Up or cells beneath the
rooms of the Literary and Historical Society, one of which, provided with
a solid new iron door, is set apart for the reception of the priceless
M.S.S. of the society. The oak flooring of the passages to the cells
exhibit many initials, telling a tale of more than one guilty life - of
remorse - let us hope, of repentance.
The narrow door in the wall and the iron balcony, over the chief entrance
leading formerly to the fatal drop which cut short the earthly career of
the assassin or burglar [51] was speedily removed when the directors of
the Morrin College in 1870 purchased the building from Government to
locate permanently the seat of learning due to the munificence of the late
Joseph Morrin, M.D.
The once familiar inscription above the prison door, the rendering of
which in English was a favourite amusement to many of the juniors of the
High School, or Seminary, on their way to class, that also has
disappeared:
"Carcer iste bonos a pravis vindicare possit!"
May this prison teach the wicked for the edification of the good."
The damp, vaulted cells in the basement, where the condemned felon in
silence awaited his doom, or the airy wards above, where the impecunious
debtor or the runaway sailor meditatively or riotously defied their
traditional enemies the constable and policeman, now echo the Hebrew,
Greek and Latin utterances of the Morrin College professors, and on
meeting nights the disquisitions before the Literary and Historical
Society, of lecturers on Canadian history, literature or art.
