330 SECTS AND PARTIES AT QUEBEC. 



North American provinces — since dead, I believe — 

 assisting at early service, in the midst of a large and 

 apparently devout congregation, I went to the Scotch 

 Presbyterian church, where I heard an excellent sermon. 

 In the churches already in use, and in the appearance of 

 the new ones in course of erection, there are no signs 

 either of pecuniary depression or of a want of general 

 zeal in matters of I'eligion. 



The relative numbers of the several religious sects in 

 Quebec is considerably different from what it is in Mont- 

 real. In 1844, the last published census, the Koman 

 Catholics formed seven-ninths of the whole population, 

 then 46,000, now probably upwards of 50,000. Those 

 of the Church of England formed only one-ninth, and of 

 the Church of Scotland one-eighteenth — all the other 

 sects made up the remaining eighteenth. It is, perhaps, 

 because the predominance of the Roman Catholic French 

 Canadian population is so great that party differences, 

 whether political or religious, are represented as being 

 much less bitter here than at Montreal. 



If I were to judge from my own experience only, I 

 should say that political differences of opinion, in refe- 

 rence to recent events, were at least as bitter as they 

 could be at Montreal. During my short stay in Quebec, 

 I met at dinner a native of Great Britain, but an old 

 resident and a prosperous merchant in that city, who, after 

 discussing the Eebellion Losses Bill and the Governor's 

 conduct respecting it, hastily wound up his observations 

 by observing, " that he would himself have helped to tar- 

 and-feather him." I laughed, and said it amazed me 

 much to hear such a person as he talk so violently. 

 He evidently had not meant what he said, and remarked, 

 " Well, I have never spoken so violently before ; on the 

 contrary, I am considered too moderate, and am obliged 

 to keep arms in my house to defend myself, in appre- 

 hension of an attack from the violent people, because of 



