On the basis of the classifi cation of societies proposed by F. LePlay and his followers, H. de Tourville and the French school of social science, the French Canadian is a semi-patriarchal or semi-communistic type; that is one in which social organization and life, while swayed by tradition and habits of mutual dependence to a less degree than in the purely patriarchal or communistic types of the Orient, still are not permeated and uplifted by that spirit of private independence and enterprise dis tinctive of the individualistic or eparticularistic* types, as exemplified in the Anglo-Saxon races. His semi-communistic training the French Canadian holds from France. His social an cestors were mainly the Gaul, on the one hand, the Frank on the other. The former, with his clan organization, village life and neglect of wiculture, was a distinctly communistic type. The particularistic Frank broke up, to some ex tent, the clannish and communistic spirit and in stitutions of the Gaul, and gave a strong im pulse to agricultural pursuits; but his influence, for reasons which it would be too long to set forth here, was not so lasting nor so far-reach ing in France as was that of his duplicate, the Saxon, in England. Thus there sprang up an intermediate type presenting many of the qual ities and defects of the Celt, with something of the qualities of the Saxon. A farmer, an artisan, a trader, though generally in a small way and still conserving a fondness for nature and primitive, easy-going occupations; a race lacking ambition and ability to rise in the ordi nary callings of life, having for its sole leaders the clergy and the military or civil officers of the Crown; and these leaders, though in many cases sprung from the people, isolated from them by class interests and training and unfit to lead adequately in practical pursuits. Under
the trying conditions of New France— the dense forest to clear, the rigorous climate to provide against, the lurking Iroquois to evade — the peasant from north central France, sin gle-handed, made rather slow progress at colo nization. Agriculture was neglected, while the more attractive, more remunerative, though de ceptive, fur trade became the means of sus tenance of both the individual and the colonial government, with a consequent rapid but su perficial expansion of the colony and constant warring. The French settler, fond of home and of quiet, evolved into the adventurous and hardy type of the coureur des boil. Under British rule, and especially in the course of the 19th century, through the restoration of peace and the advent from Great Britain of a class of business men, the fur trade, carried on large companies, receded toward Hudson Bay and the Far West, vast lumbering opera tions were carried on, with a consequent im pulse to agriculture, extension of settlements, increase in population; a period of unprece dented prosperity for French Canada. Then, in the latter half of the 19th century, the world wide evolution of commerce and industry set in, with its marvelous applications of steam and electricity, its powerful machinery and means of transportation, the progress of manu facturing centres; and the French Canadians developed a class of factory operatives,. to gether with a vigorous undergrowth of artisans and traders in the large cities. See also the articles in this series: UNDER FRENCH RULE; POPULATION AND RACIAL DISTRIBUTION ; CATH OLIC EDUCATION; RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS.
Ltoiq Giam, LL.B., F.R.S.C., Member de la Societi Internationale de Science Socials.