the island now called
Montreal; but where that island is situated may be considered an open
question; the river Ottawa runs into the St. Lawrence at the western
extremity of the island, and the question is, whether the water on the
northern shore is the Ottawa or the St. Lawrence; upon which depends
whether the island is in the St. Lawrence, or between the St. Lawrence
and the Ottawa. Not wishing to deprive either of their finger in the
pie, I should give my verdict in favour of the latter opinion; but I
leave it an open question to the reader. The population of the town is
increasing rapidly, no doubt owing in great measure to emigration. In
1849 it was 48,000, in 1851, 58,000. The great majority are of the
Church of Rome, 41,000; of the Church of England there are 4000; the
other denominations are in small numbers.

At the time I arrived, the town was full of gloom and excitement, for
it was but a few days previous that the Roman Catholics endeavoured to
murder Gavazzi, while delivering one of his anti-Romanistic lectures,
which, whatever their merits or demerits, were most certainly very
injudicious, considering the elements of which the population of
Montreal is composed; and it cannot be denied, that Signor Gavazzi's
lectures upon sacred subjects are delivered in a style partaking so much
of the theatrical, that a person ignorant of the language of his
address, might readily suppose that he was taking off John Kemble and
Liston alternately, and therefore the uneducated Irish emigrants might
very well conclude his sole object was to turn their creed into
ridicule. I certainly never heard or saw a person, lecturing on sacred
subjects, whose tone and manner were so ridiculously yet painfully at
variance with the solemnity due to such a theme. The excitement
produced, the constant calling out of the military, and the melancholy
sequel, are too recent and well known to require recapitulation here. It
is but just to the French Romanists to state, that as a body they
repudiated and took no part in the villanous attempt upon Gavazzi's
life; the assailants were almost exclusively Irish Romanists, who form
nearly one-fifth of the population. Would that they could leaven their
faith with those Christian virtues of peacefulness and moderation which
shine so creditably in their co-religionists of French origin.

While touching upon the subject of the military being called out in aid
of the civil power, I am reminded of a pass