The Quebec Clerk Controversy: A Study in Sociability, the Public Sphere, and the Eighteenth-Century Spirit of Enlightenment

Abstract

Abstract: In December 1790, a proposal advocating the creation of a weekly club for merchant clerks was published in the Quebec Herald, sparking a controversy over the propriety of sociability, public debate, and the proper conduct of youth. This article explores the concerns expressed by contributors to the newspaper, many of whom purported to be of the city's young, ambitious – though little-regarded – clerical class. Over a five-month period, letters arguing the importance of personal and civic betterment and valuing free association, rational discussion, and democratic order came into opposition with missives embodying more traditional fears such as the inherent restlessness, disorder, and impatience of youth. The use of the Quebec Herald to voice these concerns illustrates that a dynamic public sphere of opinion existed in late-eighteenth-century Quebec. Furthermore, the controversy provides a window into the diffusion of the spirit of Enlightenment among the colony's English-language society on the eve of the Constitutional Act.