The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-03-17

the special privileges with which the
old Canadian regime Endorsed it,
f4sss only shall to not the be Subjected
to the payment of taxes that are levied by
the church for the support of its institu-
tions.
Acting in the spirit of these concessions.
the school fund is divided In some of the
Provinces, and the Catholics use their pOr-
ton of it to maintain schools which are
wholly under the control of the church,
taught by priests and nuns, and made the
vehicle through which the doctrines OF the
church and its theories of life and duty are
impressed upon the young. In the Province
of Quebec these special prerOgatives of the
church extend to the levying and collec-
ton of taxes on the real estate of Catholics
vents, parochial schools. etc. That the
exercise of these prerogatives is often bur-
densome and oppressive to the people does
not seem to decrease their devotion to
ns r all the Rrss' snS tsashsrs f
priests 0'u and church authorities, and
all the better educated people among
the French population realize very
would carry with it the certainty that all
these special prerogatIves of French law,
language and church would, sooner or later,
be swept away and American institutions
be established in their places. The Mar
quis of Lorne, after his return to England,
speaking on this very point, said, In sub
stance, that great Anglo-Saxo on amalgama-
tion mill, the United States would soon
grind the special privileges of the French
Canadians to powder and sweep away their
Language and literature as a force in Amer
lean affairs" 1t is this special condition
in Canada's relations to England that
makes the French Canadians sincerely loyal
ayocat of a provincial village. loyalty to
the Queens government is more vocifer-
ously and loudly maintained than by their
Engllsh-speaking fellow-citiZens. And this
in spite of the fact that they like Americans
better than Englshmen. and our ways, in
all matters that do not affect their church,
language, literature. or dream of race DOM
ination, better than English ways.
1t is simply self-interest. or sup
strongly to England. and makes them such
firm supporters of the present form of Ca
madam dependence. They would, for the
same reasons that produce their present
loyalty, break the tie and rush away in a
could see the prospect of French Canada
open before them. 1t has been said that
the Catholic hierarchy of Quebec have Sc
riOusly proposed to themselves the project
of furnishing the Pope an asylum and set
ting up his throne in the new world If the
prosecutions of the Italian Liberals should
exceed his powers of endurance and he
should find it expedient to quit Rome. No
what a glory would crown a French ma
tiOnality with its capital on the ground
made sacred by Champlain, and Laval. and
the naughty Malssonneuve; French ma,
tlS,nallty in which the .on vai0r ; and
atty. to church and King should
rebuke the democratic tendencies of these
degenerate daysw That the zealots and
even the masses of French Canadians cher
ish such q dream does not admit of doubt.
In pursuance of that idea they are inces-
SAINT. year in and year out, in the encourage
ment of Frenchmen TO remove to Canada
and for the return of their compatrlots who
have removed to the New England manu-
featuring towns and villages for the sake
of the better wages obtaiDable in the mills.
1t is to this end that every encouragement
is given to early marriages and the rearing
of large French families. But this loyalty
of the French Canadian to his church is In
danger of Over-reaching itself, and therein
lies one threat to the autonomy of the Do
miniOn itself. Like all zeal it is impatient
of delays and prone to rush upon ends be-
fore the time is ripe for them, and may yet
so awaken the fears and the resistance of
the mont Catholic population that they will
hail the thought or annexation as at once
a relief from the exactiOns of the French
majority in some OF the Eastern provinces,
ger of French domination of the
Dominion itself. recent instance
in point is the action of the Quebec Parlia-
ment appropriating $4,000 of the public
funds to the order of Jesuits, but making
the law effective only after receiving the
sanction of the Pope. One does not need to
be told how harshly such legislation CRATES
upon the non-Catholic population of the
province, whose distrust of Catholics and
Catholic control is much deeper and more
bitter than we find the same feeling on this
side of the line, because our people are not
subjected to the same conditions. We have
seen how fiercely the conflicts between
Oran IN N "a a 70 in
ada, and we know that the fires of mutual
nistrust and dislike are always slumbering
just under the ashes and ready to blaze out
afresh upon sufficient provocatlOn. This
feeling is not wholly confined to Protest
ants and Catholics as such. Often the
Irish and other English-speaking Catholics
join with their Protestant neighbOrs as
against the dominant French element in
the church, so that the question is largely
one of race supremacy. and it is certainly a
to make the French, who are the
natural foes of England. loyal to the Queen.
while on the other hand if the French
should go on from strength to strength in
the strOnghOlds of the Dominion govern
ment it may drive even the most loyal of
the English population into the support Of
annexation in order that our great Anglo
Saxon amalgamation milP' may do the work
which they seem pOwerless to do.
Another. but, perhaps, minor danger
that threatens the Dominion is the want of
sympathy OF the maritime provinces with
the policies and purposes of the Dominion
government. The people of those provinces
are interested in ship building and fishing.
They have not the great agricultural re-
sources of Ontario, Manitoba, Victoria and
the Northwest, and policies which are in
tended to develop the grand possibilities of
those great farming. grazing, numbering
and mining regions bear heavily upon
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
That gigantic and costly public work,
the Canadian Pacific railway, appeals
but little to the fisherman of the eastern
coast. and the tariff on imports is looked
upon as q burden which they did not suffer
from as isolated provinces. A few more
years and the development that the tariff
will encourage, even in those cold and bar
rem provinces, may change OF greatly mod
fly all this. But it has been a source of
much uneasiness to Canadian politicians,
and the extreme course pursued by them in
their treatment of our fishermen is doubt
less the offspring of the effort to conciliate
the maritime provinces, and tie them more
firmly to the Dominion. Newfoundland
has never surrendered her independent
colonial relation, and her refusal to enter
the Dominion is not without its influence
upon New Brunswick and the peninsula.
Another danger to the Dominion comes
from the free-traders-the Golden Club
men of Canada. The Dominion could