growth of towns and the development of manufactures had been met by no
effort for religious or educational improvement. Not a new parish had
been created. Hardly a single new church had been built. Schools there
were none save the grammar schools of Edward and Elizabeth. The rural
peasantry, who were fast being reduced to pauperism by the poor-laws,
were left without moral or religious training of any sort. 'We saw but
one bible in the parish of Chedda,' said Hannah More, at a far later
time, 'and that was used to prop a flower pot.' p. 707, Harpers' ed.
1870. Parkman also admits that 'towards the end of the French regime the
Canadian habitant was probably better taught, so far as concerned
religion, than the mass of French peasants.'--_The Old Regime in
Canada_.]

Sensuality was not encouraged in Canada by the leaders of society, as
was notoriously the case in the best circles of England and of France.
Dull and devoid of intellectual light as was the life of the Canadian,
he had his places of worship, where he had a moral training which
elevated him immeasurably above the peasantry of England as well as of
his old home. The clergy of Lower Canada confessedly did their best to
relieve the ignorance of the people, but they were naturally unable to
accomplish, by themselves, a task which properly devolved on the
governing class. But under the French regime in Canada, the civil
authorities were as little anxious to enlighten the people by the
establishment of schools as they were to give them a voice in the
government of the country. In remarkable contrast with the conduct of
the French Government in this particular were the efforts of the Puritan
pioneers then engaged in the work of civilization among the rocks of New
England. Learning, after religion and social order, was the object
nearest to the hearts of the New England fathers; or rather it may be
said that they were convinced that social order and a religious