QUEBEC TERCENTENARY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9152, 27 July 1908, Page 5

QUEBEC TERCENTENARY.

REVIEW OF TROOPS.

Received July 26, 4.30 p.m. OTTAWA, July 25. The Prince of Wales reviewed 13,000 troops and 2,000 French, American and British sailors leading in this order in the march-past. The Prince of Wales afterwards handed Earl Grey the title deeds of the battlefield of the Plains of Abraham, acquired by subscriptions from every part of the Empire.

Historically, Quebec stands preeminent. Here the germ of European civilisation was planted in that new northern land, and the two greatest of old-world monarchies battled for half a continent. Here mediaeval ideas of tortification and defence may be seen; here the bold, fortresscrowned rock, and the majestic river, with tribute of the whole western world at its feet, show Nature in her most wonderful mood. The city of Quebec is such a convenient resting place between Montreal and tho several .points of interest on the Lower St. Lawrence, and is of itself so interesting, and so unlikt other cities of the continent, that ve r y few making the tour of the St. Lawrence pass its memorable walls without spending a few days within them. They desire to see where Cartrer, the Columbus of the North, first landed; where Champlain founded the first French colony; where Wolfe fell, and Montcalm received his death wound; and where Montgomery, the American general, was killed, while besieging the city, on December 31st, 1775. The streets of Quebec are redolent of the religious and military history of early Canada, and more historic memories linger about this ancient stronghold than round any other city on the continent. Every spot, now dismissed in a sentence, was the centre of events which seemed, to the actors of them to be fraught with farreaching consequences, as indeed many of them were. It is three hundred and seventy-one years since Jacques Cartier anchored off what was then the Indian village of Stadacona, and, of course, claimed the rest of it all, whatever it might prove to be, for the King of France. He made n permanent settlement here, but in 1 '49, the Siiur de Roberval spent or.e winter with a small colony he had bi ought out, and then retired. In 1608 Champlain arrived, and succeeded in establishing the French possession of th~ country, and commenced to provide material for history. His romantic reign, ad practical ki sg of the St. Lawrence, and the eventful times of his French successor. I ', have been described by many a pert, sjuobec has seen more of war, probably, than any other place on the cor.tinei.:. The r ore sight of the city*recalls to memory the long succession of thrilling historical events, in which many nations were deeply interested. The French, the English, the Americans, and the aboriginal Indians, have all played their parts in the stirring drama, wh'se scenes we relaid around the fortress-crowned rock; and the final struggle for Canada, bet'./een the French and English, which closed on the heights of Abraham, saw the end of France in the northern half ;>f the continent, and commenced the regime which wa? inevitably destined to result in the self-governing liberty which Canada now enjoys.