pensed the Catholic see of Quebec by an annuity. The old French
building was demolished in 1834, and the new House of Parliament, soon
afterwards erected on the same site, served to indicate the wonderful
political development of the French province as an integral part of
the British Empire.

The proclamation of the Constitutional Act, on the 26th of December,
1791, was the signal for great public rejoicings in Quebec. During the
day the regimental bands played to the trooping of the colours on the
Esplanade, and in the evening the streets were ablaze with lights and
torches, while fountains of fireworks broke from the high bastions of
the citadel. A public dinner, attended by one hundred and sixty
gentlemen, brought the _fete_ to a close.

[Illustration: Lord Dalhousie.
Governor General of Canada 1820-1828.]

[Illustration: OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE, QUEBEC]

An unusual feature of these celebrations was the presence of His Royal
Highness Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, son of George III., who had come
to Quebec in the preceding summer as colonel of the Seventh Fusiliers.
The transfer of this gay regiment from the Gibraltar of the Old World
to the Gibraltar of the New did more than merely decorate the social
annals of Quebec; for the visible presence of a prince of the blood
contributed not a little to crystallise the loyalty of a French
province not quite beyond the influence of the great revolutionary
fires of Europe. Although he was but twenty-five, Prince Edward had
the tact and _savoir faire_ of riper years; and during his three
years' residence in the garrison, exerted a great and far-reaching
influence on the fidelity of French Canada. The reception of the
gallant Prince when he landed at the head of his regiment in August
1791 was marked by all that enthusiasm which the Gallic city had
learned of old. Long since, in 1665, the Marquis de Tracy had
schooled her in these august pageants, and now when Commodore Sawyer's
squadron, consisting of the _Leander_, the _Resource_, the _Ariadne_,
the _Thisbe_, the _Ulysses_, and the _Resistance_, dropped anchor in
the basin, Quebec was streaming with flags and bunting and resounding
with music. Next day his Royal Highness held a _levee_ at Chateau St.
Louis, where the civic authorities assembled to do him honour.

[Illustration: HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF KENT, K.B.]

Prince Edward established himself at Kent House, the sombre mansion in
St. Louis Street, which Bigot had