NATIONAL SCHOOL, already mentioned: the School of the QUEBEC EDUCATION SOCIETY, and the BRITISH and CANADIAN School. The three last are chiefly elementary. There are also several private Schools for both sexes, Sunday Schools, and the useful establishment of Infant Schools has lately been successfully introduced into this city. In the Esplanade, is the highly valuable establishment of Mr. McDONALD for the instruction of deaf and dumb children. In the Parish of St. Roch there is also a School supported by the Roman Catholic Bishop; and in the Suburbs of St. Lewis is the meritorious foundation of J. F. PERRAULT, Esquire, the venerable and consistent promoter of elementary instruction in his native city.

CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.

MONUMENT TO WOLFE and monTCALM-CEREMONY ON LAYING THE FIRST STONE-INSCRIPTIONS.

THAT nearly seventy years should have elapsed, without this well merited tribute to the military virtue and devotion of these Heroes having been paid in the country of their fame, can only be attributed to the circumstances of a gradually rising Colony, whose attention to the Arts and to architectural embellishment could only be expected after years of prosperity, peace, and the accumulation of riches. PERICLES, having enriched his country by years of prosperous administration, civil and military, betook himself to the embellishment of his native city. ROME had been long victorious over every enemy, before her heroes and patriots had leisure from the camp to adorn the FORUM with edifices, whose magnificent remains are the admiration of all beholders. The family DE' MEDICI did not excel in the Arts, or contribute to the classic riches of FLORENCE, until a long course of commercial enterprise and success had elevated them from merchants to the rank of Princes. So it has been in all ages, that the Arts, as well as the Laws, have been silent during periods of war and commotion; nor has their voice been listened to, except under circumstances when the human mind, withdrawn from the turmoil

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of active collision, has sought repose in the charming studies which elegant ease alone enables men to pursue with steadiness and effect. Amongst the people of the UNITED STATES, it is only within a few years that any public tribute, or classic memorial, has testified the common admiration of the world directed towards the memory of WASHINGTON. The chisel of CANOVA, and the hand of CHANTREY have still more recently been employed on national monuments to his honor. Indeed, there is somewhat of morbid feeling in this propensity of mankind to neglect the offering of public tokens of gratitude to great men, during the age which witnessed their deeds, and benefitted most from their services. It is the consciousness of this fact, which has directed the views of illustrious men rather to the certainty of posthumous fame, than to the rewards of present celebrity and popular applause

Sui memores alios fecêre merendo.

And this feeling is part of the divine inspiration, of that immortal breath, which more or less is the animating principle of great souls ;-but which the grosser impressions of mankind, in the main envious and detracting, have derogated by calling it ambition. Memorials, therefore, of a purely classical nature have generally been the works of posterity; and the experience of time demonstrates, that as there is nothing more honorable to the age which confers them, so there is nothing more lasting and perennial than the fame, which is handed down by such monuments. Well, indeed, did the Poet feel this truth, and it must be given in his own language to have its full effect, when he prophetically enume

rated, among the means of immortality to illustrious

persons

INCISA NOTIS MARMORA PUBLICIS,

PER QUÆ SPIRITUS ET VITA REDIT BONIS
POST MORTEM DUCIBUS.

It was reserved for the Earl of DALHOUSIE, then GOVERNOR-IN-CHIEF of these Provinces,-a noble. man whose generous spirit and munificent patronage had already been evinced in the foundation of the Literary and Historical Society-to bring this interesting subject before the public, and set the example in raising a fit monument to the memory of WOLFE and MONTCALM in the Metropolis of British North America, the stake for which these gallant soldiers contended. A subscription list for the purpose was accordingly circulated among the gentry of QUEBEC, under the auspices of HIS EXCELLENCY; and the call for so laudable an object was promptly responded to. Not only the inhabitants of British origin, but the Canadian public, headed by the Roman Catholic Bishop and several of the Clergy, liberally contributed to the erection of this Monu

ment.

This praiseworthy design was not improbably suggested to the mind of the Earl of Dalhousie, by a perusal of the letter of Monsieur DE BOUGAINVILLE to the great Earl of CHATHAM, then Secretary of State, inclosing a copy of an inscription for an intended Monument to be erected at QUEBEC to the memory of MONTCALM by the French Government. The answer of Lord CHATHAM, speaking no doubt the sentiments of the youthful MONARCH, was con. ceived in the most generous spirit. The marble slab with the inscription was engraved, and shipped

for CANADA; but the vessel never reached her destination.

A general meeting of the subscribers to the intended Monument was held at the Castle of St. Lewis on the 1st November, 1827, HIS EXCELLENCY the EARL OF DALHOUSIE in the chair, who addressed the meeting in a speech, of which the following is an extract :

"GENTLEMEN, I feel it peculiarly my duty to address this meeting to-day, as having taken the lead in proposing for consideration a subject chiefly interesting to the public in and near Quebec.

"When I first notified the proposal of raising a monument to the memory of Generals WOLFE and MONTCALM, I did not presume to offer any advice, nor did I urge feelings that had prompted to my own mind the undertaking of such a workthese I was sure would come far better at a General Meeting from individuals infinitely better qualified than I am; and it is therefore my principal object in calling this meeting to-day, to hear the opinions and suggestions of all who may be disposed to express them.

"In the first place, however, I beg permission to present to you two drawings, or designs, which are the performance and composition of Capt. YOUNG, of the 79th Regiment. I think, I may take the liberty with him to say, that these are produced from repeated conversations he and I had on this subject, during our daily walks last winter: they are subject to revisal, to alteration, and even to a total abandonment of them for others, if other suggestions shall be made, or larger means than we have calculated upon shall be found. But on this point, I would particularly impress upon your consideration, that I do not propose any splendid trophy equal to the great names, the subject of it. A monument worthy of General Wolfe, and worthy of England, has been placed in Westminster Abbey. My only object is to remove a subject of general regret, that in Quebec, nothing is found to honor the memory of WOLFE, nothing more than if his great achievements had been effected in other countries distant or unknown to us.'-Thus limiting our views, I think a plain Column, simple and unpretending in its architecture, the most fit, and