To the Earl of ----.
Silleri, May 12.
It were indeed, my Lord, to be wished that we had here schools, at
the expence of the public, to teach English to the rising generation:
nothing is a stronger tie of brotherhood and affection, a greater
cement of union, than speaking one common language.
The want of attention to this circumstance has, I am told, had the
worst effects possible in the province of New York, where the people,
especially at a distance from the capital, continuing to speak Dutch,
retain their affection for their ancient masters, and still look on
their English fellow subjects as strangers and intruders.
The Canadians are the more easily to be won to this, or whatever
else their own, or the general good requires, as their noblesse have
the strongest attachment to a court, and that favor is the great object
of their ambition: were English made by degrees the court language, it
would soon be universally spoke.
Of the three great springs of the human heart, interest, pleasure,
vanity, the last appears to me much the strongest in the Canadians; and
I am convinced the most forcible tie their noblesse have to France, is
their unwillingness to part with their croix de St. Louis: might not
therefore some order of the same kind be instituted for Canada, and
given to all who have the croix, on their sending back the ensigns
they now wear, which are inconsistent with their allegiance as British
subjects?
Might not such an order be contrived, to be given at the discretion
of the governor, as well to the Canadian gentlemen who merited most of
the government, as to the English officers of a certain rank, and such
other English as purchased estates, and settled in the country? and, to
give it additional lustre, the governor, for the time being, be always
head of the order?
'Tis possible something of the same kind all over America might be
also of service; the passions of mankind are nearly the same every
where: at least I never yet saw the soil or climate, where vanity did
not grow; and till all mankind become philosophers, it is by their
passions they must be governed.
The common people, by whom I mean the peasantry, have been great
gainers here by the change of masters; their property is more secure,
their independence greater, their profits much more than doubled: it is
not them therefore whom it is necessary to gain.
The noblesse, on the contrary, have been in a great degree undone:
they have lost their employs, their rank, their consideration, and many
of them their fortunes.
It is therefore equally consonant to good policy and to humanity
that they should be considered, and in the way most acceptable to them;
the rich conciliated by little honorary distinctions, those who are
otherwise by sharing in all lucrative employs; and all of them by
bearing a part in the legislature of their country.
The great objects here seem to be to heal those wounds, which past
unhappy disputes have left still in some degree open; to unite the
French and English, the civil and military, in one firm body; to raise
a revenue, to encourage agriculture, and especially the growth of hemp
and flax; and find a staple, for the improvement of a commerce, which
at present labors under a thousand disadvantages.
But I shall say little on this or any political subject relating to
Canada, for a reason which, whilst I am in this colony, it would look
like flattery to give: let it suffice to say, that, humanly speaking,
it is impossible that the inhabitants of this province should be
otherwise than happy.
I have the honor to be,
My Lord, &c.
William Fermor.