Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XII.

Happy the nations of the moral north!

Where all is virtue, and the winter season

Sends Sin, without a rag on, shivering forth.

('Twas snow that brought St. Anthony to reason.)

BYRON.

MONTREAL is the second town in Canada, and is situated on an island in the River St. Lawrence. Seen at a distance, it looks like a compact mass of buildings, confined within narrow boundaries. The streets, with the exception of St. James's Street, are narrow, crooked, and badly laid out; the houses, chiefly built of brick, are low and destitute of taste. This defect is not perceived outside the town, so that the first impression of Montreal is by no means disagreeable. The roofs, covered with tin, and glittering in the sun, give them a singular appearance, and partly correct the obscurity of the gloomy streets. A number of steeples rise between the buildings, at the head of which appears the ma

.

[blocks in formation]

jestic cathedral, undoubtedly the largest in North America. Opposite to the town is St. Helen's Island, which is fortified; and beside it, the Island of Nuns, and several others. Towards the west, again, is a mountain, standing like a bulwark against storms, from which the city derives its name. Here and

there, between the openings of this mountain, are seen neat country-houses, the whiteness of which forms an agreeable contrast with the surrounding green parks and groves. At the top of the mountain is a thick wood, whose richness imparts life to the whole landscape.

Among the public buildings at Montreal generally shown to strangers, the cathedral and some of the convents deserve to be mentioned. The first is built of stone, in the Gothic style, two hundred and fifty-five feet in length, and one hundred and thirty-four in width. The plan of the architect was to build six square towers, two hundred feet high this has, unfortunately, not been carried into effect. Two towers only have been commenced, and even those are not finished; so that the front of the church has a very unfinished appearance. The interior contains nothing remarkable. The paintings

[blocks in formation]

over the altar are not particularly good, and cannot be called masterpieces. Behind the principal altar there are a few painted windows, representing Christ and the twelve Apostles, deservedly admired on account of the freshness of the colours and the correctness of the design.

The

The convents are almost exclusively appropriated to the care of the sick. Hotel de Dieu is a spacious hospital, managed by nuns, whose zeal in the good cause is not surpassed in any Catholic country in Europe. The Grey Sisters have another hospital in the convent, where the orphans who had the misfortune of losing their parents during the prevalence of the cholera last year are taken care of*. It is scarcely possible to express in words the active humanity, the extreme kindness, shown by these charitable nuns towards the unfortunate children; it is equally impossible to convey a correct idea of the careful education which they give to these fatherless little ones. The Protestant can appreciate such noble actions as well as the Catholic; such sacrifices and such a renunciation of all the enjoyments of life in favour of a good

In Quebec, two thousand five hundred persons died of this epidemic; in Montreal, two thousand.

POPULATION OF CANADA.

335

cause, must be admired by every sect on earth. The nuns possess a convent chapel, fitted up with taste and elegance. A stranger is, without difficulty, admitted into it, as well as into the convent; he is only expected to buy a few articles manufactured by the nuns. Montreal has an extensive trade, and may be considered as a more thriving place than Quebec, although the latter city is better situated for trade. The population of Montreal, in the year 1825, was about twenty-four thousand souls; at this period, it was stated to exceed thirty thousand. Lower Canada had, in the year 1814, a population of three hundred and thirty-five thousand; at the present moment, it cannot amount to less than six hundred thousand. To judge by the influx of emigrants of late years, the population of Upper Canada ought to be nearly equal to that of the Lower Province.

Canada, according to a late census, contains one million inhabitants. The number of persons who have come hither, within the last ten years, for the purpose of settling, is very considerable, and annually on the increase. In the year 1825, nine thousand and ninety-seven emigrants arrived in 1832, forty-nine thousand, four hundred, and twenty-two. Large

336

EMIGRATION TO THE CANADAS.

districts, particularly in Upper Canada, are peopled with the same incredible rapidity as in the Western States of the American Republic. "Forests are, in every direction, levelled with the ground," says Flint in his work often referred to" and large and compact villages spring up in two or three years from the period of erecting the first hut." The price of uncultivated land is nearly the same as in the United States. Several private companies, to which Government has made considerable grants of land, are striving to induce new comers to settle near the shores of Lake Huron; but the districts to which the tide of emigration principally flows are those in the neighbourhood of the River St. Lawrence, in Upper Canada, and about Lake Ontario.

A wealthy, and rather better-informed, class of individuals from Europe has, of late years, settled in Upper Canada, in preference to the Lower Province, on account of les Lois des Seigneurs, which are still in force there. These laws, which give proprietors the same prerogatives as during the existence of the feudal system in Europe, date their origin from the times when Canada was peopled by French emigrants. The Government of the

« ZurückWeiter »