The Archives of Canada - Memorial of the Society to the Legislature

 

By James MacPherson Lemoine

 

[Published by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in Transactions, New Series, No. 14 (1880)]

 

At a general monthly meeting of the Society, held at its rooms, on the 12th March, 1879, attention having been called by the President to the recommendation of the previous Board, touching the expediency of memorializing Parliament, in order that measures be taken to organize, on a suitable footing, a PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, it was unanimously resolved, that a special committee be named to prepare such memorial, to be composed of the President, J. M. LeMoine, Esq. ; Past-President, Jas. Stevenson, Esq., and Alex. Robertson, Esq., Council Secretary. The following memorial having been prepared, was submitted, approved of, and forwarded to the Honorable George Baby, Minister of Inland Revenue, who presented the same to His Excellency the Marquis of Lome and the House of Commons.

 

The Memorial of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec,

RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH:

 

That in the year 1824, His Excellency the Earl of Dalhousie, then Governor-General of Canada, with the cooperation of the most distinguished [1] and educated citizens of Quebec, founded a society at Quebec, for the promotion of literature in general and encouragement of researches f touching early Canadian history in particular.

 

That on the 5th October, 1831, His Majesty William IV conferred a Royal Charter on this association of scientific gentlemen, which therein was styled "The Literary and Historical Society of Quebec."

 

That in accordance with the chief object of the charter, this society founded a library and museum, both of which have attained considerable dimensions — that it has devoted 1 large sums to collect and publish M.S.S. and memoirs relating to the early history of the colony, and that the society f now numbers close on 400 associate members.

 

That an earnest desire to fulfil the mission devolving on it under its charter, induced the Society to send delegates in October, 1877, to attend a literary convention at Ottawa, organized for the purpose, among others, of devising practical means for the preservation and publication of Canadian archives.

 

That a report was presented by the delegates, past President, J. M. LeMoine, and Vice-President, Lt.-Col. T. B. Strange, of which the following record was inserted in the annual address of the late President of the Society, Mr., James Stevenson: —

 

"Animated by our traditions to do our distinctive work in the land, this Society assumes a definite attitude towards every movement which has for its object the procuring and preservation of historical documents. In the absence of a public record office, such as other nations possess for the custody of official papers, journals and historical documents, irreparable losses have been suffered by Canada. It is therefore the opinion of the Council that this Society should unite with other societies of kindred purpose, in memoralizing the Federal Government-upon the subject, and in respectfully suggesting that the archives of Canada should be gathered together into one Public Record Office, under the supervision and control of a competent Archivist."

 

 

That in accordance with the above this Society respectfully approaches this Honorable House, and that whilst gratefully acknowledging the efforts made by Parliament in previous years to gather up and preserve the archives of the Dominion scattered abroad, as evinced in the three reports of the delegates, Messrs. Douglass Brymner and the Abbé H. A. B. Verreault, submitted to Government by the Department of Agriculture in 1871 and 1874, this Society hopes the good work won't rest here and will be continued.

 

That the searches of Messrs. Brymner and Verreault extended to the records of the British Museum, — of the Tower of London — of the War Office — of the Office of the Secretary of State — the Public Record Office — the military archives at Halifax — the Segnier collection in the Harleian Library — the M.S.S. of George III,—the Colonial Calendar, — the Haldimand Papers — the Dorchester Papers—the Royal Institution—the French archives at Paris — the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Déparlement de la Marine, the Département des Affaires Etrangères, the Dubrowski and the Zaluski Collection of French MSS in the Imperial Library at St. Peters, burg, and also the archives of other European countries.

 

That the most noticeable documents affecting the several provinces of the Dominion discovered in these archives are indicated by their titles in the reports hereinbefore mentioned, comprising several thousand, the bulk of which some of the greatest moment for American and Canadian history, are unknown in Canada and a sealed book to those engaged in the laborious task of compiling the annals of the Dominion.

 

That unless gathered together and deposited in some place of easy access, those unpublished and fast-decaying records of the past preclude any one from undertaking a reliable history of Canada.

 

That these State documents are not only indispensable to the historian, but that their unrevealed contents must necessarily bear on other subjects fully as momentous, and are calculated to throw light on many obscure points in treaties, boundaries of provinces, fishery and other international rights, &c.

 

That the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, whilst recording its satisfaction at the interest shown by the Dominion Government in 1870-71, in furnishing the means to make the searches already alluded to, respectfully prays that the Dominion Government of this day will complete the measure of progress of 1870 by providing the necessary legislation to create a Public Record Office under a responsible head at Ottawa, and take the necessary steps to have copied and gathered there the archives of Canada, scattered in Canada, as well as in other lands.

 

And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

 

By order, J. M. LEMOINE,

Presid. Lit. & Hist. Socy.

Quebec, March 31st, 1879.

 

 

(Extracts from Votes and Proceedings, House of Common.)

 

The following petitions were read:

 

“Of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, praying that such measures may be adopted as will secure- the establishment of a Public Record Office at Ottawa, for the safe-keeping therein of the archives of Canada." — [10th April, 1879.]

 

On the item of expenses and care of public archives, $3,000.

 

"Mr. POPE (Compton) said ho hoped to be able to spend the money this year in the collecting the interesting records of the early history of Canada,"

 

The item passed. — [26th April, 1879.]