THE FRENCH PROBLEM IN CANADA. 785 



cenary leader into a national hero and a martyr. Their public men, 

 casting aside all party ties and patriotic considerations, have formed 

 themselves into a provincial party whose object is to avenge the death 

 of the late rebel leader, and to give to Quebec, by their united action, 

 a predominant influence in the Parliament of the Dominion. That 

 their unpatriotic stand will lead to a coalition of the English-speaking 

 majority no one who is aware of the violence of party feeling in Canada 

 will expect, and the only hope, in the opinion of many, of preserving 

 the Dominion from the disaster of French domination lies in the suc- 

 cess of the Government party in the next appeal to the country, or in 

 annexation to the United States. 



The facts which are above set forth have caused many of the lead- 

 ers of public opinion in Canada to take a pessimistic view of the 

 future of the Dominion. But there are, on the other side, indications 

 that a brighter destiny awaits the Confederation. 



The self-exiled Quebecers in the New England States, though fol- 

 lowed to their new homes and carefully advised and guarded by their 

 clergy, come in contact with a population which, bred under repub- 

 lican institutions, has always manifested a manly independence in 

 spiritual as well as in temporal matters. The habitant never loses his 

 love for his native land, but residence in the Great Republic brightens 

 his intelligence and gives him a more exalted idea of his importance 

 as an individual, and a sense of independence which is wholly foreign 

 to the character of his countrymen at home. These men revisit their 

 native province from time to time, carrying with them their new and 

 advanced ideas, and thus they are leavening the masses in Quebec. 

 Railways penetrate localities which, until recently, were as isolated 

 from the rest of the continent as if they had been situated in the 

 heart of China. Visitors from the outside world, who know not the 

 cure and ignore the clergy generally, find their way into the most 

 remote hamlets, carrying with them new ideas of life. Even the 

 schools, though employed by the clergy more to prevent the spread 

 of knowledge than to impart instruction, by teaching the youth of the 

 country to read, enable them, when the opportunity occurs, to en- 

 lighten their minds by tasting the forbidden fruits of literature pro- 

 scribed by the Church. The growth of public intelligence is neces- 

 sarily slow, opposed as it is by the most powerful organization the 

 world has ever known, but every year some slight advance is made, 

 and to a corresponding extent the power of the Church is diminished. 



When freed from ecclesiastical tyranny, the French race in Quebec 

 possess native ability and qualities which will make them a valuable 

 element in the population of the continent. Their industry, economy, 

 frugality, and docility, their power of imitation, and their disinclina- 

 tion to become citizens of the United States, have led their enemies to 

 brand them as the " Chinese of the East " ; but, with those valuable 

 characteristics of the Celestial, they combine others which will place 



VOL. XXTIII. — 50 



