"The Difference In Language, Customs, And Religion, Divides The Population Into Two Distinct Sections, And Is A Bar To United Effort And To The Improvement Of The Country; Which Nevertheless Does Improve In Spite Of This Difficulty, Though Not As Rapidly As It Might And Ought.

I did not fully appreciate this until I visited the Superior Law Court, then sitting in Montreal.

This court is held, during the erection of the new court-house, in the old, low-walled, high-roofed, building in which the French Government conducted their public affairs a hundred and fifty years ago. In this building, in 1839, the Privy Council decided to place the country under martial law, and the proclamation was issued from it.

"The judges sitting when I visited the court were Smith, Van Feloon, and Mondelet, the latter a French Canadian. The first case argued was a long-pending one between Sir John Stewart and an architect, who had superintended the erection of some buildings on one of Sir John's farms. The counsel were not over clever, but sufficiently verbose, and full enough of 'instances,' both ancient and modern. The counsel for Sir John laid great stress upon the erroneous manner in which the action had been laid, and contended that as the English form of' assumpsit' had been taken, in order to get both debt and damages, instead of a single action of damages being brought, all the consequences of the form adopted must be taken by the plaintiff, who, not having proved damages, or even stated them, must be held by the court to have made out no case, and be cast accordingly.

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