urbed, is hardly ever
re-established. The centrifugal forces of the Province protect our
liberties against the possible excesses of the centripetal forces of
the Federal Government. Any movement that tends to break the harmony
of these forces is, we claim, anti-Canadian. The Premier of Quebec
speaking to the Deputy Ministers of Education and Superintendents of
Public Instruction, at an inter-provincial Conference sounded this note
of warning: "The absolute control by each Province of its educational
system is the keystone of our Confederation; and the whole structure of
Canada would crumble away if any attempt were made at suppressing that
which holds its several parts together." (Nov. 4, 1921.) Quebec is
blamed for being the great obstacle to the realization of the dreams of
our nationalizers. Quebec, we maintain, is the most sane Province of
the Dominion, and the greatest help to the maintenance of
Confederation. This is now an admitted fact by every serious and broad
minded Canadian. Its conservatism acts, we would say, as the governor
on the complicated machine of Canadian political life. It regulates
its speed and keeps it within the limits of safety. Moreover, we ask,
how could a system which would deny the principles and rights of over
forty per cent. of the population be rightly and justly named
"national"? No one has the right to assume the monopoly of
"nationalism."
"The self-appointed or State-appointed nationalizer, we would say with
Father Millar, S.J., ignorant of our real history or its true meaning,
is fast becoming a menace to the sanity of our laws and to the supreme
wisdom of a traditional national policy." [2]
And what will be the consequences of this levelling uniformity that
crushes parental right and fuses the powers of Provinces into a Federal
unit? The Prussian ideal is the answer. We all know what that means
and where it leads. Its principles are the solvents of what remains of
Christianity--unconscious to many, it is true--in the political life of
our country. The armies that our boys fought on the fields of Flanders
were formed and trained in the national schools of Germany.
_V.--A British Reason_
The great misfortune of many who clamour against our separate schools
is their total ignorance of our history and of the spirit that the
liberty-loving Fathers of the Confederation have breathed into our
laws. To them "national reasons" may not appeal. This is very often
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