Glimpses of Quebec during the last ten years of French domination, 1749 to 1759, with observations and contrasts between its past and present

 

By James MacPherson LeMoine

 

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

 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

 

Had my object been merely to please your fancy and captivate your imagination by exhibiting those noble traits of individual bravery — those examples of sacrifice of self, for love of country — those hair-breadth escapes by flood and field, of which our annals abound, closing my narrative with the grand spectacle of the triumphal march of civilisation over Indian ferocity in its most repellant forms, it is not the era of expiring French power, at Quebec, I should have searched for material.

 

My eyes would have reverted to those brave, old times of Champlain — d'Iberville — de Frontenac — Dollard des Ormeaux — Brebœuf — Mdlle. de Verehères, &c.

 

However, the dark days which heralded the loss of Canada to France, are not without their interest. To the student of history, they are pregnant with teachings; everywhere you read the bitter lesson, which in all ages Kings and Commoners have had to learn : everywhere breaks forth the inexorable logic taught by the violation of the eternal; laws of moral rectitude and civic duty.

 

1749.

 

Let us then view Quebec such as a celebrated tourist found it in 1749; ten years later we will witness the falling asunder of a stately, but insecure edifice — the French domination in North America.

 

On the 5th August, 1749, a distinguished traveller, recommended by royalty[1] — accredited by academies and universities — Professor Kalm, the friend of Linnaeus, landed in the Lower Town. His approach had not been unheralded, nor unexpected; advices from Versailles having previously reached the Governor of Canada. On stepping on shore from the "canopied" bateau, provided for him by the Baron of Longueuil, Governor of Montreal, Major de Sermonville, the officer to whose care he had been committed, led him forthwith to the palace of the Marquis de Lagalissonnière, the Governor General of Canada, who, he says, received him with "extraordinary goodness." His Excellency at that time, the recognised patron of literature and the arts, in New France, in anticipation of the Processor’s arrival, had ordered apartments to be got ready for the illustrious stranger, who was introduced to an intelligent guide, Dr. Gaulthier, royal physician, and also an able botanist. Kalm, henceforth, will be an honored, nay, a not unfrequent guest at the Chateau St. Louis, yonder, during his stay in Quebec.

 

The Professor tells how cheerfully he paid to the crew, comprised of six rowers, the usual fee or pour-boire to escape the traditional "ducking" to which all travellers (without excepting the Governor General) were otherwise, subjected to, on their first visit to Quebec or Montreal.

 

A man of mark was the Swedish botanist and philosopher, not only by his position among European savants, but also as being the special[2] envoy of the Royal Academy of Sciences, at Stockholm, and as the representative of the three Universities of Aobo, Lund and Upsala, who had supplied the greater portion of the funds necessary to carry out his scientific mission, which lasted nearly four years. Provided with passports and recommendations to the Swedish Ministers at the Courts of London, Paris, Madrid, the Hague, we find Peter Kalm sailing from Upsala on the 16th October, 1747, accompanied by Lars Yungstæm — an assistant, skilful as a botanist, a gardener and an artist.

 

The disciple of Linnæus, after having successively visited Norway, came to England; and after spending some time there, he crossed the Atlantic, viewing New York and Pennsylvania, and finally Canada, noting down, day by day, in his journal, countries — men — manners —animals — trees — plants — ores— minerals, &c., with accuracy and in detail. His travels are the subject-matter of two large volumes, illustrated with plates, maps, &c, and translated, into English, at London, in 1771.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, with your permission, we shall follow the adventurous footsteps of Professor Kalm, in our streets, and round our old city, one hundred and thirty years ago, and take note of what his cicerone, Dr. Gaulthier, may tell him about the old rock, its inhabitants, customs, &c. Kalm, on Ins way to the Château St. Louis, had to ascend Mountain Hill. Shall we not have a word to say about this — to us very familial — thoroughfare? Why called Mountain Hill?

 

When Quebec was founded, and for years afterwards, a very rugged footpath led from the strand under Cape Diamond to the lofty area above, where the great Indian Chief Donacona no doubt used to bag grouse and hares by dozens, in the day of Jacques-Cartier. On the 27th November, 1623, the descent to the Lower Town had been opened out and made more practicable; we would imagine it must have undergone another levelling to admit of the ascent of the first horse, who paced the streets of Quebec — the stud presented from France as a gift to His Excellency, Charles Huault de Montmagny, in 1648. Though horned cattle existed in the colony as early as 1623, oxen were for the first time used to plough on the 27th April, 1623. Champlain's habitation stood in the Lower Town, on the site where the little Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire was subsequently erected. The first European settler in the Upper Town was a Parisian apothecary — by name Louis Hébert — who in 1617, set to clearing some land for agricultural purposes, where now stand the Basilica and the Seminary, and that area of ground extending from Sainte-Famille Street to the Hôtel-Dieu. Hébert built himself a tenement — the historian Laverdière thinks — where the Archbishop's Palace now stands, fie also erected a mill (a wind-mill probably) on that point of Saint Joseph Street which connects with Saint François and Saint Flavien Streets. Hubert's house and his neighbor Guillaume Couillard's (the foundations of which were discovered in 1866 by the Abbé Laverdière, in the Seminary Garden, in rear and facing the entrance of the old wing of the Seminary) seem to have been the first structures raised in the Upper Town. Mountain Hill, Côte Lamontagne, took its name according to some writers, from one Lamontagne, located in the neighborhood; according to others, from its being the ascent to the mountain on which is perched our picturesque town.

 

How many gallant French Viceroys? How many proud English Governors and Admirals have ascended this steep hill, from the day of Champlain to that of Peter Kalm and his learned and accomplished friend Admiral de Lagalissonnière — the victor of poor Byng in the Mediterranean; from the fighting times of 1759, when de Bougainville, de Vauclain, Durell, Saunders, Cook, Palliser, Jervis anchored their ships of war in our port to the auspicious day. when the Lord of Lorne and the royal Lady by his side were escorted by our citizen soldiers to their quarters on Cape Diamond?

 

If it should be superfluous to retrace the mode of reception extended to the envoys of Downing Street in our day, possibly, many of you, would not be averse to seeing lifted from the past the veil of years, and recalling some of the pageants, with which the colony greeted the proud marquises and counts, who ascended Mountain Hill, accredited representatives of the Grand Monarque, who swayed martial France.

 

Shall we then accompany the Professor down Mountain Hill and witness the arrangements made on the 15th August, 1749, for the reception of the new Governor, the Marquis de Lajonquière, who is to replace Amiral de Lagalissonnière.

 

"About eight o'clock, says Kalm, the chief people in town assembled at the house of Mr. de Vaudreuil, who had lately been nominated Governor of Trois-Rivières, and lived in the Lower Town …… Thither came likewise the Marquis de Lagalissonnière, who had till now been Governor-General …… He was accompanied by the people belonging to the Government. I was likewise invited to see this festivity! At half an hour after eight, the new Governor-General went from the ship into a barge, covered with red cloth upon which a signal with cannons was given from the; ramparts, for all the bells in the town to be set a-ringing; All the people of distinction went down to the shore td salute the Governor, who, alighting from the barge, was received by the Marquis de Lagalissonnière. After they had saluted each other, the Commandant of the Town addressed the New Governor-General in a very elegant speech; which he answered very concisely; after which all the cannons on the ramparts gave a general salute. The whole street, up to the Cathedral, was lined with men in arms, chiefly drawn out from among the Burghesses. The Governor-General then walked towards the Cathedral dressed in a suit of red, with abundance of gold lace. His servants went before him in green, carrying fire-arms on their shoulders. On his arrival at the Cathedral he was received by the Bishop of Canada and the whole Clergy assembled. The Bishop was arrayed in his Pontifical Robes, and had a long gilt tiara on his head and a great crozier of massy silver in his hand.[3] After the Bishop had addressed a short speech to the Governor-General, a Priest brought a silver Crucifix on a long stick (two Priest with lighted tapers in their hands going on each side of it) to be kissed by the Governor. The Bishop and the Priests they went through the long walk up to the choir. The servants; of the Governor-General followed with their hats on, and arms on their shoulders. At last, came the Governor General and his suite, and after them a crowd of people.; At the beginning of the choir, the Governor-General and the Général de Lagalissonnière stopped before a chair covers ed with red cloth, and stood there during the whole time of the celebration of the Mass, which was celebrated by the Bishop himself. From the Church he went to the palace, where the gentlemen of note in town afterwards Event to pay their respects to him, The religious of the different orders, with their respective superiors, likewise came to him, to testify their joy on account of his happy arrival. Among the number that came to visit him, none staid to dine but those that were invited before hand, among which I had the honor to be. The entertainment lasted very long, and was elegant as the occasion required,"

 

In earlier times, the military and religious display was blended with an aroma of literature and elaborate indian oratory, combining prose and poetry.

 

Our illustrious friend, Francis Parkman, will tell us of what took place on the arrival, on the 28th July, 1658, of the Viscount D’Argenson, the Governor of the colony. When Argenson arrived to assume the government, a furious greeting had awaited him. The Jesuits asked him

to dine; vespers followed the repast; and then they conducted him into a hall where the boys of their school — disguised, one as the Genius of New France, one as the Genius of the Forest, and others as Indians of various friendly tribes — made him speeches by turn, in prose and in verse. First, Pierre du Quet, who played the Genius of few France, presented his Indian retinue to the Governor in a complimentary harangue. Then four other boys, personating French colonists, made him four flattering addresses, in French verse, Charles Denis, dressed as a Huron, followed, bewailing the ruin of his people, and appealing to Argenson for aid. Jean François Bourdon, in the character of an Algonquin, next advanced on the platform, boasted his courage, and declared that he was shamed to cry like the Huron. The Genius of the Forest How appeared, with a retinue of wild Indians from the interior, who being unable to speak French, addressed the Governor in their native tongues, which the Genius proceeded to interpret. Two other boys in the character of prisoners just escaped from the Iroquois, then came forward imploring aid in piteous accents; and in conclusion the whole troop of Indians from far and near laid their bows and arrows at the feet of Argenson, and hailed him as their chief.

 

Besides these mock Indians, a crowd of genuine savages had gathered at Quebec to greet the new "Ononthio." On the next day — at his own cost, as he writes to a friend-he gave them a feast, consisting of seven, large kettlesful of Indian corn, peas, prunes, sturgeon, eels and fat, which they devoured, he says, after having first sung me a song, after their fashion."

 

On the long list of famous Viceroys, under French or English rule, in Canada, we know of but one who could have stood, undismayed, this avalanche of addresses and oratory, ready with a happy reply to each. Need I name him?

 

Probably one of the most gorgeous displays on record, j was that attending the arrival of the great Marquis of Tracy in 1665. He came with a brilliant staff, a crowd of young nobles; and accompanied by two hundred soldiers, to be followed by a thousand more of the dashing regiment of Carignan-Salières. "He sailed up the St. Lawrence, and, on the thirtieth of June, 1665, anchored in the basin of Quebec. The broad, white standard, blazoned with the arms of France, proclaimed the representative of royalty; and Point Levi and Cape Diamond and the distant Cape Tourmente roared back the sound of the saluting cannon. All Quebec was on the ramparts or at the landing place, and all eyes were strained at the two vessels as they slowly emptied their crowded decks into the boats alongside. The boats at length drew near, and the lieutenant-general and his suite landed on the quay with a pomp such as Quebec had never seen before.

 

Tracy was a veteran of sixty-two, portly and tall, "one of the largest men I ever saw," writes Mother Mary; but he was sallow with disease, for fever had seized him, and it had fared ill with him on the long voyage. The Chevalier de Chaumont walked at his side, and young nobles surrounded him, gorgeous in lace and ribbons, and majestic in leonine wigs. Twenty-four guards in the King's livery led the way, followed by four pages and six valets[4]; and thus, while the Frenchmen shouted and the Indians stared, the august procession threaded the streets of the Lower Town, and climbed the steep pathway that scaled the cliffs above. Breathing hard, they reached the top, passed on the left the dilapidated walls of the fort and the shed of mingled wood and masonry which then bore the name of the Castle of St. Louis; passed on the right the old house of Couillard and the site of Laval's new seminary, and soon reached the square betwixt the Jesuit college and the Cathedral.

 

The bells were ringing in a phrensy of welcome. Laval in pontificals, surrounded by priests and Jesuits, stood waiting to receive the deputy of the King, and as he greeted Tracy and offered him the holy water, he looked with anxious curiosity to see what manner of man he was. The signs were auspicious. The deportment of the lieutenant-general left nothing to desire. A prie-dieu had been placed for him. He declined it. They offered him a cushion, but he would not have it, and fevered as he was) he knelt on the bare pavement with a devotion that edified every beholder. Te Deum was sung and a day of rejoicing followed." [5]

 

In our day, we can recall but one pageant at all equal: the roar of cannon, &c, attending the advent of the great Earl of Durham, hut there were noticeable fewer "priests," fewer "Jesuits," and less "kneeling" in the procession.

 

Line-of-battle ships—stately frigates, twelve in number: the Malabar — Hastings —Cornwallis — Inconstant — Hercules — Pique — Charybdis — Pearl — Vestal — Medea —Dee—and Andromache escorted to our shores, the able, proud, humane,[6] unlucky Vice-Roy and High Commissioner, with his clever advisers — the Turtons, Bailors, Wakefields, Hansomes, Derbyshires, Dunkins, cum mullis aliis.

 

On the 21st August 1749, Kalm was present at an interview of delegates from three of the Indian nations of Canada, the Anies, Micmacs and Hurons with the French Governor of Quebec. The Anies (Oneidas) delegates — four in number — were the only survivors (two excepted) of a band of fifty Indians who had recently "ambushed" near Montreal, where they went in quest of plunder and had been killed by the French. The Hurons were identical, with those then settled at Indian Lorette: we are told that they delivered their harangues, seated on chairs, round His Excellency who was seated, whilst the Micmacs," sat on the ground like Laplanders." Kalm describes the Hurons as "tall, robust people, well shaped and of a copper colour. They have short black hair, which is shaved on the forehead, from one ear to the other. None of them wear hats or caps. Some have earrings, others not. Many of them have the face painted all over with Vermillion; others have only strokes of it on the forehead and near the ears, and some paint their hair with Vermillion. Red is the color they chiefly make use of in painting themselves; but I have likewise seen some who had daubed their faces with a black colour. Many of them have figures on the face, and on the whole body, which are stained into the skin, so as to be indelible …… These figures are commonly black; some have a snake painted on each cheek, some have several crosses, some an arrow others the sun, or anything else their imagination leads them to." (Vol. II, P. 820.) What an observant man, the Swedish Professor seems to have been!

 

These Indian Councils, with their wampum belts, fantastic, airy and grotesque costumes of the chiefs, &c, have more than once been trying to the gravity of Europeans — whether French or English. Professor Dussieux, probably on the authority of Charlevoix, gives some humorous incidents which happened at the grand Indian Councils held in 1700 and 1701, at Montreal.

 

“The Algonquin chief, says he, a winsome and brave young warrior proud of his victories on the Iroquois, had done his hair in a ridge like the comb of a cock, with a scarlet plume, erect on the crest and hanging over behind.

……

 

Another chief of note and wit, wore on his pate the skin of the head of a young bullock, with the horns falling over his ears ……

 

Another chief had smeared his face with red paint, and had on his head an old poudrée and disordered perruque, which gave him a hideous, but mirth-provoking appearance. Wishing to honor the French Governor with a French bow, he removed his wig: this caused an explosion of laughter among the French — without interfering with his own gravity; he then demurely replaced his wig and got through with his harangue." [7]

 

One is reminded of the interview of one of our Vice-Roys with the great Chief (Peter Basket possibly?) of the Restigouche Indians in our own day. His Excellency had listened with marked attention to one-half of the solemn sing-song address of his dusky, loyal subject, who was decked with armlets, feathers and medals, when on closer examination he spied, attached to his nose, cars and other portions of his person, bright silver labels, (washed ashore from a wrecked vessel,) ticketed "RUM" — "BRANDY" — "GIN" — WHISKEY" — "PORT" —"SHERRY." The sight was too much even for the gravity of an English Vice-Roy: a loud guffaw ensued among the gubernatorial party — much to the disgust and chagrin of the swarthy son of the forest, who haughtily withdrew.

 

Let us have the Professor's opinion on other matters. "We saw previously that the importation of the first horse from France took place in 1648; it may not be amiss to say that some years later (1665-70) several horses had been sent out as gratuities by the French King to encourage French officers and a bolter class of colonists, to settle in Canada. [8]

 

Professor Kalm, in 1749, speaking of horses, says: “All the horses in Canada are strong, well made, swift, as tall as the horses of our cavalry, and of a breed imported from France. The inhabitants have the custom of docking the tails of these horses, which is rather hard upon them here, as they cannot defend themselves against the numerous swarms of gnats, gad flies, and horse flies. They put the horses one before the other in their carts, which has probably occasioned the docking of their tails, as the horses would hurt the eyes of those behind them by moving their tails backwards and forwards." Well now! Shall we make the avowal? A grave doubt hovers over us. Did the Professor over drive a tandem?

 

"The Governor-General and a few of the chief people in town have coaches, the rest make use of open horse-chairs."

 

Could this be the traditional calesche which our .American tourists style “rocking chairs?” “It is," he continues, "a general complaint, that the country people begin to keep too many horses, by which means the cows are kept short of food in winter. The cows have likewise been imported from France, and are of the size of our …… .common Swedish cows …… The beef and veal at Quebec is reckoned fatter and more palatable than at Montreal. Some look upon the salty pastures below Quebec as the cause of this difference. In Canada, the oxen draw with the horns, but in the English colonies, they draw with their withers as horses do." Those "horses, oxen, cows," and other cattle kindly loaned by Europe to Canada two centuries ago, are now returning by scores,[9] fat and improved ! ! !

 

Let us now see what Kalm has to say of a very valuable and time honored industry: shipbuilding, in 1749. We quote: “They were now building several ships below Quebec, for the king's account. However, before my departure, an order arrived from France prohibiting the farther building of ships of war, except those which were already on the stocks, because they had found that the ships built of American oak do not last as long as those built of European oak. Near Quebec is found very little oak, and what grows there is not lit for use, being very small, therefore they are obliged to fetch their timber from those parts of Canada which border upon New England. But all the North American oaks have the quality of lasting longer and withstanding putrifaction better, the farther north they grow and vice versa. The timber from the confines of New England is brought in floats or rafts on the river near those parts and near the Lake St. Pierre, which falls into the great river St. Lawrence."

 

The French had built[10] ships at Quebec nearly a century before Kalm's visit. Colbert had authorized the Intendant Talon to offer bounties; a ship was on the stocks in 1667. Doubtless, when Kalm left Quebec in the fall of 1749, the ship-rights were actively engaged on the hull of; the King's ship "L'Orignal,"[11] which, in October of 1750, broke her back on being launched at Diamond, Harbor. Shipbuilding, however, was doubtless checked by the instructions sent out by the French Court, and seems to have had but a precarious existence under British rule until 1800. When Kalm visited Quebec, in 1749, it was the seaport of all Canada: "There were thirteen great; and small vessels in the harbour, and they expected more." In our day, we have seen thirteen hundred square-rigged vessels registered as the arrivals of the year!

 

"What a charming picture Herr Kalm draws of the Governor-General of New France — the Marquis de Lagalissonnière. This nobleman, by his "surprising know ledge in all branches of science," has quite captivated the philosopher. "Never," says Kalm, "has natural history had a greater promoter in this country, and it is even doubtful whether it will ever have his equal here." A statesman, an orator, a great sea captain, a mathematician, a botanist, a traveller, a naturalist: such, the Marquis. He knew about “trees, plants, earths, stones, ores, animals, geography, agriculture. &c, writing down all the accounts he had received; whereby, he soon acquired a knowledge of the most distant parts of America." He was an object of wonder to all who came in contact with him. "Some of the inhabitants believed he had a preternatural knowledge I of things," and when, naively says Kalm, he began to speak with me on natural history and of the method of learning and of employing it to raise the state of the country, I imagined I saw our great Linnæus under a new form." “Never was there a better statesman than he; and nobody can take better measures and choose more proper means for improving a country and increasing its welfare. Canada was hardly acquainted with the treasure it possessed in the person of this nobleman, when it lost him; the King wanted his services at home." Thus, one hundred and thirty years ago, discoursed the f learned Peter Kalm of the most accomplished French Governor, Versailles ever sent to Quebec, Michel Barrin, Marquis de Lagalissonnière. Ladies and Gentlemen, can we not find a parallel in our day? In Kalm's portraiture, has any one failed to recognize I Frederick Temple Hamilton Blackwood, Earl of Dufferin, that accomplished statesman, versatile orator, munificent s friend of education, enlightened and sincere benefactor of Quebec, our late Governor, absent, he also, because his sovereign "wanted his services at home." Have we forgotten his open handed hospitalities, his genial, ever kind Countess? Is there any harm in wafting a grateful remembrance to the absent friend of our country?

 

Kalm's description of the public edifices is worthy of note.

 

“The Palace (Château Saint Louis) is situated on the west or steepest side of the mountain, just above the lower city. It is not properly a palace, but a large building of stone, two stories high, extending north and south. On the west side of it is a court-yard, surrounded partly with a wall, and partly with houses. On the east side, or towards the river, is a gallery as long as the whole building, and about two fathoms broad, paved with smooth flags, and included on the out sides by iron rails, from whence the city and the river exhibit a charming prospect. This gallery serves as a very agreeable walk after dinner, and those who come to speak with the governor-general wait here till he is at leisure. The palace is the lodging of the governor-general of Canada, and a number of soldiers mount the guard before it, both at the gate and in the court-yard ; and when the governor, or the bishop, comes in or goes out, they must all appear in arms and beat the drum. The governor-general has his own chapel where he hears prayers; however, he often goes to Mass at the church of the Récollets, which is very near the palace."

 

The Castle St. Lewis, built by Champlain in 1624, was much improved and enlarged by the wing still existing, erected in 1784 by Governor Haldimand. The old Château was destroyed by lire on 23rd January, 1884. On its lofty site and far beyond, is perched our incomparable, world renowned Boulevard: the Dufferin Terrace.

 

"The Churches in this town are seven or eight in number, and all built of stone.

 

The Cathedral Church is on the right hand corning from the Lower to the Upper Town, somewhat beyond the Bishop's house. The people were now at present employed in ornamenting it. On its west side is a round steeple f with, two divisions, in the lower of which, are two bells. The pulpit and some other parts within the church are gilt. The seats are very fine." (This church, now a Basilica Minor, was begun in 1647 — destroyed by bomb: shells during the siege of 1759 and rebuilt.)

 

"The Jesuits' Church is built in the form of a cross, and has a round steeple. This is the only church that has a clock …….”

 

This little church, of which the corner stone was laid by the Governor General, the Marquis de Tracy, on 31st May, 1666, existed until 1807. The oldest inhabitant can yet recall, from memory, the spot whore it stood, even if we had not the excellent drawing made of it with a dozen i of other Quebec views — by an officer in Wolfe's fleet, Captain: Richard Short. It stood on the site recently occupied by the shambles, in the Upper Town, facing the Clarendon Hotel. Captain Short's pencil bears again testimony to the exactitude, even in minute thing's, of Kalm's descriptions: his Quebec horses, harnessed one before the other to carts. You see in front of the church, in Captain Short's sketch, three good sized horses drawing a heavily laden two wheeled cart, harnessed one before the other. The church was also I used until 1807 as a place of worship for Protestants. Be careful not to confound the Jesuits' Church with the small -chapel in the interior of their college (the old Jesuit Barracks) contiguous thereto. This latter chapel had been commenced on the 11th July, 1650. The Seminary Chapel, and Ursulines Church, after the destruction by shot and shell, in 1759, of the large R. C. Cathedral, were used for a time as parish churches. From, beneath the chief altar of the Jesuits' Church was removed, on the 14th May, 1807, the small leaden box containing' the heart of the founder of the Ursulines' Convent, Madame de la Peltrie, previously deposited there in accordance with the terms of her Last Will.

 

You can see, Ladies and Gentlemen, that the pick-axe and mattock of the "bande noire" who robbed our city walls of their stones, and demolished the Jesuits' College and city gates, were busily employed long before 1871.

 

There are few here present, I will venture to say, who, in their daily walk up or down Fabrique Street, do not miss this hoary and familiar land mark, the Jesuits' College, When its removal was recently decreed, for a long time it resisted the united assaults of hammer and pick-axe, and yielded, finally, to the terrific power of dynamite alone.

 

The Jesuits' College, older than Harvard College, at Boston, takes one back to the dawn of Canadian history. Though a considerable sum had been granted to foster Jesuit establishments at Quebec, by a young French nobleman, René le Rohaut, son of the Marquis de Gamache, as early as 1626, it was on the 18th March, 1637, only, that the ground to build on, "twelve arpents of land, in the vicinity of Fort St. Louis: " were granted to the Jesuit Fathers. In the early times, we find this famous seat of learning playing a prominent part in all public pageants: its annual examinations and distributions of prizes called together the elite of Quebec society. The leading pupils had, in poetry and in verse, congratulated Governor D'Argenson on his arrival in 1658. On the 2nd July, 1666, a public examination on logic brought out with great advantage two most promising youths, the famous Louis Jolliet, who later on joined Father Marquette in his discovery of the Mississippi, and a Three Rivers youth, Pierre de Francheville, who intended to enter Holy Orders. The learned Intendant Talon was an examiner; he was remarked for the erudition his latin questions displayed. Memory reverts to the times when the illustrious Bossuet was undergoing his latin examinations at Navarre, with the Great Coudé as his examiner: France's first sacred orator confronted by her most illustrious general.

 

How many thrilling memories were recalled by this grim old structure? Under its venerable roof, oft' had met, the pioneer missionaries of New France, the band of martyrs, the geographers, discoverers, savants and historians of this learned order: Dolbeau, de Quen, Druillettes, Daniel, de la Brosse, de Crepieul, de Carheil, Brebœuf, Lallcmant, Jogues, de Noue, Raimbeault, Albanel, Chan-monot, Dablon, Ménard, LeJeune, Masse, Vimont, Ragueneau, Charlevoix,[12] and crowds of others. Here, they assembled to receive their orders, to compare notes, mayhap, to discuss the news of the death or of the success of some of their indefatigable explorers of the great West; how the "good word" had been fearlessly carried to the distant shores of lake Huron, to the bayous and perfumed groves of Florida, or to the trackless and frozen regions of Hudson's Bay.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, need I add anything more on a subject[13] which the genius of Francis Parkman has surrounded with so much sunshine?

 

Later on, when France had suppressed the order of the Jesuits, and when her lily banner had disappeared from our midst, the college and its grounds were appropriated to other uses — alas! less congenial.

 

The roll of the English drum and the sharp "word of command" of a British adjutant or of his drill sergeant, for a century and more, resounded in the halls, in which latin orisons were formerly sung; and in the classic grounds, and grassy court,[14] canopied by those stately oaks and elms, which our sires yet remember — to which the good Fathers retreated in sweet seclusion, to "say" their Breviaries and tell their beads, might have boon heard the coarse joke of the guard room and coarser oath of the trooper.

 

It had been first used as a "magazine for the army contractor's provisions in 1761." On the 4th June, 1765, His Excellency General James Murray had it surveyed and appropriated for quarters and barracks for the troops, all excepted some apartments; the court and garden was used as a drill and parade ground until the departure of Albion's soldiers.

How singular, how sad to think that this loved, this-glorious relic of the French régime, entire even to the Jesuit College arms, carved in stone over its chief entrance, should have remained sacred and intact during the century of occupation by English soldiery — (there is evidently little of-the Vandal or Communist about the trooper who took the word of command from Wolfe, Wellington or Wolseley) — and that its destruction should have been decreed so soon as the British legions, by their departure, in 1871, had virtually handed it over to the French Province of Quebec?|

 

The discovery on the 28th August, 1878, of human'; remains beneath the floor of this building — presumed to be J those of some of the early missionaries — induced the authorities to institute a careful search during its demolition. These bones and others exhumed on the 81st August, and \ on the 1st and 9th September, "1878, were pronounced by two members of the faculty. Drs. Hubert Larue and Chs. S. Lemieux, both Professors of the Laval University, (who signed a certificate to that effect) to be the remains of three [15] persons of the male sex and of three [16] persons of the female; sex. Some silver and copper coins were also found, which with these mouldering remains of humanity, were deposited under lock and key in a wooden box; and in September 1878, the whole was placed in a small but substantial stone fracture, in the court of the Jesuit Barracks, known as the "Regimental Magazine," pending their delivery for permanent disposal to Rev. Père Sachez, Superior of the Jesuits Order in Quebec.

 

In May, 1879, on opening this magazine, it was found hat the venerable bones, box and all had disappeared, the staple of the padlock on the door having been forced. By whom and for what purpose, the robbery? There is the puzzle.

 

Walk on, Ladies and Gentlemen, and view with the Professor's eyes the adjoining public edifice, which stood here in 1749, the Récollet Convent, "a spacious building," says Kalm, "two story high, with a large orchard and kitchen garden."

 

Its Church or Chapel was, in September, 1790, destroyed by fire; two eye-witnesses of the conflagration, Philippe Aubert De Gaspé and Deputy Commissary-General James Thompson, the first in his Memoires, the second in his unpublished Diary, have vividly portrayed the accident. The Church faced the Ring and the old Chateau; it formed part of the Récollet Convent, "a vast quadrangular building, with a court and well stocked orchard" on Garden street; it was occasionally used as a state prison. The Huguenot and agitator, Pierre DuCalvet, spent some dreary days in cells in 1781-4; and daring the summer of 1776, a young volunteer under Benedict Arnold, John Joseph. Henry, (who lived to become a distinguished Pennsylvania Judge) was immured in this monastery, after his arrest by the British at the unsuccessful attack in the Lower Town, in Sault-au-Matelot street, on 31st December, 1775, as he graphically relates in his Memoirs. It was a monastery of the order Saint Francis. The Provincial, in. 1793, a well known, witty jovial and eccentric personage, Father Félix DeBerrey, hag more than once dined and wined His Royal Highness Prince Edward, the father of our Gracious Sovereign, when stationed in our garrison in 1791-4, with his regiment the 7th Fusileers.

 

The Récollet Church was also a sacred and last resting place for the illustrious dead. Of the six French Governors who expired at Quebec, four slept within its silent vaults until the translation, in 1796, of their ashes to the vaults of the Basilica, viz: (1) Frontenac, (2) deCallières, (3) Vaudreuil, (4) de la Jonquière. Governor deMesy had been buried in the Hotel-Dieu Chapel, and the first Governor de Champlain, 'tis generally believed, was interred near the Château Saint Louis, in a "sepulchre particulier," near the spot now surmounted by his bust, beneath the soil, on which, in 1871, was erected the new Post Office.

 

The following inscription was on the coffin plate:

 

(1.) Count Frontenac — "Cy gyt le Haut et Puissant Seigneur, Louie de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, Gouverneur-Général de la Nouvelle-France. Mort à Quebec, le 26 novembre 1698." — ( Hist. of Canada, Smith, Vol. I, P. 133.)

 

(2.) Gov. de Callièros. — "Cy gyst Haut et Paissant Seigneur, Hector de Callières, Chevalier de Saint-Louis, Gouverneur et Lieutenant-Général de la Nouvelle-France, décédé le 20 mai 1703." — (1bid., p. 148.)

 

(3.) Gov. de Vaudrouil. — "Cy gist Haut et Puissant Seigneur, Messire Philippe Rigaud, Marquis do Vaudrouil, Grande Croix de l'Ordre Militaire de Saint-Louis, Gouverneur et Lieutenant-Général do toute la Nouvelle-France, décédé lo dixièrne octobre 1725." — (Ibid., P. 190.)

 

(4.) M. de la Jonquière — "Cy reposo le corps de Messiro Jacques-Pierre de Taflanell, Marquis do la Jonquière, Baron de Castolnau, Seigneur do Hardarsmagnas et autres lieux, Commandeur de l'Ordre Royal et Militaire do Saint-Louis, chef d'Escadre des Armées Navales, Gouverneur et Lieutenant-Général pour le lioy en toute la Nouvelle-France, terres et passes de la Louisiane. Décidé à Québec, le 17 mai 17532, à six lieures-et-demie du soir, âgé de 67 ans." — (Ibid.,P.221.)

 

In these days of "mining furor" one would like to accompany the Professor, in the explorations he made, in September, 1749, on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence, in the sailboat kindly provided for him and his friends. St. Joachim — Petite-Rivière — St. Paul's May — Eboulemens — S Murray Bay (then known as Mal Baie), are successively surveyed with Dr. Gaullhier; Bay St. Paul is examined with the eye of science.

 

September 2, 1749 — "This morning, he says, we went to see the silver or lead veins. They lay a little on the South-side of the mills belonging to the priests ...... "He conjectures, adds C. Roger, that all the flat ground at St. Paul was formerly the bottom of a river, as a great part of the plants which are to be met with, are marine, such as glass wort, sea-milk wort, and seaside pease ; but when he asked the inhabitants whether they found shells in the ground by digging for wells, they always answered in the negative. He received the same answer from those who lived in the low fields, directly north of Quebec. Now, the worthy and learned Professor had been ill-informed, as from the Montmorency to nearly the source of the St. Charles, there is to be seen layer upon ilayer of such shells, to the great astonishment of every stranger at all geologically interested either by study or by profession. At Mount Lilac, in Beauport, and at Marl Farm, in Lorette, marine shells are obtainable in cartloads."

 

You have had the Professor's opinion on Governors Indians — public buildings — ships — houses — horses — mines — would you like to know what he thought of the young

ladies of Quebec one hundred and thirty years ago: one would fancy those he saw did not belong to the[17] F. F. Q.'s — bonne société of the period — from the severity of his remarks.

 

"Their fault, ho says, is that they think too well of themselves. However, the daughters of people of all ranks, without exception, go to market, and carry home what they have bought. They rise as soon and go to bed as late, as any of the people in the house. I have been assured that, in general, their fortunes are not considerable; which are rendered sfill more scarce by the number of children, and the small revenues in a house. The girls at Montreal are very much displeased that those at Quebec get husbands sooner than they. The reason of this is, that many young gentlemen who come over from France with the ships, are captivated by the ladies at Quebec, and marry them; but as these gentlemen seldom go up to Montreal, the girls there are not often so happy as those of the former place."

 

"The ladies in Canada are generally of two kinds; some come over from France and the rest natives. The former possess the politeness peculiar to the French nation; the latter may be divided into those of Quebec and Montreal. The first of these are equal to the French ladies in good breeding, having the advantage of frequently conversing with the French gentlemen and ladies, who come every summer with the King's ships,, and stay several weeks at Quebec, but seldom go to Montreal. The ladies of this last place are accused by the French of partaking too much of the pride of the Indians, and of being much wanting in French good breeding. What I have mentioned above of their dressing their head too assiduously, is the case with all the ladies throughout Canada. On those days when they pay or receive visits, they dress so gayly, that one is almost induced to think their parents possessed the greatest dignities in the state. The Frenchmen, who considered things in their true light, complained very much that a great part of the ladies in Canada had got into the pernicious custom of taking too much care of their dress, and squandering all their fortunes, and more, upon it, instead of sparing something for future times, They are no less attentive to know the newest fashions; and they laugh at each other, when they are not dressed to each other's fancy." He adds, "The ladies at Quebec are not very industrious. A girl of eighteen is reckoned Arery poorly off, if she cannot enumerate at least twenty lovers. These young ladies, especially those of a higher rank, get up at seven and dress till nine, drinking their coffee at the same time. When they are dressed, they place themselves near a window that opens into the street, take up some needle-work, and sew a stitch now and then ; but turn their eyes into the street most of the time. When a young fellow comes in, whether they are acquainted with him or not, they immediately set aside their work, sit down by him, and begin to chat, laugh, joke, and invent double-entendres; and this is reckoned very witty.

 

In this manner they frequently pass the whole day, leaving their mothers to do all the business in the house. In Montreal the girls are not quite so volatile, much more industrious. They are always at their needle-work, or doing some necessary business in the house. They are likewise cheerful and content; and nobody can say they want either wit or charms."[18]

 

Here, we must end our perigrinations with the learned;Swede, and bid adieu to our genial Cicerone, Professor Kalm, with all his quaint though shrewd, estimates of Canadian affairs.

 

1759.

 

Prepare, now for other — dark — far less pleasant scenes, The bright sky of old Stadacona will rapidly lower ; leaden clouds, pregnant with storms are hovering over head The simplicity of early days is getting obsolete. Vice, gilded vice flaunts in the palace. Gaunt famine is preying on the vitals of the people. 'Tis so at Versailles; 'tis so at Quebec. Lust — selfishness — rapine — public plunder every where — except among the small party of the Honnêtes Gens:[19] a carnival of pleasure, to be followed by the voice of wailing and by the roll of the muffled drum.

 

In 1748, the evil genius of New France, "La Pompadour's protégé" François Bigot, thirteenth and last Intendant, had landed at Quebec.

 

Born in Guienne, of a family distinguished at the bar, Bigot, prior to coming to Canada had occupied the high post of Intendant in Louisianna, In stature, he was small — but well formed; — active — full of pluck — fond of display and pleasure — an inveterate gambler. Had he confined his operations merely to trading, his commercial ventures would have excited little blame, trading having been a practice indulged in by several other high colonial officials. His salary was totally inadequate to the importance of his office, and quite insufficient to meet the expenditure his exalted position led him into. His speculations, his venality, the extortions practised on the community by his heartless minions: this is what has surrounded his memory with eternal infamy and made his name a by-word for scorn.

 

There existed, at Quebec, a ring composed of the Intendants secretary, Désehenaux; of the Commissary General of Supplies, Cadet; of the Town-Major, Hugues Péan; of the Treasurer-General, Imbert. Péan was the Chief and Bigot the Great Chief of this nefarious association. Between Bigot and Peau, another link existed. Péan's favor at Court lay in the charms of his wife. Madame Péan, née Angélique De Meloises, was young pretty, witty and fetching; a fluent and agreeable speaker — in fact so captivating that François Bigot was entirely

ruled by her during all his stay at Quebec. At her house in St. Louis street he spent his evenings ; there, he was sought and found in May, 1759, by Col. deBougainville returning from Paris, the bearer of the dispatches, announcing the coming struggle.

 

Would you like some of the pen-photographs which a clever French contemporary[20] has left of the corrupt entourage of the magnificent intendant: here are a few:

 

"Brassard Deschenaux, the son of a poor cobbler, was born at Quebec. À notary who boarded with Deschenaux, senior, had taught his son to read. Naturally quick and intelligent, young Deschenaux made rapid progress and found soon something to do in the office of Intendant Hocquart where Bigot found him and succeeded in having hirn appointed clerk in the Colonial Office at Quebec. Industrious, but at heart a sycophant, by dint of cringing ho, won the good graces of Bigot, who soon put unlimited trust in him, to that degree as to do nothing without Deschenaux's aid; but Deschenaux was vain, ambitious, haughty and overbearing and of such inordinate greed, that he was in the habit of boasting 'that to get rich, he would even rob a church.'

 

Cadet was the son of a butcher; in his youth he was employed to mind the cattle of a Charlesbourg peasant; he next set up as a butcher and made money. His savings, he invested into trade; his intriguing spirit brought him to the notice of the Intendant Hocquart, who gave him contracts to supply meat for the army. Deschenaux soon discovered that Cadet could be useful to him; he made him his friend and lost no opportunity to recommend him to the Intendant. Ile was accordingly often employed to buy the supplies for the subsistance of the troops. In verity, there wore, few men more active, more industrious, more competent to drive a bargain. The King required his services and secured them, by having Cadet named Commissary General. He had his redeeming points — was open-handed in his dealings — of a kindly nature and lavish even to excess."

 

The worthy Commissary General, like Péan, was blessed with a charming wife, whom Panet's Diary styles "La Belle Amazone Aventurière." Probably, like her worthy spouse, — of low extraction; "elle n'était pas sortie de la cuisse de Jupiter," to use a familiar French saw.

 

She certainly was not like Cœsar's wife "above suspicion." Madame Cadet, later on, transferred her allegiance from the rich butcher Cadet, to one "Sieur Joseph Ruffio"; ......

but let us draw the veil of oblivion over the short comings of another age.

 

"Capt. Hughes Péan, Chevalier de la Livaudière, was Town Major of Quebec, aide-Major des Troupes." He was not long in discovering that with an Intendant like Bigot, he could dare anything. Had he not without any trouble netted on grain 50,000 half crowns? A large quantity of wheat was required for Government ; he was charged with the buying of. There was a fat job in store for the Town Major. How was his master the Intendant to manage the matter for him? Ingot was a man of resource, who never forgot his friends. First, he provided Péan with a large sum out of the Treasury to buy the wheat as low as possible for cash; and then his complaisant council passed an order or Ordonnance fixing the price of grain much higher than that at which Péan had purchased. The town Major charged it to Government at the rate fixed by the Ordonnance; the difference left him a handsome profit. He thought he would next try his hand at building coasting crafts, which he could manage to keep constantly in commission for Government; this also was lucrative. Other devices, however, were resorted to; a secret partnership was entered into between Cadet and a person named Clavery, who shortly after become store-keeper at Quebec. Cadet was to purchase wheat in the parishes, have it ground at a mill he had leased, the flour to be sent abroad, secretly. Péan, too, had large warehouses built — at Beaumont some I say. Cargoes of grain were thus secretly shipped to foreign ports in defiance of the law. Bréard, the Comptroller-General, for a consideration winked at these mal-practices, and from a poor man when he landed in Canada, he returned to France in affluent circumstances.

 

The crowning piece of knavery was the erection of a vast shop and warehouses near to the Intendants Palace, Clavery had charge of this establishment, where a small l retail business was carried on as a blind. The real object was to monopolize the trade in provisions and concentrate; it here. Clavery was clerk to Estebe, Royal store-keeper at Quebec. In this warehouse were accumulated all such: provisions and supplies as were wanted annually, and ordered from France for the King's stores at Quebec,

 

It was the practice of the Intendant to send each summer: the requisitions to Paris. Bigot took care to order from France less supplies than were required, so as to have an î;excuse to order the remainder in times of want, at Quebec. The orders were sent to Clavery's warehouse, where the same goods were sold twice over, at increased rates. Soon the people saw through the deceit, and this Repository of Fraud was called in consequence La Friponne, "The Suave."

 

Want of space prevents me from crowding in photos of the other accomplished rogues, banded together for public robbery during the expiring years of French domination in Canada.

 

It is singular to note how many low-born [21] parasites and flatterers surrounded Bigot.

 

In 1765, the wheat harvest having failed, and the produce of former years having been carried out of Canada or else stored in the magazine of Bigot's ring, the people of Canada wore reduced to starvation: in many instance they had to subsist on horse flesh and decayed cod fish Instead of having recourse to the wheat stored here, the Intendants minions led him to believe that wheat was not so scarce as the peasantry pretended — that the peasants refused to sell it, merely in anticipation of obtaining still higher rates; that the Intendant, they argued, ought to issue orders for domiciliary visits in the rural districts and levy a tax on each inhabitant of the country: for the maintenance of the residents in the citv, and of the

troops.

 

Statements were made out, shewing the rations required to prevent the people from dying of hunger. Cadet was charged with the raising of this vexatious impost. In a very short time, he and his clerks had overrun the country appropriating more wheat than was necessary. Some of the unfortunate peasants, who saw in the loss of their seed wheat starvation and death, loudly complained. A few called at the Intendants Palace, but the heartless Déschenaux, the Intendants Secretary, was ever on the watch and had them questioned by his employés, and when the object of their visit was discovered, they were ushered into the presence of Désehenaux, who insulted them and threatened to have them imprisoned for thus presuming td complain to the Intendant. Bigot was afterwards advised of their visit, and when they appeared before him they were so maltreated and bullied that they left, happy al believing that they had not been thrown into prison; soon none dared to complain. Bread was getting scarcer every day, The Intendant had named persons to distribute the bread at the baker's shops, the Hour being furnished by Government. The people crowded the bakeries on the days fixed; the loaves wore taken by violence; mothers oi' families used to complain that they could not get any; .they used occasionally to besiege the Intendant at his Palace with their lamentations and complaints, but it was;bf no avail ; the Intendant was surrounded by a crowd of .flatterers, who on retiring, g;orged from his luxurious board, could not understand how the poor could die of hunger,

 

Land of my fathers reclaimed from barbarism at the cost of so much blood — so much treasure; bountifully provided firith nobles — priests — soldiers — fortifications by the Great Louis; sedulously — paternally watched over by Colbert and Talon: to what depth of despair, shall we say, degradation art thou sunk!

 

Proud old city, have you then no more defenders to put forth, in your supreme hour of woe and desertion! Has then that dauntless race of Gentilshommes Canadiens the d'Iberville — Ste. Hélène — de Rouville — de Bécancourt — de Répentigny, disappeared without leaving any sucessors!

 

And you stern old de Frontenac, you who replied so effectually to the invader through the mouth of your cannon, is your martial spirit quenched for ever, in that loved fortress in which rest your venerated remains, you who at one time (1680) were ready, at the head of your Regulars and fighting Canadians,[22] to carry out the rash scheme, hatched by de Courcelles : the conquest of New York and destruction of the chief settlements in New England, involving the dispersion of more than eighteen thousand people, in the same manner a British Commander sixty-six years later, (in 1755) tore from their homes the: peaceable Acadians of Grand-Pré. [23]

 

I could enlarge to any extent the gloomy picture which the history of this drooping period discloses. Two skilful, novelists, the one in the English language, Wm. Kirby,[24] Esq., of Niagara, the other in the French, Joseph Marmette,[25] of Quebec, have woven two graphic and stirring historical romances, out of the materials which the career of the Intendant Bigot and the desertion of the colony in its hour of trial, by France — so abundantly supply. One redeeming trait, one flash of sunshine lights up the last hour of French domination: the devotion of the Canadian militia towards their oblivious mother-country; their dauntless?

courage at the Beauport engagement — after the battle of the Plains, 18th Sept., 1757 — and at the battle of Ste. Foye, on the 28th April.1760, a day glorious to French arms, but at best, a bootless victory.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — You were told at the opening of this address, that the carnival of riotous dissipation, gambling and public plunder, kept up for ten years at Bigot's luxurious palace, on the banks of the St. Charles, by his pampered minions and low-born parasites "would close; with the wail of anguish and the roll of the muffled drum." You shall not have long to wait.

 

The Morning of the 13th September, 1759, has dawned; an astounding rumour fills the air; the citizens of Quebec repeat with bated breath: WOLFE'S ARMY is AT THE GATES OF THE CITY ......

 

Hark! What means this deafening roar of artillery — this hissing of shot and shell — these rolling — murderous volleys of musketry in the direction of the hfio-hts of Abraham? ......

 

Hark! to these loud cheers — British cheers mixed with |the discordant yells of those savage warriors — Fraser's Highlanders! The fate of a continent has just been decided. The genius of William Pitt has triumphed, though victory gwas bought at a dear price.

 

Here comes from St. Louis Gate [26] on his way to the Château pale, but dauntless — on a black charger — supported by Two grenadiers — one at each side of his horse, a General Officer wearing the uniform, which won at Fontenoy, won at Laufeldt — as well as at the [27] Monongahelaand at [28] Carillon. A bloody trail crimsons the Grande Allée, St. Louis Street, on that gloomy September day. My friends, 'tis the life blood of a hero. Drop in reverential silence, ,on the moistened earth, [29] a sympathetic tear: France's chivalrous leader, the victor on many battle fields, has returned from his last campaign.

 

"Oh! mon Dieu! mon Dieu! le Marquis est tué'' is repeated by many voices, notably by some women as the death-stricken but intrepid general glides past, to I which he courteously replies, trying to quiet their fears, "that he was not seriously hurt and not to distress themselves on his account." "Ce n'est rien! ce n’est rien! ne vous affligez pas pour moi, mes bonnes amies.''

 

You have all heard, the account of the death-bed scene — of his tender solicitude for the good name of France — of his dying injunctions to De Ramesay, the King's lieutenant in charge of the Quebec Garrison, and to the Colonel of the Roussillon Regiment. "Gentlemen, to your keeping I command the honor of France. Endeavour to secure the retreat of my army to-night beyond. Cape Rouge, as for myself, I shall pass the night with God, and prepare for death."

 

"At nine o'clock in the evening of that 14th of September; (1759), a funeral cortege, issuing from the castle, winds its? way through the dark and obstructed streets to the little church of the Ursulines. With the heavy tread of the coffin-bearers keeps time the measured footsteps of the military escort. De Ramesay and the officers of the garrison following to their resting place the lifeless remains of their illustrious commander-in-chief. No martial pomp was displayed around that humble bier, but the hero who had afforded at his dying hour the sublime spectacle of a Christian yielding up his soul to God in the most admirable sentintents of faith and resignation, was not laid in unconsecrated ground. No burial rite could be more solemn than that hurried evening service performed by torchlight under the delapidated roof of a sacred asylum, where the soil had been first laid bare by one of the.rude engines of war — a bomb shell.[30] The grave tones of the priests murmuring the Libera me, Domine were responded to by the sighs and tears of consecrated virgins, henceforth the guardians of the precious deposit, which, but for inevitable fate, would have been reserved to honour some proud mausoleum. With gloomy forebodings and bitter thoughts DeRamesay and his companions in arms withdrew in silence.

 

A few citizens had gathered in, and among the rest one led by the hand his little daughter, who, looking into the grave, saw and remembered, more than three-fourths of a century later, the rough wooden box, which was all the ruined city could afford to enclose the remains of her defender.[31]

 

The skull of the Marquis of Montcalm, exhumed in the presence of the Rev. abbé Maguire, almoner, in 1833. many here present, I am sure, have seen in a casket, reverently exposed in the room of the present almoner of the Ursulines Convent.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I shall close this brief summary of the final struggle of French arms, with the beautiful sentiments uttered by a United States writer, endeared to us by several graphic sketches of Canadian Life, W. D. Howells, Editor of the Atlantic Monthly:

 

"That strange colony of priests and soldiers, of martyrs and heroes, of which, Quebec was the capital, willing to perish for an allegiance to which the mother country was indifferent, and fighting against the armies with which England was prepared to outnumber the whole Canadian population, is a magnificent spectacle; and Montcalm laying down his life to lose Quebec, is not less affecting than Wolfe dying to earn her. The heart opens towards the soldier who recited, on the ere of his costly victory, the "'Elegy in a Country Churchyard,' which he would rather have written than beat the French to-morrow;' but it aches for the defeated general, who, hurt to death, answered when told how brief his time was, "So much the better; then I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec."

 

APPENDIX

HORSES

 

"L'un des premiers soins du Monarque fut d'y l'aire passer (an Canada, à ses frais, des chevaux, tant pour faciliter aux colons les travaux de l'agriculture, que pour procurer leur commodité particulière, attendu que jusque-là ils n'avaient pu marcher qu'à l'aide de raquettes pendant l'hiver. Le l6 juiliet 1665 on débarqua à Québec douze chevaux, les premiers envoyés de France par le Roi. Il était naturel que les sauvages, à qui ces animaux étaient entièrement inconnus, témoignassent une grande surprise en voyant ces orignaux de France: c'est ainsi qu'ils les appelaient, par comparaison avec ces animaux du pays, n'ayant pas de mots dans leur langue pour les désigner, Ce qu'ils admiraient surtout, c'était qu'ils fussent si traitables et si dociles sous la main de leurs cavaliers, qui les faisaient marcher à leur fantaisie [32] Sa Majesté a encore envoyé des chevaux, écrivait en 1667 la mère Marie de l'Incarnation, et on nous a donné pour notre part deux belles juments et un cheval, tant pour la charrue que pour le charroi. [33] "L'année 1670, le Roi envoya pareillement un étalon et douze juments, et les lit : distribuer aux gentilshommes du pays, les plus zélés pour la culture des terres: une jument à M. Talon, deux juments à M. de Chambly avec un .étalon, une à M. de Sorel, une à M. de Contrecœur, une à M. de Saint-Ours, une à M. de Varenne, deux juments à M. de Lachesnaye, une à M. de Latouche, une à M. de Repentigny, enfin la douzième à M. Le Ber. Voici les conditions auxquelles le Roi faisait ces sortes de dons aux particuliers: ils devaient les nourrir pendant trois ans: et si par leur faute, quelqu'un de ces animaux venait à mourir, celui à qui il avait été donné était obligé de payer au receveur du Roi la somme de deux cents livres. Dans l'autre cas, il pouvait le vendre après les trois ans expirés, ainsi que les poulains qu'il aurait pu avoir; mais avec charge au bout des trois ans, de donner au receveur de Sa Majesté un poulain d'un an pour chaque cheval, ou la somme de cent livres. Il était pareillement ordonné que, lorsque ces poulains que le Roi; faisait élever et nourrir seraient parvenus à leur troisième année, on les distribueraient à d'autres particuliers, et toujours aux mômes conditions. [34] Comme on le voit, ces conditions ne pouvaient être plus avantageuses aux particuliers, ni au pays en général; aussi Colbert, qui avait tant à cœur de ivoir fleurir la colonie, écrivait à M. Talon, le II février 1671: "Je tiendrai la main à ce qu'il soit envoyé en Canada des cavales et des ânesses, afin de multiplier ces espèces si nécessaires à la commodité des habitants. [35]" De tous les animaux domestiques envoyés par le Roi dans la Nouvelle-France, Iles chevaux furent, en effet, ceux qui s'y multiplièrent le plus, quoique le nombre des autres y augmentât d'une manière étonnante. [36] — (Histoire de Ma Colonie Française en Canada, Faillon, Vol. III, p. 222.)

 

EXPORTATION OF CANADIAN CATTLE TO EUROPE

 

According to the statistics furnished by McEachran, V. S. and Government Inspector of live stock, the total shipments for 1879 from Montreal and Quebec from the opening to the close of navigation, as compared with two preceding years, are as follows: —

 

1871. 1878. 1877.

Cattle ...... 24,823 ; 18,650 ; 6,940

Sheep ...... 78,7112 ; 41,250 ; 9,500

Hogs ...... 4,745 ; 2,078 ; 430

 

The great inajorily of animals shipped from Quebec were forwarded by rail from .Montreal, and large as the increased shipments of cattle, sheep and hogs this year are over 1878 and 1877, the exports next year will doubtless show a still larger increase, as compared with those of 1879 — [Quebec Mercury, 28th Nov., 1879]

 

Mr. J. A. Couture, veterinary surgeon, the officer in charge of the Point Levicattle quarantine, furnishes the following figares regarding the Canadian shipped at Montreal was 17,101 head of cattle ; 59,907 sheep, and 3,468 hogs., 188 hogs ; or a grand total from the two shipping ports of 21,112 head of cattle ; 77,181 sheep and 3,656 hogs. The estimated value of this live stock is — cattle, $2,111,200 ; sheep, $771,810 ; and hogs, $52,720 ; or a grand total of $2,935,730. The value of the forage exported with this stock for food, averaging the trip of each steamship at ten days, is placed at $92,690 ; and the estimated sums paid to the various steamship lines for freight is $583,900. — [Quebec Mercury, 24th Nov., 1879.]

 

SHIP-BULDING AT QUEBEC UNDER FRENCH DOMINATION

 

"La construction des vaisseaux était une autre ranche d’industrie que Louis XIV avait à cœur d’introduire en Canada ; et dans ce dessin, il eut soin d’y faire passer tous les onvriers nécessaires, ainsi que d’autres, pour prépaper des bois propres à cette construction et les transporter en France. Pen après son arrivée en Canada, M. Talon donna tous ses soins à un objet de si grande importance. "Il faut couper des bois de toute sorte, lit-on dans la Relation de 1667, qui se trouvent par tout le Canada, et qui donnent facilité aux Français et aux autres, qui viennent s’y habiter, de s’y loger dès leur arrivée. Il fait faire des mâtures, dont il envoie cette année des essais à la Rochelle pour servir à la marine. Il s’est appliqué, de plus, aux bois propres à la construction des vaisseaux, dont l’épreuve a été faite en ce pays par la bâtisse d’une barque, qui se trouve de bon service, et d’un gros vaisseau tout prêt à être mis à l’eau. [37] Dans l’état de la dépense du Roi pour l’année 1671, nous lisons cet article remarquable : "Quarante-mille livres pour être employées à la coupe et à la façon des bois envoyés de ce pays pour les constructions qui se font dans les ports du royanme. [38]" Le premier de ces vaisseaux, auxquels on travailait l’année 1672, devait être du poids de quatre à cinq cents tonneaux ; et, dans le même temps, on se disposait à en construire, un autre plus considérable encore, dont tous les matériaux étaient déjà prêts. [39] L’un de ces bâtiments étant enfin achevé, on demanda au Roi qu'il voulût bien le laisser dans la colonie, Ce qui pourtant n'eut pas lieu." [40]. — Histoire du la Colonie Française en Canada, Paillon, Vol. III, p. 256.

 

Extract from "Mémoires el Relations sur l’Histoire Ancienne du Canada d'après des Manuscrits récemment obtenus des Archives et Bureaux Publics en France."

 

(Publiés sous la direction do la Société Littéraire et Historique do Québec, 1840.)

 

(1748.) — "Il y a une Construction royale, établie à Québec; le Roy y entretient un Constructeur-an-ehef, et tous les ouvriers nécessaires; mais cette, construction est aujourd'hui décriée, et l'on dit que le Roy va l'a faire, cesser pour les raisons suivantes:

 

Eu premier lieu, on prétend que les vaisseaux bâtis à Québec coûtent beaucoup plus que ceux uàtis dans les ports de France; mais on n'ajoute pas que ce n'est qu'en apparence, attendu qu'il passe sur le compte de la construction beaucoup de dépenses qui n'y ont aucun rapport.

 

Eu second lieu, que ces vaisseaux jusqu'à, présent ont été de très-peu de durée; d'où l'on conclut que les bois du Canada ne valent rien.

 

Pour juger sainement de la qualité, de ces bois, il faut entrer dans le détail de ce qui en regarde la coupe, le transport à Québec, et l'employ à la construction.

 

Premièrement: Pes bois du Canada sont extrêmement droits; ce n'est qu'avec beaucoup de peine qu'on trouve dans leurs racines des bois tords, propres à la construction.

 

Deuxièmement: Jusqu'à présent on n'a exploité que les Chênières les plus voisines des rivières, et eonséquemment situées dans les lieux bas, à cause de la facilité de transport.

 

Troisièmement: Les bois sont, coupés en hiver; on les traîne sur la neige jusqnes au bord des rivières et des lacs; lorsque la foute des neiges et, des glaces a rendu la navigation libre, on les met eu radeaux pour les descendre, à Québec, où ils restent longtema dans l'eau, avant d'être tirés à terre, et où ils en contractent une mousse qui les échauffe ; encore imbibés d'eau, ils sont exposés dans un chantier à toute, l'ardeur du soleil de l'été; l'hiver qui succède les couvre nue seconde fois de. neige, que le printems fait fondre, et, ainsi successivement jusqu'à, ce qu'ils soient employes ; enlin, ils restent deux ans sur les chantiers, où de nouveau ils essuyeut deux fois l'extrémité du froid et du chaud qu'on sent dans ce climat.

 

Voilà les causes du peu de durée de ces vaisseaux.

 

Si on coupoit les bois sur les hauteurs ; s'ils étoient transportés à Québec dans des barques; si on les garantissent des injures du teins dans des hangars, et si les vaisseaux ne restaient qu'une année sur les chantiers, il est évident qu'ils dureraient plus longtems. Dans la démolition de ceux qui ont, été condamnés eu France, on reconnu que les bordages s'étoieut bien conservés, et qu'ils étoient aussi bons que ceux qu'on tire de Suède ; mais que les membres en étoient, pourris. Est-il étonnant que les bois tords pris à la racine d'arbres qui avoient, le pied dans l'eau qu'on n'a pas eu attention de faire sécher à, couvert, s'échauffent quand ils se trouvent enfermés entre deux bordages ?

 

Je ne vois donc pas que les raisons alléguées contre les vaisseaux de Québec soient suffisantes pour en faire cesser la construction. Je dis plus, que de toutes les dépenses que le Roy fait en Canada, celle de la construction me paroît la plus nécessaire, et celle qui peut devenir la plus utile. Tout esprit non prévenu sera forcé de convenir qu'on y fera construire des vaisseaux avec plus d'économie'que dans Jes ports de France, toutes les fois qu'on ne confondra pas d'autres dépenses avec celles de 1a construction. D'ailleurs, il est important qu'il y ait à Québec un certain nombre de charpentiers et de caifats; il en manque aujourd'hui, malgré ceux que le Roy entretient; et lorsque les particuliers en ont besoin au prinleins, ils n'en trouvent point: un calfat se paye six francs pour une marée. J'avoue qu'alors tous les travaux de cette espèce sont pressés; mais ordinairement un charpentier gagne trois à quatre francs par jour avec les particuliers. Indépendamment de l'intérêt des particuliers, les vaisseaux qui viennent à Québec, ont quelques fois besoin d'un radoub, et dans le nombre des navires marchands, il y en a toujours quelqu'un qu'il est nécessaire de radouber par des accidents arrivés dans la traversée. Si le Roy faisait cesser ici la construction de ses vaisseaux, tous les ouvriers qui y sont employés seroient forcés d'aller chercher du travail ailleurs.

 

Enfin, on a besoin en Canada de petits bâtiments pour les postes de la poche, pour le commerce de Québec à Montréal, pour le cabotage delà rivière, pour la traite à Gaspé et à Louisbourg, et cette partie de la construction est si fort négligée ici, que les Anglois de ce continent fournissent une partie des bâtimens pour la navigation dans l'intérieur de notre Colonie. Ce n'est pas que leurs bois sont meilleurs, on leurs butinions mieux construits que les nôtres, niais ils les donnent à meilleur marché. Aussi voyons-nous dans toutes nos places maritimes des navires marchands construits dans la Nouvelle-Angleterre.

 

Loin donc de prendre le parti d'abandonner la Construction royale, parti préjudiciable à la Colonie, et j'ose dire l'Etat, il seroit nécessaire non-seulement que le Roy continuât à faire construire des vaisseaux en Canada, mais encore qu'il y encourageât îles entrepreneurs pour la construction de bâtimens marchands. La gratification de vingt francs par tonneau, accordée aux particuliers qui feroient passer en France des bâtimens construits en Canada, ne suffirait pas aujourd'buy pour les engager à faire à. cet égard des entreprises d'une certaine considération; la main-d'œuvre est hors de prix, et les entrepreneurs seroient forcés de faire venir do France les voiles, cordages etautres agrès.

 

Il faudroit, indépendamment de la gratification, que le Roy fit passer à Québec; une partie de ses agrès, et qu'il les donnât aux entrepreneurs à un prix raisonnable ; il faudrait en outre qu'il leur procurât un fret pour les bâtimens qu'ils envoyeroient eu France, et il le leur procurerait en ordonnant qu'on reçut dans ses ports les planches, bordages, merrains, plançons de chêne, mâtures et autres articles de cette espèce, dont ces bàtiinens seroient chargés, au même prix qu'il les paye aux fournisseurs qui tirent tous ces articles de l'étranger; en prenant ces mesures, le Canada fournirait les bâtimens nécessaires pour le commerce intérieur de la Colonie, dispenseroit Ja France d'avoir recours aux Anglois pour les navires qui manquent a èow commerce en Europe, et que les Anglois construisent dans le même continent où nous avons de si vastes possessions; les mâtures du Canada, estimées autant que celles que nous tirons du Nord à grands frais, ne seroient pas pour nous en pure perte ; ces exploitations devenant considérables, facihte-roient la culture des terres, eu désertant des cantons qui, peut-être, ne le seront, jamais ; enfin cette construction, établie, sur le pied ou on le propose, coûterait sans doute, au Roy; mais cette dépense, sagement économisée, feroit partie, de celles que nous avons dit être nécessaires pour la balance du commerce de cette Colonie avec la France."

 

I have furnished elsewhere, a sketch and a tabular statement showing the gradual progress in ship-building, under French Rule and under English Rule, down to 1875. — "Vide" Quebec, PAST AND PRESENT, page 437-9.

 

THE CONQUEST OF NEW YOHK.

 

"Lou id XIV," pays Parkman, "commanded that eighteen thousand unoffending persons should bo stripped of all they possessed, and cast ont to the mercy of the wilderness. The atrocity of the plan is matched by its folly. The King gave explicit orders, but ho gave neither ships nor men enough to accomplish them; and the Dutch farmers, goaded to desperation, would have cut his sixteen hundred soldiers to pieces."[41]

 

THE DEATH OF MONTCALM.

 

(From Lt.-Col. Beatson's Kotos, "THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM.")

 

MONTCALM, conspicuous in front of the left wing of his line — and WOLFE, at the head of the 28th Regiment and the Louisbourg Grenadiers, towards the right of the British line, must have been nearly opposite to each other at the commencement of the battle, which was most severe in that part of the field: and, by a singular coincidence, each of these heroic leaders had been twice wounded during the brief conflict before he received his last and fatal wound.

 

But the valiant Frenchman, regardless of pain, relaxed not his efforts to rally his broken battalions in their hurried retreat towards the city until ho was shot through the loins, when within a few hundred yards of St. Louis Gate. And so invincible was his fortitude that not even the severity of this mortal stroke could abate, his gallant spirit or alter his intrepid bearing. Supported by two grenadiers — one on each side of his horse — he re-entered the city: and in reply to some women who, on seeing blood flow from his wounds as ho rode down St. Louis Street, on his way to the Chateau, exclaimed Oh, mon Dieu! mon Dieu! Le Marquis est tué! courteously assured them that he was not seriously hurt, and begged of them not to distress themselves on his account — Ce n'est rien ! ce n'est rien! Ne vous affligez pas pour moi, men bonnes amies.[42]

 

The last words of WOLFE — imperishably enshrined in the pages of History — still excite, after the lapse of a century, the liveliest admiration and sympathy: and similar interest may, perhaps, be awakened by the following brief narrative of the closing scene in the eventful career of his great opponent.

 

MONTCALM, when his wounds had been examined, enquired whether they were mortal; and being answered in the affirmative, said, I am glad of it: how long I survive? — Ten or twelve hours, perhaps less, was the reply. So much the better, rejoined he; for then shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec.[43]

 

"Being afterwards visited by M. de Ramezay — who, with the title of Lieutenant du-Roi, commanded the garrison — and the Commandant de Rousillon, he said to them, Gentlemen, to your keeping I command the honour of France. Endeavor to secure the retreat, of my army tonight beyond Cap Rouge; as for myself, I shall pass the night with God, and prepare for death."

 

Copy of the Epitaph prepared by the Academy of Inscription at Paris, for the Marquis of Montcalm's tomb; leave was asked by the French Government to have the marble tablet, on which it was inscribed, sent out to Quebec, and granted by the English Government. (Vide William Pitt’s Letter, 10th April, 1761.) This inscription, for some cause or other, never reached Quebec.

EPITAPH.

Hic jacet,

Utroque in orbe æternum vieturus,

LUDOVICUS JOSEPUUS DB MONTCALM GOZON,

Marobio Sancti Verani, Baro Gabriaci,

Ordinis Sancti Ludovici Commondator,

Legatus-Generalis Exercituum Gallicorum;

Egregius et Civis et Miles,

Nullius rei appetens præterquam veræ laudis,

Ingenio felici, et literis exculto;

Omnes Militias gradus per continua decora emensus,

Omnium Belli Artium, tomporum, diseriminum gnarus,

In Italia, in Bohemia, in Germania

Dux industriels.

Mandata sibi ita semper gerens ut majoribus par haboretuf,

Jam clarus perioulis

Ad tutandam Cunadensem Provinoiam missus,

Parva militum manu Hostium copin.s non somel repulit,

Propugnacula cepit viris armisque instructissima.

Algoris, inediæ, vigiliarum, laboris patiens,

Suis unice prospiciens, immemor sui,

Hostis acer, victor mansuetus.

Fortunam virtute, virium inopiam peritia et oeleritato compensavit;

Imininens Coloniæ fatum et consilio et manu per quadrienninm. sustinuit,

Tandem ingentem Excreitum Duce stronuo et audaci,

Classemque omni bellorum mole gravem,

Multiplici prudentiâ diu ludificatus,

Vi pertractus ad dimicandum,

In prima acic, in primo conflictu vulneratus,

Religioni quam semper colucrat innitens,

Magno suorum dosiderio, née sine hostium mœrore,

Extinctus est

Die XIV. Sept., A. D. MDCCLIX. ætat. XLVIII.

Mortales optimi ducis exuvias in excavatâ humo,

Quam globus bellicus decidens dissiliensque defoderat,

Galli lugentes deposuerunt,

Et generosfe hostium fidei commondârunt.

 

The Annual Register for 1762.