It was not until 1797 that these occasional services ceased and Murray Bay secured a resident priest.  Then was fully established in the parish the imposing church system that to-day probably retains its original vigour more completely in the Province of Quebec than in any other country in the world.  At its head is the diocesan bishop.  Subject only to the distant authority of the Pope he reigns supreme.  With one or two exceptions, such as that of the cure of Quebec, he appoints and he can remove any and every priest in his diocese, a right, it is said, almost never exercised arbitrarily.  He fixes the tariff to be paid for masses.  It is he who determines whether such a practise as, for instance, dancing shall be permitted in the diocese.  He watches over the Church’s rights and gives the alarm when a political leader proposes anything that seems to menace them.  If a newspaper adopts a course dangerous to the Church it has often happened that the bishop gives it one or two warnings; in case of continued obstinacy his last act is to forbid the faithful to read the paper; and since most of them will obey, this involves ruin for the recalcitrant journal.

The bishop visits each parish at least every third year and sometimes even annually.  A mounted cavalcade will probably meet him as he crosses its boundary.  A procession is formed.  The roads have been cleared and decorated with boughs of ever-green trees stuck in the ground.  The people watch the cavalcade from their doors and all kneel as the procession passes.  The bishop goes at once to the church where he gives his benediction and holds confirmation.  He remains for some days.  There is daily communion and spiritual instruction.  He inspects everything—­the church and its furnishings, the registers, the accounts, the inventory of effects, the cemetery.  He has already given notice that he is ready to hear any complaints or grievances even against the cure.  We may be sure that when he comes there is a general clearing up of parochial difficulties.  A wise bishop is a great peacemaker; an arbitrary one commands an authority not lightly to be disregarded.

The church that towers over the humble cottages of a French Canadian village invariably seems huge.  But we need to remember how large are the parishes and how few in number relatively are the churches; it is probable that in English-speaking Canada there are half a dozen churches, or more, to every one in the Province of Quebec.  In all Canada, rural and urban, there is probably not a Protestant parish to which are attached as many, or perhaps half as many, people as the five thousand who dwell in the parish of St. Etienne de la Malbaie, one of secondary importance in the Province of Quebec.  In a whole diocese there are often not more than forty or fifty parishes.  In the country the churches are usually built at intervals of not more than three leagues (nine miles) so that no one may have to travel more than a league and a half to mass.  The life of