An injustice of the same kind wronged the Manitoban Catholics in 1890. Despite the vigor ous fight led by Monsignor Langevin, successor to Monsignor Tache in the see of Saint Boni face, the iniquity was not amended, but a com promise was arranged between the Laurier gov ernment and the Holy See, which for want of a better softened without destroying the dis astrous effects of the law. This question which so impassioned the minds in 1896 gave rise to the creation of the Apostolic Delegation to Can ada. (c) The foundation of Laval University at Montreal.— For a long. time Montreal was in want of a Catholic university. \fonsignor Bourget applied to the Propaganda. Not to in jure the right of Quebec, a branch in Mon treal was granted by the pontifical bull Inter •arias sollicitudines (1876). The powers and the autonomy of this branch were signally in creased by Leo XIII (1889). In need of the necessary buildings, the liberality of the Semi nary of Saint Sulpice, governed then by M. Colin, filled this void. Laval University at Mon treal now has spacious premises and numerous professorships.
3. Present Condition.— (a) Ecclesiastical provinces.—The total Canadian population in Canada is estimated at 2,230,008 by the census of 1901. Since then it has increased about 100,000 through immigration. With 1,430,000 Catholics, the province of Quebec alone com prises three-fifths of the faithful followers of Rome in Canada. Nearly 900,000 are scattered throughout the other provinces. Everywhere, except in Ontario, in Manitoba and in British Columbia, Catholicism exceeds in the number of its adherents any of the separate Protestant sects. It embraces 42 per cent of the total population of the Dominion, which is 5,371,315. From 1890 to 1900 the Catholics increased by over 250,000 souls. This pin was effected despite a very pronounced emigration movement of French Canadians to the Northeast of the United States. The following table gives at a glance the ecclesiastical divisions of the Domin ion of Canada : • On the death of a bishop, the bishops of the province send a list of three names to Rome and the Pope chooses and names a successor. The bishop-designate cannot be consecrated be fore receiving his bull from the Holy See. He enters immediately on his functions without having to fulfill any civil formality, and the diocesans render their homage and obedience as to his predecessor. The state recognizes in him the rights of a civil corporation. He enjoys besides the greatest liberty while regarding canonical rules, in nominating vicars, creating parishes, erecting churches and parsonages. Each vicar keeps a registry of births, marriages and deaths. In French-Canada the vicar has the right of tithes for his maintenance. This tithe in spite of its name is but a twenty-sixth part; it is raised on grain alone, and the tend ency is more • and more to pay it in money. No vicar is irremovable.
(b) Religious Communities.—There are to day in Canada about 38 communities of men, either priests or brothers; and about 83 com munities of women. The priests devote them selves to various forms of charity, of teaching, to parochial ministry or to preaching. They include Sulpicians, Jesuits, the Oblate Fathers of Mary the Immaculate, the clerks of Saint Viator, Dominicans, Franciscans, Redemptor ists, the Fathers of the Holy Cross, of the Company of Mary, Eudistes, Basilians, of the Holy Sacrament and several others. The
Brothers of the Christian Schools to the num ber of 760 have 66 establishments, and instruct 25,000 pupils. The Sisters are to be found in every kind of devoted work: hospitals, asy lums, industrial schools, almshouses, refuges, orphanages, in one word all the miseries that the crowded cities multiply find succor from them. Mention will be made only of the orders found in Canada : (c) Universities and Seminaries.—There are three Catholic eniversities in Canada: Laval in Quebec, •Laval in Montreal, and the Univer sity of Ottawa, founded by Monsignor Guigues. The first two comprise all faculties except sciences. Medicine, law and letters have well endowed chairs. Theology has distinctive 'faculties in the great seminaries of Quebec and of Montreal, the last opened by the Sulpicians in 1840. The University of Ottawa has only the faculties of theology and arts. Secondary education is disseminated by 17 colleges in the province of Quebec, all affiliated to Laval Uni versity, which alone confers university degrees. To these colleges must be added others opened in recent years, namely Loyola College in Mon treal, Sudbury in Ontario, Saint Albert in Alberta and Saint Bonif ace in Manitoba. Saint Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, opened in 1913, is a faculty of theology. Young men .destined for the priesthood prepare by two years of philosophy and four of theology. This preparation begins in a great seminary; that .of Montreal has nearly 300 aspirants for the priesthood, that of Quebec over 100. There is besides, one at Halifax; and each religious community of men is endowed with an academy where dogmatic and moral theology, the Holy Scriptures, patrology, canon law, Church history and the pastorate are taught. Those young priests who are most distinguished for their intelligence are sent by their bishops to Rome to the Canadian College, founded by the Sulpicians in 1888, where they follow courses given by learned professors of the Roman universities and return with the degrees of doctors in philosophy, in divinity or in canon law. Consult Hopkins, 'Canada: an Encyclopedia of the Country,' Vol. V (To ronto 1898). Two important events took place in recent years; one in 1910, the Plenary Coun cil of Quebec, at which all the bishops of Canada assisted, under the presidency of the papal delegate, Monsignor Sbaretii. At this council new laws were enacted and the old laws were confirmed. The other event was the solemn Eucharistic Congress, the XXIst of the series, which proved to be a wonderful success, the whole population of Montreal, Protestants as well as Catholics, joining hands' in the cele bration of this great event.
French-Canadian Catholics believe that they have been called by Providence to personate on American soil the role that France personated in the Old World. They look upon them selves as destined to fill a mission, and that mission the one that France has filled in Eu rope; to carry high the banner of the Catholic Church, and among races more inclined to positivism, maintain and propagate the instinct of disinterested devotion, and the worship of the ideal. Consult Casgrain, 'Histoire de la Venerable de l'Incarnation,> t. 1. p. 95; Gaily de Taurines, 'La nation Canadienne,> ch. XXV.
pp. 280-91; Massom, 'Le Canada francais et la Providence) (Quebec 1875) ; Ragey, P.,