ada and the
United States having the same legislature. The local and provincial
governments are the same in the Canadian towns and provinces as they are
in the American towns and States--a House of Representatives, a Senate,
and a Governor, with this difference, this great difference, to the
present advantage of Canada: whereas every four years the Americans
elect a new master, who appoints a ministry responsible to himself
alone, the Canadians have a ministry responsible to their parliament,
that is, to themselves. The representation of the American people at
Washington is democratic, but the government is autocratic. In Canada,
both legislature and executive are democratic, as in England, that
greatest and truest of all democracies.

The change in Canada would have to be made on the American plan.

With the exception of Quebec and parts of Montreal, Canada is built like
America; the country has the same aspect, the currency is the same.
Suppress the Governor-General in Ottawa, who is there to remind Canada
that she is a dependency of the English Crown, strew the country with
more cuspidores, and you have part of Jonathan's big farm.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XX.

MONTREAL--THE CITY--MOUNT ROYAL--CANADIAN SPORTS--OTTAWA--THE
GOVERNMENT--RIDEAU HALL.

_Montreal, February 2._

Montreal is a large and well-built city, containing many buildings of
importance, mostly churches, of which about thirty are Roman Catholic,
and over sixty are devoted to Protestant worship, in all its branches
and variations, from the Anglican church to the Salvation Army.

I arrived at a station situated on a level with the St. Lawrence River.
From it, we mounted in an omnibus up, up, up, through narrow streets
full of shops with Breton or Norman names over them, as in Quebec; on
through broader ones, where the shops grew larger and the names became
more frequently English; on, on, till I thought Montreal had no end,
and, at last alighted on a great square, and found myself at the door of
the Windsor Hotel, an enormous and fine construction, which has proved
the most comfortable, and, in every respect the best hotel I have yet
stopped at on the great American continent. It is about a quarter of a
mile from my bedroom to the dining-hall, which could, I believe,
accommodate nearly a thousand guests.

My first visit was to an afternoon "At Home," given by the St. George's
Club, who have a club-house high up on Mount Royal.