Introduction

Although the term Acadian refers to the French-speaking population of the Maritime provinces, the focus of this study is New Brunswick. In 1763, Acadians were permitted to return from the Deportation of 1755, but when the Loyalist supporters of the British crown arrived from the United States in 1783, government policy encouraged concentration of Acadians in the fringe areas of New Brunswick. This degree of isolation allowed Acadians to retain their particular language, religion, and culture. By 1887, the Acadian population of New Brunswick was the centre of a Maritime Canadian French-speaking nationalist movement with its own hymn, flag, and convention meetings. Improved communications, education, and expanded employment opportunities in government established a growing Acadian middle class, yet opposition to Acadians was still expressed, based on language and religion. These factors were crucial to the self-image that made Acadians a voting, buying, and productive power, enthusiastically fostered by the priests, politicians, and some merchants eager to benefit from Acadian support. Similar to many colonised people in the British Empire, the Acadians also constructed part of their self-image on resentment of the imperial power. During the Seven Years War, thousands of Acadians in the Maritimes had been deported, on the orders of the governor appointed by the British authorities. The resulting tragedies and the struggle to survive as a separate people after they were allowed to return were the focus of Acadian history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In light of these developments, it is interesting that the Acadian newspaper, Le Moniteur Acadien, claimed in 1887 that [t]he world admits there are no more loyal subjects of the British Crown than the Acadians.¹ The Acadian community in Shediac, where the newspaper was published, proceeded to celebrate the jubilee with enthusiasm along with other Acadian communities in the region. The Moniteur continued to publish approving articles about Queen Victoria, The Prince of Wales, and other members of the royal family as well as providing an image of Britain as increasingly pro-Catholic and increasingly favourable to the use of the French language. The other New Brunswick Acadian newspaper of the time, Le Courrier des Provinces Maritimes, published in Bathurst, showed far less interest in the monarchy or British society, but still reflected a basically positive attitude toward the British connection.²

Historians of other pro-British minorities have suggested several possible explanations for this attitude, and some fit the Acadian situation. Many French-Canadian leaders and historians recognised that British parliamentary institutions had given francophone males access to political power.³ Trade with the British Empire was still valuable to the Maritime Provinces and the imperial connection could have provided some reflected glory.⁴ Professed loyalty to the Crown was a possible accommodation with the powerful anglophone elite that allowed Acadians to maintain their religious and linguistic individualism.⁵ By careful choice of news items, it was also possible to use the distant image of Britain to belabour local elites who professed the same loyalty but opposed the disadvantaged Acadian elite=s ambitions.⁶ Analysis of the Moniteur suggests, however, a more subtle Acadian creation of a British identity that balanced it against not only anglophone Canada but also against France, the United States, and even Quebec. By careful choice of metropolitan images, Acadians were looking to find their own place in the modern world.⁷

The Moniteur did not necessarily reflect the views of all Acadians and the darker side of the British image established by the Deportation continued to cast the occasional shadow both in the Moniteur and the other New Brunswick French language newspaper founded in 1885, Le Courrier des Provinces Maritimes. The Moniteur catered to a substantial section of the Acadian elite, however, particularly in the southern counties of the province. It presumably reflected the views of this influential section of the Acadian population.⁸ The Moniteur was the first French language newspaper founded in the Canadian Maritimes and had survived since 1867, eventually outliving its rival. By 1887, it was publishing two issues a week. The Courrier was founded in Bathurst to represent the interests of Acadians further north in the province.⁹

Historians agree that both these newspapers were supporters of Acadian nationalism, religion, and language, but took a confrontational approach to issues before 1890.¹⁰ Both newspapers were patronised by the clergy, liberal professions, and merchants, including local English-speaking merchants, and they had to respond to the views of their clientele.¹¹ The Courrier showed little of the Moniteur`s optimism for Britain or interest in its royalty and aristocracy, or even in British internal affairs. This may have been because the British were seen as a direct and immediate threat in the northern area where Crown lands, that the Acadian elite hoped to populate with francophones, were being taken over by British settlers. The Courrier may have been more pessimistic due to the increased sensitivity to Irish Catholic readers of the Bathurst region as compared to the Protestant anglophone merchants who advertised in the Moniteur.¹² The Courrier's indifference and occasional hostility to aspects of Britishness may have indeed represented some Acadian views of Britain, but the Moniteur was a powerful instrument of the Acadian nationalist movement and represented a significant proportion of the elite.

The Moniteur`s positive image of Britain included British parliamentary institutions, although the editor saw little need to comment on this. Catholics had been able to vote in New Brunswick since 1810 and to stand for office since 1830. The first Acadian member of the provincial assembly had been elected in 1846 and the first francophone member of the federal parliament from New Brunswick was elected in 1870. The newspaper, however, was willing to push the image of "Britishness" beyond the institution to moral principle as a part of its created image of Britain. Elections in New Brunswick were hotly contested and the candidates' religion and language were often issues. In one effort to get the Acadian candidate elected, the editor wrote "[l]et British Fair Play and Acadian Fair Play be the same," claiming this required that all minorities and classes should be given a voice in the management of the affairs of the country. The number of Acadian members of parliament should be directly related to the number of Acadians in the province.¹³

The Moniteur's attitudes toward Britain's Imperial role were more ambivalent. Trade with the British Empire was useful and no doubt encouraged the positive image. In 1887, England, the British West Indies, and Newfoundland were the major export markets for the port of Shediac, bringing $74,220 into the local economy, while the United States provided $51,765, and the French colony of St-Pierre and Miquelon $7,216.¹⁴ However, little reference was made to reflected glory from the British Empire. The newspaper was fond of statistics and it informed the readers of the number of French and English speakers in the world and the square miles of various European Empires. It took no particular pride in this;¹⁵ on the contrary, it added that the dominance of the English language could vanish as easily as Greek and Chaldean, and the reason why the sun never set on the British Empire was because it wanted "to see what the rascals were up to now"!¹⁶

Neither newspaper was willing to adopt the protective colouring of imperial jingoism at the expense of the self-image of neutral Acadians. British campaigns in Africa in 1889 and 1890 never made headlines and the Moniteur even refered to them as the "so-called" war.¹⁷ A passionate article on 6 December 1887 called wars an example of human stupidity and requested heads-of-state to go away and play with wooden soldiers to settle their disputes.¹⁸ Looking ahead, the Moniteur whole-heartedly condemned the Spanish-American War and reported official dispatches on the Boer War without any expressions of sympathy for either side.¹⁹ As might be expected, the Courrier was even clearer. It accompanied a tribute to the bravery of Canadian troops in the war with a fervent wish for their swift return, along with an angry comment on the previous arrogance of British officers, now forced to recognise Canadian valour. A separate article on the front page of the same issue reported British parliamentary concerns over imperial policy that was entering a "period that was strange and full of uncertainty," recommending that Canada avoid closer ties with Britain even if the British were concerned.²⁰

Although the Moniteur was ambivalent in reporting imperial campaigns, its enthusiasm for the royal family and particularly for the Queen and Prince of Wales was evident.²¹ This was an area where sharing celebrations with the anglophone population could be good for business. The Acadians involved in organising the 1887 celebrations in Shediac were young members of the business community who worked with their more established English counterparts. The most prominent Acadian merchant, Fidèle Poirier, flew a large Union Jack outside his store. Floats in the procession were flagrantly commercial, including one from the Moniteur itself with the printer giving out pamphlets. The militia, with no mention of Acadian members, gave a twenty-one gun salute and both communities took enthusiastic part in the Polymorphian costume procession and games. The Queen was loudly cheered and the report finishes with an editorial cry of Vive Shediac.²² More restrained celebrations of the Queen`s birthday followed in other years.

The relationship of the Moniteur to Queen Victoria was particularly interesting as she was adopted into an Acadian image of the ideal woman. The 21 June 1887 tribute to her reign described her as a young woman with a cultivated spirit carefully raised by her mother in devotion to her country. Apart from the careful omission of any reference to religion, this image could have been lifted from an Acadian convent brochure. When Victoria was driven by circumstances into public life, the article was sympathetic to her for the loss of tranquility, but grateful for her achievements and relieved that she was guided by men of superior talents. The newspaper rejoiced in her nine children and claimed that anglophone royalists did not know her family name, but every francophone knew that she was also Mrs Wettin.²³

Acadian women also identified with Victoria as they often assumed active roles in business and community life while dually being ornaments in the parlour. Older women had an integral role in community formation.²⁴ The achievements of Victoria's reign were listed mainly in terms of economic progress and greater tolerance for Jews and Catholics. Her wealth was described with the same joy in prosperity that the Moniteur showed when describing Acadian wedding presents or houses, and her charity was frequently noted.²⁵ Victoria's religious politics that the newspaper chose to portray, however, was more unusual. As presented by the Moniteur, she wanted an end to the persecution of Catholics in Ireland and sought an audience with the Archbishop of Savoy when she was taking the waters at Aix-les-Bains. The Archbishop published the Pope's response, noting Queen Victoria's goodwill towards Catholics and his esteem for her since he met her when he was papal nuncio in Belgium.²⁶ Indeed, a hopeful touch was evident in reports of the Queen's increasing frailty and possible abdication.

The Moniteur's laudatory approach to the monarchy extended to the reporting of the Prince of Wales and the conversion from Protestant to Catholic of Princess Louise and Princess Helen. The Prince was proudly said to speak French as well as he spoke English.²⁷ His interest in Paris and French culture was noted with approval, especially when he gave a generous donation towards rebuilding a Catholic church.²⁸ Princess Louise apparently went to Rome in spite of disapproval from the British Protestant press in 1888 and was charmed by the Pope at an audience in 1890.²⁹ Princess Helen's imminent conversion was reported as a fact in 1888.³⁰

The newspaper also offered its own interpretation of language and religion in English society. It was seen as increasingly pro-Catholic and pro-French. Favourable statistics were given on the conversion rate within the country - the English aristocracy seemed attracted to Catholicism.³¹ French was the most popular second language in England and the English army was encouraging its officers to learn French as a mark of civilisation.³² One unidentified English newspaper was even proposing a union between France and England.³³ Notably, no positive references were made to Scottish Catholicism or to the "Auld Alliance" between Scotland and France. Anti-Catholic riots by the Orange Order in Glasgow were bitterly reported. The mob demanded the removal of Papists from Ireland and accused Gladstone of being a Jesuit.³⁴ In Manchester, however, the Protestant crowd applauded warmly as 15,000 Catholics carried a life-size statue of the Virgin Mary through the streets of the city in procession.³⁵

Judging by the Moniteur's attitude between 1887 and 1890, this was a time of optimism for Acadians. The newspaper saw some progress towards the realization that assimilation had not worked. Displays of Canadian patriotism were limited. Whether the Shediac shops would be shut on Confederation Day in 1888 was not clear, and the only Acadian celebration of that day seemed to be a ball in Arichat.³⁶ Despite a perceived growing appreciation of French language and culture,³⁷ anglophone Canadians were not entirely welcoming. The news of Princess Helen's imminent conversion was a response to francophobe and anti-Catholic articles in the Toronto Mail.³⁸ News that English army officers were learning French was followed by the comment that not all Englishmen were like the notorious opponent of Catholic education D'Alton McCarthy. More often, the critical reports on anti-French and anti-Catholic prejudice in Canada went without obvious comparison, but the reports clearly implied that Canadian anglophones posed a greater threat than anglophones in England.

The roughly positive image of Britain benefited from changes in France. The revolution of 1789 brought Royalist priests to Acadia, further bolstering the ideal of Acadia as a vibrant French society. This image was promoted by priests exiled by the 1870 revolution. The influential Acadian Senator Pascal Poirier and the Acadian Jesuit Fidèle Belliveau considered Acadians as the faithful younger daughter of the Church, showing ungrateful France the error of abandoning religion.³⁹ According to the Moniteur, this infidelity led to a drop in the French birth rate, while the Acadian increase in population was evidence of faith.⁴⁰ French historian Edmé Rameau de St-Père's enthusiasm for the colonisation movement that would have seen Acadians returned to the primitive simplicity of pioneer farming met with less enthusiasm in both newspapers. St-Père saw Acadia as the last remnant of traditional European French values that had disappeared in his home country. He wanted to conserve these values by keeping Acadians away from the industrialised towns but this well-meant European French effort at rurification was given only lip service in both newspapers.⁴¹ The Moniteur preferred to see Acadians as the heirs to French joie de vivre, French hospitality, and even courtly manners with the hope that France would return to Catholicism; however, the barrier posed by France's conversion into a godless republic was too high for many of the Acadian elite.⁴² The use of the tricolour in the Acadian flag was still a source of dispute, in spite of reassurance from a correspondent that the star of Mary added to it showed the triumph of religion over the principles of 1789.⁴³

Distant Britain was also a positive factor when compared with the immediate threat of cultural and possible political assimilation with the United States. Seasonal workers and permanent immigrants were leaving Acadian regions in large numbers. Those who left were at risk of losing their religion, language, and ethical values; those who returned were a cause for concern because they might bring with them changed cultural values. A letter published in 18 May 1888 said young men of Cocagne were returning with new clothes and with "the English of a negro. Soaked in United States' liberty, they forget religion and the taste for agriculture." The Americans who came north were often reported as scam artists and confidence tricksters.⁴⁴ The American movement to ensure the dominance of the English language in the Catholic church was also considered dangerous. Irish and Scottish priests in the Maritimes could see the advantages of this.⁴⁵ The Moniteur applauded the Polish women in Buffalo who defended their church against efforts to force an anglophone priest upon them.⁴⁶

Some Americans even suggested the annexation of Canada. The newspaper found continuing participation in Canadian Confederation a better option. In 1888, it quoted speeches by Governor General Frederick Stanley to the Société-St-Jean-Baptiste and by a Dr. De Beers of Montreal expressing pride in not being subject to the "curse of presidential elections" and being part of an Empire that covered a fifth of the habitable globe. "Under the protection of the British Empire," Dr. De Beers explained, "French Canadians had experienced progress and become heirs to vast and various privileges."⁴⁷ When a speaker in Waterville, Maine stressed the obvious advantages of uniting Canada and the United States as a logical union of English-speaking people, the Moniteur retorted that "Canada was not in favour and Quebec was not seeking protection from the star-spangled banner when it gets it so generously from England."⁴⁸ Like Canadians elsewhere in the country, the Moniteur was prepared to cheer on the British empire when opposed to United States domination.⁴⁹

Fear of United States domination and influence did not prevent both newspapers from rejoicing in the economic achievements of Acadians who emigrated south. The Moniteur had a profound respect for prosperity. It tempered its views, however, of American ideals by reporting the failures as well as the successes of Americans and of Acadians who went to the United States, in contrast to giving numerous general statistics on the riches of the British aristocracy and monarchy.⁵⁰ American riches were noted, but the newspaper countered these with statistics about American liquor and tobacco consumption. Several articles suggested that Acadian and French Canadian political influence was growing in the United States, and the Acadian national mission was to bring in the Catholicism, courtesy, hospitality, and hard work that Americans associated with Acadians.⁵¹

Just as the Acadians could not be totally North American, neither could they identify totally with Catholics. Local hostility from the Irish and Scottish Catholic church hierarchy who opposed the increasing power of the Francophones and the French language in the church made the image of distant Britain look preferable. The anti-nationalist movement within the Catholic church included Canadian supporters who argued for the convenience of one unifying language in the North American Church. In 1889, The Archbishop of Halifax proposed an end to Church divisions that were based on language and nationality. This was perceived as a devastating attack on the self-image the Acadian elites, and the Moniteur retorted that the Bishop was trying to make the Catholic Church an "Irish stew of Irish, Scots and Acadians, with a dash of negro and savage to taste just like an English Canadian and we will all have a feast for the Grand Manitou."⁵²

Looking to Quebec as the metropolis was a threat to the Acadian sometimes fragile self-image. The Acadian national convention movement, which was developing in the 1880s, encouraged every Acadian parish to send representatives to meetings where Acadian aims and image were discussed. This was inspired by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste meetings, but after some acrimonious dispute with Quebec-born priests and their allies, the Acadian conventions chose their own feast day, flag, and national hymn. Some French-Canadians were aware of the breach between Acadia and Quebec, as indicated in the Moniteur's long article reprinted from the Quebec newspaper, L`Évènement, 6 and 9 December 1889. This supposed dialogue between a French-Canadian and an Acadian suggested Acadians felt that Quebec had failed to support them during the Deportation and, secure in its own French-language Church dominance, was conspicuously absent in the Acadians' struggle with the Irish and Scottish anglophone hierarchy. As well, the Courrier suggested that Quebecers who over-reacted to perceived slights were raising anglophone hostility and making francophones look ridiculous.⁵³ Even sympathetic French-Canadian historians such as H.R. Casgrain were considered a threat. They were able to publish their version of Acadian history before historical scholarship was established in Acadia.⁵⁴ Acadian scholarship later developed and disagreements on interpretation began.⁵⁵

Britain, and particularly the English, took a place in the various metropoles used by the Acadians to construct a self-image. This, however, did not mean complete loyalty or identification with Britishness. The Acadians looked to France for their literary heritage but when they considered scientific thinking as a racial characteristic, they would attribute it to English Canada - not Britain.⁵⁶ As well, although British middle-class customs were adopted, they were likely to utilize English-Canadian examples. Advertisements for women's fashions occasionally mentioned England, but more often referred to France or the United States. The mind-numbing boredom of the English Sunday was mentioned: "nobody speaks, they barely eat. . . and a glass of wine will cost you 3 guineas because of the fines."⁵⁷ No explicit contrast was made with the Acadian gift for innocent amusement that the newspaper had claimed earlier, but the mental comparison could have been made.⁵⁸ The Moniteur made socio-economic distinctions, seeing the British working class as a different "other" and more disturbing than the upper classes. Industrial problems in Britain, such as strikes or serious accidents, were a favourite filler for the "Bulletin Étrangère" section. Labour may have been considered a threat to the image of class stability that the Acadian elites understandably hoped to establish. Fear of domestic instability would also explain the many references to the underfunding of the British army and navy.⁵⁹

The British upper and middle classes may have been considered allies of Acadians, but they were clearly not the same as Acadians. Some stereotypes existed, as seen in the joke sections. The British were separated into Scottish, Irish, and English. A Scottish joke in the Moniteur in 1889 recounted riots in Glasgow and growing concern over urbanisation. A Scottish woman could only get into the smoking compartment of a train carrying football fans and as the fumes mounted, she looked increasingly concerned. Finally, she asked if she could borrow a pipe for a puff or two as she had left hers at home.⁶⁰ The Irish were the poor whose wisdom and wit overcame the pretensions of others.

The English were depicted as pretentious or insensitive "milords," usually travelling somewhere.⁶¹ Their sang-froid was also remarkable, as a travelling lord in Naples rang for the butler when his wife was struck by lightning during dinner and requested him to "please sweep up Milady."⁶² An article taken from the American press explained that Americans would forgive Britain for its political past, but never for English arrogance and wearing a grey-checked waistcoat for dinner.⁶³ However, when Acadians made their own social statements on "the other" at mascarades and parades, the targets were black Americans, North-West First Nations, and Africans.⁶⁴

The shadow of the Deportation remained a problem in the Acadian image of Britain and this was reflected in the jokes' portrayal of perceived British insensitive arrogance. The wound was re-opened in November 1886, when G.A. Archibald made a speech in Halifax, Nova Scotia, blaming the Deportation on Acadian ingratitude and infidelity. Both the Moniteur and the Courrier published Pierre-Amand Landry's angry response that the British were clearly to blame.⁶⁵ The Moniteur, however, worked towards a solution that would permit continued loyalty to its image of Britain. In 19 June 1888, while Quebec historian H.R. Casgrain was blaming the Deportation on the British government, the Moniteur claimed that "everyone knows it was a plot born in New England." In 1890, in its reporting, the newspaper offered another strategy in support of Britishness: a strong condemnation of the English by R.P. François-Xavier-Joseph Michaud described "the Acadians, [who were] pursued by the English like savage beasts; their goods stolen; their churches burnt. This was the English task in times past: not a record a civilised nation should envy." The newspaper added a further quote by Michaud, however, that "before those hordes of barbarians, Acadians hid in the forest, established families, built churches where they adored the God of Love and Charity who commands us to love our neighbours as ourselves and forgive our enemies."⁶⁶ The Deportation was moved into the past to form part of the Acadian self-image of neutrality, survival, and fidelity, and the Acadians showed their moral superiority through forgiveness, eclipsing any focus on British oppression. The pioneer Acadian historian Placide-P Gaudet later followed this up and placed the blame squarely on Governor Charles Lawrence as a representative of American greed and materialism.⁶⁷

The Courrier never bothered to shift the blame for the Deportation to American influence and in that newspaper, the wound was clearly not healed. When forced to acknowledge the Jubilee of 1887, the Courrier gave no account of the celebrations and published an account of the Queen's reign from the Official Gazette of Vienna that described British agression in earlier wars and British manipulation of the problems of others so her own empire could be expanded. The Courrier likened Victoria to the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria because of her personal efforts to keep the peace.⁶⁸

For some late nineteenth-century Acadians, particularly the elite of south-eastern New Brunswick, the threat from America seemed immediate; in contrast, the threat from Britain was in the past. France still represented the past but also possibly future ideals of Catholicism and civilisation that could be balanced against the power of the English language. Britain provided examples of increasing Catholicism and appreciation of French that was used to counteract English-Canadian opposition and weaken the potentially overwhelming influence of Quebec institutions. Canada, beneficiary of British parliamentary institutions, was an effective shelter from American influence.

The picture, however, is incomplete, without more information on regional differences and closer analysis of the readership of the Courrier and Moniteur at this time. By selective use of editorial comment, however, the Moniteur created its own positive version of Britishness that was cultivated in a region dominanated by a parliamentary system and a monarchy that were increasingly favourable to the French language and Catholic religion. This fit neatly into the national self-image of the south-eastern elite, portraying Acadians as a French-speaking civilisation, Catholic yet firmly influenced by aspects of British society. Thus, at a banquet in honour of federal judge Pierre-Amand Landry, the most distinguished member of the south-western New Brunswick Acadian elite at that time and former Member of the Legislative Assembly and of the federal parliament, the assembled could sing the Acadian national hymn "Stella Maris" and drink to Acadia, the "Marseillaise" and drink to France, and then finish the proceedings with a rousing version of "Dieu Sauve la Reine" and health to Her Majesty Queen Victoria.⁶⁹