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Tag Archives: France

The Auld Alliance and the Scots Guard: Scots in Canada

20 Thursday May 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in France, Québec, Scotland

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

France, Scotland, The Auld Alliance, The Scots Guard

Jehanne d’Arc et sa Garde écossaise. Painting by John Duncan Scottish symbolist painter (Commons Wikimedia)

—ooo—

The Auld Alliance and the Scots Guard

A colleague suggested that John Neilson, who was born in Scotland, may have been influenced by the long friendship that has united Scotland and France. The Auld Alliance dates back to 1295. That year, Scotland and France joined forces in an effort to curb England’s numerous invasions. Moreover, in 1418, Valois Charles VII of France appointed a Scots Guard who would be bodygards to the King of France. “They were assimilated in the Maison du Roi,” the King’s immediate entourage (See Garde écossaise, Wikipedia). In fact, several members of the Scots Guard settled in France permanently. The Auld Alliance was replaced by an Anglo-French alliance under the terms of the Treaty of Edinburgh, 1560.

Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans by Jules Eugène Lenepveu, painted 1886–1890 (Wikipedia)

The Garde écossaise is remembered for its role in the Hundred Years’ War. It was appointed by Charles VII, who may not have been crowned had Jeanne d’Arc not heard voices and followed their call. The Siege of Orléans had lasted six months and the English and their French allies appeared to be defeating France. The siege collapsed nine days after Joan’s arrival. The image inserted at the top of this post, a painting by John Duncan, shows Jeanne d’Arc and her garde écossaise. She has the support of angelic Scottish guards which suggests a somewhat supernatural victory.

The Auld Alliance may have exerted a very real influence on the mind-set of Scots who explored Canada guided by Amerindians and voyageurs. Scots also engaged in the fur trade. As for Mr Neilson, a Scot, he promoted an amicable blend of the French and English “races” in Canada: nation building. When Mr Neilson met Alexis de Tocqueville, he spoke French. He had said to his mother that by marrying Marie-Ursule he wanted to help eradicate the “baneful prejudices” that separated the French and the British. As early as 1822, a Union Bill was proposed in the hope that the French in Canada would be assimilated. (See John Neilson, Dictionary of Canadian Biography.)

Louis-Joseph Papineau and Mr Neilson were sent to England as delegates. They presented a petition against a proposed Union Bill (see John Neilson). The Union Bill was introduced in 1822 in the hope that Union would lead to the assimilation of French-speaking Canadians. The French, in Canada wanted to retain their cultural identity. They were, as John Neilson and Robert Baldwin saw them: a nation.

However, he could see “baneful prejudices.” One shares John A Macdonald‘s vision of a country that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, but he was not as kind un Anglais as John Neilson. We will meet un bon Anglais in Philippe Aubert de Gaspé’s Les Anciens Canadiens, an historical novel (1863). Scottish Archibald Cameron of Locheill, called Arché, is a bon Anglais. As the main architect of Canadian Confederation, John A Macdonald, a Scot, furthered colonisation in his relationship with both Amerindians and French-speaking Canadians. As we know, Quebec would be the only province where the languages of instruction would be French or English.

The two Canadas were united following Lord Durham‘s Report on the Rebellions of 1837-1838. However, assimilation did not occur. Robert Baldwin and Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine‘s effort led to a bilingual and bicultural Canada which was granted a responsible government in 1848. Theirs was the Great Ministry. In fact, it is somewhat difficult for me to understand that, as the main architect of Canadian Confederation, John A Macdonald furthered colonisation in his relationship with both Amerindians and French-speaking Canadians. It was a throwback. As John Neilson told his mother, there were “baneful prejudices” (des préjugés funestes).

La Princesse de Clèves remembered

Ironically, the Auld Alliance and the Scots Guards take us back to Madame de La Fayette’s Princesse de Clèves. Henri II, King of France, was accidentally but fatally wounded by one of his Scottish guards, Gabriel 1er de Montgommery. They were jousting. Henri II forgave Gabriel de Montgommery, or Gabriel de Lorges. However, Catherine de’ Medici would not be so kind. He was captured as a protestant leader, and Catherine watched from a window as he was tortured and decapitated.

After Henri II’s death, François II, who had married Marie Stuart, was King of France and, as Marie Stuart’s husband, he was also King consort of Scotland. An emissary signed the Treaty of Edinburgh (1560), an Anglo-French alliance. However, Francis II died of an ear infection in December 1560. He had reigned for a mere fifteen months. Marie Stuart returned to Scotland, but she was a Catholic in a country where citizens were converting to Protestantism. As Mary, Queen of Scots, Marie Stuart was beheaded.

As for Canada, Quebec folklore has Celtic roots and many French-speaking Canadians have Celtic ancestry. However, New France was conquered. We are, therefore, looking at different dynamics. John Neilson was an exceptional Canadian.

—ooo—

“In every combat where for five centuries the destiny of France was at stake, there were always men of Scotland to fight side by side with men of France, and what Frenchmen feel is that no people has ever been more generous than yours with its friendship.”
Charles de Gaulle, 1942 in Auld Alliance

RELATED ARTICLES

Alexis de Tocqueville and John Neilson: a Conversation, 27 August 1831
(13 May 2021)
Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada (17 Janvier 2018)
Canadiana.1 (page)

Sources and Resources

John Neilson (Dictionary of Canadian Biography)
Document2 (ameriquefrancaise.org)
http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/media-1557/Tocqueville_Mr._Neilson.pdf
Upper Canada – Library and Archives Canada (bac-lac.gc.ca)
Denis Monière, Le Développement des idéologies au Québec (Éditions Québec/Amérique, 1977), Chapître III.
The Union Bill of 1822
House of Stuart, Wikipedia

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

I apologize for a long absence.

Capitaine des Gardes du Corps du Roi, (1820) (Wikimedia Commons)

© Micheline Walker
20 May 2021
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Alexis de Tocqueville and John Neilson: a Conversation, 27 August 1831

13 Thursday May 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in 19th Century, France, Lower Canada, Scotland

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alexis de Tocqueville, France, Gustave de Beaumont, John Neilson, Lower Canada, Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, Quebec City, Scotland, Translation

Alexis de Tocqueville, portrait by Théodore Chassériau (1850), at the Palace of Versailles

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Britannica describes Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) as a political scientist, historian, and politician. Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont, a magistrate and prison reformer, travelled to the United States ostensibly to observe the prison system. Tocqueville, however, wanted to study nationhood against the background of American democracy. During the Enlightenment, philosophes had observed Britain’s Constitutional Monarchy. Tocqueville had reservations concerning democracy in America. For instance, individualism stood in the way of democracy. Moreover, in 1831, slavery had not been abolished. Yet, Tocqueville endorsed a morally sound democracy.

Alexis de Tocqueville was an aristocrat. His great grandfather, Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes | French lawyer | Britannica, his daughter and his grandchildren had been guillotined during the Terror (1793-1794).

—ooo—

France had lost New France, so Tocqueville wondered what had happened to the citizens of France’s former colony. Before returning to France, he and Beaumont visited Lower Canada. French Canadians who met Tocqueville and Beaumont were delighted to see “old France.” However, in Tocqueville’s eyes, Canadien “habitants” were old France. The French Revolution had changed France and it included a regicide. Louis XVI was guillotined, and so were Tocqueville’s great grandfather and other members of his family. Tocqueville opposed the July Monarchy (1830) which restored the Orléans kings.

After the Conquest, King George III protected Amerindians, but between the Treaty of Paris (1763) and the Quebec Act of 1774, the French in Canada did not know what would happen to them. Those who lived in Quebec City, recently renamed la Capitale nationale, were not disturbed by Quebec City’s Anglophones, but Lower Canada was governed by the Château Clique, rich merchants, mostly. However, by virtue of the Quebec Act of 1774, Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester granted French Canadians “rights,” in the very large Province of Quebec. Guy Carleton knew about the turbulence that led to the birth of the United States and needed the loyalty of the French and, by the same token, the loyalty of Amerindians. But Guy Carleton set a precedent. The relationship between the British and the French augured well.

However, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the large Province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada. United Empire Loyaltists had been given land in the Eastern Townships and there had been a landrush. Consequently, Le Parti Canadien (1805) was formed and, a year later, Pierre-Stanislas Bédard founded Canada’s first newspaper: Le Canadien (1806-1893). Le Canadien was under the direction of Étienne Parent the year Tocqueville and Beaumont visited. John Neilson was also a publisher.

COMMENTS

Mr Neilson praises French-speaking Canadians. They were sociables and solidaires and there may have been several instances of Canadiens rebuilding a neighbour’s barn at no cost. I doubt however that they purchased the wood. I suspect they helped themselves to the trees of a neighbouring forest.

French-Canadian priests are also idealized. I do not think Canadiens were this good, but they may have been in 1831. Lower Canada was then governed to a large extent, by the Château Clique – Wikipedia. They were Lower Canada’s equivalent of Upper Canada’s Family Compact. It is unlikely that priests born in Canada spoke French flawlessly (avec pureté). But some did. After the French Revolution, the Archbishop of Quebec welcomed émigré priests who had fled to England. Among émigré priests, many accepted to leave Britain for French-speaking Canada. These priests spoke French avec pureté and they served generously in the current Quebec, Acadie and, later, in the prairie provinces. They also opened teaching institutions. L’abbé Sigogne, Jean-Mandé Sigogne (1763-1844), was a gift to Acadians who were reëstablishing themselves in Nova Scotia and in other Maritime Provinces.

What we need to remember about this conversation, an excerpt, is that John Neilson (1763-1848), a Scot, belonged to a special group of Canadians, people such as Louis-Joseph Papineau, Robert Baldwin, Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, Lester B. Pearson, and other figures who wanted to build a bicultural and bilingual Canada. There have been very good Canadians, English-speaking Canadians and French-speaking Canadians. It is best to follow in their footsteps and to be tolerant, to a reasonable extent. It will not be perfect, but almost …

John Neilson was born in Scotland and died in Cap-Rouge, near Quebec City, he had married Marie-Ursule Hubert, a French-speaking Canadian.

When Neilson announced this decision [to marry Ursule] to his mother in August, he explained that he appreciated his wife’s great merits, but, further, he had wished to symbolize his permanent establishment in Canada and to help lessen the baneful prejudices with which Canadians and British immigrants regarded each other.

John Neilson

The link below leads to the conversation itself., my translation. It is or will be a separate post. One may also read the conversation a few lines down.

Alexis de Tocqueville & John Neilson | Micheline’s Blog (michelinewalker.com) →

—ooo—

Alexis de Tocqueville, Tocqueville au Bas-Canada. Écrits datant de 1831 à 1859.
Datant du voyage en Amérique et après son retour en Europe, Montréal, Les Éditions du Jour, 1973, 185 pages. Collection : “Bibliothèque québécoise”. Présentation de Jacques Vallée. Extrait des pages 65-66.
27 août 1831.

T. – Pensez-vous que la race française parvienne jamais à se débarrasser de la race anglaise ? (Cette question fut faite avec précaution, attendu la naissance de l’interlocuteur).

[Do you think the French race will ever succeed in ridding itself of the English race? (This question was asked cautiously, given Mr Neilson’s origin).]

N. – Non. Je crois que les deux races vivront et se mêleront sur le même sol et que l’anglais restera la langue officielle des affaires. L’Amérique du Nord sera anglaise, la fortune a prononcé. Mais la race française du Canada ne disparaîtra pas. L’amalgame n’est pas aussi difficile à faire que vous le pensez. Ce qui maintient surtout votre langue ici, c’est le clergé. Le clergé forme la seule classe éclairée et intellectuelle qui ait besoin de parler français et qui le parle avec pureté.

[No. I think the two races will live and blend on the same soil and that English will remain the official language of business. North America will be English, destiny has spoken. But the French race will not disappear. Blending the two is not as difficult as you may think. The Clergy keeps your language alive. The Clergy constitutes the only enlightened and intellectual class that needs to speak French and speaks it flawlessly.]

T. – Quel est le caractère du paysan canadien?

[What is the temperament of the Canadian peasant?]

N. C’est à mon avis une race admirable. Le paysan canadien est simple dans ses goûts, très tendre dans ses affections de famille, très pur dans ses mœurs, remarquablement sociable, poli dans ses manières; avec cela très propre à résister à l’oppression, indépendant et guerrier, nourri dans l’esprit d’égalité. L’opinion publique a ici une force incroyable. Il n’y a pas d’autorité dans les villages, cependant l’ordre public s’y maintient mieux que dans aucun autre pays du monde. Un homme commet-il une faute, on s’éloigne de lui, il faut qu’il quitte le village. Un vol est-il commis, on ne dénonce pas le coupable, mais il est déshonoré et obligé de fuir.

[They are, in my opinion, an admirable race. The Canadien peasant has simple tastes, he is very gentle in caring for his family, morally very pure, remarkably sociable, polite in his behaviour, but also quite capable of resisting oppression, independent and feisty, and raised to believe in equality. Here, public opinion is unbelievably strong. There are no leaders in villages, yet public order is maintained better than in any other country in the world. If a man makes a mistake, he is kept at a distance and he must leave the village. If a theft is committed, the guilty party is not given in, but he has dishonoured himself and is forced to flee.]

N. […] p. 77 : Le Canadien est tendrement attaché au sol qui l’a vu naître, à son clocher, à sa famille. C’est ce qui fait qu’il est si difficile de l’engager à aller chercher fortune ailleurs. De plus, comme je le disais, il est éminemment social; les réunions amicales, l’office divin en commun, l’assemblée à la porte de l’église, voilà ses seuls plaisirs. Le Canadien est profondément religieux, il paie la dîme sans répugnance. Chacun pourrait s’en dispenser en se déclarant protestant, on n’a point encore d’exemple d’un pareil fait. Le clergé ne forme ici qu’un corps compact avec le peuple. Il partage ses idées, il entre dans ses intérêts politiques, il lutte avec lui contre le pouvoir. Sorti de lui, il n’existe que pour lui. On l’accuse ici d’être démagogue. Je n’ai pas entendu dire qu’on fît le même reproche aux prêtres catholiques en Europe. Le fait est qu’il est libéral, éclairé et cependant profondément croyant, ses mœurs sont exemplaires. Je suis une preuve de sa tolérance: protestant, j’ai été nommé dix fois par des catholiques à notre Chambre des Communes et jamais je n’ai entendu dire que le moindre préjugé de religion ait été mis en avant contre moi par qui que ce soit. Les prêtres français qui nous arrivent d’Europe, semblables aux nôtres pour leurs mœurs, leur sont absolument différents pour la tendance politique.

N. [Canadiens are very fond of their native land, their church, and their family. So, it is difficult to persuade a Canadien to seek fortune elsewhere. Moreover, as I was saying, he [le Canadien] is very sociable. His only pleasures are friendly gatherings, attending Mass, and chatting on the porch of his church. Canadiens are profoundly religious and pay their thite without reluctance. All could escape by stating that they are Protestants, but until now there has been no instance of this. Here the Clergy and the people are as one. The Clergy shares the people’s ideas and political interests and it joins them in fighting against power. The Clergy is born to them and lives for them. Here, priests are accused of being demagogues. I have not heard of Europeans thus criticizing Catholic priests. The fact is that he [the priest] is liberal, enlightened, and that he is nevertheless a convinced believer. I am a living proof of their tolerance. As a protestant, I have been nominated to the House of Commons ten times, by Catholics, and I have never heard that the slightest religion-based prejudice was brought forward against me by anyone whomsoever. The mores of our priests and French priests who arrive here from Europe are the same. But they are totally different in their political orientation.]

N. Je vous ai dit que parmi les paysans canadiens il existait un grand esprit de sociabilité. Cet esprit les porte à s’entraider les uns les autres dans toutes les circonstances critiques. Un malheur arrive-t-il au champ de l’un d’eux, la commune tout entière se met ordinairement en mouvement pour le réparer. Dernièrement la grange de XX vint à être frappée du tonnerre: cinq jours après elle était rebâtie par les voisins sans frais.

[I have told you that among Canadien peasants, there existed a spirit of solidarity, which leads them to help one another in all critical circumstances. Should a misfortune befall one of them, the entire community usually rises to repair the damage. Not long ago, someone’s barn was hit by thunder: five days later it had been rebuilt by neighbours at no cost.]

RELATED ARTICLES

Alexis de Tocqueville & John Neilson (13 May 2021)
Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada (17 Janvier 2018)
Canadiana.1 (page)

Sources and Resources

Document2 (ameriquefrancaise.org)
Upper Canada – Library and Archives Canada (bac-lac.gc.ca)
Lower Canada
Translation: Micheline Walker

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Ô Canada, mon pays, mes amours
John A Macdonald, a Conservative election poster, not a caricature, from 1891

© Micheline Walker
13 May 2021
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Les Frères ennemis, again and again

25 Thursday Mar 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in France, French Literature, Royal Houses, The Royals

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Britain, Enemy Brothers, France, Jean Racine, La Thébaïde, The Royals

Louis-Alphonse de Bourbon, Duc d’Anjou

I doubt very much that France would ever revert to a Monarchy. But if it did, Louis-Alphonse de Bourbon would be a pretender to the throne. He belongs to the House of Bourbon.

Louis XIV, a Bourbon king, had a brother, Philippe. Philippe or Monsieur frère unique du Roi, was Duke of Anjou from birth. In 1660, when his uncle Gaston d’Orléans died without issue, Philippe became Duke of Orleans. The House of Orléans is a cadet branch to the House of Bourbon.

Philippe I, Duke of Orleans, Louis XIV’s brother, was a fils de France (son of France) and, from birth, he was second in the line of succession. He was his Royal Highness, son altesse sérénissine. Jean de France, Comte de Paris is not a brother to Louis-Alphonse de Bourbon, but he is a rightful pretender to the throne of France. The last king of the French was Louis-Philippe 1er, 1830-1848 (House of Orléans).

Jean de France, Comte de Paris (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Prince Harry

Prince Harry is Prince Charles’ son and Prince William’s brother. He is sixth in the line of succession to the throne of England, which is an accident of birth and privilege. Prince William was the firstborn, primogeniture. Prince Harry served in the British Military and founded the Invictus Games. He was ‘spotted’ by terrorists and he is a target.

The crisis in Britain’s royal family saddens me. However, it may not be another frères ennemis scenario.

In literature, frères ennemis is a topic. One is reminded me of Jean Racine‘s La Thébaïde ou Les Frères ennemis (1664), not to mention Cain and Abel.

They are not brothers, but both Alphonse de Bourbon and Jean de France claim they are heirs to the throne of France. Rivalry… However, Jean de France is a descendant of the last roi des Francais, the above-mentioned Louis-Philippe Ier, of the Maison d’Orléans.

I am pleased that my excellent mother could and did treat her children as equals. I then became a loving husband’s “princesse.”

Sir Elton John sings “Candle in the Wind”
Prince Harry of the House of Windsor

© Micheline Walker
24 March 2021
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Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada

17 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canadian History

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Alexis de Tocqueville, Atlantic Ocean, Canada, Claude Corbo, Cornelius Krieghoff, France, Lower Canada, Tocqueville

  The First Snow  Canadian Homestead, c. 1856 (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoff)

The First Snow | Canadian  Homestead by Cornelius Krieghoff, c. 1856
(La Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal)

Scene in the Laurentian, by Cornelius Krieghoff

Winter Scene in the Laurentians by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1867 (La Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal)

I published this article on 21st December 2013. My next post would be difficult to understand without the information provided in my earlier post and another earlier post.

Alexis de Tocqueville on Bas-Canada (Lower* Canada)

We are still in Lower Canada or Bas-Canada. * “Lower” means down the St. Lawrence river, closer to the Atlantic Ocean.  Our images are by Cornelius Krieghoff (19 June 1815 – 8 April 1872) who arrived in New York in 1836, immediately after completing his studies. Although Krieghoff had a brother in Toronto, Canada, but he settled in the province of Quebec. 

However, we are also reading excerpts from French political thinker and historian  Alexis de Tocqueville (29 July 1805 – 16 April 1859), whose two-volume Democracy in America, published in 1835 and 1840, depicts America as it was and, to a large extent, as it has remained: materialistic and much too individualistic.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont (6 February 1802 – 30 March 1866), a magistrate and prison reformer, had travelled to North America in order to write a report on prisons in America, which they did.

However, Tocqueville’s curiosity led him to the former New France and induced him to discuss slavery in America.  In fact, it is now somewhat difficult to remember that Tocqueville and Beaumont’s mission was to examine the prison system in the New World.  Tocqueville and Beaumont were in Bas-Canada from August 23rd until September 2nd.  It was a short visit, but Tocqueville’s portrayal of Bas-Canada and the dangers confronting it are exceptionally insightful.[i] 

The Toll Gate, by Cornelius Krieghoff

Winter Landscape by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1849 (National Gallery of Canada)

The Ice Bridge at Longueil, by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1847-1848 National Gallery of Canada

The Ice Bridge at Longue-Pointe by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1847-1848 (National Gallery of Canada)

Lower Canada or Bas-Canada

« Le Canada pique vivement notre curiosité.  La nation française s’y est conservée intacte : on y a les mœurs et on y parle la langue du siècle de Louis XIV. » (Tocqueville)

“The French nation has been preserved there.  As a result, one can observe the customs and the language spoken during Louis XIV’s reign.” (Note 2)[ii] (Corbo’s translation)

« [I]l n’y a pas six mois, je croyais, comme tout le monde, que le Canada était devenu complètement anglais. » (Tocqueville)

In a letter to his mother, dated 7 September 1831, Tocqueville writes that: “not even six months ago, [he] believed, like everyone else, that Canada had become thoroughly English.” (Corbo’s translation)

« Nous nous sentions comme chez nous, et partout on nous recevait comme des compatriotes, enfants de la vieille France, comme ils l’appellent. À mon avis, l’épithète est mal choisie : la vieille France est au Canada ; la nouvelle est chez nous. » (Note 3)[iii] (Tocqueville)

“We felt like we were at home and everywhere people greeted us as one of their own, as descendants of ‘Old France’ as they called it.  But to me, it seems more like Old France lives on in Canada and that it is our country [France] which is the new one.”  Thus, Tocqueville was surprised by realities he discovered in Canada. Compared to his visits to other foreign countries, the visit to Lower Canada was a brief one. (Note 4) (Tocqueville & Corbo.)

The seigneurial system and Religion

He notes that the seigneurial system is, for the most part, a “formality,” and that Religion is central to the community.

“The seigneurial system, which would last until 1854, is more of a formality than anything else, even though it is a source of irritation for some.  But this does not keep the lands from being properly farmed or from prospering.  Religion is central to the community; the clergy holds an important place and proves to be unquestionably loyal to the British authority.” (Corbo)

The Wealth is under English Control

Even though the peasants are prosperous, the real wealth is in the hands of the country’s Englishmen.  The Mondelet brothers, who [sic] Tocqueville met in Montreal on August 24th, as well as the anonymous English merchant he met on August  26th, reveal to Tocqueville that, “almost all the wealth and commerce is under English control.”  On September 1st, Tocqueville confirms in his notes that “the English have control of all foreign trade and run domestic trade without any opposition.” (Note 7)[iv] (Corbo & Corbo’s translations)

Si les paysans sont prospères, la grande richesse, elle, appartient aux Anglais du pays. Tant les frères Mondelet, rencontrés à Montréal le 24 août, que le marchand anglais anonyme de Québec, le 26 août, indiquent à Tocqueville que « presque toute la richesse et le commerce est dans les mains des Anglais. » (Corbo & others)

Predominance of the English Language & Anglicisms

In both cities, “all the signs [enseignes] are in English and there are only two English theatres.” During his visit to the courthouse in Quebec City, Tocqueville observes the predominance of the English language and the mediocrity of the language of French-speaking lawyers, which is riddled with Anglicisms. (Note 8)[v] (Corbo.)

Tant à Montréal qu’à Québec, la langue anglaise domine dans la vie et sur la place publique:  « La plupart des journaux, les affiches et jusqu’aux enseignes des marchands français sont en anglais. » (Corbo & Tocqueville)

So, on 26 August, having visited the courthouse, Tocqueville comes to the conclusion that the French who live in the former New France are a conquered people and that it is an “irreversible tragedy.”

 Je n’ai jamais été plus convaincu qu’en sortant [de ce tribunal] que le plus grand et le plus irrémédiable malheur pour un peuple c’est d’être conquis.

“I have never been more convinced than after I left the courthouse that the greatest and most irreversible tragedy for a people is to be conquered.” (Note 10)[vi] (Corbo’s translation) 

Indians at Snowy Landscape, by Cornelius Krieghoff, c. 1847-1848 (The National Gallery of Canada)

Indians at Snowy Landscape by Cornelius Krieghoff, c. 1847-1848 (The National Gallery of Canada)

Comments

Having expressed pleasure in finding that New France had become Old France, Tocqueville then fears for the future of the French nation he has visited.  He was right.  The French-Canadian habitant was still prosperous, but there did come a point when the thirty acres could no longer be divided.  In fiction as in history, regionalism died.  In his 1938 Trente Arpents, or Thirty Acres, Ringuet, the pseudonym used by Philippe Panneton, chronicled its passing away in a poignant manner.  The habitant had nowhere to go.  Nearly a million French-Canadians and Acadians left for the United States.

RELATED ARTICLES:

  • Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente Arpents (part one)
  • Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente arpents (part two)

“Pour l’amour du bon Dieu ” by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1858 (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal)

Sources and Resources

Tocqueville, Alexis de, Œuvres complètes : œuvres, papiers et correspondances, édition définitive publiée sous la direction de J. P. Mayer, Paris, Gallimard, 1951-2002, 18 tomes en 30 volumes.

Alexis de Tocqueville, Correspondance familiale, Œuvres complètes, t. XIV, Paris, Gallimard, 1998) in Œuvres complètes.

Habitant, by Cornelius Krieghoff (note the ceinture fléchée) (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoff)

“Va au Diable” by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1858 (note the ceinture fléchée), (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal) 

Our habitant says “For the love of God,” knocking at his lawyer’s door, and “Go to the Devil,” as he leaves.  He is wearing a hat called une tuque and his ceinture fléchée.

Love to everyone and a Happy New Year ♥
____________________

[i] Claude Corbo, in the Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America.  As indicated, Corbo is at times the narrator and, at times, a translator. 

[ii] Alexis de Tocqueville, Correspondance familiale, Œuvres complètes, t. XIV, Paris, Gallimard, 1998, p. 105. (Note 2)  

[iii] Alexis de Tocqueville, Correspondance familiale, Œuvres complètes, t. XIV, Paris, Gallimard, 1998, p.129. (Note 3)

[iv] Alexis de Tocqueville, Œuvres 1, p. 210. (Note 7)

[v] Œuvres 1, p. 210. (Note 8)

[vi] Alexis de Tocqueville, Œuvres I, p. 205. (Note 10)

The video has been removed.

The Valley of the Cariboo, by Cornelius Krieghoff,

The Valley of the Cariboo by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1856 (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoof)

© Micheline Walker
31 December 2013
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Veterans Honoured: a Moment of Grace

10 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, France, Légion d'honneur

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

France, Légion d'honneur, Roland Moisan, Sherbrooke, Veterans, World War II

df924e25-b01b-495f-b6e7-c084bc8a7086_profile

Poppies by Sarah Hair Olson (Photo: youcaring.com)

Veterans honoured in Sherbrooke

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/estrie/2015/11/09/001-anciens-combattants-legion-d-honneur-sherbrooke-deuxieme-guerre-mondiale.shtml?isAutoPlay=1

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/sujet/legion-d-honneur-2015-quebec

Roland Moisan

Roland Moisan

Yesterday, my uncle Roland Moisan, now more than 92 years old, a veteran who survived D-Day, received the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest award, for his role during World War II.

My uncle was a volunteer who left for Europe in 1941. It was a long trip: three weeks. The ships had to avoid German submarines. When they got to Liverpool, bombs were falling.

The day my uncle and fellow soldiers left England, they did not know what duty had been assigned to them. The débarquement, D-Day, had to be a secret. The soldiers loaded what they were told to load unto boats and it turned out their destination was Normandy.

I visited all the beaches and cliffs of the débarquement. How did they survive? My uncle says that those who should be decorated are his fallen comrades. He was then tall, strong, nimble and the soldiers had been well-trained.

There was no disorder, but they were in hell. Men were falling. It must have been horrible to see comrades killed. When this happens, one must wonder why one is spared death.

A Moment of Grace

As the soldiers who had survived travelled north, towards Germany, my uncle was transporting young prisoners of war. Two of them got ahold of him and lowered his head. He lost his rifle. If these prisoners had not lowered my uncle’s head, it would have been severed by a wire. They had saved his life. One of the prisoners then picked up the fallen rifle and returned it to my uncle, smiling.

These soldiers were the innocent victims of Adolf Hitler and his Nazis. That’s what they were, and so was my uncle. Roland Moisan says he will never forget that one moment. It was a moment of grace.

Poppy Field

df924e25-b01b-495f-b6e7-c084bc8a7086_profile© Micheline Walker
9 November 2015
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Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada

01 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canadian History

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Alexis de Tocqueville, Atlantic Ocean, Canada, Claude Corbo, Cornelius Krieghoff, France, Lower Canada, Tocqueville

  The First Snow  Canadian Homestead, c. 1856 (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoff)

The First Snow or Canadian Homestead by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1856
(La Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal)

Scene in the Laurentian, by Cornelius Krieghoff

Winter Scene in the Laurentians by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1867 (La Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal)

Alexis de Tocqueville on Bas-Canada (Lower* Canada)

We are still in Lower Canada or Bas-Canada. * “Lower” means down the St. Lawrence river, closer to the Atlantic Ocean. Our images are by Cornelius Krieghoff (19 June 1815 – 8 April 1872) who arrived in New York in 1836, immediately after completing his studies. Although Krieghoff had a brother in Toronto, Canada, he settled in the province of Quebec. 

However, we are also reading excerpts from French political thinker and historian  Alexis de Tocqueville (29 July 1805 – 16 April 1859), whose two-volume Democracy in America, published in 1835 and 1840, depicts America as it was and, to a large extent, as it has remained: materialistic and much too individualistic.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont (6 February 1802 – 30 March 1866), a magistrate and prison reformer, had travelled to North America in order to write a report on prisons in America, which they did.

However, Tocqueville’s curiosity led him to the former New France and induced him to discuss slavery in America. In fact, it is now somewhat difficult to remember that Tocqueville and Beaumont’s mission was to examine the prison system in the New World. Tocqueville and Beaumont were in Bas-Canada from 23 August until 2 September. It was a short visit, but Tocqueville’s portrayal of Bas-Canada and the dangers confronting it are exceptionally insightful.[i] 

The Toll Gate, by Cornelius Krieghoff

Winter Landscape by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1849 (National Gallery of Canada)

The Ice Bridge at Longueil, by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1847-1848 National Gallery of Canada

The Ice Bridge at Longue-Pointe by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1847-1848 (National Gallery of Canada)

Lower Canada or Bas-Canada

« Le Canada pique vivement notre curiosité. La nation française s’y est conservée intacte : on y a les mœurs et on y parle la langue du siècle de Louis XIV. » (Tocqueville)

“The French nation has been preserved there. As a result, one can observe the customs and the language spoken during Louis XIV’s reign.” (Note 2)[ii] (Corbo’s translation)

« [I]l n’y a pas six mois, je croyais, comme tout le monde, que le Canada était devenu complètement anglais. » (Tocqueville)

In a letter to his mother, dated 7 September 1831, Tocqueville writes that: “not even six months ago, [he] believed, like everyone else, that Canada had become thoroughly English.” (Corbo’s translation)

« Nous nous sentions comme chez nous, et partout on nous recevait comme des compatriotes, enfants de la vieille France, comme ils l’appellent. À mon avis, l’épithète est mal choisie : la vieille France est au Canada ; la nouvelle est chez nous. » (Note 3)[iii] (Tocqueville)

“We felt like we were at home and everywhere people greeted us as one of their own, as descendants of ‘Old France’ as they called it.  But to me, it seems more like Old France lives on in Canada and that it is our country [France] which is the new one.” Thus, Tocqueville was surprised by realities he discovered in Canada. Compared to his visits to other foreign countries, the visit to Lower Canada was a brief one. (Note 4) (Tocqueville & Corbo)

The seigneurial system and Religion

Tocqueville notes that the seigneurial system is, for the most part, a “formality,” and that Religion is central to the community.

“The seigneurial system, which would last until 1854, is more of a formality than anything else, even though it is a source of irritation for some. But this does not keep the lands from being properly farmed or from prospering. Religion is central to the community; the clergy holds an important place and proves to be unquestionably loyal to the British authority.” (Corbo)

The Wealth is under English control

Even though the peasants are prosperous, the real wealth is in the hands of the country’s Englishmen. The Mondelet brothers, who [sic] Tocqueville met in Montreal on 24 August, as well as the anonymous English merchant he met on 26 August, reveal to Tocqueville that, “almost all the wealth and commerce is under English control.” On 1st September, Tocqueville confirms in his notes that “the English have control of all foreign trade and run domestic trade without any opposition.” (Note 7)[iv] (Corbo & Corbo’s translations)

Si les paysans sont prospères, la grande richesse, elle, appartient aux Anglais du pays. Tant les frères Mondelet, rencontrés à Montréal le 24 août, que le marchand anglais anonyme de Québec, le 26 août, indiquent à Tocqueville que « presque toute la richesse et le commerce est dans les mains des Anglais. » (Corbo & others)

Predominance of the English Language & Anglicisms

In both cities, “all the signs [enseignes] are in English and there are only two English theatres.” During his visit to the courthouse in Quebec City, Tocqueville observes the predominance of the English language and the mediocrity of the language of French-speaking lawyers, which is riddled with Anglicisms. (Note 8)[v] (Corbo)

Tant à Montréal qu’à Québec, la langue anglaise domine dans la vie et sur la place publique : « La plupart des journaux, les affiches et jusqu’aux enseignes des marchands français sont en anglais. » (Corbo & Tocqueville)

So, on 26 August, having visited the courthouse, Tocqueville comes to the conclusion that the French who live in the former New France are a conquered people and that it is an “irreversible tragedy.”

Je n’ai jamais été plus convaincu qu’en sortant [de ce tribunal] que le plus grand et le plus irrémédiable malheur pour un peuple c’est d’être conquis.

“I have never been more convinced than after I left the courthouse that the greatest and most irreversible tragedy for a people is to be conquered.” (Note 10)[vi] (Corbo’s translation) 

Indians at Snowy Landscape, by Cornelius Krieghoff, c. 1847-1848 (The National Gallery of Canada)

Indians at Snowy Landscape by Cornelius Krieghoff, c. 1847-1848 (The National Gallery of Canada)

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Having expressed pleasure in finding that New France had become Old France, Tocqueville then fears for the future of the French nation he has visited. He was right. The French-Canadian habitant was still prosperous, but there did come a point when the thirty acres could no longer be divided. In fiction as in history, regionalism died. In his 1938 Trente Arpents, or Thirty Acres, Ringuet, the pseudonym used by Philippe Panneton, chronicled its passing away in a poignant manner. The habitant had nowhere to go. Nearly a million French-Canadians and Acadians left for the United States.

RELATED ARTICLES:

  • Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente Arpents (part one)
  • Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente arpents (part two)

“Pour l’amour du bon Dieu,” by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1858 (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal)

Sources:

Tocqueville, Alexis de, Œuvres complètes : œuvres, papiers et correspondances, édition définitive publiée sous la direction de J. P. Mayer, Paris, Gallimard, 1951-2002, 18 tomes en 30 volumes.

Alexis de Tocqueville, Correspondance familiale, Œuvres complètes, t. XIV, Paris, Gallimard, 1998) in Œuvres complètes.

Habitant, by Cornelius Krieghoff (note the ceinture fléchée) (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoff)

“Va au Diable” by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1858 (note the ceinture fléchée), (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal) 

Our habitant says “For the love of God,” knocking at his lawyer’s door, and “Go to the Devil,” as he leaves. He is wearing a hat called une tuque and his ceinture fléchée.

____________________

[i] Claude Corbo, in the Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America. As indicated, Corbo is at times the narrator and, at times, a translator. 

[ii] Alexis de Tocqueville, Correspondance familiale, Œuvres complètes, t. XIV, Paris, Gallimard, 1998, p. 105. (Note 2)  

[iii] Alexis de Tocqueville, Correspondance familiale, Œuvres complètes, t. XIV, Paris, Gallimard, 1998, p.129. (Note 3)

[iv] Alexis de Tocqueville, Œuvres 1, p. 210. (Note 7)

[v] Œuvres 1, p. 210. (Note 8)

[vi] Alexis de Tocqueville, Œuvres I, p. 205. (Note 10)

Bruce Springsteen sings My Hometown to pictures by Cornelius Krieghoff

The Valley of the Cariboo, by Cornelius Krieghoff,

The Valley of the Cariboo by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1856 (la Galerie Walter Klinkhoof)

© Micheline Walker
31 December 2013
WordPress
 

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: the Can-can

10 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Belle Époque, Can-can, France, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jacques Offenbach, Jane Avril, Japonism, La Goulue, Moulin Rouge, Toulouse-Lautrec

La-Troupe-De-Mlle-Eglantine-large

La Troupe de Mlle Églantine, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

(Please click on the smaller images to enlarge them.)

426px-Jane_Avril_by_Toulouse-LautrecPolaire-large

Jardin-de-Paris,-May-Belfort,-poster-largeAt-the-Moulin-Rouge-La-Goulue-with-Her-Sister-1892-large

Jane Avril, (n.d.)
Polaire, drawing (n.d.)
May Belfort, Jardin de Paris, poster (1883)
La Goulue and her sister at the Moulin Rouge, 1892
  

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Le Moulin Rouge

Cheret, Lautrec, Picasso, Cappiello, Mucha and Steinlen are the names of poster artists whose craft reached a climax in the late nineteenth-century, as French academicism declined.

The Golden Age of Posters

The Golden Age of posters was France’s Belle Époque (1871-1914) and fin de siècle (turn of the century).  Picasso’s posters are seldom discussed, but posters created by Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha and Steinlen have remained popular, and only the very wealthy can purchase a poster, or other artwork, by Toulouse-Lautrec.  As a genre, posters were influenced by Japonisme, hence the timing of this post.

Biographical notes: a Crippling Illness

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901; aged 36) was born to a distinguished aristocratic family, in the château du Bosc near Albi.  However, he developed a disproportionate body after breaking one thigh bone, the right, at the age of 13, and a second thigh bone, the left, the following year.  These misfortunes triggered a disease, possibly pycnodysostosis, that caused the broken bones not to heal properly and stopped the growth of Toulouse-Lautrec’s legs.  When he reached adulthood, he was 1.54 m (5 ft 1 in) tall, but his legs measured only 0.70 m (27.5 in).  It was an affliction he resented.

However, Toulouse-Lautrec, a printmaker, a draughtsman and illustrator, loved his art (Post-Impressionism and Art Nouveau) and left for posterity masterfully composed posters, one of his great strengths as an artist.  Some of his posters featured the highly paid can-can dancers of his time: “La Goulue” (1866–1929) and Jane Avril (1868–1943).  When the Moulin Rouge (literally: the red mill) opened,[i] on 6 October 1889, Lautrec was asked to create several posters, all of which helped make the Moulin Rouge famous.  Eventually, the posters that earned him his very own table at the Moulin Rouge, made their creator as famous as the Moulin Rouge.

Influences: Japonisme, Manet and Degas

Toulouse-Lautrec’s artwork shows “flat areas of strong colours” (see Japonism, Wikipedia), as do Japanese prints, except that Toulouse-Lautrec used very strong colours.  As for masterful composition, it was also a characteristic of Japonisme, as was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s linear style.  Posters were an ideal art form because they were drawn and coloured quickly, which lent spontaneity to the genre.  Other than Japonism, Toulouse-Lautrec’s art was influenced by Manet (23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) and Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917).

Le-Goulue-and-Valentin,-the-'Boneless-One'-large 
La Goulue and Valentin, the ‘Boneless One’ (n.d.)
(Please click on this image to enlarge it.)
 

Can-Can

As for can-can (cancanner means to quack) as a dance, it developed in 1830, but was originally a quadrille, a dance performed by two couples, two female and two male dancers, who formed a rectangle.  By 1889, however, it was danced by one female dancer and called chahut (noisy uproar).  It then evolved into a chorus line of female dancers who performed synchronized high kicks, split jumps (le grand écart), an element of dance, gymnastics and figure-skating that has always fascinated the public.  Can-can dancers also “stirred” an uplifted leg, a movement called the rond de jambe (tracing a circle with a leg), and executed “port d’armes” (carrying weapons) “turning on one leg, while grasping the other leg by the ankle” (see Can-can, Wikipedia).

Occasionally, dancer(s) turned their back to the public, bent down, lifted their skirts and petticoats, and showed their drawers. This amused spectators and was an erotic movement. “La Goulue” (literally: the glutton) was fond of this little routine. The bottom of her drawers showed a heart, to everyone’s delight.  Can-can dancers wore black stockings, an element of their accoutrements Toulouse-Lautrec used, very successfully, as a compositional device.

(Please click on this image to enlarge it.)
Couverture-de-L'Estampe-originale-large
719px-Henri_de_Toulouse-Lautrec_012
Couverture de L’Estampe originale (cover of L’Estampe [print] originale) (n.d.) 
Salon, rue des Moulins, 1894 (brothel)
 

La Fin

As Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) wrote, “[l]e dernier acte est sanglant, quelque belle que soit la comédie en tout le reste.”  (The final act is bloody, however beautiful the entire rest of the comedy.)  In Lautrec’s case, most acts were bloody.  He became an alcoholic and often shared the lodgings of prostitutes, lesbian prostitutes in particular, and caught syphilis.  Just before his death, he spent some time in a sanatorium.  He was buried at Verdelais, a few kilometers from Malromé, the family estate.

Toulouse-Lautrec died at the early age of thirty-six, in Malromé, having created “737 canvases, 275 watercolours, 363 prints and posters, 5,084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number of lost works.”  (See Toulouse-Lautrec, Wikipedia).  Some of his paintings, portraits of Carmen Gaudin mainly, his model for The Laundress (1888), were executed in the garden of Monsieur Forest, le père Forest, in Montmartre.  This was Toulouse-Lautrec’s plein-air period.

German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach‘s (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) Orpheus in the Underworld (Orphée aux enfers), features a musical piece entitled Galop infernal,[ii] associated with can-can.  Offenbach, a native of Cologne, was a cello virtuoso.

______________________________ 
[i] The Moulin Rouge was co-founded in 1889 by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller.  
[ii] The dance was first designated as “galop” (fast running horses), but when the Moulin Rouge opened, it was called “le chahut” (noisy and boisterous).

The-Laundress-large

© Micheline Walker
10 July 2013
WordPress
 
 
The Laundress,
a portrait of Carmen Gaudin, painted in Monsieur Forest’s garden in Montmartre,
c. 1888
(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)
 
Jacques Offenbach‘s can-can music (from: “Orphée aux Enfers”)

Portrait de Toulouse-Lautrec par lui-même (self-portrait)
(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)
Portrait-De-Lautrec-Par-Lui-Meme-large

Micheline's Blog

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The “Conquest” of New France

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, History

≈ Comments Off on The “Conquest” of New France

Tags

Conquête, France, French Revolution, Jacques Necker, New France, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, Quebec, Suzor-Côté, Treaty of Paris, Upper Canada Rebellion

 

Sketch for the Death of Montcalm, by Suzor-Coté, 1902

Sketch for the Death of Montcalm, by Suzor-Coté, 1902 (Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec)

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (6 April 1869 – 29 January 1937)

I featured Suzor-Coté a few days ago.  So I am using his sketch of “The Death of Montcalm.”  Montcalm was defeated by James Wolfe at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.  James Wolfe also died.  He was 32 and Montcalm, 47.

The Conquest

Yesterday, I had a conversation with an educated French Canadian.  It was an eye-opener.  This gentleman is convinced that the arrival in Quebec of immigrants with multicultural backgrounds will ultimately lead to the disappearance of the French milieu in Quebec.  Moreover, he is certain that Nouvelle-France was conquered, which negates the choice the French made in 1763, the year the Treaty of Paris was signed.

He emphasized that Britain had long wanted to add Nouvelle-France to its colonies, forgetting, for instance, that when Pierre-Esprit Radisson and his brother-in-law, Médard des Groseillers, known as “Radishes and Gooseberries,” discovered the Hudson Bay and returned to Canada with a flotilla of a hundred canoes filled with pelts, they were treated as coureurs de bois rather than explorers.  Unlike coureurs de bois, voyageurs were hired and had a license to travel and fetch fur west of what is now Quebec.

Because the fur he had brought to Montreal was confiscated, Radisson went to England and obtained the support of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, KG, PC, FRS (17 December 1619 – 29 November 1682).  Prince Rupert financed an expedition to the current Hudson Bay.  In 1668-1669, the Nonsuch sailed across the Atlantic. Radisson was right.  Large boats could travel to the inner part of Canada, from the North.  This way fur traders would not need canoes as much as they had to previously.  Yet, let it be known that canoes manned by nimble voyageurs continued to do the better job of gathering precious pelts.

The fact remains, however, that when the Hudson’s Bay Company was founded, in 1670, Britain acquired Rupert’s Land.  It was a vast chunk of North America which the French had an opportunity of acquiring, except that Louis XIV was building a castle at Versailles, which French peasants would have to pay for.

Rupert's Land

Rupert’s Land

At the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War, France’s financial circumstances were strained.  In October 1776, Louis XVI appointed Swiss-born Jacques Necker director-general of the finances, but despite a degree of success, Necker could not prevent the French Revolution.  In other words, in 1673, not only had France lost battles, but it was poor.  Nouvelle-France being a financial burden, France chose to keep sugar rich Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Of course, Britain wanted to appropriate Nouvelle-France, i.e. Canada and Acadie, but France itself could not fight back.  It seems that, in the end, the more prosperous nation won.  At one point, France owned nearly two-thirds of North-America.  It lost New France in 1763 and, in 1803, it sold Louisiana.  Napoleon (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) needed money.

Battles do play an important role in history but, occasionally, there is a “bottom line.”  New France fell to Britain, but in this particular demise, only a richer France could have kept New France.  The puzzling element in the Treaty of Paris is Britain’s willingness not to take away from its new French-speaking subjects their farms, their seigneuries and their religion.  Moreover, at the time of the French Revolution, Britain made it possible for émigrés priests to move to Quebec where they would not be idle and that many became educators.

I will conclude by expressing doubts as to the possibility of teaching their true history to those Québécois who have chosen to think that New France was conquered, that there were no ‘patriots’ killed in Toronto (see Upper Canada Rebellion), and that Canada is not an officially bilingual country promoting the use of French.

I would also like to stress that if French-speaking Quebecers want to keep their language, they should make it their personal duty to do so.  Speaking French as well as possible begins at home.  As for the Quebec Government, it would be my opinion that, with respect to the survival and growth of French, it ought to make it its main mission to encourage Québécois to speak and write their language more correctly.  It would give itself a positive and attainable goal.  Québécois should feel motivated to perfect their French.

At any rate, there was no “conquest” of New France.  France had lost battles, but the truth remains that it chose to part with New France because it was not bringing in a profit.

With kind regards to all of you,

Micheline

—ooo—

Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) sings Un Canadien errant (Antoine Gérin-Lajoie)

328px-1837_ProclamationProclamation posted on December 7, 1837 offering a reward of one thousand pounds for the capture of William Lyon Mackenzie.  (See Upper Canada Rebellion, Wikipedia.)

© Micheline Walker
June 5, 2013
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Micheline Bourbeau-Walker: Publications

02 Thursday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Literature, Sharing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

France, Ghent, Lead glass, Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, Misanthrope, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Publications, Reynard, Thesis

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir  (1841–1919)
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A Bouquet of Roses, by Renoir

A Bouquet of Roses, by Renoir

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The Dreyfus Affair & Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in History

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Alfred Dreyfus, Émile Zola, Dreyfus, Dreyfus Affair, Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, France, Franco-Prussian War, Germany

Degradation of Alfred Dreyfus

Degradation of Alfred Dreyfus

The Dreyfus Affair

We are now skipping a century and find ourselves in Paris where a relative of Haydn’s patrons, Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy (16 December 1847, Austria – 21 May 1923, England), would be the key player in a drama that began several years after France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871), also called the Franco-German War of 1870.  France lost Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, an area it would not regain until the end of World War I (28 July 1914  – 11 November 1918).

(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)

First Trial
Le capitaine Dreyfus devant le conseil de guerre

The Prussian victory was a catalyst.  It led to the unification of Germany.  Germany had long been a group of loosely-linked German-language states, perhaps best described as a landed squirearchy.  It became a nation-state on 18 January 1871, at no less a venue than Versailles itself, in the Hall of Mirrors, ten days before Paris fell, on 28 January 1871.  Germany was unified but, from the moment Captain Alfred Dreyfus was arrested, on 15 October 1894, France would be divided into the Dreyfusards, intellectuals, and the anti-Dreyfusards, a division that revealed deep comtempt against the Jews, not only in the armed forces, but among civilians.

 

Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy

In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935), a French artillery officer of Jewish background, was arrested for treason.  Dreyfus’ wealthy family originated from Alsace but had moved to Paris after the Franco-Prussian War.  The culprit was Marie Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, a remote member of the Esterházy family, but a relative nevertheless.  Esterhazy had sold information to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, not Alfred Dreyfus.  Yet a guilty finger was pointed at Alfred Dreyfus.

Émile Zola: « J’Accuse »

Dreyfus was arrested on 15 October 1894, hastily court-martialled, behind closed doors, and convicted of treason on 22 December 1894.  After his conviction, Dreyfus was publicly stripped of his army rank and, beginning on 13 April 1895, he started serving a life sentence on Devil’s Island, about 14 km away from mainland French Guiana, in South America.  Imprisoned on Devil’s Island, an innocent Dreyfus served five years of a life sentence while French intellectuals, led by writer Émile-Édouard-Charles-Antoine Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902), set about exposing a miscarriage of justice.  Never had a miscarriage of justice so mobilized France’s foremost intellectuals.  Émile Zola wrote his famous « J’accuse, » an open letter to French President Félix François Faure (30 January 1841 – 16 February 1899), published in L’Aurore on 13 January, 1898.

D08_Aurore_janv_98

The military conceals evidence

In 1896, when Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart,[i] chief of the army’s intelligence section, found evidence that Major Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy was engaged in espionage.  Esterhazy’s handwriting was found on the memorandum (the bordereau) that had incriminated Dreyfus.  Picquart revealed his findings to his senior officers who persuaded him to conceal the truth so that Esterhazy would be protected.  Picquart continued investigating and was removed from his position and assigned to duty in Africa.  In fact, he would later be accused of the crime that brought France to its knees.  Picquart had spoken with Dreyfusards before leaving for Africa.

In the meantime, Zola was accused of libel and brought to trial on 7 February 1898.  Zola had hoped that his « J’accuse, » would lead to a trial and to disclosure of evidence that could free and exonerate Dreyfus.  It did, but tortuously.

Dreyfus is tried and convicted a second time

Dreyfus was tried a second time, but was again convicted and condemned to ten years of imprisonment while Major Walsin-Esterhazy went free.  The memorandum clearly implicated Esterhazy, but a decision had been made to protect him.  Consequently, treason was again imputed to Captain Dreyfus despite a petition signed by 3,000 persons asking that the Dreyfus’ trial be reviewed.  According to Britannica, the affair “was made absurdly complicated by the activities or Esterhazy in inventing evidence and spreading rumours, and of Major Hubert Joseph Henry, discoverer of the original letter attributed to Dreyfus, in forging new documents and suppressing others.”[ii]  Major Henry was arrested for having forged evidence against Dreyfus, but committed suicide shortly after he was incarcerated (1898).

However, Dreyfus was pardoned by French President Émile Loubet, in 1899, but a pardon implies that one has been found guilty.  Yet, nothing but forgeries incriminated Dreyfus, but he would not be exonerated and reinstated to his rank until 1906.  Therefore the Dreyfus Affair was a 12-year nightmare for Dreyfus and a long fight on the part of Dreyfusards, Anatole France, Henri Poincaré, Marcel Proust, Georges Clemenceau, France’s premier between 1917 and 1920, Émile Zola, the leader, and others.  “The parliament passed a bill reinstating Dreyfus.  On July 22 he was formally reinstated and decorated with the Legion of Honour.”[iii]

The leading anti-Dreyfusard was Édouard Drumont (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917), the founder the Antisemitic League of France (1889) and the founder and editor of La Libre Parole.  Drumont is the author of The Jews against France (1898).  The League was also anti-Masonic and had supporters among Catholics.  The editors of La Croix, who have since apologized, wrote an unacceptable “[d]own with the Jews!” and labeled Dreyfus as “the enemy Jew betraying France.”  (See La Croix, Wikipedia.)

As he had hoped, Zola was brought to trial, which served Dreyfus’ cause.  The trial exposed a miscarriage of justice, except that Zola was convicted of libel, a conviction he did not expect and further divided public opinion.  Zola was about to pay a heavy price for publishing his « J’accuse », which had otherwise been a “success.”  Britannica reports that “[b]y the evening of that day, 200,000 copies had been sold.”[iv]  Despite support, Zola was condemned to a year in jail and a fine of 3,000 francs.  He escaped his jail sentence by fleeing to England where he remained for a year, 1898-1899, but he was allowed to return to France when the French Government fell.

Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy

Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy

Although Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy[v] was brought before a court-martial in 1897, he was acquitted by his fellow officers and retired in 1898.  However, as the movement for revision of Dreyfus’ condemnation gained momentum, Esterhazy fled first to Belgium and then to England where he worked mainly as a translator and possibly as a traveling salesman.  Esterhazy was in fact encouraged to flee to England.  He lived in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, until his death in 1923 (aged 75).  After he was exonerated, Dreyfus did reintegrate the army.  He passed away in 1935, at the age of 75.  As for Émile Zola, he died of carbon monoxide poisoning in 1902.  It may have been an accidental death, but it may also have been murder.

Britannica concludes that “[f]rom the turmoil of which it was the centre emerged a sharper alignment of political and social forces, leading to such drastic anticlerical measures as the separation of church and state in 1905 and to a cleavage between right-wing nationalists and left-wing antimilitarists that haunted French life until 1914 and even later,” and adds that “[a]t best, it evoked a passionate repudiation of anti-Semitism, which did France honour[.]”[vi]  But the Dreyfus Affair seems yet another tug of war between extremists, liberals versus conservatives, not to mention a major case of scapegoating at the expense of Jews.

Regarding the connection between Haydn’s patrons and Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, it is simply very unfortunate.  However, it could well be that Péter Esterházy (born 14 April 1950 in Budapest), a likeable individual, is the most prominent among current Hungarian writers.

History has had a lot of very bad days, and it keeps repeating itself.

© Micheline Walker
_________________________

[i] “Georges Picquart”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/459533/Georges-Picquart>.

[ii] “Dreyfus affair”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171538/Dreyfus-affair>.

[iii] “Alfred Dreyfus”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171509/Alfred-Dreyfus>.

[iv] “Dreyfus affair”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171538/Dreyfus-affair>.

[v] “Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/193419/Ferdinand-Walsin-Esterhazy>.

[vi]  “Dreyfus affair”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171538/Dreyfus-affair>.

Franz Joseph Haydn: Serenade

 

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