New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-09-04
A WEEKS VACATION.
iii.
MONTREAL.
Editorial Correspondence Of The n. Y Tribune.


trouble to have a sigh, Of foreign parts and out
iandish ways,-for all ways but our own are
outandish unless we have 90, TO be cosmopon'
,ans,-should come TO Canada, and spend IL"
DAYS here, az Quebec, and along the - La"
renee. He will hear French spoken, ana see 'i'e
red coats OF British soldiers, and may imagine
hin self either IN France or England, according
as he opens one eye or the othef-fAoeP' No
looks overhead, for then his illusion must cease.
Such air. and heavens so clear and RADIANT Eng-
Land M, France never dreamed Of and italy,
,ho,cb sbe NAV boast softer and more genial
,.,,e,.,u,e cannot outvIe the marvellous trans
,,.a,ov the ,nllpess and vividness Of light with
wticb every object Is here depicted and detailed
ho1o,e Tho eve Even our New-YOrk atnos-
,oosnbe,e. which we think so much Oi, seems 70
me greatly inferior to the Canadian, and shou'u
ndae thai with due ekll the best Dagueueotypes
m the world might be produced here However
some noticed a, window in Notre Dame-st
were very poor
Montreal is imposing as you approach 1t IRON
Lsorairie The cathedral with It's lofty square
towers, the quay Of hammered stone, inner
than those Of Paris, the market-house, BESIDE
which the boast OF Bostonlans IS insignificant,
and the heavy warehouses give TO the
ei,y the air Of great wealth, solidlty and
finish. while the clearly streets and neat
exterior of the houses make 1t appear sort OF
urban paradise In truth / never saw town OF
its size and population, so well bult geherany'
or with so many costly and excellent puohc
edifces or with streets more uniformly clean
can say too, that in all my walks through 1t IN
every direction | have met bu. single beggar
This fact, however, my experience IN other
nlaces leads me to attribute either TO the yigl'
lance Of the police, or TO accident.
Tbeexcellenee OF the buildings IS, suppose, 20
be attributed to the fact that they have mere
cbeap stone, very easily worked, IN color quite
like our granite, and very durable 10 the extreme
severity of the winters, by which people are con-
neled to build substantially, 0he outer wall elthe
room in which am writing is about twice as
thick as a New-York WALL and, above all, TO the
fact that this has been the capital OF central
,zed political system, which brought here 70 be
spent the rents of country estates, and the prots
of lucky speculatIOns, as well as the heavy out
laws of the Government. Accordingly the city
mus, have grown, like Pans and London, at
the expense and to the damage OF the country
around
For n wonder our guide-book fails to give the
incubation of Montreal, but II must be some
where .betwixt forty and fifty thousand, pToba'
blv near the latter About quarter J should
say, are French and the rest lrlsh, English and
Scotch, with few Yankees The French have
The traits fthcir ancestry, and hut for certain
newness of manner, are Just such people az you
may meet in any village twenty miles from Paris
Both men and women have the same quick iea-
lures bright eyes and ready speech, as their pro-
totypes beyond the sea. Their good nature Is
the same their religion the same, and there is
the same fond of melancholy and sentiment that
is so attractive in the Southern character Like
the French peasants too, they are more lndus-
trious than inventive, are great conservatives,
clineng to the beaten track and following the
WAYS OF their fathers They generally pillow with
tbe same wretched kind of plows, and bring
home their haryes, IN carts Just like those you
may see III Picardy If you are there, this very Au-
tumn Bat capital character Is theirs at bot
tom, think honest, faithful, industrious, capable
of endurance and enthusiasm, and full of friend
shin. All that is wanted Is to cmanclpate them
from ignorance and superstition, and to lanch
them on the great current Of democratic mstltu-
tons and industrial prosperity. For Is what is
good in Anglo Saxondom III energy, ITS laws It's
spirit of freedom aud progress, anything more
than the fruit ot free institutions, OF the wealth
they have produced and the knowledge they
have dfused We say that 1t Is not and that
give other races and other people the same
chance, and they too will develop power and
energy, and noble points OF character such as we
do not now attribute te them, differing from
what is excellent IN the Anglo-SaXOns, o!
English, or Americans. or Yankees OF whatever
you choose to call them, only one star differs
from another in glory.
OF the public buildings of Montreal the NEST
noted is the Cathedral | went to see 1t with
considerable expectations and the best disposition
TO be pleased Its blgness Is Its great feature II
can hold ten thousand persons II Is not only
cut up into pews on the ground, hut has two
tiers of galleries, one above the other, IN
theater, also psrceled on into little boxes
The impression is > cheap one you seek IN vain
ior the indications OF art ard OF that inspired
enthusiasm which produced the great Csthedrals
of the middle ages 1t is big stone meeting
house and nothing more and may well be pointed
at as refutation of enc rather rash comparison
that jealous Catholics are won't 10 set up be
tween their own and the Protestant GGgmaS
Ii is true that Catholicism has produced Archl
lecture and that Professionalism has not but II Is
equally true that the Catholicism ri the present
time is as lmpotent in THIS respect as It's rival
nay, It is more lmpotent, for what there Is OF
new and great IN Art IN these latter centuries,
the Beethoyens, the HanGels, the Bachs, the
Thorwaldsens, the Powers. the kaulbachS, the
Horace NernetS, the Paul Delaroehes the
Turner'S, all are IN fact and eSSence Pro