It Is The Commercial Emporium
Of This District; And, Though It Has Suffered From The Equalization Of
Duties, It Is Now Recovering.
The facilities for communication with the
United States, by the systems of railroad made and making, which may
bring it within twelve hours of Boston and New York, will doubtless
urge forward its prosperity.
* * * * *
"Montreal has considerable general commerce, commanding, as it does,
the St. Lawrence, now connected by railway directly with the United
States, and being at the outlet of the Ottawa river district. The
island upon which it stands is some thirty miles long, and contains
much fine and valuable land, mostly under cultivation, and abounding in
good farms and gardens, and fine orchards. From the 'Mountain' above
Montreal, a splendid view is obtained of the St. Lawrence and its
wooded shores; the dark forests of the Ottawa valley; the fine bright
lands of the islands; the city, and its villaed suburbs. In the
distances, north and south, the 'green mountains' of Vermont, and the
distant summits which separate the cultivated parts of Lower Canada
from those far-off and savage regions, in which the trappers of the
Hudson's Bay Company and some scattered Indians are the sole monarchs
of the woods - are visible. There can be no view more beautiful, few
more extensive. It gives all the peculiarities of this North American
scenery in its largest and finest features. And seen again from the
high towers of the Catholic Cathedral (the cathedral will hold several
thousand people, and is the largest church in Canada), to which I
mounted, up 268 steps, it again delights the eye with its extent and
beauty. From this latter point, too, the St. Lawrence is seen just
below, and you may watch the rushing of the nearest rapids, and the
struggles and windings of the boats and steamers, in passing on their
upward voyages.
"Montreal and Quebec (more especially) have the distinctive features of
French towns with many of the peculiarities of English ones. Here is
the well-known countenance of the northern parts of France. Carts such
as might have been seen, no doubt, hundreds of years ago in France. The
Norman breed of horses: small, round, strong, and enduring. Every other
signboard presents a French name; the blacksmith styling himself
'forgeron;' the baker, 'boulanger;' the ladies' attendant, 'sage-
femme;' - and so on. The professional man generally has two plates upon
his door: - one telling you that he is 'M. Charles Robert,' 'avocat;'
and the other, that he is 'Mr. C. Robert,' 'attorney at law.' In the
'Cote des Neiges,' behind the mountain, at Montreal, and in the suburb
or quarter 'St. Henry,' this French appearance is universal. 'Notre
Dame des Neiges,' in the former, with its gaudily painted inside and
unpretending outside, its wooden roof and tin-covered steeple, would
recall to you the wooded districts of France; and the houses in both
quarters, the people with their 'bonnets rouges' (as distinguished from
the 'bonnets bleus' and 'bonnets gris' of the Quebec district), and
innocence of English and English ways of living, working, farming, and
thinking, are even more French than the French themselves.
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