Rupert Brooke

Name: Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa
Author: Rupert Brooke

Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

Summary

“Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa”, published in 1916, is a work by Rupert Brooke. It explores elements such as Ottawa, Canada and Montreal.

Quotes from Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (Rupert Brooke)

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ The streets of Ottawa are very quiet, and shaded with trees. The houses are mostly of that cool, homely, wooden kind, with verandahs, on which, or on the steps, the whole family may sit in the evening and observe the passers-by. This is possible for both the rich and the poor, who live nearer each other in Ottawa than in most cities. In general there is an air of civilisation, which extends even over the country round. But in the country you see little signs, a patch of swamp, or thickets of still untouched primæval wood, which remind you that Europeans have not long had this land. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ The people of this city spend much of their time in laying up their riches in this world or the next. Indeed, the British part of Montreal is dominated by the Scotch race; there is a Scotch spirit sensible in the whole place. The rather narrow, rather gloomy streets, the solid, square, grey, aggressively prosperous buildings, the general greyness of the city, the air of dour prosperity. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ The average man in England has an idea of Canada as a young-eyed daughter State, composed of millions of wheat-growers and backwoodsmen of British race. It surprises him to learn that more than a quarter of the population is of French descent, that many of them cannot speak English, that they control a province, form the majority in the biggest city in Canada, and are a perpetual complication in the national politics. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ Racial difficulties are the most enduring of all. The French and British in Canada seem to have behaved with quite extraordinary generosity and kindliness towards each other. No one is to blame. But it is not in human nature that two communities should live side by side, pretending they are one, without some irritation and mutual loss of strength. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ The Canadians, like the Americans, chose to have for their capital a city which did not lead in population or in wealth. This is particularly fortunate in Canada, an extremely individualistic country, whose inhabitants are only just beginning to be faintly conscious of their nationality. Here, at least, Canada is more than the Canadian. A man desiring to praise Ottawa would begin to do so without statistics of wealth and the growth of population ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ Inter-marriage is very rare. They do not meet socially; only on business, and that not often. In the same city these two communities dwell side by side, with different traditions, different languages, different ideals, without sympathy or comprehension. The French in Canada are entirely devoted to—some say under the thumb of—the Roman Catholic Church. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ There is no open strife. But 'incidents,' and the memory of incidents, bear continual witness to the truth of the situation. And racial disagreement is at the bottom, often unconsciously, of many political and social movements. Sir Wilfrid Laurier performed a miracle. But no one of French birth will ever again be Premier of Canada. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ Montreal and Eastern Canada suffer from that kind of ill-health which afflicts men who are cases of 'double personality'—debility and spiritual paralysis. The 'progressive' British-Canadian man of commerce is comically desperate of peasants who will not understand that increase of imports and volume of trade and numbers of millionaires are the measures of a city's greatness ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ So, in the end, if they build well, the river-front at Ottawa will be a noble sight. And—just to show that it is Canada, and not Utopia—the line of national buildings will always be broken by an expensive and superb hotel the Canadian Pacific Railway has been allowed to erect on the twin and neighbouring promontory to that of the Houses of Parliament. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Rupert Brooke, Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (1916)

“ They seem like a piece of the Middle Ages, dumped after a trans-secular journey into a quite uncompromising example of our commercial time. Some of their leaders are said to have dreams of a French Republic—or theocracy—on the banks of the St Lawrence. ”

Rupert Brooke

Summary

Quotes from Letters from America — Montreal and Ottawa (Rupert Brooke)

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