When Mr. Child did me the honour of inviting me to appear before this august association, and proposed the French-Canadians as a topic, I tried to persuade him to let me limit my contribution to a discussion of Dr. Drummond and his interpretation of the "Habitant."¹

My reason was a deep conviction of the inability of any individual to portray a people as a whole, when his points of personal contact must be very limited. However, any of you who have had dealings with Mr. Child will understand why the topic decided on was the one which he proposed.

Still, I shall endeavour to avoid unwarranted generalities by limiting myself as much as possible to first-hand personal impressions. [there may be page(s) missing. Following is marked p.5]

Later I followed Geo. Patullo as municipal reporter, "Joli garcon." Ames, Laporte & Herald kept Montreal municipal politics clean. Tour de role then. Later Mederic Martin 10 yrs. I surmise that this was because of abuse heaped on French-Can. during war.

During my stay in Montreal, I was much impressed with the religious life of the people. And was led to give some attention to the study of R.C. [Roman Catholic] doctrine. And then too, I found I had many misconceptions to be removed.

[foll. sentence crossed out, but transcribed here] This is not the place to explain infallibility of Pope, but hard to distinguish from Presbyterian faith in authority of Shorter Catechism.

Not adoration but veneration. But chiefly impressed by attitude of reverence & atmosphere of worship. Notre Dame & Fr. Flor[?]. I am still a Protestant, but I feel that you are not as far astray as I thought you were. [Drummond or Habitant?] won highest prize of the French Institute for best poem of the year.

However, I was going to limit myself to personal impressions.

When I tell you that I went to Montreal from the staff of the Toronto News of which Hockson[?] was chief, you will understand that I did not make the acquaintance of the French-Canadians without having my attention drawn to the faults & defects seen in them by their Ontario critics.

Yet from the first I was strongly attracted. French reporters were first to welcome me. (Champaigne). In market might have condemned it as patois, but was living with Parisian. [The] fact is that Ont. High School French is just as far removed from Parisian as from Canadians "Clash" 127, 132.

Oui & voir survivals of grand siecle. Moliere not amongst Fr. I had not been in Montreal long before I began to realize how utterly false was the conception of French-Canadians in Ontario.

Tarte not slippery, shifty, frank & honest, elevators.

Bourassa, anti [?] not anti Brit. Alaska award Bernier.

In addition I learned to know & admire many Fr. C. who have since become prominent. One of my first assignments was law courts. Gouin, Lemieux, Danduranse, Brodeaure were all practicing there. And I formed a high opinion of their character & ability. Many of them spoke English without trace of accent. But it was rare to find English Can. at home in French. Derouse & Alarm. Irish R.C.'s [are the] only class really familiar with French.

Later I followed Pat on City Hall-Joli [?] Amis, Laporte & Herald kept Montreal municipal pals clean. Tour de role, then now Mederic Martin, Pres. Chamber of Commerce. (David-"Hommages").

You do not need a majority to get fair play from Fr. Can. All that is necessary is to treat them with courtesy. But if you do not treat them with courtesy,--well, they're human. Let me illustrate by personal exp. resident of Chambre de Comm[?], "We may be fools, but we are polite".........but it won't happen again.

There are, of course, some

¹ Dr. William Henry Drummond (1854-1907) was born in Ireland,; his family immigrated to Montreal when he was ten. He wrote distinctive dialect verse, most amusing and most of it dealing with French-Canadian Habitant life. He wrote for newspapers and his first collection was The Habitant and other French-Canadian Poems (1897) (OCCL 333). Rev. Calvin was often asked to speak on Drummond and the Habitant poems, and this outline of a speech gives us some idea of the content of his talk and of the poems he used.