Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present Part 2

Our streets and lanes bear witness to our dual origin: Champlain, Richelieu, Buade streets, by their names proclaim the veneration our fathers had for the memory of men who had watched over the infancy of the colony, whilst the mystic, saintly nomenclature of others exhibited the attachment of the early dwellers in Quebec to the hallowed old Roman faith which presided at their natal hour.

One also finds here and there, in the names of certain thoroughfares, traces of the sojourn within our walls of popular Governors, famous Viceroys, long since gathered to their fathers, some of whose ashes mingle in our cemeteries with the dust of our forefathers--[8] Champlain, Frontenac, Mesy, De Callieres, De Vaudreuil, De la Jonquiere, Ramsay, Carleton, Hope, Dalhousie, Richmond and Aylmer.

A student of history, in the signboards affixed to street corners, loves to light on the names of men whose memories are fragrant for deeds of heroism, devotedness, patriotism or learning. Breboeuf, Champlain, Dollard, Ferland, Garneau, Christie, Turgeon, Plessis, and many others of blameless and exemplary life--each has his street. We know of a worthy and learned old antiquary whose lore and advice has been more than once placed at our disposal in unravelling the tangled skein on which we are engaged, who rejoices that his native city, unlike some of the proud capitals of Europe, is free from vulgar names, such as "Tire-Boudin," "P--t--au D----le," in gay Paris, and "Crutched Friars," "Pall-Mall," and "Mary-le- bone," in great London.

In fact, does not history meet you at every turn? Every nook, every lane, every square, nay, even the stones and rocks, have a story to tell--a record to unfold--a tale to whisper of savage or civilized warfare--a memento to thrill the patriot--a legend of romance or of death--war, famine, fires, earthquakes, land and snow-slides, riot?

Is it not to be apprehended that in time the inmates of such a city might become saturated with the overpowering atmosphere of this romantic past-- fall a prey to an overweening love of old memories--become indifferent, and deadened to the feelings and requirements of the present? This does not necessarily follow. We are, nevertheless, inclined to believe that outward objects may act powerfully on one's inner nature: that the haunts and homes of men are not entirely foreign to the thoughts, pursuits and impulses, good or bad, of their inmates.

Active, cultured, bustling, progressive citizens, we would fain connect with streets and localities partaking of that character, just as we a.s.sociate cheerful abodes with sunshine, and repulsive dwellings with dank, perennial shadows.

Mr. N. Legendre, in a small work int.i.tuled "_Les echos de Quebec_," has graphically delineated the leading features of several of our thoroughfares:--

"In a large city each street has its peculiar feature. Such a street is sacred to commerce--a private residence in it would appear out of place. Such another is devoted to unpretending dwellings: the modest grocery shop of the corner looks conscious of being there on sufferance only. Here resides the well-to-do--the successful merchant; further, much further on, dwell the lowly--the poor. Between both points there exists a kind of neutral territory, uniting the habitations of both cla.s.ses. Some of the inmates, when calling, wear kid gloves, whilst others go visiting in their shirt sleeves. The same individual will even indulge in a cigar or light an ordinary clay pipe, according as his course is east or west. All this is so marked, so apparent, that it suffices to settle in your mind the street or ward to which an individual belongs. The ways of each street vary.

Here, in front of a well-polished door, stands a showy, emblazoned carriage, drawn by thoroughbreds; mark how subdued the tints of the livery are. There is, however, something _distingue_ about it, and people hurrying past a.s.sume a respectful bearing.

"In the next street, the carriage standing at the door is just as rich, but its panelling is more gaudy--more striking in colour are the horses--more glitter--more profusion about the silver harness mountings. Though the livery has more _eclat_, there seems to be less distance between the social status of the groom and that of his master.

"Walk on further--the private carriage has merged into the public conveyance; still further, and you find but the plain _caleche_.

"Finally, every kind of vehicle having disappeared, the house-doors are left ajar; the inmates like to fraternise in the street. On fine evenings the footpath gets strewed with chairs and benches, occupied by men smoking--women chatting _al fresco_ unreservedly--laughing that loud laugh which says, "I don't care who hears me." Pa.s.sers-by exchange a remark, children play at foot-ball, while the house-dog, exulting in the enjoyment of sweet liberty, gambols in the very midst of the happy crowd. These are good streets. One travels over them cheerfully and gaily. An atmosphere of rowdyism, theft, wantonness, hovers over some thoroughfares. Dread and disgust accompany him who saunters over them. Their gates and doorways seem dark--full of pit- falls. Iron shutters, thick doors with deep gashes, indicate the turbulent nature of their inhabitants. Rude men on the sidepaths stare you out of countenance, or make strange signs--a kind of occult telegraphy, which makes your flesh creep. To guard against an unseen foe, you take to the centre of the street--nasty and muddy though it should be,--for there you fancy yourself safe from the blow of a skull-cracker, hurled by an unseen hand on watch under a gateway. The police make themselves conspicuous here by their absence; 'tis a fit spot for midnight murder and robbery--unprovoked, unpunished. Honest tradesmen may reside here, but not from choice; they are bound to ignore street rows; lending a helping hand to a victim would cause them to receive, on the morrow, a notice to quit.

"Be on your guard, if necessity brings you, after nightfall, to this unhallowed ground. Danger hovers over, under, round your footsteps. If an urchin plays a trick on you at a street corner, heed him not. Try and catch him, he will disappear to return with a reinforcement of roughs, prepared to avenge his pretended wrongs by violence to your person and injury to your purse.

"Should a drunken man hustle you as he pa.s.ses, do not mind him: it may end in a scuffle, out of which you will emerge bruised and with rifled pockets.

"We dare not tell you to yield to fear, but be prudent. Though prudence may be akin to fear, you never more required all your wits about you. It is very unlikely you will ever select this road again, though it should be a short cut. Such are some of the dangerous streets in their main features. There are thoroughfares, on the other hand, to which fancy lends imaginary charms; the street in which you live, for instance. You think it better, more agreeable. Each object it contains becomes familiar, nay cherished by you--the houses, their doors, their gables. The very air seems more genial. A fellowship springs up between you and your threshold--your land. You get to believe they know you as you know them--softening influences--sweet emanations of 'Home.'"--_Translation._

_THE UPPER TOWN._

The Upper Town in 1608, with its grand oaks, its walnut trees, its majestic elms, when it formed part of the primeval forest, must have been a locality abounding in game. If Champlain, his brother-in-law, Boulle, as well as his other friends of the Lower Town, [9] had been less eager in hunting other inhabitants of the forest infinitely more dreaded (the Iroquois), instead of simply making mention of the foxes which prowled about the residency (_l'abitation_), they would have noted down some of the hunting raids which were probably made on the wooded declivities of Cape Diamond and in the thickets of the Coteau Sainte Genevieve, more especially when scurvy or the dearth of provisions rendered indispensable the use of fresh meats. We should have heard of grouse, woodc.o.c.k, hares, beavers, foxes, caribou, bears, &c., at that period, as the probable denizens of the mounts and valleys of ancient Stadacona.

In 1617 the chase had doubtless to give way to tillage of the soil, when the first resident of the Upper Town, the apothecary Louis Hebert, established his hearth and home there.

"He presently," (1617) says Abbe Ferland, "commenced to grub up and clear the ground on the site on which the Roman Catholic cathedral and the Seminary adjoining now stand, and that portion of the upper town which extends from St. Famille Street up to the Hotel-Dieu. He constructed a house and a mill near that part of St. Joseph Street where it received St. Francois and St. Xavier Streets. These edifices appear to have been the first which were erected in the locality now occupied by the upper town."

At that period there could have existed none other than narrow paths, irregular avenues following the sinuosities of the forest. In the course of time these narrow paths were levelled and widened. Champlain and Sir David Kirtk bothered themselves very little with improving highways.

Overseers of roads and _Grand-Voyers_ were not then dreamed of in _La Nouvelle France_: those blessed inst.i.tutions, macadamized [10] roads, date for us from 1841.

One of the first projects of Governor de Montmagny, after having fortified the place, was to prepare a plan for a city, to lay out, widen and straighten the streets, a.s.suredly not without need. Had he further extended this useful reform, our Munic.i.p.al Council to-day would have been spared a great amount of vexation, and the public in general much annoyance. On the 17th November, 1623, a roadway or ascent leading to the upper town had been effected, less dangerous than that which had previously existed.

"As late as 1682, as appears by an authentic record (_proces-verbal_) of the conflagration, this steep road was but fourteen feet wide. It was built of branches, covered with earth. Having been rendered unserviceable by the fire, the inhabitants had it widened six feet, as they had to travel three miles, after the conflagration, to enter the upper town by another hill."--(T. B. Bedard.)

In the summer season, our forefathers journeyed by water, generally in birch-bark canoes. In winter they had recourse to snow-shoes.

To what year can we fix the advent of wheeled vehicles? We have been unable to discover.

The first horse presented by the inhabitants to the Governor of the colony arrived from France on the 25th June, 1647. [11] Did His Excellency use him as a saddle horse only? or, on the occasion of a New Year's day, when he went to pay his respects to the Jesuit Fathers, and to the good ladies of the Ursulines, to present, with the compliments of the season, the usual New Year's gifts, was he driven in a _cariole_, and in the summer season in a _caleche_? Here, again, is a nut to crack for commentators.

[12]

Although there were horned cattle at Quebec in 1623, oxen for the purpose of ploughing the land were first used on the 27th April, 1628.

"Some animals--cows, sheep, swine, &c.--had been imported as early as 1608. In 1623, it is recorded that two thousand bundles of fodder were brought from the pasture grounds at _Cap Tourmente_ to Quebec for winter use."--(Miles.)

On the 16th of July, 1665, [13] a French ship brought twelve horses. 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 amus.e.m.e.nts 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 d.u.c.h.esse 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 munic.i.p.ality 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 b.u.t.ton-holes, and sang the _Ma.r.s.eillaise_ 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 s.p.a.ce 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 advertis.e.m.e.nt, which is in English only. In the address, accuracy, freedom and impartiality are promised in the conduct of the paper. The design of the publishers includes 'a view of foreign affairs and political transactions from which a judgment may be formed of the interests and connections of the several powers of Europe'; and care is to be taken 'to collect the transactions and occurrences of our mother-country, and to introduce every remarkable event, uncommon debates, extraordinary performance and interesting turn of affairs that shall be thought to merit the notice of the reader as matter of entertainment, or that can be of service to the publick as inhabitants of an English colony.' Attention is also to be given to the affairs of the American colonies and West India Islands; and, in the absence of foreign intelligence, the reader is to be presented with 'such originals, in prose and verse, as will please the fancy and instruct the judgment. And,' the address continues, 'here we beg leave to observe that we shall have nothing so much at heart as the support of virtue and morality and the n.o.ble cause of liberty. The refined amus.e.m.e.nts of literature and the pleasing veins of well-pointed wit shall also be considered as necessary to the collection; interspersed with other chosen pieces and curious essays extracted from the most celebrated authors; so that, blending philosophy with politicks, history, &c., the youth of both s.e.xes will be improved, and persons of all ranks agreeably and usefully entertained.'

"As an inducement to advertisers, it is held out that the circulation of the _Gazette_ will extend, not only through the British colonies, but also through the West India Islands and the trading ports of Great Britain and Ireland. The address very sensibly concludes with the following remarks, which, however, cast a shade over the rather tedious prolegomena: 'Our intention to please the whole, without offence to any individual, will be better evinced by our practice than by writing volumes on this subject. This one thing we beg may be believed, that party prejudice or private scandal will never find a place in this paper.'

"With this large promise began the first Canadian newspaper on the 21st of June, 1764.

"The news in the first number is all foreign. There are despatches from Riga, St. Petersburg, Rome, Hermanstadt, Dantzic, Vienna, Florence and Utrecht, the dates ranging from the 8th of March to the 11th of April. There are also items of news from New York, bearing date the 3rd, and from Philadelphia the 7th of May. News-collecting was then a slow process, by land as well as by sea.

"Of the despatches, the following is of historical importance: 'London, March 10th. It is said that a scheme of taxation of our American colonies has for some time been in agitation, that it had been previously debated in the Parliament whether they had power to lay a tax on colonies which had no representative in Parliament and determined in the affirmative,' etc. The occasional insertion of a dash instead of a name, or the wary mention of a 'certain great leader' or 'a certain great personage' tell a simple tale of the jealousy with which the press was then regarded both in England and on the continent. The prosecution of Smollett, Cave, Wilkes and others were still fresh in the minds of printers and writers.

"Another despatch informs the readers of the _Gazette_ of an _arret_ lately issued for the banishment of the Jesuits from France, and another of a deputation of journeymen silk weavers who waited on the King at St. James with a pet.i.tion setting forth their grievances from the clandestine importation of French silk, to which His Majesty graciously replied, promising to have the matter properly laid before Parliament.

"An extract from a letter from Virginia gives an account of some Indian outrages, and there is some other intelligence of a similar nature. The other news is of a like temporary interest.

"I have already mentioned a masonic advertis.e.m.e.nt. I now give it in full:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN,

That on _Sunday_, the 24th, being the Festival of _St. Jhon_ (sic), such strange BRETHREN who may have a desire of joining the Merchants Lodge, No. 1, _Quebec_, may obtain Liberty, by applying to _Miles Prenties_, at the Sun, in _St. John Street_, who has Tickets, Price _Five Shillings_, for that Day.