England, Canada and the Great War Part 21

_They are, more than ourselves_, ROTTEN WITH MERCANTILISM. _They seem to have lost some of the best qualities of the English people, to have developed their faults and acquire many of the_ VICES NATURAL TO THE WORST CATEGORY OF YANKEES. _But they have not_, LIKE US, _totally_ ABDICATED _the_ PROUD CHARACTER _and the_ PRIMORDIOUS RIGHTS _of the British peoples. When the war is over, they will claim, like the Australians, the New Zealanders, and the Indians (les Hindous), a readjustment of the powers of government_."

Thus, in a few lines the Nationalist leader, in appealing to his disordered imagination, has succeeded in slapping, in one single stroke, with dynamical outrages, the faces of the English-speaking Canadians of the three great British races, of our neighbours, the Yankees, and of his own compatriots, the French-Canadians. How could he expect that such vitriolic language would promote, in the Dominion, that harmony of feelings never before so essential as at the very time he was writing that injurious paragraph of his work, surely not intended to help winning the war so full of the greatest consequences, for good or ill, for the World, the British Empire, Canada, and our own Province of Quebec.

So far, Mr. Boura.s.sa, having gone back on the admiration he was wont to profess for England, in his early youth, had reserved all his a.s.saults for the English people. But the heart of man, once under the sway of an unlimited and unsatisfied ambition, is bound to drop to the lowest depths of the extremist's aberration. In the above quotation, he fires his battery of _Kruppic_ dimensions--loaded with poisonous invectives, at the THREE GREAT BRITISH RACES, ENGLISH, SCOTCH AND IRISH, living in Canada.

Had his charge been intended for the English race alone, he would have been very particular in so saying. But, let there be no mistake about it, he deliberately wrote _our countrymen of the British races_.

Wanting, I suppose, to prove his impartiality, he remembered that the United Kingdom is peopled by three ill.u.s.trious races represented all over the globe by many millions of worthy sons, everywhere to be found hard at work for the intelligent development of the resources of the countries they live in and are rearing their children. More than four millions of them are Canadians by birth or born in Great Britain. Many more numerous they are in the United States where they form the solid stock upon which the future of the Republic is firmly grounded.

With the same thrust, Mr. Boura.s.sa strikes at the Yankees who, we may hope, have not trembled too much at the blow. He charges them with having infested his poor _countrymen of the British races_ with _many of the vices natural to the worst category of_ "YANKEEISM." Kind, cordial, courteous, indeed he was in such a mood of tender sympathies for the Canadian British races and their contagious cousins the Yankees of the most corrupted cla.s.s!

However, the finest flower of the whole _bouquet--the rose par excellence_--is the one he has gallantly presented to his French-Canadian compatriots. He tells them with the sweetest tones of his charming voice that they are pleased and happy to rot in "_colonialism_." But, evidently wishing to speak to them a few encouraging words, he mildly reminds them _that they are less rotten with "mercantilism" than their countrymen of the British races_.

A man can be suffering less than his more sickly brother without, for all that, being in very good health. It is a poor consolation for the French Canadians to hear from the Nationalist leader that they are less infested with the mercantile virus than their brothers of the British races.

All those who have followed with some attention Mr. Boura.s.sa's course for the last twenty years, know that he is an equilibrist of the first cla.s.s. Having favoured the French Canadians with the flattering compliment as above, he turns about and lashes them with the sweeping slap that, contrary to the stand the Canadians of the British races cling to with an obstination which he deigns to approve, they, the degenerated French Canadians whom he pities so much, "_have totally abdicated their proud character_ of old _and the primordial rights of British subjects_."

So, in Mr. Boura.s.sa's opinion, his French Canadian compatriots are infested to a high degree both with the _colonialist_ and _mercantile_ corruptions. Hence, his fear that they are threatened with a premature national death if they do not at once listen to his brotherly warnings.

I have already answered the Nationalist leader's charge that the French Canadians are stupidly rotting in "COLONIAL ABJECTION." The same reasons refute his a.s.sumption that "COLONIALISM" is an abject status for a people.

A people, a race, who would enjoy living under the German autocratic colonial rule--for which the Nationalist leader has so little dislike--would indeed prove some disposition to _rot stupidly in abjection_. But the divers peoples, the different races, who appreciate all the beneficent advantages of the present British colonial rule, are of very superior stock. They know, from the clearest conception, that Monarchical democratic inst.i.tutions are as much different from Imperial autocratic tyranny, as true broad patriotism is far above narrow and fanatical "Nationalism."

I have only to say a few words about the "ROTTENNESS OF MERCANTILISM"

against which, according to Mr. Boura.s.sa, the French Canadian are not sufficiently protected.

Going back to my recollections of the last sixty years, if there is a complaint which through all my life I have heard almost daily, with deep regret, it is that the French Canadians were not striving with sufficient energy and perseverance to achieve a better and larger position in the business world. Their leaders, religious, political and civil, to induce them to increased exertions, have always pointed to the example given them by their countrymen of the British races: by the clear headed and far-seeing English business man, the st.u.r.dy and hard working Scotch, the enterprising and witty Irish. Thank G.o.d, I have well enough understood my duty to do my humble but patriotic share to favour this progressive movement. Never, in so wisely advising the French Canadians, any one supposed for a minute that he was leading them to the infested pond of _mercantile corruption_. The change wished by all was becoming more urgent. All were looking for the best means to carry it out. Our leaders, having at their head, by right and merit, our religious chiefs under the authority of a prince of our Church, his Eminence the Cardinal-Archbishop of Quebec, took the initiative with an ever increasing interest in the success they considered so important.

The establishment of a permanent school of high commercial education and of several technical schools was most favourably approved. Political economy is even, in a certain measure, taught in several of our cla.s.sical colleges for secondary education. The necessity for our young men of knowing the English language, to succeed in commercial, industrial and financial pursuits in Canada and in the neighbouring Republic, is more and more generally admitted. The French Canadians, fully enjoying the undoubted right to do so, aspire to achieve an advantageous and honourable position in commerce, in industry, in finance, in transportation, in mine working. The more we realize this goal of our legitimate ambition, the more we are also intensifying our efforts to promote agricultural progress and the improvement of our country roads.

If, in all the branches of our national activity, we obtain the success we hope for, one single man alone amongst us shudders at the idea that the French Canadians will blindly destroy their race with a mortal dose of the cursed "MERCANTILISM" so dishonourable to the British races.

And Mr. Boura.s.sa, instead of heartily joining with all the leaders of his race--Cardinal, Archbishops, Bishops, priests, statesmen, political men, judges, professional men, merchants, manufacturers, financiers,--to favour, as much as possible, the commercial and technical training of his compatriots, sneers at such efforts which, in his candid opinion, are only plunging them in the irremediable depths of "MERCANTILE CORRUPTION"!

Are not such abominable teachings a curse to all those of the race to which they are addressed with an unsurpa.s.sed cynicism?

CHAPTER XXIX.

HOW MR. BOURa.s.sA PAID HIS COMPLIMENTS TO THE CANADIAN ARMY.

With a most admirable unanimity--_nemine contradicente_, as Parliamentary procedure says--the Canadian Parliament decided at once, at the very outbreak of the hostilities, to organize a great army to go and defend the Empire of which the Dominion is an important component part, and Civilization in peril from the Teutonic crushing wave of barbarism, let loose over Belgium and France. In the most evidently const.i.tutional ways, the Canadian people, as a whole, as they had the right and the bounden duty to do, approved the decision of Parliament.

When Mr. Boura.s.sa issued the pamphlets referred to, some four hundred thousands volunteers had already enlisted. A large number of them--over one hundred and sixty thousands had reached the western front--some the eastern--where they fought valiantly, heroically, on French soil, against the German hordes. Thousands of them had fallen on the field of honour, resting with imperishable glory, for them and for us all, in that ancestral land which we, and ever will, cherish.

More than one hundred and twenty-five thousands were on British soil, being trained for the military operations of the following spring.

The rest of the army, in numerous thousands, was still with us, getting organized for the n.o.ble task, and waiting to cross over the Atlantic to go on the field of battle.

The Canadian army had in every way merited the respect and the admiration of all their countrymen who were very happy to so testify.

However, in this admirable concert of praise and grateful congratulations, a very discordant note was one day heard resounding from the lowest inspiration of the human heart vibrating with feelings of shameful contempt. It is found at page 105 of the pamphlet previously quoted, and reads as follows in its naked outrageous language:--

"_In Canada, a militarism is being forged unparalleled in any civilized country, a depraved and undisciplined soldiery, an armed scoundrelism, without faith nor law, as refractory to the call of individual honour as to the authority of its parading or patronage officers._"

For all the treasures of the world, I would not agree to bear before my countrymen the responsibility of such injurious words addressed to the Canadian army whose valour is doing so much for our national honour.

In one single masterly stroke of his poisoned pen the Nationalist leader decrees that the Canadian army is far below the worst type of German and Turkish soldiery, that no other civilized country is cursed with such a degraded, undisciplined, dishonoured militarism.

For G.o.d's sake, whence and where has such an outrageous outburst originated? From what dark corner has the electric current been poured out with such infernal fury?

I shall not pretend that all our volunteers, from first to last, had reached the saintly state of soul of their inexorable judge. As a rule poor mortals do not jump, by a single effort, up to that degree of Christian perfection shining with the great virtues of humility, charity, justice--by words and deeds. We must not suppose that many of our heroic volunteers had deserved, like their trusted friend and admirer, Mr. Boura.s.sa, to be canonized during their life time. That some of them, whose past was perhaps not a very strong recommendation, have enlisted with the laudable purpose to rehabilitate themselves in their own self-estimation and in that of their countrymen, it is very likely.

Far from blaming them for so doing, we must congratulate them and encourage them to persevere in the glorious task which will ent.i.tle them to the everlasting grat.i.tude of their country. Such has been the case in the armies of all nations for many centuries past.

Fortunately, far better and much more authorized judges of the devotion, courage and patriotism of the volunteers of the great Canadian army, as well as of the cause for the triumph of which they have offered, and in so many cases, given their lives, were easily found. They wrote and spoke with no uncertain voice.

In a letter approving the publication of a very interesting pamphlet, ent.i.tled:--"_War controversy between Catholics_"--"_La controverse de guerre entre Catholiques_,"--His Eminence Cardinal Begin, Archbishop of Quebec, said:--

"_Attentively read, as it deserves to be, this work will help to understand and to love to the limit of devotion, (jusqu'au devouement) the beauty and the sovereign importance of the great cause--the protection of the world threatened by Germanism--for which our soldiers are so valiantly fighting together with those of England, France and Belgium._

"_I pray G.o.d to bless those brave warriors and to grant peace to the Christian world by the reestablishment of Justice and Right._"

What an encouraging contrast! On the one hand, a publicist, with the fury of its resounding organs, so widely used, vowing to eternal d.a.m.nation, _the armed scoundrelism which Canada is_ forging, with conditions inferior to Teutonic and Turkish barbarism, considering that it has reached the lowest depth of "_a degradation unparalleled in any civilized country_."

On the other, the Head of the Catholic Church in Canada, Cardinal Begin, blessing in the name of G.o.d Almighty _our brave warriors who fight so valiantly with those of England, France and Belgium_, because _they love with true devotion the beauty and the sovereign importance of the great cause_ to the triumph of which they sacrifice _their lives--the protection of the world threatened by Germanism_.

On Thursday, October 26, 1916, Archbishop Bruchesi, of Montreal, present at a funeral service, in Notre-Dame Church, attended by many thousands, for the glorious victims of the sacred duty of defending the cause of the Allies, eloquently said in part:--

"_They (our heroes) had voluntarily enlisted. Two years ago, they organized their Battalion, the glorious 22nd. They enlisted, conscious that they were defending the most just of all causes, that of Civilization, of Right, of Humanity. They enlisted with the conviction that they would serve the interests of their country, for, when oversea, they knew that they were defending Canada. They were young and strong; one could not see them without admiration._

"_They have made their country's name and their own grand. They have for all times immortalized themselves in History, and, by them, Canada has been immortalized._

"_The war is not over; it goes on horribly, but our hearts are hopeful.

It is impossible that they should triumph the men who, during forty years, have prepared for the greatest war and who, during two years, have torn the world asunder and flooded the earth with blood.

Impossible that they should triumph the men who have declared this war without a right to avenge, without a grievance to redress, without being menaced in any way. Impossible that they should triumph those who have torn, like a sc.r.a.p of paper, a pact upon which the nations relied, having faith in the pledged word. Impossible that they should triumph those who have invaded the territory of valiant Belgium, whose only fault was_: TO REMAIN TRUE TO HER HONOUR. _They shall not triumph those who, on account of their military service, have made this war a carnage and a butchery without precedent in History. I believe in G.o.d of all Justice. Humanity wanted a suffering which purifies, but when mothers shall have wept long enough, G.o.d will have His Divine word heard._

"_When this great work is accomplished, and when we shall sing the_ TE DEUM _of thanksgiving, we will be able to say that Canada, that all the Provinces of Canada, that our Province of Quebec, have deserved their share of glory_."

On Tuesday, November 28, 1916, at a funeral service in the Quebec Basilica, addressing the large audience rallied to pray for the dead heroes, Reverend Mr. Camille Roy, one of the most distinguished professors of the Quebec Seminary, said in part:--

"_They went, our officers and soldiers, to serve a great cause. Several reasons, perhaps intermingled in their conscience, have inspired their courageous decision...._

"_But dominating, penetrating them all, purifying what in them was too personal and restricted, was the thought that in doing all this they were going to fight with heroic brothers and employ their strength to defend what is most venerable on earth: outraged justice._

"_Perhaps they ignored historical secrets and diplomatic complications, but they knew the war brutally declared, the treaties torn away, Belgium violated, and agonizing, France mutilated and invaded, England, herself, chased over the moving frontier of her oceans invaded; they knew the destroyed homes, the profanated Cathedrals, the brutally murdered old men, women and children, and the flood of barbarians rushing in tumultuous waves over the fields of the sweetest country. They knew that, over there, two nations to whom we are attached by our political, or by our national, life, wanted the support of their sons far away, that they had to battle for sacred interests in a war requiring an endurance commanding an incessant renewal of our energies; and then, without halting to consider if they were obliged to it by laws, they have answered the most pressing call of their souls, and have freely made the devoted sacrifice._"

What other edifying contrast between the appreciation of the part played by the Canadian army by three intellects, one overpowered by an inexplicable hostile pa.s.sion, the two others, inspired by the n.o.blest sentiments, rising to the sublime conception of the great sacrifice accepted by our brave volunteers, which they express by eloquent words who moved the hearts and brought _abundant and warm tears to the eyes of those who_ heard or read them.