William H. Atherton

“ The city is now undergoing a reconstruction and remodeling that is confusing even to its middle aged citizens, who were born in the old humdrum city. Landmarks are disappearing; the buildings in the older part of the city and even parts of the new are being replaced with wondrous celerity, baffling the mind of one not a statistician. It is the age of the house-wrecker and steam-rivetter. Montreal is being modernized—becoming a second New York—but in spite of all, manages to preserve its unique, psychological and historical characteristics. ”

“ The English represent the genius of commerce, the art of making a fortune, the distinctive characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon race. We, on this continent, represent some of the virtues which have distinguished the French race from all time, generosity, the love of belles lettres and of good taste and Gallic gaiety and enthusiasm which are the heritage of France and have been the inspiring cause of so many noble actions inscribed in the annals of history. ”

“ But as it is almost wholly of stone in the business portions and along the extensive and massive quays which line the banks of the river, Montreal makes a dignified, indeed, an imposing effect. The beholder for the first time, unless marvelously well up in his geography, is surprised to find so large and so complete a city. To stand at a street corner for a moment is to see pass by the Indian woman, wrapped in her heavy blanket ”

“ And in this central room a busy committee was engaged all day on the careful systematic organization of the relief fund. Over the city in church, school, club and private rooms, groups were busily knitting and sewing and fashioning all sorts of comforts and necessities for those who had heard the call to fight for the maintenance of the Empire. The city has become a busy loom of patriotic charity.
All honour to the loyal women of Montreal in this moment of the world’s greatest war. ”

“ If it be an entertaining lounge, as I have found it, to take a morning stroll upon the quays of Montreal and see the groups in hundreds on the public wharfs about their chests and boxes, it is matter of deep interest to be their fellow passenger on one of these steamboats and, mingling with the concourse, see and hear them unobserved. ”

“ At the head of ship navigation, on the waters of the majestic St. Lawrence, like the heart in the human body, it will be the grand reservoir into which all the streams connected with that immense river must pour their contents. The inhabitants bordering on these waters on the lakes in the northern part of Vermont and western part of New York must necessarily make it the depot for whatever articles of export their labours may produce, and take in return whatever merchandise they consume. ”

“ As the aims of the Montreal Local Council of Women are modelled on those of the National Council, the following preamble to the constitution of the latter will illustrate the spirit of the local phase of the same movement:
“We, Women of Canada, sincerely believing that the best good of our homes and nation will be advanced by our own greater unity of thought, sympathy and purpose, and that an organized movement of women will best conserve the highest good of the Family and the State, do hereby band ourselves together to further the application of the Golden Rule to society, custom and law.” ”

“ In this year political discussion, a subject in the early days tabooed, appears in the Gazette. A correspondent discussing the burning question of a House of Assembly sums up thus:
“We are all Canadians and subjects of Great Britain. The distinction of old and new subjects ought to have been done away with long since. The prosperity of this country must depend on the unanimity that prevails amongst us. I am of the opinion that much good may be derived from a House of Assembly. Yet I fear the consequent evils, one of which is taxing a country unable to support the dignity of a House. ”

“ Montreal should be made known not only as a gateway for export and import transportation, but also as the busy center of headquarters of numerous and constantly growing industries of its own. It is a distributing source of cheap power, light and heat. All that goes towards the making of a great and successful commercial metropolis has been planned by the merchants of modern Montreal, whose predecessors began humbly [544] in 1822, and ever conscious of the future destiny of their city, were always led by visions of its future greatness as the commercial metropolis of Canada. ”

“ It was an extraordinary spectacle to look from the top of the mountain and see the mass of human beings moving in every direction over the immense sward, all eventually turning towards the handsome repository with its overtopping dome, the whole a design of great architectural beauty. Downtown at 1 o’clock began the greatest demonstration of any kind, civic or religious, that Canada ever witnessed. ”

“ Lawrence ceases to be navigable for ocean ships, and where the great river, for the last time in its course to the sea, affords a gigantic water power; at the meeting point of the two races that divide Canada, and in the center of a fertile plain nearly as large as all England: in these we recognize a guarantee for the future greatness of Montreal, not based on the frail tenure of human legislation, but in the unchanging decrees of the Eternal, as stamped on the world he has made. ”

“ Your revenue is triple the amount of your expenditure for the ordinary purposes of government. You have no direct taxes, no public debt, no poor who require any aid more than the natural impulses of charity. If you extend your views beyond the land in which you dwell you find that you are joint inheritors of the splendid patrimony of the British empire which constitutes you in the best sense of the term citizens of the world and gives you a home on every continent and in every ocean on the globe. ”

“ One of the best principles in all social amelioration in the condition of workers is to help the poor to help themselves. As an instance of this the history of the movement of the Protestant Industrial Rooms of Montreal, which is now more than half a century old, is rightly in place here. Sixty years ago Miss Hervey, who founded the Hervey Institute, did a wise and kind act when she opened a “Repository” for giving out to deserving females the surplus work of families, so creating the “Protestant Industrial Rooms” of Montreal, which has grown up observing the same fundamental principles. ”

“ Newton Bosworth, in “Hochelaga Depicta,” says that [493] “the citizens of Montreal are distinguished by one feature which is highly honourable to them, standing out as it does in pleasing and strong relief—and that is a habit of active benevolence. Perhaps there is no place where in proportion to the number and wealth of the inhabitants more has been done to relieve the wretched and support the weak by deeds of real charity than in this city—and this not by thoughtless and indiscriminate profusion, but in the exercise of cautious and painstaking administration.” ”

“ All praise to the merchants of the Board of Trade, who by their undaunted push, character and political foresight have written their names in the history of the development of Canada, and have bound the Mother Country, through Montreal, by bands of steel and water to the extreme ends of the Dominion. Their influence extends even further, for it is a matter of record that the congresses of the chambers of commerce of the Empire are the result of a suggestion made by the Council of the Board. ”

“ The legislative council was all powerful, its members nominated by the government, and holding their offices permanently, but British, Protestant and exclusive, and above all the clatter was the Executive Council and the governor, who were dependent hand and foot on Downing Street officialdom and from it received instructions, so that the few ruled the many, independently of the council’s representation of the latter. Thus a race war had developed, the majority, French, savagely demanding their rights of popular representation and the minority, British, desirous of keeping the upper hand. ”

“ Art in Montreal can be divided into four periods, each having its own influence, not only on the people of the time and on the private collections, but on the work of local artists, many of whom, until late years, were never able to study the great collections of Europe. The first period might be termed the church influence, for during the earliest part of the French régime the Jesuit records indicate the fact that a number of the earliest missionaries, men of learning and culture, did not neglect art or music in bringing their Indian neophytes under the spell of Christianity. ”

“ Scotch, Irish and English residents; and emigrants of all social conditions, the “American” from the United States; officers of the British army in their different uniforms; Catholic priests in their robes; Sisters of Charity; crowds of neat-looking soldiers; and the burly policemen clad in a dark blue military uniform. The buildings everywhere in course of erection would dignify any city. There are none in the United States which present finer specimens of street architecture than are found, not isolated here and there, but in long blocks and throughout the entire city.” ”

“ There remains for us to advert to a subject which we consider as the surest and best means of obtaining a cheerful and dutiful obedience to the laws and government from subjects in general, and that is by establishing throughout the province at proper distances public schools for the education of youth. We hardly know of a single school in any country part of the district for teaching boys and it is to the zeal of the few sisters of the congregation that we are indebted for all the little which is taught to girls throughout the country. ”

“ So urgent was the need of such an organization that it rapidly spread throughout all the military districts in Canada.
The aim of the league as defined in the constitution is “to bring the wives and relatives of all soldiers, whether of officers, non-commissioned officers or men of the staff, permanent corps and active militia of Canada, into closer touch and sympathy with one another so that whether in sickness or in health they may be able mutually to aid and assist one another and their families in times of difficulty, trouble or distress.” ”

“ The Phœnix Fire Company, established in Montreal in 1804, was not only the first insurance company in Canada, but it was the first insurance corporation to leave England in search of business. It was founded by a company of merchants to insure their sugar warehouses, and being an innovation, most business houses in England up till then having been composed of partnerships, it was severely frowned upon by the “experts.” Seeing that many British firms were desirous of insuring their Canadian property it decided to establish its office here the better to be able to handle such policies. ”

“ England and the Day we celebrate; Our worthy Governor, the Earl of Dalhousie; Sir Peregrine Maitland and our Sister Province (Upper Canada) ; Lady Dalhousie and the Canadian Fair; may the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock ever entwine; the Duke of Wellington and the Army of Great Britain; Capt. Byner and our Navy; Trade and prosperity to the Canadas; Colonel De Salaberry and the surviving heroes of Chateauguay; Colonel Burer and the Garrison of Montreal; May the seeds of dissention never find growth in the soil of Great Britain; the immortal memory of Nelson (in silence) ”

“ Parkman continues: “There is nothing more noteworthy than the skill with which the French and Canadian leaders use their advantages; the indomitable spirit with which, slighted and abandoned as they were, they grappled with prodigious difficulties and the courage with which they were seconded by regulars and militia alike. In spite of occasional lapses, the defence of Canada deserves a tribute of admiration.”— (“Montcalm and Wolfe,” Vol. II, p. 382.)
The departures from Montreal and Quebec must have been indeed heart-rending. ”

“ It is the truth, a truth boldly and continually proclaimed by the above mentioned public journals printed in the French language, that the Canadian leaders and all who aspire to lead this class of the population, now, as heretofore, must base their only pretentions to popular support on their utter and entire abhorrence of everything that is English. The word ‘anti-British’ is the type of their political existence, the only true passports to the affections of a French constituency. ”

“ In proportion to the encouragement afforded by the promotion of useful industry and labour it is to be presumed their attachment to their country will increase by such means we shall also show them that Our Protestantism inspirs the most essential part of Christianity: We shall show them that the British nation is not more to be dreaded for their valor and intrepidity than beloved, for the exercise of the social virtues; and these qualities, displayed on this occasion, will in their natural tendency promote that harmony on which the prosperity of the state depends. ”

“ I understand Canada to be on the same footing in respect of this money as all the French colonies and if France pays any of them I don’t see how she can avoid paying the bills of exchange drawn from Canada in the same proportion as she pays the rest. It is the Canadians only who would be sufferers by an exception, as Canadian bills to a very large amount are in the possession of French merchants and the rest may be sent to France and nobody be able to distinguish which is French and which Canadian property. ”

“ There is now a form of Civil Oeconomy: if it is duly administered and not tinctured with military power it will be the most grateful to a brave and intelligent people. It is our wisdom and our duty to show them in every instance that we are as willing to be Their friends as They can be Ours, and let us endeavour to secure their fidelity to the crown of the realm by engaging their Hearts as well as their tongues. ”

“ No one could be persuaded that our conquerors, strangers to our soil, to our language, our law, our customs, our worship, could ever be able to give back to Canada what it had just lost in the change of masters. ”

“ As in Federal politics, so also in the life of the Provincial parliament, Montreal has also been a large factor, the principal reason being that it supplies the biggest share of the income of the Province, and also because the city’s representatives have usually been leaders of thought and probity. Practically all the premiers, from confederation to the present holder of the office, have been either citizens of Montreal or largely connected with the city. ”