fect. Suffice it to say, that Papineau has retired
to solitude and reflection at his seignory, 'La Petite Nation'--and
that the pastoral letter, of which I enclose a copy, has been read
_au prone_ in every Roman Catholic church in the diocese. To
those who know what have been the real sentiments of the French
population towards England for some years past, the tone of this
document, its undisguised preference for peaceful over quarrelsome
courses, the desire which it manifests to place the representative of
British rule forward as the patron of a work dear to French-Canadian
hearts, speaks volumes.

With the same object of conciliating the French portion of the community,
he lost no opportunity of manifesting the personal interest which he felt
in their institutions. The following letter, written in August 1848, to
his mother at Paris, describes a visit to one of these institutions, the
college of St. Hyacinthe, the chief French college of Montreal:--

[Sidenote: A French college.]

I was present, the other day, at an examination of the students at one
of the Roman Catholic Colleges of Montreal. It is altogether under the
direction of the priesthood, and it is curious to observe the course
they steer. The young men declaimed for some hours on a theme proposed
by the superior, being a contrast between ancient and modern
civilisation. The greater part of it was a sonorous exposition of
ultra-liberal principles, '_Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,' 'Vox
populi, vox Dei_,' a very liberal tribute to the vanity and to the
prejudices of the classes who might be expected to send their children
to the institution or to puff it; with an elaborate _pivot a la
Lacordaire_--that the Church had achieved all that had been
effected in this genre hitherto. _Au reste_, there was the
wonderful mechanism which gives that church such advantages--the
fourteen professors receiving no salaries, working for their food and
that of the homeliest; as a consequence, an education, board and
lodging inclusive, costing only 15 _l._ a year; the youths
subjected to a constant discipline under the eye of ecclesiastics day
and night. I confess, when I see both the elasticity and the machinery
of this church, my wonder is, not with Lacordaire that it should do so
much, but that it should not do more.

[Sidenote: The Irish question.]

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