Our French Population

Newspaper
Year
1888
Month
1
Day
4
Article Title
Our French Population
Author
E. L. O'Brien
Page Number
3
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
OUR FRENCH POPULATION E. L. O’Brien in Fredericton Trade Review. “Only along the shore of the mournful and misty Atlantic Linger a few Acadian peasants whose fathers from exile Wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom.” The traveller who visits the upper waters of the St. John, or passes through the region washed by the “mournful and misty Atlantic,” would be astonished at finding that the “few Acadian peasants” include a large and influential proportion of the manhood and intelligence of New Brunswick. A glance at the census of 1881 will show that of the total population the Acadians can claim one-sixth, scattered throughout the entire Province. In the agricultural districts, in the fishing villages, in the busy towns, and beneath the bending “forest primeval,” from the fog-shrouded Bay of Fundy to the shores of the Bay of Chaleur, the Acadian peasant may be found, contributing by his head and hand to build up the future of our land. It has been the custom with many to taunt the French of New Brunswick not only with illiteracy but with lack of desire of educational progress. To prove the injustice of these taunts it shall be the purpose of this article to show that progress has been made in education by our French co-provincialists for the last three decades. It cannot be denied that thirty years ago the Acadians were, in point of mental development, inferior to their neighbors of their origins. The schools were few, the attendance small, irregular, and in the counties of Kent, Westmorland, Gloucester and what is now the county of Madawaska numerous settlements might be found whose inhabitants were almost unable to read or write. The cause of the want of culture may be sought in the history of the people; and it is the opinion of the writer – an opinion shared in by all the Acadians of intelligence, and a great body of disinterested readers of Acadian history – that, if the French people of New Brunswick are less educated than others, it is not through any fault of their own, but it is owing to the persecutions they labored under and the crushing of spirit they suffered after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 and the taking of Quebec in 1759. Persecuted and ruined financially, his hopes crushed, and domestic altars overthrown, the earnings of years of patient toil given to the flames, all that could make life worth living torn from him by relentless hands, the Acadian, having little opportunity to give instruction to his children, and without means to send them to others, was compelled to bring them up in ignorance. The uncertainty with reference to his possessions, what he had gathered from the wreck of his fortune, the possibility of again having his property taken from him or destroyed, crushed personal ambition out of his soul, and we find that for years, we might say generations, very little was done towards the educational advancement of the race, and, as the hand without the head is a mere machine, the Acadians became hardworking, unintelligent and unskilled toilers, mere “hewers of wood and drawers of water” for their more intelligent neighbors. To remedy this state of illiteracy required some force from without; and that force was supplied in the persons of certain religious, holy men and women, who built and equipped educational establishments in various sections of the Province. From these houses have gone forth the streams of moral and mental culture which are beginning to vivify the Acadian heart and intellect; and many a portion of New Brunswick, which was intellectually a desert, has, under their care, budded and blossomed in vernal beauty: and as we look to the future we confidently hope to see a bountiful harvest of rich autumnal fruits. The most important of these agencies is undoubtedly St. Joseph’s College at Memramcook. Established by the Very Rev. Camille Lefebvre, in 1864, as a day and boarding school, its doors were thrown open to poor as well as rich, and many a young man whose means would not justify the hope of rising beyond a life of toil and penury has there found friends willing, often for no recompense, to start him out in the world with a good education. From this college have gone forth the priests and teacher, the lawyer and the statesman, the physician and commercial man, whose example and teaching have given an impetus to the ambition of Acadians, and taught them to make themselves worthy of honor in all the walks of life. A few years ago scarcely a French-speaking native of New Brunswick could be found in the liberal professions or in commercial life. Now a Senator of Canada, a member of the House of Commons, a Legislative Councillor, a number of members and ex-members of the Local House, fourteen priests, four lawyers, eight doctors, and a large number of commercial men, of Acadian origin, are proud to claim St. Joseph’s College as their Alma Matter: and it will be found that of the French teachers of the Province a great majority owe their education either directly or indirectly to the College at Memramcook. Another powerful factor in Acadian regeneration must not be lost sight of – those communities of pure and noble sacrifice for the good of humanity, the lowly Sisters of Charity and Notre Dame. Convent schools have been established at St. Basil, Bathurst, Bathurst Village, Caraquet, St. Louis, and other places, at which the girls have been almost exclusively of French origin; and their influence may be seen every day in the grace and politeness and greater intelligence of the Acadian women. These are the forces which have started the Acadians on the path of intellectual and social progress; and not in the pupils alone may their influence be felt, but their far-reaching effects may be seen wherever the Acadian has established his home. Teachers have been supplied for the Acadian common schools in all the counties, and it would be well nigh impossible to estimate accurately the amount of good brought indirectly to the people in this particular direction. The statistics of French schools are not easily available, but we can make an approximation by figures which are accessible. The County of Gloucester may be taken as the most distinctly French County of which we have full published returns for many years. Let us compare this county with its English neighbor, Northumberland. If these counties have increased in population during the five years from 1881 to 1886 in the same proportion as the population of the Province increased during the previous decade, the number of persons in Gloucester should now be 22,964 and in Northumberland 26,679. In 1851 there were 11,704 inhabitants in Gloucester, the attendance was 926 in 31 schools of all kind, slightly less than 8 per cent., while in 1886 the number of pupils was 3,723 in 72 common schools and 300 in 3 convent schools, or 4,023 in all, that is 17½ per cent. of the total population, - an increase of 9½ per centum. In Northumberland the population in 1851 was 15,064, the number of schools 64, which gave instruction to 2016 pupils or 13.3 per cent. of the infants, and in 1886 the pupils numbered 5,299, or 19.7 per cent., - an increase of 6.4 per cent. These figures show plainly that the Acadians have made progress in education, and though at present not as advanced as the English, Irish, or Scotch, they must, at the present rate of improvement, soon stand on an equal footing with all other nationalities in New Brunswick. An era of greater prosperity is opening for the Acadian race. A people who, during a century of oppression, living in the midst of an influential English-speaking class, has been able to preserve in extraordinary purity their ancestral speech, will not be slow to avail themselves of the intellectual opportunities placed within their reach; and that love of country which in the writer’s opinion, has been carried to fantastic extremes in their devotion to the lost cause of Old Acadia, will be transferred to the support of the greater cause of Canadian nationality.