would always prefer to earn five in the town.  The man who finds himself bound to touch his hat to the squire would be glad to dispense with that ceremony, if circumstances would permit.  A crowd of greasy-coated town artisans, with grimy hands and pale faces, is not in itself delectable; but each of that crowd has probably more of the goods of life than any rural laborer.  He thinks more, reads more, feels more, sees more, hears more, learns more, and lives more.  It is through great cities that the civilization of the world has progressed, and the charms of life been advanced.  Man in his rudest state begins in the country, and in his most finished state may retire there.  But the battle of the world has to be fought in the cities; and the country that shows the greatest city population is ever the one that is going most ahead in the world’s history.

If this be so, I say that the argument of my Canadian friend was naught.  It may be that he does not desire crowded cities, with dirty, independent artisans; that to view small farmers, living sparingly, but with content, on the sweat of their brows, are surer signs of a country’s prosperity than hives of men and smoking chimneys.  He has probably all the upper classes of England with him in so thinking, and as far as I know the upper classes of all Europe.  But the crowds themselves, the thick masses of which are composed those populations which we count by millions, are against him.  Up in those regions which are watered by the great lakes—­ Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario—­and by the St. Lawrence, the country is divided between Canada and the States.  The cities in Canada were settled long before those in the States.  Quebec and Montreal were important cities before any of the towns belonging to the States had been founded.  But taking the population of three of each, including the three largest Canadian towns, we find they are as follows:  In Canada, Quebec has 60,000; Montreal, 85,000; Toronto, 55,000.  In the States, Chicago has 120,000; Detroit, 70,000; and Buffalo, 80,000.  If the population had been equal, it would have shown a great superiority in the progress of those belonging to the States, because the towns of Canada had so great a start.  But the numbers are by no means equal, showing instead a vast preponderance in favor of the States.  There can be no stronger proof that the States are advancing faster than Canada, and in fact doing better than Canada.

Quebec is a very picturesque town; from its natural advantages almost as much so as any town I know.  Edinburgh, perhaps, and Innspruck may beat it.  But Quebec has very little to recommend it beyond the beauty of its situation.  Its public buildings and works of art do not deserve a long narrative.  It stands at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles Rivers; the best part of the town is built high upon the rock—­the rock which forms the celebrated plains of Abram; and the view from thence down to the mountains which shut in the St. Lawrence is magnificent.  The best point of view is, I think, from the esplanade, which is distant some five minutes’ walk from the hotels.  When that has been seen by the light of the setting sun, and seen again, if possible, by moonlight, the most considerable lion of Quebec may be regarded as “done,” and may be ticked off from the list.