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Quebec City has long been notorious for its labor troubles, which of late have culminated in riots. Last year, these riots assumed a very serious aspect, and the presence of a large force of the military was necessary to restore quiet. It would naturally be supposed that one such disturbance would satisfy the most turbulent population, for a few years at least, but not so with Quebec. Her ship laborers are ready to recommence the fight scarcely before navigation has opened, and certainly before the laborers have had a chance to get any returns for their work, which, though hard, is usually very remunerative. The result has been that ship owners, who had already suffered from labor troubles, have become entirely disgusted with the port and threaten, and are carrying their threats into execution, - to desert it as far as possible. This is, of course, a very serious matter for those having an interest in the city, and common sense should teach the ship-laborers that their obstinacy and lawlessness will act as a boomerang against themselves. It appears that the ship-laborers of Quebec are largely French Canadians and Irish, who are continually at war with each other, and it is not so much dissatisfaction at wages that causes the disturbances, as international misunderstandings between the different races. To add to the difficulty, the city is inefficiently policed, Quebec being the worst off in this respect of any city in the Dominion. The corporation would seem to be at fault in other particulars. It is asserted that one of the ship laborer’s societies , notwithstanding laws to the contrary, has eight hundred strands of arms with plenty of ammunition. The general knowledge of this fact of itself is enough to disturb the peace of the city; and it would seem necessary that some decided steps should be taken to maintain order and prevent the possible shedding of a great deal of blood. If the moral and intelligent feeling in Quebec is not sufficiently strong to compel and provide for the enforcement of the laws, then the higher authorities should step in, assume the burden and levy the necessary taxes. It is too bad that Canada should be disgraced by the periodical outbreak of Quebec lawlessness, and the commence of a large and important river disturbed from the opening of its navigation to close. The language of the Montreal Star in the matter does not appear too strong.
It (the collision between the working men) is part of a conflict which, if sustained as it has been, will result in the destruction of what remains to Quebec of her attenuated commerce, and the necessity of clearing her administration in the hands of a military commission. Such riots as have disgraced the city cannot be observed with nonchalance by the country at large. Their chronic recurrence is a national reproach and as such requires national treatment. If Quebec lawlessness and Mexicanization are to be tolerated by the local authorities, and if the people are too penurious to pay for a police force sufficient to maintain a semblance of permanent order, it will become necessary to resort to extraordinary measures for the suppression in the most emphathic form, of an evil which is fraught with injury to the entire country. Ardent supporters as we are of the principle of local self-government, we cannot allow local misgovernment and chronic bloodshed to pass for the dearest plank in our constitutional platform. The social condition of Quebec has been for many years one of the gravest questions before the people, and the time is, apparently, fast arriving when the whole people of the country will have to consider where it be not necessary to so heavily garrison Quebec, at the cost of the taxpayers of that city, that riots will be rendered impossible. The disorders in our sister city have their origin in a spirit which is most dangerous to the existence of our free institutions, a spirit which must be repressed, at whatever cost, by a strong hand.
If the people of Quebec will not aid the authorities in doing this work then the highest power must be resorted to.
The despatches this morning, received since the above was in type, state that a fresh outbreak of the riots has occurred and that the military have been called out.