The population of Montreal is now estimated at forty thousand, one-half of whom are Roman Catholics, one quarter Protestants, and the remainder nothing in particular. By this statement it will be readily seen that the establishments of the Catholics must be the most abundant. Nunneries are consequently very numerous, some of them well endowed; and to those who have a passion for such affairs must be exceedingly interesting.
But I wish to mention one or two more specimens of architecture. The market of Montreal is built of stone, situated near the river, and remarkably spacious and convenient in all its arrangements. It eclipses anything of the kind that we can boast of in the States. The only monument in the city of any note is a Doric column, surmounted with a statue, and erected in honour of Lord Nelson. The entire column is seventy feet high, and gives an air of elegance to that portion of Notre Dame where it stands. On the four sides of the pedestal are pictorial representations, in alto relievo, representing Nelson in some of his memorable battles. It was erected by the British inhabitants of Montreal at a cost of near six thousand dollars.
One of the more striking peculiarities of this city is the fact that every body has to live, walk, and sleep at the point of a bayonet. Military quarters are stationed in various portions of the city, and soldiers meet you at every corner, marching to and fro, and sometimes puffed up with ignorance and vanity. The last woman, I am sorry to say, who has become an outcast from society, attributes her misfortune to a soldier; but the officers of the British army stationed here are generally well-educated and agreeable gentlemen.
The people whom you meet in the streets of Montreal seem to come from almost every nation in the world. Now it may be the pompous Englishman, who represents some wilderness district in Parliament, and now it may be the cunning Scotchman, or a half-famished Irishman. Sometimes it is the speculating American, or the humble, but designing Jew, the gay and polite Habitan, or a group of wandering Indians from the far north. The better class of Montreal people (so called by a fashionable world) are the British settlers, or rather the English population. Generally speaking, they are highly intelligent, somewhat arbitrary in expressing their opinions, but they entertain hospitable feelings towards strangers. They boast of their mother-country, as if her glory and power were omnipotent, and an occasional individual may be found who will not scruple to insult an American if he happens to defend his own. In religion, they are generally Episcopalians; they hate the Habitan, look with contempt upon the poor Irish, and address their brethren of Scotland with a patronising air. They drink immense quantities of wine; and those who happen to be the illiterate members of the Provincial Parliament, think themselves the greatest people on earth.