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Krónika Archívum |
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Krónika Archívum |
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Krónika, 1994, 20. évf. 3. szám. Nandor Dreisziger:
The settlement of Hungarians in Canada is usually dated from the 1880's when groups of Magyar colonists were brought to the Canadian prairies by the immigration agent Pál Oszkár Esterházy. Canada, however, was not an un- known land to Hungarians before then. Individual Magyars, or even small groups of them, had come to what was then British North America long before the 1880's, either as pros- pective immigrants, or as visitors. The most famous of the latter was undoubtedly Alexander Bölöni Farkas, one of Hungary's most popular authors of the 1830's.Canada Seen Trough Hungarian Eyes in 1831
In 1830 and 1831 Bölöni Farkas accompanied Count Ferenc Béldy, a wealthy aristocrat, on a grand tour of Western Europe and North America. Farkas wrote a memoir of the tour which he published in 1834 under the title Utazás Észak-Amerikában (Journey in North America). The book proved a great success in Hungary. Its first and second editions quickly sold out. In many households, the book was read out loud, so that the entire family could listen. Undoubtedly there could have been more editions and more printings of the book, had Habsburg imperial authorities not taken notice of the book's popularity, and banned it late in
Alexander Bölöni Farkas
1795-18421835. Béldy and Farkas toured the United States in the late summer and early fall of 1831. Afterwards they entered what was then Lower Canada. Their first destination was Montreal where they boarded a steamer bound for Quebec City. A few days later they began the return voyage, up the St. Lawrence River and on to Lake Ontario.
Obviously, the two Hungarians' travel through British North America was not meant to be a systematic study of that land's political, economic and social conditions. Nevertheless, in his notes on their travels, Farkas did not confine his description of Lower and Upper Canada to comments on scenery, historic sites, and the life of the local population. He wrote much about Canadian public affairs, and what he said was almost always critical.
Bölöni Farkas' first negative impressions of Canadian political and economic life came in St-Jean, a British garrison town south- east of Montreal. Here, Farkas noticed "English soldiers guarding the fort and parading in the city," in great contrast to the United States where, according to Farkas, "not even the President" had a military guard. Because on entering the country Farkas and his compan- ion had been subjected to police questioning, Farkas felt justified in remarking that it was obvious that they had left the "free states" and were once again under "monarchical rule."
Lower Canada, in particular, was an economically "backward" colony. Illustrative of the colony's backwardness, according to Bölöni Farkas, was the fact that the value of land on the Canadian side of the international border was "barely more" than one-tenth of that on the ~American side.
Aside from the truly "magnificent" St. Lawrence River and a few public buildings, nothing impressed Farkas in either Montreal or Quebec City. His visit to the Governor's residence in the latter place, gave him a chance to comment on Canada’s political system. "Both Canada’s" were ruled by the governor "as the personal representative of the British crown." There were "legislative bodies," but "constant conflict" existed between the aristocracy, which controlled the "Upper House," and the "democratically inclined Lower House." While there was no direct taxation by Britain, and the mother country bore the cost of de- fence, England still derived benefit from her colonies because of "commercial reasons."
From Quebec, the Hungarians began their trip to Kingston, stopping several times along the way to change ships or to bypass navigational obstacles by coach. Farkas described the voyage, commenting on sites along the route, on traffic in the St. Lawrence, and on the masses of immigrants that crowded most ships bound for the interior. In Kingston he observed a large party of Indians arriving in canoes to shop for provisions. He had a great deal of sympathy for these "once free" people who were now considered "alien wanderers" in their own land.
From Kingston our visitors first sailed to Oswego, and then to York (today's Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada. Their impressions of this town are interesting: "[York] consists of entirely new buildings. The governor’s residence, the colonial legislature, a school named King's College, military barracks, and a few churches are the public buildings. On the streets there are still many thick tree stumps and at barely a half mile distance primeval forests. . "
The visit to York gave Farkas a chance to talk about settlement policy in Upper Canada. He described this as ineffective, as Canadian settlers looked on the American sys- tem with "undisguised yearning." Farkas then went on to outline the struggle for constitutional reform in the colony.From York the Hungarians took a ship to Queenston, in preparation for a sightseeing trip to Niagara Falls. Farkas devoted much space to a description of this scenic spectacle, but made no further comments on public affairs in Canada.
It might be asked why did Farkas, a visitor from a distant corner of the world, paint such a negative picture of Canadian politics? His attitude is all the more difficult to explain as he rendered a very favourable assessment of the United States. The answer to this question lies in part in Farkas' political philosophy. Farkas was not only a liberal, but also a democrat. He had gone beyond those people in contemporary Hungary who advocated constitutional and economic reform, but who did not favour, for the time being at least, a populist democracy. Farkas' ideal of a society was most closely embodied by the young American republic. Because of the Habsburg domination of his own country, he could not write a book describing his ideal of a free and progressive society, but he could publish a travelogue about America. Interspersed among the descriptions of America's scenic wonders, Farkas' book out- lined a country that his compatriots could hold up as a model for themselves.
Seen in this light, Farkas' trip to Britain's largest American colonies assumed special significance. Canada was to prove to the author's audience that all that was good and beautiful in American society was not the result simply of a North American environment, but was the product of the political system prevailing in the United States. For Farkas, the Canada of 1831 was living proof that monarchical societies were less free and more backward than constitutional republics.
Suggested Readings
Alexander Bölöni Farkas: Journey in North America. Trans. & ed. by Theodore and Helen Schoenmann (Philadelphia, 1977). Sándor Bölöni Farkas: Journey in North America, 1831: Trans. & ed. by Arpad Kadarkay (Santa Barbara and Oxford, 1978). N.F. Dreisziger, Struggle and Hope: the Hungarian-Canadian Experience (Toronto, 1982); and by the same author, "The Critical Visitor: Alexander Bölöni Farkas' Tour of Canada in 1831," The Quarterly of Canadian Studies, 5 (1982), pp. 145-52.
Note: Translations from the Hungarian in this article are based on the work of the Schoenmanns, while the text is a revised and much abbreviated version of the paper, "The Critical Visitor..."
B.B. 2004/01/07.
