Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Montreal, 1535-1914, Vol. 2: Under British Rule, 1760-1914
The history of Montreal Under British Rule is the Tale of Two Cities, of a dual civilization with two main racial origins, two mentalities, two main lan guages, and two main religions. It is the story of two dominant races growing up side by side under the same ?ag, jealously preserving their identities, at some times mistrusting one another, but on the whole living in marvelous harmony though not always in unison, except on certain well defined common grounds of devotion to Canada and the Empire, and of the desire of maintaining the noble traditions and the steady progress of their city.
Montreal of today is a cosmopolitan city, but it is preponderatingly French Canadian in its population. This fact makes it necessary to give especial atten tion to the history of two-thirds of the people. There has, therefore, been an effort in these pages, while recognizing this, to respect the rights of the minority, and Open-handed justice has been observed.
The position of a dispassionate onlooker' has been taken as far as possible in the narration of the domestic struggles in the upbuilding of the city through the crucial turnstiles of Canadian history under British rule - the Interregnum, the establishment of civil government, the Quebec act, the Constitutional act, the Union, and the Confederation. This attitude of equipoise, while disappointing to partisans, has been justified if it helps to present an unbiased account of different periods of history and serves to maintain the city's motto of Concordia Salus a doctrine which has been upheld throughout this work. Tout savoir c'est tout pardonner.
Charles Dickens in his visit to Montreal in 1842 observed that it was a heart burning town. There is no need to renew the occasion for such a title in the city of today.
It only remains to express thankful indebtedness to those, too numerous to mention, who have assisted in the compilation of certain information otherwise difficult of access, and also to thank a number of friends, prominent citizens of Montreal, who in connection with the movement for city improvement and the inculcation of civic pride have encouraged the author to embark on the laborious but pleasant task of preparing this second volume of the history of Montreal Under British Rule, as a sequel to the first volume of Montreal Under the French R�gime.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
