"The Poorly Expressed Request, For Fifteen Hundred Colonists To Take The
Place Of Those Who Had Joined The Army, Remained Unanswered - Unattended
To.
Though at the very time the Huguenots solicited as a favour permission
to settle in the New World, where
They promised to live peaceably under
the shadow of their country's flag - which they could not cease to love - it
was just when they were denied a request, which had it been granted would
have saved Canada and permanently secured it to France. But Colbert's
influence," says Garneau, "at Court had fallen away; he was on his death-
bed. So long as he was in power he had protected the Calvinists, who had
ceased to disturb France and who then were enriching it. His death which
took place in 1684, handed them over to the tender mercy of the Chancellor
Le Tellier and of the fierce Louvois. The dragonnades swept over
the protestant strongholds, awful heralds of the revocation of the edict
of Nantes. The king, said a celebrated writer, exhibited his power by
humbling the Pope and by crushing the Huguenots. He wished the unification
of the Church and of France - the hobby of the great men of the day,
presided over by Bossuet. Madame de Maintenon, a converted Calvinist, and
who had secretly become his wife (1685) encouraged him in this design and
suggested to him the cruel scheme of tearing away children from their
parents, to bring them up in the Roman Catholic faith. The vexatious
confiscations, the galleys, the torture of the wheel, the gibbet, - all
were successively but unsuccessfully resorted to as a means to convert
them. The unhappy Protestants' sole aim was to escape from the band which
tortured them, in vain were they prohibited from quitting the kingdom, and
those who aided them in their flight sent to the galleys - five hundred
thousand escaped to Holland, to Germany, to England, and to the English
colonies in America. They carried thither their wealth, their industry,
and after such a separation - ill blood and thirst for revenge, which
subsequently cost their native country very dear. William III, who more
than once charged the French troops at the heads of French regiments, and
Roman Catholic and Huguenot regiments, were seen, when recognising one
another on the battle-field, to rush on one another with their bayonets,
with an onslaught more ferocious than soldiers of different nationalities
exhibit to one another. How advantageous would not have been an
emigration, strong in numbers and composed of men, wealthy, enlightened,
peaceful, laborious, such as the Huguenots were - to people the shores of
the St. Lawrence, or the fertile plains of the West? At least, they would
not have borne to foreign lands the secret of French manufactures, and
taught other nations to produce goods which they were in the habit of
going and procuring in the ports of France. A fatal policy sacrificed
these advantages to the selfish views of a party - armed by the alliance of
the spiritual and temporal power with an authority, which denied the
breath of life to conscience as well as to intellect. 'If you and yours
are not converted, before such a day, the king's authority will ensure
your conversion,' thus wrote Bossuet to the dissenters. We repeat it, had
this policy not been resorted to, we should not be reduced, we Canadians,
to defend every foot of ground, our language, our laws, and our
nationality, against an invading hostile sea. How will pardon be granted
to fanaticism, for the anguish and suffering inflicted on a whole people,
whose fate has been rendered so painful, so arduous - whose future has been
so grievously jeopardized.
"Louis XIV, who had myriads of dragoons to butcher the Protestants, and
who by his own fault was losing half a million of his subjects - the
monarch who dictated to Europe, could only spare two hundred soldiers to
send to Quebec, to protect a country four times larger than France, a
country which embraced Hudson's Bay, Acadia, Canada, a large portion of
Maine, of Vermont, New York, and the whole Mississippi valley" -
Garneau's History of Canada, (Vol. I. p. 492-96 - 1st edition.)
[See page 107.]
VENERABLE MOTHER OF THE INCARNATION.
"In one of the many works which the philosopher of Chelsea has given to
the world, we find the assertion of a great truth that history is but the
biography of leading men. The poet of Cambridge also tells us that the
lives of the great are so many models, and that as they have left their
footprints on the sands of time, so may we by following their noble
example render our lives illustrious. These reflections of the philosopher
and poet extend no doubt to those of the fairer sex, in whom exalted
virtue was manifested, and whose devotion in the pursuit of noble deeds
awakens the spirit of emulation in all hearts. From the earliest period of
time heroic women have appeared. The mother of the Maccabees, the mother
of the Gracchi, the grand prophetesses whose actions are recorded in that
sublimest of books, the Bible - these and many others adorn the pages of
history, whether sacred or profane, and afford living, ever-present
proofs, that the pathway of glory and honour may be pursued by even the
weaker members of the human race.
In Canada, youthful though her record may be, there have appeared
actresses on the great stage of humanity, whose virtues appeal for
admiration, whose nobility of soul provokes general reverence, and whose
impress upon the future destinies of the country is of a more profound
nature than may be imagined at first sight.
Foremost among such heroic women, may be regarded the foundress of the
Ursuline Convent in Quebec, the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation.
Gifted by nature, burning with zeal for the welfare of souls, imbued with
the greatest confidence in the mercies of a bountiful Creator, she fully
realized the great idea of Blessed Angela de Merici, that the preservation
of the world from innumerable evils, largely depended upon the correct
training of youth.
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