The Maisonneuve Monument.

Royal Victoria Hospital.

The prophecy has been fulfilled. The flower of faith, thus planted in a savage soil, took root and has developed into a luxuriant garden. Where rough-hewn cabins stood in a primeval forest, is now a city of about three hundred thousand inhabitants, whose handsome residences and imposing public buildings, secular and sacred, prove that both civilization and Christianity have here achieved great triumphs. Where a few pious souls knelt at a rustic shrine, bedecked with fragrant flowers, while stealthy foes, more dangerous than hungry wolves, peered through the parted leaves and coveted their scalps, are now so many houses of religious worship that Montreal is sometimes called the City of Churches. Some of these sanctuaries are among the largest on the American continent, and one of them, the Church of Notre Dame, is capable of containing ten thousand people.

Interior Of Notre Dame Church.

Moreover, where two solitary women stood, like ministering angels, on the threshold of a dreary wilderness, and pledged themselves to deeds of charity and love, now stand a number of fine hospitals and benevolent institutions, including the well-known communities of Sisters, some of whom give instruction yearly to more than twenty thousand girls, while others serve' the city's sick and suffering, and others still, the Grey Nuns, have gone forth like pioneers of mercy through the lonely northern world, planting their branch establishments farther and farther from the parent house at Montreal, until some self-denying souls, as spotless as the virgin snows around them, now overflow in acts of pure beneficence within the Arctic Circle, where the Mackenzie rolls its glacial torrent toward the Polar Sea.

In this great evolution of the city, the badge of nationality has been of less importance than individual energy. After the capture of Quebec by Wolfe, the fate of Montreal, as the last French possession of great value in America, was inevitable; and it was here, in the Chateau de Ramezay on Notre Dame Street, the official residence of the governor, that the surrender of the colony to England was effected, and its articles signed. Yet here, as in Quebec, the old French element still survives, and is exceedingly influential. In fact, a little more than half of the population of Montreal is French in race, and Roman Catholic in religion. As a rule, the citizens living east of St. Lawrence Main Street are of French descent, while those whose homes are west of it are English, Scotch, or Irish, Thousands of people in both quarters are still unable to speak each other's language. Among the British, the motive is in most cases indifference; among the French, the cause is a strong feeling of conservatism. These races are not actively antagonistic, nor can the French Canadians be said to be disloyal to Great Britain. Nevertheless, many of the lineal descendants of the early French colonists cherish, more or less hopefully, a dream of independence, to which the memory of their past imparts both sanctity and sweetness. Meantime it is significant that the chief increase in the population of the Dominion is among the French Canadians. It is authoritatively stated that in the last forty years most of the eastern townships in the Province of Quebec have been converted from spheres of English influence to those where French control is practically dominant; and colonization companies, aided and encouraged by the Catholic Church, are steadily filling up the hitherto undeveloped sections of the Province with individuals and families of this prolific and industrious race. It is evident, therefore, that we are here beholding the gradual working out of a political and social problem, whose ultimate solution cannot safely be predicted. Qui vivra verm.

The Grey Nunnery.

Chateau De Ramezay.

Montreal is favored with two remarkable pleasure parks. One occupies St. Helen's Island, and seems to float upon the surface of the river like a sylvan barge.