"They do not seem to have made great progress in Latin; for, notwithstanding the service is read in that language, and they read their Latin breviary and other books every day, yet most of them find it very difficult to speak it. "All the priests in the Quebec seminary are consecrated by the bishop. Both the seminaries have got great revenues from the king; that in Quebec has above thirty thousand livres. All the country on the west side of the River St. Lawrence, from the town of Quebec to Bay St. Paul, belongs to this seminary, besides their other possessions in the country. They lease the land to the settlers for a certain rent, which, if it be annually paid, according to their agreement, the children or heirs of the settlers may remain in an undisturbed possession of the lands. "A piece of land three arpents[220] broad, and thirty, forty, or fifty arpents long, pays annually an ecu,[221] and a couple of chickens, or some other additional trifle. In such places as have convenient water-falls, they have built water-mills or saw-mills, from which they annually get considerable sums. The seminary of Montreal possesses the whole ground on which that town stands, together with the whole isle of Montreal. I have been assured that the ground rent of the town and isle is computed at seventy thousand livres, besides what they get for saying masses, baptizing, holding confessions, attending at marriages and funerals, &c. All the revenues of ground rent belong to the seminaries alone, and the priests in the country have no share in them. But the seminary in Montreal, consisting only of sixteen priests, has greater revenues than it can expend; a large sum of money is annually sent over to France, to the chief seminary there. The land rents belonging to the Quebec seminary are employed for the use of the priests in it, and for the maintenance of a number of young people, who are brought up to take orders. The priests who live in the country parishes get the tithe from their congregation, together with the perquisites on visiting the sick, &c. In small congregations the king gives the priests an additional sum. When a priest in the country grows old, and has done good service, he is sometimes allowed to come into the seminary in town. The seminaries are allowed to place the priests on their own estates, but the other places are in the gift of the bishop."--_Ibid._