The enthusiasm was intense and the sacred edifice rang with unwonted applause. The sanctuary and the stalls were filled with brilliant ecclesiastical costumes and gay uniforms and the church was a mass of colour. Perhaps the most electrical moment of the evening was after the plea of the Archbishop of Westminster advocating, before this vast audience which was for the most part composed of French-Canadians of the Province of Quebec, a more general adoption of the English language to meet the changing conditions of Greater Canada, when Henri Bourassa, who had already been appointed to speak at this point, took the psychological opportunity of the occasion so temptingly offered him, to voice the aroused thoughts of his compatriots to whom their language, religion and racial traditions seemed inseparably bound. His words were punctuated with thundering applause and the waving of hats and hands amid a scence of vibrant national and religious feeling, the while the people hung upon the word of the speaker, who for the nonce was but the mouth-piece of their individual thoughts made a scene which the writer will never forget as an instance of a clever orator speaking under the best and most popular surroundings.
The third meeting, at the Arena, was composed of about eight thousand young men who were addressed by the Cardinal, Archbishhop Langevin, of Manitoba, and by Mr. Henri Bourassa on “Noble Ideals and Inspirations.” Both speakers urged them to hold to their traditions and national rights. There was plenty of room for English and French in Canada. Both could work out a noble destiny in this young and growing country.
Another, but one of the most appealing spectacles of the congress, was the procession of 30,000 school children who, wearing picturesque dresses and bearing emblems and banners, passed constantly before the Legate who was seated on the steps of St. James’ Cathedral and received their individual courtesy, the while he bestowed his blessing amid the thousands of spectators assembled around Dominion Square, the whole making a magnificent and unusual sight lasting for three hours, during which time all traffic in the neighbourhood was absolutely blocked.
The historic Mount Royal has witnessed many picturesque scenes but none more so than the great open air mass celebrated on Saturday, September 10th, at the foot of the mountain on the great open space below Mount Royal Avenue, where a superb and ornate altar, open to the winds of heaven, had been placed. Around it were 100 bishops, 2,000 priests in their picturesque costumes, and 200,000 of the faithful. A choir of 1,000 voices responded to the chaunts of the celebrant, Monsignor Farley, Archbishop of New York. Monsignor O’Connell, of Boston, and a Dominican priest, Father Hage, preached to all who could hear their voices. During the solemn celebration the Cardinal Legate arrived at St. Patrick’s Church, where another function was being held, and on his way to the altar he had to walk over a path carpeted with flowers, and there pausing, he bestowed his blessing on the kneeling multitude.
The supreme moment of the congress was to come in the great procession the following day. For weeks the long route from the Church of Notre Dame to the foot of Mount Royal, where stood the altar already described, had been given over to architects and workmen; tall handsome arches, things of beauty, had been raised here and there along the route, one of them being made of wheaten sheaves sent from the Western Canadian prairies. Thousands of Venetian columns, obelisks, pedestals and flag poles lined the streets; flags of all nations and innumerable electrical signs adorned the housefronts.
The forenoon of Sunday was spent in completing the details of the procession and precisely at 1 o’clock files of men, six abreast, began to move past the doors of Notre Dame and, like the corps of an immense army, then swung into the route of the procession. Long before the route had been densely thronged, and the mountain slopes thickly covered with expectant onlookers, for the various railways centering in Montreal had reduced their passenger rates in every direction within a radius of hundreds of miles and trains laden with humanity had followed each other at close intervals and unloaded their thousands all day Saturday and during the early hours of Sunday. It is estimated by the railway authorities that 200,000 strangers entered Montreal in twenty-four hours to witness the procession. For hours before it began the whole route was lined with people patiently waiting, while at the foot of the mountain near the altar of repose at least 75,000 had gathered, 20,000 of whom had been there from early morning. It was an extraordinary spectacle to look from the top of the mountain and see the mass of human beings moving in every direction over the immense sward, all eventually turning towards the handsome repository with its overtopping dome, the whole a design of great architectural beauty. Downtown at 1 o’clock began the greatest demonstration of any kind, civic or religious, that Canada ever witnessed. During four hours and a half, between fifty and sixty thousand men marched silently and prayerfully between at least half a million spectators lining the route. The demonstration was international in its widest extent. Citizens of the United States and Canada, together with Lithuanians, Chinese, Syrians, Iroquois Indians in their tribal costumes and feathers, Italians, Poles and a dozen other nationalities besides, carrying their distinctive banners and religious emblems, marched in one solid phalanx and in perfect order.
But the most imposing spectacle of all was that following the lay sections at 4 o’clock, when 1,000 choir boys, clothed in red cassocks and surplices, followed by the Christian Brotherhoods, hundreds of seminarians and the various religious orders of the city took their place in the great procession; then came 2,000 priests in sacerdotal vestments, followed in order of precedence by 100 bishops and archbishops, in cope and mitre. In the rear of the papal officers and chamberlains came the huge golden baldachino under which walked the tall majestic figure of Cardinal Vannutelli, carrying the Sacred Host and accompanied on both sides by ecclesiastical guards of honour and soldiers, with children busily swinging censers and strewing flowers in his path, the while the dense multitude, irrespective of creed, bowed in the reverential awe of the moment. Behind the baldachino walked Cardinals Logue and Gibbons, the prime minister of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the speaker of the House of Commons, members of the federal and provincial governments, members of the legislative council, the mayor of Montreal, the chief justice and judges of the Superior Court of Canada, all in their robes of office, members of the city council and a long line of men belonging to the liberal professions. When these last bands accompanying the Legate arrived it was already growing dusk and the electric lights on the waiting altar glowed in the gloom. A thousand voices entoned the Tantum Ergo, the Cardinal ascended the steps, took the remonstrance containing the Sacred Host and, raising it aloft over the 200,000 men, women and children kneeling on the grass, gave the benediction of the congress.
The congress was over. Lights went out and the bishops and their attendant clergy retired to the neighbouring convent of the Hôtel Dieu to doff their robes, marching down Pine Avenue chanting the Gregorian “Te Deum,” which sounded like the war song of the priests, and gradually the vast multitude dispersed to their homes.
The events of the succeeding year of 1911 recall the general federal elections on July 11th on the question of a renewal of reciprocity with the United States when, as has been said, it was rejected by an overwhelming majority of the electorate, notably in Montreal.
Harbour development was signalized this year by the signing of the contract with the Canadian Vickers Company for the new dry docks at the east end, and on October 4th in fitting recognition to a great harbour builder, the monument of the Hon. John Young was unveiled on the water front by Earl Grey. Meanwhile the general city development and expansion had been steadily increasing since the annexations of 1883. Its population and religions were becoming increasingly cosmopolitan and domestic troubles among the Mohammedans of the city on July 10th sufficiently indicate this.