CIHM Microfiche Series (IMonograplis) ICMH Collection de microfiches (monographies) CanadiMi iMtftut* for HiMorical Mieroraproduetiofw / liwthut canadiMi d« microraproductiofw htetoriquM TiM Imtitiiti hM atMnpud to obMNi «w b«t orifimi oopycinilaMtferfHiiiinfl. FwtMrw of Ms oopy «»liMi of tfM imapi in UN rapratfuetieii. or wMoh may I of iNMin^ MO HColotirtd eovon/ CoMvwrtiModa D CoMrt dMMgtd/ □ CoMnrHtot•dmd^rlaMim«i4/ Couwrtw* rMMNte ot/o« poNieuMo □ CowtMaminiiit/ □ C olo M wd wpi/ ECotoorad ink ({.«. othw than Mut or Maefc)/ Encra da oooieiir (i.a. auir* WW Maoa ou noin) HColouiad Plata* and/or illuttrations/ Planehai at/ou illuttratiom an eoulaur □ Bound with otiMr malarial/ RaM wmc d'amrai doaumanti □ Ti#it bindint may eauaa ihadoMn or dittortion aiont intarior mariin/ La laNura Mrrfe pant caiaar da I'ombra ou da la dittonionialontdalai D within tha taxt. 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Laa axamplabaa orlginouK dont hi couvartuia an papiar aat bnprimte aont ffilmte an commandant par la pramiar plat at an tarmlnant aoit par bi ^•niMra paga qui eomporta una amprainta dimpraaaion ou dlHuatration. aoit par la aacond plat, aalon la eaa. Tom laa autraa axamplabaa oritfnaux aont flimte an comman«ant par bi pTMnMra paga qui eomporta una amprainta dimpraaahm ou dlHuatration at an tarmlnant par la damMra paga qui eomporta una taUa amprainta. Un daa aymbolaa aulvanta apparattra aur hi damiAro bnaga da chaqua microfficha, aalon la eaa: la aymbola -*• aigniffia "A 8UIVRE", la aymbola ▼ algnHIa "flN". Laa cartaa. plancha*, tableaux, etc.. peuvent Atre ffHmte A daa taux da rMuetion diffffiranta. Loraquo la dooumant aat trap grand pour ttra raprodult an un aaui cHchA, H aat mm* « partir da I'mgla aupMaur gaucha, da gaucha i droita, at da haut an baa, an pranant la nombra dimagaa nA c aa aa ba. Laa dbigrammaa auhranta Wuatrant la mMtoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 tMOoeorr rkowtion tbt chart (ANSI and ^ TEST CHAIH No. 2) j4 /1PPLIED IM/1GE 1653 Eott Mom Straat RochMtv. Nm Yor* 14809 USA (716) 482-0300 -Phon. (718) 288-5969 -Fox The French-Canadian Bv BYRON NICHOLSON s*;. ■•• SIR HENR- JOI.V DE LOTBINlkRR, D.C.t , K.C.M.G., P.C, (AN EX-PRKMIER OF THK PROVINCE OK OrFBEC H. French-Canadian A Sketch op His Morb Prominbmt Charactbristics. BYION NICBOLSON TOKONTO : THE BRYANT PRESS 190Q 1102 C.3 Toronto, i. the o«c. of th. Mlniter Ti^S^ TiSH::: CONTENTS. Chapter Pkbpacb - I. Introductory pmc II. His Patriai, Nams ID III. CovK OF Canada and Loyaity to Britain - - - - i8 rv. Thb Exkrcisb op ths Ei,kctivb Fran. CHMB 64 V. Thb USB OF THB FRENCH LaNOUAOB IN QUBBBC - ... 83 VI. Bducation and Rbi,icion VII. Othbr Craractbristics VIII. Conclusion 97 XI2 127 ILLUSTRATIONS. Sir Henri Joly de Lotbiniire. (FrontiKriece) '*' * Sirl^ouigjetti. - - ... Hon. 8. N. Parent. .... Sir Wilfred Lanrier. Hon. Chas. Fitzpatrick. . Sir. A. P. Pdletier. Hon. H. B. Rainville Hon H. G. Carroll. .... Hon. I,. P. Brodenr. Hon. Adelard Tni:geon. Hon. H. Archambeanlt. .... Hon. E. J. Plynn. .... Hon. T. ChaaeCasgrain. .... Hon. A. E. Poiget. .... Late Sir Adolphe Chapleau. Hon. I,. A. Gooin. .... Hon. P. G. M. mchtee. • . . . Hon. R. Dandnrand. Hon. F. L. Beique. .... Sir Adolphe Caron. .... Raymond Prefontaine. - - . . Hon. P. Gameau. .... Hon. Joseph Shehyn. Hon. M. E. Bemier. .... Hon. J. I. Tarte. ..... Late Hon, Honorfc Merder. Hon. F. Langellier. .... Fag* I 6 7 13 13 i8 19 24 as 30 31 36 37 4a 43 48 49 54 55 60 61 «4 65 70 71 II.I,U8TRAnONS. F.D. Monk. >. A. Bdootirt. .... Hen, H. T. Duffy. Hon. J. J. B. Gnerin. Hon. ChM. I^ngcllier. . GraettPtcand. .... J. B. Lalibertt. .... A. R. BCacdonald. ... Late Hon. Arthur Paquet. Hon. V. W. La Rue. G. A. Vandry. .... G. B. Amyot. .... L. O. David.- .... LieQt..Col. Pelletier. Arthur Bmnean. . . . . . Louis Frechette. . . . . . A. Malouin. . . . . . Hon, F. E. A. Evanturel. Hon. L. P. Pelletier. . . . . The Sir John Macdonald Monument, Montreal. A Habitant. • . . . . A Farm Scene, Quebec. - . . . The Natural Stepa, Quebec. A Caliche, Quebec The Wolfe-Montcalm Monument, Quebec. The Maisoneuve Monument, Montreal. The Cbamplain Monument, Quebec. Abenjtquia Group, Quebec. . . . Wolfe's Monument, Quebec. . . . The DeSalaberry Monument. . . . The City of Quebec Montmorend Falls, Quebec. - - . The Citadel, Terrace and Chateau, Quebec. - OppoaitePage - 74 7S 78 79 8a 83 86 87 90 91 94 95 96 97 100 lOI 104 105 108 109 112 "3 116 117 117 lao 121 124 "5 128 129 13a 133 DEDICATION. To Sir Henri Joly de Lotbinifere, P.C., K C M G., foniierly Premier of the Province of Quebec, and at present Lieutenant-Gover- nor of the Province of British Columbia this sketch of the people of his own race, in whom he has ever taken a deep interest, and for whose welfare, in common with that of their fellow Canadians throughout the Dominion, he has always exerted his widely ext^ded in- fluence, is. by his kind permission, dedicated with every sentiment of esteem and respect, by the writer. PREFACE. The only apology whidi the author wishes to offer the public for the appearance of this little work is the earnest hope and sincere desire which he entertains that it may help to correct some misapprehensions and to soften, if not remove, some prejudices whidi, unhap- pily, prevrtl all too extensively amongst a certain class of English-speaking people in various parts of Canada concerning the French- speaking people of the Province of Quebec. He himself, bom and educated in Ontario, once had similar misapprehensions and was subject to the same prejudices. But actual intercourse with the people of the lower prov- ince, during a residence amongst them of some eleven years, has convinced him that he was mistaken; and he is persuaded that these people are much misunderstood, and are accused of holding certain obnoxious opinions which they have never entertained, and are not given credit for many a virtue which they undoubt- edly possess. Believing that the continuance of this state of things, particularly if fomented by unprin' cipled partizans for unworthy purposes, must be followed by disastrous consequences in the PRBPACB. not distant future, he determined to do what he could towards correcting it, thus helping to •upplant feelings of racial strife and bitterness by those of national brotherhood and a com- mon citizenship between the two great peoples to whom Providence seems to have committed the shaping of the destinies of this wide Dominion. In so doing he has tried to avoid giving his readers an unduly favourable opinion concern- ing those of whom he writes, or to represent them as being in every way the most admirable and lovable people that can be imagined ; for indeed, human nature as seen in them is very much like human nature as seen in others —and, besides, the "'Uennium is still in the future. But he has made an honest effort to sketch the French-Canadian as he is seen to- day in the Province of Quebec, feeling assured that if the man were only better known than he is, he would be more fully trusted and more highly esteemed by a not inconsiderable portion of his English-speaking fellow-subjects. The writer has also endeavored to ignore everything of a purely partizan character, to eschew partyism of every description ; for his desire is to obtain an unprejudiced hearing PREFACE. from all fair-minded people— no matter what their politics, their nationality, or their relig- ion—who may do him the honor to read what he has written. The account which he has attempted to give, being necessarily within very narrow limits-indeed it is but the expansion of a lecture which he delivered in Ontario during the winter of 1900-1901— must be very inad- equate ; but so far as it goes, it is not unfair and whatever may be its demerits, it possesses at least the virtue of being trustworthy. Moreover, it is written from a disinterested and patriotic motive. tt >f SIR tons JBTTfc, K.C.M.G.. I.IElTKNA.NT-«OVKR.v„K, l-ROVINCK OF arKBEc. Photo by Muntnilny HON. S. N. PARKNT, K.C., M.I..A. ■■RIME MINISTUK OF THE PkOVINCE OF UfKHEC, MINISTER OF I.ANII.S, FCIKKNTS ANP FISIIKKIRS. AND MAVOR OK THE CITY OF QUEHEC. THE FRENCH-CANADIAN. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Certainly never since the Confederation of the British Provinces on the continent of North America in 1867, and perhaps never itince the Treaty of Paris in 1763, has the newspaper preii . of Canada so freq'iently and so persis- tently directed public attention to the people of French origin in the Province of Quebec as during the last few years ; which would, of course, be altogether admirable if the object had invariably been to promote a better under- standing and a closer friendship between these people and their fellow-citizens of British nationahty than had existed before. But, un- happily, this praise-worthy object does not seem to have been always kept in view ; on the contrary, it seems to have been generally lost sight of, as is evident from certain inflam- matory appeals to racial and religious feelings, as well as from the less open and violent, but more insidious and mischievous, incitements to * THB FRBNCH-CANADIAN sneer and ungenerous sarcasm~or what we may call the journalistic shrugging of the shoulders and uplifting of the eyeSows This appears to be largely traceable, first to Prfl m" r ''''..^'^ " French-Canadian as Prime Minister, which is not very grateful to a certain class of people who Je^oud. and jus^so^o their British origin; and'secoid" to the position which a few prominent French ' Canadians are supposed to have assumed with respect to the war which now for more than two years has been going on in South Africa between the Boers and the British. It has thus come to pass that a deplorable spirit of antagonism, which it was fondly hoped had long since passed away, has begun to re-assert i^ L o^".'^^ ^'"^ ^^^' '^^ ^hich are settled in Canada, and especially between those of them who form the overwhelming major- ities in the most important provinces of the Dominion— Quebec and Ontario Unfortunately, too, this spirit of antagon- ism seems to have become intensified lately by the result of the last general elections for INTRODUCTORY the Commons, and still more so by the result of the yet more recent elections for the Quebec Legislative Assembly, during which contest each race appears to have set itself somewhat in direct opposition to the other. This un- fortunate condition of things, so far as it has existed, it is safe to say would never have come to pass had it not been for the rabid partizan press, which, instead of trying to allay unnecessary strife and to promote a spirit of kindness and good-will, seems to have acted on the assumption that the most eflfectual way of gaining votes for its own party was to give to each race a false and mischievous impression of the other's sentiments and intentions And wonderful to relate, the mischief-makers who acted in this despicable and dastardly manner would have us beheve that they were inspired by patriotic motives ! How true it is that patriotism, using the word in a special sense, is the last resort of a scoundrel ! Such patriots, could they only be expatriated, might well apply to themselves a couplet said to have been composed by a couple of felons shortly before they were taken on board a convict ship, bound for Van Dieman's Land when that 4 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN country was used by England as a poenal colony : " We are true patriots, for, be it understood, We leave our couutry for our country's good." Surely every Canadian who jas at heart the welfare of his native land must look upon such conduct on the part of the merely partizan newspaper with feelings of disgust and horror ; and those who are guilty of it he, if he belike the patriots of old Greece and Rome, will rank with the parricide ! Moreover, he will do all in his power to make the two great races in British North America understand each other better than they have ever done yet, knowing that he is thereby working for the advent of the time, so much to be desired, when the only rivalry between them will be a rivah-y as to which can best appreciate the other's virtues, as to which can show the greatest confidence in the other's loyalty to the glorious Flag under which both alike enjoy the inestimable blessings that are the inseparable companions of freedom, as to which can do the most— and, if necessary, make the greatest sacrifices— for the development and progress of their common country. I INTRODUCTORY The writer of this little work, an Ontario man who has spent many months of each of several consecutive years in Quebec, has no hesitation in expressing his conviction that if the French-C''r;adian people in general only knew the true character of the feelings enter- tained for them by the great mass of the in- habitants of Ontario, if they only knew how highly we esteem them and how ready — ^nay, how glad — we are to acknowledge their many excellent qualities both of head and heart, all efforts to stir up amongst them feelings of ani- mosity towards ourselves would prove unavail- ing, and that the recent efforts in this direc- tion — even had it been possible for them to be made — would have been at first looked upon with abhorrence, and then treated with the contempt they so justly deserve. But upon the other hand, and perhaps still more emphatically, it may be said that if we of Ontario only knew the French- Canadian as he really is, could we but see him in his daily life and meet him in his own home on terms of in- timacy, then whatever prejudices some of us may have against him would be dissipated, and whatever unfriendly feelings we may entertain ^ THE FRENCH-CANADIAN towards him would quickly be exchanged for those of a diflferent character ; we would hon- estly confess we had been mistaken in our estimate of his compatriots, and we would frankly acknowledge that we could wish for no more desirable people with whom to go hand m hand working for the advancement of Canada-moral, educational, material, social, and political—until 'she became one of the noblest nations whose deeds have ever illumi- nated the page of history. If, instead of prostituting itself to bitter and unpnncipled party warfare, efforts with the above object in view had been constantly made by the journalistic press of the two great pro- vinces for, say, the last thirty years, how much better it would have been for the people at large ; nay, how much better it would have been for the political parties themselves. Would they not have learned that so long as the affairs of the country were well adminis- tered, the mere name of the party by which they were thus administered was a matter of but very secondary consideration? Would they not have taken an enlightened and com- prehensive view of their duty as statesmen in- it Photo by Montmlny, Quebec. RIGHT HONOrRABLE SIR WILFRID LAURIER. G.C.M.O., PC. rRESIDKXT KIX<;'S CANADIAN PRIVY tOfNCII. PRIME MINISTER OK CANADA. HON. CHAS. FITZPATRICK, P.c., M.P.. »•■„. Qt'EBEC CITV INTRODUCTORY 7 stead of trying to hurl each other from power by charges which, if proved true of a man simply as a citizen, would send him to the penitentiary ? Would not the curse of mere party ism have been cast out, neutralized, ren- dered harmless, by earnest and conscientious efforts to promote the common welfare ? The proceedings which culminated in the federal union of the provinces show us that this happy state of things would not have been impossible of attainment ; and the Fathers of Confedera- tion will be revered by posterity long after the bitter and narrow-minded partisan shall have been consigned to oblivion, " unwept, un- honoured, and unsung." However, it is satisfactory to know that not- withstanding the detestable attempts made by the miscreants referred to — and nefarious mis- creants they are, no matter by what party name they may be called — to stir up strife and hate between ourselves and our fellow-dtizeus of French extraction, the relations between us are not nearly so strained as some pessimists suppose them to be, and are much more cordial than some detestable people wish them to be ; for it must not be forgotten that French- ■ THB FRBKCH-CANADIAN Canadian electors did, after all, return English - speaking candidates to the Commons, defeat- ing those of their own nationality, both in 1896 and 1900, and did the same thing again at the late provincial elections. Moreover, this same good feeling has recently been shown still more plainly and impressively by something which it is too soon yet to forget- something which neither Canada nor Great Britain can ever forget— aai-iely, that French- Canadian volunteers lately fought and died on the veldt, side by side with British-Cana- dian volunteers, to uphold Victoria's rights, Victoria's suzerainty, in South Africa ; and even now men of the same two races are there, in that far-off land, to uphold the rights of Victoria's son and successor, our gracious King, the Seventh Edward. Now, the writer being persuaded, as has been already implied, that whatever antagon- istic feelings exist between the two nation- alities here in Canada may be traced mostly to the groundless prejudices which have been caused by almost numberless misrepresenta- tions and mutual misunderstandings, his one object in addressing himself to the work before if INTRODUCTORY g him is to try to depict the French-Canadian as he is, to show him to others as the writer him- self has found him during an extended inter- course with him, so that those of his English- speaking fellow-countrymen who have not had the same opportunities may understand that there is no good reason for believing that he is one whit less true to Canada than they are themselves, or that he is not just as loyal to our new King— God bless him !— as are the people of any other of His Majesty's depend- encies and possessions ; and that, consequently, sentiments of mutual esteem, respect, and friendship should prevail between the two dominant races of this great Dominion. Once more let him state that what he shall write is no mere matter of hearsay, no panegyric jwo- nounced by a too partial friend, but it is the result of his own observation during his resi- dence in the Lower Province. Indeed, all that he shall say, and much more, in vindication of these people from unjust aspersions which have been cast on them, could easily be cor- roborated by many other English-speaking residents from Ontario whose intercourse with them has been still more extensive. M / ; CHAPTER II. HIS PATRIAI. NAMB. First of all, it may be observed that the name, French-Canadian, is somewhat of a misnomer ; at any rate, the people of the French race in Canada rarely if ever use it when speaking of themselves. They do not, «a a rule, recognize the compound word • they wmply call themselves Canadians. In Ontario on the contrary, one man speaks of himself a^ an Insh-Canadian, another caUs himself a Scottish-Canadian, and a third says he is an EngUsh-Canadian — unless, indeed, that the last-named is likely to drop the word Canadian altogether, and to say proudly, if not super- ahously, " I am an Englishman." Besidw there are societies in Canada membership in any one of which depends on one's nationality Thus. St George's Society is distinctively English, St. Patrick's is distinctively Irish and St. Andrew's is distinctively Scottish • and we have even St. David's, redolent of leeks, which is exclusively Cymrian. It is 10 ' HIS PATKIAL NAMK II « » indeed, quite natural, and evinces an admirable sentiment, that we should maintain and make manifest a very warm attachment to those lands from which we or our fathers have come by having in this country off -shoots of benevo- lent associations established in those lands, and called by the names of their patron saints ; but, after all, do not the very names them- selves of these fraternal societies indicate that we, English-speaking people, are not satisfied with the common and comprehensive appella- tive, Canadians? How different it is with the French-Cana- dian. In this matter he is less narrow, is more cosmopolitan, than we are, and it would appear that he is more patriotic also ; for he is not only content, but proud to be known by no other name than one which is derived from the land in which he lives, and which was dis- covered by men of his own race ; and whilst the French-Canadian people remember that France is the land of their fore-fathers, and whilst they are proud of France's achieve- ments in the past and of the prominent place which she holds to-day amidst the nations of the world, tliey are not forever flinging in la TH« FXBNCH-CANADIAN your face the fact that they are of French origin, but teU you they are Canadians. Not even by membership in a Society of St. Deny, do they proclaim their French extraction and their attachment to the land of their fore- fathers. Possibly they think that no such adventitious aid is necessary to make them remember the race from which they have sprung, and that they best honour that race by acting in accordance with its glorious tra- ditions, its instinctive chivAhry, and its high and delicate sense of honour ; and, so, whilst they are quite willing to humour the somewhat insular prejudices of their English-speaking fnendsby calling them "old-country" peo- ple, they themselves wish to be known as Canadians. True, they have their St. Jean Baptiste's Soaety, and they celebrate their St. Jean Baptiste's Festival enthusiastically year by year ; but, then, do not let us forget that the Baptist is a saint to whom all orthodox Christians have a common claim, and that his festival is religious rather than national. Per- haps, indeed, it would be none the worse for others if they celebrated the Feast of the SIR ALPHONSE PKI.I.KTIKR, P.C.. K.C.M.G., K.C., SKXATOR, KX-SPF.AKF.R OF TIIK CAXAIHAN SKNATK, ATTORNKY FOR THK CITY OF UfKHKC. HON. HKNRI B. RAINVIM.E. C R.. M.I..A., HLY OK UfKBEC. SPKAKHK OK THH ...^Z^^':,,,,^ HIS PATRIAL NVMK 13 Baptist (and, for that matter, .^erfain other ^^iastical festivals also) as devoutly as does the French-Canadian. It would, at any rate tend to permeate this somewhat materialistic age with a religious element. However, we will hardly allow our fellow- subjects of French extraction the exchisive use of this name any longer. True, they seem to have a sort of inalienable right to it, as they were the first Canadians of European origin • so that If they have not a better claim, they have at least an older claim, to be called Can- adians than we ourselves. But, you see, within the last few years the name of Canadian has come to connote so much more than it did formerly-so much more as to trade, com- merce, enterprise, manufactures, pubHc spirit patriotism, military honour and glory, etc ' etc.— that we, Anglo-Saxons that we are, step m according to our usual custom, and say to those by whom that name has been used almost exclusively hitherto : " See here, you know, this sort of thing is not going to do, and we have let it go on long enough. The name of Canadian is not your peculiar property • so far as we can see, you have no indefeasible right 14 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN to it ; we have just as good a right to it as you have ; and, you may just as well understand it at once, we are going to have our rights, too. " We did not mind it much so long as the name was of no great account ; and we were quite content to let you keep it to yourselves so long as it did not mean anything particular except a native of what the people ' at home ' supposed to be a bleak and barren country, smothered in snow for some seven or eight months of the year and covered with mud for the rest of the time, a place which was very convenient for certain * black sheep ' to be sent to in order to be transformed into gentle- men farmers or to fill positions in the Civil Service, a wilderness inhabited by buffaloes, Indians, and a few unhappy Europeans. But now the case is different ; for Canada is known as a land not ' hard, iron-bound, and cold,' but as a glorious country where ' the ' rills and rivers sing with pride the anthems of the free,' a country noted for unexampled pro- gress and prosperity in nearly every depart- ment of national life, a country which year by year is attracting to its shores thousands and HIS PATRIAl, NAME «5 thousands of the most industrious and enter- prising people from the old lands, a country which bids fair to be in the not distant future the most prosperous in the Western Hemis- phere. So we are now as proud of Canada as you have ever been, and we love the land just as well as you do ; and therefore we have made up our minds that we, no less than you, shall be known as Canadians. Moreover, we are somewhat particular about this little matter just at present, because, you know, the Canadian contingents who vol- unteered for South Africa a little while ago— and who were sent no less willingly than they went — ^have made Canada more widely known than ever before, more fully and correctly un- derstood, and their bravery has made her more highly honoured. But especially are we par- ticular at this time to be known as Canadians because we of Ontario and you of Quebec have, as Canadians, taught the whole civilized world that when the Mother-land needs men to defend her rights, or to repel a foe that may be daring enough— demented enough— to in- vade any of her possessions, or when she needs assistance in extending the blessings of civil- ^B i6 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN ization, Christian civilization, to people who are plunged in the darkness of nature's night and in freeing them from the despotism of an avaricious and ruthless oligarchy, she can de- pend upon the sons of Canada, the King's loyal Canadian subjects, to flock to her stan- dard, to enroll themselves under her banner. Ay, they are ready to come, they have already come, alike from the peaceful farm and from the great centres of trade and commerce, from lands that are laved by the waves of the Pacific, from their scattered homes on the treeless prairie, from the shores of Superior and Huron, Erie and Ontario, and all along the banks of the St. Lawrence ; from the bound- less forests where are heard the reverberations of the axe that is swung by the stalwart wood- man, from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and lonely Labrador, those rugged lands ' that see the Atlantic wave their mom restore '—known no longer as Frenchmen or Englishmen, Irish- men or Scotchmen, Welshmen or Manxmen, but proud to be known henceforth and forever as Canadians. We know that this is the name you have long loved and honoured, we know you belong to the same race as those brave HIS PATRIAI. NAME »7 men and women whose arduous toils and in- cessant labours have done so much for the civilization and development of Canada almost from the time when Cartier, of unfading memory, first ' reared the Cross and Crown on Hochelaga's height ' in the presence of his faithful companions and a number of ' the Algonquin braves' ; but, see here, from this time forth we also claim to be known as Can- adians." And to do our French-Canadian breth- ren justice, they never question our not al- together disinterested claim to be called Canadians and instead of saying; "What we have we'll hold " they with their kindly spirit and uniform courtesy, open wide their arms to welcome us into the great Canadian Fraternity. - — ■— ~ ■"^■fc" -■ CHAPTER III. LOVE OF CANADA AND LOYALTY TO BRITAIN. What has been said in the last chapter about the French-Canadian's patrial name naturally leads us to speak of his love for the land of his birth, and also to show that this love for Can- ada doca not interfere with, but helps to strengthen, his loyalty to Britain. That he should love Canada is not a matter of surprise ; nay, considering his origin and temperament, it would be a marvel were it otherwise. Never can he forget that the land was discovered by the adventm-ous Commodore of St. Malo, the brave and intrepid Cartier ; and everywhere, whether in town or country, he finds something to remind him that his an- cestors were its first European colonists. In the provincial capital, old Quebec, he here and there finds himself in a street so nar- row and irregular, and bearing such marks of time, that it must have been laid out, one would say, before ever Scottish Kelt and Eng- 18 * HON. H. G. CARROI,I„ K C. MP., KAMOtRASKA. QfK , SOLICITOR-GEXKRAI. FOR CANADA. :f I "OX. X.. T. BK„nK,-R. ,, ,,. ^ , ^, ^ '^"'''^'^'' "«^«« OK.COMMO.V,. LOVE OF CANADA, LOYALTY TO BRITAIN I9 lish Saxon had made their prowess felt on the Plains of Abraham. On J his side and on that he sees liouses of such strunge construction, such pointed gables, such steep roofs, such odd-looking windows, and altogether with an appearance so quaint, that they take him back almost to the time when the city was founded by Samuel de Champlain, some seventy years or so after Francis the First of old France ap- pointed Jean Francois de la Roque the first Viceroy of the territories then comprised under the names of Canada, Hochelaga, and Sague- nay. All along the banks of the St. I^awrence he sees handsome villas, picturesque villages, and stately cities, almost all of which present features which tell him in no uncertain tones that the land of his sires was the first to bless the country with the religion symbolized by " the fleur^lis and Cross," with the ad- vanced civilization of the most polite people in Europe, with their arts and sciences, their en- terprise and valour. Why, the very names that daily sound in his ears, the names that are met with here and there from Fort St. John to old Frontenac, and much more fre- quently from Frontenac to Notre Dame 30 THK FRENCH-CANADIAN Mountains, are enough, by their associations, to make him love Canada with an intensity unknown, and perhaps impossible, to the more phlegmatic Saxon. But it is not alone, not even chiefly, because of associations with the past that he loves the land of his nativity. No, he loves the very land itself ; nor is it any wonder, for where can one find another land of equal grandeur and beauty? Oh ! Canada possesses many a sublime feature and many a lovely scene with which her children are familiar, and vvhich go far to justify them in their fond belief that their native country, which they love so well, is unsurpassed, if not unequalled, by any other on the continent. Leaving behmd us the beauties of the Pacific coa*t, crossing the mighty mountains of the west and its bound- less prairies ; passing by the expansive lakes towards the north, the rugged hills and the picturesque dales ; with the sound of Niagara thundering in our ears, and the orismatic colours of its beautiful bow shining in our eyes, we sail down the majestic river and find ourselves on the broad bosom of Ontario. Gliding through the I,ake of a Thousand I.OVB or CANADA, LOYALTY TO BRITAIN 2 1 I«le«, shootin/ through the Rapids of Lachine, catching a sight of the historic Mount Royal, and continuing our course over the broad ex- panse of the splendid river we find ourselves in the very heart of the province which is peculiarly the French-Canadian's own— where his own laws prevail, his own language is spoken, his own religion is protected— and as we gaze upon its many beauties we cannot wonder that he loves it with all the ardour and devotion of his affectionate and patriotic race. Let us attempt some sort of description of one or two of those beauties, and then cease to wonder— if , indeed, ever we have wondered —at the French-Canadian's patriotism. Only a few miles from the provincial capital we come to the Falls of Montmorenci, that beautiful cataract with its milk-white waters glistening in the sunlight as they gracefully fall over the towering precipice to find their way to the arms of the mighty St. I^awrence so that both of them together may seek a home in the ocean. Though they fall from a much grater height than those of Niagara, yet, owing to the comparative smallness of the stream, the cataract, whilst very charming, aa THB PKINCR-CANADIAN cannot be said to be sublime. The stupendotu volume of water which is ever roUing over Niagara's heights, and tossing, foaming, and seething in the river below, fills the mind with awe, almost with dread; the picturesque stream which falls over the heights of Mont- morenci affords us pleasure and delight. Niagara is the Homer of waterfalls, their Ossian; Montmorend, their Virgil, their Wordsworth. Montmorend is their Pope • Niagara thdr Milton. Gi-uideur and sub^ limity are the characteristics oi the one ; grace and beauty, those of the other. We roam through the delightful little park close by the Falls of Montmorend, where the art of the landscape gardener, supplementmg the beauties so lavishly bestowed by Nature'a generous hand, has called into existence a terrestrial paradise " for talking age and whis- pering lovers made" ; and now and then we catch a glimpse of the wondrous river whose mighty current gives "its freshness for a hundred leagues to ocean's briny wave. ' ' The sweet music of the falling waters, the vesper hymn of the feathered songsters of the grove and the soft sighing of the zephyrs through LOVE OF CANADA, LOYALTY TO BKITAIN 2$ "the murmuring pines and the hemlocks." form a concert more entrancing than the tones of the harp of Orpheus. All too soon, we fancy, does the setting sun waft his good- night kiss to the beautiful Palls as they blush beneath his ardent gaze ; and as we reluctantly leave the lovely place, we feel that we are bid- ding farewell to a scene that will always afford us happy remembrances, for "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." But just then an- other charm presents itself, and we understand something of what Longfellow must have felt when he wrote the beautiful lines, "Silently, one by one, In the infinite meadows of heaven bloaiom the lovely Stan, The fofffet-me-nota of the angels." But delightful as are the Falls of Montmor- end and their surroundings, there is a much greater variety of scenery in the more exten- sive prospect which greets the vision as one stands on that commanding height known as Dufferin Terrace, just outside the citadel walls and close by Governor's Gardens -a terrace which is named after the most clever, elo- quent and popular statesman that England 24 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN ever sent out to be the Governor- General of Canada, the late Marquis of Dufferin, whose recent death is lamented wherever the Eng- lish language is spoken, the greatest British diplomatist of the nineteenth century, one of a bright and glorious band of statesmen and warriors for whom England is indebted to the sister isle. The scene which presents itself to view from this magnificent promenade pos- sesses many a feature-here a beauty and there a sublimity, here a graceful charm and there a rugged picturesqueness- perhaps un- rivalled, certainly unsurpassed, by any other landscape on the continent. There, almost directly before the beholder, the delightful Island of Orleans, clad in emerald green seems to repose in the embrace of the arms of the parted river. With its shady groves and purling brooks, its gentle undulations and ro- mantic dells, the song of the birds amid the branches of the trees and the ripple of the waters as they gently lave its romantic shores — indented here and there with many a dear little cove -the isle is simply a land of en- chantment. How happy are those citizens who here seek a calm and cool retreat, during HON. ADEI.ARI) TIRGKON, K.C , M.I,. A., al'KHKC, SECMKTARY AND REOISTRAR FOR TIIK PKOVINCK OK UfKUKC. HON. HORACE ARCHAMBEAUI.T. AND SptlKER^oi-T^^'"''''' "" a^""=C ' Sl-BAKER OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. I V LOVE OF CANADA, LOYALTY TO BRITAIN 25 the heat of summer, from the glare and dust of the dty, and from the worries and weari- ness of the cares of business ! At no great distance the peaceful St. Charles slowly wine . along its sinuous course through a vale of wondrous beauty and fertility ; and we think, as we gaze on the lovely scene be- fore us, of what the poet says of another val- ley, not more beautiful : " Oh ! sweet is the vale where the Mohawk glides. On Its winding way to the sea." Here we catch a glimpse of some quiet ham- let, the tin-covered spire of its modest church glittering in the brilliant sunlight ; there we see the simple dwelling of the Canadian farmer peepmg out from beneath the wide-spreading branches of the umbrageous maple, and we almost fancy that there come-^ ' o us, wafted on the air, the sweet perfume the woodbine and honeysuckle with which its porch is em- bowered. Surely it is a very fairyland of beauty, a land which the French-Canadian loves m the very depths of his heart with a love no less passionate and absorbing than that which their fathers felt for /a belle France alike when defeated at Agincourt and when 26 THE PRKNCH-CANADIAN victorious at Patay. In the distance the I^urentian Mountains tower towards the sky, clear and distinct in the brightness of noon' day, but impressing us with that feeling of solemnity produced by the sublime as they darken beneath the shades of evening. We almost fancy we can see the broad expanse of I^ke St. John, or hear the sullen roar of the Saguenay as it madly rushes between rugged and precipitous banks of stupendous height- dashing, tumbling, struggling, tossing, foam- ing, roaring, raging, raving, until at length it mingles its tumultuous waters with those of the greater but less turbulent St. Lawrence. As we still stand upon Dufferin Terrace, and feast oiu- enraptured eyes upon the inspir- ing scene, we cannot wonder that the French Canadian loves his native land ; and we are convinced that throughout the whole Domin- ion no man of another nationality can be found who loves Canada with a deeper affec- tion, or would defend her against invasion with a better will or greater bravery. But it must not be supposed that his love for his country impairs his loyalty to Britain ; nay, but the contrary, for his love for Canada LJ WVE OP CANADA, LOYALTY TO BRITAIN 27 binds him closely to that power from which she has received so many benefits, which has conferred upon her so many privileges, and which aflFords her so many advantages. Yet it is sometimes said, and oftener hinted, that he is not true to th'' Empire. There cannot be a doubt that many of those by whom this charge is preferred are honest and conscientious men ; but, still, they would hardly make such an accusation if they had had, and had used, op- portunities of forming a deliberate and well- matured judgment upon the matter from their own experience or even from their own obser- vation. As for the others, those who from some sinister motive iher unworthy influ- ence scatter broadcast s accusation of dis- loyalty, well, they are not particularly noted for their charity, their magnanimity, their high ideals of honour, or even for their dis- criminating sense of the claims of common justice. But even supposing them to be right m their opinion, supposing their charge to be true, they— even such people as they— might be expected to know that constantly taunting men with being disloyal is not the best way to make them loyal. But would these accusers L a8 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN of the brethren be pleased to see the French- Canadian's loyalty proved beyond question ? Would it give them any satisfaction ? Nay, would they not feel chagrined and mortified ? One can hardly avoid the belief that they must be under some malign influence which blinds them to other people's virtues, some influence of. let us say, antipathy to people because of their race, their creed, or their politics— an antipathy which should never be allowed to prejudice any man, which cannot prejudice any true man, who desires to take a broad and intelligent view of any class of his fellow-citi- zens. At any rate, the writer has no hesita- tion in saying that his experience warrants him in coming to the conclusion that the charge of disloyalty brought against the French-Canadian, no matter by whom, rests generally upon no better foundation than im- perfect information, partial knowledge, unfor- tunate misapprehension, groundless suspicion, or unreasonable prejudice. He has lived amongst the people of Quebec, has met them in almost every relation of life, and has been honoured by many of them with what he may call their confidential intimacy ; and he feels LOVK OF CANADA, LOYALTY TO BRITAIN 29 free to say— and he says it gladly— that the better he has known them, the stronger has become his conviction that no more baseless notion can be entertained by anyone than that the French-Canadian is dissatisfied with Bri- tish institutions or disloyal to British connec- tion. But was there not some talk about estab- lishing a French-Canadian republic somewhere in the north-east part of the Dominion ? Yes, there was some little talk of that sort ; but, almost wholly, it was nothing more than the wild vapouring, the senseless swaggering, of a few noisy and irresponsible nobodies, receiving no support, no encouragement, no sympathy from any man of light and leading or from any influential business man throughout the whole province. But what about the movement, some few years ago, in favour of annexation to the United States? There was no such movement ; there was nothing more than some foolish chatter which, so far from being taken seriously by any one, served but to ex- cite the ridicule of almost every person of prominence in the country. But wait a mo- ment, good Ontario brother; just be kind 30 THK FRBNCH-CANADIAK enough to answer a quesUon in return for the two or three you have asked. Was there not in your own loyal province quite as much talk as in Quebec about this same annexation? How many years have elapsed ince it was ad- vocated—somewhat covertly at first, but more openly afterwards— in one of the leading daily papers published in Toronto, the loyal city par excelienee? Well, are the people of the Upper Province therefore disloyal? " Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones." It may be relied upon that the true French- Canadian, the man that loves his creed and his language, his race and his country, will be amongst the last to advocate either the estab- lishment of a republic in Canada or absorption into the incomparably greater repubhc that was set up to the south of us during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Yes, he will be the last man to do anything of that sort. He knows too well, and prizes too highly, the advantages he enjoys under England's benign sway to desire any change by which he would become the subject of another power. He has learned to appreciate his present position too HON. E. J. FX,YNN, l,l„D., K.C.. (KX-PKK.MIKK OK THE PROVINCE OK QUEBEC), LEAIIER OK THE PROVINCIAL OPPOSITION. I I HON. T. CHASE CASGRAIN, I,I..D.. K.C., MP.. OK QrHBEC). ,„_ MONTR EA I., lBX-ATTO«NEY-GENERAL OF THE PROVINCE I LOVB OF CAKADA. LOYALTY TO BRITAIN 3 1 highly to wish to transfer his allegiance to an- other government— ay, though it were even the Republic of France. He is not oblivious of the treatment meted out to his Church after the disastrous campaign of 1870 had brought to an end the Empire of the Third Napoleon, when the unbelieving iconoclasts " brake down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers;" and he remembers that the ven- erable head of that Church, he who claims to sit in the Chair of Peter, declared, not so many years ago, that in no non-Catholic country, and in but few that were Catholic, did his people receive such kind and magnanimous treatment as in Protestant England. Nay, was it not but yesterday that the French-Can- adian saw thousands of his co-religionists, reiigieux and rtiigieuse, practically expelled from France by the passing of the Associations Bill, but welcomed into British Territory, there finding an asylum, and there permitted to carry on those good works of piety and charity to which they believed themselves called, and there protected from persecution, and there receiving at least passive encouragement to carry out their vocation ; and all this, too, J 33 THB FKBNCH-CANADIAIt '\ when, strange to My, they would not be per- mitted to lettle in the Isle of Jersey, which is inhabited by people of their own race, and where their own language is spoken I Time was, indeed, when no such magnanimity on the part of England seemed possible; but those old days— not good old days, but bad old days— are now, let us hope, gone by for ever. Why, remembering such generous conduct on the part of England to those poor exiles from France, to accuse the French-Canadian, the man who loves his Church as he does, of being disloyal to Britain is to accuse him of the vilest treachery and the blackest ingratitude ! True, he clings jealously and tenaciously to certain privileges peculiar to his people, privi- leges which he has enjoyed by right of treaty almost ever since the French monarch ceased to guide the destinies of Canada, atd which, to some extent, differentiate his position from that of the other inhabitants of the Dominion, thus, one would suppose at the first blush, tending to retard what may be called the unification of the Canadian people. But why does he hold fast to those privileges ? Not altogether, per- haps not even chiefly, for his own sake, and •) i lOVn or CAKADA, LOYALTY TO BRITAIN 33 certainly not because he has any pleasure in knowing that a line of demarcation— a line that is barely visible, almost only imaginary - is thus drawn between himself and his fel- low-Canadians of other nationalities. No; but because he believes that any attempt to take those privile^.- a«ajr, to take them away even by constitutional methods, would be one of the surest ways of stirring up racial strife, and would thus interfere with that steady, gradual, and natural process of unification which has been going on so satisfactorily ever since the union of the several provinces mto the one great confederacy of which we are all so proud to-day. Nor is he altogether blind to the fact that the abrogation of those privi- leges would afford an excuse to certain wicked and restless spirits— whether of French or of some other origin, with which every civilized land is cursed, those who stupidly imagine they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by upsetting the lawfully constituted authorities under which they live- for foment- ing rebellion, and thus putting back indefi- nitely, if not making impossible for ever, the development of Canada by an enlightened and 34 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN prosperous people, under British auspices, into one of the noblest nations the world has ever beheld. It is also true that he does not appear to take very kindly to what is called Imperial Federation. Well, the truth is that this, whether looked at from the racial or the politi- cal standpoint, is by no means a party ques- tion in the lyower Province ; and, indeed, the same thing may be said of every other province in the Dominion. Men of both races in Que- bec, and men on both sides of politics from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are undoubtedly in favour of it so far as they understand what it implies, or what they suppose it implies ; and men of both races in Quebec, and men on both sides of politics from the Atlantic to the Pacific, if not positively opposed to it, look upon it rather askance. Hence a man's stand as to Imperial Federation, whether favourable to it or otherwise, has nothing whatever to do with his appreciation of British institutions or with his loyalty to the Empire. Fortunate, too, that it is so ; for up to a comparatively short time ago this question was regarded by a good many as a sort of harmless craze with LOVE OP CANADA, LOYALTY TO BRITAIN 35 which some well-meaning people had become afflicted, or at best as being but academical, and even now it is not within the range of practical politics, but is, so to speak, only in the air, dim, shadowy, and indefinite. Now, the French-Canadian is naturally, al- most instinctively, conservative in his notions; and consequently he is very shy of trying new methods in any department of life, ever the simplest. Much more sh "s he, then, of trying untried methods in such an important matter as the government of the country. He is a firm believer in the wise old saw, " I sustain V'ictoria Regina et Impekvtrix without the loss of a shred of her territr f on the throne from which for two generraiu;' ; she had ruled her world-wide empire wuh unprecedcjited honour to herself, wifl. un- exampled prosperity to her people, and uiili unnumbered benefits to humanity at large ! But what about our French-Canadian Pre- mier ? Was he not very unwilling to send those contingents of ours to South Africa ? Did he not dilly-dally with them until compelled to take action by the force of public opinion > Unwilling to send them, was he ? Wl-.y, then did he not do his best to keep them at home instead of getting them off at the earliest mom- ent possible? Dilly-dally, did he? How. then, did it conie that the troops were embark- ing at Quebec in about three weeks or less after the first authoritative intimation had been received that their aid would be welcomed by the Home Government ? If this be what is meant by dilly-dallying one would like to be furnished with an example of promptness and f 44 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN decision. But did not the other colonies have their contingents at the seat of war before ours ? Yes, but they are not so far away from Cape Colony as we are ; and, what is of much more importance, their parliaments were in session at the time, so that there was no constitutional difficulty to interfere with immediate action, whereas the Parliament of the Dominion had been prorogued but a short time before, and the members of the Ministry had gone here and there, to one place or another, in the dif- ferent provinces. If Canada were suddenly and imexpectedly invaded to-day, as British South Africa was in the autumn of 1899, would the Prime Minister of England be justified in sending troops to our aid on his own individ- ual official responsibility without consulting his Ministry, and before Parliament had voted the necessary supplies? And yet Sir Wilfrid Laurier is not a thoroughly loyal British sub- ject because, in sending Canadian volunteers to fight England's battles— well, the Empire's battles, if you '.ike — thousands of miles away from their homes, he was anxious to proceed in accordance with the constitution of the country where he is the First Minister of the I.OVB OP CANADA, LOYALTY TO BRITAIN 45 Crown ! I/)ok down in pity upon our ignor- ance and rashness, O shade of Brougham and of Hallam ! Sir Wilfrid must surely be a man of almost infinite patience to bear so uncom- plainingly as he has done with accusations so unfounded and senseless, if not malicious. Happy for him that he dwells in an atmosphere so serene, upon an eminence so high, that he can afford to treat all such accusations with the contempt they deserve. The very worst that can be said of any French-Canadian, in connection with this mat- ter of sending troops to South Africa, is that for a time his attitude was one of indifference. But as soon as he apprehended the real inten- tions of the authorities in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State his indifference was replaced by enthusiastic support of the Home Government. The electric current flashed the news, the cry went forth, that British territory had been invaded ; and as soon as the French- Canadian distinctly heard the cry, and under- stood its import, he, as he had often done be- fore, buckled on his armor, and went forth to help to repel the invader. ^aK^?a"S4as 46 THE . PRBNCH-CANADIAN But is there not a certain French-Canadian named Bouraasa ? Is he particularly noted for his attachment to British institutions and to British conncetion ? It is enough to say here that, however impolitic some of his utterances may have appeared to his friends, no one can possibly accuse him nd of the mountain and the flood. Land of my sires, what mortal hand Can e'er untie the filial band That knits me to thy rugged strand ? " And, surely, there are others of us who, lov- ing the Emerald Isle in the very core of our hearts, say : " Though bright are Bi^land's fbvntauis. And fertile are her plains ; Though Scotia's lofty mountains Where savage grandeur reifas ; While 'mid their cbanns I wander My thoughts I turn the while, And seem of thee the fonder. My own Green Isle." Then, too, if we were bom there, if we Uved there long enough to know something of its beauties and to appreciate the warm hearts of M)VB OF CANADA, M)YAI,TY TO BRITAIN 5 1 the people, and if we begin to realize that we shall never more look upon Erin's hills and valle3rs, the tear starts unbidden to the eye, and with full hearts we are ready to cry out — the memory of Erin the last to leave us, the visions of Erin the last to fade away — " O Sogarth aroon, lore I know life it fleeting. Soon, soon, in the ttnuige earth my poor bone* will lie; I have aaid my last prayer and received my last blesa- ing. And, if the Lord's willing, I'm ready to die : But, Sogarth aroon, can I never again see The valleys and hills of my dear native land ? When my soul takes its flight from this dark world of sorrow Will it pass through old Ireland to join the bless'd band? O Sogarth amon, I have kept through all changes The thrice-blessed shamrock to lay o'er my clay, And, oh I it has minded me often and often Of that bright'**'•' "ho fight, by my .id. ah!Si^li'*"^ of Buaklnd. If our «w^ i«J? If h« lne.1 not before the Mme idtl? "5 2. ? n/^^.u^*T***" •'^ • "ow orthodox kiM ? rL'Sf*^."" **••,'*• ■»<> »»>• '-w. that SJaldtry Troth, vdoor or love by • .Undwtl HkrthS. " ^ No one wishes to deny that a good Catholic woiild refuse to obey a secular command which conflicted with his religious duties ; but would not the good Protestant do the same ? Would not the latter maintain, quite as strongly as the former, that if obedience to the secular powers involved doing violence to his con- science, or-what is virtually the same thing- if It involved disobedience to God, he must obey God rather than man ? Taking his ^nt f rd"^ '° P"'^ «> ^^«^^y' ^ou\d thnl 1^ ^""^ *° f°"°^ "»« «»«Ple of to^ ' r^^'" ^^'■'^'^^^ ^y th« authorities to do something which their consciences told 62 THE IfRENCH-CANADIAN them they ought to do, replied, " Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Would he not make St. Peter's words his own, and say, "We ought to obey God rather than men"? Would he not remember that many a Christian in the early days refused to save his Hfe at even so small an apparent cost as casting a single grain of incense upon a heathen altar ? Surely if he were what is called a conscientious man a God-fearing man, he would refuse to obey But neither would he rebel ; for whilst dis- obedience may sometimes be right, rebellion IS always wrong—that is, rebeUion against lawfully constituted authority. Does not every staunch Protestant esteem and honour the memory of such men as Ridley and Uti- mer, because they suffered death rather than obey a command which they conscientiously believed to be wrong? What Protestant what real Protestant and not a mongrel, blames the Scottish Covenanters to-day for refusing obedience to their lawful king when they couldnotrenderthatobediencewithaclearcon- W)VE OP CANADA, I.OYAI.TY TO BRITAIN 63 science? What Protestant to-day blames the Quaker for refusing to engage in war, when the conscience of the Quaker tells him he oughtnot todoso? Surely, not one. But why? Simply because the Protestant believes m hberty of conscience. Well, what he be- lieves in and claims for himself he will hardly deny to others ; and therefore he should be the last to blame Catholics if they, sooner than disobey what they believe to be the Voice of Ood, should refuse obedience to some com- mand or commands of the secular power. However, there is at present no reason to fear that the lawful authorities in any portion of the British Empire will ever try to compel any man -be he Christian, Jew, Mohammedan or heathen— to do anything contrary to the dictates of his conscience. CHAPTER IV. THE EXERCISE OF THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. An important feature of French-Canadian life, not readily seen by the English-speaking visitor, but patent to the English-speaking resident, is the rapidly increasing circulation of the magazine and especially of the news- paper. That home must be very poor indeed to which a good weekly paper does not regularly find its way, whilst a daily is much more common than it was some years ago. Now whatever may be thought of the French papers in Quebec, they are singularly and creditably free — unhappily, they are almost uniquely free — from everything immoral or irreligious; and, as a rule, they direct the attention of their readers fairly and intelli- gently to the public questions of the day. Hence the eflfect of the increased circulation has been altogether good, particularly in the interest thereby promoted in the government of the Province and of the Dominion. Now the French-Canadian has always paid much A4 HON. M. E. BERNIEK, MP., .MINISTER OK INLAND REVKSflv FOR (.ANADA. HON. J. I. TARTE. PC, M.P. MINISTKR OK PlULle WORKS OTTAWA. EXERCISE OF ELECTIVE FRANCHTSE 65 attention to parochial and municipal affairs and he has always had very good reason for beh'..vmg them, in general, to be managed ho lestly, and with as much economy as is compatible with efficiency— which, after all IS the truest economy. Well, his newspaper has shown him that the same thing cannot invariably be said of the management of affairs by the Provincial Legislature or the Dominion Parliament. He has learned something of the meaning of such classical terms as. e g " rake off," "boodle." and so on. Now he. poor unsophisticated man that he is. cannot under- st^d why his representatives in the Assembly and the Commons should not manage the business of the country just as uprightly and carefully as his representatives in the humbler Municipal Councils ; and, so, it has come to pass, more than once or twice, that when his newspaper has shown him plainly that those whom he has sent to either of the two parlia- ments has been guilty of any act or acts of corruption-guilty either by suggestion or partiapation, by advocating or by not oppos- ing, by word or by deed, directly or indirectly —he has made his disapprobation felt at the 66 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN polls. There may not have been any uproar, there may have been no indignation meetings,' everything on the surface may have remained undisturbed ; but so surely as he once becomes convinced of the guilt of his representative in Parliament, so surely as that representative has justly forfeited the confidence of the electors, so surely does the delinquent discover, to his chagrin, at the next elections that his somewhat crooked course has not been un- noticed by his constituents. A solid French- Canadian vote may , not, perhaps, be cast against him ; but a great many French- Canadian votes will be given to secure the election of his opponent— provided, that is, that the opponent has never proved himself unworthy of their confidence as an honest man, and is in other respects a suitable candi- date for their suffrages. How is it, then, that he is accused, in ex- ercising his franchise, of being governed by racial and religious prejudices ? Wei", oroud of his race he certainly is, and with good rea- son ; and it cannot be denied that, ceteris pari- bus, the man of his race will, as a rule, be given the preference over another. But should EXERCISE OF ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 67 not English, Irish or Scotch Canadians be the last to blame him for this, seeing that the same thing is true of themselves ? If he is proud of the race that has given to the world such a galaxy of men and women to adorn the firmament of Science, Art, Literature and Re- ligion as have had their birth and breeding in the land of the adventurous Bougainville, the accomplished Bouguereau, the profound and versatile Chateaubriand, the eloquent and saintly Fenelon, the inimitable epistolist Madame de Sevign^, the celebrated Madame de Stael, the authoress of De tAUemagne, and a host of others of honoured memory, are there not those who think that man to be but little better than a fool who will not acknow- ledge that the English are in every way the finest people the world has ever seen, the bravest, the noblest, the cleverest, the most learned, the most inventive, the most honest, and even (according to the Anglo-Israel craze) amongst the most ancient ? But, still, the history of the last few hun- dred years shows that the EngUshman has a right to be proud of his race — proud because of the marvellous progress it has made in the 68 THE FRBNCH-CANADIAN arts of peace no less than in the science of war, proud of what his country has done for almost every land that has been brought under her bemgn sway, proud because of what she is now doing for the enlightenment of those peo- pies who but a few years ago were sitti„iin dense moral darkness, through which there penetrated not a single ray of that glorious hght which IS ever streaming from the Cross of Calvary! Why, then, should any of us find fault with the French-Canadian, or sus- pect his loyalty to Britain, because he is proud which has been England's not altogether un- successful rival in working for the world's welfare ; a nation which some three hundred Calais-dieir last possession in the i-ind that witnessed the battles of Agincourt and Poic- tiers, the land where the Black Prince won his spurs at Crecy in 1347-50 tt.i no longer can any Enghsh monarch rightly call himself by the old title. "King of Great Britain, Fran« and Ireland " ? Yes indeed, the Freni-Can^ dian IS proud of his race, and it would be a shame for him if he were not. But this pride EXERCISE OP ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 69 Of race does not make him bUnd to the faults of a man of that race who may be a candidate for parhamentary honours; and whilst he would prefer to support a man of his own original nationality, he will vote for an honest Bnghsh, Irish or Scotch Canadian rather than for a French-Canadian upon whose honesty he feels that he cannot depend. But supposing all this to be true, as to race IS It equally true as to religion? and if he is unduly influenced by religious considerations, how can he be said to exercise his elective franchise independently or to vote for candi- dates according to their merits ? Now some people and probably-no, certainly-the French-Canadian along with the others, are foohsh enough to think that a belief in the Chnstian Religion ought to be an indispensable requisite in any man who aspires to a place in the legislative halls of a professedly Christian country ; for how. such people ask themselves, can Christians believe that a man will legislate —or even be able to legislate-for the highest interests of his country unless he believes in that revelation of the Divine Will which is commonly called the Christian Religion > In- 70 THE PKRNCH-CANADIAN deed, the French-Canadian regards his religion as the most important subject that can claim his attention ; and why not ? After his Faith has triumphantly stood the test of the most bitter opposition and cruel persecution of the Jew, the heathen, and the infidel, for some nineteen centuries, after it has raised him up to a plane immeasurably higher than was ever occupied by his heathen ancestors, after it has done what it has done where its tenets have been sincerely received and where honest efforts have been made to obey its commands, who is to blame him, for loving that Creed with all the fervour ahd devotion of his warm and impassioned heart? or for regarding the profession of it as a sine gua non in any man who seeks his suffrages? Nay, would it not be an inestimable blessing for Canada if aU her people had the same firm belief in and the same glowing love for the Chiistian Religion and if they tried to emulate the devout French- Canadian in living according to its holy teachings ? But, mark, whibt he loves his race and his Creed, and is proud and happy to see a man belonging to that race and believing that Creed occupying the position of Canada's i-i tATK HON HONORK MKRCIKR, PMKMIKK OK UIKHKC FH..M IS.S7 T(. l>v^. ', 1 3 ) """■ ■■'■ '■"'"■■m.uKH. '•■'"•issrssr''"' 8XRKCI8B OP KLBCTIVB PKANCIIISK Jt Prime Minister, he looks at and discusacs political questions free from racial and re- ligious prejudices- though, fortunately, net free from religious considerations ; and, as a consequence, he sends to the legislative halls, to represent him there, those men whom he believes to be best fitted for the task— not indeed irrespective of Creed, but irrespective of ecclesiastical antecedents and proclivities. How few of those who so glibly accuse him of Iwing govenied by religious prejudices in his exercise of the elective franchise ever ask themselves how many agnostics or other un- Ijeliever are to be found amongst the men whom he has sent to Parliament ? Are there half a dozen ? Is there one ? Nor does he ask himself what candidate would, if elected, be most likely to advance French-Canadian interests alone, but who will do the best that can be done for the whole people ; for he knows that under a system of government like that of Canada, whilst each Province has certain rights of its own which must be regarded as sacred, one class of the inhabitants cannot really prosper at the expense of another. Hence it is that though a parlia- i 72 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN m i I ^1^ mentary candidate may have French as his vernacular, and may kneel at the Catholic Altar, these considerations will not necessarily secure his election over an opponent who knows little of the French language and who holds to a somewhat different form of the Christian Faith, if that opponent be in other respects the better man of the two. This was the principal reason why at the last General Elections for the Dominion the Province of Quebec gave the present government an over- whelming majority. It was not because the members of the govetnment were French or Catholic ; for they were not, but because the people of that Province believed the policy of the government to be the best for the whole of Canada. Moreover, at those same elections the French-Canadian voted, in many in- stances, agai*-st men of his own race and of his own religion, and supported men of another creed and another national origin. Similar remarks apply to the still more recent elections for the Quebec Assembly. It is, however, often said, and indeed some- what flippantly, that the French-Canadian cannot vote independently because he has to EXERCISE OP ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 73 do exactly as his " spiritual pastors and mas- ters" order him. Well, it is not for the wnter, an Ontario Protestant, to pretend to be familiar with the relations existing between the Roman Catholic clergy and their flocks in Quebec, or, for that matter, anywhere else ; but he is persuaded that no opinion could be farther astray or rest upon a more flimsy foundation than that the clergy exercise an undue influence over their flocks as to what political party they shall support. There are many mortal sins, but to be identified with either of the two great political parties of Canada is not included amongst the number ; it is not even a venial sin, so what have the clergy to do with it? Those who make the above charge seem to be impaled on the horns of a dilemma, at any rate, if we judge from the results of the last General Elections for the Dominion ; for these results plainly show that either the members of the clergy were divided in their counsels, or that a large proportion of the laity proved contumacious. The proof is that out of the whole total vote cast the Liberals, the vic- torious party, obtained a majority of only 74 THB FRENCH-CANADIAN ip 27.873; SO that if the clergy gave uniform directions about voting, a great part of the laity refused to obey. The return of the Liberals to power with a very large majority as they had, whilst the majority of the total vote cast was so comparatively small, is, of course, to be accounted for by the fact that this majority of votes was divided amongst many constituencies. Look also at the federal elections of 1896 and It will be seen to a moral certainty that the French-Canadian is just as free as any man can be to vote as he thinks best— free that is, so far as concerns clerical influence • otherwise the result of those elections, how that result was brought about, is veiled in impenetrable mystery. We all know that the leader of the Conservatives at that time, the then Prime Minister, quite believed that the Roman Catholic minority in Manitoba were suffenng under a very serious grievance on account of the Education Act passed by the Greenway Administration. We know also that the minority brought their case before the courts, and that it was at length decided by the Imperial Privy Council that the min- F. D. MONK, K.C., M.P. MONTKIvAI,. •y^ I!'. A. BEI.COrRT, K.C., M.P., OTTAWA. EXERCISE OF ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 75 ority had just cause of complaint, that they reaUy had a grievance, and that it lay with the Dominion Parliament to see that the griev- ance was removed. Now to carry out the de- cision thus given, to grant to the Roman CathoUcs in Manitoba the relief for which they prayed, was a part of the policy upon which Sir Charles Tupper appealed to the country. It was what is known as a burning question, and provoked the most decided and bitter ...^position from some of Sir Charles' own supporters ; nevertheless, he insisted on making it a plank in his political platform. We know also, or at least we believe, that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy of Quebec thor- oughly approved of and endorsed Sir Charles- determination to remove the aforesaid griev- ance. Is it not plain, then, that if the French- Canadian electors are compelled to vote accord- ing to the will of their clergy, Sir Charles should have been sustained ? But what was the result ? Why. simply that, in spite of the aUeged clerical despotism, in spite of the fact that the Roman Catholics of Manitoba— the French-Canadian's own brethren— were groaning under a burden which Sir Charles 76 PRBNCH-CANADIAN had pledged himself to remove if he were returned to power, that renowned statesman met with his Waterloo in the Province of Quebec, and his illustrious opponent won a brilliant victory. Strange anomaly, too, does it seem, Roman Catholics of Quebec voting with the Orange element of Ontario to defeat a Prime Minister who had pledged himself to grant relief from a grievance to the Roman Catholics of Manitoba ! Certainly their mo- tives were very diflferent, the Orangemen being determined that Sir Charles should be defeated rather than t^at the Manitoba School Act should be disallowed, and the French- Canadians being equally determined that Sir Wilfrid should be sustained because they be- lieved his policy to be for '• the greatest good to the greatest number"; but none the less, during the memorable campaign of 1896, did the fleurde lis and the Orange lily shine side by side on the same banner ! And yet there pre those who would have us believe that the French-Canadian votes according to certain in- structions which are supposed to be issued to him by the Hierarchy of Quebec ! EXERCISE OF ELECTIVE FRANCHISK ^^ Supposing, however, that the clergy of the lower province do exercise a very great influ- ence over the laity in parliamentary elections —provided it be a legitimate, and not an undue influence, is it necessarily an unmixed evil? is it an evil at all? ]Say, is it not a positive good? Surely the French-Canadian clergy, noted for their piety and learning, their self-denial and self-sacrifice for the sake of their flocks, their devotion to their sacred duties, their unremitting care and almost jealous vigilance for the safety and welfare of their people, are not to be censured if they do sometimes warn those placed under their supervision against the dishonest designs of the scheming demagogue, and point out to then the qualities which should characterize the men who seek their suffrages. If, when ever elections are held, bold and ignorant empirics are at work proclaiming political panaceas for the imaginary ills of the State and if unprincipled scoundrels are likely to b^ plying their nefarious trade of bribery and corruption, are the French- Canadian clergy (or, for that matter, any other clergy) to be blamed for warning their people against the 78 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN dangers that threaten them, or for giving them the best advice in their power ? That the Catholic clergy of Quebec do exercise their legitimate influence in this as in other matters is hardly open to question ; but that they attempt to drive their people to the polls, and there make them vote for one party or another upon pain of ecclesiastical censures or spiritual penalties, we may rest assured there is not the slightest reason to imagine. But there are those who profess to believe that the French-Canadian voted as he did in 1896 in opposition ito the mandate of his spiritual advisers and directors because if Sir Charles were defeated. Sir Wilfrid (a French- Canadian) would become Prime Minister, and that he voted as he did in 1900 in order that Sir Wilfrid might remain Prime Minister. Well, what is the unfortimate man to say ? First, he is accused of voting in slavish obedi- ence to the mandate of his clergy, and then he is credited with voting in direct opposition to such mandate ! Now would ic not be just as well to remember that, from the political standpoint, he voted exactly the other way in 1878, and many a time before and after, from HON. J. J. E. GrERIN. M.D., M I..A.. MKMBKR aUKBEC PROVINCIAL CABINET. BXBRCISE OF KtRCTIVK FRANCHISK 79 General Elections for the Commons; and French-Canadian nor Catholic, but a Scotch- man and a Protestant, was Prime Minister. Purely, then, justice alone, without any ad- .n.xture of charity, should lead us to the con- cUtsion that the man voted as he did in days gone by because he believed the then Conser- TZ^'""" '" "^ ''' "^^ '°^ Canada ; and that m the more recent elections he voted dif- ferently because he had come to realize that, the times being changed, the conditions of the country being no longer the same, the welfare of the Dominion would be better promoted by a somewhat different policy, and that this policy was presented to the electorate by the Liberal party. By the way. was not this policy too almost the same, practically, as that advoirated bythelateDaltonMcCarthy-amanwhommany people beheyed to be a clever statesman, and who certainly was an uncompromising Protest ant, and could never be accusedof beiugunder the influence of the Quebec Hierarchy or of the pr^ent Premier? We may also call to mind that Sir Wilfrid's policy was endorsed 8o THE PKRNCH-CANADIAN by almost every province in the Dominion ex- cept Ontario ; and we may pertinently ask if all those provinces supported that policy either because they were subject to the French Canadian clergy or because the Prime Minis- ter, whose policy it was, happened to be a French-Canadian and a Catholic. It would be very interesting to enter here upon some discussion as to the probable re- sult of the campaign of 1896 if that success- ful veteran, the late Sir John A. Macdonald, had then been the Conservative leader. But it would be useless tp attempt such a specula- tion, however attractive it may be, within the limits to which this little work is necessarily confined. However, we cannot help feeling persuaded that such a wise and sagacious statesman as he undoubtedly was would have seen the desirability of making such changes in the National Policy as -were demanded by the changed conditions of the country; and, with the assistance of his French-Canadian Ministers, would also have devised some means of settling the difficulty in Manitoba, which, whilst satisfactory to the Roman Catholics of that province, would not have XXBRCI8B OF SUtCTIVB PKANCHI8X Si alienated from him any considerable number of his supporters throughout the Dominion. The Jesuits' Estates Question was hardly a less burning one than the Manitoba School Act, and it produced as many and as deep "searchings of heart" amongst a certain class of Protestants ; but Sir John A. Macdon- ald managed somehow to have it settled in such a manner that, whilst satisfactory to Uiose directly concerned, it left him with a firm grasp of the helm of the Ship of State Moreover, it was settled so happily as to leave little or no sore feelip.'j behind, and so effec- tually as to preclude its ever coming up for future consideration. The same can hardly be said about the settlement of the Manitoba Schools difficulty. At any rate, the follow- ing dispatch from Ottawa appeared in the Toronto Zfai/y Mail and Empin of November 27th, 1901 : " Archbi«hop Ungevin, of St. Boniface, denies that he haa come east to secure Government aid for Catho- lic schools in Manitoba. He could not say that the school question bad been settled. He remarked • • When I sute that in the city of Winnipeg the Catho- lics support their own schools without receiving a cent of assUtance from the Government, and in addi- jj^tiSI&mm 1/ 89 THB FRBNCH-CANADIAN tion have to pay |8,ooo annually for the rapport of the Pablic achools, to which they do not send their children, yon will understand how unsatisfactory ia the system. •• ' There was some Ulk of the Public School Board taking over our schools, but that body objected to any religious garb for the nuns, and the arrangement fell through. Our people in Winnipeg are rather hard pressed financially, because they have to support not only their own schools, churches and charitable works, but the Public schools as well. They are a hopeful, energetic people, however, and the attend- ance at the Separate schools which they maintain was never so large, nor has the instruction ever been so perfect. They certainly ^erit the sympathy and rap- port of Canadian Catholics. In the country districts the situation is not embarrassing, and the arrange- ments are more satisfactory.' " Some further settlement, it would there- fore seem, must be made before it can be said that justice has been done to the Roman Catholic minority in Manitoba. The old aphorism. Magna est Veritas et prevalent, would lose none of its truth if vsritas were replaced by justitia. n HON. CHAS. I.ANOKI.MKR, SHKRIKF, CITY OF mKIIKC I.ATK I'ROVIXeiAI, SKCRKTARV. •^"ECri'ra ii^-i[^^^^'" " ERNKST PACAID, KIIITOR ",y son I.-. .. CHAPTER V. THE USE OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN QUEBEC. There are few things which any patriotic Canadian should desire more eamestirfor h s country than the fusion into one homogeLus people o the two great races which fo^^ ov«-whelming majority of its inhabitants-if such fusion were at all possible. But of no- thing should he be more careful than to avoid attemptmg what perhaps cannot be done, for he may thus put back indefinitely the nearest FK>^^le approach to what he may have most iJ^ L'^"* ^^ '^^ ^"'^^^ '° Canada may together zealously and harmoniously for the Zv'" °L!!;"' ~""°" country ;\ut can they ever become amalgamated into one homojren. m^speopiej Does not the fact that theylL- long to diflFerent races render complete homo- g^eity impossible ? Universal intermarriage between them might, after many generations ■PH 84 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN produce a people who would be neither French nor British ; but would they be really homo- geneous ? And, at any rate, such general in- termanying seems to be altogether out of the question ; so improbable is it, that it may be regarded as morally impossible. Nor is it likely that either race will ever gain a very decided predominance over the other ; for, even were it possible, neither of them is ungenerous enough to attempt it. Happily, too, is this the case ; and if anyone should dispute this ktatement, a sufficient answer might be given him in one word, Ire- land. Attempts at this sort of thing have been made — perhaps we had better say, vrere made — in that land for many centuries ; and the whole civilized world knows the deplorable and disastrous result. True, there are in- stances of the English Saxon in Ireland be- coming more Irish than the Irish Kelt, and vice versa ; but from the day that Strongbow sailed into Dublin Bay up to the present (ex- cept when the Irish were goaded into insurrec- tion) has there ever been a time when the two races (speaking in general terms) were more bitterly opposed to each other than they i -; ^■'-'-V*»\.-^.3^ >3 THB FRENCH LAMGUAGB IN QUBBBC 85 are to-day? What is called "the old spite" is still as bitter as ever. Now certain of the conditions existing in Canada are not unlike those existing in Ire- land many years ago, and still existing there to a great extent ; that is to say, in each land there are two races, and each race has its own form of the Christian Faith. Moreover, the Irish language has not yet become obsolete ; and recent efforts which may not be devoid of the germs of success, have been made for its revival. It would indeed be a disagreeable and a humiliating task to write of the means adopted to make the Irishman forsake the Faith which he believes to be that of his fath- ers and to substitute the English I«anguage for the Irish. The latter has been partly success- ful, and the former has proved a dismal failure. The law would not allow Erse to be used offici- ally, and drove it out of the courts; but the law that drove it out of the courts gave it a deeper and warmer place in the Irishman's heart and thus intensified the strife between the two races. What would be a humiliating task has juts been mentioned ; but, in view of the state of ^^ 86 THE FRBNCH-CANADIAN Ireland for man> years, it would be a sad task to speculate on what might be the condition of that land to-day if England had treated the people as she treated the French-Canadians when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1761 and had left them in the undisturbed enjoy- ment of their own religion and language and in the uninterrupted use of their own customs Now ought not such considerations as these be a lesson to those . /ho say that the official use of the Frcuch language in the Province of Quebec tends to keep the two races apart, and that therefore English alone should be recog- nized? If this were done would there be a closer union between ourselves and our French- Canadian fellow-subjects? No, but there might be disruption ! Does any one say. I^t the trouble come ; ay. let us even pre- cipitate It ; and the sooner the better, for then we'll settle the whole matter over again ; and we 11 settle it for good and all by sweeping away every special privilege which England once guaranteed to the French people in Canada"? There can hardly be anyone so unfau-. so lost to all sense of honour, so unjust so wicked, nay, so down-right stupid, as to J. ». I.AI.IBKKTk. rKiosiiiKXT i>i Tin; iio\ A>-U A I.EADINf KI> l)|' IIAKIIOK CO.M.MISSIONKK'- MKRCIIAXT OK yriaiKC CITY. S»!S=!-SC>!HB!=a A. R. MACDONALD, Qt'EBEC CITY, A MKMBKR OF THK MONTREAL STOCK BXCHANG: H T£ £ FRKNCH LANGUAGE IN QUEBEC 87 suggest anything of the sort ; but if, perad- venture, there are any such vile and brutal people in Canada, they may as well be told that every honest man throughout the world would look upon such a proposition with detestation and horror ! Let us remove the bad taste which such a supposition leaves upon the palate of our morals and of our honour by considering something of a different character. There cannot be a doubt that the use of the same language — the language which was heard re-echoing around the walls of doomed Troy when the besiegers shouted their fierce battle- cries, the language of Homer and Hesiod, Thucydides and Herodotus, Demosthenes and iEschines, Sophocles and i^schylus — was one of the great bonds which bound together the people of ancient Greece, a people of marvellous enterprise, indomitable courage, transcendent genius, and undying patriotism. Wherever they went they were still Hellenes, and where- ever they dwelt they called the country Hellas. As the late Prof. Freeman says in one of his admirable historical sketches, "Thus there were patches, so to speak, of Hellas anywhere ; and there were such patches of Hellas round 88 THK PKBNCH-CANADIAN • great part of the Mediterranean Sea. where- ever Greek setUers had pknted colonies." But, mark, besides having a common language, these people had a common ancestry and a common reUgion, so that, they consisted of different tribes rather than of different races, and they worshipped the same deities. Now supposmg they had been of two different races one of which had one form of religion and spoke one language, and the other of which had a different form of religion and spoke another language, would the enforced use of one of those languages—enforced by the race that happened to be dominant at the t' ne— have tended to the unification of the whole people? Would it not rather have driven them apart and made them antagonistic to each other? On the other hand, supposing that instead of the forcible suppression of one of the languages, each race had learned to use both languages— had become bi-lingual— would not this, though it could never make them homogeneous, have united them more closely than would otherwise have been pos- sible ? THK PSBNCR I^KOUAOB IK QUBBEC 89 Now.doesnot this suggest to us that thecom- mon use of both French and English by all the pe<^le is the ideal to be aimed at in Canada ? wen, this is what is aimed at in at least some guts of Quebec, for English, as well as French, is taught in many of the schools ; and from a social and business point of view, even from a comprehensively and inclusively Cana- dian point of view, would it not be well if the same oould be said of the schools in all the other provinces? Does it not seem that the use of the two languages in common, and not the suppression of one of them, is the true policy to pursue if we would see the two races more c osely united than ever they had been before? Nor would we, EngUsh-speaking people, find it nearly so difficult to learn the wft pelludd tongue of old France as our French-speaking neighbors find it to learn Which we're obhged to hi«i, .„d .pit, .nd .putter with its (seemingly) anarchical orthography Its bewilderingorthoepy; and its many syntac^ tical Idioms. The difficulties which a French man has to overcome in learning to speak wf^^HBP^ t 90 THl PRBNCH-CANADIAN Bngliah have had almost numberless laugh- able exemplifications ; and one which appeared in a Canadian journal is well worth repeating. A French gentleman was, it seems, chatting with a young Englishwoman who, he had been given to understand, had ascended to the sum- mit of Mount Blanc. In the course of conver- sation he said to her, " Oh, mademoiselle, dey do tell me you climb to ze top of Mt. Blanc." " Yes, sir," was the reply, "and the magnifi- cent view more than repaid me for all the labour." '• Ah ! yes truly ; Lut, all ze same, you do one great foot." " Ono great feat. Monsieur," quietly corrected the >-)ung lady. " Vat ! you mean you do him two tine ! By gar, zat was one more greater foot still." But some sturdy Britishers, such as those who used to boast in the days of WelHngton's military glory that one Englishman could thrash half a dozen Frenchmen, and eat them afterwards if necessary, tell us that England won Canada from France in fair fight, that Canada belongs to England by right of con- quest, and that therefore English shoiUd be the only language recognized by law through- out the whole Dominion. Wait a minute, my ! i LATE HON ARTHUR I'AylKT. WHO WAS A MKMllIK <)1 TIIK tAXAlMAN SKXATK. NI, A I.KAIllXi. MKRCIIAXT OF TIIK CITY OK yrKlll.t.. HON. V. W. LARUE, M.L.C., aPEBEC. THB PRBNCH lANGUAGE IN QUEBEC 91 honest and outspoken friends. Are you quite certain that England really won--that danger would be avoided ; and so both are recognized to^y They were indeed too wise to attempt the impossible task of fusing two distinct races into one homogeneous people ; but they seem to have looked forward to a time when all Canadians would be famiUar with both French and EngUsh, and would thus, by the common use of Uxe two predominating languages of the civilized world, become a people unique among the peoples of the earth, more closely bound together than any two races had ever been before, and doing more to promote the welfare of mankind. They seem to have hoped also, and that not without reason that the country they loved so well would in ' time become an honour to the land of St. Denys and of St. George, the land of St. Andrew and of St. Patrick, and would rival those dear old Mother-lands by setting the nations of the 96 THS PRBlfCH-CANADIAN earth an example of national righteousness, national education, national enlightenment, national unselfishness and national philan- thropy-all otamuch higher type than had ever been known before. But, remember, for the accompUshment of these glorious results they did not think it necessary to abolish the official use of the French language, but the contrary. L. O. DAVID, CITY CLERK, MONTREAL. UErT-COI,ONEL OSCAR C. I'KUI.KTIEK. D.S.O , OIST«ICT OFFICER COMMANKINC. K.C.A., m'EBKC, A MEMBER OF THE FIRST CANADIAN CONTISGEST TO SOrTII AFRICA. CHAPTER VI. EDUCATION AND RSWOION. To thwe who have but little knowledge of French-Canadians are quite content to go on »n the way of their fathers a hundred y^ ago that they placidly look forwar^to^e next generation pursuing the same mo^ onous course, that they are devoid of Tv^l a^ow T ^","" ^"^*^"^' '"^'^ ^hey do^ dians A« f« *u ~^ **™e French-Cana- but, «Wa/« mufandss, it is equally true of tfi mis respect he reminds us of the 9« THB PRBNCH-CANADIAN peasantry of certain parte of Ireland in the old daya, who, so anxiooa were they that their children ahould not grow up without at least some of the rudimento of an education, sent them in summer to be taught beneath the shadow of a hedge for want of better accom- modation, and in winter to con their tasks in some dilapidated old bam where the rain came down through the worn-out thatch, and where the fire at which they warmed their shoeless feet was made of the turf which they carried from their homes in the morning. And, oh I what efforto some of those poor people cheerfully made, what privations they uncom- plainingly endured, to send to the college a son of more than ordinary promise so that in due time they might see him "wearing the robes " — that is, celebrating mass af !:er his ad- mission to the priesthood. It is remarkable, too, what dignitaries of the Church some of those poor peasants' sons afterwards became, and how worthily they filled their positions. Well, the kabitani of Quebec seems to be as anxious for the education of his children as the Irish peasant. Does he himself suffer from not having been able to obtain a good schooling •DUCATION AND KKUOION gg one who bM «« u„ f„ ,h.„,i'f '>>' "» other p«p,. i' C«^t^3 fXe "^ ""OH, it i, no lonwr . »«,;',*' """ that*, many of theoL^ ZT° ""^^ Prndence, m..gri?y_,H., t^ «r»mf?'*' ..^M.r...o^„is.-t„5r~r,[ v-anada's merchant princes. lOO THE PRBNCH-CANADIAN Nor Should it be forgotten that in this mat- ter of education the French-Canadian hasbeen, and stiU is, encouraged in every way by those who occupy influential positions in the Churdi and in the State. Indeed, as might have be^ expected, the educational movement m Quebec produce was, in the first place, from the top downward ; and too much credit cannot ^ riven to the hierarchy or the Cml Govern- ment for what has been already accomplished. There is now an admirable system of pubUc or common schools, from which even Ontario might learn a lesson or two with advantage to he«elf ; and mdeedof no part of the whole scheme, from the elementary school up to the university, has Quebec any reason to te ashamed when it is compared with the corres Donding part of the scheme of any other pro- ^nce in Ae Dominion. Still it must not be supposed that the French-Canadian claims per- fection for it ; on the contrary, he quite re^zes that there is room for improvement, and he Uves with the hope that such modifications may yet be effected as will place it on a le.el at least with the systems of older and wealt^er countries. Nay, he does not despau: of a day f t le IS el er ARTHIR IlKlNKAf. MANAGER HOCHKLACA BANK W'KBKC CITV. ,or.SFKKCHHTTH.C.M.O..UX.X...K CUKKKUK.-..SUAT.VKCOVNO..,.H. EDUCATION AND REUGION loi arriving when the several educational systems of the whole Dominion will be so advanced that a French-Canadian Uvoisier, a French- Canadian Dore, and a French-Canadian I^ Brun will compete in nonourable rivalry with an Irish-Canadian Boyle, an English- Canadian Millais, and a Scotch-Canadian Bums, respectively, in science, painting and poetry. ** But perhaps no trait in the French-Canad- lan s character is more decided-decided rath- er than prominent-than his devotion to his religion, reasons for wnich have been aUuded to m a former chapter. The casual visitor may indeed be more struck with other charac- tenstics. but those who become intimately ac- quainted with the man are most impressed by his rehgiousness-not, bear in mind, his relie- lomsm. but his rehgiousness. It does not standout aggressively, or even ostentatiously but It makes itself felt intensely. In your close personal intercourse with him you cannot but become profoundly impressed with the man's unquestioning and implicit faith in the awtul Mysteries of the Christian Religion, with his simple trust in Le ban Dieu, with his I03 THB FRENCH-CANADIAN unhesitating acceptance of all that is taught him by that Church which he unfeignedly be- lieves to be infallible. He does not care par- ticularly to discuss these sacred subjects, but he tries to perform the duties which a belief of them implies. Moreover, he avoids religious controversy, unless he is compelled to strike out in his own defence ; and it is but fair to him to say that whilst he conscientiously believes that the Creed he has been taught contains the unmutilated Gospel, "the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth," he is perfectly willing that others should believe the same thing as to the teaching of their own Communion. You may be intimate with him for years, and you will never find him to be the first to introduce the odium theologicum. You may be " spilin' for a fight" about religion, but he is not the man to "tread on the tail" of your polemical coat ; and even if you drag that unseemly garment in front of him he will carefully avoid stepping on it, unless in guarding against i.e Scylla of controversy he would have to fall into the Charybdis of moral cowardi-^. But though not controversial, he is intensely religious. BDUCATION AND REUGION 103 fhT.'u"^^^ I' "°* ^' *° ^"^ «tent at least, that he ,s the latter because he is not the for! ^J, .^ , ""^ '.**' '' ^ ^^ '*^"«^°° ^hich ««ms to he at the foundation of his many ZT' .^"^^^ ^^"^ ^ «**^"»ty ^hich they iW Z\ 'T''' ^^'' ^^^ -^y should not be his religion which lies at the founda- othe«? "^'""^ °^ Peacableness amongst the not^r.'^'' ^T^r ^"'^ ^*'^°"^' ^°' masons not far to seek.takes much more kindly to con- ^oversy than his French-Canadian co-religion- wt, and he may also be more decidedly Ultra montane ; but is he more religious ? No man mdeed will go to more trouble to attend Mass on Sunday and every other Holy Day of Obli- gation, and his behaviour during the service is as devout, and in every way as exemplary as the most exacting celebrant could desire. But immediately afterwards, aknost as soon as he has passed out from the vestibule of the sacred ed^ce. he is ready for an encounter with any unfortunate heretic that may come in his way He may not indeed be the first to make the at- t«:k. but the way he looks out from "the tail of his eye" at any poor Protestant he may »««! I04 THB PKBNCH-CANADIAN chance to meet, shows that nothing would please him better at the moment than some good excuse for having "a bit of an argu- ment" about reUgion. However, it is not un- likely that this arises quite as much from racial antipathy to the Saxon himself as from religious antipathy to the Saxon's Creed. On the other hand, the French-Canadian, when Mass is over, prefers to go quietly home to breakfast or dinner, as the case may be, and spend the remainder of the day in mnocent re- creation. Perhaps no better type of the Irish Catholic, taken from the clergy, can be found than the late Father Tom Burk, the eloquent Dominican, or better yet. Father Tom Maguire, of controversial fame ; and it would be difi&cult to give a finer type of the French-Canadian Catholic than Father Laurent who died last year at Lindsay, Ontario, regretted by all who knew him, and at whose funeral every token of respect for him that was gone was manifes- ted by the townspeople of all denominati >ns. The French-Canadian is singularly free from all taint of any form of infidelity. From the time of Voltaure down to that of Renan unbelief has been making more or less head- ALBERT MAI,oriN, M.P., S'KBKC ii i HON. V. K. A. EVANTUREt, M.I. A.. SPEAKER OF THE ONTARIO LEOlSLATfRE. BDUCATION AND RKUOION ,05 way in Fj-anc^-and more'sthe pity • from ti, time of Hobbes and Hume do,^ to * w ! Bradlaugh it has b«*n .«i«T *^"* °^ onelarire North a«, • . P*°P** O' any find -n^^a^JiTu:^ ptr^^^^^^^ put together; and he is convin^^aS^l^ them who have moved into other parts otfhl Dominion and into the ti^vi,!^ -^^ *^® The statrfv ««^ , °««^^^""n« repubUc f». ^"^^^ stately and solemn worship offered fo the adorable Trinitv it, *u • °^^^ to d«*«t devofon. „. fteir mod«. chaU ; ^ ! ^ ii ,06 TH« FRBKCH-CAHADIAN ^giou. in.trttctu« which .'o™.* f^^ ^fof the daily exercises in their coUe»es, ^^.mil and primary schools ; the Chnst- utXts^VetrTd charUy <^.«^-tre ^obtrusivelybyth^m-y-J^^ number of men, women ana cn»«"= be seen almost any time ^^^^^^^'^^^^ individual devotions in oratory, chapel, cttw^ <^ blSlica- some kneeling at one holy shnne ^d^me at another ; here one ^aytng ^' ^t^TrftWan of an absent father or moOier, ^^^sbt/or:ife.sonordau^t^^^^^ «.i»^>«tir and there another praying lor prayers lormwiy . .j^ j^j^ppy consum- here petitions gomg up for tne ^^VPV nation of some pious work, and Oi^^ » ^^ J ^ «K>/irh^ in the most earnest ana reaved one absorbed mm ^^ pathetic intercession that r^t ««^ Lht oerpetual may be granted to some oe- bght Perp«" ' ^^ away and to aU loved one but recenuy «»-> the faithful departed-these, all these, are •DUCATIOK AKD ««U010K ,07 t^ writer induWuble .igna «,d incontro- v«tible proofs of the genuinenea. of the r^ «giou.ne«oftheF^ch-C«nadi«,. Can y^u wonder, Uien. that the man is proud of h^ race, or that he loves his religioi? c" von Si ^^^"^ *^*^ '° "»« o»«. ^ a-y slur tuat may be cast on the other ? But there are those who teU us that such zzi"^"^ " ^'^^ ^-* ^« «-ti:n2 'ZofTTu"^'^''^'^'' '^'^ «»d from thel ? T^ '^''' '^"^y ^h° "'^e use of ^.T. L"*"'^ '^"«*^"*' '^^y «»piy prove th«a to be superstitious ; and then, by way of further proof of what they say. they S^nt ~ntemptuously to such devotfons a^ t^ offer«i at. say. the shrine of Our Udy ^ Of the d fferences between what such people s^tr ^' :'*^ *'^^ PronounceTbe a^ut Uie wonders said to be performed at Beauprken of proceeds not so much from any anxiety to avoid making a faux pas in social intercourse as from the wish to please others —or, as we say, to make them feel at home - even at the cost of some sacrifice of one's own convenience or comfort. This makes your in- tercourse with the French-Canadian, however transient it may be or of how little importance, a pleasant remembrance ; and so obliging do you find him, and withal so unobtrusive, that when you are forced to bid him good-bye you regret that it is not merely au rewnr. Having so much delicacy of feeling, he can- not but be very sensitive— something which seems to be too often forgotten by certain thoughtless people who are in the habit of passing reflections on him which, though not intentionally unkind, are unjustly disparaging, and must therefore be irritating. T. A. Cr¥(rr,r. PxU. THE 'NATl'RAt STEPS,' NEAR yrEBEC CITV. •«««ocopr RMOuiriON tbt OMtr (ANSI and ISO TEST CHAUT No. 2) /APPLIED HVMGE tSSJ Eoit Main Stratt RochMtar, Hn York 14009 USA (7t6) 482 - 0300 - Phon* (716) 288 - S889 - Fo« THE CAI.ECHE. ' 1 A CORNER OF THE GOVERNOR'S GARDENS, QUEBEC, gHOWINO THE WOLFE-MONTCALM MONUMENT. OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 117 In this matter of politeness the French- Canadian recalls to our memories the old-time Highlander, a character familiar to the readers of Scott's bewitching romances, and described with such wondrous skill and picturesque charm by that delightful author as almost make us wish we had lived in the days of the Stuarts. No matter what his position in life, be his fortunes what they may, the true High- lander is always essentially a gentleman. Nor is this similarity between him and the French- Canadian very surprising, for both of them (so we are told) belong to the Keltic branch of the great Aryan family of nations. Indeed, a white blackbird (and some naturalists tell us of such an ornithological paradox) is not more rare than either a rude French-Canadian or a boorish Highlander. By the way, would I. 11'. be interesting to trace whatever simi- larity there may be, if any, between the root of the word Kelt and that of the name of a certain part of the Highlander's national cos- tume? and also to examine into the ultimate etymology of the two words, Keltic and GaUic ? Is not the common origin of the two peoples (with a trace of the Romans) assumed in the couplet, Il8 THB FRENCH-CANADIAN " With the garb of old Gaul and the fire of old Rome. From the hfath-covered mountaitw, from Scotia we come"? We cannot, however, account in this v y for the singular fact that several French- Cana»lian families are the happy possessors of Highland surnames, such, *^., as Macdonald and Macintosh. No indeed, but it is explained in a way quite as interesting ; for the truth is that some of those brave fellows who, on the Plains of Abraham, would ne^er yield to the valour of the French soldiers, confessed them- selves vanquished at once by the charms of those soldiers' sisters and daughters; and that they quite understood the art of courting is evident from the numerous marriages be- tween them. In the same way we may account for several French-Canadian families being blessed with old Irish names, such, eg., as O'Brien and O' Donahue. It would not be a more difficult thing to give those names a French form than it was to give such a form to the name Pat O'Reilly, which belonged to an Irish labourer who came several years ago to New York, married an American girl, identified himself with the Tammany gentle- OTHBR CHARACTBRISTICS 119 men, made an immense fortmie, took his family to spend a year in France, and came back to the New World rejoicing in the new name of Monsieur Patrique 0-re-lay accent the last syUable, please. But, mark, all you good people who beUeve that the two races may be fused into one homogeneous people, the famiUes just referred to as having Scottish or Irish names are them^'tvti disHnetively French- Canadian. Now one fancies that some honest old John Bull can be heard saying, " Well, what else could you expect when Jhe fathers of these families were only Irishmen and Scotchmen, men who, as you have just im- plied, were of the same race as the ' frog- eaters ' themselves ? I tell you, though, if the fathers had been English, the families would have been EngUsh too. Make no mistake about that!" Wait a moment, my honest friend. Some EngUsh soldiers, men bearing such names as Talbot and Harvey, foUowed the example of their Scottish and Irish com- rades, and fell before the glances that shot from the eyes of those Frenchwomen- and small blame to them, for how could they help it ?— and (now, keep your temper) the fami- I20 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN lies of these men are just as French-Canadian as the others. Well, then, supposing the two races to become amalgamated, which of them would be likely to have the predominance, the French or the British ? which class of charac- teristics would be the more prominent ? What memories are brought back by this little episode as to the common origin of the French and the Highland Scotch ! It reminds us that in France the ill-fated Stuarts found an asylum after the Parliamentary murder of England's royal martyr ; that the Highlanders were then, as some of them are still, uncom- promising Jacobites ; and that both French- man and Highlander are said to have played their part in effecting the restoration of the once unfortunate exile, Charles the Second, to the throne of his ancestors. But Jacobitism (though on the death of Victoria somebody, we are told, had the temerity to post a pubUc notice claiming the crown for a descendant of the Stuart line) is now no more than an idle dream ; for all practical purposes it is dead and buried. And indeed after the long and blessed reign which began in 1837, and which so recently came to an end ; and considering » MAISONEUVE MONUMKNT, MOXTKEAI,. ■—■I CHAMPI.AIN MONUMENT. QUEBEC. i] OTHER CHARACTERISTICS lai the happy omens which we have seen already that our present gradoits Ki Edward is a man worthy to be the chief and the father of h« people ; which of us, no matter how deep our sympathy for the Stuarts in their suffe^ ^tilf ^r^" ^ ^"^ °P^"»°° o^ their Intimate nghts, would care to see the House of Hanover replaced on the throne by that IT^f r°"^' ''' "''"^^ ^« beautiful but unfortunate Queen of Scots and the l^us monarch under whom England and S^and became united in the sweet bonds of peace after centuries of devastating warfare and reckless bloodshed? Nor need we f^^ hat after all the blood of the Stuarts S m the veins of England's Seventh Edward • and perhaps, too-who can tell?-the bloo^ of Jesses youngest son. the royal Psahnist. the sweet smger of Israel. HIS HOSPITALITY. Closely connected with the French-Cana- fr^!!f ^""^ ^° ^' hospitality. Do they not mdeed come from the same source ? What are they but different varieties of fruit bo^e 132 TH8 PKBNCH-CANADIAN by the same tree ? No matter how poor he may be, he is ready to share his last glass of wine, his last wing of a chicken, his last cru'^t of bread with another, especially if that other be still poorer than himself. He does this, too, in such a kind spirit, with surh a modest manner, and withal so heartily and cheerfully — not as if he were conferring a favour, but as if the recipient were paying him a compliment by partaking of his fare — that one is inclined to soliloquize something in this way : " Well, this man may or may not be familiar with Holy Scripture ; but he certainly seems to be imbued with the spirit of the Apostolic in- junctions, ' Let every man do as he is disposed in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity ; for God loveth a cheerful giver.' ' To do good and to distribute forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.' " Irish hospitality is, as every one knows, proverbial ; and here again, as before in the case of the Highlander, the French-Canadian shows his racial origin, for, as historians tell us, the true Irishman is a Kelt as well as the French- Canadian. ='^ OTHM CHAJtACTSKISTlCS ijj " By Mac and O you'U rarely know True Iriahmcn, they My : But If they lack both O and Mae, No Iriihmen are they." Whatever faults the Kelt may have, even h» worst enemy wiU not venture to accuse him of being inhospitable. Go into the shMling of the poorest Highlander or into the cabin of the most destitute Irish peasant ; and Uiere as ,„ the dwelling of the French- hospitality. Go amongst the labourers who hve beside the Bog of Allen or amidst the wilds of Cornemara, and though the fare may be no less rude than potatoes and milk, thw'll insist on the stranger, having the best rm^ table. Well, the same warm Keltic heart beats m the bosom of the French-Canadian and prompts his hospitality. But. more than that, it was this community of race that helped to make the invincible Irish Brigade feel perfectly at home in the amy of old France, the Brigade which on May iTth. 1745, bv their memorable charge decided the fate of the day at Fontenoy, thus \ 134 THR PR8NCH-CANADIAN defeating the allied forces under the Duke of Cumberland. Well might the EngUsh King almost pronounce an anathema upon the policy which sent such men to fight in the ranks of England's hereditary enemy! Alas, how many mistakes have England's statesmen made in their government of the Emerald Isle ! Is it now too late to undo the errors of ihe past ? Who can tell how great the change for the better in Ireland's attitude towards England, which would take place if England even yet were to grant her privileges similar to those which she allowed to the people of Quebec, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago ! What a wealth of suggestion as to the policy which should have been pursued sixty or a hundred years ago in the government of Ireland lies hidden in this very brief quotation from the best work of the most philosophical and ac- complished writer of English fiction produced by the last century. Alluding to the cause of a great deal of irritation and bad feeling in the parish which is the scene of much of his story, and to the first visit of the then youth- ful Victoria to Ireland, he says : "Who could think of the stocks at such a season ? The AB^NAUriS GROIP AT THE I.EGISI.ATIVK BUILDIXOS, Ut-EBEC. WOI^FE'S MONUMENT. ON THK PLAINS OF ABRAHAM, ai'KBI.C. OTHKR CHARACTERISTICS 195 Stocks were swept out of fashion-hunted from remembrance as completely as the question of Repeal or the thought of RebeUion from the warm Irish heart, when the fair young face of the Royal Wife beamed on the sister isle " Y^, that's it. Had Ireland been treated as Scotland has during the last reign what would now be the result? Would Home Rule ever t^d^'^'^il '°'"- "-"^^'y '' -°"ld, and ^nLi^'l ^" ^""'"^ *°^ •• ^°^ th« fair- minded Bntish people would so well have un- derstood the many virtues of their Irish feUow- subjectsthat they would have seen that to such a people Home Rule or any other reasonable privilege could be granted with safety. How much more loyal and content the Irish would then have been, and how much better it would have been for England. Ut us now finish this chapter with a laugh- ab e story, which serves to illustrate both fhe antipathy of a certain class of English people towards a much humbler class of the Irish ^id the feehng of the latter towards the very name of England. Biddy, an Irish cook (so the story go^) was in London, and out of a situ- ation. Fortunately she had received some 126 THE PRBNCH-CANADIAN little education ; and so she was able to read the papers. She watched the advertisement columns, and was at last rewarded by seeing a notice which stated that a good female cook was wanted at such-and-such an address— iuf that no applieatton from an Iriikmman could be entettained. Nothing daunted, however, Biddy appUedfor the situation. In the inter- view that followed between herself and the mistress of the house, the latter soon per- ceived that Biddy was a daughter of Erin, and consequently said to her, " Did you not notice in the advertisement that no Irishwoman need apply ? " "Of coorse I did, ma'am, but shure I'm not Irish," was the unblushing reply . The other, very much surprised, asked, "What are you then? Not EngUsh certainly." But Biddy was equal to the occasion, and answered with seemingly the utmost candour and inno- cence, •• O no ma'am, glory be to God, Tm not English /" and then with a most comical glance from her laughing eye, she continued, "But I'm Frinch, ma'am ; and, arrah, shure ye might know that heme axint !" It is not stated whether she obtained the situation; but if not, the mistress certainly missed a perfect treasure. OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 127 CONCI.USION1 As implied towards the beginning, the ^ter holdsno brief for the French-Canadian! ^ has he been commissioned by anyone to wnte ^he has done about his fellow-dtizens Utt^^r"''^^"'^- But. as has been stated, having been brought up in Ontario and spending a considerable portion of Teh year m th s province after he h^ taken uplt residence in Quebec, he knows how many «^e the misapprehensions and how unfounded are the prejudices entertained by some of the go«i people of Ontario against French-Can^! r, ^T"^' "'^^ ^^"°^ <=o»vinced that the long^ the^ prejudices are allowed to re- main undisturbed the more inveterate they ^^me. and that the more inveterate they become the more likely will they be to find expression, and that the more they find ex pression the more mischievous ^mTZ consequence, ; and having only too let r^ son to suppose that certain persons for ^^ worthy pur^. ^^, doing ^Ttiy^S^' feelings they imagined might exist ^tween the two races ; and plainly seeing, as h^Z 128 THE FRENCH-CANADIAN heves. that senous danger thereby threatens the two great provinces which lie side by side If not the v,hole Dominion.-seeing and know- ing these things and others of a similar char- acter, he determined to make some effort to- wards helping the people of his native prov- mce as well as any others who might do him the honour of reading what he has written, to understand the French-Canadian better than that the better they understand him, the more will they esteem his virtues and even respect his peculiarities. *^ It will be readily seen that the author has made no attempt to write a philosophical or otherwise learned treatise on the subject he has ventured to discuss-indeed he does not profess to be equal to such a task-but he has tried to write in such a manner that no fair-mmded reader will have any reason to accuse him of being the advocate of either of the two great political parties which seem to be indispensable to the practical working of our present system of government. He has simply made an earnest and honest effort towards showing his readers, in a plain and IMioto. by l.Uernuis. DE SAI.ABKRRY I.EADINC. THK VOI.TIOEtRS AT CHATEAIOIAY. (KROM Tin; STATIK AT glKllKC.) H K X s ea u 01 'A o > u IT. o Q J n H > P o H >4 K X f- s o H ea H U> 01 'A o > u e 8 Sti *:^ Si (-'^ •J X aS < a t* 30 HO o? p (ft 0" * -A 55 = fcui M> H •r a) §2 J> ^« in (9 O X 01 OTHER CHAKACTBRISTICS 139 readable sketdi, the French-Canadian people as he himself has seen them day by day, during the greater part of each year for con- siderably over a decade, both under the present Dominion Government and for some years of that by which it was preceded. He has made no attempt, in his allusions to history, to speak at all from what may be called the scientific stand-point ; he has not even gone to the Dominion or the Provincial archives to seek for information not generally known. No, he has simply stated facts as they are recorded in any plain, fair, ordinary Canadian history, and has not tried to trace these facts to the motives by which their performance was prompted. But what he has written he has written con amore, and his objeot in writing has already been stated in general terms. It will, how- ever, be plain to the reader that the writer has chiefly kept in view the desirability of disabusing certain people's minds of the un- worthy notion that the French-Canadian is not loyal to British institutions or to British connection ; and, by implication, to warn those people that there may be a possible •1 I ' i .1, ■\ 130 TRB FKBNCH-CAKAOIAN danger of impdring the French-Canadian's present high appreciation of aimost everything British, and of weakening his deep attachment to British Rule, by making diarges against his loyalty which are as unwarranted and unjust as they are ungenerous and undignified ; for what loyalty can be expected to tnfliti»«iti its integrity when buried beneath an avalanche of unworthy suspicion and unfounded accusa- tion? The French-Canadian deserves our full and whole-hearted confidence not only as to his love for Canada and contentment under British Rule, but also because of his unwavering belief in British connection and unswerving devotion to the British Throne. He may not indeed love the new King as he loved that king's revered mother— which of us does ?— the young queen, the devoted wife, the wise ruler, the peaceable sovereign, the good woman, the mourning widow, the bereaved mother, the beloved Victoria, the departed Christian ! But he is true and loyal to Edward the Seventh, whom, under his less august title of Prince of Wales, he welcomed to the shores of Canada in 1859 with the same ardent affection, thesame OTBSK CHAKACTBMISTICS 131 glowing enthusiasm, as that with which he recently welcomed Edward the Seventh's son to Quebec more than forty years later in the history of the Bmpire. True to George III., true to George IV., true to William IV., true to Victoria, true to Edward VII., true to the Royal Prince who, if it please Providence, wiU be Edward's VII.'s successor, was it not much more than a mere figure of rhetoric when the late Sir E. P. Tache exclaimed that if any attempt should ever be forcibly made to severe the union between Britain and Can- ada the h»t gun to be fired for its preservation would be fired by a French-Canadian from the Citadel of Quebec I The one thing which the author regreU is that a work like the present should appear to be necessary, or even desirable, amongst the people of Ontario— a people by nature so generous and unsuspicious. However, mis- takes will be made so long as man is mortal ; and while selfishness is permitted to rule the heart, reckless politicians will appeal to in- sensate passions. But the writer is convinced that such appeals, so far as concerns the two races in Canada, would soon lose all their «3a THB PRSNCH-CANADIAN power to harm— if indeed they would not soon cease altogether to be made— could each race but perceive the other's virtues and know the other's sentiments. Nothing can further this so effectually as actual personal intercourse between them ; and if the two languages were only spoken in common, such intercourse would be easy and delightful. Indeed he is persuaded, even as things are, that if the people of both provinces only had more direct and extensive intercourse with each other much good would be effected ; and he feels quite sure that if those of his readers to whom Quebec is almost a terra ituogniia would only spend their summer vacation for three or four years in succession visiting some of the delight- ful places in the sister province, and mingling with the French-speaking people there, they would not only find whai he has written to be more than justified, but, returning home, they would have in their minds, if not upon their lips, the words of the Queen of Sheba when she had seen the glory of Solomon, " Behold, the half had not been told me." Nl MOXTMORENCI FAI,1.S. Qt-EBBC. s o 3 I M H H » a Hi tb b J < u 3 K a i'" !