French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America which appeared in two volumes: 1835 and 1840. Writing under the name M. De Tocqueville, he travelled throughout the United States and even Lower Canada; where he studied western society.
Often quoted by his contemporaries; including Catherine Beecher; his books became the quintessential guide to 'modern' thought.
Below are some of M. de Tocqueville's thoughts when he travelled through Quebec in 1831, when researching his book.
Excerpt from letter Tocqueville wrote to Abbe Lesueur
Messrs Mondelet are lawyers at Montreal. They are intelligent and sensible young men. (From Tocqueville's Journal)
A. Nine to ten. But almost all wealth and trade are in the hands of the English. They have
their families and connections in England and so have opportunities not open to us.
Q. Have you many newspapers in French?
A. Two
Q. How many subscribers do they have compared to the subscribers to English papers
A. 800 to 1,300
Q. Are those papers influential
A. Yes. They have very decided influence, but less than one hears is enjoyed by the papers in France.
Q. What is the position of the clergy? Have you noticed among them the political tendencies which they are alleged to have in Europe?
A. Perhaps one might detect in them a secret tendency to rule or direct, but it amounts to very little. Generally speaking our clergy are conspicuously nationalist. That is partly a result of the situation in which they find themselves placed. From the time immediately after the conquest up to our own days, the English government has worked in underhand ways to change the religious convictions of the French Canadians, so as to make them a body more homogenous with the English. So the interests of religion came to be opposed to the government and in harmony with those of the people. Hence whenever we have had to struggle with the English, the clergy have been at our head or in our ranks. They have continued to be loved and respected by all. So far from being opposed to ideas of liberty, they have preached themselves. All the measures we have taken to promote public education, which have been pretty well forced through against the will of the English government, have been supported by the clergy. ln Canada it is the Protestants who support aristocratic notions. The Catholics have been accused of being demagogues. What makes me suppose that the political color of our priests is peculiar to Canada, is that the priests who occasionally arrive here from France show, on the contrary, a compliance and docility towards authority which we cannot understand.
Q. Are morals chaste in Canada?
A. Very.
(From Tocqueville's Journal)
The towns, Montreal in particular (we have not yet visited Quebec) bear a striking resemblance to our provincial towns. The basis of the population and the immense majority is everywhere France. But it is easy to see that the French are a conquered people. The rich classes mostly belong to the English race.
Although French is the language most universally spoken, the newspapers, the notices and even the shop-signs of French tradesmen are in English. Commercial undertakings are almost all in their hands. They are really the ruling class in Canada.
I doubt if this will long be so. The clergy and a great part of the not rich but enlightened classes is French, and they begin to feel their secondary position acutely. The French newspapers that I have read, put up a constant and lively opposition against the English. Up to now the people having few needs and intellectual interests, and leading, in material things, a very comfortable life, has very imperfectly glimpsed its position as a conquered nation and furnished but feeble support to the enlightened classes. But a few years ago the House of Commons, which is almost all French Canadian, has taken measures for a wide extension of education.
There is every sign that the new generation will be different from the present generation, and in a few years from now, if the English race is not prodigiously increased by emigration and does not succeed in shutting the French in in the area they now occupy, the two peoples will come up against one another. I do not think that they will ever merge, or that an indissoluble union can exist between them. I still hope that the French, in spite of their conquest, will one day form a fine empire on their own in the New World, more enlightened perhaps, more moral and happier than their fathers. At the present moment the division of the races singularly favors domination by England.
(From Tocqueville's Journal)
Quebec.
All working population of Quebec is French. One hears only French spoken in the streets. But all the shop signs are in English; there are only two theaters which are English. The inner part of the town is ugly, but has no analogy with American towns. It strikingly resembles the inner part of our provincial towns.
The villages we saw in the surroundings are extraordinarily like our beautiful villages. Only French is spoken there. The population seems happy and well-off. The race is notably more beautiful than in the United States. The race there is strong, and the women do not have that delicate, febrile look that characterizes most of the women of America.
The Catholic religion there has none of those accessories which are attached to it in those countries of the South of Europe where its sway is strongest. There are no monasteries for men, the convents for women are directed towards useful purposes and give examples of charity warmly admired by the English themselves. One sees no Madonnas on the roads. No strange and ridiculous ornaments, no ex-votos in the churches. Religion is enlightened, and Catholicism here does not arouse the hatred or the sarcasms of the Protestants. I own for my part that it satisfies my spirit more than the Protestantism of the United States. The parish priest here is in very deed the shepherd of his flock: he is not at all an entrepreneur of a religious industry like the greater part of American ministers. One must either deny the usefulness of clergy, or have such as are in Canada. ...
... The English and the French merge so little that the latter exclusively keep the name of Candiens, the others continuing to call themselves English.
(From Tocqueville's Journal)
When we came into the hall a slander action was in progress. It was a question of fining a man who had called another pendard (gallows-bird) and crasseux (stinker). The lawyer argued in English. Pendard, he said, pronouncing the word with a thoroughly English accent, "meant a man who had been hanged." No, the judge solemnly intervened, but who ought to be. At that, counsel for the defense got up indignantly and argued his case in French: his adversary answered in English.
The argument waxed hot on both sides in English, no doubt without their understanding each other perfectly. From time to time the Englishman forced himself to put his argument in French so as to follow his adversary more closely; the other did the same sometimes. The judge, sometimes speaking French, sometimes English, endeavored to keep order. The crier of the court called for "silence" giving the word alternatively its English and its French pronunciation.
Calm re-established, witnesses were heard. Some kissed the silver Christ on the Bible and swore in French to tell the truth, the others swore the same oath in English and, as Protestants, kissed the other side of the Bible which was undecorated. The customs of Normandy were cited, reliance placed on Denisart, and mention was made of the decrees of the Parliament of Paris and statutes of the reign of George III. After that the judge: "Granted that the word crasseux implies that a man is without morality, ill-behaved and
dishonorable, I order the defendant to pay a fine of ten louis or ten pounds sterling."
The lawyers I saw there, who are said to be the best in Quebec, gave no proof of talent either in the substance or in the manner of what they said. They were conspicuously lacking in distinction, speaking French with a middle class Norman accent. Their style is vulgar and mixed with odd idioms and English phrases. They say that a man is charge of ten louis meaning that he is asked to pay ten louis. Entrez dan la boite, they shout to a witness, meaning that he should take his place in the witness-box.
There is something odd, incoherent, even burlesque in the whole picture. But at the bottom the impression made was one of sadness. Never have I felt more convinced than when coming out from there, that the greatest and most irremediable ill for a people is to be conquered.
We found well-cultivated fields and houses redolent of well-being. We went into several. The main
room is furnished with excellent beds; the walls are painted white. The furniture is very clean. A little
mirror, a cross or a few engravings of scriptural subjects complete the whole. The peasant is strong, well-
built, well-clothed. His welcome has the frank cordiality which the American lacks; he is polite without
servility, and receives you on a footing of equality but obligingly. Among those we visited there was even something of distinction in their manners which struck us. (It is true that we were taken to see the first families in the village).
All in all this race of men seemed to us inferior to the Americans in knowledge, but superior in qualities of the heart. One had no sense here of that mercantile spirit which obtrudes in all the actions and sayings of an American. The French Canadian's power of reasoning is little cultivated, but it is simple and straightforward; they undoubtedly have fewer ideas than their neighbors, but their sensibility seems more developed; theirs is a life of the heart, the others' of the head.
In the commune of Beaufort, two leagues from Quebec, we saw the people coming out of church. Their dress indicated the greatest well-being. Those who came from a distant hamlet were returning there by carriage. We broke away into the paths and gossiped with all the inhabitants whom we met, trying to turn the talk to serious matters. This is what seemed to come out of these talks:
1st. Up to now great well-being prevails among them. The land in the neighborhood of Quebec is sold extremely dearly, as dearly as in France, but it also brings great returns.
2nd. The ideas of this population still seem little developed. But they already feel very clearly that the English race is spreading round them in alarming fashion; that they are making a mistake in shutting themselves up in an area instead of spreading over the still free land. ...
The houses are universally well built. They are redolent of comfort and cleanliness. The churches are rich, but rich in very good taste. Their interior decoration would not seem out of place in our towns. Note that it is the commune itself that imposes its own taxes to keep up the church. In this part of Canada one hears no English. All the population is French, and yet when one comes to an inn or a shop, the sign is in English.
Mr. Neilson said to us today in speaking about the Indians: That people will disappear completely, but they will fall victims to the pride of their spirit. The least among them thinks himself at least equal to the Governor of Quebec. They never will adapt themselves to civilization, not because they are incapable of behaving like us, but because they scorn our way of living and consider themselves our superiors.
The appointment of militia officers is a function of government, but the House of Commons having decided that to be a militia officer it is necessary to reside in the place in question, the result has been to put the command of the armed force almost exclusively in the hands of French Canadians.
A French Canadian told me today that the debates in the House of Commons were lively and hot-headed, and that often hasty resolutions were taken of which one repented when heads had cooled. Might he not have been speaking about a French Chamber?
He. I do not think there is a happier people in the world than the French Canadians. They
have very gentle manners, neither civil nor religious dissensions, and they pay no taxes. ...
