Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1893-10-06
THE FReNCH-CANADlANS.

Lavaltrie, near Montreal, carried his
twenty-sixth child by the same wife TO
be christcned. Twenty-Five of the chill
dren are living. Fourteen of them are
in the United States. Mr.. Ouimet, sup
erintendent Of education for the pro-
vince, was the twenty-siXth child of the
same father ana mother. | was at
golden wedding near Sorel last month,
at which seventeen children belonging
to old folks constituted the piece de
re iStdnce. Nine of them came from
New England, two from Chicago and
one from Manitoba. Mr.. j. NJ. Lemoine,
a French Canadian writer, tells of hab-
liant near this city, who, accompanied
by twenty-six of his brothers and sisters,
went to the church to have his thirtieth
child christened. There were about 70,-
600 French Canadians in New France
when it was coded to Britain 1870 years
ago. Emigration frOn France pract-
cally ceased at that time, and the efforts
made by the Dominion government to
revive it have been unayailing. Yet the
20 900 have increased to two millions
AMI more, of whom one-third are in the
United States. These figures alone go
far to substantiate the boast of the
French Canadians that they are the
most most prolific race on the earth.
\ Jesuit Who travels among the
French Canadian colonies in the States
says the average French Canadian fam
lily in the factory towns of New England
is not as large as the average family
on the banks of the st. Lawrence.
He attributes the difference to the fact
that in many cases the young wife con-
tinues to work in the mil; it is to her
interest and that of her husband to earn
the weekly wage as long as she can, and
a swarm of children would only be in
the way. On the other hand, the NOR
tally among French Canadian children in
New England is below the rate in French
Canada, where sanitary science is in its
swaddling clothes and the old prejudice
against vaccination dies hard. At IA
factory in Nashua, n. H., fifteen French
Canadians and fifteen Americans were
taken at haphazard and weighed. The
French averaged nine and half pounds
less than the Americans. In Quebec and
Montreal the French Canadian woman
weighs from five to ten pounds less than
English-s peaking women. But, as a
rule, the French women possess more
/ IA a
to nervous complaints or to those de-
engagements which reduce the birth rate.
1t is common enough to see a French
Canadian girl of fourteen plarried and to
find her buXOm grandmother at thirty
two.
The usual explanation of the amazing
fecundity of these people is that the
clergy encourage early marriages fol
moral and political reasons-political
because they desire to swell the number
of French Canadian voters within the
! Dominion in order to eXalt their own
power. Without doubt the priests dc
encourage early marriages, but don't
think political considerations weigh with
them. BY the constitution of Canals
the representation of the province OF
> Quebec in the Dominion parliament is
fixed for all time at siXty-five members
In the other provinces there is read
ju>tment of the representation after eacl
decennial census. but in Quebec there il
none. 1t would be absurd therefore fol
Z IN m ahV aarlxr
/ in the hope of augmenting the French
] Canadian delegation at Ottawa, Will,
I the legislature of Quebec is so over
whelmingly French that he need no
riages have been the fashion since tn,
- foundation of the colony by Champlain
when premiums were given for large
families, but the fecundity of the race il
due primarily to the care displayed b,
the founders in selecting the first set
tiers.
The males were chosen from the farm
ing and fishing classes and from tn
army. All the early writer's speak o
the extraordinary physical vigor of tn
men. A voyage across the Atlantic il
those days was a serious undertaking
! and when the journey was over it wa
no child's fplay to go into the bush an,
hew out home amid wolves and will
Indians. The seigneurs and Others VIII
selected the emigrants were careful
therefore, to exclude weaklings, VIII
might become burden, and to pick tn
sturdiest fellows they could find i
Normandy, Perche, Beauce. and tn
Pays d'Aunis. The seigneurs themselve
were retired army officers and cadets o
noble families attracted by the report
of mineral wealth and by the love o
adventure. The girls shipped out a
wives we're also carefully selected. Tn
rih-raff of Paris was turned away
Every girl had to produce a certificat
from her parish priest, and if her con