THE FRENCH PRESS
Such were the sentiments with which the Cartier- Brebeuf demonstration closed. This morning I took up L'Elec: eur, the organ of the Quebec Government, and in its leading article, under the heading of ‘“ What we have to say to each other,” I foune the same ideas enunciated in even more forcible and unmistakable language. L'Electeur points out that the celebration represented a people scattered throughout the American continent, whose destiny has not yet been achieved. The English race has been unable to absorb them, #s it would have liked to, and to-day the French-Canadians, the writer says, numbering over two millions, are masters of one province, representing in North America a distinct civilization, holding incontestibly in the Canadian Confederation the balance of power, and beginning to exercise even in the neighhouring Republic a legitimate influence. The dream of Parent and Duvernay regarded as so hopeless in their time, has become a realization. Even the United States, s0 fatal in its absorption of different and diverse races, has failed to nationalize the French-Canadian race. [s that ail ? By no means ‘“ We believe,” concludes L'Electeur, ‘ that we represent in America a distinctcivilization, we represent the French civilization of which we are the issue. With its faith of olden times, its generous genius, its aspirations superior to the spirit of mere lucre, its constant aspirations towards the ideal, no one can say what the future reserves for us. Only let us increase for some time with the same vitality as in the past, under whatever form our destinies may be realized, and we cherish the hope of an American France, a New France, as our fathers called it, and as our descendants with more reason will call it, if we know how to prepare the way for them, and if they know how to be worthy of the eflorts of their ancestors.”
Quebec is to be the cradle of this American France of the future, but the work is not yet finished. ‘ Old Europe
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is shaking, America is commencing to, but the noble motto, Gesta dei per Francos, is always true, and there remains for us, please Providence, a page of history to add on the American continent.”
Such, in the clear and forcible language of L’ Electeur, is the meaning of the Cartier-Brebeuf celebration, which I have endeavoured faithfully and honestly to portray.
