Time And Obliteration Itself Have Wrought No
Diminution Of Regard For Their Cherished Associations.
To each one of them an undying history attaches, and even their vacant
sites appeal with mute, but surpassing eloquence to the sympathy, the
interest and the veneration of visitors, to whom Quebec will be ever
dear, not for what it is, but for what it has been.
To the quick
comprehension of Lord Dufferin, it remained to note the inestimable
value of such heirlooms to the world at large. To his happy tact we
owe the revival of even a local concern for their preservation; and to
his fertile mind and aesthetic taste, we are indebted for the
conception of the noble scheme of restoration, embellishment and
addition in harmony with local requirements and modern notions of
progress, which is now being realized to keep their memories intact
for succeeding generations and retain for the cradle of New France its
unique reputation as the famous walled city of the New World. It has
more than once been remarked by tourists that, in their peculiar
fondness for a religious nomenclature, the early French settlers of
Quebec must have exhausted the saintly calendar in adapting names to
their public highways, places and institutions. To this pardonable
trait in their character, we must unquestionably ascribe the names
given to two of the three original gates in their primitive lines of
defence - St. Louis and St. John's gates - names which they were allowed
to retain when the Gallic lilies drooped before the victorious flag of
Britain.
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