the regular troops were his left, resting on the bank above the river; the gallant Canadian Seigneurs with their Provincials supported by two regiments, formed his right: beyond these, menacing the English left, were clouds of French and Indian skirmishers.

General Townshend met these with four regiments; the Louisbourg Grenadiers formed the front of battle, to the right, resting on the cliff; and there also was Wolfe, exhorting them to be steady, and to reserve their discharge. The French attacked; at forty paces they staggered under the fire, but repaid it well; at length they slowly gave ground. As they fell back, the bayonet and claymore of the Highlanders broke their ranks, and drove them with great carnage into the

town.

At the first, Wolfe had been wounded in the wrist, another shot struck him in the body; but he dissembled his suffering, for his duty was not yet done. Again a ball passed through his breast, and he sank. When they raised him from the ground, he tried with his faint hand to clear the death-mist from his eyes; he could not see how the battle went, but the voice which fell upon his dying ear told him he was immortal.

VOL. I.

D

There is a small monument on the place of his death, with the date, and this inscription :-" Here died Wolfe, victorious." He was too precious to be left, even on the field of his glory. England, jealous of his ashes, laid them with his father's, near the town where he was born. The chivalrous Montcalm was also slain. In a lofty situation on Cape Diamond a pillar is erected "to the memory of two illustrious men, Wolfe and Montcalm."*

Five days after the battle, Quebec surrendered, on such terms as generous victors give to gallant foes. The news of these events reached home but fortyeight hours later than the first discouraging despatch, and spread universal joy for the great triumph, and sorrow for its price. Throughout all broad England were illuminations and songs of triumph, except in one country village; for there Wolfe's widowed mother mourned her only child.

* This monument was erected by Lord Aylmer, (late Governor-General of Canada,) at his own expense. The inscription was furnished by him also, as well as the following chivalrous tribute to our gallant enemy: "Honneur à Montcalm! Le Destin, en lui dérobant la victoire, l'a récompensé par une mort glorieuse." This last inscription is to be seen on a tablet in the chapel of the Convent of the Ursulines, at Quebec; the tablet, likewise, being Lord Aylmer's gift.

This is the story of Quebec nearly a hundred years ago, and the reason why that flag of dear old England floats above its citadel.

Shortly after the cession of Canada by France, in 1763, English law was, by royal proclamation, established in the colony. In 1774, the French civil law was restored, with some slight reserve as to titles of land. The English criminal code was retained, and religious liberty and the rights of the clergy were guaranteed, subject to the supremacy of the crown.

These concessions caused most of the English settlers to remove, in sullen discontent, further to the west, where they were free from the hated French seignorial rights. There they founded Upper Canada. In 1791, legislatures were granted to each province, the Lower Chamber elective, the Upper appointed by the royal authority, and thus the latter became exclusively British. These two bodies were at once arrayed against each other, and it must be confessed that there were many just grounds of complaint, and abuses which the elective house always vigorously attacked.

In the year 1828, the people of the Lower Province presented an address, signed by 87,000 persons, complaining of the partial distribution

of patronage, the illegal application of the public money, and of some Acts (regulating trade and tenures) of the Imperial Parliament: at the same time 10,000 of the British inhabitants of the province petitioned to be freed from the mischievous pressure of the French civil law. In 1831, great concessions were made to the French party; the composition of the legislative council was altered in their favour; the control of all funds proceeding from duties in the colony was yielded to the House of Assembly, and power was given them to alter the laws of the tenure of property.

England, having granted so much in a generous spirit of conciliation, was unfortunately met by exorbitant demands of further concessions; such as to make the Upper House elective, the executive council directly responsible to the people, and to amend the agreements made by the government with the Canada Land Company. These were at once refused, and the assembly stopped the supplies.

While affairs were thus at a dead lock, violent demagogues, generally men of some education and very little responsibility, tried, by every means in their power, to excite the minds of the simple French Canadians to resist these supposed wrongs. They were unfortunately but too successful, and in

some districts the people rose in revolt. There were not wanting men in the English House of Commons, who rejoiced in the insurrection, and expressed ardent wishes for its success.

The government determined at once to strike at the root of the evil, by an effort to seize the leaders of the sedition, who were supposed to be assembled at St. Denis and St. Charles, on the Richelieu river, which flows into the St. Lawrence from the south.

On the night of November 22, 1837, a detachment from Sorel, of about four hundred and fifty men, marched upon St. Denis, and arrived at its destination at ten in the morning. The night had been one of extraordinary severity, the roads were ploughed up by the heavy rains, and the fatigue of a twelve hours' march, under such difficulties, had exhausted and harassed the troops.

The insurgents, to the number of fifteen hundred, were posted behind a barricade, in a fortified house and some buildings on the flank. Their leader was Wolfred Nelson, who had at least the merit of being a brave rebel, and who at present represents the Richelieu district in the provincial parliament, having experienced the clemency of the imperial government.