Picturesque Quebec, By James Macpherson Le Moine










































































































































 -  De Ramesay and the other officers of
    the garrison following to their resting-place the lifeless remains of
    their illustrious - Page 28
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De Ramesay And The Other 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 sentiments 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 dilapidated roof of a sacred asylum, where the soil had been first laid bare by one of the rude engines of war - a bombshell. 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 de Ramesay 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.

"The skull of the Marquis of Montcalm, exhumed in the presence of the Rev. Abbe 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 Ursuline Convent."

SOCIETY UNDER EARLY ENGLISH RULE.

Under the sway of the English Government, Canada soon recovered her wonted gaiety, and the social condition of the country, following on so large an admixture of a different nationality, is a subject stimulating inquiry. We cannot do better than have recourse again to Mr. Reade's graphic pen in an article on "British Canada in the Last Century," contributed to the New Dominion Monthly, and suggested by the Quebec Gazette of 1783, the St. Louis Street journal above quoted: -

"If there were nothing left to the enquirer but the single advertisement of John Baird, which appeared in the first number of the Quebec Gazette, as the basis of information, he might, with a moderate power of inductiveness, construct a very fair account of the mode of living pursued at Quebec a hundred years ago. But the fact is he is overwhelmed with data, and his chief difficulty is to choose with discrimination. There is certainly ample evidence to show that the inhabitants of the ancient capital did not stint themselves in the luxuries of their day and generation. The amount of wine which they consumed was something enormous, nor are we wanting in proof that it was used among the better classes to an extent which public opinion would not allow at the present day. A correspondent, more inclined to sobriety than his fellow citizens, after complimenting Quebec society for its politeness and hospitality - in which qualities it still excels - finds fault with the social custom by which 'men are excited and provoked by healths and rounds of toasts to fuddle themselves in as indecent a manner as if they were in a tavern or in the most unpolished company.' In connection with this state of affairs it may be interesting to give the prices of different wines at that period: Fine Old Red Port was sold at 17 shillings a dozen, Claret at 12s., Priniac at 17s.; Muscat at 24s., Modena at 27s., Malaga at 17s.; Lisbon at 17s.; Fyall at 15s.

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