CHAP. XΧΙΙ.

POPULATION. - RELIGION. - SCHOOLS. - EDUCATION, ETC.

THE population of Canada, since its acquisition by Great Britain, has increased with extraordinary rapidity.

Its progress under the French government was slow. This arose from the country being long monopolised by an exclusive company; and afterwards from the cupidity and avariciousness of the intendants, and all their subordinate officers, who, in the years preceding the conquest, accumulated immense fortunes at the expense of public justice and the prosperity of the inhabitants.

In 1622, the population of Quebec was only 50. In 1720, it was 7000; and that of Montreal about 2000. In 1676, the whole European population of Canada was no more than 8500. In 1700, it was 15,000, and for fifty-nine years after the population, by natural increase and by immigrations, only amounted to 65,000.

In 1784, after the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States, Lower and Upper Canada contained about 113,000 inhabitants of European race; and in 1800 we find, in the province of Lower Canada alone, a population of 220,000. By the census of 1825, the population is stated to be 423,000; but the actual number was considered to be at least 450,000, as it is well known that an objection prevails on the part of the inhabitants in Canada, as elsewhere in America, to tell their ages and numbers to those appointed for the purpose of collecting a census. This arises from the apprehension of a poll tax; and from the militia laws and statute labour, which imposes the duty of both on all males from 16 to 18 years.

On comparing carefully the well-known actual population of parishes and townships with the returns I have collected*, the total population is nearly (if not) 600,000. Of this number at least 500,000 are Canadian Catholics of French race; a most extraordinary natural increase from 65,000 in 63 years; and unaccountable to those acquainted with the condition of the Canadian habitans, which I will endeavour to describe in this and the following chapter.

The inhabitants consist, first, of the French Canadians, who may be considered as constituting fivesixths of the whole population; the other sixth consists of English, Scotch, Irish, American loyalists, and a few Germans and others. The Scotch and Irish are, after the French, by far the most numerous.

In Lower Canada, the Catholic religion, of which seven-eighths of the inhabitants are professors, is established on a constitutional foundation, as fully protected in all its immunities and privileges as that of the Church of England. All the revenues from lands, enjoyed under the government of France, and the twenty-sixth part of the grain only, raised on the farms cultivated by Catholics, are secured by law to their church. No other produce or property contributes any thing.

The Catholic establishment of Canada may be said to have scarcely any connection with Rome. Nearly all the ecclesiastics are Canadians, and consist of the Bishop of Quebec*, who may be considered the Primate of the Catholic church in British America, and his coadjutor at Quebec; also the titular Bishop of Telmesse, auxiliary and suffragan at Montreal; four vicars-general; and 209 priests or curés, in Lower Canada, seven of whom are missionaries to the Indians. There are seven nunneries, and several missions, where a sister or two superintend the education of young girls.

In Lower Canada, the revenues arising from lands and the tithes, are found fully adequate to support the Catholic clergy. The incomes of the curés average from 200l. to 300l. per annum, which enables them, in so cheap a country as Canada, to live respectably, and to exercise a very liberal share of benevolence and hospitality.

Protestants are not compelled to pay any thing in support of their clergy; and if a Protestant even buys lands from a Catholic, he is exempt from the tithes to which the latter was subjected. One-seventh of all the lands in the townships are reserved, in Lower as well as in Upper Canada, for the purpose of making a provision for the Protestant church.

The diocese of the Protestant Bishop of Quebec includes both provinces; and under him are one archdeacon, and about twenty clergymen in Lower

* The late venerable bishop, Mons. Bernard Claude Panet, passed fifty years at the head of the Catholic church in Canada.

Canada; and two archdeacons, and forty-five clergymen in Upper Canada. They are supported by salaries allowed by the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge in Foreign Parts, and money voted by the Imperial Parliament.

There are forty English churches, and only four or five of the Church of Scotland; yet there are at least an equal number of members of the latter. Of the whole population seven-eighths are Catholics; 1-21st Church of England; 1-21st Kirk of Scotland; and 1-32d part Dissenters.

There are six or seven clergymen of the Kirk of Scotland in the Lower Province, besides dissenting preachers, principally Baptists and Wesleyans, all of whom may be said to be supported by the voluntary contributions of their respective hearers.

The education of youth was long neglected in Canada. Among the habitans, it does not appear that the clergy, during the French government, encouraged learning, although they did not at the same time discourage education otherwise than by the example which their indifference taught. At that time the priests were chiefly born and educated in France. Few of the habitans who have passed the middle age of life, can read or write the women were more frequently taught both than the men. This arose from the extinction of the male religious fraternities, particularly the Jesuits; while the nunneries were not disturbed by the British Government, and the sisters and nuns in these nunneries have always given their attention to the instruction of young girls.

The Jesuits afforded almost the only source of instruction which the country formerly possessed. To the conversion of the savages, and to the education of youth, did those extraordinary men direct their labours with the most arduous zeal; and the course of instruction which they taught was eminently practical. They did not attend funerals, or visit the sick. These duties they left to the priest; but in their grand attempts to convert and civilise the Indians, they endured the most extraordinary privations and encountered the most formidable difficulties. Their ardour, in the pursuit of this great object, led them undauntedly into the wildest regions, and among the most warlike and furious of the Indian tribes. To the Jesuits is the merit of the early discovery of the Mississippi from Canada, and of exploring the country around and west of the great lakes, most justly due. As they applied their means, and devoted so great a portion of their lives to the useful instruction of mankind, however pernicious to liberty may have been the principles laid down in the secret institute of their order, it was expected by the Canadians that the revenues arising from the lands that belonged to the Jesuits would be appropriated in aid of public instruction, after these revenues were possessed by the crown.*

The priests, who are now the only Catholic eccle