These
Were Doubtless The "Mounts" Of The Brilliant Staff Of The Marquis De
Tracy, Viceroy.
These dashing military followers of Colonel de Salieres,
this jeunesse doree of the Marquis de Tracy, mounted on these twelve
French chargers, which the aborigines named "the moose-deer (orignaux)
of Europe," doubtless cut a great figure at Quebec.
Did there exist
Tandems, driving clubs, in 1665? Quien sabe? A garrison life in 1665-7
and its amusements must have been much what it was one century later, when
the "divine" Emily Montague [14] was corresponding with her dear "Colonel
Rivers," from her Sillery abode in 1766; she then, amongst the vehicles in
use, mentions, caleches. [15]
They were not all saints such as Paul Dupuy, [16] the patriarchal seigneur
of Ile-aux-Oies, these military swells of Colonel de Salieres! Major
Lafradiere, for instance, might have vied with the most outrageous rake in
the Guards of Queen Victoria who served in the colony two centuries
later.
If there were at Quebec twelve horses for the use of gentlemen, they were
doubtless not suffered to remain idle in their stables. The rugged paths
of the upper town were levelled and widened; the public highway ceased to
be reserved for pedestrians only. This is what we wanted to arrive at.
In reality, the streets of Quebec grew rapidly into importance in 1665.
Improvements effected during the administration of the Chevalier de
Montmagny had been highly appreciated. The early French had their Saint
Louis (Grande Allee), Saint Anne, Richelieu, D'Aiguillon, Saint John,
streets, to do honour to their Master, Louis XIII.; his Queen the
beautiful Anne of Austria; his astute Premier the Cardinal of Richelieu;
his pious niece la Duchesse D'Aiguillon; his land surveyor and engineer
Jehan or Jean Bourdon. This last functionary had landed at Quebec on the
8th August, 1634, with a Norman priest, the Abbe Jean LeSueur de Saint-
Sauveur, who left his surname (St. Sauveur) to the populous municipality
adjoining St. Roch suburbs. [17]
In the last and in the present century, St. Louis Street was inhabited by
many eminent persons. Chief Justice Sewell resided in the stately old
mansion, up to June 1881 occupied as the Lieutenant-Governor's offices;
this eminent jurist died in 1839. "One bright, frosty evening of January
1832," says Mr. Chauveau, "at the close of a numerously attended public
meeting held at the Ottawa Hotel, to protest against the arrest of Messrs.
Tracy, editor of the Vindicator, and Duvernay, editor of the Minerve,
the good citizens of Quebec, usually so pacific, rushed in a noisy
procession, led by a dozen students wearing tri-coloured ribbons in their
button-holes, and sang the Marseillaise and the Parisienne under the
windows of the Chief Justice, whose ear was little accustomed to such a
concert." The ermined sage, 'tis said, was so startled, that he made sure
a revolution was breaking out.
"Among the fiery, youthful leaders, the loudest in their patriotic
outburst, there was one who would then have been much surprised had any
one predicted that after being President of the Legislative Council, Prime
Minister of the Canadas, and knighted by H. R. H. the Prince of Wales in
person, he would one day, as Lieutenant-Governor, enter in state this same
former residence of Chief Justice Sewell, whilst the cannon of Britain
would roar a welcome, the flag of England stream over his head, and a
British regiment present arms to him." Such, however, has been the fate of
Sir Narcissus Fortunatus Belleau.
The mansion of M. de Lotbiniere, in St. Louis street, was the residence of
Madame Pean, the chere amie of M. Bigot the Intendant. The late
Judge Elmsley resided there about the year 1813; Government subsequently
purchased it to serve as an officers' barracks. Nearly opposite the old
Court-House (burned in 1872), stands the "Kent House," in which His Royal
Highness the late Duke of Kent resided in summer, 1791-3. [18] No. 42 St.
Louis Street is the house [19] which belonged to the cooper, Francois
Gobert; it now has become historical. In it were deposited the remains of
General Montgomery on the 31st December, 1775. This summer it is leased by
Louis Gonzague Baillarge, Esq., the proprietor, to Widow Pigott, whose
late husband was in the "B" Battery.
In the street sacred to Louis XIII., St. Louis street, Messrs. Brown [20]
& Gilmor established, in 1764, [21] their printing office for the Quebec
Gazette, "two doors higher up than the Secretary's Office," wherever this
latter may have stood. The Gazette office was subsequently removed to
Parloir Street, and eventually settled down for many a long year at the
corner of Mountain Hill, half-way up, facing Break-Neck steps, - the
house was, with many others, removed in 1850 to widen Mountain Street.
According to a tradition published in the Gazette of the 2nd May, 1848,
the prospectus of this paper had, it would appear, been printed in the
printing office of Benjamin Franklin.
This venerable sheet, which had existed one hundred and ten years, when it
was merged, in 1874, by purchase of the copyright, into the Morning
Chronicle, in its early days, was nearly the sole exponent of the wants -
of the gossip (in prose and in verse) - and of the daily events of Quebec.
As such, though, from the standard of to-day, it may seem quaint and puny,
still it does not appear an untruthful mirror of social life in the
ancient capital. Its centenary number of June, 1864, with the fyles of
the Gazette for 1783, have furnished the scholarly author of the
"Prophecy of Merlin," John S. Reade, with material for an excellent sketch
of this pioneer of Canadian journalism, of which our space will permit us
to give but some short extracts: -
"The first number of the Quebec Gazette, judged by the fac-simile
before me, was a very unpretending production. It consists of four
folio pages, two columns to each page, with the exception of the
'Printer's Address to the Public,' which takes up the full width of
the page, and is written in French and English, the matter in both
languages being the same, with the exception of a Masonic
advertisement, which is in English only.
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