where a more thoroughly loyal class of subjects.* It is yet scarcely seventy years since the province was captured from the French; yet the attachment of the people to their former masters seems as completely obliterated as if centuries had intervened, or as if the change had taken place in consequence of their own choice, rather than by the fortune of war.5 The Legislative Council consists of between twenty and thirty individuals, who are named by the crown and hold their office for life. In this body English feeling and interest has generally predominated, and they and the House of Assembly A recent traveller (Miss, Wright,) has spoken of Canadian loyalty as being merely hatred to the heretical Americans, infused into the minds of the people by the priests. Had Canada been under the dominion of Spain, instead of Britain, there might have been some plausibility in this theory; but so far as I can judge, the Canadians care as little about the heresy of the one people, as of the other. 5 Professor Silliman of Yale College published, in 1820, a narrative of a Tour to Montreal and Quebec, which is characterized by all the intelligence, liberality, and conciliatory spirit, which are so conspicuous in his Travels through Great Britain. I have much pleasure in transcribing his remarks upon the government of Canada. "It is questionable whether any conquered country," says he, "was ever better treated by its conquerors. They were left in complete possession of their religion, and of the revenues to support it, of their property, laws, customs and manners; and even the very governing and defending their country is almost without expense to them. It is doubtful whether our own favoured communities are politically more happy.” Tour between Hartford and Quebec, pp. 364, 5. CONVENT OF THE URSULINES. 189 have been frequently at open war with each other. Under the judicious administration however of Sir John Coape Sherbrooke, much was done to allay party feeling, and remove irritation." Among the institutions connected with the Romish church, are a Seminary, very similar in its management to the one at Montreal, the Hôtel Dieu, a convent for the reception of the diseased poor, conducted by a Mère Superieure, and thirtytwo nuns; and the convent of the Ursulines, containing a Superieure and forty-five nuns, who devote themselves principally to the education of female children. The Ursulines are said to be more rigid in their seclusion than any other nuns in Canada, and it was not without some difficulty that a friend procured me permission to visit their convent. This difficulty however was partly occasioned by the absence of Monseigneur the Bishop of Quebec, who is in general not unwilling to gratify the curiosity of strangers. The convent of the Ursulines, like most of the religious houses which were erected by the French, is built in the form of a hollow square. Connected with it is a small chapel, which is open to the public; but a curtain suspended behind a A bill has been introduced in the present Session of the Imperial Parliament, to abolish the separation which since 1791 has existed between the local governments of Upper and Lower Canada. (1821.) large grating conceals the nuns from the vulgar gaze. At the principal door of the convent there is an open porch, with a barrel exactly similar to that which I saw at Fayal by which alms are dispensed to the poor. On ringing the bell for admittance, this barrel was whirled half way round, so as to leave a small opening, and three nuns appeared within to whom we handed the order for our admittance. They told us, however, that Père D was at that moment in the chapel, hearing confession, and that they should be obliged to detain us without, till he returned. In a few minutes his reverence made his appearance, having entered the convent by a private passage; the door was then unlocked, and we were admitted. The Mère Superieure was waiting to receive us; a jolly, fresh looking woman, rather above the ordinary height, of a dignified carriage, and apparently about thirty-five or forty years of age. We had no sooner exchanged bows with the ladies, than the usual question was put to me by the Mère Superieure," Parlez vous Français, Monsieur ?” Finding however that I was rather lame at this, she frankly waved ceremony and addressed me in English, which she spoke so well, that I could not help suspecting that she was of an English family. We We were conducted first into the room in which the nuns hear the services of the chapel; a plain CONVENT OF THE URSULINES. 191 apartment, with an altar and a few pictures. From it we were taken into a kind of a parlour, where all the religieuses, except those who were engaged in the school-rooms, were waiting to receive us. They were ranged in line opposite the door, and immediately on our entering, bowed and smiled most graciously, and without the slightest appearance of formality or demureness. At one end of the row were four interesting young creatures wearing white veils; these were in their noviciate, and Père D- informed us that they wore the white veil two years, before assuming the vows and the black one. Beside them were three who had been invested with the black veil only a few weeks before; had I visited Quebec a little sooner, I might have witnessed the ceremony, for it is always public. I was told that these three girls were only from eighteen to twenty-four years of age; they seemed not at all dull, but laughed and talked as good humouredly as any. The four novices seemed to be the only demure individuals among the whole, they bowed to us like the rest, but relaxed not a muscle of their countenances. The dress of the Ursulines is dismal in the extreme. A long black robe of bombasin with very wide sleeves; a black veil tied round the forehead and thrown back over the shoulder; a piece of stiff starched linen covering the breast, and tied down by strings passing under the arms; the forehead hid by a piece of linen which covers to the eye-brows, and a corresponding bandage brought down under the chin, so as to conceal the ears and part of both cheeks;-all that is elegant and graceful in the female figure is thus completely concealed, and the poor creatures are in shape and colour not very unlike so many walking coffins. Some of them wore a leathern belt at the waist, with a rosary and cross hanging from it. The dress of the novices differs in nothing from that of the others, excepting the colour of the veil ; which, by the way, is not made use of to conceal the features, but is in all cases thrown back over the shoulders. The aspect of the nuns was more interesting than that of the Sœurs Gris at Montreal. Some of the young ones might I dare say have been thought pretty, had they worn a less ghastly dress; a few of the others had something of the grandmother aspect, but some, and the Mère Superieure in particular, had pleasing features and a lady-like deportment. About half a dozen of the nuns accompanied us from room to room, each of whom showed the utmost inclination to enter into conversation with us. We saw three school rooms, all full of neatly dressed girls at their tasks, with two nuns in each as teachers; two of these were devoted to the children of the poorer classes, who are educated for a very small annual sum, the other was for the daughters of those who could afford to pay more liberally. Whenever we entered, the whole rose from their |