Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/802

782 is surging everywhere else through the continent, the Province of Quebec is the one stagnant pool which is never rippled by a freshening current, and over which hangs the miasma of mediæval superstition.

The non-progressive character of French civilization on this continent 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 free 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 aggrandizement, 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-speaking 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 memorizing 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 ventures 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 population of the Province of Quebec is complete, and is constantly exercised to prevent their amalgamation with other races on the continent. Intermarriage 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.