LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more.read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] THE TRUTH ABOUT QUEBEC.
[To THE EDITOR or ems " SPECTATOIL']
SIR,—My respect and affection for the Spectator have in these fifty years grown to such a height that I would not willingly see it fall into error. The reviewer of the book by Mr. Hugh E. M. Stutfield, in your issue of March 6th is quite wrong in every.: statement he quotes and, makes in reference,. to. Quebec. Ha is: merely giving. a .new currency to old slanders which. have. been extinct in this country for thirty years. You
serve notice that you do not propoee to open your columns to correspondence on this subject, and yet you give the immense weight of your authority to this book as being "honest and instructive!' It may be honest; the instruction it contains about Quebec is not correct in any particular, and' I crave your permission to give to- each a detailed denial. It is not true that " Quebec alone of the Canadian provinces .opposed Conscription." Another province—and that the oldest, the most " English," and most highly civilised—was more unanimous in ate political opinion than Quebeo; and yet from that province went to the front more voluntary soldiers in proportion to its size than from any other. The percentage of school attendance in Quebec is the highest in Canada; crime is the least prevalent The allegation that " the ' habitant' of Quebec is hopelessly outclassed by Protestant Canadians in trades. and pro.
fessions " is exactly wrong. Quebec, has the most productive farms, the most thrifty and contented work- men, the most- successful industries, the most efficient public services in. America. Quebec professional men have dominated the Government ever since confederation by reason of their superior education alone. Within the present month the sum of five million dollars has been raised 'b'y voluntary subscription for the new French University. By an appeal to the documents all these facts can be verified. The Provincial Treasurer, himself an English Protestant, wilt supply them. Of the-less specific charges against Quebec I can offe'r only- an opinion, but it is based upon observations extending over a period of thirty years. The people of Quebec are the most tolerant of all kinds of education and forms of religion, the least tolerant of fanaticism; they are the best tempered and the best mannered; the least disposed to interfere with personal liberty; the most stalwart and ins dependent in politics; the most careful in administering justice to rich as well as to poor. Quebec is the only place in America which has successfully resisted the emissaries of evil from the Labour world of Europe and the United States. Quebec is the last refuge in America of good order and political sense. Lastly, the only two Churches in Canada which do not " inter- fere in politics" are the Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland. The danger, in your review of Mr. Stutfield's book is that the statements about Quebec are so obviously wrong that the statements about. Ireland may be considered equally [Although we cannot, as we said, open our columns to a discussion of the main content of Mr. Stutfield's book, we are delighted to publish Sir Andrew Macphail's eloquent and spirited defence of Quebec. Sir Andrew Maophail under- stands,. we think, that our statements about Quebec were reproduced from Mr. Stutfield's book. Whether Mr. Stutfield is right or wrong. he is studious in research, and there is no doubt that he was convinced of the truth of what he wrote. —ED. Spectator.]
Previous page
