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8ept. 29. — Among other places, I this morning visited 

 the Quebec Seminary, a Roman Catholic institution, 

 founded nearly two hundred years ago, which accom- 

 modates and instructs 180 boarders, and 120 day- 

 scholars — a number about equal to those taught in the 

 seminary at Montreal. The boarders pay £17, 10s. 

 currency per annum, and the day-scholars 20s. I was 

 much interested in the Professor of Natural History and 

 Chemistry, Mr Horan, who had visited and studied at the 

 universities of Cambridge in Massachusetts, and Yale 

 in Connecticut, with the view of obtaining instruction 

 which was beyond his reach in Canada. I found hira 

 and others fully alive to the importance of an improved 

 agriculture in Lower Canada, and anxious to aid in 

 introducing instruction in its principles into the elemen- 

 tary schools of the lower province. 



I was never so much struck as upon this visit, and by 

 my conversations with Mr Horan, with the meritorious 

 and self-denying spirit of the teachers in some, at least, of 

 these Roman Catholic seminaries. This institution has 

 a small endowment, but is not rich like that of Montreal, 

 and barely makes ends meet. The professors, without 

 any prospect of ever rising to any position beyond the 

 walls of the seminary, devote their lives to the duty 

 of teacliing without remuneration. They are lodged, 

 fed, and clothed, and at vacation-time, if they choose to 

 visit anywhere, they are allowed twenty dollars for 

 expenses. Thus they live and labour from year to year, 

 with scarcely any society beyond the walls of the insti- 

 tution, shut out from the cordial of human sympathy, 

 and centring their affections on a brighter future. I do 

 not praise the system, regard it as natural, or consider 

 it the way in which talent may be best employed for the 

 benefit of our fellow-creatures ; but for the self-denying 

 spirit of the devoted clerical teachers, I could not help 

 feeling a sort of reverence. There were men of fine 



