the city, to this time, not one-half of the land has ever been ploughed or cultivated. Outside this limit not one-tenth part has ever known the labors of the husbandman. The country tributary to Chicago is increasing more rapidly in wealth and population than any other part of the nation, so that vastly larger numbers of people than are at present resident in the city can doubtless in the future find occupation and business in ministering to the constantly increasing wants of its tributary territory. The great improvements made within the last generation, in all

kinds of agricultural machinery, enable a single farmer to cultivate and care for several times as much land as he could have managed forty years ago, and this is a large factor in the growth in population of our cities as compared with rural districts. A lesser number of people on farms can produce the food of the world. It would seem to be settled that henceforth an increasing proportion of our population will be residents of cities. This appears from many standpoints to be an evil; but who shall say what conditions. are most fitting in these changeful days?

HE fame of New England has penetrated to even the remotest wilds of the Province of Quebec. Tradition and fiction have contributed their resources to surround it with unfailing

interest. Every French Canadian hears from childhood glowing accounts of La Nouvelle Angleterre; and many an hour is enlivened by fascinating tales of life amid its busy bustling scenes. Excited by the pictures of New England stir, enterprise, and greatness, drawn by multitudes of compatriots and relatives settled in the farm districts or busy towns of the northeastern states, the youths resolve to leave the parental roof at the earliest opportunity and seek their fortune in this Republic. The great numbers coming yearly to this country, this country, despite the difference of race, creed, and speech, and the difficulties of distance, show the vast change in popular feeling that a score or two of years have brought about, and prove the gradual disappearance of enmities and popular prejudices too long a discredit and a danger to people engaged in the worthy and beneficent work of founding homes, for the deserving and the needy, and building up in a new world empires based on justice to all men.

No invasion of Canada from New England is feared by even the chronic alarmist; not even the most warlike or ambitious of our military youths dreams of forcible annexation. Nor are aggressive colonization projects entertained with a view to its absorption. The tide of national feeling on each side of the boundary is turned into different, more honorable, and fruitful channels; each side striving after nobler objects than to vex or destroy the other. The French Canadians pour into the traditional enemy's country, not for war or spoil, but to fin homes in thriving cities and to aid

in the cultivation of fertile fields. The descendants of the old combatants now mingle in peace, to work amicably together for the promotion of American civilization.

states.

A quieter immigration movement, on a scale so extensive as that of the French Canadians to the United States, has never been witnessed. The majority of our citizens have as yet no idea of its extent and results. It is chiefly within the last generation that this "new nation," as it may be styled, has noiselessly overspread these northeastern Although French Canadians could be found in the lumbering districts of the West and the more important manufacturing centres of New England prior to the Civil War, no decided inflow has been noticed, and certainly none of a kind to deserve the name of a wholesome systematic immigration. The late Civil War was the first great inviting agency to this race, some of whose representatives assert that 35,000 of their fellow-countrymen fought for the North. To-day, this new population throughout the United States numbers considerably over 800,In New England and New York, there are more than 500,000; in Massachusetts alone the figures reach 120,000. This is an astounding aggregate for the brief period of their immigration and the extent of the sources of supply. This result far exceeds, proportionately, that to the credit of either Ireland or Germany. According to Le guide Francais des Etats Unis (1891), they own real estate to the amount of $105,328,500; and 10,696 of the race are doing business for themselves. As we have already seen, this people, chiefly agricultural, backward in education and primitive in habit, numbered but 65,000 at the time of the Cession of Canada to England 1759-60; while at the present time there are 1,700,000 of them, not including the outflow to adjoining provinces and the United States.

Where can a parallel to such astonishing increase be found? An able New England statistician has stated that before the end of the first quarter of the next century the French Canadians in the northeastern states would outnumber the native American population. With such extraordinary progress achieved under so many disadvantages, the above prediction seems far from improbable. Why, we have in them already more than twelve times the total English conquest in Canada, with thousands coming yearly from Quebec to join them. The social philosopher and American patriot can find abundant food for speculation in the fact that against the Yankee family of one or two children and often none, the French Canadian will count his flock of a dozen to a dozen and a half. And the AngloSaxon will doubtless continue to "go West" to a large extent, while the French Canadian will probably maintain and increase the movement to the southeast. According to the census of 1885, the population of Massachusetts is 1,942,141

native 1,415,274, and foreign born 526,867. The per centage of foreign born is 27 1-3. There are sixty-eight cities and towns in the state in which is found an excess of persons having a foreign parentage. So we shall have history repeating itself! We shall see the Normans overrunning and taking possession of another England, but by the worthy and beneficent arts of peace, and the industry and energy which have enabled this people, from insignificant beginnings, under most unfavorable and discouraging circumstances, to build up one vigorous state in North America within a century and then undertake the rapid formation of another. The thoughtful observer of each race as well as the patriot and philanthropist will await the results of this peaceful rivalry with the greatest interest.

In considering the progress of these people in this country, it must be remembered that it is chiefly the poorest and least instructed (most of them with no command of the English language), who come hither-generally those for whom the small and well-worn parental farm could make no provision, and the

laborers from town and country. Some years ago the French Canadians usually came with the intention of returning to the native parish when they had earned enough to cancel the mortgages on the farm, or to enable them to start in some small business. Many did carry out such a programme, which accorded with the "repatriation" schemes of the Roman Catholic clergy and sympathetic politicians; but most of these subsequently returned to the Republic, allured by wages unattainable at home, and by other influences. Now a different system prevails: most of them regard this country as their permanent abode. They soon become useful as farm or factory hands, easily adaptable to all work, making quiet, industrious citizens.

In all the manufacturing towns of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, etc., FrenchCanadians may be found working as millhands, mechanics, and lumbermen, lending their best services to promote the industries of the country. They usually cluster in bodies of a few hundred to ten or twelve thousand, for mutual help and sympathy as the newcomers often do not understand English. The acquisition of the English language, however, often leads to material dispersions. They form Canadian parishes with churches, with priests of their own nationality. Many by energy, intelligence, and probity have risen to positions of trust, emolument, and honor. Several of these people have entered the New England legislatures: two, the Massachusetts; four, the Maine; two, the Connecticut; two, the New Hampshire; and two, the New York. Many are found among municipal councillors, aldermen, etc., of the several states. They support in New England and New York nine newspapers, and have established 287 societies, with a total membership of 43,051. This is a most creditable exhibit in so brief a period, evincing much capacity for union and political management.

These immigrants manifest judicious interest in their present and future welfare, by holding general conventions every fourth year and state conventions every second year, to which each society

and parish, where they are tolerably numerous, sends three delegates. Questions affecting the condition of their race are here discussed, especially education, political and domestic economy, naturalization, the best method of preserving their native tongue, and so forth. The last general convention was held at Nashua, New Hampshire, in June, 1889, when one thousand one hundred delegates from all parts of the Union responded, and thirty thousand people participated in the proceedings. There is nothing secret about these meetings; the discussions, however, are always carried on in French.

It is chiefly of late years that we notice the significant movement of these people in favor of naturalization. They have not, like the Irish or Germans, shown haste in this matter, one reason being their nearness to their native land, in which the French language is so much spoken and their religion so widely professed. Another reason, perhaps, is the absence of exciting or material objects. They have forty-five naturalization clubs, with many more in course of formation, in which lectures are given on the privileges and duties of citizenship. It is believed that within ten years there will be few if any of them who are not naturalized, all being at present fully alive to the importance of this step. They are not, as a rule, admirers of Republican institutions, the bulk of them preferring a monarchical system, but we live in a progressive age, and one fatal to old prejudices. Many formerly attached to hoary traditions and hollow sentiment now take very practical views of life and its duties, regarding with respect and loyalty the flag and the constitution under which they live so happily and so comfortably.

The French Canadian in this Republic readily adopts the views and habits of the people about him, while retaining some of his original tastes, such as the love of dress and display. This conversion of the foreign element into the material of good American citizenship evidences the wonderful moulding and assimilating influence of American society and institutions. A remarkable fact is that the French Canadians in the United States

marry Americans far more frequently than their fellow-citizens of recent British origin. Their lively habits and cheerful spirits lighten their toil, dispelling the gloom of discontent and care from all around. This cheery disposition blossoms out in varied games and pastimes.

The court records of the different states show a considerably smaller proportion of arrests among the French Canadian for every kind of offence than other nationalities can boast. While fond of diversions, as already stated, they study to keep within the bounds of law and order. There is abundant evidence of their industrious, quiet, and orderly habits in the report on "The Canadian French in New England" (Thirteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, by Carroll D. Wright). Witnesses of good standing, lay and clerical, testified on this and kindred subjects in a way sufficiently to explain the eagerness of New England employers to engage a large amount of help from among them.

In Canada the French Canadian working classes do not sufficiently realize the great importance of education, but in the United States they soon feel the necessity of self-improvement. They quickly learn the fact that their class may by merit rise high in the social scale. Stimulated by this hope, they become steady newspaper readers, members of political, literary, and musical societies, and also participate in studies and discussions of state and national affairs, the better to discharge the duties of citizenship. They send their children to the public schools, while preferring the parochial in which both French and English are taught, thus exhibiting a proper and a creditable estimate of the value of education.

Many of the French Canadian leaders in the United States believe that unless their countrymen preserve their national language, they will become so assimilated to the Americans as to be absorbed in the great preponderant mass. This result they would deprecate. They would prefer to set up a sort of autonomous system, or maintain a distinct nationality within a nation, as in the Dominion. I shall