotfices. Canada's exports in June '83, $10,- 
 173,526; imports 9,090,000; Internal revenue $504,228; Eastern receipts 368,181..' 
 Excise Dominion of Canada, statement of tobacco manufactures and duties occur- 
 ing on them in 1880; amount paid in licenses $6,500; cigar duty 174,391; snuff 
 duty 21,784; duty collected on manufactory 268,780; duty on goods warehouse<> 
 1,528,000; tobacco duty $1,549,182; total duty 1,766,000. The payments of 
 the Canadian government in '80 were 53,284,000. Revenue of Canada for th«j 
 month of August '82: from spirits $219,000, seizures 22,490; spirits from barley 
 55,? t; malt 22,179; tobacco 173,000; coal oil inspection 1,957; products of man-r 
 ufacture 2,762. other receipts 1,909; canals 53,504; lumber inspection 9,478; rent 
 of hydraulic and other powers $692; public works of least importance $209; in- 
 spection of weights and measures 1,731; inspection of gas 375. In '77 the re- 
 ceipts of Canada's registry postal department was $;i67,438; in '81 $841,497, 
 The new Parliament House in Quebec is to cost $300,000. Quebec's postotiicei 
 revenue in '80 $448,351; expenditure $559,412. Labor, land and produce :nar-. 
 ket of Canada; the price of cereals in '81: Fall wheat 8lct8. a oushel to $1.35j 
 (Spring wheat $1.34; barley 90cts., peas 75, oats 42. In 1882 wheat <vas$l,15,' 
 Spring wheat $1.20, barley 75, peas 75, oats 35. The decline of price mi barley: 
 and wheat made a loss of $11,000, to the farmers of Ontario. A raft of pinft 
 timber 350,000 ft. in Quebec in '82 sold for $100,700; 17,622 square ft. on ISher-. 
 brooke st. Montreal soM for 87ct8. a foot; a corner store on Boncventure st. Mon-; 
 treal, for $4,000. Tlie following are the salaries of Montreal's tire brigade; to 
 the chief 1,800, to sub-chiefs $1,300; engineers 700, fireman $550. The demand 
 in '83 for skillcvl labor is such that it cannot be supplied at home, hence employ-; 
 ers are obliged to advertise in English papers. Stock in store in Montreal oui 
 Dvjc. 6th '82; wheat 223,705 bus'^^ls; corn 8,000, peas 21,934, oats 68,744, bar-; 
 ley 5,594, rye 2, 182, flour, bariels j7,844, oat meal 265 barrels* A Quebec cheese, 
 factory sold its cheese in '82 at, from 11 to 15cts. a lb.; Tommy cods in Montreal 
 in '83 at $1 u birrel; in '59, 134,000 acres were sold in Quebec for $76,960; in '63' 
 279,993 acres for $154,983. The Quebec public lands are sold under three desig-. 
 
5^4 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 nntionH brown, cVergy and school lands. Exports of tho dominion of Canada for 
 1880, $87,911,451. Value of ^oods entered for consumption $71,782,349. And 
 tride, commerce, shipping etc — from the yrs. 1817 to '40 tlie aggregate exports 
 of Canada, including the Ireight of a portion of the lumber exported in Canadian 
 built vessels, amounted to $4,000,000 annually, and in the same period Can- 
 ada imported from Gt. Britain a supply of manufacture<l and Asiatic products to 
 the amount of $7,000,000 annually; from May to August '85 Allan steamers 
 teok 4,499 oxen, to 4 horses and 3,445 sheep from Montreal to England; dur- 
 ing 3 months ending Sept. '82 there were 100 failures in Canada m ith liabilities 
 amounting to $1,7 15,000 against 130 last yr. same period with $787,000 lial)ilities. 
 Total receipts of flour in Canada from Ist Jan. '82 to 4th of Oct. '82—590,470 l>rl8. 
 8ame period in '81 — 613,051 brls. Apple shipments from Montreal for the season 
 of '82—45,981 brls. Eastern Canada in '82 shipped to WiKnipe/r $2,000,000 worth 
 of goods; groceries 1,500,000; libuor 3,000; settlers eftVcts 008,400; machinery 
 and implements $1,000,000; manufactures of leather 200,000; hardware 2,000.000; 
 miscellaneous goods 4,500,000, comprising lumber, ready made houses, briad- 
 Btutf, furniture,animals. When nature formed Lachine rapids she decreed tliat Mon- 
 treal should torm the head of nj^vigation. Quebec's lumber trade for '82, 12,005,- 
 240 ft.; in '81, 11,333,900 ft.; in '80, 27,190,700 ft.; in '79, 7,708,240 ft.; in '78,- 
 11,999,700 ft. In '82, 227,040 was of ash, 213,080 of birch, 1,959,700 eak, 778,- 
 360 elm, square timber, white pine, waney, 912,160; red pine 1,024,, 680 ft. In 
 '82 Quebec received in rafts, 5,935,977 standard of pine; in '81, 0,973,529; in '80, 
 9,023,393: in '79, 7,054,719 standard of pine and spruce; in '78, 3,092,990 of pine 
 alone. Before the estahlishment of the reciprocity treaty in 1854 the average 
 transacLions between Canada and the U. S. w«re $14,000,000 per annum. '1 lie 
 2nd year after reciprocity was in force, the 'trade between the two countries 
 to over $40,000,000, and the year before the Afcroga tion of the treaty they were 
 $84,670,955. The Canadian people have adopted retalitory measures, but the 
 fact that during the existence of the treaty th*; people of Canada ))ought from 
 the U. !S. $346,180,364, and the U. S. purchased from Canada, $325,726,200, 
 which was a great proof in favor of reciprocity. The amount of grain shipped 
 from Montreal in '82 has been 8,600,099 bushels; in '81, 13,00 »,000, and the 
 average for the past 10 yeiirs, 13,000,000; of the amount of '81, 0,332,538 M'as 
 wheat and 3,334,078 of corn. Amount of goods entered at Port Montreal in '81, 
 $35,918,935; duty collected, $7,027,139; in '82, $40,644,581. Receipts of Quebec 
 government in '81, $5,263,273 as follows: Balance in banks in June, '81, Domin- 
 ion of Canada subsidy and interest on trust funds, $1,014,712; Province of 
 Ontario, interest on common school fund, $25,000; Crown land department, 
 $800,473; Department of justice, $233,715; Public officers, $9,084; License 
 hotels, ships, etc, , $244,010; Legislation, $9,734; Lunatic asylums, $2,907; Que- 
 bec? 'Official Calotte, $20,988; Public works, buildings, rents, etc., $960; Casual 
 revenue, $1,418; Superannuated teachers, $18,483; Quebec city fire loan, $1,160; 
 Municipal loan fund' tiif 'Lower Canada, $554,146; Trust funds, 0,784; Repayments 
 Beaufort asylum proprietors, $6,000; St. Jean de Dieu asylum interest, G,C00, 
 refnnds, $6,823; Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental railway revenue, $1,- 
 024,994; Temporary loans from the Bank of Montreal, 600,000; from Quebec 
 Central railway, returned aubsid}' and guarantee de^iosit, 000,849; Canadian 
 debentures advanced in 4 years 12 per cent. The receipts of the Richelieu and 
 Ontario Navigation Company for '82 were $504,220; its disburseuients, $18,420. 
 The company paid 2 dividends in the year of 3 jer cent. Total value of fuis 
 eold by thy Hudson Bay Company since organization, $120,000,000, In '83' Can- 
 
STATISTICS. 365^ 
 
 ada exported $25,000,000 worth of lumber; in 1850 Canada exported 2,035,000 
 bushelsof oats, 1,700,000 of rye, 090,803 ot ptas, nearly 12,000,000 of wheat 
 and 427,0i)7 bbls. tijur. The following is the value of the exportation and im- 
 portation of the Canadian Province since their confederation in '08: Exports in 
 '00, $60,474,700; imports, l!?70,4I5,000; Custom receipts, $8,298,000; in '70, ex- 
 ports $73,573,000; imports, $123,070,000; Custom receipts, $15,301,000; in '81, 
 exports $98,290,000; imports, $10.3,330,840; Custom receipts, $18,700,000. Kx- 
 ports of the Port of Quebec in '80, $0,448,097, its imports $0,242,775. Hospi- 
 tals, disease, mortality, etc. — Notre Dame hospital during '81, treated 876 
 patients, 408 males and 408 femab's; at the general dispensary attached to the 
 hospital, 3,084 patients were treated, and at tiie eye and ear dispensary, 778; 
 total, 4,791. The number of beds occupied in the Montreal general hospital 
 averages 150. At the Montreal dispensary |0,000 patients are treated annually; 
 the expenditure for the last quarter of '83 was $10,3^35; number of patients re- 
 maining iu the hospital from last quarter of '83, 121; number admitted during 
 the quarter, 501; number of patients discharged, 452; deaths 32; number cured 
 during the quarter, 484; number outdijor consultations during last quarter 1542 
 males, 1 145 females; eye and ear consultation?, 1,330. Th ore were 40 oases of 
 typhoid fever during the quarter, 3 fatal. In '01,379 were admitted and 330 
 discharged from the Lunatic Asylums of Canada, East aiid West. In Canada 
 $7,750,000 is paid annually to Eire Insurance companies; rate of insurance 110; 
 in France it is only 010; in the U. S. 090; ratio of population insured, 30 i'l Can- 
 ada, 15 in U. S. and 75 in France. Canada's loss by fire annually, $41,000; loss 
 annually per inh. $230; in the U. S. $105. Some of Canada's j»atioiial sports. — 
 Lacrosse is one of Canada's national sports; it is an Indian game; an Irish Mon- 
 treal team are the champions of the world; Canada has a chess association. At 
 Montreal carnival in 1883, tobagganing, curling, skating on innnense rinks on 
 the St. Lawrence; an ice palace costing $2,000, lit with electric light; snow- 
 shoeing, a steeple chase, torch light processions, trotting races, lacrosse matches, 
 excursions on the ice railway and other novelties were the order of the day. The 
 close season for all sorts ot deer in the Province of Quel ec is from Jan. 1st to 
 Sept. 1st; partridge, from Jan. Ist to Sept 15th; close season for wild ducks and 
 geese, from 1st of May and 15th of Sept. to 15th of April a^id Ist Sept; close sea- 
 son for insectiveroas and all other birds excepting eagles, hawks, wild pigeons, 
 crows ravens, wax wings and shrike, from 1st of Marcli and l.<*t 01 May to Ist of 
 March and 1st Sept. To slide down a hill over unbeaten snow a tobaggon is a 
 decided success, but on a well beaten track it figures like a scow with a shell 
 boat placed alongside of the "Ameaican Bab." The department ol fisheries in 
 '82 decided to brmg in use a lish ladder to be used In sabnon streams which will 
 do away with the necessity of maintaining hatcheries. ■ After many poor years 
 the Canadian fisheries produced in '82 $14,504,000 worth of fish. Religion. — 
 Eritncis I of France justly rebelled against the Pope forgiving to Spain the wliole 
 Continent of America. The intestine wars which existed between the Catholics 
 and Hugenots in France gave rise to the proscription of Protestants in the FrcncH^ 
 colonies of America. Dt Monts, a Calvinist and a favorite of Henry the IV, was 
 allowed the free exercise his religion for himself and his followers, on condition 
 that he should establish the Catholic religion among the natives. In 1000, the 
 ecclesiastical authorities in France endowed a number of conventional institu- 
 tions in Canada. The island of Montreal was granted religious orders, who 
 erected numerous convents on it. The Viceroy of Canada hav^ing entered the 
 holy orders, his chief aim was to couve:t the natives; for this purpose he sent 3 
 
366 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 Jesuits and 2 lay brothers to join the 4 Recollects at Quebec; these were the 
 uuiy priests tbuu in Canada. Cardinal Richelieu now revoked the privileges of 
 the liugunots and ordered that all emigrants to Canada should be native J?rench- 
 men and i{x>niau Cutholies. and tliat no stranger or li<:rt!tic sliouiU be intri^duced 
 into Canada. In 1044 tlie French inissionurictt began to combine with tneir le* 
 ligious ettbrts political objects ami employed all their iutluence iu furthering 
 tiencl) power. In 1002 the governor and bishop had a dispute which ixsuiled 
 in the recall of the former. In 1080 (.Quebec was constituted a bishopric and in 
 the Governor, Xntendant, Bishop and military c: cers were centered all power 
 legislative, executive and judicial. I'he bisliop and the clergy were all poweiful 
 and the power of the Kccleoiustial court was not uuf requentiy employed in reg- 
 ulating and controlling the civil tribunals. Canada was cousiitutuil an a|jostoiic 
 vicarte in 1057 and became an Episcopal 6ce in 1074. In lOdUthe Cutliolic clergy 
 passed from the hands of the-ilesuits into those of the secular prieslhood; 1:^0 
 of the products of tiie soil was ordered to l)e paid to the clergy which is still the 
 case iii'82. 'J'he most complete religious liberty was grantcil the l^rench after their 
 conquest by England. During the American revoiuiio.i the Catholic bishop of 
 Canada addressed a cyclical letter to his Canadian pttple exhorting them to be 
 true to British rule and repel the American invaders. Aiie Canadian constitution 
 of 1774 conHrmed French civil procedure, guarantee*! the tre« exercise of the Ko- 
 man Catholic religion and sanctioned the payment of tithes. In I'iiU!) an Engluh 
 Protestant bishop was stationed at Quebec. In 1804 Canada had 140 priesii'. In 
 Quebec in 1800 there were 580,000 Catholics. Methodist church of Canada has 
 one general Conference for the Dominion, composed of ministers aiul lu^Uien lu 
 equal numbers, which meet once in 4 years for Icuislative purposes only. 'Ihere 
 are Conferences which meet in the Dominion annually for the general revieM' of 
 pastoral work, but are incapable of any legislative act and are composed of minis* 
 ters only, every ordained minister being a member of some one ol them. Every, 
 minister must change his pastoral charge in H years. These exclianges are ar- 
 ranged by a committee composed of ministers only, 2 from each district called tlie 
 stationing committee. The children of dticeased or superanuated Methodist min- 
 isters receive ^'20 a year till 18 years of age. In 'S'2. the Methodist church of Can- 
 ada spent ^184,203 tor Indian, French aud foreign missions, and ^52.000 on home 
 missions. There are 4 Methodist bodies in Canada: Methodist church of Can- 
 ada 582,902; Episcopal Methodists 103,372; Bible Christians 27,230; Trimitive 
 Methodists 25,080. 'J'he idea of an organic union of the 4 Methodist churches of 
 Caiif.da had been steadily growing and tliere has been proposed coiicessions by 
 each of the bodies. In 1743 in Montreal a French soldier for disrespect to a c?u- 
 citix was led tlirough the streets with a halter around his neck and njade kneel 
 before the door of a church and humbly confess his profanity of holy things, alter 
 which he was sentenced to 3 years hard labor on the king» galleys. The nuiiiia 
 of the Pope in '82 had many of Montreal's citizens in its ranks. The reteipt^and 
 expenditures of the Angelican church of Canada in '82 about balanced. Bete pts 
 from Montreal subscriptions |4,403; county t >ib8criptJonsit2,433; from the society 
 for the propogation of the gospel in foreign parts $4,490; miscellaneous $550; in- 
 terest on sustentation fund $2,702; c'ergy trust $1,154. Amongst its expendi- 
 tures itpaid $9,520 to pensioners and to missionaries $4,413. By a Canon of 
 Synod in 'S2 Deacons are to receive $500, Priests under 10 years study $000. The 
 revenue of the Fabrigue of Montreal is steadily decreasin^^ Ihe biKiiop published 
 the following in '82: "To remove the Fabrigucs debt the Holy name of Cod .s 
 invoked; we have ruled, enacted and ordered as follows: Each family in our p.-.r- 
 
STATISTICS. 367 
 
 ishes will pay annually for the extinction of the debt of the Fabrigue of Notie 
 Dame the auin of $J; every Catholic of 18 years and over earning a salary or pro- 
 viding for his own maintenance will pay for the same purpose $1. The Presby-' 
 terian church of Canada has 42 ordained missionaries amongst the French of 
 Qaebsc; 41 mission day school teachers; 11 colporteurs; 4 Bible wouien; total 
 number emp'oyed in mission work 113. The work is carried on at 90 preaching 
 stations having $ church membership of 3,180, andan average artendmice of 6,401; 
 it has also 4S 8abbath schools with 1,930 scliulars; 23 institutes and day bciiools 
 with 827 pupils. 31 of which are tlieological students. In '82 Ottawa and Mont- 
 real Bible societies distributed 3,095 bibles. A Protestant missionary soys: "The 
 Protestant churcl)ts of Canada liave a coumion interest and should combine in 
 one Congress so us to fulfill as one body the grand commission of the church uni- 
 versal. Another M'riter maintains that the divided front of Protestantism does 
 not retard chriartian conquest in foreign lands so long as the liunian mind is con- 
 stituted as ii; is there is real necessity for diverse centers of religious thought." 
 Another writer said, "Better the clear and eniphatic decluratirms of belief at 
 present extant than the mute and meaningless attitude of the proposed organic 
 union." Some of the Fench papers in Quebec hope that if the French monarchy 
 is restored the Pope will regain his temporal power. Form of government, pol 
 itics, legislation, taxation, national usages, etc. In early times Canada was divi- 
 ded in 3 districts, Montreal, Quebec and Three rivers, and a governor located in 
 each. In 1G<)1 a judge was appointed over all matters in tho colony called a 
 "grand seneschel. " In consequence of abuse of power this system was remodelled 
 and a sovereign council appointed, which consisted of governor general, intendent, 
 bishop, attorney general, and .5 councillors, afterwards 12. Various courts were 
 constituted. In 1717 Uii admiralty court was established; this system was con- 
 tinued till 1760. Till 16 >3 the ,/overnor had exercised in person and without con- 
 trol all the functions of the government but Louis created Canada into a royal 
 goveriunent with a council and intendant, to whom should be intrusted the 
 mighty affairs of justice, police, finance and marine. Under the royal jurisdiction 
 the governor, a kings conmiissioner, an apostolic vicar and 4 other gentlemen, 
 were formed into a sovereign council, to these were confined the powers of cogniz- 
 ance in all cases civil or criminal, to judge in the last resort according to the laws 
 and maimers of France. Its governors on state occasions were surrounded by a 
 body guard, valets and pages. In 1721 mails were conveyed betwoen Quebec and 
 Montreal. The French were so gi atified with the change they experienced in 
 coming under British rule, thut when George II. died all the French in Canada 
 of any distijiction went into mourning. At the time of its conquest the French 
 government owed the Canadian people 41,000,000 francs, little of which was 
 ever paid, The Canadians submitted to the stamp and otiier duties of the 
 British government. In the year 1775 a code of laws was promulgated 
 in Canada which combined, with the same modifications the Civil code of France 
 and the criminal laws of England. After the Popes Bull of 1773 expelling che 
 Jesuits from France and other countries the English appropriated the present es- 
 tates in Canada to other uses. The Canadian government has frequent changes 
 since its conquest, martial law first, second, military sway, civil absolution, 3rd 
 and 4th an elective system; under the latter system in 1792 the House of Assttn- 
 blage in Canada East numbered 15 members and that of Canada West 16; while 
 the Legislative council of the latter, numbered 7, that of the former 15. Under 
 Lord Dochester Canada was divided into 2 provinces, Upper and Lower Canada, 
 and a legislature was established in each. The first Provincial Parliament met 
 
3^ 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 in Quebe3 in 1792 in which the French were in a large majority. In 1840 Upper 
 and Lower Canada were united, and its legislature) consisted ut tiie governcr gen- 
 eral and two Houses; the Legisiativu council and Legislative usseniljly. In oO 
 the qualiticatiou for voters in point lot tact almost amounts to univeteaiisuftrtige, 
 as 1 out of in the province hus, the puiA'er to vote from paying Jif^JoO unuuul iei>- 
 tal on owning u free-hold of IfelU yriy».'Valu^. In 184U tiie levenue nf( lUpper and 
 Lower Canada was £184,000, aujd.exfieiMliture £148,000. In 1841 Upper Canada 
 had 465,375 inhabitants; iiv. '51 -(^2,001; in '44 Lowur Canada had C1jO,78'2; in 'ol 
 890,*20l. The indemniiy of iQuebec memhers was rednctd to 500 in, '78, and 
 raised in '82 to 800. Tim Libtjral party of Quebec have tlebased theuiselves by 
 asking a testimonial of harndessness from the Pope to prevent the clergy from in- 
 terfering in tUe elections, and received the defeat th'6y deserved. The Quehec 
 government decided in 'ti2 to tax business corporations. A Quebec city uewK- 
 paper Bays: "our tradesnieti«ro.mu;ed, our rly. we «old to our adverBaiies, and 
 our city kept in the claws of a clique of manipulators." Thcequilibriyui between 
 the revenue and expenditure of Quebec should be restored betore its politicians 
 should subsidize all kinds of tjnterpi-ises from its treasury, for its debt is rapidly 
 increasing with annual deficits. Tlie new Insolvency act of Canada has had the 
 elTect of enabling merchants and tradesmen, some of them dishorn st, to settle 
 with their i;reditors for 50 and even 'iocts. on the dollar, and then sell those goods 
 in competition against honest merchants who pay cent for cent. The i ai^ional 
 policy of protection in '82 is doing good Vtork as a stimulant to inimigiation. 
 The amount of tine derived fi'om the Scott act attest that it is still in fo»«.e and 
 violated, but drinking is robbed of its respectability; the politicians of Quebec 
 in '82 want a larger income but are afraid to raise it by direct taxation, an«l have 
 imposed a tax of ^500 on all life insurance companies in 'the Province, $100 for 
 all insurance offices in Montreal and Qucljec, and $500 for all others elsewhere. 
 Use of flags by governors and colonies; 1st, the Royal standard shall he tiown 
 from the Government house on the Queen's birthday, and on the days of Her 
 Majesty's ascension and coronation; 2nd, the union Hag shall be flown without the 
 badge of the colony, at the Government house from sun rise to sun set on other 
 days; vird, the union flag with the approved arms or badge of the colony emblaz- 
 oned in the center thereof, surrounded by a green garlami, shall be useU by gov- 
 ernors or otticers administering the government of the colonies, or dependencies 
 when embarked in boats or other vessels; 4th, the British blue ensign with the 
 badge of the colony sn I blazoned thereon; the Hy and the pendant shall be tiown 
 by all armed vessels in the employment of the government of a colony; 5th,' the 
 ent*ign described in the preceding section but without the pendant shall be Hown 
 by vessels which belong to, or are in the service of a government of a colony but 
 are not armed; 0th, all other vessels registered as belonging to one of Her Majee- 
 t/'s colonies or dependent - will liy the red ensign without any badge. Thts 
 there are 2 distinct publi nsigns; for forts, public buildings or merthant \ et- 
 eels, there is no Canadian nag and we do not want one but we are proud of the priv- 
 elege to use in common with our fellow-subjects the world over the sacred emblem 
 of the indivisible and ever glorious British empire. The leader of the Quebec 
 opposition says in '83: "thatthereis a clause in the'confederation bargain that is ex- 
 ceedingly untair to Quebec; the clause fixing our Dominion subsidy at 80ctB. per 
 head perpetually on the basis of the population in '01, while all the other prov- 
 inces except Ontario were entitled to an increase of their subsidies on the increate 
 of their population, at such decennial census. In consequence of a long teim tf 
 corrupt adininstration of Quebec's government, the condition of the finances of 
 
STATISTIC?. 369 
 
 the province are aerious, not for its creditors but its people, who arc quite abl^ 
 and willing to pay its uebta. The Quebec utiiienibly in 'H'.i •» composed of 10 law* 
 yers, 13 fanners, 13m(3rchant8, 7 physicians, 7 notaries, 3 niunufacturers, 2 jouru- 
 alidis and 3 who belong to no particular profession. Knglish Quebec papers praise 
 the government's policy of iutroUuciug the wedge of direct taxation by muking 
 inuncipalities support their own prisoners, it makes every man in the muncipality 
 intercepted in the tnoraU of his neighhois. The Dondnioii government is going to 
 assinulate the electoral franchise in the diti'erent provinces. The higiiest Cmui- 
 dian «luty in '80 was 3a per ct. atl valorem, lowest f) per ct. ad val., and many 
 classes of goods were admitted free. Canada has 88 foreign consuls aud 2D0 
 from the U. S. ; in '82 Cnnacta had 6,171 postotiices; number of miles of routu 
 48,0J7; letters sent by post 66,200,000; postal cards 113,000,000; registered let 
 tors 2,430,0 jO; free letters 2,390,000; newspapers for 11 months of '82 11,005,- 
 000; circulars, patterns, miscellaneous articles 7,186,000; parcels by parcel post 
 304,000. In 1851 Canada had 601 postotiicee aixl 7,595; number of letters by 
 pos^ per annum 2,135,000; total revenue $230,020; total expenditure $276,191. 
 in '63, number of postotiices 15,327; number of letters 11,000,000; total revenue 
 $749,475; total expenditure 753,057. Area, physical features, climate etc. of 
 Canada and Quebec; total area of Quebec government lands 120,000,000, of which 
 in 1875 10,078000 weie in seignories; 10.153,000 in clergy lands; 29,386,240 
 acres leased nntler licenses to cut timber, leaving over 60,00 J,000 acres in wooded 
 lands. The province of Quebec occupies the river St. Lawerancefiom the Ottawa 
 river to the gulf of St. Lawerance, is very cjld in winter and has a hot dry sum- 
 mer. The valley of the 8t. Lawrence is exjeedingly fertile, but the north bank 
 east of the Sagheuey, owing to the severity of the climate is almost incapable of 
 cultivation, t^uebec's area in square miles 193,325; frost sets in about the mid- 
 dle of October, the Bun continuing to render the days mild and agreeable foi" 3 op 
 4 weeks, when snow storms set in which continue about 1 month M'ith variable 
 and hazy atmosphere, until the middle or end of December, when thewh' le coun- 
 try is covered with an average depth of from 3 to 4 ft. of rnow; an un variable 
 teaso*! now commences, an unintcruptedly clear sky for about 20 weeks; the ther- 
 mometer ranging for the most part of the time from 20 to 30 balow zero, when the 
 frost suddenly breaks in the course of a few days, about the end of April or Ist- 
 of May the snow tjuddenly disappears and in the short space of a month the most 
 luxurious verdure and veg*!tation spreads all over the land; the thermometer some- 
 times in June ranging fnmi 90 to 100 deg; through the Summer from 75 to 80. 
 Tiie advantage of Winter is that a horse can draw twice the weight 3 times the 
 distaiice on a snow road than it could draw on. the host constructed road; with 
 out snow timber could not be removed from the rough uneven forests. On Dec;' 
 18th '82 the Drst team crossed the ice on the river St. Lawrence near tie m uth 
 of thp Nicolet river, Feb. 10th '83 a snow blockade delayed the mails in the 
 province of Quebec. The winter of '83 was favorable to the Canadian farmt r, 
 snow being abundant, v/Iucli protected the roots of the graes from frost, snow is 
 also a great fertiliEer. Mean temperature in Montreal in '61, Jan. 18th, .Q 
 degrees above zero; Feb. 16th, 8 degrees; Mar. 8th, 95 degrees; April, 
 '41, 4 degrees; May, '56, 12 degrees; Jnnc, '69, 97 degrees; July, '71, 
 36 degrees; Aug. '71 » 4 degrees, Sept. '58, 56 degrees. Oct. '44, 50 degrees. 
 Nov. '32, 26 degs. Dec. ISth, 50 deg. The area of Canada, including Newfound- 
 land, is 3,476,742 sq. miles. Sir H. Allen, one of Canada's great men, died ia 
 '82: in 1831 he commenced to give his attention to the shipping trade; in, 185(J 
 lie contracted with the Canadian government to establish a fortnightly service to 
 
 47 
 
^3/0 STATISTICS. 
 
 bnd from Gt. Britain via the St. Lawrence when it was open, and monthly to 
 lind from l'ortlan<l during the winter. In lSd7 weekly service was coniineiiced. 
 'In addition to the mud hum Li\ ei ) ool lie iHtahli&lR'd a line ircm (ilusgow ; Le- 
 sides these lines of steiimships he and his friends ovi'ned a large licet ot sailing 
 •vessels. The Allen line grew until it htciime the lurgtst sttiimsliip coinj.uny in 
 the world. In 74 he received the honor of knighthood; ho w.-.s laesident of '22 
 'business compnides <luring his life. Statistics ot Montrtal: In l8o7 itf poj)ula- 
 "tion was 50,000; revenue Oi its skating rink in '81, $8,]H4; it has a ladies c«l»ica- 
 tionai association. During a week in '81 there were GO diaths, GO Catholics and 
 '0 Protestants. Montreal grocers that sell liquors pay a license of J;*200 a year, anil 
 •wholegnle tirnggists jay^lOO Montrud's ] oj ulation in >! was 140,082, an in- 
 creiise in 10 yeais of ;i.'i,4o7; Montreal's jaiish church seats 12,000; it has a 
 hidics benevolent society; C)4 persons were udmitttd in its heme in '82; total 
 'number in the home, 150; the cost of each inmate for the year was $45. 17. '1 ho 
 custom receipts for Montreal for the quarter ending (Sept. '82 amounted to $2,- 
 4595,000. There are over 80 Protestant churches in Montrtal; it has a grocers' 
 .'association, a ladies female emigration society and a Fiench society lor the 
 preservation of the i'rchitectural antiquities of thatpeoile. It has an asiiesscd 
 •property of $00,000,000; it docs not otltr bonuses to niiiiiulacturing firms, it has 
 •greater advantages to offer, that of being a commercial cei.ter, cheap lal)or, large 
 market, ijiihvay and water communicaLion with every part of the countiy, and 
 'low rates of fieight lor the raw material and the manuiuctiired articles. A M<m- 
 "trealer says that there is too much creilit given in Montreal and that sonje of its 
 /Wealthiest citizens are the worse ))nyers. Total amount of nierchandise entered 
 for consumption at the port of Montreal for the month of Dec. 1882 wa.s as fol- 
 lows: Dutiable goo('s, ^1,028, 3'20; coin and bullion, excepting American biivcr, 
 '$1,901; free goo<ls 3408,031, making a total of .%',098,:J12, on which duty was 
 'collected to the amount of !j^400,504. The principal items were manufactures, 
 'woolen, ^120,013; leather, 05,703; iron and steel, 204,012; cottons, '201,482; 
 •flour and meal, 48,300; grain, '23,518; books, pamphlets, etc., 32,320; total 
 •amount of goods that entered Montreal in '82, $40,044,518; ducy colle(!tetl^ $8,^ 
 '895,708. In 1881 the amount of goods entered was $31,118,985; duty collected,* 
 'I;?, 072, 137. The average amount of postoltice orders issued per week in Mon- 
 •"treal in '82 amounted to $183,101; revenue of Montreal postotiice for '82, $172,- 
 ■€'22. Mr. Grenshields of Montreal, after providing for his heirs, left the follow- 
 ing amounts: To the poor of St. Paul's church, $1,000; Montreal Thistle 
 €urling Club, $500; 8t. Andrew's Society, $1,000; Mackays Deaf and Dumb 
 Institute, $1,000; Protestant Orphan Asyluni, $500; Ladies Benevolent Society, 
 foOO; Harvey's Institute, $500; Trelalgar Institute, $J00; Boys' Hom'>, 500; 
 ♦Widow's and Orphan's Fund of the Presbyterian church, 500; Young Men's 
 Christian Association, 500; Young Women's Christian Association, 250; Working 
 Girl's Association, 250; Montreal Sailor's Institute, 1,000; Art A.ssociation, 500; 
 ^cOill University, 40.000; Montreal General Hospital, 4.000; Morrin College, 
 Vuebec, 5,000; Queen's University, Kingston, 5,000; Home Mission Fund of the 
 ■Presbyterian church of Canada, 10,000. The city District Saving Bank of Mon- 
 treal gave in '82, $10,000 to charitable societies. There is a law in Montreal 
 that forbids the building of wooden houses within the city limits. Montreal's 
 Catholic Deaf and Dumb Institute receiver aid from the Government, the 
 Protestant one does not. In '82 there were 775 licensed vehicles' in Montreal. A 
 Wontreal auctioneer sold in 9 days, $150,000 worth of property. In '82, 5,000,- 
 QOO people travelled in the street cars of Montreal; in Montreal the names of 
 
STATISTICS. 
 
 37 ^ 
 
 the stroota arc printed on tl»o glusscs of the corner lumps; in '80 Montrt-nl har^- 
 11,00.') (iiiuliticd vut(T8: iu '01 Muiitrcurs populutiun coiiHtuteil of 0.'),Si)0 R(>iiiiir> 
 Catliolk's iiiid 2J,504 I'rotentunts: Montreal's population in 1018 was .'t,00(). *J4 
 nu>v»p.i.pcr;i and poriodiualu are puWliahud iu Mdutrcai. Statistica of Quebec: Ii^ 
 'SI It Had 02.4^i7 iuhaliitaiit^ii, un iucicaiic of ovc-r '2,000 in 10 ycurH. lluvenuc of 
 its postoflico in '82 ^S.),009; tlio vvliole water 8up|»ly of Quchic is conductetl 
 tlu-ou^li oui! main pi))e, lience bo nuiny dcHlructive lircs; Moutioara iu condueti'(|[ 
 through 'A )Mpca. Quel>c(j's population in 1781 \va.^ 7,000; it in 400 nuU-a from th^ 
 nioutti of tijo St. J^awrenco. The tido oxtentis 90 niilos ahovu it to Thrco KivcrHj 
 it ia built on a promontory formed by the contluance of tiio St. Cluirlta river an4 
 St. Lawrence; Cape Diamond, at the lower eml of which the city stands, is i^ 
 bohl promontory, 330 ft. uIjovo the river; its fortiiicatioiiei cover 40 acrch. The 
 city IS divided into two parts, upper and lower; the former includes the citad.-ji 
 and fortifications; the luttei- is tlie scat of conjmerce. Most of the houses are of 
 stone founded on rock, environed as to tiie most important parts by walls and 
 gates and defended at every point by numerous and heavy cannons. Its spacious 
 harbor contains, during montlis of the year, fleets of foreign mercliantmen. Lttf 
 Btre. its arc narrow, populous an I winding up and down almost mountainous doi 
 cliviti^s. Its wharf accomo lationa is extensive and timl)jr coves are numeroufv 
 and spacious. The mount lins noith and east of Qucht-c are the most beautiful 
 amphitlicatei's to be seen in North America: nu)untain ami plain, narrow raving 
 wide retreating hollow, rocky escatpment and lofty hills almost assuming th^ 
 magnitiule of mountains. Among its public structures are Laval University, 
 Parliament Hdusc, Anglican and R. C. Cathedrals. 20 cliurches, 2 colleges, a- 
 normal Rcliool, Wolfe and Montcalm monuments, Post Olliee, Custom House, 
 Mai ine Hospital and Markets. In '01, Quebec had 41,477 K Cs. and 9,224 
 Prjta-stants. In 'Jl, Tiirjo lliv,;r's population was 4,50J; in 'i.51. O,0jS, t'lougli^ 
 situated at the outlet of tirj S:. Miuricj river and in front of immense lundjoring. 
 forests, with navigable outlets and a great extent of aralde laiul, it has made, 
 very little progress. Shcrbrooks is 91 miles by railway below Montreal; it lies^ 
 on both sid s of the St. Francis river: in 'ol it had 3,000 inhabitants, in '01, 5,-» 
 8S9; the same year it had 2 colleges, 1 R. C. and 1 Protestant; 1 Protestant 
 academy, 1 convent, 1 public librai y and 2 newspapers. St. Hyancithe in 'GQ 
 had 4,000, inhabitants, a college, convent and a few factories. In'82 the Province^ 
 of Quebec had 19 towns, Point Ljvis being the largest with a population of 7,957j 
 Terrel)onne being t^e smallest with 1,308. In '51 Quebec had 5 towns with t^ 
 population of 4,930. The increase in population in 30 years iu Quebec's town* 
 and cities auiounted to 107,000; that of its counties anil villages, 300,242. Ex-f 
 tracts from newspapers, press opiid< 'US, etc. — A French newspaper says: "Th^ 
 annexation of Canada to the U.S. wouKl effect the absorbing of the French Cana, 
 dian race among the numerous nationalities of the U. S. and therefore it is bette» 
 that Canada should renmin separate." Circulation of the "Witness," one o$ 
 Montreal's largest papers, daily 13,334; weelily 20,700. "Aurore," a FrcMcl^ 
 Protestant paper, circulation 1,270. A leading Canailian writer says: "It is nof 
 impossible that the day will come wlieu C.inadawdl demand and have an eifectiv^i 
 representation in the British Parliament, and be able to have a hand in directing 
 the acts of the Imperial (lovernnient. Tiiis is more likely to occur than annex? 
 atioa to the U. 8. Canadians are not likely to relinquish privileges and power as 
 British subjects, but are more likely to make the greater uso of those rights and 
 extend their power and privilege to the utmost. As to their contemplatinganyj 
 change in future it would be more likely to be independence than annexatioiij 
 
372 STATISTICS. 
 
 if Canada can have all the practical benefitB of indeprnclcnce without the name 
 thoy will not hurry to get it. ' 1'he Pall Mali (Gazette of England htm the follow- 
 ing: ' Ounadu iH a tie for England. How its annexation to the U.S. would 
 tighten the l)ond of friendship between it and Englond. There is one considera* 
 tion in connection with the probable absorption of Canada l.y the U. ^. 'Ihis 
 consideration is the importance of an Ainericani/ed Canada os a link betMeen 
 ourselves and the U. S. as a bond of friendship to unite even more 
 closely the two great divisions of the English Breaking jtc-rle. It is 
 probable that at the prteent time 8yni]nthy between England and 
 America runs higher than at any other previous period; still tlie manner 
 the U. 8. originally separated from England bus left on the part of the 
 Americana a feeling whien we indeed have for many years ceased to share, 
 but which is naturally kept alive by historical aFsociutions on the other side of 
 the Atlantic until the war of the secespion; the one salient event in American an- 
 Dals was the revolutionary struggle. Now if Canada's 5,000,000 inlmbitants be- 
 Cante quietly and peaceably of their own free will citizens of the U. S. as well as 
 Ivell wishers to England, the value to the latter country would be incalcuable. 
 Kvery Canadian who settled in the U. S. would become a center fordifcseminntitn 
 of phil lirittannic ideas among born Americans around him; another dangcrwhich 
 this would counteract is that the Irishmen who have settled in Car.ada have be- 
 tome loyal subjects of England, and theirinfluence wcuhl moderate and counteiaet 
 the hatred of thousands of their fellow countrymeii that have settled in the U. S. 
 who still retain and shew it by their political inlluence that they would 
 injure as much as they could the imperial government that drove them from their 
 native land by misgovernment in the past. These considerations for 8»'curirg the 
 friendship of the only other great industrial non-military nation in the world aie 
 ♦urely as well worth our attention as any other impossible schemes for governing 
 a universe from Downing street by telegraph; another reason is that a great jait 
 of the division line between the two countries is only in\aginary and also that the 
 river St. Lawrence is the natural outlet of a great portion of American commerce. 
 The Manitoba legislature tried to pass a rly act allowinj; rly connection with the 
 American system to tap the Canadian Pacific rly, which would have diverted the 
 trade of Manitoba to Chicago and St. Paul, but the Dominion government pre- 
 lierved the Manitoba markets for the mercliants and manufacturers of Canada, 
 which is just beginning to enjoy the fruits of its enterprise. Canada, includii'g 
 the bonus to the C. P. rly has spent $45,000,000 to develop the Canadian north- 
 ^'est. Montreal "Witness" says a flood of indecency has flowed in upon society 
 both in literature and art. Montreal dealers sell undraped figures including a 
 large propoition of vulgarly realistic works of French artists. Quebec "Gazette" 
 was published in French and partly in English i\j 17G7. Rivers, haibors, rail- 
 lurays, canals, etc, In 1882 the commissioner of Quebec go^e^'nment rlys aifected 
 economies to the amount of $20,000 in the pay rolls. In '82 there was a 25 foot 
 channel from Montreal to Quebec, while the natural channel is only 10 ft. 6 in. 
 In 1850 the flats of Lake St. Peter allowed navigation to the depth of 11 ft.; tM'o 
 years later 10 ft. had been secured; in '78 22 ii; $5,000,000 have been spent on 
 this channel and Montreal harbor in the last 10 years. The Grand Trunk rail- 
 Way controls considerably over 3,000 miles of road. The Earth Shore railway 
 from Quebec to Montreal is a paying line. Formerly the price of Canadian stocks 
 moved submissively with the American railway department now the Canadian 
 market on the contrary asserts a will of its owvi. The Canadian securities reiuse 
 to sympathise and have even been bouyant when American stocks are falling. 
 
STATISTICS, 37J 
 
 The Qctiou of New York st'^te imposes on the Canadian /i^ovemment the samo 
 duty. The guvtimnient is confrouted by tho ulturimtivo to abolish the tolls 
 on Canadian canals or render luoperative the $40,000,000 that has k>een spent on 
 Canadian canals up to '82. Oi the freight paying toils of the Welland canal in 
 '^1 no less than 629,347 tons out of a total trathc of 700,478 tons were derived 
 from the United States over half of which was United States merchandise passing 
 down the St. Lawrence to Canadian ports for export to Europe, The Quebeo 
 
 Sovernmnnt sale of the North Shore rail«vay to the Grand Trunk railway ia 
 ctriniental to the interests of Quebec. Now there will be little if any oi the 
 produce of the Northwest shipped from Quebec, wliich would have been the 
 terminus of the Canadian Pacific railway. In 1870 the mileage of Canadian 
 rlys was 6,265 miles; in '81 7,230. Canada shows the largest rly increase of all 
 the British colonies except India; 5000 cars are coming and goiutc betM'een Mon- 
 treal and Toronto in '82, loaded with freight and an equally large amount on tho 
 Eastern division; 25 miles of the CanaditiU I'acitic rly was built in a week in July 
 '82, which ia without parallel in the hiatory of rly construction; at*that date 728 
 miles of track had Insen constructed west of Winnipeg. By tho completion of tho 
 Ontario and Quebec rly a thro connection has been e8tabli»he<l between the Kua.- 
 tern seaports and the Rocky Mountains. In 1880 $316,538 worth of tolls were 
 collected on the Welland, St. Lawrence, Chambly, Burlington Bay, Ottawa and 
 Newcastle canals Nominal capital raised for the railways of Canada: -ordinary 
 share capital, $119,000,000; preference share capital, $70,450,000; bonded debt, 
 $80,001,000; government and municipal aid, $100,435,000; total capital, §37 1,- 
 051,000; total number of passengers carried on Canadian rlys in '82, 4.811,582; 
 tons of freight, 8,045,678: yield of passenger traffic, $7,076,339; freight traffic, 
 $15,500,935; mails and express freight, $851,222; other sources, $102,075; total 
 annual receipts of rlys, $23,561,477; their expenses were for maintenance of line 
 buildings, etc., $3,968,376; working and repairs of engines, $5,170,193; working 
 and repairs of cars, $1,629,247; general operating expense, $6,253,728; tot^l ex- 
 pensv^, $16,840,705. fJuring the month of Aug. '82, the Canadian Pacific Ka'lwy 
 Co, paid out $2,200,000. The Dominion government before it sold the Pacific 
 rly to the syndicate spent on it $4,175,000. In '82 it spent on telegraph and cable 
 lines. $53,635. In '6.3 there were in Ontario and Quebec 3,130 miles of telegraph 
 and 4,045 miles of wire; 146 stations open to the public; 208 instruments in use 
 and 332,779 messages sent in the year. The cost of road and equipments of all 
 Ontario's and Quebec's rly in '09, $92,283,495; net income of all their rlvs in '60, 
 $1,033,033; total length of rly in Canada in '60, 1,907 miles; gross earnings of the 
 Grand Trunk rail ivay in '61, $,517,829; that of the Great Western, $2,266,684. 
 Schools, colleges, education, etc. In '82 McGill University was 50 yrs old. A 
 branch of Laval University of Quebec was started in Montreal in '82. In '81 166 
 students attended McGdl University, 56 from Quebec, 16 from U. S. and the re- 
 mainder froni other Canatllan grovincgs.* $l33^in 4 yrs has to be paid by each stu- 
 dent for lectnr6sj> ^ for ma'tHcl♦l^i«l•ftei*!!M*fovce^egist^ati each session; for 
 dt'gree $20, rJ}|•C^»tlV&ouH)f^de^r^*^?[^^p^^)ftaF fees for medical students $12; 
 good board froiri^'l?) to S(Ja nioutli; ^^Tre'nch'Cana'lians and 13 English paased 
 at McGill foj*4;li/Ld^^ef ttf'B. l;:*^: iO;79J 1&7rs4;fldCnts have taken and are takinjj 
 the degree 9r«Lk,*^. rU.: 'ShiWl^l?^ J720rlia\;tf p^JseetJiiA doctors of medicine, 88 as 
 M. A's, 2 as InUstdlSbf fenginoertng ftntt applied s&iehtfi, as bachelors of civil law 
 600; 32 as bachelors of applied science; in mining and assaying 7; in practical 
 chemistry 1; in civil engineering 16. A leading Canadian paper says some Can- 
 adian male students object to the coeducation oi ladies in medical colleges because 
 
,'374 STATISTICS. 
 
 it involves the suppression of coarseness. Many of the. ladies also take the high- 
 est scholarships. The land occupied by schools in Montreal cost $121,338. The 
 buildings $192,222, and the furniture of them $17,085; number ot teajhers 99; 
 •number of scholars 3,670. The Polytechnie school of Montreal cost $72,050, each 
 graduate from the school costs the government $1775. In '84 Canada had 800,- 
 000 schools. Quebec Seminary, now Laval University, was founded in 1714; 75 
 students attended it; in '00 300. In '02 Canada had 3,070 schools .with 188,335 
 .scholars; 3 normal and model schools with 200 pupils; 4 special schools 135 schol- 
 ars; academies for boys 41 with 3,970 pupils; academies for girls 84 with 15,504 
 pupils; colleges 7 with 247 students; classical collejjes 13 with 2,688 students; 
 industrial colleges, 14 with 2,300 pupils; universities, 3 with 371 students. In 
 '02 Canada's people paid $379,075 f of school purposes and its government $187,- 
 195. McGill university is Protestant, but is free to all denominations; it is 350 
 ft. wide. In '58 it had 711 students; 30 in law, 90 in med;;cine, 35 in arts; its 
 high school contained 244, its normal school 70, and model school 230; in '03 it 
 
 • had 937 students. Qutjbec gov. in 'GO had appropriated 2,125,179 acres of land 
 in aid of its coUejiiate institutions. Quebec bad in '80, 4 universities, 1 English 
 and 2 French. Minerals, mines, their products, etc. $0,000,000 was invested 
 in phosphate mines in Canada in '82; deposits of iron discovered in '82 at East 
 
 • Sherbrooke. No hard soil mines have as yet been discovered in Quebec; petro- 
 leum has been discovered at Port Neuf. In '61 Acton copper mines produced 3,- 
 
 ,2J3 tons of ore valued at $150 a ton; in '•)3 che amount of copper exported from 
 Canada amounted to $92,080; in 1880 the export of mines were $293,659; in '61 
 
 ^Champlain county pnnluced 17,877 tons of iron valued at $5,390; in '59, 7000 
 
 tons of copper were shipped from Lake Superior mines; in '61, 1,011 tons of cop- 
 ^per, worth $328,581 were raised in Canada; west petroleum, naptha and asphalt 
 were found in Canada. The oil region covers 7000 square miles; silver has been 
 .discovered in small quantities; gold also in similar quantities. Quebec is one of 
 the poorest provinces of Canada in minerals. Laws, crime, prifons, lunacy, paup- 
 erism etc. — A Quebec justice of peace was fined $50 and 24 hours imprisonment 
 for tampering with a jury-man. "The Prisoners aid society" of Quebec has ap- 
 pealed to the government for a better classilication of Protestant pxisoners. The 
 
 • general council of tlie bar of Quebec held a session in '83 and discussed reforms in 
 direction of cheaper and more expeditious legal procedure. Annual report of 
 Montreal jail for '71 — There were 2,350 commitments; 438 wer females and 628 
 were of foreign birth; 1,522 were R. C's ; of these criminals 27 were under 14; 
 808 between 14 and 20; 745 between 20 and 30; 338 between 30 and 40; 99 of 
 them were sailors, and only 1 professional man. Church wardens are liable for 
 obligations conrracted purely in their official capacity. 
 
 <i « « • , J .. « . J 01 *' > • - 
 
 ■♦•■■■ 
 
 i . 
 
Ndw Ready ior the Press by the same Author. 
 
 ■ ( 
 
 The largest and most complete work ever published in Utah on 
 Mormonism, which does complete justice to the grand and unlimited 
 resources of this Territory, and gives the entire history of the Mor- 
 mons, and their religion from their earliest origin to the present day, 
 with biographical sketches of their great men. The work is totally 
 free from the Sectarian bias that has disfigured most of the works that 
 outsiders have published on the state, of affairs in Utah. *** 
 
 It will form a book of Over one thousand pages, with one hundred 
 illustratio:.s of Utah's grandest scenipry, largest towns, colossean tem- 
 ples and portraits of it's greatest m^n. Handsomely bound in Tur- 
 key Morocco, $300; half library ;^2. 00; cloth, $1.50; paper cover, 
 $1.00. Names of susbcribers addressed to R. A. N. Harvey, Times 
 Office, 31 E. First South St. Salt liake City. Agents allowed a liberal 
 discount. 
 
 
 /f ' 
 
 
 \ '{ 
 
 \