Canada Part 18

[Ill.u.s.tration: Street in a French Canadian village near Quebec.]

The tourist who travels through the province of Quebec sees on all sides the evidence that he is pa.s.sing through a country of French origin. Here and there in Quebec and Montreal, or in some quiet village sequestered in a valley or elevated on the Laurentian Hills, he sees houses and churches which remind him of many a hamlet or town he has visited in Brittany or Normandy. The language is French from the Saguenay to the Ottawa, and in some remote communities even now English is never spoken, and is understood only by the cure or notary. Nor is the language so impure or degenerated as many persons may naturally suppose. On {438} the contrary, it is spoken by the educated cla.s.ses with a purity not excelled in France itself. The better cla.s.s of French Canadians take pride in studying the language of the country of their ancestors, and are rarely guilty of Anglicisms, though these have necessarily crept into the common parlance of mixed communities, where people are forced to speak both French and English. In some rural districts, isolated from large towns, the people retain the language as it was spoken two centuries ago--though without the accent of the old provinces of their origin--and consequently many words and phrases which are rarely now heard in France, still exist among the peasantry of French Canada, just as we find in New England many expressions which are not pure Americanisms but really memorials of old English times.

In French Canada the Anglicisms are such as occur under the natural condition of things. The native of old France has no words for "clearing" the forest, making maple sugar, "blazing" a way through the woods or over the ice and snow of the rivers and lakes, and consequently the vocabulary of the French Canadian has been considerably enlarged by local circ.u.mstances. In the summer resorts of the lower St. Lawrence the influence of the English visitors, now very numerous, is becoming more evident every year, and French habits are becoming modified and the young folks commence to speak English fairly well. Away from the St. Lawrence, however, and the path of the tourists, the French Canadians remain, relatively speaking, untouched by English customs.

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_Nos inst.i.tutions, notre langue, et nos lois_ has been the key-note of French Canadian politics for over a century. At the present time the records and statutes of the Dominion are always given in the two languages, and the same is true of all motions put by the Speaker.

Though the reports of the debates appear daily in French, English prevails in the House of Commons and in the Senate. The French Canadians are forced to speak the language of the majority, and it is some evidence of the culture of their leading public men, that many among them--notably Sir Wilfrid, the eloquent leader of the Liberals, and first French Canadian premier since 1867--are able to express themselves in English with a freedom and elegance which no English-speaking member can pretend to equal in French. In the legislature of the province of Quebec, French has almost excluded English, though the records are given in the two languages. In the supreme court of the Dominion the arguments may be in French, and the two Quebec judges give their decisions in their own tongue.

The people of French Canada are very devout Roman Catholics. The numerous churches, colleges, and convents of the country attest the power and wealth of the Church, and the desire of the French Canadians to glorify and perpetuate it by every means in their power. The whole land is practically parcelled out among the saints, as far as the nomenclature of the settlements and villages is concerned. The favourite saint appears to be Ste. Anne, whose name appears constantly on the banks {440} of the St. Lawrence. We have Ste. Anne de la Perade, Ste. Anne de la Pocatiere, and many others. We all remember the verse of Moore's boat song:

"Faintly as tolls the evening chime, Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time, Soon as the woods on sh.o.r.e look dim, We 'll sing at St. Anne's our parting hymn."

This village, situated at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, is generally known as Ste. Anne de Bellevue, and still retains some of the characteristics of a French Canadian village, notwithstanding its close neighbourhood to the English-speaking settlements of Ontario. Jesuits, Sulpicians, and Recollets have done much to mould the thought and control the political destiny of the people under their spiritual care. The universities, colleges, and schools are mainly directed by the religious orders. The priests, as this story has shown, have been very active and conscientious workers from the earliest days of Canadian history.

Canada, too, has her Notre Dame de Lourdes, to whose shrine the faithful flock by thousands. Some twenty miles east of Quebec, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, is the church of Ste. Anne de Beaupre, or, as the Saint is more particularly known, La bonne Ste. Anne, who has won fame in Canada for miraculous cures for two centuries at least.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Old church at Bonne Ste. Anne, where miracles were performed.]

This historic place rests under the shelter of a lofty mountain of the Laurentides, on a little plateau which has given it the name of the "beautiful meadow." The village itself consists of a {442} straggling street of wooden houses, with steep roofs and projecting eaves, nearly all devoted to the entertainment of the large a.s.semblage that annually resorts to this Canadian Mecca, probably some sixty thousand in the course of the summer. Here you will see on the fete of Ste. Anne, and at other fixed times, a ma.s.s of people in every variety of costume, Micmacs, Hurons, and Iroquois--representatives of the old Indian tribes of Canada--French Canadians, men, women, and children, from the valleys of the Ottawa, and the St. Maurice, and all parts of Quebec, as well as tourists from the United States. The handsome grey stone church--now dignified as a "basilica"--which has been built of late years, attests the faith of many thousands who have offered their supplications at the shrine of La bonne Ste. Anne for centuries.[1] Piles of crutches of every description, of oak, of ash, of pine, are deposited in every available corner as so many votive offerings from the countless cripples that claim to have been cured or relieved. The relic through which all the wonderful cures are said to be effected, consists of a part of the finger bone of Ste. Anne, which was sent in 1668 by the Chapter of Carca.s.sonne to Monseigneur de Laval. The church also possesses several pictures of merit, one of them by Le Brun, presented by the Viceroy Tracy in 1666. The situation of many of the French Canadian {443} villages is exceedingly picturesque, when they nestle in some quiet nook by the side of a river or bay, or overlook from some prominent hill a n.o.ble panorama of land and water. The spire of the stone church rises generally from the midst of the houses, and the priest's residence or presbytere is always the most comfortable in size and appearance. The houses are for the most part built of wood. The roofs are frequently curved, with projecting eaves, which afford a sort of verandah under which the family sit in summer evenings. Some of the most pretentious structures, especially the inns, have balconies running directly across the upper story. Many of the barns and outhouses have thatched roofs, which are never seen in any other part of Canada. The interiors are very plainly furnished, in many cases with chairs and tables of native manufacture. A high iron stove is the most important feature of every dwelling in a country where the cold of winter is so extreme. Whitewash is freely used inside and outside, and there is on the whole an air of cleanliness and comfort in the humblest cottage.

The loom is still kept busy in some villages, and a coa.r.s.e, warm homespun is even yet made for everyday use. The _habitant_ also wears in winter moccasins and a _tuque bleue_, or woollen cap, in which he is always depicted by the painter of Canadian scenes. But with the growth of towns and the development of the railway system a steady change is occurring year by year in the dress of the inhabitants, and it is only in the very remote settlements that we can find the homely stuffs of former times. Old dresses {444} and old customs are gradually disappearing with the old-fas.h.i.+oned caleche, in which tourists once struggled to admire French Canadian scenes. As a rule, however, the people live very economically, and extravagance in dress is rather the exception. On gala days the young wear many ribbons and colours, though arranged with little of the taste characteristic of the French people. Both old and young are very sociable in their habits, and love music and dancing. The violin is constantly played in the smallest village, and the young people dance old-fas.h.i.+oned cotillons or _danses rondos_. The priests, however, do not encourage reckless gaieties or extravagance in dress. Now and then the bishop issues a Pastoral in which the waltz and other fast dances, and certain fas.h.i.+onable modes of dress, are expressly forbidden, and though his mandates are no doubt soon forgotten in the cities and towns, they are, on the whole, religiously observed in the rural communities. The feasts of the Church are kept with great zeal,--especially the _fetes d'obligation_--and consequently the French Canadian has holidays without number.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Canadian caleche of old times.]

No cla.s.s of the population of Canada is more orderly or less disposed to crime than the French Canadians. The standard of the morality of the people is high. Early marriages have been always encouraged by the priests, and large families--fifteen children being very common--are the rule in the villages. The _habitant_ is naturally litigious, and the amount in dispute is, in his opinion, trifling compared with the honour of having a case in court, {446} which demands the attendance of the whole village. The temperate habits of the French Canadian make them necessarily valuable employes in mills and manufactories of all kinds. Indeed, they prefer this life to that of the farm, and until very recently there was a steady exodus of this cla.s.s to the manufacturing towns of Lowell, Holyoke, and other places in New England. A large proportion of the men employed in the lumbering industry of Canada is drawn from the province of Quebec. As their forefathers were _coureurs de bois_ in the days of the French regime, and hunted the beaver in the wilderness, even venturing into the illimitable Northwest region, so in these modern times the French Canadians seek the vast pine woods which, despite axe and fire, still stretch over a large area watered by the Ottawa and other rivers.

In commercial and financial enterprise, the French Canadians cannot compete with their fellow-citizens of British origin, who practically control the great commercial undertakings and banking inst.i.tutions of Lower Canada, especially in Montreal. Generally speaking, the French Canadians cannot compare with the English population as agriculturists, Their province is less favoured than Ontario with respect to climate and soil. The French system of sub-dividing farms among the members of a family has tended to cut up the land unprofitably, and it is a curious sight to see the number of extremely narrow lots throughout the French settlements. It must be admitted, too, that the French population has less enterprise, and less disposition to adopt new {447} machines and improved agricultural implements, than the people of the other provinces.

As a rule, the _habitant_ lives contentedly on very little. Give him a pipe of native tobacco, a chance of discussing politics, a gossip with his fellows at the church door after service, a visit now and then to the county town, and he will be happy. It does not take much to amuse him, while he is quite satisfied that his spiritual safety is secured as long as he is within sound of the church bells, goes regularly to confession, and observes all the _fetes d'obligation_. If he or one of his family can only get a little office in the munic.i.p.ality, or in the "government," then his happiness is nearly perfect. Indeed, if he were not a bureaucrat, he would very much belie his French origin. Take him all in all, however, Jean-Baptiste, as he is familiarly known, from the patron saint of French Canada, has many excellent qualities. He is naturally polite, steady in his habits, and conservative in his instincts. He is excitable and troublesome only when his political pa.s.sions are thoroughly aroused, or his religious principles are at stake; and then it is impossible to say to what extreme he will go.

Like the people from whom he is descended--many of whose characteristics he has never lost since his residence of centuries on the American continent--he is greatly influenced by matters of feeling and sentiment, and the skilful master of rhetoric has it constantly in his power to sway him to an extent which is not possible in the case of the stronger, less impulsive Saxon race, with whom reason and argument prevail to a large degree.

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In the present, as in the past, the Church makes every effort to supervise with a zealous care the mental food that is offered for the nourishment of the people in the rural districts, where it exercises the greatest influence. Agnosticism is a word practically unknown in the vocabulary of the French Canadian _habitant_, who is quite ready to adhere without wavering to the old belief which his forefathers professed. Whilst the French Canadians doubtless lose little by refusing to listen to the teachings which would destroy all old-established and venerable inst.i.tutions, and lead them into an unknown country of useless speculation, they do not, as a rule, allow their minds sufficient scope and expansion. It is true that a new generation is growing up with a larger desire for philosophic inquiry and speculation. But whilst the priests continue to control the public school system of the province, they have a powerful means of maintaining the current of popular thought in that conservative and too often narrow groove, in which they have always laboured to keep it since the days of Laval.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Louis Frechette.]

It is obvious, however, to a careful observer of the recent history of the country that there is more independence of thought and action showing itself in the large centres of population--even in the rural communities--and that the people are beginning to understand that they should be left free to exercise their political rights without direct or undue interference on the part of their spiritual advisers. English ideas in this respect seem certainly to be gaining ground.

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In the days of the French regime there was necessarily no native literature, and little general culture except in small select circles at Quebec and Montreal. But during the past half century, with the increase of wealth, the dissemination of liberal education, and the development of self-government, the French Canadians have created for themselves a literature which shows that they inherit much of the spirituality and brilliancy of their race. Their histories and poems have attracted much attention in literary circles in France, and one poet, Mr. Louis Frechette, has won the highest prize of the French Inst.i.tute for the best poem of the year. In history we have the names of Garneau, Ferland, Sulte, Ta.s.se, Casgrain; in poetry, Cremazie, Chauveau, Frechette, Poisson, Lemay; in science, Hamel, Laflamme, De Foville; besides many others famed as savants and litterateurs. In art some progress has been made, and several young men go to the Paris schools from time to time. The only sculptor of original merit that Canada has yet produced is Hebert, a French Canadian, whose monuments of eminent Canadians stand in several public places. Science has not made so much progress as belles-lettres and history, though Laval University--the princ.i.p.al educational inst.i.tution of the highest cla.s.s--has among its professors men who show some creditable work in mathematics, geology, and physics. In romance, however, very little has been done.

The French Canadians have a natural love for poetry and music. Indeed it is a French Canadian by birth and early education--Madame Albani--who {451} not long ago won a high distinction on the operatic stage. No writer of this nationality, however, has yet produced an opera or a drama which has won fame for its author. The priesthood, indeed, has been a persistent enemy of the theatre, which consequently has never attained a successful foothold in French Canada. Sacred music, so essential a feature of a Roman Catholic service, has been always cultivated with success.

The _chansons populaires_, which have been so long in vogue among the people of all cla.s.ses in the province of Quebec are the same in spirit, and very frequently in words, as those which their ancestors brought over with them from Brittany, Normandy, Saintonge, and Franche-Comte.

Some have been adapted to Canadian scenery and a.s.sociations, but most of them are essentially European in allusion and spirit. The Canadian lumberer among the pines of the Ottawa and its tributaries, the _Metis_ or half-breeds of what was once the great Lone Land, still sing s.n.a.t.c.hes of the songs which the _coureurs de bois_, who followed Duluth and other French explorers, were wont to sing as they paddled over the rivers of the West or camped beneath the pines and the maples of the great forests. It is impossible to set the words of all of them to the music of the drawing-room, where they seem tame and meaningless; but when they mingle with "the solemn sough of the forest," or with the roar of rus.h.i.+ng waters, the air seems imbued with the spirit of the surroundings. It has been well observed by M. Gagnon, a French Canadian, that "many of them have no beauty {452} except on the lips of the peasantry." There is "something sad and soft in the voices that imparts a peculiar charm to these monotonous airs, in which their whole existence seems to be reflected."

I give below the most popular and poetical of all the Canadian ballads, and at the same time a translation by a Canadian writer:[2]

a LA CLAIRE FONTAINE. TRANSLATION.

a la claire fontaine Down to the crystal streamlet M'en allant promener, I strayed at close of day; J'ai trouve l'eau si belle Into its limpid waters Que je m'y suis baigne. I plunged without delay.

Lui ya longtemps que je t'aime, I 've loved thee long and dearly, Jamais je ne t'oublierai. I 'll love thee, sweet, for aye.

J'ai trouve l'eau si belle Into its limpid waters Que je m'y suis baigne, I plunged without delay; Et c'est au pied d'un chene Then 'mid the flowers springing Que je m'suis repose. At the oak-tree's foot I lay.

Et c'est au pied d'un chene Then 'mid the flowers springing Que je m'suis repose; At the oak-tree's foot I lay; Sur la plus haute branche Sweet the nightingale was singing Le rossignol chantait. High on the topmost spray.

Sur la plus haute branche Sweet the nightingale was singing Le rossignol chantait; High on the topmost spray; Chante, rossignol, chante, Sweet bird! keep ever singing Toi qui as le coeur gai. Thy song with heart so gay.

Chante, rossignol, chante, Sweet bird! keep ever singing Toi qui as le coeur gai; Thy song with heart so gay; Tu as le coeur a rire, Thy heart was made for laughter, Moi je l'ai-t a pleurer. My heart 's in tears to-day.

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Tu as le coeur a rire, Thy heart was made for laughter, Moi je l'ai-t a pleurer; My heart 's in tears to-day; J'ai perdu ma maitresse Tears for a fickle mistress, Sans pouvoir la trouver. Flown from its love away.

J'ai perdu ma maitresse Tears for a fickle mistress, Sans pouvoir la trouver; Flown from its love away, Pour un bouquet de roses All for these faded roses Que je lui refusai; Which I refused in play.

Pour un bouquet de roses All for these faded roses Que je lui refusai; Which I refused in play-- Je voudrais que la rose Would that each rose were growing Fut encore au rosier. Still on the rose-tree gay.

Je voudrais que la rose Would that each rose were growing Fut encore au rosier, Still on the rose-tree gay, Et que le rosier meme And that the fated rose-tree Fut dans la mer jete. Deep in the ocean lay.

Lui ya longtemps que je t'aime, I 've loved thee long and dearly, Jamais je ne t'oublierai. I 'll love thee, sweet, for aye.

_a la Claire Fontaine_ has been claimed for Franche-Comte, Brittany, and Normandy, but the best authorities have come to the conclusion, from a comparison of the different versions, that it is Norman. In _Malbrouck s'en va-t-en-guerre_, we have a song which was sung in the time of the _Grand Monarque_. Of its popularity with the French Canadians, we have an example in General Strange's reply to the 65th, a French Canadian regiment, during the second Northwest rebellion. One morning, after weeks of tedious and toilsome marching, just as the men were about to fall in, the General {454} overhead the remark--"Ah! when will we get home?" "Ah, mes garcons," laughed the General--

"Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre Mais quand reviendra-t-il?"

"Malbrouck has gone a-fighting, But when will he return?"

and with their characteristic light-heartedness the men caught up the famous old air and the march was resumed without a murmur.

These _chansons populaires_ of French Canada afford some evidence of the tenacity with which the people cling to the customs, traditions, and a.s.sociations of the land of their origin. Indeed, a love for Old France lies still deep in the hearts of the people, and both young and old study her best literature, and find their greatest pride in her recognition of their poets and writers. But while there exists among the more influential and cultured cla.s.s a sentimental attachment to Old France, there is a still deeper feeling, strengthened by the political freedom and material progress of the past forty years, that the connection with the British Empire gives the best guaranty for the preservation of their liberties and rights. This feeling has found frequent expression in the forcible utterances of Sir Wilfrid, the late Premier of the Dominion. No doubt the influence of the Roman Catholic priesthood has had much to do with perpetuating the connexion with England. They feel that it is {455} not by a connexion with France or the United States that their religious and civil inst.i.tutions can be best conserved.

All cla.s.ses now agree as to the necessity of preserving the federal system in its entirety, since it ensures better than any other system of government the rights and interests of the French Canadian population in all those matters most deeply affecting a people speaking a language, professing a religion, and retaining certain inst.i.tutions different from those of the majority of the people of the Dominion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A characteristic snapshot of Sir Robert Borden at the Peace Conference, 1919.]

No French Canadian writer or politician of weight in the country now urges so impossible or suicidal a scheme as the foundation of an independent French nationality on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The history of the fifty years that have elapsed since the dark days of Canada, when Papineau wished to establish a "Nation Canadienne," goes to show that the governing cla.s.ses of the English and French nationalities have ceased to feel towards each other that intense spirit of jealousy which was likely at one time to develop itself into a dangerous hatred. The spirit of conciliation and justice, which has happily influenced the action of leading English and French Canadian statesmen in the administration of public affairs, has been so far successful in repressing the spirit of pa.s.sion and demagogism which has exhibited itself at certain political crises, and in bringing the two nationalities into harmony with each other. As long as the same wise counsels continue to prevail in Canada that {456} have heretofore governed her, and carried her successfully through critical periods, the integrity of the confederation is a.s.sured, and the two races will ever work harmoniously together, united by the ties of a common interest,--always the strongest bond of union--and a common allegiance to the Empire to whose fostering care they already owe so much.

[1] The ill.u.s.tration represents the ancient church which was built in 1658, but was taken down a few years ago on account of its dangerous condition, and rebuilt on the old site near the basilica, in exactly the original form with the same materials.

[2] _Songs of Old Canada_. Translated by W. McLennan.