large families, had succeeded in marrying off their boys and girls at an early age. Contrariwise, fathers whose children showed backwardness in entering on matrimony were to be the objects of official displeasure. Parkman expresses the truth with his usual picturesque force when he says that, "throughout the length and breadth of Canada, Hymen, if not Cupid, was whipped into a frenzy of activity." A gratifying success attended these practical measures. By the year 1671 the total population had increased to six thousand. There were in that year seven hundred baptisms; and the bishop, from doubtless reliable sources of information, was able to promise the governor eleven hundred for the next year. Unfortunately infant mortality was in those days extremely high; or the population would indeed have been increasing by leaps and bounds. It is a matter of regret that the early historians of Canada feel themselves obliged to record a decline in the morals of the country, dating from the arrival of the king's troops in 1665. Up to that time, we are told, the inhabitants--those in the Montreal district at least--had lived in a condition of pristine simplicity and innocence, recalling that of the early Christians. No one locked his house by day or night, the crime of theft being unknown. The ordinances of the church were strictly observed by the whole population; but, if on occasion any one failed in his duty, punishment promptly followed. For example, a man on the Island of Orleans, having eaten meat on a Friday, was fined twenty-five francs, half of which went to the parish church, and threatened with corporal punishment if he repeated the offence. "Here," observes the Abbe Faillon with quiet enthusiasm, "we see the true destination of the secular power." But--ages of gold have a tendency to vanish away, and the Astraea of the French colony took her sad flight shortly after the Carignan-Salieres Regiment arrived. These men had the pleasure-loving ways of soldiers, and war had not trained them to a very strict regard for personal rights or clerical admonitions. A ball was given at Quebec--the first ever held in the country--on the 4th February 1667. The clergy held their breath, not knowing what might follow. Many abuses, it would seem, followed: morals began to be relaxed; thefts became sufficiently common to bring bolts and locks into requisition; a Seneca chief was cruelly murdered by three soldiers; and shortly afterwards six Indians were massacred in their sleep by some settlers near Montreal. The object of the latter crime was to obtain possession of a large quantity of furs which the Indians had brought down to sell. That peace with the natives was gravely imperilled by these atrocious deeds may readily be imagined. It took all the firmness and tact of the governor to avoid an outbreak. The three soldiers were shot by his orders in the presence of a number of Indians. The other criminals seem to have escaped punishment by flight.