THERE is no peasant so much attached to tradition as the French Canadian. He finds himself on a continent whose moving spirit is that of progression. The rest of the American world is more or less given up to electric-tramcars and railways. Factory chimneys belch forth their smoke, and sawmills rend the air with hideous noises, within touch, almost, of the quaint, picturesque French villages which lie nestling to the south of the St. Lawrence. The contiguity of progress and push, of manufacture and wealth, in no wise affects the unambitious habitant. He teems with contentment and philosophy. Jacques Bon-Homme has a supreme belief in himself and his belongings, in his country and its constitution. A poor habitant (the story goes) went to Quebec, and was taken by a friendly priest to see the sights of the city. In a convent church he saw a large painting of David and Goliath. Jacques fixed his gaze admiringly on Goliath. "Ah!" said he, "what a fine man!" "Yes," said the curé, "it is a fine man. "Magnificent!" said Jacques; then paused. "I suppose he was a French Canadian?" "Bien, oui!" retorted the priest, not liking to disappoint the patriot. "O yes! Goliath was a French Canadian."

66

That strikes the key-note of the French Canadian character. Where people are self-complacent enough to believe themselves perfect, they do not need to seek improvement, nor do they strain after higher ideals. The habitant believes implicitly in the wisdom of his forefathers, and remains the most picturesque and only historical figure on the continent of North America. He farms his own acres, owes allegiance to no man besides his priest, builds his cottage on the ancient Norman model, and looks upon all new-fangled inventions

as

(such as steam-ploughs and threshingmachines) as creations of the evil one. Although more than a century has elapsed since the British standard was unfurled in the Citadel of Quebec, the habitant remains French as his ancestors were the day they left their country. This, too, on a continent where the English, the Irish and the Scotch merge their national characteristics in the course of thirty years into their environment. Jacques, happy in coming under the rule of generous conqueror, has preserved his language, his laws and his religion intact; and he has gratitude enough to value the liberty given him by his English rulers and to make him the strongest opponent of annexation in Canada.

The French Canadian peasantry are descendants of the hardy men brought to American shores by Champlain over two hundred years ago. The patois of the French Canadian peasant has long been the subject of discussion and research; but there seems little reason to doubt that it is the dialect spoken by his Norman ancestors two hundred years ago. Conservative in this, as in all else, the French Canadian has preserved the dialect of his forefathers; whilst his French cousin of to-day has kept pace with the times and drifted into more modern forms of speech.

The habitants of Canada are chiefly confined to the province of Quebec. From the Gulf, all the way up the wonderful St. Lawrence, the river's banks are dotted with innumerable white houses and villages. Enter any of these, and you find yourself transported to old-world and timehonoured institutions.

Here are

veritable Norman cottages, steeproofed, with dormer windows, wide and deep chimneys, picturesque rafters. Cross the road and you see an oven of ancient construction;

sun

hard by, a wayside cross, before which the devout peasant kneels in prayer for a good harvest. In the middle of the village stands the church, severely whitewashed, with a red-tiled roof and a picturesque steeple. Glance behind it and you see the cure's neat cottage, and his reverence (arrayed in black soutane) pacing his garden walk. Stiff rows of hollyhocks, dahlias and flowers delight his soul, and are not out of harmony with his prim exterior. Be sure that a convent lurks somewhere near; convents and seminaries are the only educational establishments approved by the orthodox French Canadian. A glimpse over a fence reveals demure nuns superintending the recreations of convent-bred misses, and the white caps and black robes make us breathe the atmosphere of Old France. The avenues of poplartrees, planted by the early settlers in memory of their beloved country, help the illusion. On all sides we have evidence of the deep love for his mother country, the reverence for tradition and the extreme contentment which mark the French Canadian character.

The habitant works hard all summer in the fields, and when the winter's snow covers his land he sets to with a will to make boots of cured bullocks' hide (with uppers of sheepskin) for his numerous family. A skilful mechanic, he makes his own hay-carts and rakes, turns out his own furniture, cures the tobacco grown in his garden, salts his own pork, and builds his Own house. Curiously enough, gardening is the one pursuit considered derogatory by the French Canadian. It is thought fit only for his women and children. Vegetables are not much cultivated for home consumption, and are usually intended for market purposes. The habitant lives chiefly on rye-bread, sour milk, fat pork and potatoes. Maple-sugar, eggs and fish are appreciated; but fresh meat is little in demand. Omelettes and pancakes, as in France, are reserved for high lays and holidays.

All good habitants marry young.

Edwin is not usually more than twenty when he woos his Angela of seventeen. Enormous families follow; but they are looked upon as blessings in these lands of vast acreage. Infant mortality is great; and thus the tendency to over-population is somewhat balanced.

In

The good-wife is no drone in the habitant hive. She spins and weaves, making cloth and flannel for her children's clothes, and putting by blankets, sheets, and rough towelling for her daughters' dot. She dries rushes, and during the long winter evenings she plaits hats for her family. She knits wool of her own spinning into socks and stockings, and shapes and makes the simple skirts and jackets which her girls wear, and the trousers and shirts which clothe her lads. point of thrift she is not behind her ancestors. The walls of the kitchen (which is also the livingroom) are of pitch-pine, and the ceiling is made picturesque by rafters. Generally a little staircase, painted deep red, leads from one corner of the kitchen to the rooms above. The fireplace is open, and much what one sees in Norman cottages. The chairs, severe but suitable, are made of unpainted wood, which by constant use has assumed a rich tone and polish. The spinning-wheel and distaff gives an air of quaintness to the room, and two rocking-chairs lend the one touch of comfort. Over the chimneypiece is a black wooden cross; near it a print of Sta. Veronica's Veil. Pio Nono's portrait is in every good French-Canadian's house. He has

not yet seemed to grasp the fact that another man sits in the chair of St. Peter.

Compared with most peasantry, the French Canadians are wonderfully clean in their houses and persons. Unlike most peasantry, they nearly all ride in their own carriages. On market-days those living outside towns jog long distances in their carts to sell their produce. There can scarce be a more picturesque sight than the old Quebec market-place as it was a few years ago, with its rows of

covered carts drawn up side by side, and filled with little bright-eyed French women offering their wares for sale. Lamb, butter, eggs, cheese, maple-sugar, syrup, homespun cloth, and home-grown vegetables form the staple commodities of the habitant. The chief religious fête is that of St. Jean Baptiste. Not even in papal Italy is the procession more picturesque. Emblematic cars and various bands playing the air of "A la Claire Fontaine" form part of the procession; but all the interest centres in St. John, who is personated by a small lad wearing a golden wig, dressed in sheepskins, carrying a crook, and accompanied in his car by a lamb. Another great day is that of the Fête de Dieu, in which the Host is carried through the streets to various stations, the habitants prostrating themselves before it. Very picturesque, too, are the ceremonies in connection with the first communion. Troops of little girls in white muslin frocks, wearing white gloves, and caps covered with white veils, are to be seen, accompanied by proud mothers and fathers, walking about the streets.

to say

The manners of the French Canadian are superior to those of his English compatriot in the same rank of life. He condescends on occasions "monsieur" and "madame;" but he is absolutely devoid of any feeling of social inferiority, and merely gives these titles from a sense of politeness, and as he would do to his equals. Without the slightest taint of Republicanism or of Communism, the habitant's views find expression in John Ball's lines:

When Adam dolve and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? In a country where all men work, the only distinction between classes recognizable to him, is that of wealth and poverty, which he understands. With all his simplicity, M. Jacques is keenly alive to the advantages of money, and no Jew can drive a better bargain.

With the upperclass of French Canadians (descendants of the ancienne noblesse who fled from the horrors of the guillotine and Reign of Terror) it is not within the province of this article to deal. I may say, however, without undue digression, that there are many French Canadian seigneurs who received their lands earlier than the French Revolution, under charters of Louis XIV. and Louis XV.

The habitant, however, is menaced with a change from his idyllic stagnation. The overflow of French Canadian population is gradually finding its way to the broad lands of Manitoba. Here a struggle for supremacy between the English and the French recently began. The habitant wished to apply his limited views of life. He insisted, besides, upon a dual language, and that French should be taught in the schools. Fearful lest the priesthood should become all-powerful, as in the Province of Quebec, and the laws be framed exclusively for the French population, the English Canadian resisted. In the end the Englishman triumphed; but time alone can show how far the French Canadian transplanted to Manitoba will assimilate with English ways.The National Review.

WOULDST thou love thy Lord?

Love thy neighbour then.

Rise to love of God

Through the love of men.

Wouldst thou know thy Friend?
Do His written will.
And His promised word
Jesus must fulfil.

Wouldst thou read His heart?

Linger at the Cross.

VICTORIA, B.C.

Share His cup, and count Other knowledge loss. Wouldst thou serve thy King, Loyal be and true?

They who please Him best

Lowliest work must do.

Wouldst thou reach His throne?

Little steps lead there,

And a pierced Hand

Guides thee up the stair.

-Annie Clarke.

London was the place at which the Quadrennial of Canadian Methodism assembled in September, and was in session from the 6th to the 24th inclusive. This ecclesiastical assembly never met so far westward before. Never was a body of men more hospitably entertained, and we believe that many will declare that no better General Conference has been held in the Dominion.

In 1823, the now sainted Rev. Robert Corson, a famous pioneer Methodist minister, was sent to the region of which London forms an important part. It was then largely a wilderness. Mr. Corson's first circuit has been divided again and again, so that now it embraces several circuits and even districts.

London is one of the centres which may be regarded as a Methodist object-lesson. In 1883, when the various branches of the Methodist family united, five of them were represented in London, and only a few of them were self-sustaining; now they are all one body, having nearly a dozen churches, three thousand members, nine thousand attending public worship, and church property valued somewhere about $180,000.

The Absent.

During the past year, Drs. Stafford, Pirritte and Douglas, and Revs. J. Gray and W. H. Laird, have finished their course; but if we review the whole decade, we are reminded that of the five honoured brethren who have filled the office of General Superintendent, only one remains in the Church militant, our present beloved incumbent, Rev. A. Carman, D.D. Long may he be spared to us. Of the 198 ministers and layman who attended the first General Conference in 1874. Fifty-three are known to be dead: 112 ministers have died during the quadrennium. Of those who attended the said Conference we only find the names

of twenty-eight in the list of the delegates of the present assembly, while more than thirty of those in attendance were never so honoured before.

The Fraternal Delegates.

Rev. H. J. Pope, ex-President of the English Wesleyan Conference, conveyed the greetings of the parent body and of the Irish Conference to their brethren in Canada. He discharged his duties in a highly creditable manner, both in the pulpit on Sabbath and in Conference. He attended the Conference sessions every day for a week, and again and again he expressed his admiration for the debating power of the Conference. Two debates which he heard, the Itinerancy, and the Epworth League Movement, he pronounced to be among the best he had ever heard. Mr. Pope endeared himself to Canadian Methodists, for as representative to Canada he spent nearly all his time in our territory, and the only regret he felt was that he could not extend a visit to the Maritime Provinces.

The Methodist Episcopal Church honoured Canada by sending their greetings to us through a native Canadian, though he is now a resident in the United States. Rev. James H. Potts, D.D., received a royal welcome. He was born not far from London, and was born again at Simcoe under the ministry of the Rev. N. R. Willoughby, D.D., a member of this General Conference. The sermons of Dr. Potts and his fraternal address were of an exceeding high order, and were such as will not soon be forgotten. Dr. Potts is perfectly deaf, and yet he always looks cheerful and happy.

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, sent the Rev. E. E. Hoss, D.D., as their fraternal messenger ; and the Board of Bishops may rest assured, that though they had previously honoured Canada by sending

Bishops McTyeire and Galloway, and Drs. Shedd and Kelley as their messengers to us, Dr. Hoss was equally acceptable as his honoured predecessors, and that he endeared himself to his Canadian brethren as they had done.

Principal Caven, Dr. Cochrane, Rev. J. A. Murray, M. A., and John Cameron, Esq., conveyed the Christian greetings of the Presbyterian Assembly to the Conference. Right royally did these brethren perform the duty assigned them. They even advocated organic unity between the Methodist and Presbyterian denominations, and said they could see no insuperable barriers to be overcome in accomplishing such an event.

Scarcely had they closed their fraternal visit than Mr. Cameron and Mrs. Thornley were introduced to the Conference. One presented a very kind address from the Dominion Alliance for the Suppression of the Liquor Traffic, and the other delivered an address on behalf of the W. C. T. U. Mrs. Thornley is "out and out." She is no reed shaken with the wind, but from a full heart she pours forth burning words against the accursed traffic, nor does she spare those who are slow to espouse the cause of truth and righteousness.

Two "brothers in black," were commissioned by their respective churches to visit their white brethren, and assure them that they were true Methodists. Rev. Dr. Porter, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, astonished us as he told us that his Church, which was organized in 1816, has now nine bishops, 5,000 travelling preachers and 9,000 local preachers, 600,000 members, 500,000 Sunday-school scholars. 5,000 churches, 3,000 parsonages and twenty-three colleges.

Rev. J. T. Moore, of the British African Methodist Episcopal Church, could not present such an array of startling statistics. His Church was small, but his people claimed to be a part of the great Methodist family. Suitable resolutions were adopted respecting all these fraternal delegations, and the Churches which

they represented would always be regarded by the General Conference as parts of the Church militant, and for the coloured Churches especially our prayer would ever be that the divisions by which they were now kept apart might soon be healed, and they would be all united under one banner.

The Personnel.

As far as we have been able to make out, the laymen in attendance at this General Conference may be thus divided: There are seven medical doctors, ten lawyers, two members of parliament, one sheriff, four judges, two mayors, and two ex-lieutenant governors. Some are members of the press, and others are engaged in mercantile pursuits, and a few belong to the honourable yeomanry of the country.

Connexional Statistics.

The General Conference Statistician presented an elaborate report from which we take a few figures. The increase in the membership is 27,085; 30,313 marriages had been performed, an increase of 1,064.

The increase in church property, such as places of worship, parsonages, colleges, etc., has been very large considering the depression of trade. The increase of connexional funds exceeds 88,000; and for circuit purposes $195,242. In ministerial income, while there is an increase, yet deficiencies of more than $1,254,000 are reported for the quadrennium. The total from collections, circuit purposes and salaries exceeds $9,000,000, being an increase of $1,187,404.

The total missionary income for the quadrennium was $951,332, an increase of $94,176. The total expenditure was $933,605. The contributions per member averaged 78 cents. The Woman's Missionary Society has an income of more than $37,000 a year.

en

Rev. J. Woodsworth, Superintendent of Missions in Manitoba and the Northwest, presented an couraging report. He had travelled more than 80,000 miles. There are 160 missions, of which sixty-six are self