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We leave Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu river, to the left: this town is made, by English hands, more prosperous than its neighbours. On the same side, thirty miles higher up, is Varennes, a place of much beauty: a hundred years ago people crowded to its mineral springs; now, it is but a lonely spot. A fine old church, with two lofty spires, stands in the centre of the village; in the back-ground, far away to the south-east, is the holy mountain of Rouville; on its summit, the Pilgrim's Cross is seen for many a mile.

Above Montreal, the Ottawa joins the St. Lawrence; both streams seem bewildered among the numerous and beautiful islands, and, hurrying past in strong rapids, only find full rest in the broad deep river, fifteen miles below.

At eight o'clock in the morning we were beside the wharf at Montreal it is of great extentreaching nearly a mile up the river, and very solid, built of handsome cut stone. It is broad and convenient for purposes of commerce; vessels of five hundred tons can discharge their cargoes there. Immediately above the town, the rapids of Lachine forbid further navigation. The city extends along the river nearly two miles, the depth being about one half the length. The public buildings are calculated

for what the place is to be, at present being, perhaps, too large and numerous in proportion, though fifty thousand inhabitants dwell around them. The neighbouring quarries furnish abundant materials for the architect, and the new shops and streets are very showy. The French Cathedral is the largest building in the New World: its proportions are faulty, but it is nevertheless a grand mass of masonry: ten thousand people can kneel at the same time in prayer within its walls. The town is well lighted, kept very clean, and is full of bustle, life, and activity,-handsome equipages, gay dresses, and military uniforms. Many rows of good houses, of cut stone, are springing up in the suburbs, and there is a look of solidity about everything, pleasing to the English eye. Some of the best parts of the town are still deformed by a few old and mean buildings, but, as the leases fall in and improvements continue, they will soon disappear.

Montreal is built on the south shore of an island thirty miles long, and about one third of that breadth. All this district is very fertile; the revenues belong to the seminary of the St. Sulpicians, one of the orders of the Church of Rome, and are very ample. The Mont Royal alone varies

the level surface of this island. The ParliamentHouse, the seat of government, the military headquarters, and the public offices of Canada, are in this city; the trade is very considerable; within the last few years it has rapidly increased, and is increasing still. The export of corn to England opens a mine of wealth, while in return the wharves are crowded with our manufactures and the luxuries of other countries. The people are fully employed, and live in plenty; but there are occasionally disturbances among them, occasioned by the collisions of the English, Irish, and French races. The elections are carried on with much excitement and bitterness of feeling, but usually end in the success of the conservative principle. Society also is much divided; there is but little of that generally social feeling which characterizes Quebec. The entertainments have more display, but are far less agreeable than those of the sister city, and among the different coteries of the inhabitants there is not apparently much cordiality.

In England, Montreal would be considered a very handsome town, and in bustle and activity far surpasses any one of its size there; the wharves, hotels, shops, baths, are also much finer; it pos

sesses quite a metropolitan appearance, and no doubt it will, ere long, be the capital of a great country. Few towns in the world have progressed so rapidly in size, beauty, convenience, and population, within the last few years, and at this present time its commerce is in a most prosperous condition. You see in it all the energy and enterprize of an American city, with the solidity of an English one. The removal hither of the seat of government from Quebec and Kingston, has, of course, given it a considerable impulse of prosperity at their expense; but it is still more indebted to its excellent commercial position, and the energy of its inhabitants.

Now, from the bustle, prosperity, and contentions of Montreal, let us bear back our thoughts for a moment over the bridge of history to the time-but yesterday in the world's chronologywhen the kings of the ancient people welcomed the Pale-faces to the shores of HOCHELAGA. That day was their Hastings. They were smitten with deadlier weapons than Norman bow or lancethe plague of the white man's crimes; their innocence was barer than the Saxon soldier's breast, their wounds far deeper, more hopeless of a cure. They were not subjugated nor driven

out, but they withered up before the strangers. Beneath the grounds where they hunted, their bones lie; their land is their wide cemetery ; scarcely a mound, or stone, or a trace even of tradition, now points out the spot where any of their millions sleep.

Gentle, feeble, simple,—they were yet too proud to mingle with a race whose superiority they felt; they refused its civilization, but alas! copied its vices; in these, at least, they felt themselves its equal. As the snow in spring, they melted away -stained, tainted, trampled down.

My fancy is busy with the past. I have swept away those crowded wharves and lofty spires; on their sites the rich corn-fields wave again; the shady forest spreads over the distant slopes, the birch bark roofs of the wigwams peep through the tall trees upon the mountain side, the light canoe skims over the broad river; the wise Sachems of the tribes meet us on the shore with generous welcome; the graceful Indian maiden bends beneath her fragrant burthen of fruits and flowers, to be laid at our feet.

A cabman seizes me by each arm, "Tetu's or Rasco's, Sir? take you up, luggage and all, for a

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