New-York tribune., 1908-07-23
THE QUEBEC FESTIVAL
Retrospect Suggested by the Cele-
brati0n.
Nv j. Casten Hopkins.


formative, in the history of this continent ana the
world. The who took part in the ofisihih
drama OF discovery. colonization, war htih inter
national development. and whose names are Gu
shrned in the pageants of to-day. were great men
few greater the turmoils and tr'uHphs OF the
past. The events they controlled In this favah
Of nations were at the roots of not only eaiiaua
history as a civilized entity, but in asense they
made the United States possible. ana cef'sIn'S
helped to change the current OF British develop
ment and French achievement
With New France and its ambitious leaders
striving for vast French empire the thirteen colo
nies We're perforce bound closely TO she crown
and strength England; without that menace 10
the north they had room for an e&paHsion anu
political development which made much easter
the path of continental progress and grown ol IN
dependent power. With the northern part OF 'he
continent in British hands Napcleons eoiossai
ambitions found adequate scope III <ihe
With it, too Great Britain was ENCOURAGED aiohs
lines of political experiment and coonizetioi micl
made new empire possible after tiie l'Ss Vi "'
greater American possessions
Around the career of Champlan centres one OF
the romances of history. gentleman Oh france
a sailor soldier and a courtier. he was pS
,,s,i,c, q ,,onaer The foundation Of Quebec in
1908 was but an incident, though a great one III d
life OF determined energy hardwood Oh aractel
and physique devotion to duty anu iaiseehie
patriotism Like all of his type, like Pitt ana
wolfe and Montcalm in later days, he dreamed IN
continents and built up empires while kings played
and statesmen slept. Twelve times, in tiny shps'
he crossed the almost unknown oceans Ior thou-
sands of miles traversed the inland seas ana
rivers of wilderness For thirty years ne
left the sunny slopes and soft skies OF his native
land to face the rigors bitter winter and saw
age surroundings through the unknown watery
wastes of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa Lakes
Huron and Ontario, Nipissing Champlain and Sim
coe he went lonely way of discovery and ex-
plora tion. Seeking first passage TO the lndles
and the silks and spices OF the gorgeous East, he
founded upon the mighty rock of Quebec a village
which was TO become the centre of a prolonged
struggle between nations, and three hundred years
later the scene of an international cele-
bration of friendship and national demonstration
of racial unity in empire which holds together
the East which Champlain first sought the West
of which he dreamed. and descendants of the peo-
pie whom he hoped to make so great
When Champlan died, Christmas Day, 1885,
after crowded life of effort and struggle he left
vast opportunities his nation, great field of
labor to his successors fairly strong and organ
ized structure of political power. He had founded
and guarded and nursed his colony a mother
might her only child. He had fought the IroquOs,
fought the wild and lewless spirit of the early
settlers. fought the ntrgues of court and religious
interests, fought the English invader with alternate
and failure, fought the still enemies
OF cold and hunger and privaton. He had con- I
quered all, and died In peace, hoping all things for
this product of his labors and patriotism.
During the century and more which passed until
the other event occurred of which this celebration
is memorial and a picture the American cont-
nent presented vast and splendid setting the
struggle which grew Champlain's life work
and which ended with the victory OF Wolfe the
heights where the great Frenchman had dreamed
his dream of empire and where men like Frontenac
and Montcalm had striven to realize 1t. Amid the
gloomy aises Of prmeval forests in a region
thousands of miles in length and breadth, around
a myriad of lakes and rivers and the great inland
seas which emptied through the St. Lawrence into
the Atlantic. bodies Of armed had marched to
zrdT and fhc os
wastes hitherto sacred to the freedom of the ami
NAL world and the wild vagaries of savage life. |
Sometimes, during that hundred years of intermit
tent conflict, would break out between the set
Elements of New France and the faraway colonies
on the New England coast; sometimes it reached
the st. Lawrence the Atlantic Coast, passed
in course of devastation up to Hudson Bay or
down the Mississippi and Ohio valleys; sometimes
the sound of English guns could be heard from |
the ramparts of Quebec. or the tramp of New Eng !
land volunteers echo through the forests bordering
on the Great Lakes; sometimes it would when
the mother countries were nominally at peace; |
sometimes the whoop of the savage would be !
heard on the one side both, and the shadow |
of the scalpng knife the pioneer homes |
of French and English alike Everywhere and at
all times the issue the ownership of a conti-
nent the flag of England and the flag of France
waved in wars alternate chance"
The rivalry inevitable. the hostility bitter !
the conflict of diplomacy of continuous the /
result concealed from view and its Importance |
hardly understood. For time, indeed, 1t was un-
certain. In the end national characteristics decided
the issue. The French built fortresses and trained
soldiers, and exceled in all the of skilled and |
gallant fighting or in the fervor OF religious self
sacrifice. The English founded homes. created viii
lagos, developed commerce and considered all the |
Incidental to a period which must in time |
pass away and leave them the possessors of a !
peaceful soil and free communities With such |
racial conditions the result, though hidden from
human sight at the time, inevitable when once :
that thin line Of English settlement along the At
lantic began TO grow thick and overflow its borders
north and east and south.
Quebec. New France presented about I756 !
medley of misgovernment and military splendor:
Of personal intrigue and brilliant social gayety: of
picturesque conditions and political corruption: of
CAV court life and sombre religious enthusiasm: of
French lightness and happiness OF character with
a background of primeval forests and the lurking
shadows of savage life Into II the staIwart
figure of the Marquis de Mortcalm with a char
aoter brave and impulsive, honora bic and
impatient ambitious and little vain. An aristo-
crat by birth in age and country in which aris-
tooTacy meant much TO man or natural abilities;
a soldier while yet boy, colonel in the army at
thirty-four and major general at forty-four; a
OF many before he had the
shores Of Canada, he possessed q record and
character apparently well fitted cope with the
local situation in this far away dependency of his
country. With him came a reinforcement OF reg
ular troops: in the colony three thou
sand others guarding Ill defined boundaries which
extended from the seaboard 10 the far west and
down the valley OF the Ohio.
In all this region the sixty thousand
seventy thousand French settlers conserved the in
terests OF their flag and country by means of vol
unteer militia forces. in support of the made
quate and everchanging regular troops. BY means
of posts al Niagara. Toronto and Frontenac they
held sovereignty over Lake Ontario through the
90 pofn hst-