The Emotions Which I Feel Are Of A Dual Nature, That Of Friendship And Of Patriotism, And, As Friendship Is Nearer To The Heart, So I Gave That Feeling The First Place.

The speaker here referred to his collegiate days in the Seminary of Quebec, where he met Mr. Frechette, and in preparing himself for the battle of life, had won the friendship of the Canadian poet.

He alluded to Mr. Frechette's first efforts in verse, and had judged his early attempts, and in referring to his (the Judge's) own literary works at the time, the speaker said that the line of Boileau might be applied to him,

"'Pour lui, Phoebus est sourd et Pegase est retif.'

"At that time, Mr. Frechette had not reached the heights of Helicon, nor attained the regions wherein the 'Boreal Flowers' are gathered and the 'Snow Birds' fly, but the little flowers he gathered in more modest fields had around them the perfume of genuine poetry, and the emerald, ruby and topaz of art already shone in the dainty plumage of his summer birds. Mr. Frechette published in a small journal in manuscript, called L'Echo, of which Judge Taschereau was then editor in the Seminary, the first efforts of his muse. This souvenir of the past is now very precious to me, said the speaker, because it enables me to state that I was the first editor of our poet's works. Judge Taschereau further alluded to the time when, with Mr. Frechette, he studied law, that dry study, and though the poet was thus devoted to the goddess Themis, he nevertheless found time to worship at the shrine of song.

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