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


baptized at Notre Dame in this city. and
the registers show that only one of the
lot was born out Of wedlock.
The feudal tenure, established IN 1928,
did something to promote large families.
The tenant had his eighty or ninety acres
of bush. with the option of getting a sim
liar tract for each of his sons and sons
in-law. Where there is an abundance of
land to be had for the asking, with a
virgin soil yielding heavy crops, and
plenty of game and fish, the birth rate is
sure to be high. If the tenant had been
obliged to subdivide his holding among
his children, as required by the existing
French law, it is possible that, as in
France, large families might have been
the exception rather than the rule. As
it was. the more children he had the be-
ter of he and his became; many families
possessed a thousand acres, and some
from being censitaires or tenants rose TO
selgnioral rank and had tenants of their
own. The rigorous climate carried on Il
process of natural selection by killing off
the weak. The climate. by the way, has
not change to any appreciate extent. 1t
was thought by Champlain that the win
tiers would grow milder as the country
was settled up, but comparison of his
records with those of the last fifty years
shows that he was mistaken. The life
II In ala
hunting, travelling in canoes, and taking
a hand in the frequent Indian wars also
tended to eliminate the feeble From time
to time new blood was brought in. Four
companies of the famous Carignan regi-
ment, which had covered itself with
glory in fighting the Turks in Hungary,
settled in Canada and married girls of the
country. The officers became seigneurs.
and being aristocrats, introduced GER
tain amount of polish which did the
rough and raw colonists no harm. AT a
later day many of Wolfe's men, notably
his Highanders, took up land, married
French Canadian wives, and were assim-
Hated by the conquered race in very
short time. There are numerous Frasers
below Quebec who cannot speak English.
The first Scotchman who entered the col
onv was Abraham Martin, a pilot, who
obtained a concession of land known to
history as the Plains of Abraham. He
seems to have drifted from New England.
During the war of independence few
United Empire Loyalists arrived, and
after the war of 1912 two hundred men
of a SWISS regiment, who had fought on
the British side, settled here.
Such, in brief, was the making of the
French-C Canadian race, and it has no
reason to be ashamed of its origin. \
few settlers, but only few, married
Indian women. The French-Canadian of
to-day is short, why, swarthy man, so
swarthy that the American visitor jumps
to the conclusion that he must have In.
dian blood in his veins; but that is not
the case. There is Indian blood among
the Acadians in the seabOard provinces
and among the French Canadians along
Gaspe coast, but throughout Quebec the
race is almost as pure as it was three
hundred years ago. Nor is it true that
the French Canadians speak a patois. \
number of English words have been in.
troduced in connection with industries
| like numbering. banking, sailing and
manufacturing, which are controlled in
great part by English-speaking persons
and the accent and intonation of old
France are lacking: otherwise the hab
tant speaks precisely as his Norman ant
Breton ancestors spoke, while the edu
Gated speak and write like Parisans.
Those New Englanders who are afralC
that their institutions may suffer from
the deluge of French-Canadian Catho
lies, with their patrlarchal families
would discover, if they came here, tina
the influence of the New England Frencl
is rapidly liberalizlng the manners, Gus
toms, and institutions of French Canada
Take. for instance, the tithe. This tax
every twenty-sixth bushel of cereals
was paid without murmur until TN
French who went to New England dis
covered that the voluntary support O
the clergy was preferable. Since thel
something like a general uprising agains
the 1.-THE has taken place in the diocese
adjoining the international boundary
The hard times which the farmers hav
experienced during the last ten or fiiteel
years may be responsible in part for tn
anti-tithe agitation, but the movemen
derived Its first impetus from New Eng
land. The New England French, who's
religion sits more lightly upon then
than upon the fervent habitant of gen
GRAFTON ago, have always been opposed
to the fdGrjQue law under which the free
holders of IA parish are taxed for tn
construction of new churches and dwell
ings for the priest, and say that TIL
voluntary system should be substitutes
for it. The result is that the .fabrique as