Documents
in Quebec History
Last
revised: 23 August 2000 | Tentative
de créer un Ministère de l'Instruction publique / Attempt to create a Ministry
of Education, 1897-1898
Letter
from F. G. Marchand to Lieut.-Gov. Chapleau [December 7, 1897] "Cabinet
du Premier Ministre, Province de Québec Quebec City, December 7, 1897, Personal My
dear Governor, With this
letter, I transmit the letter of Mgr. Bruchesi, dated from Rome, November 22 last. Permit
me to state that dropping our proposed school law, in the present circumstances,
would cause deep agitation in the population of this province, would provoke the
resignation of several members of the cabinet*, and would produce such grave consequences
that I do not wish to take such responsibilities [
]. F.
G. Marchand". [Note
from the editor: there were rumours that
G.-W. Stevens, Minister without portfolio, J.-E Robidoux, Provincial Secretary
in the Cabinet, and as such responsible for education, F.-G. Miville Déchêne,
Commissioner for Agriculture, and Adélard Turgeon, Commissioner for Colonisation
and Mines in the government, were all threatening to resign if the bill was changed
or withdrawn.] Source: Louis-Philippe
Audet, « Le projet de ministère de l'instruction publique en 1897 », in Mémoires
de la société royale du Canada, Vol. 1, Fourth series, June 1963, pp. 133-161,
p. 142. © 2000 Claude
Bélanger, Marianopolis College |