ion as they did a hundred years ago.

[Illustration: SIR WILFRID LAURIER]

The rumble of the caleches and the jingling of the carrioles in the
old streets are now pierced by the strident clang of the street-car;
and the electric light sharpens garishly the hard outlines of the
stone mansions which sheltered Laval, Montcalm, and Murray; but modern
industry and municipal emulation sink away into the larger picture of
fortress life, of religious zeal, of Gallic mode, of changeless
natural beauty. No ruined castles now crown the heights, but the grim
walls still tell of

"Old, far-off, unhappy things,
And battles long ago."

The temper of the people is true. Song and sentiment are much with
them, and in the woods and in the streams--down by St. Roch and up by
Ville Marie--chansons of two hundred years ago mark the strokes of
labour as of the evening hour when the professional village
story-teller cries "_cric-crac_" and begins his tale of the
_loup-garou_, or rouses the spirit of a pure patriotism by a crude
epic of some valiant atavar; when the parish fiddler brings them to
their feet with shining eyes by the strains of _O Carillon_. They are
not less respectful to the British flag, nor less faithful in
allegiance because they love that language and that land of their
memories which they know full well is not the Republican France of
to-day when their Church suffers at the hands of the State. If ever
the genius of the Dominion is to take a high place in the fane of Art,
the soul and impulse of the best achievement will come from Old
Quebec, which has produced a sculptor of merit, Hebert; a renowned
singer, Albani; a poet crowned by the French Academy, Louis Frechette;
and has given to the public life of the country a distinction, an
intellectual power, and an illuminating statesmanship in the persons
of Etienne Tache, Sir George Cartier, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
Enlarged understanding between the two peoples of the country will
produce a national life marked by courage, energy, integrity, and
imagination. Though Quebec has ceased to be an administrative centre
of the nation, the influence of the people of her province grows no
less, but is woven more and more into the web of the general progress.
The Empire will do well to set an enduring value on that New France so
hardly won from a great people, and English Canada will reap rich
reward for every compromise of racial pride made in the interests of
peace, equ