picture of his uncle, which is even now considered a fine piece.

A very beautiful apartment, adorned with modern Ionic columns, is the congregation hall, or interior Chapel of the Students. The library contains about 8000 volumes. In the Philosophical Cabinet are to be seen a very valuable collection of instruments, which is rapidly increasing: a number of antiquities, and Indian utensils,-a small mineralogical cabinet, composed at Paris under the direction of the celebrated Abbé Haüy-some geological specimens, fossils, petrifactions, &c.-numerous specimens of the precious and other ores from South Americashells, insects,—and an imitation of the Falls of Niagara.

THE GENERAL HOSPITAL.

It has been stated in the account of the RECOLLET Convent, that this extensive establishment,-situate on the River St. Charles, about a mile from the walls, and near the spot where JACQUES CARTIER first wintered in New France-owes its foundation to Monseigneur de Saint Vallier, second Bishop of Quebec, who bought the property of the RECOLLETS at Notre Dame des Anges, and procured for them a site opposite the Fort of St. Lewis, on which at present stands the English Cathedral. The Bishop expended a very large sum in those days, one hundred thousand crowns, on the buildings, which were intended for a GENERAL HOSPITAL for invalids, and as an asylum for persons permanently afflicted with disease. The HOTEL DIEU was instituted for the care of incidental maladies.

Previously to the foundation of the GENERAL HOSPITAL, there had been established at Quebec since 1688, an office for the relief of the poor, Bureau des pauvres, to which every colonist and community was bound to furnish an annual sum, to be expended under the management of Trustees. The revenue of this office amounted to two thousand livres a year, which were sufficient at that time to relieve the helpless poor, and to prevent mendicity, which was not tolerated. The country parishes in the same manner provided for the maintenance of their poor. The Bishop, having undertaken to relieve the city from the support of its helpless and infirm poor, obtained the junction of these funds with the revenue of his own foundation; and the Trustees of the Bureau des Pauvres were chosen also administrators of the GENERAL HOSPITAL.

The foundation was at first under the charge of the sisters of the Congregation; but afterwards, in 1692, not without great objection on their part, it was placed under the care of the Hospitalières, receiving from the community of the HOTEL DIEU its Superior, and in all twelve professed Nuns. In 1701, the Nuns of the GENERAL HOSPITAL were made a separate and independent community, and are so at the present day.

The following is the account given by Charlevoix of this splendid foundation :

"At the distance of half a quarter of a league you find the Hôpital-Général. This is the finest house in all Canada, and would be no disparagement to our largest cities in France; the Fathers Récollets formerly owned the ground on which it stands. De St. Vallier, Bishop of Quebec, removed them into the city, bought their settlement, and expend..

M.

ed a hundred thousand crowns in buildings, furniture, and in foundations. The only fault of this hospital is its being built in a marsh; they hope to be able to remedy it by draining; but the River St. Charles makes a winding in this place, into which the waters do not easily flow, so that this inconvenience can never be effectually removed.

"The prelate, who is the founder, has his apartments in the house, which he makes his ordinary residence; having let his palace, which is also his own building, for the benefit of the poor. He even is not above serving as Chaplain to the Hospital, as well as to the Nuns, the functions of which office he fills with a zeal and application which would be admired in a simple priest who got his bread by it. The artisans, or others, who on account of their great age, are without the means of getting their subsistence, are received into this hospital until all the beds in it are full, and thirty Nuns are employed in serving them. These are a scion or colony from the hospital of Quebec ; but in order to distinguish them, the Bishop has given them certain peculiar regulations, and obliges them to wear a silver cross on their breast. Most part of them are young women of condition, and as they are not those of the easiest circumstances in the country, the Bishop has portioned several of them."

The GENERAL HOSPITAL is at present a Nunnery, governed by a Superior, having forty-five professed Nuns, a few Novices and Postulantes. The whole appearance, both external and internal, of this Hospital is regular and pleasing; while the general arrangement and economy are highly creditable to the institution. Its front is two hundred and twenty-eight feet long -its form nearly square. The main building is

thirty-three feet deep; but on the south-west side, a range of one hundred and thirty feet long has fifty feet in breadth.

The Chapel is very neat, and has a gallery communicating with the Hospital, for the use of the indigent sick. A separate house is appropriated to the reception of the insane: the Province, however, requires an establishment on a larger scale for these unfortunates. At Three-Rivers there is an establishment for the insane under the charge of the Ursulines of the Convent.

The means of the GENERAL HOSPITAL, from its unrestricted character, have been found inadequate to defray the expenses of the establishment, and the deficiency is occasionally supplied by grants from the Provincial Parliament. The Nuns are distinguished for the manufacture of Church ornaments, and for their skill in gilding. The produce of the sale of these works becomes part of the general fund of the Institution.

CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH.

RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS CONCLUDED-FRENCH AND ENGLISH CATHEDRALS-OTHER PLACES OF WORSHIP.

THE rise and prosperity of the Colony, and the improvement of QUEBEC, may be dated from the period when it became the seat of the Royal Government in New France. The Colony began immediately to reap the fruits of the change of system, which followed the resignation of the Company's charter into the hands of the KING, Measures were adopted to infuse a more liberal spirit into the Colony, to raise the quality and character of the settlers, and to give a higher tone to the society. The KING took a most judicious method to accomplish this. He resolved to confer upon the Government a degree of comparative splendor, worthy of the great nation of which it was a dependency. In 1664, he sent out to QUEBEC the most brilliant emigration that had ever sailed from France for the new world. It consisted of a Viceroy, a Governor-General, an Intendant, and other necessary officers of the Civil Government-the Regiment of Carignan, commanded by Colonel de Salières, and officered by sixty or seventy French gentlemen, most of whom were connected with the Noblesse. Many of these gentle