THE FRENCH PROBLEM IN CANADA. 787 



While the only fecund branch of the Gallic race is that which in- 

 habits Eastern Canada, the British people at home and abroad have 

 displayed marvelous powers of expansion. Every year populous 

 swarms leave the parent hive, yet they are scarcely missed. Despite 

 the constant drain, the Island races in Europe double every fifty-six 

 years and in the colonies every twenty-five years, whereas the popula- 

 tion of France doubles only in one hundred and forty years. The 

 French commenced the work of colonizing America at the same time 

 as the British, yet the latter have expanded to 60,000,000, while the 

 former are represented by a total of 2,000,000. The w^onderful de- 

 velopment of the Island races continues to follow the British flag in 

 every quarter of the globe. In Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, 

 and other colonies, the increase has been almost as marked as on this 

 continent, and in strong contrast to the sterility of the French at home 

 and in their colonies everywhere. 



The capacity of the Island races to absorb foreign elements of 

 population has been illustrated to an extraordinary degree in the 

 United States. The surplus population of every country in Europe 

 pours in a constant stream into the republic, bringing with it cus- 

 toms, languages, and ideas of government wholly different from those 

 which prevail in the United States. Yet, in a short time, this foreign 

 mass is assimilated. The aliens become naturalized citizens ; they 

 acquire very soon a knowledge of the prevailing language and the 

 form of government. In a few years they are Americanized, and the 

 second generation speak the language of the continent with the flu- 

 ency of other natives, and are as thoroughly American citizens as the 

 descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers. In Louisiana a population of 

 French origin have found it to their advantage to adopt the English 

 language and the customs of the people among whom their lot is cast. 



There can be little doubt, therefore, that the French Canadians 

 would long since have blended with the dominant race, to their own 

 great benefit and the advantage of the continent, had it not been for 

 the mistaken policy of the British Government over a century ago, and 

 the efforts of the Church of Rome to prevent a consolidation of the 

 people of Canada into one national it j\ 



In view of these facts there is yet some hope for the future of the 

 Dominion. The diffusion of knowledge among the people, their con- 

 tact with more enterprising and advanced communities, now rendered 

 practicable by the development of railway communication, and the 

 investigating spirit of the age which priestcraft can not wholly sub- 

 due, must sooner or later produce changes which will make of the 

 Canadians a homogeneous population. This is a solution of the prob- 

 lem as desirable as the only other one that has been suggested — a 

 continental union which would crush out at once and forever the 

 aspirations of those who are seeking to establish a new France on 

 the banks of the St. Lawrence. 



