New-York tribune., 1908-05-24
TIE SIGNIFICANCE OF QUEBEC.

There IA q peculiar and grateful significance
, in the announcement that the French govern
ment will officially participate in the ceieora-
tion in July next of the 3OOth anniversary OF
the founding Of Quebec. Nothing could OK
course be more fitting, logically, HISTORICAL! OF
sentimentaly than that partcipation' which
will make complete an occasion OF eAtraorunai3
! interest that otherwise would seem and De iach-
ing in an essential element. Nor could anything
moro ,nnressiveIy denote or remind the world
of the profound and salutary changes winch
time and benevolent statesmanship have ef-
fected not only in the constitution OF the great
colony OH the st. Lawrence. but also anu even
more notably in the relations or the TWO couii-
tries which have been concerned in It's fouhda-
ton and development.
1t was the French who founded quebec; Ut
first in Carriers time, Stadacone, ana later,
three hundred years ago. under Champlain, as
Quebec the City of the Straits quickly over
shadowing Port Royal four years its senior.
rising into far greater prominence ard promise
than struggling jamestown, one year its senior.
and beginning It's career year before hudson
entered New York Bay, Quebec became the seat
Of what promised to be the chief empire OF the
Western world From the Straits OF Belle Isle
TO the head Of the Great Lakes, and thence
southwark to the Gulf Of Mexico, all was
claimed for France. Thereafter for more than
g century and half that splendid domain OF
New France was contended for by the two his
torc rivals and antagonists. and at last in the
cimacteric struggle on the Plains of Abraham,
which gave to each nation a name of immortal
heroism, it passed under the sway of Great
Britain. OF the splendid fancy Of New France
Quebec was thus the cradle and the grave.
For one year less than century ana hal1
Quebec has remained British. Yet all the time
it has, in other senses, remained French, more
French than France itself. The city is In great
part as purely French was Paris in the days
of the Bourbon kings, while in the villages and
on the farms of the "habitants' may be found
as pure French blood, French speech. French
customs and French life in any department
of the French Republic. For time the city
and the province were half rebeous and
wholly reSentful of what seemed TO them alien,
unsympathetic and even hostile control but the
wise policy of Lord Durham opened the way to
pacifcation and concilation, and since the ere
alton of the Dominion the French of Lower
Canada have We'd with the sons of the IOyalists
in Upper Canada in sincere attachment to the
British Empire. To-day there Is no resentment
over memories of WoIfe's victory, and there is
no inclination the part of the French TO re-
sst British sovereignty. The world scarcely
contains a finer example Of racial Cancellation.
This year, by virtue Of the benevolent offices
of q royalst statesman greater than Lord Dur
ham, not only the two races in Canada, but the
two nations from which they sprang and the
governments Of those nations amicaby unite to
celebrate that sowing Of seed by Frenchmen
from which England reaped so rich harvest.
1t will be edifying spectacle to see the heir
to the British throne and representative Of
President Fallieres together cOmmemOratng the
foundation Of that city and state which for
more than a century an object of belligerent
contention between England and France. 1t
will typfy an entente cOrdidic between those
who were formerly historic adversaries as com
plete and we may hope enduring rs that be
tween the two races the shores of the st.
Lawrence