Canada and the StatesWatkin, E. W. (Edward William), Sir
History
Canada and the States
Watkin, E. W. (Edward William), Sir
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History; United States -- Description and travel
that Mr. Le Visconte, the late Finance Minister of Nova Scotia, was, in
the literal sense of the term, an Acadian. Mr. Cozzans, of New York,
who wrote a very readable little book the other day about Nova Scotia,
describes the French residents near the basin of Minas, and he says,
especially of the women, 'they might have stepped out of Normandy a
hundred years ago!' In New Brunswick there is more than one county,
especially in the North, where business, and law, and politics, require
a knowledge of both French and English.
"I think it is to their honour, that the Highlanders in all the Lower
Provinces preserve faithfully the religion, as well as the language and
traditions of their fathers. The Catholic Bishop of Charlottetown is a
McIntyre; his Right Rev. Brother of Arichat (Cape Breton) is a
McKinnon; and in the list of the clergy, I find a. constant succession
of such names as McDonald, McGillis, McGillvary, McLeod, McKenzie, and
Cameron--all 'Anglo-Saxons' of course, and mixed up with them
Fourniers, Gauvreaus, Paquets, and Martells, whose origin is easy to
discover. Another of the original elements of that population remains
to be noticed--the U. E. Loyalists, who founded New Brunswick (as they
founded Upper Canada), for whom New Brunswick was made a separate
Province in 1784, as Upper Canada was for their relatives in 1791.
Their descendants still flourish in the land, holding many positions of
honour; and as a representative of the class, I shall only mention
Judge Wilmot, who the other day declared, in charging one of his grand
juries, that if it were necessary to carry Confederation in New
Brunswick, so impressed was he with the necessity of the measure, to
the very existence of British laws and British institutions on this
continent, he was prepared to quit the Bench and return to politics.
There are other elements also not to be overlooked. The thrifty Germans
of Lunenberg, whose homes are the neatest upon the land, as their fleet
is the tightest on the sea; and other small sub-divisions; but I shall
not prolong this analysis. I may observe, however, that this population
is almost universally a native population of three or four or more
generations. In New Brunswick, at the most there is about twelve per
cent. of an immigrant people; in Nova Scotia, about eight; in the two
Islands, even less. In the eye of the law, we admit no disparity
between natives and immigrants in this country; but it is to be
considered that where men are born in the presence of the graves of
their fathers, for even a few generations, the influence of the fact is
great in enhancing their attachment to that soil. I admit, for my part,
as an immigrant, of no divided allegiance to Canada and her interest;
but it would be untrue and paltry to deny a divided affection between
the old country and the new. Kept within just bounds, such an affection
is reasonable, is right and creditable to those who cherish it. Why I
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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