REPORT

OF THE COUNCIL

OF THE

LITERARY

AND

HISTORICAL SOCIETY

OF

QUEBEC,

AT THE

GENERAL ANNUAL MEETING

Held on the 8^th Janurary. 1846

 

PRINTED BY J.C. FISHER, NO. 6, MOUNTAIN STREET.

 

REPORT

OF THE COUNCIL

OF THE

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

OF QUEBEC

AT THE

GENERAL ANNUAL MEETING,

 

Held on the 8th January, 1846.

 

AT the recurrence of the period fixed by your Charter for holding the Annual meeting of the Society and electing officers for the ensuing year, the Council have to present to you the usual report, giving an outline of the proceedings of the Society during toe year now closed ; and it is with regret that they feel themselves compelled to lay before you a statement exhibiting so little of activity or advancement : many circumstances have contributed to this want of progress.

 

The attendance at the regular meetings of the Society has been so irregular that a quorum could only be formed on six evenings. Two of the principal officers, and other members of the Society were necessarily absent during a considerable period of the winter ; but another cause of the diminished attendance has perhaps been the greater attraction of the new Association, whose lectures and whose reading rooms stocked with journals and periodical publications and open in the evening, have drawn off members from attending the meetings of the Society. We are far from feeling any dissatisfaction at the success of the new Association, but we may be permitted to regret that it should diminish the zeal or the numbers of our members.

 

We have also to acknowledge that among the attending members there has been less exertion in the production of papers, only one having been read before the Society since the last Annual meeting ; and that one by our indefatigable fellow member the Rev. Dr. Wilkie, to whom the Society has been so often and. so largely indebted before for valuable communications ; but there is reason to believe that several others would have been received if a fuller attendance of members could have been had to form the regular meetings.

 

The publication of another number of the Transactions of the Society which, in the last year's Report, was stated as being in progress, has not yet been completed, partly in consequence of no report being made by the classes on the papers from which it was proposed that a selection should be made ; and partly in consequence of the constant occupation of the leisure time of the members appointed in May last to make the selection, in the labours which have daring the whole summer, and to the present moment, engaged the attention of so many of our citizens, inconsequence of the disastrous fires which visited this city in May and June last.

 

In the Report of the proceedings of the Society for 1844, it was mentioned that an application had been made to the Legislature for a grant of money to enable the Society to obtain copies of Historical documents from Paris. An estimate was laid before the Government during the winter, stating £1000 as the sum which it was hoped might be entrusted to the Society for this purpose. But the Council regret to state that no more than £200 was recommended by the Government to the Legislature and appropriated by them, and the Government have since further abridged the scanty allowance, by intimating that the Society are to pay out of it a debt of £34, incurred some years ago by them for the care of Chasseur's Specimens, and also a sum of £40 expended by Dr. McLaughlin, of Paris, in 1838, in procuring manuscript copies of Cartier's voyage.

 

It was evident that with these deductions, the balance remaining was inadequate to the purpose of obtaining transcripts of any considerable number of documents from Paris ; but it was hoped  that more might be done with it by endeavouring to procure copies of those procured by Colonel Brodhead, from the public archives in Paris, for the State of New York, and deposited in Albany. A communication was, accordingly opened through Mr. Barclay, the British Consul at New York, and with his friendly support, with the State authorities; and a zealous officer of the Society, baring himself visited Albany for the same object in August last, a permission was liberally grunted to the Society to make transcripts by such agent as they should choose to employ. As the due execution of the task required a thorough knowledge of the French language, and some previous general acquaintance with the subjects of the papers to be copied, it was deemed advisable to send a competent copyist from hence ; and an agreement was made with Mr. Felix Glackemeyer to undertake the transcription of all the French documents obtained by Colonel Brodhead, (except those already in print,) for the sum of £200. Mr. Glackemeyer proceeded to Albany in the close of November, and has already sent to the Society the first fruits of his labours, in complete copies, made in a very satisfactory manner, of the correspondence between the Sovereign and Minister of France and the Colonial authorities, and also of other interesting public documents from 1631 to 1684.

 

The whole work cannot be completed under six months ; and it will be seen that the amount promised to Mr. Glackemeyer exceeds the balance of the Legislative grant, but the Council did not hesitate to engage the Society for the surplus, being fully assured that when a report shall have been made to the Provincial Government, in obedience to the instructions accompanying the official intimation of the grant, of the manner In which the Society are applying it, the Government will recommend a further and more adequate appropriation to the Legislature, in its next Session, both to complete the work undertaken, and to enable the Society to make the Interesting documents so obtained, available for public information.  

 

The measures which were under consideration before the last Annual Meeting, for effecting a junction of the different Literary Institutions of Quebec, remain in the state then reported. The overtures made on one side and the other having led to no result, the project may be considered as laid aside for the present.

 

It is with regret that the Council have to report the resignation of several Members of the Society during the past year, while but one new Member has been elected ; among those who have withdrawn was oar late efficient Librarian, Mr. Futvoye, who has since left Quebec : the Catalogue of the Library, which be had arranged with so much care and pains, has been printed and circulated among the Members at a considerable expense.

 

The Library has been encreased not only by several donations, by a considerable number of volumes imported from London, in continuation of works already, in our collection.

 

The Museum and .Apparatus of the Society have received due care from the respective officers in charge of them, and are in good order.

 

A list of the donations to the library and Museum is appended to this report.

 

The zealous officer entrusted with the pecuniary affairs of the Society, reports them as in a more favourable condition than at the close of last year, when the Society was in debt to him a sum of £13 15s., whereas, at present, there is a balance in band of £10 17s. 4d., after payment of all demands, including, among other items, £34 3s. 8d. for books imported, and £16 6s. 6d. for printing the Catalogues.

 

The total number of subscribing Members is only' forty-eight, of whom thirty-four have paid up to 31st December last ; but the funds of the Society have been benefitted during the year by the Legislative grant of £50 a year, for the years 1844 and 1845.

 

The Corporation of Quebec having been put into possession, by the Provincial Government, of the building in which the Society is provided with apartments, have called upon the Society to pay rent at the rate of £25 per annum. The Council, on the part of the Society, have answered the demand, by stating to the Corporation that when the Provincial Government, in 1841, granted the Society the apartments which it now occupies, it was without any other condition than that the Society should give them up, when required for public purposes.

 

That the funds of the Society do not admit of their paying any rent, and that the Council, on the part of the Society, will appeal to the Government to protect them in the free enjoyment of the possession of the apartments in question.

 

The Council for the past year, in laying before the Members; a statement of the progress and condition of the Society, while they lament that it is not of a more encouraging character, do not conceive that there is any reason to doubt of the ultimate success and usefulness of the Society. All Institutions of the same nature have ever been subject to the same fluctuations and occasional depressions, and some which have appeared to lie dormant for years, have after while revived and sprung into renewed life and vigour. There is no reason to despair that the lagging energies of our Institution may again be roused to action when present accidental causes have passed away, and that it may again continue to fulfil the purposes of its foundation. Your officers of the past year, in retiring from the stations they have filled, can breathe no more ardent wish than that their successors may witness and promote a more active and effectual development of the designs of the Society in its various lines of pursuit.

 

A. W. COCHRAN,

President.

OFFICERS

OF THE

LITTERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

FOR THE PAST YEAR.

 

President.

HON. A. W. COCHRAN, D. C. L. MEM. HIST. SOC. OF MASSACHUSETTS

 

Vice-Presidents.

HON. MM. SHIPPARD.

GEO. B. FARIBAULT, ESQ.

REV. D. WILKIE, L.L.D.

W. H. A. DAVIES, Esq.

 

Secretaries.

Recording: HENRY WESTON, Ésq.

Corresponding: J. C. FISHER, L L. D.

Council: CHARLES W. JONES, Esq.

 

TREASURER: ROBERT SYMES, Esq.

LIBRARIAN: GEORGE FUTVOYE, Esq.

 

Curators.

Of Museum: JOHN RACEY, M. D.

Of Apparatus: R. C. GEGGIE, Esq.

 

Committee on Historical Documents.

Hon. A. W. COCHRAN, D.CL. President,

J. C. FISHER, L L. D. Corresponding Sec.

(Ex-Officio)

HON. WM. SHEPPARD,

G.S. FARIBAULT, Esq.

W.H.A. DAVIES, Esq.

REV. D. WILKIE, L L. D.

REV. J. HOLMES.

 

Chairmen of Classes.

LITERATURE: HON. A. W. COCHRAN.

NATURAL HISTORY: HON. WM.SHEPPARD.

SCIENCES: RED. D. WILKIE, L.L.D.

USEFUL ARTS: HENRY WESTON, Esq.

FINE ARTS: ARCH. CAMPBELL, Esq.

 

DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM OF THE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 1845.

 

S. Scott, Esq.

The Jaw of a Shark.

 

R. Symes, Esq.

Three Crocodile's Eggs.

A three penny piece of Chas. II of Great Britain

A three penny piece of Geo. III. of Great Britain. (Demarara coinage.)

A three penny piece Win. IV. Of Great Britain.          

Half Franc of Louis XV. of France.         

Quarter Franc of Louis Philippe I. of France.

Ten cent piece of the U. S. 1805.

Quarter Franc of Chas. X. of France.

A five copeck Russian piece (1833.)

 

J. Racey, Esq. M. D.

A Penguin, found embedded in Guano, at Icliabo.

 

Mr. Vanfelson.

A specimen of blue sand from the Saguenay.

 

G. B. Faribault, Esq.

The ulna and vertebrae of a human skeleton, and a part of a brick found near Fort Carillon.

 

DONATIONS TO THE LIBRARY, 1845.

 

A. Coté & Co.

Thorowgood's specimens of Printing Types, 1 vol. 8vo.

Morris' Bookbinders' Tools.

 

G. Futvoye, Esq.

The British Almanack for 1846, 1 vol. 8vo.

Perrault's Elements de la Grammaire Latine avec la Grammaire Française, 1 folio MS. 1825.

Perrault’s Elements de la Grammaire Anglaise.

Perrault’s Projet d'Examen des Ecoles primaires dans le Bas Canada, 1 4to. MS. 1837.

Perrault’s Models des Entrées en Français de la Cour du Banc du Roi du District de Québec, 1 4to. MS. 1812.

Perrault’s Extraits ou précédents tirés des Régistres de la Prêvosté de Québec, 8vo. 1824.

Perrault’s Abrégé de l'Histoire du Canada, 32mo. 1838.

The British Almanack for 1831.

Florus (translated into English,) 1 vol. l2mo. 1663.

Companion to the Newspapers for 1833—4, 4o. Howell's (M. D.) Journal of a passage from India, 8mo. 1787.

Humphrey's Poems, 8mo. 1813.

Histoire de la condamnation des Templiers, l2mo.

Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine.

Explication des Tableaux, Statues, &c, composant les Galleries de la Chambre des Pairs de France, 12mo. 1814.

Les Mémoires de Messire Roger de Rabutin Comte de Bussy, 12mo. 1697.

Thilenius Description d'Ems et de ses eaux Minérales, 8vo., 1830.

Prospectus, Charter, Ordinances and By-laws of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 4to. 1800.

 M. Acci Plauti Comediae, 16mo. 1652.

 

From Hon. W. Sheppard.

Cavendish's Debate on the Canada Bill, in the House of Commons, 1714.

 

J. C. Fisher LL. D.

Plautus Lambini—Genevae, 1622.

Grotius de Jure Belli ac Paris, Amsterdam, 1672.

Fielding's Xenophon, Bath, 1702.

Bos Ellipses Graecrae, Leipsie, 1748.

 

The Author.

3 Nos. of Simmonds' Colonial Magazine, London, 1745.

 

The Society of Arts

Their Transactions for 1845.

 

The Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Vol. XV, Pt. II. of their Transactions.

 

Professor Greenleaf.

A Discourse on the Life and character of the Hon. Joseph Story, LL. D. Boston, 1845.

 

OFFICERS

OF THE

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

FOR 1846.

 

PRESIDENT.

JOHN CHARLTON FISHER LL. D.

 

VICE-PRESIDENTS,

HON. WM. SHEPPARD,

HON. A. W. COCHRAN D.C.L.

REVD. D. WILKIE LL. D.

G. B. FARIBAULT, ESQ.

 

SECRETARIES.

RECORDING: S. WRIGHT, ESQ.

CORRESPONDING: W.E.A. DAVIES, ESQ.

COUNCIL: M. SHEPPARD, ESQ.

 

TREASURER: R. SYMES, ESQ.

LIBRARIAN: L. SLEEPER, ESQ.

 

CURATORS.

OF MUSEUM: D. ROY, ESQ.

OF APPARATUS: R.C. GEGGIE, ESQ.

 

COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS.

J.C. FISHER L.L.D.: PRESIDENT

W. H.A. DAVIES, ESQ.:COR. SECRETARY

(Ex-Officio)

 

HON. W. SHEPPARD

G.B. FARIBAULT, ESQ.

REV. D. WILKIE, L.L.D.

REV. J. HOLMES

HON. A.W. COCHRAN

 

CHAIRMEN AND DEPUTY CHAIRMEN OF CLASSES.

 

LITERATURE:

J.C. Fisher, L.L.D., Chairman

Hon. A.W. Cochran, D.C.L.

Recd. D. Wilkie L.L.D.

G.B. Faribault, Esq.

L. Sleeper, Esq.

 

NATURAL HISTORY:

Hon. W. Sheppard, Chariman.

J. Racey, Esq., M.D.

R. Symes, Esq.

J. Turnbull, Esq.

D. Roy, Esq.

 

SCIENCES

Revd. D. Wilkie, L.L.D., Chairman.

D. Wilkie, Esq.

W.H.A. Davies, Esq.

C.W. Jones, Esq.

W. Sheppard, Esq.

 

ARTS

S. Wright, Esq., Chairman.

Chas. Sheppard, Esq.

John Musson, Esq.

R.C. Geggie, Esq.

Jas. Hamel, Esq.

 

FINE ARTS

A. Campbell, Esq., Chairman.

Hon. Wm. Sheppard,

S. Wright, Esq.

W. McTavish, Esq.

J. Turnbull, Esq.