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CS ae se à Mo 
SECTION II, 1883. LAS Trans. Roy. Soc. CANADA. 
The Literature of French Canada, 
By Joun LESPERANCE, M. A. 
(Read May 28, 1883.) 
I shall perhaps be taxed with exaggeration when I state that the maintenance of the 
French-Canadian race in the full force of their homogeneity, since the Conquest, is one of 
the most remarkable phenomena of modern times. Yet such is my deliberate judgment. 
When we consider the disintegrating influences of altered political institutions, the 
bewilderment and discouragement brought on by a total change of social conditions, the 
rankling sense of inferiority that defeat,-surrender and military occupation inevitably 
induce, and the resistless sweep of Anglo-Naxon speech and commercial domination on 
this Continent, the wonder may well be that this people have continued to exist at all. 
But they have continued to exist. Nay, they have flourished. Not only have they increased 
and multiplied within their original borders, but they have spread from East to West, 
leaving the literal imprint of their footsteps on the geographical chart of America, from 
New England to the base of the Rocky Mountains, and all over the Mississippi Valley. 
Nor did their progress stop there. Not content with physical advancement, they went 
further and founded a literary microcosm of their own. To me this a greater marvel 
than the material fact of their preservation, and I have taken such an interest therein, that 
I venture to make it the text of a brief memoir before the Royal Society. 
It is, indeed, altogether fitting that a representative body like ours should take cog- 
nizance of such a subject, being imbued with the principle laid down by Dr. Johnson, that 
however much statesmen and soldiers may achieve for the renown of their native land, the 
chief glory of a country lies with its authors. 
I. 
ORATORS. 
I find little trace of intellectual activity from the downfall of Quebec in 1759 till 
about 1820. The oldest inhabitants had not recovered from the blow to their destinies, 
and the rising generations were only gradually reconciling themselves to the new order 
of things. But toward the latter period there was a general awakening to a policy of self- 
assertion, grounded on the idea of French-Canadian autonomy, as a resultant from a strict 
interpretation of the Treaty of Paris. This sentiment was manifested in the establishment 
of one or two militant papers, and in strong appeals from the Legislative Assembly. 
Several valiant tribunes of pen and speech then arose in the persons of the two Papineaus, 
Taschereau, Blanchet, Bedard, Panet, Vallieres de St. Real, Bourdages, Denis-Benjamin 
Viger, Bibaud and Parent. I group these together for the sake of classification, although 
Sec. IL, 1883. 11. 
