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Show TRAVELS THROUGII LO\VER CANADA: gates. T he honfes in the fu urbs arc moilly built of wood, bu t the: tbe rs arc nll of 11one; none of them are elegant, bnt there arc many very comfortable h:.tbitation s. In the lower part of the tOW!,. towards the riv r, where moO: of the {hops fiand, they have a very 0 oomy a1 1 carance, and look. like fo many prifon s, bein_g all furnifJ:cd ; t the outiltl~ with !beet iron ihuttcrs to the doors and wrndows, wl11ch nrc rcgl1hr1y clofcd towards evening, in order to guar~ againfl: fire. T he town has fuffercc.l by nrc very materially at di ffe rent t11nes, and tht: i11lubitants have ii.1 h a dread of it, that all who can afford it cover the roofs of their houfes with tin - plates in !lead of fhingl es. ny law they are obliged to have one or more ladders, in proportion to the fi ze of the h n(e, lways ready on the roofs. T h ilreets are all very narrow; three of them run para Jd to the ri ver~ and there arc intcrfeClcd by oth ers at right an rrles, hnt not at r gular ditb.nccs . On th fide of the town fa rthdl: from the river, and nearly bctw en the northern and foutb crn extremities, th ere is a fmall fquarc, called L:1 Place d' Armes, which feems origi nally to have been left open to the w:Llls on one ll k, and to have been intended for the military to excrcife in; the troops, however, never make ufe of it now, but parade on a long walk, behind the walls, nearer to the barracks. On the oppofltc fide of th ~ town, tow.1rJs the water, is another [mall fF1a.re, where the market is held. There arc fix churches in Montreal; one for Englifh Epifcop:llians, one for Pr iliytcr ians, and four for Roman Catholic . T he cathedral hur h belonging to the 1· ttcr, which occupies one fi de of La Place d' Armes, is a very fpacious building, and con•ains five altars, all very richly decorated. The doors of this cathedml are left open the gi·catcr part of the day, and there arc, generally, numbers of old people in it at their pray rs, even when no regular fervice is going on. On a fine Sunday in the fummer feafon fuch multitudes flock to it, that even the fieps at the outGde are covered with people~ who, unable to get in, remain tllere kneel'ng with their hats off during the whole time of divine i<.:rVI c. Nearly all the chrificning , marriage ; and buri ~ 1s of the Roman 'atholic inhabitants of Montr al arc performed in this church, on which M 0 N T R E A L. 179 which occaGons, as well as before and during the mal1" ·s, they ai.\.'Y' ri nl! the bells, to the great annoyance of every pcrfm th tt is not a lu "·r of c.li/Corcls; for inflead. of pulling the bells, which arc fiv~ in nt;tllh·.:r, and really well toned, with regularity, they jin"·lt; them all at once, ·:•it 1- out any fort of cH.icncc whatever. Our lodgi11gs luppcnc.:d to ht: in La Place d' i\.rmes, ani durin'r thrt:c we e!~ that we n:nu·~·cd there', I vuil y believe the bells were never [ u ffc red to rcmai n ilill Jor two hou r\i together, at any one time, e cept in the night. The funeral , as in other Ronun Catholic countri..:s, arc conthl '1 '1i with great ceremony; the corpft: is alw:1ys attend<.:d t the church by a number of pri fh chanting prayers, anu by little boys in white rob sand bJack caps carrying WJX light. A morning fear ely ever paficd ov r that one or more of th efe pro effions did not pafs un der our window· w~1 i lfl: we were at brcakfafl:; for on the oppofltc fide of the fllllarc to th.tt on which the cath edral fl:ood , was a fort of clupel, to whi h the bodies of all thofc pcrfon , whofe fr iends could not afi:Or I to pay for nn expcnflve funeral, were brought, I fuppofe, in the night, £0r we could never f·c any carried in there, and from thence conveyed in the morn in o- ~ to the cathedral. If the priefls arc paid for it th ey go to the houfc of the dcceafcd, though it be ever fo {;r difl:ant, and c[cort the corpfc to th church. Until within a few yea rs pafl: it was cuflomary to bury all the bodies in the vau lt. und Tncath the cathedral ; but now it is pro- 1libi tcd, leil fo111c putrid difcmler fh uld break out in the town in confcqucncc of fuch num l.rs being depofi.ted there. The burying grounds are all without the walls at prefcnt. Thcr arc in Montreal four conven ts, one of which is of the order of St. P ranci ; the number of the friars, however, is reduced now to two or three, and as by the laws of the provinc men can no longer enter into any religious order, it will of coUl-fe in a few years dwi1tdlc entirc..:ly away. On the female orders there is no rcfl:riB:ion, and they arc flill well filled . The Ilotel Di u, founded as early as 1644, for the rcli { of the fi k poor, and which is the oldcfi of the convents, cont.li!ls thirty " t·eligi uies "-nuns; La Congregation de Notre Dame, infijt. utcd for the inilruB:ion of yo ung girls, contains fifty-fevcn fceurs, A a 2 another |