QUEBEC. 603 QUEBEC. Keugiox. Quebec was first settled by French Catholics and was the centre of the great mis- sionary activity of the Jesuits. The Catholic faith still continues strongly predominant, its adliercnts outnumbering the Protestants more than t; to 1. They constitute two-thirds of the total Catholic population of the Dominion. Of the Protestants, the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists are strongest. EniCATiox. The educational system is unlike that of any other Canadian province. As in the ease of the others, however, there is a 'Depart- ment of public Instruction' with a superintendent at its head. But the administration is represented by two committees. Catholic and Protestant, having the care of the schools of the respective faiths, prescribing such religious instruction as they see fit, and receiving proportionate support from the public funds. All Catholic bishops are members of the Catholic committee. The individual schools are in the hands of local boards. There were, in 1900. 4980 Catholic schools and 900 Protestant. Each class of schools contains some pupils of the opposite faith, 80 in every 1000 in the Protestant schools being Catholics. The study of agriculture receives spe- cial attention. There are one dairy and four agricultural schools. The expense of the public schools averages about .$9 per enrolled pupil. About 11 per cent, of this is met by Government grants, the rest being raised by assessment of the people. The higher institutions of learn- ing are provided by private or denominational enterprise. These are the Laval University (Catholic) at Quebec, with a branch at Mont- real; Bishop's University (Anglican), at Len- nox^ille; and McGill University (non-denomina- tional), at Montreal. The last institution in particular has a wide reputation. Hlstory. ( For the period preceding perma- nent settlement, see Canada.) In 1608 Cham- plain laid the foundations of the colony of Quebec: and as a result of his twenty-seven years of activity in exploring the Saint Lawrence and the Great Lakes as far west as Huron, in cul- tivating the friendship of the Canadian Indians, and in curbing the power of the Iroquois, there were in Quebec at the time of his death, on Christmas Day, 1635, some 1.50 colonists, who derived a precarious existence largely from the fur trade. (See Champlain, Samuel de.) Champlain's efi'orts were supplemented in a de- gree by the work of the RecoUet missionaries, who arrived in 1615, and the Jesuits, who came in 16:^5: but the pitiable condition of the colony for the next thirty years, during which period occurred the failure of the Hundred Associates under Richelieu, clearly proved that no true ele- ments of colonial prosperity could be expected from the initiative of individual Frenchmen. During this period, in 1642, came the founding of Montreal and the laying of the foundation of those religious establishments that under Slonseigneur de Laval, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Canada, assume<l the commanding posi- tion which they continued to hold while French domination lasted. W hen, in 1663, Canada was made a royal government, its French popula- tion amounted to only 2300, largely centred at Quebec. ^Montreal, and Three Rivers. The coming of the Marquis de Tracy in 1665, followed by his successful campaigns against the Mohawks, two years later, was the signal for a Vol. xvi— 39. more rapid immigration. Under the intendant Talon (q.v.) the colony enjoyed a moderate de- gree of prosperity. The ablest Governor of this period, whose energj- transformed Canada into the semblance of a colonial power, was the Count de Frontenac, whose two terms practically com- prised the last three decades of the .seventeenth century. Under him the Iroquois were led to respect the French power, while the area for the fur trade was greatly extended; and to accom- plish this double purpose Fort Frontenac was cstalilished as an outpost on Lake Ontario. In 1690 an English expedition under Sir William Phipi)s was defeated before Quebec. The total immigration for the years 1063 to 1713, largely from the French provinces of Perche and Nor- mandy, did not exceed 6000, and the population of the territory included within the present Prov- ince of Quebec at the latter date was less than 20,000; but Frontenac had made Can- ada a power to be feared by its English neigh- bors. The system of seigneurial tenure had built up the nucleus of an agricultural com- munity on the banks of the Saint Lawrence, but the vast forests of the West still attracted the more vigorous spirits of the population and rendered settled conditions of social and political order almost impossil)le. Tlie religious Orders were often in sharp con- flict with the Government officials, yet their iniluence on the life of the colony was generally helpful. The .Jesuit College at Quebec, founded in 1035, antedated Hanard, and doubtless was largely responsible for the evidence of culture in the cities noted a century later by the traveler Charlevoix, and the Swedish botanist Kalm. Tlie memorable battle on the Plains of Abra- ham, September 13, 1759, resulting in the fall of (Quebec, which was followed by that of Montreal in the next year, brought Can- ada under the dominion of England. At that time, of the 60,000 French in the Valley of the Saint Lawrence, 8000 were gathered at Quebec, 4000 at Montreal, and 1000 at Three Rivers, the total population of the three hardly equaling that of Boston. These three cities formed the centres of the judicial districts into which the English divided the colony, with a Superior Council at Quebec. During the eleven years preceding the Quebec Act of 1774, the small English minority jjetitioned for themselves a representative system, wholly unsuited to the French population, which would have placed all power in their hands. Though their action gave rise to a race antagonism, the evident policy of both the home Government and the local officials was to deal justly with their new subjects and thus secure their good will. This was shown by the liberal terms of the Quebec Act (q.v.). For this reason, largely, all attempts of emissaries from the Continental Congress to stir up the Canadians against England and the expedition of ilontgomery and Arnold in 1775 alike failed of their object. 'Much of the credit of this result is due to the wise rule of Sir Guy Carleton, the Militarv Governor. By the end of the Revolution at least 10,000 exiled loyalists had sought the valley of the Saint Lawrence and the region bordering upon the lakes beyond, and they now petitioned for a sepa- rate western district. By the terms of the Con- stitutional Act of 1791 their prayer was granted, but the period doira to 1812 was marked by a
