88 
We remained at Montreal nearly three days. The City, which 
I examined in company with Lieutenant Colonel Evans of the 
seventieth regiment, in garrison here, contains about twenty-five 
thousand inhabitants. It extends upon a hill to a considerable 
distance, between the St. Lawrence and Le Mont Real, which 
is about seven hundred feet high, and is lined with timber. It 
has two principal streets, which run parallel with the river, and 
are intersected by a third, that runs along the ditch of the de¬ 
molished fortresses. The houses are generally built of blue stone, 
and covered with bright tin, have iron doors and shutters to pro¬ 
tect them against the fire, which give the city a very dismal ap¬ 
pearance. In our walk we passed a number of young men who 
wore belts, and were dressed in blue coats, the seams of which 
were covered with white cord. We were informed that they 
were the pupils of the Catholic ecclesiastical school. It is well 
known that most of the Canadians, and four-fifth of the inhabi¬ 
tants of Montreal, are Catholics; they are bigotted, and the lower 
classes are exceedingly ignorant. There is a very broad street, 
which unites the two principal streets, and in the centre is the 
market-house. At one of the extremities of this street, are the 
court-house and prison; behind which is the place where the old 
forts stood, since converted into a parade. Montreal has several 
hospitals, which are superintended by nurses. These hospitals, 
however, are not sufficient, especially as the nuns do not admit 
any fever patients. In consequence of this, some of the most 
wealthy citizens have joined, and selected a healthy spot, on 
which they have erected a new hospital, three stories high, capa¬ 
ble of containing seventy patients of both sexes. In this hospital, 
the sick, fifty in number, receive cheap and excellent accommo¬ 
dations. They are under the care of nurses, and are attended 
gratis, by the best physicians of the city. The arrangement is 
similar to that of the hospital at Boston, but there is less of luxury 
here in their management. 
The public library is as yet small, though it is rapidly increas¬ 
ing. It has united with it a cabinet of natural history. We also 
observed the foundation for a large cathedral, which is to be built 
by private contributions. At the barracks of the subalterns, I 
was much pleased with the mess-room, which has a library con¬ 
nected with it; I was also much gratified with the school for the 
education of the soldiers, and their children. The barracks were 
formerly occupied as the Jesuit college, which stood in the old 
French citadel, of which not a vestige remains. Not far from the 
barracks is a steam-engine, which conveys the water from the 
river into the city, at the same time that it moves a mill. At the 
market-house stands a monument erected by the colony in honour 
of Lord Nelson, It consists of a statue resting upon a single co- 
