Excavations


... nothing is more essential to public interest than the preservation of public liberty.

- David Hume



Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Source of Canadian Politeness

It adds greatly to the comfort of travelling in Canada, that you are every where treated with the greatest politeness and attention.  This, to me, counterbalances a thousand inconveniences.  Often have I felt provoked on the continent of Europe, when, after a fatiguing journey, - wet and hungry, perhaps, into the bargain, - stopping at a filthy place, they called an inn, I have looked in vain for the least civility or assistance from the people of the house; frequently obliged to carry my own luggage, and endeavour to find a place where it might be safe from the thief-like fellows about me – the landlord, perhaps, amongst them.  How different is the case in Canada!  A Canadian aubergiste (landlady) the moment you stop, receives you at the door with a degree of politeness and urbanity which is unexpected as it is pleasing. Voulez vous bien Monsieur, avoir la complaisance d’entrer ; voilà une chaise, Monsieur ; asseyez vous s’il vous plaîtIf they have got anything you want, it is given at once with a good grace.  If they have not, they tell you so in such a tone and manner, as to shew that they are sorry for it. Je n’en ai point, Monsieur; J’en suis mortifiée.

You see that it is their poverty that refuses you, and not their will.  A man must be as savage as a Goth, and as surly as a city epicure over spoiled venison, who, with such treatment, though his dinner be indifferent, could leave the house in bad humour.

The Canadian innkeeper is frequently a farmer also, or a shopkeeper.  Indeed, you need never be at a loss for a house to stop at.  There is not a farmer, shopkeeper, nay, nor even a seigneur, or country gentleman, who, on being civilly applied to for accommodation, will not give you the best bed in the house, and every accommodation in his power.

The Canadians seem to have brought the old French politeness with them to this country, and have handed it down to the present generation.  One is more surprised to find here courtesy and urbanity, from the little likelihood that such plants would exist, far less flourish, in the wilds of Canada.


Source: Hugh Gray, Letters from Canada.  Written during a residence there in the years 1806, 1807, and 1808 (London, England: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Ormer, 1809), pp. 126-128. From facsimile edition reprinted by Coles Publishing Company, Toronto, 1971.  Some appropriate accents have been added to the above French text.