=Source.=--Appendix "C" to Lord Durham's _Report_. Lucas. Vol. III.
The _habitants_, or agricultural population of French origin, hold
their lands by feudal tenure, which prevails in the "seignorial"
districts. Though under the sway of England for 75 years, they are
but little changed in usages, and not at all in language. A very
small proportion of them are acquainted with the first rudiments
of education; they use comparatively few imported articles, and
their system of agriculture is generally rude and antiquated.
Owing to the neglect of manure and a proper rotation of crops, the
land in many places has become exhausted, and its cultivators,
year after year, sink deeper in poverty. Scanty harvests during
the last six or eight years, caused mainly by imperfect modes of
culture or injudicious cropping, have reduced considerable numbers
of the _habitants_ in the district of Quebec to a state of extreme
destitution. In the district of Montreal, the farming is better,
and the people more prosperous. The _habitant_ is active, hardy
and intelligent, but excitable, credulous; and, being a stranger
to everything beyond his own contracted sphere, he is peculiarly
liable to be made the dupe of political speculators. His ignorance
of the English language prevents him from acquiring any knowledge
of the sentiments and views of the British Government and people,
except what he may derive from educated persons of his own race,
interested, it may be, in deceiving him. Never having _directly_
experienced the benefits of British rule in local affairs, and
almost as much insulated from British social influences as if the
colony had never changed masters, it is idle to expect that he
should entertain any active feeling of attachment to the Crown.
For opening new settlements the _habitant_ has many useful
qualifications, being usually competent to provide, by his personal
skill, all the essentials requisite for his situation, such as
house, clothing, and the ordinary farming implements. But having
cleared his land, erected a dwelling for himself and a church for
the _curé_, he remains stationary, contented with his lot, and
living and dying as his ancestors lived and died before him. At the
present day, for instance, a traveller may pass through districts
where there is an abundance of excellent milk, and be unable to
procure either butter or cheese with the sour and black-looking
country bread which is served up at his meals; and it is by no
means an uncommon circumstance for a _habitant_ to sell his manure
to a neighbouring farmer, or throw it into the adjoining river,
while every season his crops are deteriorating, in consequence of
the degeneracy of the seed and the exhaustion of the soil.
By the _habitant_ a small gain, or saving of actual coin, is deemed
much more important than a large expenditure of time; and he will
not easily be induced to venture on an immediate pecuniary outlay
to secure a remote advantage, unless indeed the money is to be
devoted to litigation, in which he loves to indulge.
There is no class resembling English "country gentlemen" among the
Canadians; nor do the doctors, notaries and lawyers, who overabound
in the colony, form an efficient substitute for such a class. Needy
and discontented, they are more disposed to attempt an improvement
in their own condition of political agitation, than to labour for
the advancement of their uninstructed neighbours. The only body
of men to whom the _habitants_ can look for aid and direction are
the parochial clergy, who, in the districts where their authority
is unimpaired, act as a vigilant moral police, the efficiency of
which is manifested in established habits of sobriety and order.
Persons acquainted with the province are well aware that, in the
disaffected districts, the influence of the Canadian clergy is much
diminished.
It appears, then, that the mode of village settlement adopted
by the Franco-Canadians is favourable to the establishment of
municipal institutions, and that the obstacles to be encountered
are the absence of education, popular inexperience, blind
repugnance to taxation, and the absence of a wealthy and instructed
class, interested in the prosperity of the many, and desirous of
engaging gratuitously in the administration of local affairs.