QUATUORDECIMIANS QUEEN. 



177 



marched back and forward to and from Frasnes, 

 without taking part in the action ; whether in con- 

 sequence of its original orders, or from misunder- 

 standing, or from the wish of its commander to par- 

 ticipate in tlie battle of St Amand, has not been 

 clearly explained. The loss of this corps was of 

 the most fatal consequence to Ney. The French 

 accounts gave their loss at Ligny at from 6 to 

 7000. After Wellington had learned the issue of 

 the battle at Ligny, he retired from Quatre-Bras in 

 the forenoon of the 17th, and was followed by 

 Napoleon. See Waterloo. 



QUATUORDECIMIANS. See Sects. 



QUEBEC, city; the capital of Lower Canada, 

 on a promontory on the north-west side of the river 

 St Lawrence, 180 miles below Montreal, nearly 

 400 from the sea, 700 west by north from Halifax, 

 and 740 from Washington; lat. 46 47' N.; Ion. 

 70 56' W. The population of the city and suburbs 

 is stated by Bouchette (British Dominions in North 

 America, London, 1831, 2 vols. 4to.) at about 

 30,000. By far the greater part of the inhabitants 

 are Roman Catholics, and the French language is 

 most in use. The promontory on which Quebec is 

 built, is formed by the St Lawrence and St Charles, 

 and is the termination of a ridge of land, generally 

 from one to two miles wide, which runs from east 

 to west. On the north it has the bold promontory 

 of cape Diamond, rising almost perpendicularly 345 

 feet above the water ; and across it at the north- 

 east, or lower end, the city is built. The fortifica- 

 tions extending across the peninsula, shut in the 

 ground on which the city stands, the circuit of which 

 is about two and a half miles. It is divided into 

 two parts, upper and lower. Upper Quebec is 

 situated on the side of cape Diamond, which slopes 

 to the north, towards the river St Charles. It is 

 separated from the lower town by a line of steep 

 rocks, which run from the cape towards the 

 west. The lower town is situated immediately 

 under cape Diamond, on ground considerably 

 raised, to prevent its being overflowed, as formerly, 

 at flood tide. The streets run from the upper side 

 of cape Diamond down to the St Charles, a distance 

 of about half a mile. They are of considerable 

 breadth, and the houses are large and commodious. 

 The houses next the river have very extensive 

 warehouses attached to them, and vessels come 

 close to the wharves to discharge their cargoes. 

 The communication from the lower to the upper 

 town is by a winding street, at the top of which is 

 a fortified gate. " Quebec," says professor Silli- 

 man, "for an American city, is certainly a very 

 peculiar town : a military town most compactly 

 and permanently built stone its sole material 

 environed, as to its most important parts, by walls 

 and gates and defended by numerous heavy can- 

 non garrisoned by troops, having the arms, the 

 costume, the music, the discipline of Europe 

 foreign in language, features, and origin, from 

 most of those whom they are sent to defend 

 founded upon a rock, and in its higher parts over- 

 looking a great extent of country between three 

 and four hundred miles from the ocean in the 

 inidst of a great continent, and yet displaying fleets 

 of foreign merchantmen, in its fine capacious bay, 

 and showing all the bustle of a crowded seaport 

 its streets narrow, populous, und winding up and 

 down almost mountainous declivities situated in 

 the latitude of the finest parts of Europe exhibit- 

 ing in its environs the beauty of a European capital, 

 and yet, in winter, smarting with the cold of 

 Siberia governed by people of different language 

 and habits from the mass of the population op- 

 posed in religion, and yet leaving that population 



without taxes, and in the full enjoyment of every 

 privilege, civil and religious. Such are some of the 

 important features which strike a stranger in the 

 city of Quebec." The upper town is the seat of 

 government, and the principal residence of the 

 military. Great improvements have recently been 

 made in the style of buildings, and many of the 

 private dwellings, and several of the public build- 

 ings are spacious and elegant. There is a French 

 seminary or college, containing usually more than 

 200 pupils ; but much less attention is paid to edu- 

 cation than in the principal cities of the United 

 States. Quebec is better fortified than any other 

 town in America. Its strength has been greatly 

 increased within a few years. It is so well defended 

 at all points, as to render it abundantly adequate to 

 repel any force that could approach it. The basin 

 or harbour of Quebec is very beautiful, safe, and 

 spacious ; it is sufficient to contain 100 sail of the 

 line. The depth of water is twenty-eight fathoms ; 

 the spring tides rise twenty-three or twenty-four 

 feet, and the neap tides seventeen or eighteen. 

 The river St Lawrence is twelve miles wide above 

 the city, but is here contracted to one mile in 

 breadth. The exports consist principally of timber, 

 grain, flour, furs, and pot and pearlashes. The 

 trade is very extensive, and is principally confined 

 to British vessels. Amount of imports in 1829, 

 824,392. Quebec was settled by the French in 

 1608, taken by the English in 1759, and ceded to 

 them in 1763. In 1770, an unsuccessful attack 

 was made upon it by the Americans under general 

 Montgomery, who fell, together with about 700 

 men. 



QUEDLINBURG, a town in the Prussian 

 government of Magdeburg, province of Saxony, is 

 situated at the foot of the Hartz mountains, and 

 contains 12,000 inhabitants. It is a place of consi- 

 derable industry ; its distilleries are important, and 

 many swine are fatted for sale. Among its public 

 establishments is an institute for juvenile offenders. 

 Quedlinburg is the native place of Klopstock. The 

 town owes its origin to the foundation of a religious 

 house for ladies there, between 932 and 936, by 

 king Henry I. The abbess, from 1539, a Lutheran, 

 was a member of the estates of the empire. 



QUEEN (Anglo-Saxon, cween, the wife>; the wife 

 of a king. In Britain, the queen is either queen- 

 consort, or merely wife of the reigning king, who is 

 in general (unless where expressly exempted by 

 law) upon the same footing with other subjects, 

 being to all intents the king's subject, and not his 

 equal ; or queen-regent, regnant, or sovereign, who 

 holds the crown in her own right, and has the same 

 powers, prerogatives, and duties, as if she had been 

 a king (see Britain}, and whose husband is a sub- 

 ject, and may be guilty of high-treason against her; 

 or queen-dowager, widow of the king, who enjoys 

 most of the privileges which belonged to her as 

 queen-consort. It is treason to com pass or imagine 

 the death of the queen-consort, and to violate or 

 defile her person not only renders the person com- 

 mitting the act guilty of treason, but also the queen 

 herself, if consenting. If the queen be accused of 

 treason, she is (whether consort or dowager) tried 

 by the house of peers. Queen Caroline was pro- 

 ceeded against by a bill of pains and penalties. 

 (See Laws of Exception.) By act of parliament, 

 August 2, 1831, the usual provision of 100,000 

 per annum, with the use of Marlborough house, 

 was made for queen Adelaide, as queen dowager. 

 In Prussia, Sweden, and France, the succession 

 being confined to the male line, there can be no 

 queen regnant. (See Salic Law.) In Spain (by 

 royal decree of March 2:-, 1830), Portugal, &c., 



