to do more than assume a
reclining devotional position, with one knee on the floor. His action
was noticed, and the church-warden, in concert with others, had him
brought before the court charged with an act of irreverence, and he
was fined $8 and costs.

Such a judgment does not only expose the tyranny of the Catholic Church,
but the complicity of the English, who uphold Romanism in the Province
of Quebec as they uphold Buddhism in India, so as not to endanger the
security of their possessions.

The French Canadians are multiplying so rapidly that in a very few years
the Province of Quebec will be as French as the town of Quebec itself.
Every day they push their advance from east to west. They generally
marry very young. When a lad is seen in the company of a girl, he is
asked by the priest if he is courting that girl. In which case he is
bidden to go straightway to the altar, and these young couples rear
families of twelve and fifteen children, none of whom leave the country.
The English have to make room for them.

[Illustration: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIEST.]

The average attendance in Catholic churches on Sundays in Montreal is
111,483; in the sixty churches that belong to the different Protestant
denominations, the average attendance is 34,428. The former number has
been steadily increasing, the latter steadily decreasing.

* * * * *

What is the future reserved to French Canada, and indeed to the whole
Dominion?

There are only two political parties, Liberals and Conservatives, but I
find the population divided into four camps: Those in favor of Canada,
an independent nation; those in favor of the political union of Canada
and the United States; those in favor of Canada going into Imperial
Federation, and those in favor of Canada remaining an English colony, or
in other words, in favor of the actual state of things.

Of course the French Canadians are dead against going into Imperial
Federation, which would simply crush them, and Canadian "society" is in
favor of remaining English. The other Canadians seem pretty equally
divided.

It must be said that the annexation idea has been making rapid progress
of late years, among prominent men as well as among the people. The
Americans will never fire one shot to have the idea realized. If ever
the union becomes an accomplished fact, it will become so with the
assent of all parties. The task will be made easy through Can