782 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



zation is surging everywhere else through the continent, the Province 

 of Quebec is the one stagnant pool which is never rippled by a fresh- 

 ening current, and over which hangs the miasma of mediaeval super- 

 stition. 



The non-progressive character of French civilization on this con- 

 tinent is due partly to the feudal institutions introduced by the early 

 settlers, but mainly to the concessions granted by the victors to the 

 vanquished when Canada became a British colony. By the terms of 

 the treaty with France, and by the Quebec Act passed by the Imperial 

 Parliament on the eve of the struggle with the Thirteen Colonies, the 

 French population of Canada were granted the fi'ee exercise of their 

 religion, and were allowed to retain their language, customs, and laws. 

 By the conquest they secured all the privileges of British citizenship, 

 without losing any of their cherished rights and privileges. Through 

 the prodigal liberality of the British Government, the Church of Rome 

 became the established church of Quebec, vested with all the powers 

 which it possessed in France in the days of the "great monarch," to 

 collect tithes and enforce its decrees. The clergy were not slow to 

 avail themselves of those enormous powers for their own aggrandize- 

 ment, and to strengthen their influence over the people. The policy 

 of the Church from the first, but more especially of late years, has 

 been to isolate its people from their Protestant and English-speak- 

 ing fellow-citizens. It controls all the public schools and most of the 

 higher educational institutes in the province, and from their childhood 

 it instructs the French Canadians to jealously guard their treaty rights 

 — to preserve their language, their laws, and their institutions. The 

 education of the people in the public schools consists mainly in memo- 

 rizing the doctrines and dogmas of the Church, and the time which is 

 devoted in the free schools of Ontario to acquiring secular knowledge 

 is spent by the French children in devotional exercises. The masses 

 of the population are kept in ignorance, while the few who can afford 

 to attend the colleges are trained by the Jesuits, Thus the press, the 

 bar, the bench, and the Legislature, are controlled by the pulpit. 



Among their public men are some of splendid ability, but with 

 minds narrowed by provincialism and race-prejudices, and warped by 

 religious bigotry. Occasionally one among them ventm-es to express 

 independent opinions, which subject him to the censure of the bishop 

 of the diocese. If he repents and abandons the error of his ways, he 

 is received back into favor ; if he persists in his independence, he may 

 expect, at the very next election, to be relegated to the obscurity of 

 private life. Thus the control of the Church over the French popula- 

 tion of the Province of Quebec is complete, and is constantly exercised 

 to prevent their amalgamation with other races on the continent. In- 

 termarriage with Protestants is sternly denounced, and early marriages 

 are earnestly advocated from the pulpit. Their faithful obedience to 

 their pastors in these matters is proved by the census returns. 



