676 



QUEBEC. 



Q 



QUEBEC, PROVINCE OF. The year 1884 opened 

 in Quebec after one of exceptionally " hard 

 times " in business, and continued in the same 

 line as its predecessor. In January Montreal 

 held a magnificent winter carnival, which was 

 visited by hundreds of thousands from all parts 

 of America. The special attractions were: 

 The Ice Palace, a massive structure built of 

 huge blocks of ice frozen together ; the Tow- 

 er, also of ice ; tobogganing, or sliding down 

 the mountain-side on flat-bottomed sleighs; 

 snow-shoeing, skating, and curling. The suc- 

 cess attending the 1884 carnival has encour- 

 aged the merchants of the city to make it an 

 annual affair. One of the most picturesque 

 views in connection with the carnival was the 

 torch-light procession of snow-shoers in In- 

 dian file. This procession extended over seven 

 miles, and wound in serpentine form up one 

 side of the mountain, thence down another 

 slope, and still downward through the city, 

 till the Ice Tower was reached ; thence up 

 the tower by a spiral footpath, till the leader 

 stood, torch and banner in hand, on the pin- 

 nacle. 



Legislation. One important act was the tax- 

 ing of banking institutions, capital, etc. The 

 act was contested by the banks, but the Su- 

 preme Court ruled it to be within the jurisdic- 

 tion of the province. An appeal to the Privy 

 Council of Great Britain has been entered. 



Lively interest in provincial politics was 

 aroused during the year by disaffection or dis- 

 agreement among the Ultramontane or Blue 

 party in the Legislature. Some startling reve- 

 lations of a questionable nature, which impli- 

 cated prominent members of a wing of that 

 party, became public, but the questions were 

 dropped, and the breaches were closed up. 



The New Territory. Attention has been much 

 centered on the northern portion of the prov- 

 ince, from the fact of Ontario's having won her 

 case against Canada. Exploring parties have 

 reported immense tracts of farming, mining, 

 and timber lands within easy reach of either 

 James's Bay or the St. Lawrence. A railway 

 is partly constructed, leading from Quebec 

 northward to and beyond Lake St. John. The 

 priests and French Canadians in general have 

 been endeavoring to repatriate the thousands 

 of their fellow-countrymen living in the New 

 England States and the other Canadian prov- 

 inces, and to settle them in the fertile districts 

 toward the northern part of their province. 

 Several thousands of French Canadians re- 

 turned home during the year. There were 

 also some thousands who departed to the 

 United States for the winter. 



Dynamite. An attempt to blow up the new 

 Provincial Parliament buildings was made dur- 



ing the summer of 1884. One wing was pretty 

 badly wrecked. Fortunately, no lives were 

 lost, there being no one in the wing at the 

 hour of the explosion. Various causes were 

 assigned, but the result of the investigation 

 criminated no one. Little political importance 

 was attached to the event. 



The Lyman Lunacy Case. Great interest was 

 centered in a case of lunacy, or of pretended 

 lunacy, in Quebec Province, during the latter 

 part of the year. A Mrs. Lyman, confined 

 in an asylum under provincial control, was 

 pronounced by a board of surgeons to be en- 

 tirely sane. An attempt was made to keep 

 her in confinement after this ; but a terrible 

 storm of public opinion was met, and she is 

 now at liberty. During her imprisonment she 

 repeatedly sought, through the nuns in charge, 

 to have her case investigated, but, for reasons 

 not made public, her requests were unheeded. 

 The result has been a complete investigation 

 into all similar institutions in the Province. 



The British Association honored Montreal 

 by holding the annual meeting for 1884 in 

 that city. (See ASSOCIATIONS FOE THE AD- 

 VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.) 



Crops. The crop returns from Quebec are 

 few and unreliable, but from general report 

 and observation the year's returns seem to 

 have been somewhat better than the average. 

 Improvement is being made in the farming in 

 the province, but very slowly, except among 

 the English-speaking portion of the people. 

 The Eastern Townships, the counties along 

 New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, 

 show the greatest advancement. Fine grades 

 of cattle, horses, and sheep are to be found 

 with many of the leading farmers there. 



Religions Agitation. The Salvation Army, like 

 the Scott Act advocates, make Quebec Prov- 

 ince their last place assaulted in Canada. This 

 year the Army attacked Montreal, and were 

 subjected to considerable persecution by the 

 lower classes. Father Chiniquy, a reformed 

 priest, was again mobbed on the occasion of 

 his holding religious services in Montreal. The 

 Salvation Army leaders were brought before 

 the courts in Montreal, and the old French 

 laws (granted them in 1774) were called into 

 requisition to forbid the Army's doing duty in 

 the city. The judges held that the army was 

 not at enmity with Catholicism, and hence dis- 

 charged the leaders. The case was strongly 

 supported on behalf of the Army by some of 

 the most prominent Protestant gentlemen in 

 Montreal, which may have caused a more lib- 

 eral interpretation of the old laws than under 

 other and less favorable circumstances would 

 have been given them. 



QUEBRACHO. See DRUGS, NEW. 





