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Some Early French-Canadian Advocacy of Protection: 1871-1873

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

John Irwin Cooper
John Irwin Cooper*
Affiliation:
McGill University
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Extract

The history of Quebec as a province since Confederation has not received the attention it merits. This is the more surprising when one considers the study which has been devoted to the history of Lower Canada, to the old province of Quebec, and to New France. Political disputes at once violent and petty are supposed to constitute the history of Quebec since Confederation. It is unfortunate that this view is so widely held, because along with factional struggles went important and interesting economic, social, and political experiments all more or less closely connected with French-Canadian nationalist aspirations. While many of these experiments were local in origin, their growth had an influence far beyond the boundaries of the province. In this paper I propose to consider only one of these developments: some early French-Canadian views on protection.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , November 1937 , pp. 530 - 540
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1937

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References

1 Christie, Robert, A History of the Late Province of Lower Canada (Quebec, 1848), vol. I, p. 45.Google Scholar

2 Discours de Sir Georges-Etienne Cartier (Montréal, 1893), p. 144.Google Scholar

3 Royal, Joseph, “Le Traité de Reciprocité” (La Revue canadienne, Montréal, tome I, fév., 1864).Google Scholar La Revue canadienne, founded in Montreal in 1864 as a journal of criticism, represented moderate Conservative opinion. The contributions to La Revue were usually of a high order.

4 The numbers of persons leaving the province cannot be determined with any accuracy. The increase of the French-Canadian population of the cities, especially of Montreal, was phenomenal. Between 1861 and 1871, the population of Montreal increased some 17,000, and of this number over 13,000 were of French-Canadian origin (Census of Canada, 1861, 1871).

5 Young, James, “The Trade of Canada 1871/2” (Canadian Monthly, Toronto, 06, 1873).Google Scholar

6 Le Pays, 6 mars, 1871.

7 Pelland, J. O., Biographie, Discours etc. de l'Hon. Honoré Mercier (Montréal, 1890), p. 9.Google Scholar

8 Savaéte, Arthur, Vers l'Abîme (Paris, n.d.), tome II, p. 127.Google Scholar This work, written by a French scholar from material supplied to him by interested persons in Canada, throws considerable light upon the political and ecclesiastical struggles in Quebec since Confederation. Although exceedingly partisan, Vers l'Abîme contains some valuable documents and letters.

9 The name “Castor” as applied to the group did not come into vogue till 1882 with the publication of the celebrated pamphlet Le Pays, le Parti et le Grand Homme by “Castor”.

10 Chief among those who seceded from the party at this time were David and Mercier.

11 Ayearst, M., “The Rouge Party and the Clergy” (Canadian Historical Review, 12, 1934).Google Scholar

12 Pelland, , Biographie, Discours etc. de l'Hon. Honoré Mercier, p. 10.Google Scholar

13 Montreal Daily Herald, June 20, 1871.

14 Le Nouveau Monde, founded in Montreal in 1864 and in complete accord with Mgr. Bourget, the Bishop of the Diocese, was the mouth-piece of ultra-Conservative and ultra-Catholic opinion. With its contemporaries, Le Journal des Trois-Rivières and Le Courrier du Canada (Québec), it followed the teachings and tactics of Louis Veuillot.

15 Le Nouveau Monde, 28 fév., 1871.

16 Ibid., 1 mars, 1871.

17 Ibid., 3 mars, 1871.

18 Ibid., 8 mars, 1871.

19 This scheme of “industrial immigration” had been long a favourite with the Rouge party.

20 Le Nouveau Monde, 22 mars, 1871.

21 Ibid., 13 mars, 1871.

22 Le Pays, 17 juillet, 1871.

23 La Minerve, 25 nov., 1871.

24 Laurier's speech in the Legislative Assembly, Nov. 10, 1871 ( Discours à l'Étranger et au Canada, Montréal, 1909).Google Scholar

25 La Minerve, 13 nov. and Le Nouveau Monde, 11 nov., 1871.

26 Journals of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, 1871, p. 136.Google Scholar

27 Ibid.

28 The newspapers followed the early reports of the Committee with considerable attention.

29 Annual Report of the Board of Trade of Ottawa, 1873, p. 33.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., p. 34.

31 Canada, House of Commons Debates, 1876, 03 10, p. 568.Google Scholar

32 Macdonald certainly made no reference to this topic that has been preserved in the Macdonald Papers in the Public Archives of Canada, or printed in the Correspondence. His biographers are equally silent.

33 After 1874, the leadership of the French-Canadian Conservatives passed into the hands of MM. Masson and Mousseau. Able as these men were, they did not enjoy Macdonald's confidence as Cartier and Langevin did.

34 Pope, J., The Correspondence of Sir John Macdonald (Toronto, n.d.), p. 243.Google Scholar

35 Canada, House of Commons Debates, 1877, vol. I, p. 920.Google Scholar

36 Pelland, , Biographie, Discours etc. de l'Hon. Honoré Mercier, p. 14.Google Scholar

37 Printed in Skelton's, O. D. Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Toronto, 1921), vol. I, p. 186.Google Scholar

38 Sait, E. M., Clerical Control in Quebec (Toronto, 1911), p. 50.Google Scholar

39 A curious side-light on the character and numbers of some of these emigrants is given in the letters of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Boston, Dr. Ferwick, which have been printed in Le Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, janv., 1933.

40 Turcotte, L. P., Le Canada sous l'Union (Quebec, 1871), tome II, p. 450.Google Scholar

41 La Minerve, 25 nov., 1871.

42 Savaéte, , Vers l'Abîme, tome II, p. 130.Google Scholar

43 The Catholic Programme was published for the first time in Le Journal des Trois-Rivières, April 20, 1871.

44 Le Nouveau Monde, 17 avril, 1871.

45 Savaète, , Vers l'Abîme, tome II, p. 132.Google Scholar