QUEBEC, PROVINCE OF. 



REFORMED CHURCHES. 



707 



leading merchants, finding that the epidemic 

 \\.-is making havoc of Montreal commerce, went 

 to the City Hall in a body and asked that the 

 management of sanitary affairs be transferred 

 to a committee of their nominating. The Coun- 

 cil consented to the merchants adding six mem- 

 bers to the civic Board of Health. The Provin- 

 cial Government has the power in times of epi- 

 demic to appoint a Central Board of Health for 

 the whole province, with practically unlimited 

 legislative powers. A central board was ap- 

 pointed, and passed most stringent by-laws with 

 reference to isolation, vaccination, etc. All 

 municipalities were required to organize local 

 boards of health, to carry out the orders of the 

 central board. The reorganized local Board of 

 Health of Montreal began a vigorous sanitary 

 campaign, and the exhibition buildings were 

 converted into hospitals. Families that refused 

 to send their small-pox patients to the hospitals 

 were isolated in their own homes, seals being 

 placed on the doors, and every infected house 

 being guarded by a constable. Gratuitous vac- 

 cination was offered to everybody, but it was 

 very generally refused by the French Canadi- 

 ans. The principal employers of labor joined 

 a league which required every employ^ to pro- 

 duce a certificate of vaccination of himself and 

 his family. This organization did more than 

 anything to promote vaccination. The propo- 

 sition to enforce the compulsory vaccination 

 law led to serious rioting ; and it became neces- 

 sary to call out the militia to restore order. 

 Compulsory vaccination was abandoned for 

 the time, but toward the close of the year sev- 

 eral persons were fined for refusing vaccina- 

 tion, and the spirit of resistance to the law 

 seemed to have become much weaker. The 

 remarkable immunity from the disease enjoyed 

 by the English-speaking population in the midst 

 of such a deadly epidemic perhaps did more 

 than the fines to reconcile the French Cana- 

 dians to vaccination. The deaths by months 

 were as follow : April, 6 ; May, 10 ; June, 13 ; 

 July, 46 ; August, 239 ; September, 659 ; Octo- 

 ber, 1,393 ; November, 633 ; December, 165. 

 Toward the end of December the disease had 

 lost its epidemic character in Montreal. 

 Riel Agitation. From the beginning of the 



Northwest rebellion, a great deal of sympathy 

 with the half-breeds was freely expressed in 

 the Province of Quebec. In April the Pro- 

 vincial Legislature discussed resolutions se- 

 verely censuring the Federal authorities for 

 culpable neglect, which it was alleged had 

 driven the half-breeds to take up arms, and 

 for further neglect in sending the volunteers 

 to the front insufficiently armed and equipped. 

 The trial, sentence, and execution of Riel raised 

 the " national " feeling among the French Ca- 

 nadians to such a degree that for some time a 

 second rebellion seemed imminent. Through- 

 out the province, Sir John Macdonald and the 

 French-Canadian ministers were hanged and 

 burned in effigy. Mobs took possession of the 

 streets of Montreal, but their excitement found 

 a safety-valve in singing revolutionary songs, 

 breaking a few windows in the English quar- 

 ter, and hanging and burning effigies. A more 

 serious matter for the Government was the 

 defection of the French- Canadian Conserva- 

 tive members of Parliament, who a few days 

 before the execution of Riel sent an ultimatum 

 to the Government, threatening to go into op- 

 position if the capital sentence on the leader 

 of the rebellion were not commuted. The 

 French - Canadian ministers Messrs. Lauge- 

 vin, Chapleau, and Caron were called upon 

 to resign, and, refusing, were, with the mem- 

 bers of Parliament who refused to sign the 

 ultimatum, stigmatized as "the party of the 

 rope." The Hon. Mr. Chapleau, in a letter 

 explaining the position of the French-Canadian 

 ministers, boldly declared approval of the exe- 

 cution, on the ground of expediency as well as 

 of justice. The public excitement was stimu- 

 lated by an energetic political campaign. The 

 Bleu (French - Canadian Conservative) and 

 Rouge (French-Canadian Liberal) parties were 

 merged in the " National " party. The Ontario 

 Liberals, most of whom thought that Riel 

 ought to have been hanged ten years earlier, 

 for the murder of Scott, did not scruple to 

 encourage the National party, with a view to 

 the overthrow of the Macdonald Government. 

 The year closed with a calmer state of public 

 opinion, but with the Government's tenure of 

 office in a critical condition. (See RIEL, Louis.) 



REFORMED CHURCHES. I. Reformed Church in 

 America. The following is the summary of the 

 statistics of this Church as they were reported 

 to the General Synod in June, 1885 : Number 

 of classes, 34 ; of churches, 525 ; of ministers, 

 561; of candidates, 16; of families, 45,654 ; of 

 communicants, 82,089; received during the year 

 on confession, 4,309 ; number of baptisms dur- 

 ing the year, 4,277 of infants and 883 of adults; 

 number of baptized non-communicants, 28,417; 

 of catechumens, 30,236 ; of Sunday schools, 732, 

 with 95,931 pupils. Amount of contributions 

 for religious and benevolent purposes, $230, 



315 ; for church purposes, $871,388 ; total, 

 $1,101.703. 



The Board of Education reported to the Gen- 

 eral Synod that its receipts had been $23,138. 

 and that it had under its care 42 students and 

 was aiding six parochial schools, in which were 

 475 pupils. 



The widows' fund amounted to $66,255; an- 

 nuitants had been paid $4,078. 



The receipts of the Board of Domestic Mis- 

 sions for the year were $33,483. It had aided 

 103 churches, in connection with which were 

 85 missionaries, 4,458 families, and 6,380 mem- 



