one each for theology, rhetoric, and for mathematics and physics, and five regents of the humanity classes. Besides several minor French and English schools, and some Sunday schools, there is a national school on a liberal foundation; also a royal grammar school, and a classical academy. A spirit for improving the mind evidently exists in this city. Some time ago, a royal institution was established for the advancement of learning within the province. The protestant bishop, Dr. Stewart, is the principal; the chief officers of the civil government, and the members of the legislature, are the trustees of this institution. The literary and historical society of Quebec, which is also patronised by the government, deserves all praise. This institution is under the direction and management of the Chief Justice of Canada as president, four vice-presidents, corresponding, recording, and council secretaries. It is divided into four departments: viz. literature, general history, sciences, and the arts. The Quebec library contains a great variety of standard and interesting works. There is also an excellent library for the use of the garrison. There are four newspapers of respectable pretensions published in this city. The Old Quebec Gazette, now published twice a-week, was commenced in 1764, and printed in English and French. It was the public periodical under the immediate authority of government until 1823, when Mr. Nielson, the proprietor, and an honest, intelligent member of the legislature, displeased the executive government; and another paper, published weekly, assumed the same name under the governor's authority. The Quebec Mercury is published twice a-week. There is also another paper, the Canadien, printed in French. Neither does Quebec want benevolent and useful associations. The principal of these are - the Quebec Emigrant Society; Quebec Agricultural Society; Medical Society; Quebec Diocesan Committee of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge; Ladies' Society for Propagating Education and Industry in Canada; Ladies' Bible Society; Bible and Tract Society; Quebec Education Society, and the Fire Society. Besides the Bank of Quebec, and a branch of the Montreal bank, there is also a savings' bank.* There are two or three distilleries, breweries, tobacco, soap, and candle manufactories. Several beautiful ships have been for many years built here; and we find such tradesmen as are usual in a city, but not all those of a manufacturing town. Here are brewers, distillers, carpenters, joiners, carriage-builders, smiths, saddlers, tanners, barbers, tailors, shoemakers, mill and wheelwrights, upholsterers, and those more important personages, players, fiddlers, dancing-masters, and tavern-keepers. A great proportion of the British and other goods imported, are sold by auction; the Canadian shopkeepers, who seldom import goods from other countries, prefer buying their goods at public sales than by private bargains. Some of the shops are fitted up in a way which the Cockneys would call rather stylish; but, like the shops all over America, you find in most of them every variety of goods sold in the country: silks, lace, muslins, ribands, crockeryware, and ironmongery; broad cloths and cutlery; * A detailed notice of these banks will be found hereafter, when treating of the commerce of Canada. saddles, and looking-glass; spikes, nails, and spades; needles, thimbles, and pins. What will ever render Quebec a position of the first and most mighty consideration to England, or to any power holding possession of the empire of the Canadas, and which fully justifies even the enormous outlays expended on its fortification, is its particular situation, and the extraordinary natural features of the spot on which it is founded. It is now absolutely impossible for a ship of any size to pass either up or down contrary to the permission of those who possess its garrison. Very large ships cannot go up to Montreal; nor are there any intermediate places of great commercial importance. The citadel of Quebec, on the highest part of Cape Diamond, is a fortification not perhaps inferior to any in Europe, and commands every surrounding position. The old French walls were remarkably strong, but they have been nearly all destroyed on the land side, and replaced with others if possible still stronger, and constructed according to the more modern rules of defence. Forty acres are occupied by the fortifications; and across the plain (1837 yards), on the only assailable ground which rises a little at some distance from the walls, four Martello towers, strongly constructed, to baffle the first attacks of an enemy, are so disposed as to sweep every possible line of advance. There is a steep inclined plain and slope of 500 feet, exclusively used by government, to ascend Cape Diamond, at a height of 950 from Brehaut's wharf. There are five gates, strongly defended, in the walls which surround the city, viz. St. Louis' Gate, St. John's Gate, Palace Gate, Hope Gate, and Prescott Gate, through which we ascend from the lower to the upper town. The armoury of Quebec is well worth visiting and examining. It is only inferior to that of the Tower of London. Twenty thousand stand of fire-arms are always in perfect readiness to deliver to the military. : On the west, and in front of the citadel, are the celebrated plains of Abraham, where Wolfe fought, conquered, and died; which, with many circumstances less known, but still splendid in the historical records of Canada, impart a classic interest to Quebec, to which no other city in the Western World has a similar claim. Although it was proposed, immediately after the conquest of Canada, to erect a monument on this spot to the memory of Wolfe, and although M. de Bougainville obtained permission at the same time from our government to place a monument in the Ursuline church in honour of Montcalm, yet seventy years had nearly passed away before this duty, which custom has made sacred, was fulfilled. At length an obelisk of appropriate grandeur was erected* in a recess of the Upper Château Gardens; and, with the chivalrous generosity and admiration due to heroes, it is dedicated to the "Immortal Memory of Wolfe and Montcalm." The open fields on the plains, belonging to the Hôtel-Dieu, are retained by the government for military purposes. Here is the race course, a mile in circuit. The grandeur of the view from the citadel of Cape Diamond has been extolled by all that ever beheld it. The prospects from the castles of Edinburgh or Stir * By subscription, under Lord Dalhousie's patronage. ling have the greatest claims of any that I have seen to a comparison with it; but both fall far short of the magnificent views enjoyed from the summit of - Cape Diamond. When we look down the St. Lawrence, we have before us a sublime landscape, exhibiting from forty to fifty miles of one of the greatest rivers in the world, with tall ships, small vessels, and boats on its surface, and divided for twenty miles by the Island of Orleans; of which also, with all its interesting beauties, we have a bird's-eye view. * At the same time the southern coast presents villages, churches, cottages, farms, forests, and mountains in the distant outline. If we turn to the north and east, we have a vast amphitheatre, embosomed within lofty mountains, and enriched and animated by the villages and churches of Beauport, Charleburgh, and Lorrette, with the vale of the River St. Charles, and a country decked with clumps of wood and richly cultivated farms. If we look below, we behold, some hundreds of feet underneath us, the lower town, with all its active accompaniments, and with crowds of ships at anchor in the cove, alongside the wharfs, and under sail. Opposite stands Point Levi and a populous country. Upwards, the view, although not extensive, is still grand. The country is bold and romantic, yet cultivated and populous; and the river exhibits the unceasing movements of steam-boats, sailing-vessels, small boats, Indian canoes, and rafts * The view from the belfry of the Catholic cathedral is equally sublime. A friend of mine, a gentleman of taste, on beholding the magnificent prospect from this position, remarked, that "whatever might be the fecundity of a poet's or painter's imagination, neither could ever create a picture so splendid and magnificent as that of the surrounding landscape." |