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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MOL-MOS |
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MONTREAL , a city of the Dominion of Canada, its leading seat of commerce and principal port of entry, as well as the centre of many of its important industries. It is situated on the south-east of the island of Montreal, at the confluence of the Ottawa and St Lawrence rivers, in the county of Hochelaga and province of Quebec. The observatory in the grounds of McGill University, in the city, has been determined to be in 450 30' 17" N. lat., and 730 34' 40.05" W. long. The city holds a fine position at the head of ocean navigation, nearly a thousand miles inland, and at the foot of the great system of rivers, lakes and canals upon which the commerce of the interior is carried to the Atlantic seaboard. The ship channel below Montreal permits the passage of ocean vessels drawing 30 ft. at low water. The deepening of the channel, largely due to the initiative of Montreal merchants, was begun in 1844 by the government of Canada. The work was transferred to the Harbour Commissioners of Montreal in x85o. The depth of the channel was then 11 ft. Fifteen years later it had gradually been increased to 20 ft.; and in 1888, when the work was taken over by the Dominion government, the depth was 27 ft. 6 in. The Lachine canal,with the chain of artificial waterways that succeeded it, opened the way for the shipping of the Great Lakes. The first sod in the digging of the Lachine canal was turned in July 1821 by John Richardson of Montreal. The same public-spirited merchant presided in April of the following year at the preliminary meeting which led to the formation of the committee of trade, itself the forerunner of Montreal's indispensable board of trade. Even before the close of the French regime in Canada efforts had been made to cut a canal across the island of Montreal, and M.de Catalogne succeeded in building a waterway practicable for the canoes of the fur-traders. The more ambitious canal commenced in 1821 was completed four years later, at a cost of $440,000. Before its completion, however, the increasing draught of inland shipping made it practically useless, and in 1843 work was begun on an enlargement. Since then the canal has been repeatedly deepened, to keep pace with the requirements of lake shipping, until to-day a 14-ft. channel is available. In the meantime the rival method of rail transportation was taking shape, and in 1836 the first Canadian railway was opened, between Laprairie, opposite Montreal and St Johns, in the, eastern townships. In 1848 a second railway, from Longueuil to St Hyacinthe, was opened; both these projects owing their existence to the enterprise of Montreal citizens. The broad St Lawrence, however, still lay between the city and the outside world. In 1854 work was commenced upon the famous Victoria tubular bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson and A. M. Ross. The bridge was opened by King Edward VII., then prince of Wales, in 186o. In 1898 it was replaced by the Victoria Jubilee bridge, built on the piers of the old bridge. At the foot of Lake St Louis, some distance above the Victoria Jubilee bridge, the Canadian Pacific railway crosses the river on a graceful cantilever bridge with two central spans each 408 ft. long. Montreal is on the Canadian Pacific, Grand Trunk, Intercolonial, Canadian Northern, New York
Built originally along the water-front, Montreal has in the course of years swept back over a series of terracesformer levels of the river or of a more ancient seato the foot of Mount
Mount
Olmsted , it was converted into a magnificent park. Between mountain and river the Lachine canal winds through the plain. In the middle of the river lies the beautifully wooded St Helen's island, rising to a height of 150 ft., above the water, and itself commanding an excellent view of the city. The island, named after Helen Boulle, wife of Champlain, belonged at one time to the barons of Longueuil. The British government purchased it for military purposes, and it still contains a battery of guns and barracks, the latter tenantless, since the island has been loaned to the city for use as a public park.The city is substantially built, grey limestone, quarried from the mountain, predominating in the public and many of the private edifices. On the south of the Place d'Armes, a small enclosure covering the site of an ancient burying-ground, stands the parish church of Notre Dame, whose Gothic outlines form one of the striking features of the city. Designed by James O'Donnell, the church was built in 1824 to take the place of an earlier structure dating back to 1672. The existing church is 255 ft. long and 134 ft. wide, and accommodates xo,000 worshippers, Its twin towers (227 ft.) contain ten bells, one of which, known as " Le Gros Bourdon," weighs 24,780 lb, the largest in America. Two others weigh respectively 6041 and 3633 lb. Beside the church stands the historic seminary of St Sulpice, one of the few remaining relics of the days of French rule. This ancient building is now used for the offices of the Order of Sulpicians, Sounded by the Abbe Olier in the early half of the 17th century. This zealous enthusiast had sent out Paul de Chomedy, sieur de Maisonneuve, in 1641 to establish the missionary enterprise which afterwards developed into the city of Montreal, and six years later the Abbe de Quelus, with three devoted companions, landed at Ville-Marie de Montreal and laid the foundations of the future powerful Order of Sulpicians. The seigneury of Montreal, acquired by Olier in 1640, is still held by the Sulpicians, and as they have retained large blocks of land in the heart of the city as well as elsewhere on the island, these "Gentlemen of the Seminary," as they were locally called, rank among the wealthiest societies in America. The head offices of the Bank of Montreal face Notre Dame church, on the north of the Place d'Armes, and several other of the leading banking institutions of the city have their quarters in the immediate neighbourhood. In the Place d'Armes itself stands a striking figure in bronze erected to the memory of the founder of Montreal, Maisonneuve. At the base are a series of bas-reliefs setting forth historical incidents connected with the early history of the town. The monument is the work of a Canadian sculptor, Louis Philippe Hebert, C.M.G. The Roman Catholic cathedral of St James stands upon Dominion Square. It is an almost exact reproduction, reduced to one-half the scale, of St Peter's at Rome. The building, projected by the late Archbishop Bourget to replace the old church on St Denis street destroyed in the great fire of 1852, was begun in 1868. On the west of the square stand the Windsor Street station of the Canadian Pacific railway; St George's (Anglican) church, which possesses a fine chime of bells; and the Windsor Hotel. A statue of Sir John Macdonald occupies the centre of the square. Close to the historic Bonsecours Market stands the church of Notre Dame de Bonsecours, founded by Sister Marguerite Bourgeois in 1673 as a sanctuary for a miraculous statue of the Virgin. The original church was burned in 1754, and the present building, erected in 1771, an example of Norman architecture transplanted to the New World, narrowly escaped destruction to make room for a railway station. Curiously enough, it remained for a number of English Protestants to secure the preservation of this relic of the French period. Jacques Cartier Square, adjoining Bonsecours Market, is notable for its column and statue of Nelson, erected in 18o8. As the Roman Catholic cathedral owes its existence to the energy and enthusiasm of Archbishop Bourget, so Christ Church cathedral must always be associated with the name of the first resident Anglican bishop of Montreal, Dr Fulford. The church is a fine example of the Early English style of architecture. Beside it stands a memorial of Bishop Fulford, modelled after the famous Martyr
The mixture of races and creeds, which is so striking a characteristic of Montreal life, has not only endowed the city with many beautiful churches, but also with varieties of philanthropic institutions. Each of the several national societiesSt George's, St Andrew's, St Patrick's, and that of the French-Canadian patron saint, St Jean Baptiste, to mention no otherslooks after the welfare of its own adherents. Of the several hospitals, the most venerable is the Hotel Dieu, founded in 1644 by Mme de Bouillon, a French lady of high rank. The original building, in the early days of Ville Marie, stood without the fort, and was fortified to withstand the attacks of the Iroquois. The site is now covered by a block
Montreal provides for the education of its young people through two distinct systems of public schools; one for Roman Catholics, the other for Protestants, each governed by a board of commissioners. The schools are maintained by an annual tax based upon the assessment, two-fifths of r % being levied upon the Protestant section of the community for the support of the Protestant schools, and one-quarter of , % upon the Catholics for their schools. Unlike the neighbouring provinces of Ontario, Quebec makes no provision for a state university. But James McGill (17441813) left property, valued at the time of his death at 30,000, for the foundation of a university, one college of which was to bear his name. A royal charter conferring university powers was obtained in 1821. During early years slow progress was made, but with the appointment of Sir William Dawson as principal, in 1855, the institution entered on a career of prosperity. It now embraces five faculties: arts, applied science, law, medicine, agriculture, and comprises the following: McGill College, Montreal, the original foundation; the Royal Victoria College for Women, Montreal, built and endowed by Lord Strathcona; four affiliated theological colleges in Montreal; the Macdonald College, erected and endowed by Sir William C. Macdonald, at Ste Anne de Bellevue, 20 M. from the city; the McGill University College of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.; and three affiliated colleges: Stanstead Wesleyan College, Stanstead, P.Q.; Victoria College, Victoria, B.C.; Alberta College, Edmonton. The finely-equipped Macdonald scientific laboratories, with the Redpath Museum and University Library (114,000 vols. 111 1907), form part of a noble group of buildings on the campus in Montreal. Disastrous fires in April 1907 wiped out two buildings and destroyed the splendid medical museum, but the plans for rebuilding provided for further extension and improvement. Previous to the fires the property of the university in buildings in Montreal, including equipment and endowment, was valued at $6,000,000.The French university of Laval, the chief
Montreal's position as the chief
York
Montreal is governed by a mayor and 36 aldermen, elected every two years. The city returns 5 members to the Dominion House of Commons and 6 to the Provincial Legislature of Quebec. The population of Montreal, according to.the census of 19o1, was 266,826. With the suburbs, it was estimated in 1907 at over 405,000, about three-fifths French. The history of the town is steeped in romance. From that first remarkable scene, so graphically described by Francis Parkman, when, on the 18th of May 1642, Maisonneuve and his little band of religious enthusiasts landed upon the spot where the Montreal Custom House now stands, and planted, in the words of the saintly Dumont, a grain of mustard seed destined to overshadow the land,-the history of the town was to be intimately associated with missionary enterprise and such missionary heroism as the world has rarely seen. Montreal began as a religious colony, but its very situation, on the outer confines of civilization and at the door of the Iroquois country, forced it to become a military settlement, a fortified town with a military garrison. Similarly its position, even then .an ideal one from a commercial point of view, made it the dominating centre of the fur-trade. For a hundred years after its foundation these three influences held sway, more or less mutually antagonistic, the streets of Montreal presenting an animated picture of sombre priests, and jovial soldiers, savage hunters in their native finery and more than half-savage fur traders. Within another hundred years, although both priests and soldiers were still to be seen on her streets, they had become but atoms in a larger and more varied population. The fur trader of New France, merged after the conquest in the fur trader of the North West Companywhich had its origin in Montrealremained for a time the one picturesque survival of earlier and more romantic days. Finally, he too disappeared in the multiform and strenuous life of the modern city. End of Article: MONTREAL If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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