of books, and prints, illustrating the costumes and scenery of different countries. There is also a judiciously selected garrison library, and an advocates' library, containing an appropriate collection. There are five newspapers, published twice a-week, and three weekly papers, three of which are in French. In all, I fear that the spirit of politics and party has more influence than facts will bear out. Yet, when we condemn them, we must not forget the licentiousness of many of the leading journals and weekly papers of the United Kingdom. A paper called the Scribbler, printed some time ago at Montreal, though utterly contemptible as to its character, particularly in exposing family matters, depicted the peculiarity of individuals with extraordinary tact and scurrility. La Bibliothèque Canadienne is a monthly publication. The Canadian Quarterly Review, which commenced in 1824, and in which some excellent articles appeared, has been discontinued; there was scarcely at that time a field to support it. A religious publication, called the Christian Sentinel, is published every two months. In 1808, there were only two newspapers printed in Canada. There appears a greater spirit of improvement in this city than at Quebec. There is much activity observable among all classes connected with trade. The position of Montreal, at the head of the ship navigation, and near the confluence of the St. Lawrence with the Uttawa, and its communication with Upper Canada, the Gennessee country, and other parts of the United States, will always constitute it one of the greatest commercial emporiums in America. In winter the trade of Montreal is not suspended, like that of Quebec. Thousands of sledges may be seen coming in from all directions with agricultural produce and frozen carcasses of beef and pork, firewood, and other articles. Keen, calculating Jonathan, who finds out whatever will enable him to obtain a dollar, also directs his way with a horse and sledge, carrying the fish he caught in Massachusetts Bay over snow and ice, to supply the tables of the freshfish epicureans of Montreal. There is an excellent new market built in the city, on the spot where formerly stood the college Two other smaller markets have lately been erected; and another on a large scale, in the progress of being finished. Manufactured goods of all kinds are continually selling off in packages by the merchants or the auctioneers to the shopkeepers and country dealers, who again retail them to the town's folk or country people; and flour, wheat, potatoes, &c., are continually coming in and filling the stores or warehouses. The markets at Montreal are abundantly supplied at all seasons of the year; and, although the expense of living is usually great, the price of provisions is certainly not the cause. Beef, veal, mutton, lamb, pork, poultry, vegetables, and fruit are excellent and cheap. Bass, pike, pickerel, eels, masquenongé, and poisson d'orée, are the best kinds of fish; salmon, and other varieties, occasionally. An American traveller, comparing the river St. Lawrence with the Mississippi, observes, "great was our surprise, on arriving within view of Montreal, at the magnitude and importance of the place, and the grandeur of the vast river, and the shipping, five hundred miles from the ocean. It may well compare with our own Mississippi; and, though winter fast locks it in ice, summer, on the other hand, brings no yellow fever." In summer, vast rafts of timber come down and pass the town for Quebec; and scows, bateaux, or Durham boats, bring down the produce of the upper country. The bateaux will carry about six tons; they are forty feet long, six feet broad, flat-bottomed, and draw about twenty inches water, and constructed to shoot or pass through the rapids. The dangers which the voyageurs or boatmen encounter are almost incredible. When rowing, they keep time by singing their celebrated airs, the effect of which in fine weather on the rivers and lakes is truly delightful. The scows are rude, oblong, rectangular, flat-bottomed vessels, that will sometimes carry down 400 to 500 barrels floating with the stream. They are built in the upper countries merely for carrying down one cargo, and then sold, to be broken up, for a few dollars, at Montreal or Quebec. Before the North-west and Hudson Bay Companies joined their interests, Montreal was the headquarters, the grand depôt of the fur trade. The Company have still a warehouse here; and we may occasionally observe canoes, laden with various articles to barter for furs with the Indians, depart for the ports on the river St. Maurice. But this animated trade has in any important degree fled from Montreal for ever, or as long as the Company of Hudson Bay hold the north-west trading ports. There are castiron founderies; and machinery for steam-engines, stoves, kettles, common nails, linseed oil, floor cloths, &c., are manufactured in the town. There are also distilleries; breweries; soap, candle, and tobacco manufactories; and several ship-building establishments, where many substantial and handsome vessels have been constructed. The bank, which was established in 1817, facilitates commercial transactions to a vast extent. There is a branch of it at Quebec; but another bank is necessary, and the bill prepared by the Legislature to incorporate it has, by some means, been prevented from receiving the royal allowance. There is also a committee of trade, which regulates various commercial matters and charges. The population of Montreal resembles that of Quebec. About three fourths are French; the rest English, Scotch, Irish, and Americans. The appearance of the population in the streets is also much the same as at Quebec, with an addition of tall, lathy, sallow, calculating Yankees; and athletic, warm-hearted, unsuspicious Highlanders from Glengary; with groups of Iroquois Indians, in tawdry costume, and equally as degraded as the Hurons of Lorette. It has a more ecclesiastical and classical character than Quebec; a greater number of priests in their black robes, and students in their academicals, are seen walking about. The state of society is also much the same as at Quebec, and, I think, equally genteel and respectable. The cessation of business during winter at Quebec, contrasted with the active occupations of the inhabitants of Montreal during the same period, may produce effects, probably favourable to Montreal, on the society of both places. The north-west merchants and their ladies gave, at one time, the lead to society; I have heard it said, merely because they gave the best dinners - an observation which may have been just, although ungrateful on the part of the hungry falcons who fattened on the feasts of those at least adventurous men, who, after a long period of life spent in perilous but gainful pursuits, returned from the vast, distant, and, except to them, unexplored regions of the north-west, and ostentatiously, it is true, opened their mansions, and gave princely banquets to less adventurous persons. Those who made fortunes in the fur trade have nearly, if not all, passed away from the theatre of action, and their money seems to have vanished with them. They were low and coarse in their manners, proud, overbearing, and vain: nor were their lives in the north-western regions calculated to introduce among the Indians any change that did not tend to immorality and licentiousness. Observing to a gentleman at Montreal, that I was surprised, when I made any enquiries about those engaged in the north-west trade, and the rapid disappearance of themselves and their fortunes, that all parties spoke of them disrespectfully, he replied, "they were proud in purse - men who, while the commerce of their company gave them power, made themselves hateful to all others. They were also irreligious; and their immorality and disregard for virtue produced disgust, when their power as a body ended, and when their ability to give feasts ceased." A full share of all that I have said respecting admission to what is considered the first society at Quebec, prevails at Montreal. Let a stranger, however, be but once well introduced, and in no place will he meet with more liberal and kind attention. Personally, I have with gratitude and sincerity to acknowledge this. Near the river, there is a splendid hotel. Its ap |