I could not with these views afford to lose the opportunity of promoting this object, which was presented by a spontaneous movement of the people, headed by the priesthood—­the most powerful influence in Lower Canada.

The official correspondence which has passed on this subject I hope to send by the next mail, and I need not trouble you with the detail of proceedings on my own part, which, though small in themselves, were not without their effect.  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.]