Documents
in Quebec History
Last
revised: 27 August 2000 | Les
Québécois, le clergé catholique et l'affaire des écoles du Manitoba / Quebecers,
the Catholic Clergy and the Manitoba School Question, 1890-1916
Notes
on Sources for the Study of Quebec, the Roman Catholic Church and the Manitoba
School Question Listed below is not
an exhaustive bibliography of the material available to study the Manitoba School
Question but rather the most useful material from which the documents posted at
the site were derived, as well as the chronology constructed. First are listed,
and commented upon, those that were relied upon the most. This is followed by
a standard bibliography of works that provided much added information and a varied
scope of interpretations. We do not list several contemporary booklets that appear
in the documentary section. The greatest
source of information on the Manitoba School Question itself is found in the various
volumes of the Sessional Papers published between 1891 and 1897 by the
federal government. As the issue became immediately a public one, and as appeals
of one sort or another were made to the federal government, questions were raised
in the House of Commons and information was sought. Such information made public
was then published in the Sessional Papers. The following Sessional
Papers were consulted: 1891, No 63, 63b; 1893, No. 33, 33a, 33b; 1895, No.
20, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e; 1896, No. 39, 39a, 39aa, 39b, 39c; 1897, No. 35 and the
extensive volume of the 1897 Federal Elections Returns. The House of Commons
Debates for the years 1891 to 1896 were also consulted. There is available
in these Debates a wealth of information that has hardly been mined as
yet; for example, no one has properly analysed the debates held on the Remedial
Bill of 1896. The best study for the
scope of research conducted in the ecclesiastical and private archives, as well
as balanced, fair exposition and interpretation, is Paul CRUNICAN, Priests
and Politicians: Manitoba Schools and the election of 1896, Toronto, University
of Toronto Press, 1974, 369p. The only negative comments that this fine study
might merit are that he accepted too easily the prevalent negative view toward
Mgr. Langevin and the positive one toward Laurier. Both should be presented in
a more nuanced way in the book. As well, the author might have carried the story
beyond the elections of 1896 as the interplay of the priests and the politicians
was far from over by June 1896. Lastly, the University of Toronto did atrocious
editing work in transcribing the many French quotations in the text. In
several respects, a model we wished to follow is that of Lovell CLARK, The
Manitoba School Question: Majority Rule or Minority Rights?, Toronto, Copp
Clark, 1968, 230p. Clark has an excellent cross-section of documents with well-informed
introductions. Many of the crucial documents to study the question are found here
in whole or in parts. Clark, as well as Crunican, have produced several articles
that are listed below. Much documentation
on the Manitoba issue and its connection to the Roman Catholic church is found
in the various volumes of Arthur SAVAÈTE entitled Voix canadiennes. Vers Labîme.
Vols 7, 8 and 12 were especially useful. Savaète is something of a phenomenon
in that, from France, he published more than a dozen massive volumes all concerned
with the religious history of French Canada between 1850 and 1914. He was a radical
ultramontane, conservative individual. His books are very one-sided and should
be used with caution. However, his method was to quote at great length his sources.
As he was in contact with many of the clerical participants in the issues he described,
he was well informed. His enemies were the Liberals... The
works of Robert RUMILLY are well-known to Quebec historians. His Histoire de
la Province de Québec (41 volumes) is massive, well-informed, and full of
details not found anywhere else. His method is descriptive rather than analytical.
He gained access to sources of information that nobody else consulted and is rarely
found in error. Vol. 8 of the Histoire entitled Laurier is the one
most closely associated with our subject. His Monseigneur Laflèche et son temps,
Montreal, B. D. Simpson, 461p. was also very useful. Rumillys information
is filtered through right-wing conservative ideology. The
Liberal Partys interpretation of the Manitoba School Question is well defined
by O. D. SKELTON in his Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Toronto,
Oxford University Press, 1921, 2 Volumes. Skelton is a great admirer of Laurier
and completely uncritical of his subject. Much further information may be gathered
in Lucien PACAUDs Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Lettres à mon père et à ma mère,
1867-1919, 349p. Pacauds father was the editor of LÉlecteur
and Le Soleil at the time of the school question. The many works of
L. O. DAVID also provide an interesting window unto this period. One of Davids
brochure was condemned by Rome and is reproduced at the site. The most recent
pro-Laurier interpretation is presented by H. Blair NEATBY, Laurier and a Liberal
Quebec, Carleton Library, 1973, 244p. Rarely
quoted in the literature on the subject although essential to study the Quebec
and Church sides of this question is Father Thomas Charland. His works are very
detained, his method is descriptive and he has a clear clerical bias. Among the
more useful pieces are Le Père Gonthier et les écoles du Manitoba. Mission
secrète à Rome (1897-1898), Montreal,
Fides, 1979, 131p., « Les débuts du P. Gonthier dans la polémique »,
in Revue dhistoire de lAmérique française, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1952):234-246,
« Mémoire sur la question des écoles du Manitoba » in Revue dhistoire
de lAmérique française, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1952): 440-442, and « LEncyclique
Affari vos de Léon XIII à lépiscopat canadien », in Rapport
de la Société canadienne dhistoire de lÉglise catholique, 1953,
pp. 13-25. Essential for knowledge and
understanding of the Roman Catholic position on a wide range of issues, including
the Manitoba School Question, are the pastoral letters of the bishops that are
collected into volumes periodically. For the present study, the Pastoral Letters
of the bishops of Trois-Rivières (Laflèche), Valleyfield (Émard), Montreal (Fabre
and Bruchési) and Quebec (Taschereau and Bégin) were consulted. There is much
left to be done from these sources. The other bishops letters, especially
from the English-speaking provinces, ought also to be examined. Legal,
political and constitutional aspects are discussed in two essential sources of
the period. On the government of Manitobas side is F. C. WADE, The Manitoba
School Question, Winnipeg, Institute of the Deaf and Dumb, 1895, while John
S. EWART, The Manitoba School Question: A Reply to Mr. Wade, Winnipeg,
The Free Press, 1895 argues the Catholic side. The
following studies will also prove to be of use in understanding certain aspects
of the question: BONENFANT, Jean-Charles,
« La dualité linguistique au Manitoba », in Transactions of the Royal
Society of Canada, fourth series, 1970, pp. 133-140. CHOQUETTE,
Robert, « Adélard Langevin et les questions scolaires du Manitoba et du Nord-Ouest,
1895-1915 », in Revue de lUniversité dOttawa, Vol. 46,
N0 3 (1976): 324-344. CLARK, Lovell.
C. « The Conservative Party in the 1890s », in Canadian Historical
Association, Papers, 1961. CLARK,
Lovell C. « Macdonalds Conservative Successors, 1891-1896 », in
John S. MOIR, ed., Character and Circumstance, Toronto, Macmillan, 1970,
239p., pp. 143-162. CLARK, Lovell C.,
« David Mills and the Remedial Bill of 1896: A Dialogue », in Journal
of Canadian Studies, Vol. 1, 1966. COMEAULT,
Gilbert-L., « La question des écoles du Manitoba - Un nouvel éclairage »,
in Revue dhistoire de lAmérique française, Vol. 33, No1 (June
1979): 3-23. COMEAULT, Gilbert-L., « Les
rapports de Mgr. L. A. Langevin avec les groupes ethniques minoritaires et leurs
répercussions sur le statut de la langue française au Manitoba, 1895-1916 »,
in Société canadienne dhistoire de lÉglise catholique, Rapport,
1975, pp. 65-85. COOK, Ramsay, « Church,
Schools and Politics in Manitoba, 1903-1912 », in Canadian Historical
Review, Vol. 39, No 1 (March 1958): CRUNICAN,
Paul E., « Bishop Laflèche and the Mandement of 1896 », in Canadian
Historical Association, Report, 1969, pp. 52-61. CRUNICAN,
Paul E., « Father Lacombes Strange Mission: The Lacombe-Langevin Correspondence
on the Manitoba School Question, 1895-96 », in Canadian Catholic Historical
Association, Report, 1959, pp. 57-71. DESCHAMBAULT,
Antoine, Histoire du groupe français du Manitoba (1938), texte présenté
et annoté par Lionel DORGE, Introduction à létude des Franco-Manitobains,
Essai historique et Bibliographique, Saint-Boniface, Société historique, 1973,
298p., pp. 26-77. DUPONT, Pierre, « La
question scolaire manitobaine: en marge dune correspondence », in LAction
française (1922-1923): 368-79, 33-41, 168-177. GILL,
Robert M., « Federal, Provincial and Local Language Legislation in Manitoba
and the Franco-Manitobans », in American Review of Canadian Studies,
Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring 1982): 30-39. GROULX,
Lionel, « La Correspondance Langevin-Audet », in Revue dhistoire
de lAmérique française, Vol. 1 (1947): 271-277. GROULX,
Lionel, « Mgr. Adélard Langevin daprès une partie de sa correspondance »,
in Revue dhistoire de lAmérique française, Vol. 1 (1947): 569-594. JAENEN,
Cornelius J., « The Manitoba School Question: An Ethnic Interpretation »,
in M. L. Kovacs, ed., Ethnic Canadians: Culture and Education, Regina,
1978, 317-331. JAENEN, Cornelius J.,
« French Public Education in Manitoba », in Revue de lUniversité
dOttawa, Vol. 38, No 1 (1968): 19-34. KOVACS,
Martin L., « The Hungarian School Question », in Ethnic Canadians:
Culture and Education, Regina, 1978, pp. 333-358. LAPIERRE,
Laurier L., « Joseph-Israel Tarte: Relations between the French-Canadian
Episcopacy and a French-Canadian Politician (1874-1896) », in Canadian
Catholic Historical Association, Report, 1958, pp. 23-38. LAPIERRE,
Laurier L., « Joseph-Israel Tarte et les évêques de St. Boniface »,
in Société canadienne dhistoire de lÉglise catholique, Rapport,
1970, pp. 173-195. McLAUGHLIN, Kenneth,
« Riding the Protestant Horse: The Manitoba School Question and Canadian
Politics, 1890-1896 », in Canadian Catholic Historical Association, Report,
1986, pp. 39-52. MILLER, J. R., Equal
Rights: The Jesuits Estate Act Controversy, Montreal, McGill-Queens,
1979. MILLER, J. R., « DAlton
McCarthy, Equal Rights, and the Origins of the Manitoba School Question »,
in Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 54 (December 1973): 369-392. MITCHELL,
Tom, « In the Image of Ontario: Public Schools in Brandon, 1881-1890 »,
in Manitoba History, No 12 (autumn 1986): 25-33. MORTON,
W. L., « Manitoba Schools and Canadian Nationality, 1890-1923 », in
Canadian Historical Association, Report, 1951, pp. 51-59. MORTON,
W. L., « Confederation, 1870-1896: the End of the Macdonaldian Constitution
and the Return to Duality », in Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol.
1, No 1 (May 1966): 11-24. NEATBY, H.
Blair and John T. SAYWELL, « Chapleau and the Conservative Party in Quebec »,
in Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 37, No1 (March 1956): 1-22. PERIN,
Roberto, « La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure: la représentation
du Saint-Siège au Canada, 1877-1917 », in Rapport de la Société dhistoire
de lÉglise catholique du Canada, 1983, pp. 99-117. PERIN,
Roberto, Rome in Canada. The Vatican and Canadian Affairs in the Late Victorian
Age, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1990, 299p. Much
new information here and a fresh view on the subject. SAYWELL,
John T., The Canadian Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 1893-1898, Toronto, Champlain
Society, 1960. SAYWELL, John T., « The
Crown and the Politicians: The Canadian Succession Question, 1891-1896 »,
in Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 37, No. 4 (December 1956): SCOTT
MacGREGOR, Margaret, Some Letters from Archbishop Taché on the Manitoba School
Question, Toronto, Ryerson Press, 1947, 136p. SILVER,
A. I., The French-Canadian Idea of Confederation, 1864-1900, Toronto, University
of Toronto Press, 1982, 257p., esp. Chapter 10. SILVER,
A. I., « French canada and the Prairie Frontier », in Canadian Historical
Review, Vol. 50 (March 1969): 11-36. WATT,
J. T., « Anti-Catholic Nativism in Canada: The Protestant Protective Association »,
in Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 58 (March 1967): 45-58. WATT,
J. T., « The Protestant Protective Association: An Example of Religious Extremism
in Ontario in the 1890s », in B. Hodgins and R. Page, eds, Canadian
History Since Confederation, 1972, pp. 244-260. ©
2000 Claude Bélanger, Marianopolis College |