The Other Side of the Coin
On August 6, 1910 in a French-language Quebec newspaper, Boswell Brewery of Quebec City advertised its India Ale and Cream Porter. The advert pictured two military figures, a plumed helmet atop one, a spiked sun helmet on the other:
An English version of the ad appeared,in the Quebec Chronicle of July 10, 1910.
If beer trades in anything other than lucre it is memory, the part that evokes pleasure and other uplifting associations.
For the figure on the right, Boswell was drawing an association between British and Anglo-Canadian military tradition and the taste for beer. India pale ale was a British type of beer, familiar wherever British power projected.
The figure on the left, in contrast, evokes a French officer of the later 1700s. A French analogue is presented, therefore, to balance the impression of the advert, as Quebec has always had a clear French-speaking majority.
Both the French “ancien régime (old regime)” and succeeding British one are referenced in the copy portion. A final amity is suggested, cemented by a shared taste for beer.
For over 100 years after the British conquered Quebec they kept a substantial garrison in Quebec City, until 1871. It ended by forming an important part of the city’s economic and social system.
In fact the departure of the soldiery – ever the symbol of the despised Conquest – was regretted by most in Quebec City, French and English alike.
A recent documentary made with Quebec government funding, Québec se souvient /150e du départ de la garnison britannique. (“Quebec Remembers: the 150th Anniversary of the British Garrison Departure”), makes the point.
In the film, historian Catherine Ferland argues that with the passage of time Quebeckers, French-speakers included, came to accept and even value the British troops who were based at the historic Citadelle.
The Tommies helped keep the local economy afloat which included, for present purposes, brewing, of which Boswell was an important part.
Hence, the historic resentment by French Quebec of British and later English Canadian power was somewhat modified, in that period, by this circumstance. This explains, in my view, why in 1910 British imperial authority could be represented in anodyne fashion in the French press.
Boswell’s at the time was led by Vesey Boswell, a direct descendant of Irish-born immigrant Joseph K. Boswell, the brewery’s founder. The brewery was now part of a multi-brewery combine, National Breweries Ltd., but Vesey was a key part of the new structure.
The name Boswell connoted by 1910 the Anglo elite. One wonders if possibly Boswell was simply insensitive to depict British authority so baldly in a French product ad, but I don’t think so. I consider the ad reflected a nostalgia felt by the city as a whole.
In July 1960 the Quebec historian Antonio Drolet wrote an article in the newspaper l’Action Catholique. He viewed the departure of the troops in 1871 as an important step in re-asserting francophone authority, what was later called “the French fact”.
Quebec City after 1871 became more French, he argues, in demographics, social, and political terms.
That part seems unarguable, but clearly Quebec lost out for some time economically, which he does not acknowledge.
The soldiers who replaced the Tommies at the Citadelle were Canadians – who mainly spoke French. (Many served with distinction in the famous Royal 22nd Regiment, or “Van Doos”). But the economic benefit was never the same as when Britain garrisoned Quebec City.
In the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir, of December 23-24, 2006 Antoine Robitaille explained the major effects of British departure:
Le départ de la garnison en 1871 plonge Québec dans un marasme économique. La Vieille Capitale ne fera à peu près aucun gain démographique jusqu’au début du XX siècle.
(“The termination of the garrison in 1871 plunged Quebec into economic stagnation. The Old Capital made almost no demographic gains until the commencement of the 20th century”).
Evidence of the toll on the brewing industry, traditionally a friend to the military, came straight from Boswell Brewery. In 1901 it placed this ad in Montreal’s La Presse:
The last paragraph states that brewing (in Quebec City) entered a long depression after Imperial troops left the Citadelle, and the loss of business set Boswell back by 15 years.
(Most accounts agree the troop departure was in 1871. The passage of time probably resulted in the dating slip).
The ad notes however by 1887 things had improved: the company was making its own malt and had reached an annual production of 660,000 gal. of Stock Ale, its major output.*
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*Presumably this was the India Ale advertised in 1910. See also my earlier post on Boswell’s and its importance in Canadian brewing history.