Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/805

Rh leader into a national hero and a martyr. Their public men, casting aside all party ties ami 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 success 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 leaders of public opinion in Canada to take a pessimistic view of the future of the Dominion. But there arc, on the other side, indications that a brighter destiny awaits the Confederation.

The self-exiled Quebecers in the New England States, though followed to their new homes and carefully advised and guarded by their clergy, come in contact with a population which, bred under republican 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 curé 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 enlighten their minds by tasting the forbidden fruits of literature proscribed by the Church. The growth of public intelligence is necessarily 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 disinclination 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