REPORT OF THE COUNCIL

OF THE

Literary and Historical Society

OF

QUEBEC

TOGETHER WITH

THE TREASURER’S REPORT, LIST OF MEMBERS, &c., &c.

FOR

1855.

 

QUEBEC:

PRINTED FOR THE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

AT THE “MERCURY” OFFICE.

1856

 

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL

OF THE

Literary and Historical Society

OF

QUEBEC

TOGETHER WITH

THE TREASURER’S REPORT, LIST OF MEMBERS, &c., &c.

FOR

1855.

 

QUEBEC:

PRINTED FOR THE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

AT THE “MERCURY” OFFICE.

1856

 

OFFICERS

FOR 1856,

 

President,

W. ANDREW, M.A.

 

Vice-Presidents,

LIEUT. SAVAGE, R.E.,

LIEUT. ASHE, R.N.

W.D. CAMPBELL,

CAPT. NOBLE, R.A.

 

Recording Secretary,

F.N. BOXER.

 

Corresponding Secretary,

J. DUNBAR.

 

Council Secretary,

N.H. BOWEN.

 

Curator of Museum,

ROBERT HENRY RUSSELL, M.D.

 

Curator of Apparatus,

W.A. HOLWELL.

 

Treasurer,

GEORGE THOMAS CARY.

 

Librarian,

DANIEL WILKIE.

 

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL

OF THE

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

OF QUEBEC

FOR 1855.

 

In presenting the Annual Report of the Literary and Historical Society, your Council hare, the pleasure of being able to state that, notwithstanding many difficulties and drawbacks, a review of the past year presents much that is cheering and satisfactory. Many new members have joined the Society, several papers have been read, some of them valuable and highly practical, and the average attendance at the stated and monthly meetings has been such as to give evidence of the value and efficacy of the Society, the public consideration it meets with, and the healthy vitality with which it is endowed. During the past year a new volume of the Transactions bas been published, comprising—so far as local matters are concerned—a most valuable paper upon the island of Anticosti and its resources, by Mr. Roche, and Meteorological Observations, taken with great accuracy and regularity at Quebec, by Captain Noble, of the Royal Artillery, and Mr. Campbell. Of the papers laid before the meetings during the past fear, several are now in course of publication, and, the proof sheets having been revised by the Printing Committee, a new volume will shortly be ready for the public. The Library is now correctly classified, and a catalogue has been framed by Mr.Gooch (who ably performed a similar duty for Trinity College library at Dublin), under the efficient superintendence of your active Librarian, Mr. Fletcher, now, unfortunately for us, resident at Toronto. For the prizes offered by the Society, there have been few competitors. In the department of Science and Art, a silver medal has been adjudged to Mr. Walker, for an Essay upon Architecture ; but it is to be regretted that so much apathy exists as to compel your Council to the reluctant avowal that not one essay upon the Aboriginal History of Canada—no poetical effort—no works of literature, have been sent in for competition. It will be for our successors to endeavour to find the cause of such unwillingness on the part of the public to enter the lists of literature, and to remedy the defect. Your Council have to regret the departure of the Government for Toronto, by which they have lost the co-operation of many valuable members and officers of the Society—their late President, Mr. Meredith, included. It is satisfactory to know that nearly all who have left us thus compulsorily, retain their names upon the list of members, and, though absent, entertain for the Society that interest in its welfare which characterized them while resident among us. An application to the Board of Ordnance for a grant of land, has beep unsuccessful, the reply being to the effect that this was not advisable, as the Head Quarters were to be removed here. Your Council, would urge on their successors to renew this application to the War Office (the Board of Ordnance being abolished) on the ground that it is not now intended to make Quebec the Head Quarters Station.

 

Our grant of money has not been increased by the Provincial Government last year, and your Council have still to express their regret that no compensation bas been made them from the public chest for the heavy loss sustained by the Society in the destruction of its valuable museum, and the damage done to the library and their property on the 1st February, 1854, when the Parliament House was burnt. They recommend their successor to press this claim vigorously, and to endeavor to have it brought before the House of Parliament during the coming Session.

 

In giving up their trust, your Council can report that on the whole the interests of the Society have thriven in their hands, and that if in the last year's report there was found occasion far exultation, there can in this year's be found none for despondency ; it only now remains for them to express the sincere wish that under the guardianship of those who may be selected as Council for 1856, the Society may be built up so as to fonder it less dependent upon appeals to the public,—-firmer in the energy of its members, more widely known in the ability and value of its published transactions, secure and self-reliant.

H. G. SAVAGE,

Vice President.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT, 1855.

 

Your Treasurer for 1855, begs to report, That the Society has not made all the progress that could be desired, towards recovering from the effects of the loss sustained by the disastrous fire of the year preceding that which has just closed.

 

The Annual Grant of Fifty Pounds from the Provincial Government has, under the circumstances, proved inadequate on its former footing.

 

The following names have been added to the roll of the Society since the last Annual Meeting—The Honble. Attorney General McDonald, F. T. Roche, George Desbarats, Charles Walker, Hammond Gowen, Capt. Walter Serocold, Wm. Chessell, Richard Peniston White, Jas. Dunbar, Jas. Martin, M. D., H. N. S. Shrapnell and Edouard Glackemeyer, Esquires,— Associate Members ; and Major T. E. Campbell, C. B. of St. Hilaire, C. E., Professor Cherriman of Toronto University C. W. and P. S. Hamilton, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.—Corresponding Members. The total number of Members, at present composing the Society, is as follows :—Ordinary Members, three ; Life Members, two ; Associate Members, sixty-four ; Corresponding Members, twenty two ; Honorary Members, six.

 

Out of eight subscriptions of resident members standing over from the year 1854, your Treasurer has obtained payment of three, and forty five out of sixty during the past year, leaving fifteen to be collected by his successor in office. Several of these subscriptions are owing by gentlemen who have left the city and now reside in Montreal or Canada West, and from some of the number your Treasurer has received promise of early settlement.

 

The accession of new members will in some measure compensate for the withdrawal of so many connected with the Seat of Government ; but your Treasurer hopes to see a greater increase during the coming year, as the present revenue admits of but little expenditure beyond that requisite for the regular issue of the Society's transactions, and keeping the Rooms open to the Members throughout the year.

 

The Expenditure, according to the statement herewith submitted, seems large, but part of the heaviest items are balances of accounts remaining due since the year of the Fire.

 

The available funds at this date are as follows :

 

General Fund: £55; 18; 5

Historical Document Fund: 61; 11; 10

And Life Member's Fund: 10; 0; 0

 

Total:  £187; 5; 5

 

G. T. CARY,

Treasurer.

 

Quebec, 7th January, 1856.

 

REPORT OF THE CURATOR OF MUSEUM

 

Hitherto it has been the pleasing duty of your Curator of Museum and his predecessors, annually to report the well ordered condition of, together with the numerous additions, by donations and purchases, made to your Museum, of objects in the different departments of Natural History, Mechanical Arts, Manufactures, Inventions, Natural and Artificial Curiosities, all of which were unfortunately consumed in the calamitous fire by which the Parliament Buildings in this City were laid in ruins ; notwithstanding the most strenuous and praiseworthy efforts by many of your Members and others to save them. Their exertions were ineffectual from the rapid progress of the flames, owing to the neglect of any prudent precautions in the construction of that building to arrest the progress of fire in the event of such an accident, as well as from the inconvenient and almost inaccessible portion of the building allotted to your Society for your Museum, which was in the uppermost story.

 

Where so, many articles, the careful collection of thirty years, commencing with the foundation of your Society, have been lost ; and many of them, being very rare, can never be replaced; while others, being the donations of many deservedly esteemed Members now no more, affordjng as they did, the most substantial evidence of their zeal for the encouragement of the laudable and beneficial objects of your Institution, from which so much public benefit may be exacted, possessed an intrinsic value that cannot be represented by a money rate, and served as worthy incitements for their successors to imitate :—

 

Your Curator has considered it his duty to lay before you in this report the following estimate of the value of the property belonging to the department under his care, lost on the occasion mentioned above. The estimate thus submitted can only be considered as an approximation.

 

Value of Birds and Cases:            £1000; 0; 0

Value of Animals, Fishes, and Reptiles: 350; 0; 0

Value of Minerals, and Geological Specimens and Cases: 500; 0; 0

Value of Shells and Fossils, in glass cases: 200; 0; 0

Value of Objects in Mechanical Arts, Manufactures, Inventions, Natural and Artifical Curiosities: 250; 0; 0

Value of Coins and Cases: 100; 0; 0

Value of One Cabinet of Botanical Collections, in drawers: 50; 0; 0

Value of Furniture: 50; 0; 0

£2500; 0; 0

 

The whole respectfully submitted.

 

R. H. RUSSELL, M. D.,

 

Curator of Museum of the

Quebec Literary and Historical Society.

 

Quebec, 9th January, 1856.

 

DONATIONS RECEIVED, 1855.

 

“Kugler's Handbook of Painting, "—2 vols. [From His Excellency Sir Edmund Head, Governor General

 

"Statement of Arrivals of Vessels at Quebec from 1764 to 1854,"— [From the Honble. H. Black.

 

“Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol. 7, No. 3,"—[From Capt. Noble, R.A.

 

“Gutzot's Life of Cromwell."

"Macintosh's Military Tour thro' the Crimea and the Seat of War.”

"Slavery on the African Coast."

"Hack's Travels in Tartary, Thibet, &c."

"Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1854.

"Scientific Annual, 1852 and 1853,"

“Year Book of Facts, 1852, 1853'"—[From T. D. Harington, Esq.

 

"Public Accounts of the Province of Canada for 1853."

"Annual Report of the Post Master General of Canada, 1853 and 1854.

"Return of the Clerk of Chancery, shewing Votes polled in each County."

"Documents submitted by the Bureau of Agriculture to the Legislature."

"Report of the Superintendant of Education, Lower Canada,"

“The Seigniorial Tenure of Canada, and Plan of Commutation, by J. C. Taché"

"Trade and Navigation of Canada, for 1853."

"Census of Canada,, 1851 and 1852, Vol. II."—[From G. B. Faribault, Esq.

 

"Costume (parts)of Hotsawatti, Huron Indian Chief."

"Ancient Cushion from Lorette Indian Church,"

"Registers of Cholera Interments at Quebec, in 1849 and 1851," —[From Robt. Symes, Esq.

 

"Papers on the Corps of Royal Engineers.

“The Night Side of Nature.”

"Russia as it is," by Gwzowski,"

"Cornhill to Cairo,—by Tilmarsh."

"Hard Times,"—[From Lieut. Savage, R. E., Vice-President.

 

"Faust, a Dramatic Poem, by Goethe.''

"The Bloodstone,"—[From N. H. Bowen, Esq.

 

“Correspondence between the Chief Superintendent of Schools, C. W., and other persons, on separate Schools.''

"Scott’s Doemonology."

"Copper Ore specimen from Leeds, Megantic,"—[From F.N. Boxer, Esq.

 

"Observations on a Union of the Colonies of B. N. America, by P. S. Hamilton, of Halifax, N. S."—[From the Author

 

“Report of the Superintendent of Education, for the year 1854,—[From (he Honble. P. J. O. Chauveau.

 

"Meteorological Observations at Magnetic Observatory of Madras in the years 1846, 1850, 1851."—[From the Honble. the East India Co.

 

"Proceedings of the Royal Societv of Edinburgh, 1653, 1654."— [From the Honble. Clery, Edinburgh

 

"Discourse on Life and Times of Dr. Howland, by E. B. Hall, D. D "—[From Rhode Island Historical Society.

 

“History of Oxford University, from the death of William the Conqueror to the demise of Queen Elizabeth."—[From Thomas Cary, Esq.

 

"Gazetteer of the County of Oxford, C. W., and History of the same, with a Map, and a Portrait of the Hon. Francis Hincks, M. P.P."

"A specimen of Water-proof Cloth from the Sandwich Island."—[From Mr. G. T. Carv.

 

LIST OF PAPERS

READ SINCE THE LAST ANNUAL REPORT.

 

1855.

January 17.—On the History of Quebec from the earliest times, by Lieut Savage, R E.

February 6 —On the Height of Mountains, Lt. Ranen, R. E.

February 26.—On the History of British Poetry, by Lieut. Savage, R. E.

March 7—On Russian America, by A. R. Roche, Esq,

March 21.—Propositions for conducting the affairs of the Society, By F. N. Boxer, Esq.

March 21.—A proposal for extending the Trade of the Province, by A. R. Roche, Esq.

April 4.—On the connection between Astronomy and Navigation, by Lieut. Ashe.

April 25.—On the River Saguenay, and Lake St. John and the surrounding country, by F. N. Boxer, Esq.

October 17.—Reminiscences of the Boundary Survey in 1843, by F. N. Boxer, Esq. Nov. 7.—On Entomology, by Lieut..Savage, R. E.

 

DAYS OF MEETING.

 

GENERAL MONTHLY MEETINGS are held at FOUR, P. M., on the second WEDNESDAY of every month throughout the year.

 

STATED MEETINGS, for literary and scientific purposes, are held at HALF-PAST SEVEN o'clock, P.M., on the first and third WEDNESDAY of every month in the year.

 

GEO. T. CARY,

Assistant Secretary.

QUEBEC LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

LIST OF MEMBERS, 1856.

Patron.

 

His EXCELLENCY, SIR EDMUND HEAD, BART., GOVERNOR GENERAL, &c, &.c, &c.

 

Honorary Members.

 

SIR DAVID BREWSTER,

COLONEL LEFROY, R. A.

SIR JOHN HERSCHEL,

N. GOULD, NATURALIST,

W. LOGAN, PROVINCIAL GEOLOGIST,

STERRY HUNT, ASSISTANT GEOLOGIST.

 

Ordinary Members

 

THE RIGHT REVEREND THE LORD BISHOP OF QUEBEC.

THE HONORABLE HENRY BLACK, D. C,. D. C. L.

ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, Esq.

 

Life Members.

 

ROBERT SYMES, Esq. & THOMAS GLOVER. Esq.

           

Associate Members.

 

His Grace The Archbishop of Quebec,

Andrew, W., M. A.

Andrew, Geo.

Ashe, Lieut. F. A., R. N.

Anderson, W. Hedley, J. P.

Baird, Ebenezer,

Burstall, Henry,

Beswick, Geo ,

Burroughs, Ed ,

Borlase, G. H ,

Buchanan, A. C..

Bowen, N. H.,

Benning, Wm.,

Boxer, F. N.,

Campbell, W. Darling

Cary, George E.,

Carter. John,

Cardon, Revd. R. A.,

Chessell, W..

Douglas, Geo .„ M. D.

Dean, James, Jr.

Dunbar, J.

Eckart, l. R.,

Faribault, G B.,

Forsyth, Jas. Bell,

Glackemeyer, Edouard,

Geggie, R. C,

Gowen, Hamond.

Hall, Geo Benson,

Harrison, R. Moorsom,

Herring, W.

Hatherly, J.J.

Henderson, Geo., J. P.,

Holwell. W. Antrobus,

Irvine, Geo.,

Joly, H. G.,

Jones, Horatio Nelson,

LeMesurier, H.,

Mountain, Revd. A. W., M.A.

Montizambert, C. N.,

Middleton, Robt.,

Martin, James, M. D.

Neill, Robert,

Noad, Henry J.

Noble, Capt., R. A., F.R.S.

Price, William,

Paterson, W.

Panet, Charles,

Racèy, Jas. Junr.

Russell, R. H., M. D. E.

Russell, J. P., M. D. E.

Ryan, Edward,

Serocold, Capt.,

Shrapnell, H. N.S.,

Sinclair, P.,

Scott, Henry S,.

Savage, Lt. R. E.,

Thomson, D C,

Wilkie, Daniel,

Young, John

White, R. Peniston,

Walker, Chas.,C. E.

 

Corresponding Members

 

Bury, the Rt. Hon. Viscount, Toronto,

Baird, Spencer T., Smithsonian Institute, Washington,

Campbell, Major, St. Hilaire,

Couper, W., Toronto,

Chauveau, the Hon. P. J.O., Montreal,

Cherriman, Professor, Toronto University,

DeSola, Revd. H., Montreal,

Davies, W.H. A., Montreal,

Desbarats, Geo. Toronto.

Fletcher, E. T., Toronto,

Griffin, W. H., Toronto,

Henderson, W., St. Maurice,

Hamilton, P. S., Halifax, N. S.,

Killaly, the Honble H. H.

Kingston, G, T., Professor, Upper Canada College, Kingston,

Meredith, E. A., L, L. B. Toronto,

McDonald, the Honble. J. A. Kingston,

Russell, F. McManus.M.D.E.Toronto.

Roche, A. R., Toronto,

Reinwicke, Jas. New York,

Sewell, Wm, New York,

Sheppard, the Honble. W. Wendover, C. E.