OUTRAGES ARE NO REASONS.
The failings of human nature, the differences of temper, of the
qualities and defects of heart and soul, are such that harmony and
good-will amongst men in private life are too often difficult to secure.
The Divine precept, so frequently broken, should, however, always rule
the relations between man and man. It should, with still more constant
application, rule the relations between different races Providentially
called to live together on the same soil, under the same Sovereign
authority, enjoying the same institutions, the same liberties, protected
by the same flag. That the house divided against itself is sure to fall
is true of the nation as well as of the home. National and family
happiness and prosperity are alike dependent on the feelings of real
brotherhood which prevail in both. Any good hearted man appreciates how
much kindness of speech, courtesy of dealings, cordiality of manners,
contribute to reciprocal good-fellowship, brotherly in the home,
inspiring in the daily intercourse of citizens, patriotic in the nation
at large. The more a Sovereign State is inhabited by numerous ethnical
groups, like the British Empire and the American Republic, the more
important it is that the freedom of expressing one's opinion on all
matters of public interest should be used with fairness, with respect
for those holding different views, with due regard for the feelings
which are the natural outcome of racial developments, of cherished
recollections, of legitimate hopes.
Such are the principles, I am most happy to say, that I have admired and
try to practice in the exercise of my rights as a citizen of the
Province where I saw the light of day, of Canada where I have lived and
hope to live all my years, of the British Empire whose loyal subject I
have been and am determined to remain to my last moment.
How then could I have helped being shocked when I came to read the
following lines I translate as follows from page 121 of Mr. Bourassa's
pamphlet:--"_Yesterday, To-day, To-morrow_":--
"_Were the French Canadians to persist in their obstination to rot in
colonialism and to consider that it is for them the happiest and the
most glorious condition of existence, the English Canadians would force
them out of it. Our countrymen of the British races have grave defects:
they are_ IGNORANT, PRETENTIOUS, ARROGANT, SHORT-SIGHTED, DOMINEERING.
_They are, more than ourselves_, ROTTEN WITH MERCANTILISM. _They seem to
have lost some of the best qualities of the English people, to have
developed their faults and acquire many of the_ VICES NATURAL TO THE
WORST CATEGORY OF YANKEES. _But they have not_, LIKE US, _totally_
ABDICATED _the_ PROUD CHARACTER _and the_ PRIMORDIOUS RIGHTS _of the
British peoples. When the war is over, they will claim, like the
Australians, the New Zealanders, and the Indians (les Hindous), a
readjustment of the powers of government_."
Thus, in a few lines the Nationalist leader, in appealing to his
disordered imagination, has succeeded in slapping, in one single stroke,
with dynamical outrages, the faces of the English-speaking Canadians of
the three great British races, of our neighbours, the Yankees, and of
his own compatriots, the French-Canadians. How could he expect that such
vitriolic language would promote, in the Dominion, that harmony of
feelings never before so essential as at the very time he was writing
that injurious paragraph of his work, surely not intended to help
winning the war so full of the greatest consequences, for good or ill,
for the World, the British Empire, Canada, and our own Province of
Quebec.
So far, Mr. Bourassa, having gone back on the admiration he was wont to
profess for England, in his early youth, had reserved all his assaults
for the English people. But the heart of man, once under the sway of an
unlimited and unsatisfied ambition, is bound to drop to the lowest
depths of the extremist's aberration. In the above quotation, he fires
his battery of _Kruppic_ dimensions--loaded with poisonous invectives,
at the THREE GREAT BRITISH RACES, ENGLISH, SCOTCH AND IRISH, living in
Canada.
Had his charge been intended for the English race alone, he would have
been very particular in so saying. But, let there be no mistake about
it, he deliberately wrote _our countrymen of the British races_.
Wanting, I suppose, to prove his impartiality, he remembered that the
United Kingdom is peopled by three illustrious races represented all
over the globe by many millions of worthy sons, everywhere to be found
hard at work for the intelligent development of the resources of the
countries they live in and are rearing their children. More than four
millions of them are Canadians by birth or born in Great Britain. Many
more numerous they are in the United States where they form the solid
stock upon which the future of the Republic is firmly grounded.
With the same thrust, Mr. Bourassa strikes at the Yankees who, we may
hope, have not trembled too much at the blow. He charges them with
having infested his poor _countrymen of the British races_ with _many of
the vices natural to the worst category of_ "YANKEEISM." Kind, cordial,
courteous, indeed he was in such a mood of tender sympathies for the
Canadian British races and their contagious cousins the Yankees of the
most corrupted class!
However, the finest flower of the whole _bouquet--the rose par
excellence_--is the one he has gallantly presented to his
French-Canadian compatriots. He tells them with the sweetest tones of
his charming voice that they are pleased and happy to rot in
"_colonialism_." But, evidently wishing to speak to them a few
encouraging words, he mildly reminds them _that they are less rotten
with "mercantilism" than their countrymen of the British races_.
A man can be suffering less than his more sickly brother without, for
all that, being in very good health. It is a poor consolation for the
French Canadians to hear from the Nationalist leader that they are less
infested with the mercantile virus than their brothers of the British
races.
All those who have followed with some attention Mr. Bourassa's course
for the last twenty years, know that he is an equilibrist of the first
class. Having favoured the French Canadians with the flattering
compliment as above, he turns about and lashes them with the sweeping
slap that, contrary to the stand the Canadians of the British races
cling to with an obstination which he deigns to approve, they, the
degenerated French Canadians whom he pities so much, "_have totally
abdicated their proud character_ of old _and the primordial rights of
British subjects_."
So, in Mr. Bourassa's opinion, his French Canadian compatriots are
infested to a high degree both with the _colonialist_ and _mercantile_
corruptions. Hence, his fear that they are threatened with a premature
national death if they do not at once listen to his brotherly warnings.
I have already answered the Nationalist leader's charge that the French
Canadians are stupidly rotting in "COLONIAL ABJECTION." The same reasons
refute his assumption that "COLONIALISM" is an abject status for a
people.
A people, a race, who would enjoy living under the German autocratic
colonial rule--for which the Nationalist leader has so little
dislike--would indeed prove some disposition to _rot stupidly in
abjection_. But the divers peoples, the different races, who appreciate
all the beneficent advantages of the present British colonial rule, are
of very superior stock. They know, from the clearest conception, that
Monarchical democratic institutions are as much different from Imperial
autocratic tyranny, as true broad patriotism is far above narrow and
fanatical "Nationalism."
I have only to say a few words about the "ROTTENNESS OF MERCANTILISM"
against which, according to Mr. Bourassa, the French Canadian are not
sufficiently protected.
Going back to my recollections of the last sixty years, if there is a
complaint which through all my life I have heard almost daily, with deep
regret, it is that the French Canadians were not striving with
sufficient energy and perseverance to achieve a better and larger
position in the business world. Their leaders, religious, political and
civil, to induce them to increased exertions, have always pointed to the
example given them by their countrymen of the British races: by the
clear headed and far-seeing English business man, the sturdy and hard
working Scotch, the enterprising and witty Irish. Thank God, I have well
enough understood my duty to do my humble but patriotic share to favour
this progressive movement. Never, in so wisely advising the French
Canadians, any one supposed for a minute that he was leading them to the
infested pond of _mercantile corruption_. The change wished by all was
becoming more urgent. All were looking for the best means to carry it
out. Our leaders, having at their head, by right and merit, our
religious chiefs under the authority of a prince of our Church, his
Eminence the Cardinal-Archbishop of Quebec, took the initiative with an
ever increasing interest in the success they considered so important.
The establishment of a permanent school of high commercial education and
of several technical schools was most favourably approved. Political
economy is even, in a certain measure, taught in several of our
classical colleges for secondary education. The necessity for our young
men of knowing the English language, to succeed in commercial,
industrial and financial pursuits in Canada and in the neighbouring
Republic, is more and more generally admitted. The French Canadians,
fully enjoying the undoubted right to do so, aspire to achieve an
advantageous and honourable position in commerce, in industry, in
finance, in transportation, in mine working. The more we realize this
goal of our legitimate ambition, the more we are also intensifying our
efforts to promote agricultural progress and the improvement of our
country roads.
If, in all the branches of our national activity, we obtain the success
we hope for, one single man alone amongst us shudders at the idea that
the French Canadians will blindly destroy their race with a mortal dose
of the cursed "MERCANTILISM" so dishonourable to the British races.
And Mr. Bourassa, instead of heartily joining with all the leaders of
his race--Cardinal, Archbishops, Bishops, priests, statesmen, political
men, judges, professional men, merchants, manufacturers, financiers,--to
favour, as much as possible, the commercial and technical training of
his compatriots, sneers at such efforts which, in his candid opinion,
are only plunging them in the irremediable depths of "MERCANTILE
CORRUPTION"!
Are not such abominable teachings a curse to all those of the race to
which they are addressed with an unsurpassed cynicism?