A distinguished French _litterateur_, fresh from the sunny banks of
the Seine, thus discourses anent the Ancient capital; we translate:--

"Few cities," says M. Marmier, [2] "offer as many striking contrasts
as Quebec, a fortress and a commercial city together, built upon the
summit of a rock as the nest of an eagle, while her vessels are
everywhere wrinkling the face of the ocean; an American city inhabited
by French colonists, governed by England, and garrisoned with Scotch
regiments; [3] a city of the middle ages by most of its ancient
institutions, while it is submitted to all the combinations of modern
constitutional government; an European city by its civilization and
its habits of refinement, and still close by, the remnants of the
Indian tribes and the barren mountains of the north, a city of about
the same latitude as Paris, while successively combining the torrid
climate of southern regions with the severities of an hyperborean
winter; a city at the same time Catholic and Protestant, where the
labours of our (French) missions are still uninterrupted alongside of
the undertakings of the Bible Society, and where the Jesuits driven
out of our own country (France) find a place of refuge under the aegis
of British Puritanism!"

An American tourist thus epitomises the sights:--

"As the seat of French power in America until 1759, the great fortress
of English rule in British America, and the key of the St. Lawrence,
Quebec must possess interest of no ordinary character for well-
informed tourists. To the traveller, there are innumerable points and
items vastly interesting and curious--the citadel and forts of Cape
Diamond, with their impregnable ramparts that rival Gibraltar in