320 



LIFE IN MONTREAL. [Chap. VII. 



had a respect for the nuns, who, he thought, might manage the 

 jailer-work better than some others who might be appointed • 

 but he was becoming alarmed at the encroachments of those 

 who seemed more influenced by ambition than by religion, and 

 by the concessions of time-servers. 



In 1874, a new law affecting licences came into operation, 

 " raising the price and limiting the number. This is at the 

 instigation of the Temperance Vigilance Association, who are 

 determined to plague the sellers every year, and prevent vested 

 interests, till the country is 'prepared for prohibition.' People 

 seem generally to consent that it is to come to that, some time 

 or other." Philip worked with a committee, to procure memo- 

 rials against taverns. He contributed a paper, this year, to the 

 Quebec * Temperance and Prohibitory League, which was 

 more than once reprinted, on "Law an Educator." He pleaded 

 that as schools were not to be given up, because many of the 

 children neglect the lessons, the laws ought to embody true 

 morality, even if they are often set at defiance : and he pointed 

 out the contrast between Maine and Canada, as regards tem- 

 perance. Meanwhile, he worked earnestly in promoting volun- 

 tary abstinence : especially in helping to build up a Band of 

 Hope in St. George's Sunday School. 



Philip had been nearly nine years in Canada, yet he had 

 never once visited England. Mary was much saddened by the 

 change she had seen in him, and suggested to their aunt that 

 he might come over if she desired it (since she was in her eighty- 

 seventh year, and each winter her life seemed in dangerf). 

 Philip wrote (June 12, 1874): "No other consideration than 

 duty to Aunt M. would induce me to add the excitement of an 

 English visit to my other weariness. I feel no other wish, than 

 just to be let alone to rest." He reached London at the begin- 

 ning of July, and spent most of his time there with his aunt, 

 seeing also his brother William and his family, and working 

 hard at the British Museum. He paid a short visit to his sister 



* Montreal is at one extremity of the old Province of Quebec, or Lower 

 Canada. 



f Miss Mary Carpenter, of 24, Regent Street (see p. 10, etc.), died a 

 few months after Philip — October 30, 1877 — m ner ninety- first year. 



