I Received Much Kindness Also From Dr. Mountain, The Venerable Protestant
Bishop Of Quebec.
He is well known as having, when Bishop of Montreal,
undertaken an adventurous journey to the Red River settlements, for the
purposes of ordination and confirmation.
He performed the journey in an
open canoe managed by French voyageurs and Indians. They went up the
Ottawa, then by wild lakes and rivers into Lake Huron, through the
labyrinth of islands in the Georgian Bay, and by the Sault Sainte Marie
into Lake Superior, then an almost untraversed sheet of deep, dreary
water. Thence they went up the Rainy River, and by almost unknown streams
and lakes to their journey's end. They generally rested at night, lighting
large fires by their tents, and were tormented by venomous insects. At the
Mission settlements on the Red River the Bishop was received with great
delight by the Christianized Indians, who, in neat clothing and with books
in their hands, assembled at the little church. The number of persons
confirmed was 846, and there were likewise two ordinations. The stay of
the Bishop at the Red River was only three weeks, and he accomplished his
enterprising journey of two thousand miles in six weeks. He is one of the
most unostentatious persons possible; it was not until he presented me
with a volume containing an account of his visitation that I was aware
that he was the prelate with the account of whose zeal and Christian
devotedness I had long been familiar. He is now an aged man, and his
countenance tells of the "love which looks kindly, and the wisdom which
looks soberly, on all things."
CHAPTER XIII.
The House of Commons - Canadian gallantry - The constitution - Mr. Hincks -
The ex-rebel - Parties and leaders - A street-row - Repeated disappointments
- The "habitans" - Their houses and their virtues - A stationary people -
Progress and its effects - Montmorenci - The natural staircase - The Indian
summer - Lorette - The old people - Beauties of Quebec - The John Munn - Fear
and its consequences - A gloomy journey.
One of the sights of Quebec - to me decidedly the most interesting one - was
the House of Assembly. The Legislature were burned out of their house at
Montreal, and more recently out of a very handsome one at Quebec - it is to
be hoped this august body will be more fortunate at Toronto, the present
place of meeting. The temporary place of sitting at Quebec seemed to me
perfectly adapted for the purposes of hearing, seeing, and speaking.
It is a spacious apartment, with deep galleries, which hold about five
hundred, round it, which were to Quebec what the Opera and the club-houses
are to London. In fact, these galleries were crowded every night; and
certainly, when I was there, fully one half of their occupants were
ladies, who could see and be seen. The presence of ladies may have an
effect in preventing the use of very intemperate language; and though it
is maliciously said that some of the younger members speak more for the
galleries than the house, and though some gallant individual may
occasionally step up stairs to restore a truant handkerchief or boa to the
fair owner, the distractions caused by their presence are very
inconsiderable, and the arrangements for their comfort are a great
reflection upon the miserable latticed hole to which lady listeners are
condemned in the English House of Commons.
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