— 204 — 



a much needed modification in our judiciary system 

 was introduced in Parliament, in 1857, by the late Sir 

 George E. Cartier : the decentralization of our law 

 courts. Twenty judicial districts were created for Lower 

 Canada, with each a resident judge, staff of Court House 

 officials, lawyers, etc. ; the Norman peasant of that 

 recent period had the luxury of cheap litigation brought 

 to his own door. Was it really a boon ? 



On the 24th August, 1860, H. E. H. the Prince of 

 Wales inaugurated the opening of that grand National 

 work, the Victoria Bridge, at Montreal. On the 10th 

 August, 1864, delegates from the British American 

 colonies assembled at Quebec, in solemn congress, to 

 discuss the basis of a Confederation of the Provinces. 

 The British Parliament, on the 8th March, 1867, sanc- 

 tioned the Confederation Act, and Confederation was 

 proclaimed on the 1st July following. It opened up 

 undreamed of vistas of material progress for the united 

 colonies and gave a new life and separate organization 

 to each province, our own becoming again, as in 1791, 

 the Province of Quebec. On the 1st October, 1874, 

 the Koman Catholic Episcopacy of Canada commemor- 

 ated by an immense assemblage at Quebec, of the 

 highest Church dignitaries of the whole continent, the 

 erection two centuries previous, on 1st October, 1674, 

 of the first bishopric in New France, Bishop LavaPs 

 vast diocese, extending in verity from Hudson Bay to 

 the Gulf of Mexica, from the Atlantic to the Pacific 

 Ocean. Sixty-four bishoprics had sprung up since ; 

 one and all were represented by their head or by 

 delegates, in the grand Quebec conclave, presided over 

 by Bishop Laval's esteemed successor, Archbishop 

 Taschereau, recently raised, by His Holiness the Pope, 

 to the dignity of a Roman Cardinal ; the city was 

 illuminated and presented a most brilliant pageant. 

 Quebec, like the rest of the Dominion, hailed with 

 delight the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 

 a worthy outcome of Confederation ; one of the most 



