The Indianapolis journal., 1884-12-07

for circulation in Canada in which he kept up
| his warfare on those men and measures that he
| regarded as dangerous to his people and opposed
to the best interests of his country. He contin-
ued this method of attack until the pardon of
the political exiles and their invitation to return,
when he came back to Montreal and again took
charge of LIE Minerve, which, with partner, he
had founded before he was sent away. La So
ciete de st. Jean Baptiste has for its objects-so
far as the uninitiated may presume to judge
the fostering of love of country (amour de la
patrie) the preservation of French manners, Gus
| toms and institutions; the protection and en-
couragement of the French language and litera-
ture, and the supremacy and growth of the
mother church Its professions and other
public demonstrations are participated in by the
priests, and the highest dignitaries of the
Canadian church bless its convocations and
celebrate high mass at its great anniversary
meetings NJ. Duvernay, its founder, evi-
IDENTIFY man of superior ability and learning.
His pictured face shows a strong family likeness
to the refined faces of the great Parisians who
have immortalized modern French literature.
In Paris he would probably have been one of the
Forty lmmortals" In Canada he became
great force, around which has rallied, and will
| continue to rally that French Canadian thought
and influence which is Observation-Disclosures
vainly-with great and perseverlng effort to stay
the tide of Anglo-SaXon domination which is
sweeping over North America like resistless
tide.
Ludger Duvernay first suggested the leaf Of
the maple-la feuille derable-as the emblem of
Canada, and, so the maple has also become. to
Canadians the special symbol of St Johns Day.
On each succeeding oath of June the streets of
the smaller cities and towns literally
embowered in young maple trees, cut
from the thickets and stuck in
the ground along the outer edges OF
the sidewalks. What strange medley of re
ligion and politics. humility and pomp, primal
Christian simplicity and medieval superstition
a St. Jean Baptiste parade presentsl Stranger
still is the mixture of a strong devotion to liber
ty and evident republican tendencies with a king
hero and priest worship that to us less reveren-
tial Americans seems almost absurd. And yet
the builder knew his material. He understood
the French Canadian character. He knew that
reverence for the traditional and love of the su-
pernatural are deeply lmbedded in the thought
of the people, and he understood how and why
they at once the simplest and most econom-
ical and at the same time the fondest of pomp
and display, of any people that our new world
contains; and through 1t all he endeavored to
inculcate love of freedom and devotion to
French customs, language and literature that
shall exercise a wonderful influence for their
preservation in America. Whatever may be
our views as to the desirablity of
thus preserving a French stronghold in
the northern world, it but seem
pralseworthy ambition on the part of those who
are the descendants of the heroic men who first
peopled and for more than two centuries ruled
the country. Like many other foreigners who
come to the United States, they make mis-
take. however, when they propose to apply
citizens of the United States, welding their
franchises and their citizenship for the best inst
terests of their adopted country and at the same
time keep themselves compacted French
Canadians, acting from a French Canadian
stand point Citizenship in one nation at a time
is all that any man, however gifted and wise he
may be- can properly maintain and exercise.
However, ! think that such propositions are
confined to comparative few, whose zeal is in
advance of their judgment The fftieth ami
versary of La St Jean Baptste gave quite
an impetus to French Canadian literature
of the class which call, in the
United States, literature of occasion
At least one handsomely illustrated journal was
devoted to the celebration Of the great days of
the fete rationale, and the Montreal daieS ran
largely to wood cuts and fowery descriptive
writing Among the poets and literary savans
who lent the color of their genius to illuminate
the pages of these illustrated journals, none
has more renown, perhaps, than Professor Louis
Frechette, poet laureate of Canada l have read
a few of NJ. Frechettes poems, painfully trans
lating them, dictionary in hand, into English
prose; and, while by reason of my slight knowi
edge of the language, unable to judge of
their artistic merits or defects, L have
found them true to French Canadian
impulses and traditions. Whoever shall look
with impartial eyes upon this Province of Quebec
and note the rapid increase of the French popu-
lation and its oneneES of religious belief and its
devotedness to French customs, language litera-
ture traditions and institutions, will readily con-
cude that the day is far distant when French
will cease to be the language of the masses of
the people of the Province, or the authority of
the church cease to be the paramount rule of life
and character To these ends the Society Of st.
John the Baptist is contributing a strength and
influence which serve to crystalline what else
would be but fragmentary and often ilI-directed
effort
SHERBRooKE, Canada.
N1orad To- Morrom