IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 !ri^ i^ I.I 1^ 1^ 111112.0 22 1.8 1.25 1.4 |,.6 4 6" ► V] *«M^ •rUK; f QCEBIC GASEISOS GLOB ST. LOUfS >TriEET AND m^ STORIED PAST. XXXXXXXXXXXXKXXXXXXXXXXX\ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx tjummjmmaMsrM-»rmitm»jnamKmMmmuu-mK^mam^ ISpiiMi -..»•■ /^t^-'//7^i Y^^t QUEBEC MRISON CLUB Established lith September, 1879* ST. LODIS STREET AND ITS STORIED PAST. A Christmas Sketch specially printed by the Club for its Guests. Quebec: MoRNixo Chroniclk " Stkam Printing Establishment. 1891. • ^'■' .J /97/ 16th NOVEMBER, 1890. PATRON. His Excellency) Lord Stanlry op PBKSTOir> Governor General of Canada. MONOF^AFtY MEMBERS. Hifl Honor the Honble. A. R. Akorrs, Lt.-Governor of the Provincd of Quebec. Hon. Sir A. P. Carox, Minister of Militia. Major General Ivor C. J. Hkrbkrti C.B., Cummandingr Militia of Canadn. Colonel Walkrk Powell, Adjt. General. PRESIDENT. Lt-Oolonel T. J. DucHCSNAr. D A.G., Commanding 7th Military District. V!CE PRESIDENT. Lt-Colonel J. Bkll ForsttH) Commanding '' Queen's Own Canadian Hussars. SECRETARY TREASURER. Lt-Colonel Arthur Evanturel, 9th Battalion, " Voltigeurs del Quebec/' COMMITTEE. Lt-Colonel li. P. Vohl, (Retired List). Lt-Colonel J. P. Turnbull, Comdt. RoVal School of Cavalry. Lt-Colonel C. E. Montizambkrt, Conidt Royal S< A. &: Asst. Insp. of Artillery. Lt-Colonel G. Amtot, Commanding 9th Battaliom, " Volti- geure de Quebec." Lt-Colonel Thoq. Roy, 9th Battalion, '• Voltigeurs de Quebec." Lt-ColonelJ. E> PROWBR,Commanding^h Battalion, " Royal Rifles.*' Major Crawford Lindsay, Commanding Quebec Field Battery^ Major J. F. Wilson, Commanding " B '^ Battery, R, C. A. Capt. Ed. Montizamrkrt. Hh Royal Rifles. Capt. £. H. T. Heward, Royal School of Cavalry. Dr. Hy. Russell, Surgeon, Q. 0. C. H. AUDITORS. Capt. Arthur Awkr^T. Capt. L. F, Pinault, 9th Batt, V. Q. yco 96 The projected Quebec Oarrison Club Building. ** This handsome structure was a part of the original Duf* ferin improveinonts, and great praise is due to our Deputy- Commissioner of Crown Lands, E. E. Tach^, Esq., for the trouble he has taken in drafting these beautiful plans, so as to presence the old original building entire, while at the same time, by adding the additional story, towers, entrance hall, and wing, he gives us the toot ensemble of a Norman Regal chateau of the last century. The early history of the R. E. office in Quebec is inter- woven not a little with our old system previous to Respon- sible Government, when the commanding officer of Royal Engineers was a most important personage, and second only in authority to the Governor-General himself, who was also a military officer and commander-in-chief. Vn those days, before the Crown Lands were vested in the Provincial Gov- ernment, the C. R. E. sat at the land -board, in order to re« tain reserves for the Crown, or for military purposes, and in other ways to advise the Governor -General in such matters ; but unfortunately all the old and interesting records of that period were removed with the head-quarters under Sir John Oldfield, R.E., to Montreal in 1839 and destroyed in the great fire in 1852. At a very early date after the conquest the R. E. office Was located in a wing of the Parliament House, near Prescott Gate, and also in the old Chdteau St. Louis ; but upon the purchase of the present building, with the land attached, at the foot of the Citadel hill, from Archibald Ferguson, Esq., on the 5th July, 1819, removed thither, and there remained as the C. R. E. quarters until the withdrawal of the troops a few years ago, in accordance with the change of policy in Kngland, in regard to the Colonies, requiring Colonel Hamil- ton, R. E. , the last Imperial Commandant of this garrison in 1871, to hand it over to the care of the Canadian Militia, whose pride it ever will be to preserve and perpetuate the memories of the army of worthies and statesmen who have sat and worked within its walls." — {Morning Chronicle, Christmas Supplement, 1881,) then blindfolded and made to kneel between two men. one of whom held a pistol to his ear, the other pointing a poniard to his heart. The form of oath was then read. The candidate swore to keep secret the proceedings of the Patriotes, in the approaching rising, con- senting to have his throat cut if he failed. The bandage was then removed and the oath signed. (For further partio Uars, see p. 252-3 of '* Picturesque Quebec.") ful, according to some rabid toriee of that period, lesArnjlais were all to be " shot, piked or hamstrung !" Life in the casemates and on the hog's back was not, however, always perilous, precarious, uncertain. Times were, when returning from the Satui day tandem drive, in winter, from Billy Button's noted rustic hostelry, at Lorette, the absorbing topic at mess, was a projected garrison ball on the citadel, or a moose or cariboo hunt on the Laurentian ridge, north of Quebec, or at Les Jardins in rear of Baie SL Paul, under the guidance of Vincent, Gros Louis, Tahourenche or Tsioiii, the infatigable Huron Nimrods of Indian Lorette. There were also for the petted red coats and the city belles, days of tears or of joy, when the regiments on their removal to other garrisons, claimed or forgot to claim some of the Quebec or Montreal fair ones as their not unwilling brides. As we hurry past, let us glance, on the gorge of the west bastion on the ascent, at the spot, where rested from the 4th January, 1776, to the 16th June, 1818, the remains of the rash Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, until their removal to St. Paul's Church, New York, at the request of Jane Liv^ ingstone, his sorrowing widow who had a suitable monument erected to his memory. Let us hail as we pass the Garrison Club, founded on the 11th September, 1879, the shades of all those eminent Royal Engineer officers, who, of yore, vied with one another in devising plans to make our fortalice impregn^ able, GotherMann, Twiss, Bruyeres, Durnford. Duberger, By, the founder of Bytown, now Ottawa. In this long, low building, for years the head-quarters of the Royal Engineers, the Quebec Garrison Club now holds forth ; adjoining, en- shrined in garden plots and shade trees, still stands the old Sewell manor, built by Chief Justice Jonathan Sewell, in 1804, where this eminent jurist and ripe scholar closed his long and distinguished career, on the 12th November, 1839. The chronicles of his famous old mansion, now the quarters of our Dominion School of Cavalry, would, alone, fill a volume. At the corner of d'Auteuil and St. Louis streets, on a lot owned, in 1791, by the Chief Justice's father-in-law. Hon. Wm. Smith, an eminent U. E. Loyalist and our Chief Justice in 1786, a double modern residence now stands. It was oc- cupied, in 1860, by our Governor 'General, Lord Monck. Div- I. " LL.H [ ided since into two tenements, it is owned and tenanted by Judge G. N. Bo8s6 and by Judg^t A. B. Routhier, F.R.S.C. At the next house, resided and died on the 17th December, 1847, the Hon. W. Smith, son of the Chief Justice and the author of Smith's History of Canada^ the first volume of which was published at Quebec, in 1815. In 1812-3 the American prisoners taken at Detroit, &c., occupied for a time this tenement. For years, it was the cosy mansion of the late Sheriff AUeyn. We have just walked past a wide expanse of verdure, fringed with graceful maples and elms — sacred to military evolutions — the Esplanade, — extending from St. Louis to St. John's Gate, facing the green slope, crowned by the city fortifications. On our left, you can notice a low, old rookery. One hundred years ago it sheltered a brave U. E. Loyalist family — the Coffins ; it was since purchased by the City Council. In this penurious, squeezed up local, the Recorder daily holds his Court. Next to it, with a modem cut stone front occurs our modest City Hall, acquired from the heirs Dunn, at present quite inadequate to municipal requirements. On one corner, opposite, dwells the Hon. P. Pelletier, Senator ; on the other, Sir H. L. Langevin,— for years one of our leadinpj statesmen . Within a stone's throw up St. Ursule street, still exists the massive, spacious man- sion of the late Sir James Stuart, Bart. This eminent jurist closed here his career in 1853. The house was afterward bought by his nephew, the late Judge of Vice-Admiralty. George Okill Stuart, who expired in it, in April, 1884. One would imagine the street was predestined to be the head-quarters of our ermined sages, ever since the Court of La Senechaussee sat about 1660, at the eastern end in a state- ly building, since removed. On, or near, the site now stands the dwelling and study of James Dunbar, Q. C. Let us try and name some of these eminent gentlemen of the long robe : Judges Lotbini^re, Mabane, Dunn, Elmsley, Sewell, Rene Edouard Caron, (subsequently a respected Lieutenant-Gov- ernor), Van Felson, Jos. N. Boss^, Tessier, Bonaventure Caron, Guillaume Bo8s6, Routhier, Duval, Taschereau, Fiaet, Maguire, Cr^mazie, Chauveau, with candidates for the Bench at every second door. Some barristers have held 10 m out in that street for more than a half century. Sir N. F. Belleau occupies still the house he acquired in 1835. One land mark of our Republican neiglibora will some day or other disappear, couper Gobert's little shop, where was laid out on Sunday, 31st December, 1775; Kichard Mont- gomery's stiflFened remains brought in from Pr^s-de-Ville. There stands solitary, half-lit up by the departing orb of day, a spacious, old, not very ornate edifice familiar to you. In rear is seen from the street the lofty, solid wall of historic Mount Carmel. Judge Geo. J. Irvine's dainty gardan bowers, and some Lombardy poplars, occupy the the place where of yore was erected Dupont de Neuville's wind-mill and cavalier. No trace now of the frowning three-gun bittery, in position in October, 1690 — a portion of the city defences against Admiral Phips. On this site a deal of stirring and some social incidents of Canadian history were enacted. Here was the mansion, where on 4th February, 1667, Judge L. Th^antre Chartier de Lotbini^re, Lieutenant-General of the French King, gave the first grand ball in New France — possibly in North America. Watch the magnificent Marquis of Tracy, intro- ducing to the distinguished host, his gorgeously habited young guardsmen— sprigs of the French nobility ; — he is followed by Governor de Courcelles — Intendant Talon and other dignitaries. Such a novelty as a grand ball — among la creme de la crime of society at Quebec — did not pass un- heeded ; a pious ecclesiastic wrote an account of it to France, expressing, hesitaintly, the hope that no evil results might follow ! Nearly a century later, stood here the head-quarters of Brigader-General James Murray — the Commandant at Quebec. Old memoirs tell how rudely our first Governor's sleep was interrupted on the night of the 26th April, 1760, by the officer of the watch, admitting to his presence, the half-frozen French cannonier, whom Capt. McCartney, of the sloop-of-war ** Race Horse," had had rescued that night from the ice floes carried by the tide past Quebec. British troopers conveyed him up Mountain Hill to vSt. Louis street on a *• sailor's hammock," to General Murray's head-quarters. The ill-fated sergeant before expiring had just, on swallow- ' f-'mm^i: 11 I ing cordials, recovered enough strength to tell defiantly — one may suppose — the alarn\ing tidings of the presence of Levi's 12,000 men at St. Augustin, on their march to Que- bec. Sleep did not revisit the astounded warrior that night. Orders were promptly issued for a large body of troops to go at break of day and gather in Murray's detachments at the outposts, at Sillery, Ste. Foye, Ancient Lorette, &c. This was not, however, the only exciting experience the stern General was doomed to encounter, at Quebec. On the 9th May, 1760, writes Sergeant James Thomp- son, one of Murray's stalwart troopers. General Murray was startled by the news of the appearance round Pointe Levi, of a ship-of-war, the " Leostoflf,' a fresh arrival from sea, " seen tacking across and across between Pointe Levi and the op- posite shore. " Was she English or French ? As yet she had showed no colors. Was she a friend from the white cliffs or old England, or a foe from Brest or L'Orient ? Hope and relief or defeat and surrender ? The news he says, *' electrified" the General, who was at that moment *' in a meditative mood, sitting before the fire in the chimney place." All uncertainty ceased when the '' Leostoff " hoisted the meteor flac of England, in re- sponse to the English colors, ordered by Murray to be dis- played from the Citadel. The whole city guns roared out a salute ; on the 16th, the arrival in port of the " Vanguard ' and the " Diana, "other frigates, meant that the old regime was closed for ever. The French legions, expecting an immediate attack on their trenches, took to flight, leaving their breakfast still cooking in camp. This solid edifice, the bright home of Judge Elmsley at the dawn of the century, was subsequently acquired by the Ordance Department, as an officers barracks for one of the regiments of British troops stationed at Quebec, and has re- mained ever since as quarters to the Dominion staff of ofia- cers. t 1 It is now occupied by Lt.-Col. Forest, Lt-Col. Tasohereau, and other members of the Dominion Forces. 12 * I was here interrupted by my genial frienil. *' You have omitted one not unimportant episode. Here also, added Mr. Kirby, lived and flourished the beautiful Angeli" is a narrow path called ' le Petit Chemin,' running parallel, and leading into the forest. 'The house of Mde. de la Pel trie, the founder of the Convent, is described a» occupying, in 1642, the Corner of Garden Street. T'he Ursuline Convent stood at the north, wesf of Mde. de la Peltrie's house, abutting on " Le Petit Chemin," which ran parallel td St. Louis Street, and fronting towards Garden Street, It is re- presented as being a well proportioned and substantial building, two stories high, with an attic, four chimneys, and a cupola or belfry in the centre. The number of windows in front was eleven, fn other compartments of this interesting map, are seen La Mere de V Incarnation instructing the young Indian girls, under an ancient oak tree, and other nuns proceeding to visit the savages. In La Grande All^e, the present St. Louis Street, we see Mr. Daillelxiutthe Governor on horseoackj and Mde. de laPelrrie entering her house, oats at length drew near, and the lieutenant-general and his suite landed on the quay with a pomp such as Quebec had never seen be* fore. " Tracy was a veteran of sixty two years, portly and tall, * one of the largest men I ever saw,' writes Mother Mary. " The Chevalier de Chaumont walked by his side, and young nobles surrounded him, gorgeous in lace and ribbons and majestic in leonine wigs. Twenty-four guards in the King's livery led the way, followed by four pages and six va- let! ; and thus while the Frenchmen shouted and the Indians le y d It f » 17 stared, the august procession threaded the Streets of the Lower To>^ n, and climbed the steep pathway that scaled the cliffs above. Breathing hard, they reached the top, passed on the left the dilapidated walls of the fort and the shed of mingled wood and masonry which then bore the name of the castle of St. Louis, passed on the right the old house of Couil- lard and the site of Laval's new seminary, and scon reached the square between the Jesuit College and the Cathedral. The bells were ringing in a frenzy of welcome. Laval in pontificals, surrounded by priests and Jesuits, stood waiting to receive the Deputy of the King ; and as he greeted Tracy and offered him the holy water he looked with anxious cu- riosity to see what manner of man he was." Let me, in closing, point out the vanished splendor of the historic pile, which cost both France and England, fa- bulous sums, from 1620 to 1834, to keep it in repair. How many proud French Viceroys held here their quasi-regal court, to impress the surrounding savage tribes, with the idea of French power ? How many distinguished English noblemen succeeded them? Cham plain, de Montmagny, d'Aillebout, de Lauzon, d'Argenson, d'Avaugour, de Mesy, de Courcelle, de Vaudreuil, de la Galissonni^re, de Ramezay, de Beauharnois, de Longueuil, de la Jonqui^re, Duquesne ; General J. Murray, Sir Guy Carleton, Sir Fred. Haldimand, Lord Dorchester, General Prescott, Sir J. H. Craig, Sir George Prevost, Sir J, Coal Sherbrooke, Duke of Richmond, Earl of Dalhousie, Sir James Kempt, Earl of Aylmer. I am sure, my dear poet, you must have seen much in the antique chateau which the historian Farkrnan failed to discover. Professor Pierre Kalm described it in 1749 as follows : — " The Palace is situated on the west or steepest side of the mountain, just above the lower city. It is not properly a palace, but a large building of stone two stories high, extend- ing north and south. On the west side of it is a court-yard, surrounded partly with a wall, and partly with houses. On the east side, or towards the river, is a gallery as long as the whole building, and about two fathoms broad, paved with smooth flags, and included on the outside by iron rails, from whence the city and river exhibit a charming prospect. This 18 gallery serves as a very agreeable walk after dinner, and those who come to speak with the Governor-General wait here till he is at leisure. " The palace is the lodging of the Governor-General of Canada, and a number of soldiers mount the guard before it, both at the gate and at the court-yard ; and when the Gov- ernor or the Bishop comes in or goes out, they must all ap- pear in arms and beat the drum. The Governor-General has his own chapel, where he hears prayers ; however, he often goes to mass at the church of the Recolhts, which is very near the palace." You, Mr. Kirby, have found the secret of surrounding the historic pile, where so much of Canadian history was transacted, with a rare glamour of romance. Let me quote your own words : " The great hall of the Castle of St. Louis was palatial in its dimensions and adorn- ment. The panels of wainscoting upon the walls were hung with paintings of historic interest, portraits of the Kings, Governors, Intendants and Ministers of State, who had been instrumental in the colonization of New Fiance. "Over the Governor's seat hung a gorgeous escutcheon of the Royal arms, draped with a cluster of white flags, sprink- led with golden lilies, — the emblems of French Sovereignty in the colony. Among the portraits on the walls, beside those of the late (Louis XIV.) and present King (Louis XV.), which hung on each side of the throne, might be seen the features of Richelieu, who first organized the rude settle- ments on the St. Lawrence in a body politic, a reflex of feudal France ; and of Colbert, who made available its natural wealth and resources, by peopling it with the best scions of the Mother Land, — the noblesse and peasantry of Normandy, Brittany and Aquitaine. There, too, might be seen the keen, bold features of Cartier, the first discoverer, and of Champlain, the first explorer of the new land, and the founder of Quebec. The gallant, restless Louis Buade de Frontenac, was pictured there, side by side with his fair countess, called by reason of her surpassing loveliness ' The Divine.' Vaudreuil, too, who spent a long life of devotion to his country, and Beauharnois, who nourished its young strength until it was able to resist not only the powerful Si confederacy of the Five Nations, but the still more powerful league of New England and the other English colonie«. There, also, were seen the sharp, intellectual face of Laval, its first Bishop, who organized the Church and education in the colony ; and of Talon, wisest of Intendants, who devoted himself to the improvement of agriculture, the increase of trade, and the well-being of all the King's subjects in New France. And one more portrait was there, worthy to rank among the statesmen and rulers of New France, — the pale, calm, intellectual features of M^re Marie de I'lncarnation, — the first Superioress of the Ursulines of Quebec, who, in obedience to heavenly visions, as she believed, left France to found schools for the children of the new colonists, and who taught her own womanly graces to her own sex, who were destined to become the future mothers of New France." " Well said," my eloquent friend ! "I chimed in. Yoit seem to have left little to add anent the whilhom splendor of the old Chateau St. Louis. One thing yet remains to complete the ornamentation of the historic site on which it stood: A Monument to the immortal founder of Qlebec ; worthy of Cham plain, worthy of Quebec. To me it is a dream of my youth. May we both be spared to see it !" J. M. LeMoine. Spencer Grange, Christmas Eve, 1890.