THE FRENCH PROBLEM IN CANADA. 781 



dumb-bells and Indian clubs in the name of exercise. Physical exer- 

 cise, for its own sake, is intense and profitless, and often, I believe, 

 pernicious labor. Give yourself a motive for exertion, and it then 

 becomes exhilarating. The study of plants supplies just such a motive 

 as invalids need. It is too useless (from a practical point of view) 

 to be suggestive of labor, and yet so exceedingly fascinating as to 

 make you ready to undergo any amount of labor in the prosecution of 

 your favorite " fad." I remember once exposing myself to a terrible 

 danger in endeavoring to get possession of a rare and (to me) new 

 plant. I scarcely thought of the risk then, though now the bare recol- 

 lection of it makes me shuddei*. This enthusiasm, which the science 

 of botany awakens in all who devote themselves to it, is not its least 

 valuable hygienic factor, for a little genuine enthusiasm will put more 

 life into a sick body than all the drugs in the dispensary. 



After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and in conclu- 

 eion I can only urge fellow-sufferers, who have a moderate amount of 

 strength and patience, to try my simple prescription. As an old negro 

 nurse once said to me anent some " doctor's stuff," "If it don't do you 

 no good, it won't do you no harm," and will at least prove a wholesome 

 diversion from the imbecile fancy-work, and still more imbecile gossip, 

 that make so large a part of the daily routine of life at most resorts of 

 health and pleasure. 



THE FRENCH PROBLEM IN" CANADA. 



Bt GEORGE H. CLARKE. 



THE rapid growth of the French population in the Canadian prov- 

 inces and the New England States has given rise to much specu- 

 lation as to the future of the race. Thoughtful men in the Dominion 

 see in its steady increase and aggressive character elements of danger 

 to the stability of the Confederation. 



The last census returns show that over one third of the population 

 of Canada is of French origin, while in the New England States there 

 is a large and growing French-Canadian element, wedded to its lan- 

 guage, religion, and traditions, and controlled to an extraordinary 

 degree by its astute and admirably organized clergy. Quebec, though 

 a province in a British colony, is as thoroughly French as it was be- 

 fore the conquest. A century and a quarter of British rule has had 

 no effect in Anglicizing the race, or leavening it with the progressive 

 ideas which prevail in all English-speaking communities. As the 

 Canadian French were at the conquest, their descendants remain to 

 this day — a race isolated and apart from all others on the continent, 

 having little in common w^th their neighbors, or even with their kin- 

 dred in France. While the great tide of modern progress and civili- 



