1700-1721

HALF A CENTURY OF PEACE AND PROGRESS

CIVIC SIDE LIGHTS

I.

THE LONG PEACE—THE TWO GOVERNORS—TAVERN LICENSES—PERMIT TO MARRY—CULTIVATION OF HEMP—FIRST ATTEMPT OF THE LACHINE CANAL BY THE SEIGNEURS—GEDEON DE CATALOGNE—CHAUSSEGROS DE LERY—"SEDITIOUS ASSEMBLIES"—CLAUDE DE RAMEZAY—WAR PRICES—LINEN AND CLOTH INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED—AN ORDINANCE AGAINST DIRTY STREETS—AGAINST PIGS IN THE HOUSES—MARKET REGULATIONS—THE USE OF THE COMMONS—SALE OF LIQUOR TO SAVAGES—THE SEIGNEURS AND THE HABITANTS—REGULATIONS CONCERNING TANNERS, SHOEMAKERS AND BUTCHERS—ENGLISH MERCHANDISE NOT TO BE TOLERATED AT MONTREAL—A MARKET FOR CANADIAN PRODUCTS DESIRED—CONCENTRATION IN THE EAST VERSUS EXPANSION IN THE WEST—CONGES—FAST DRIVING—ROAD MAKING—HORSE BREEDING RESTRAINED—PIGS TO BE MUZZLED—LIQUOR LICENSES OVERHAULED—SNOW-SHOEING TO BE CULTIVATED—DIVERSE NATIONAL ORIGINS—A MARBLE QUARRY—THE DEATH OF A RECLUSE—MURDERER BURNT IN EFFIGY—CARD MONEY—A "BOURSE" FOR THE MERCHANTS—PATENTS OF NOBILITY TO THE LEBER AND LE MOYNE FAMILIES—PARTRIDGE SHOOTING—A "CURE ALL" PATENT MEDICINE—POSTAL SERVICE—A PICTURE OF MONTREAL ABOUT 1721 BY CHARLEVOIX.

Having already recorded the treaty with the Indians in 1701, and the history of Queen Anne's war which terminated in the peace of Utrecht, we may now survey in several chapters the civil progress of Montreal from the beginning of the eighteenth century and during the long peace which lasted to the beginning of the final war with the English, which ended in the capitulation of Montreal in 1760.

M. Philippe de Rigaud Marquis de Vaudreuil, as governor of Montreal (1698-1703), early renewed some of the old trouble of infringing on the authority of the governor general, for in 1700, on May 5th, the king's minister wrote to Vaudreuil that His Majesty did not wish him to interfere directly or indirectly in the administration of justice, nor would the king pardon him for putting the inhabitants in prison without the orders of M. de CalliÈres. [165] Otherwise the ordinary administration of the town progressed. We have preserved the granting of a Montreal tavern license from May 5th to Pierre Billeron de Lafatigue and Marie Fortier, his wife, to sell and retail drinks, a pot et a pinte," and refreshments par assiette" (plate), with the injunction, "not to intoxicate the savages, and to make observed among them the regulations of our seigneurs of the council, with the prohibition of giving drink and food during the celebration of divine service or past 9 o'clock in the evening." License holders were to allow the police to inspect and they were to keep copies of these regulations posted in their inns. The civil, military and ecclesiastical hours of the day were told by the parish church clock, which had existed up to 1701; its remains were found in a lumber room in 1770. But about 1701, the superior of the seminary, M. de Belmont, brought from France the famous timepiece at the cost of 800 francs, about the value of the same number of dollars nowadays. In 1751 it got out of order for the first time but it was thoroughly renovated during Montgolfiers' rule of the seminary and it served faithfully as the only public clock till recent times. [166]

A permit to marry, granted by de CalliÈres to a soldier coming to the Montreal district, and dated from Quebec, January 7, 1702, gives us a glimpse of the military jurisdiction of the time. "We give permission to one named Poitevin, a soldier of the company of Longueuil, to espouse the daughter of Julien Blois of Long point. The civic seigneur will not make any difficulty in marrying them.

(Signed) Le Chevalier de CalliÈres."

At this time M. de Vaudreuil was thinking of building his chÂteau in Montreal, and on May 6th, the minister writes to the Intendant Champigny "that the King has granted 1,000 livres to help M. de Vaudreuil to build his home." On the same day he wrote to the latter telling him "that as the inhabitants of Montreal are too far from the sea to take up the fishery industry otherwise than by associating themselves with those of Quebec, he should urge his people to the cultivation of the soil and especially of hemp, which the Kingdom of France has to import from the northern countries." On the same day, the minister wrote to de Ramezay, [167] who had recently arrived, congratulating him on the good condition of the 300 recruits taken by him from France. M. de Ramezay at the same time was appointed, in the absence of de CalliÈres and de Vaudreuil, to the command of the whole extent of the colony, thus clearly designating him for future honours.

Montreal's destiny as the head of navigation was early forced upon the attention of the enterprising missionaries and traders who embarked from Montreal for the West. The rapids of the Sault St. Louis presented an initial difficulty, and eyes had long been cast on the possibility of avoiding them by constructing a canal, connecting the lac À loutre on the west side, by a channel, to the Lake St. Louis, so that canoes could start from the Little River St. Pierre, near Place Royale, and pursue their way inland and westward until they reached the Lake St. Louis. Thus, therefore, was evolved the first attempt at a Lachine Canal in 1700.

M. Ernest Marceau in 1906 gave the results of some of his investigations among the papers of the Sulpicians, for the history of the efforts of the seigneurs of Montreal to overcome the difficulties of the navigation between Lachine and Montreal. He relates these as follows: [168]

"A few years only had elapsed since the establishment of the French at Montreal, when the necessity for bettering the means of communication between the rising city and the settlements already existing at Lachine, Ste. Anne, etc., became apparent. The young colony was too poor, however, to think of building a canal with locks to overcome the very considerable fall in the nine miles of river from Pointe-À-CalliÈres to Lachine.

"The route followed by the canoes at the time was along the north shore of the St. Lawrence, but it was exceedingly dangerous, and many portages intervened between navigable stretches. Even in these so-called navigable stretches, towing had to be resorted to. A number of accidents had already happened, in which men and canoes had been lost. In the year 1700, the Superior of the Sulpicians, Mr. Dollier de Casson, [169] undertook to improve the Little River St. Pierre, and to make it navigable for canoes, from its mouth to Lake St. Pierre, a shallow body of water lying about half way between Montreal and Lachine (this lake has long disappeared, owing chiefly to the works done in connection with the Lachine Canal), and to open up a cut from the lake to a point on the St. Lawrence above the worst part of the rapids.

"A notarial contract was passed, between the contractor, GÉdÉon de Catalogne, [170] and Mr. Dollier de Casson, for the excavation of a canal twenty-four arpents, or about one mile, in length, twelve feet wide at the surface of the ground, and of varying width at the bottom, according to the depth of cutting. The water flowing through the canal was to be at least eighteen inches deep, at the period of lowest water in the St. Lawrence.

"The work was begun in October, 1700, and in February of the year following the contractor failed, after having performed the greater part of his contract, the whole of the cut being completed at the time, except for a depth of three or four feet on some 2,400 feet in length.

"The canal was excavated for about one-third of its length through clay mixed with boulders, the balance being through quarry rock.

"A settlement was made with the contractor in the Spring, the amount paid being 12,500 livres, which represents about $15,000 of our present currency.

"The work was left in this unfinished condition, notwithstanding the repeated attempts to push it to completion, the Sulpicians' revenues, which were very unimportant at that time, finding better use in other directions.

"In 1708, Louis XIV ordered plans and estimates of the work to be submitted to him, the undertaking having been recognized as devolving upon the royal authorities, but, owing to the conditions of affairs in France during the latter part of the reign, the scheme had to be again postponed.

"Almost every year after this, the Canal de la Chine is mentioned in the correspondence between the superiors of the Montreal house and the head of the Sulpician Order in Paris, as also in letters addressed to the Governors of the colony.

"In 1717, Mr. Chaussegros de LÉry, who had charge of all military and civil engineering works in Montreal, reported that three-fourths of the work was done. The Crown could not yet at the time give the necessary help to perfect the canal, but instructions were given not to abandon the idea.

"Again in 1733, the same engineer made a complete survey of the route and prepared fresh plans and estimates. The old line had evidently been abandoned, as the probable cost of the work is put down at 255,000 livres, or about $300,000. The new scheme contemplated a canal with locks. Unfortunately, no copy of the report of Mr. Chaussegros is on record in the documents referred to.

"From that date nothing can be found in the Seminary papers relating to the canal, which would seem to indicate that the work was never completed. It is quite likely, however, that the imperfect channel could be used by canoes during the periods of high water. Be that as it may, traces of it in the shape of a half-filled ditch, are still to be seen in a field near the Canadian Pacific Railway embankment at Rockfield."

In the year 1703, on May 26th, de CalliÈres died, and M. de Vaudreuil succeeded him on August 1st as governor general, while M. Claude de Ramezay replaced the latter as governor of Montreal, being appointed by the king as such in August. The minister, this same month recommended de Vaudreuil, Beauharnois and the Marquis d'Alogny to make use of his advice in regard to the police and the management of the troops.

In 1704 we hear of an ordinance of the Governor General de Vaudreuil, dated December 12th, being sent to Montreal to forbid seditious assemblies. It had been brought to his notice that there had been a large gathering of the inhabitants near Montreal for the purpose of obliging the merchants to furnish them salt and other merchandise at a lower price. But on the explanation of the Governor de Ramezay and the superior of the seminary, M. de Belmont, that there had been nothing seditious in the meeting which had been called simply to protest and to draw attention to their complaints, things went no further than the issue of the ordinance, although the "meeting" was still the subject of letters to France in 1705. In that year de Ramezay had been having his troubles with the authorities of Quebec. In a letter from the minister (Pontchartrain) the latter strongly disapproves of his conduct in heading a cabal against de Vaudreuil and Beauharnois, and of the impropriety of raising himself up as a reformer of the higher powers of the colony.

An insight into the hardships experienced at Montreal as a result of the wars with the English colonies, may now be presented. The vessel, La Seine, which was carrying to Canada provisions and merchandise of all kinds and the cargo of which was estimated at a million livres (tournois), left Rochelle in the summer of 1705 and was captured by a Virginian fleet in spite of the heroic resistance of the Chevalier de Maupeon. The vessel was seized and its passengers, among whom was Mgr. de St. Vallier, were taken as prisoners to England. Such and similar disasters made living conditions dear at Montreal and famine was frequent. A missionary of this period says that wearing apparel and houses were of an extraordinary price at Montreal. The innkeepers made their fortune in diluting the drink, especially that which they sold to the Indians, who drank all that they could get, in exchange for their peltry. "You have served me out of the savages' barrel," grumbled one of the workmen to the servant who had just given him some liquor.

The scarcity of clothing material, caused by the loss of La Seine, brought with it, however, an advantage to the colony. On the suggestion of the Intendant Raudot, the king's council permitted the inhabitants to make linen and druggets with the homemade yarn and worsted of the country. For hitherto France had insisted on the right of supplying Canada with its manufactured articles. It forbade home industries. Even the wool gathered on the St. Lawrence banks was shipped to France and returned in the form of a coarse cloth. All clothing therefore had been very expensive in the colony. Necessity became, therefore, the mother of invention and we thus find Madame de Repentigny, who had greatly contributed to the progress of this industry, writing in 1708: "There is at present a considerable quantity of handicrafts which work at making linen in Canada. Women and men work at them. The men have a taste for deerskin clothing, which costs them much less than the cloths from France; they nearly all wear it with homemade drugget surtouts over it." On his side M. Bigot wrote in 1714: "There are in Montreal as many as twenty-five looms for making linen and worsted goods. The Sisters of the Congregation have shown me the collender which they have made for their clothing, which latter is as fine as that made in France; there are also made here, materials of black for the clothes of the priests, and of blue for those of the 'pensionnaires.'"

How the ladies of Montreal were participating in the industrial progress of the city may be seen in the letters of the minister, the intendant and to Madame de Repentigny. In 1706 he writes to Intendant Raudot, asking for samples of the cloth which Madame had made from nettles and bark and which she says is better than that made from linen and hemp. On June 30, 1707, he writes to Madame de Repentigny that he has received the samples of cloth and the little tablets of cotton syrup; that he has noticed with pleasure what she has told him of the number of cloth workers in the Island of Montreal, but he finds the price of her cloth too high. [171] He is pleased to be informed of the sugar that is made in Montreal and of the blue earth that has been found by the Indians thirty leagues from Montreal. Another year, he records his pleasure at her discoveries of dye woods near Montreal and on July 7, 1711, he writes of his satisfaction at her zeal for the progress of the colony. On June 29th he writes that he will recommend her son for the post of ensign and encourages her to redouble her efforts for the increase of her manufactures.

A survey of the various ordonnances issued by the intendants of this period supplies much insight into the life of the city. During the months of June and July, 1706, Jacques Raudot was in Montreal. The ordonnances issued by him there are of valuable historical usefulness in providing an insight into conditions then prevailing. That dated June 22d concerns the streets, primarily. "Having learnt," it begins, "on arriving in this town the state of disorder in which the streets are, being almost impracticable at all seasons not only for foot passengers, but for carriage and cart traffic, and this on account of the mire which is found in the said streets, and which comes not so much from the bad nature and inequality of the land as from the filth which the inhabitants throw there daily, and being persuaded that this comes from not giving the streets the slope necessary for the flow of the drainage, not being able to do anything of more utility for the town than to remedy these disorders, and having conferred with Sieur de Bellemont (sic), superior of the seminary, Fleury Deschambault, lieutenant general, Raimbault, King's procurator of the department of Justice Royale of this town, we order that, hereafter, there shall be given the following slopes." Then follow the list of streets to be altered, directions for the remaking of the roads and footpaths, and the sharing of the expenses, the order for the observance of the new alignments, penalties for throwing rubbish into the streets, etc.

Then also follow penalties and confiscations for keeping pigs in the houses, and for allowing cattle to stray in the streets. The renewal of the prohibitions against unlicenced liquor houses is also made. It concludes with instructions for the establishment of a market on the place d'Armes to meet the needs of the growing town. The market days are to be on Tuesdays and Fridays, weekly. This is for the convenience of the country vendors, who are not to sell their produce elsewhere, in private stores, as formerly. In order to enable the inhabitants to purchase in the market and to prevent the hotel keepers and cabaretiers from buying up everything before the citizens were astir, Raudot enjoins, that the former shall not buy in the market before 8 o'clock in the morning under a penalty of 3 livres.

Another ordonnance of July 2d settles the disputes amongst themselves of the inhabitants as to the use of the commons of the island vis À vis their homes.

Another of the same date relieves the habitants of Notre-Dame des Neiges from an obnoxious clause in their concessions of land, granted by the seigneurs, by which these would be confiscated if they sold spirituous and intoxicating liquors to the savages. They represented that this clause was now useless, since the prohibitions had been made so severe by the king's ordonnances, they were not likely to do so, but they might falsely be accused and thus their lands might be in danger of confiscation. With the consent of Mr. CailhÉ, (Caille), who acted for the seigneurs, their petition was granted.

On the same day another order from Raudot straightened out the doubts of some habitants as to the meaning of clauses in their concessions, granting the seigneurs rights of claiming lumber. It was decided on the representation of M. CailhÉ that the seigneurs would be content with lumber rights on one arpent in every location of sixty arpents, never having meant to claim universal rights. They still, however, reserved all their rights to claim from the habitations all the wood that was necessary for their own buildings and for public works.

Again on the same day: "the Seigneurs are justified in demanding their rents and arrears from certain habitants holding concessions from them, who had claimed that their lands were not staked out." The seigneurs prevailed, representing that the dearth of landmarks was the fault of the land owners, who had to provide them and had failed to pay for them, rather than through any difficulty on the part of the seminary.

The growth of Montreal brought new settlers who wished to set up in business; in consequence, Jacques Raudot, in 1706, drew up an ordonnance on July 20th, limiting the number of tanners, shoemakers and butchers. "Seeing that the town of Montreal is daily growing in the number of inhabitants who come to establish themselves, and that the number of every kind of trade increases in proportion, while awaiting the pleasure of His Majesty in establishing a corps de mÉtier, we believe that it is fitting time for us to prescribe certain rules, particularly for the tanners and shoemakers, the observation of which, while being useful to the inhabitants, in that it will provide the workers themselves with emulation, while giving them the means of a livelihood, and of confining them to the special functions of their separate trades, we ordain:

"I. That there shall only be two tanners in the town, viz., Delaunay and Barsalot, so that they may both have work; the five butchers who are at present in business will share in equal portions both in number and in quality the skins of all the beasts slaughtered on their premises unless the said tanners prefer to make an arrangement among themselves to have the skins furnished to each by two butchers apiece whom they shall agree upon, and the fifth butcher to furnish his share every six months.

"II. That the said tanners shall be obliged to give the said skins all the necessary and required dressings, so that the public may have good merchandise, and this under penalty of 3 livres for each hide not found, on our prescribed visits, to conform to the quality demanded by our present ordonnance.

"III. We forbid the said butchers to retain any skins and make French shoes, under a penalty of 3 livres for each skin retained, but we permit them to retain some of an inferior quality to make shoes for the savages.

"IV. We forbid them to purchase skins from those coming in from the country, whom we order to take their goods to the market set up in this town, where they shall be exposed for sale for tanners only.

"V. While awaiting an opportunity to make regulations, to confine each to his allotted trade, we permit Delaunay, in consideration of the business set up by him, to have only three garÇons shoemakers and one apprentice, etc."

On the 28th of the same month Raudot ordered thirteen who had rented lots from the seigneurs on "lower" street, either to pay their rent or to hand them over by a certain date to the seigneurs on the reimbursement of the expenses for the buildings thereon and other improvements, the value of the same to be settled by experts mutually agreed upon.

The students of mercantile economy will find that on November 11, 1707, the Intendants Raudot (pÈre et fils), writing to the Minister Pontchartrain, speak of the sad state of the country produced by the low price of the beaver, but still more by the loss of 50 per cent on the money given in France for the Canadian letter of exchange. In 1709 M. de Pontchartrain is surprised to hear that Montreal is filled with English merchandise—a thing not to be tolerated. This was not surprising, seeing that the Canadians were not producers, and the purchase of all their supplies from France became very expensive. A memoir of Raudot of July, 1708, gives an explanation that suffices. Too much reliance had been placed on the beaver trade which had been the pivotal point of the prosperity of the country, but it was necessarily a precarious resource. Sooner or later, there must result either a rarity of this product or a decrease in price. At present the colony was suffering from the latter. Agriculture, he pointed out, should be the principal object, but it was only an accessory. The beaver had been the gold mine of the country. The inhabitants had sought the woods first, preferring an adventurous and profitable life to a laborious one on the soil. Thus they had cultivated laziness and negligence. There was, however, a great quantity of cattle and easy food supplies, but a great scarcity of clothing. The trade of the country turned on a sum of 600,000 livres and it was with this sum that it had to settle for its purchases in France. This is too little for a population of eighteen to twenty thousand souls. Everyone pays in kind for the merchandise bought in France, in such a way that money does not even come this way. Merchandise is very dear and the habitant will not work except for a fat salary, saying that he uses up more wearing apparel in working than he can gain by his work. The remedy for this state of affairs is, to urge the population to the production of wheat, cattle, timber, oils, ships, by finding a market for Canadian products. He further deprecates the policy then in vogue of thinking too much of the trade interests of France. He urges the minister to be wide-minded, and to realize that by providing a wider field for the colony, the interest and prosperity of the colony ought sooner or later increase the prosperity of the mother country.

If France had learned this lesson of colonization, there would never have been the loss of this country to the English a half century later. The pupildom of New France was continued far too long by an overstrained, narrow and jealous paternalism.

We have made these lengthy notes on the trade relations of the colony because Montreal was the center of the beaver traffic. Indeed, as we have seen, there were not wanting those who were opposed to the expansion of the colony through outlying posts, but wished to concentrate in the lower part of the colony—the same principle already prevailing, which was to stand in the way of the growth and development of Ontario and Upper Canada in later years under the British rule.

A memoir presented to M. de Pontchartrain in 1710 makes this position clear, while the replies in the margin by M. de Vaudreuil, the governor, and MM. Raudot (father and son), joint-intendants, show the opposite view. The memoir hopes that the congÉs or permits to trade up-country will not be repeated; they have been the source of all the evils, lawlessness and pernicious traffic in eau de vie and of the stagnation of agriculture, contrary to the aim of this colony, which was to humanize and evangelize the savages. This suppression of congÉs would have the effect of raising the value of beaver skins, whose present abundance cheapens the market at this time. It would be of more avail to allow the Indians to bring their poultry to Montreal in exchange for merchandise, for the expense of transporting merchandise to them in the West raised the price so much that the Indians were constrained to go to the English for their supplies. The English did not allow their people to trade far afield. It was because M. de La Barre had not followed a similar policy that the French had had a war of fourteen years with the Iroquois.

The Marquis' reply was to the effect that it was the abuse of the congÉs, too frequently granted, and not their moderate use that was at fault. Rightly exploited and curtailed, they would favor the conversion of the Indians, the increase of the colony and the preservation of peace. The chief thing was to stop the liquor traffic. As for the savages going to the English, three or four hundred leagues, for cheaper merchandise, that was unreasonable if the goods were taken to them. But if they were not, and the choice lay between Montreal and Orange, then they would certainly choose the latter place because of cheaper prices. The fourteen years' war was not a result of the congÉs, but of M. de La Barre's action in allowing the Iroquois to pillage the French. It is true that the English do not mingle with the affairs of the Indians, but prefer to allow them to destroy one another; thus they are not loved and have no influence. Our policy is otherwise, and hence our strength. We maintain the peace of the whole West. If Michillimackinac had been reestablished, the "sauteux" would not have attacked the Pottawatomies, or attempted to cut the ears of the Iroquois—a failure which may still lead us to war again. What restrains the Iroquois from striking a blow at any of the savage tribes is, that they know, that by our efforts they will not have the opportunity of destroying these nations one after another, as they did formerly, but that they will have all of them on their back, at one and the same time.

A picture of a Sunday morning or feast day crush at the church door after service is to be found in an ordonnance of Jacques Raudot of January 21, 1708, when on account of the disorders arising, from those habitants with carriages and those on horseback, urging their horses to depart so quickly that they butt into one another and even into the foot passengers, to the risk of wounds and even of life, he enjoins under a penalty of 10 livres, applicable to the local parish church, that none should put their horses into a trot or a gallop until they are ten arpents from the church. This notice was fixed at the door of Notre Dame. It is to be hoped the curÉ had no occasion to look for any fines, after it had been sufficiently promulgated.

Road traveling in 1709 was no easy thing at all times, but in the winter least of all. [172] Yet it was necessary to keep up communication between Montreal and Quebec, so we can appreciate the wisdom of Jacques Raudot's ordonnance of December 13th of this year, enjoining all the habitants of the country in the districts north of the St. Lawrence to cut out, each one, before his habitation, a roadway in the places most convenient, as well as to make a roadway across the lake in the accustomed places. [173]

In 1709 we find Raudot dealing a blow at horse breeding. In an ordonnance of June 13, 1709, being informed that the habitants of the government of Montreal are rearing too great a number of horses to the detriment of horned and wool bearing cattle, whose pastures are eaten by the horses and whose number was decreasing, and as the attention of the government ought to be principally directed to their increasing abundance, it is ordered that each inhabitant shall not have more than two horses, or mares, and a colt, after the seeding time of the year 1710, to give time to get rid of the superfluous ones; after which they will be obliged to slaughter those not disposed of.

Pigs straying in the streets, in 1710, brought an ordonnance from Raudot of June 29th; they had been the cause not only of filth, but of sanitary disorders and infection, and owners were given five days to enclose them, otherwise the pig were to be permitted to be killed and the proceeds to go to the poor of the HÔtel-Dieu. On the 4th of August, Raudot enjoined on all the owners of pigs in the colony to put muzzles on them so that those found doing damage to grain or field produce, without their muzzles on, could be killed for recompense.

The licencing permits of Montreal were overhauled by Antoine Denis Raudot, conjoint intendant, during his stay in Montreal in June, 1710, when by an ordonnance dated June 23d, having found that there were many selling liquors without permission of the local government, he ordered that there should only be ten licenced "cabaretiers-aubergistes," who shall sell all kinds of drink to the French, but not after 9 o'clock in the evening, and never to the Indians, under penalty of losing their licences.

In addition, he licenced nine other innkeepers, to sell beer only, and then in moderation, to the Indians, three for those of the St. Louis district, two for that of Sault-au-RÉcollet, two for the NepissinguÉs, and two others for the Abenakis, Ottowans and other savages, who came to the town to trade. Those with this beer licence had to refuse liquor to the Indians after the retraite battue, and never to let them take drink away with them; while they were obliged to give lodging to the savages if they wanted to stay. This second set of licence holders, however, had the privilege of selling any kind of drink to the French. We can imagine that these latter outlying saloons were in danger of being disorderly. Yet the number of illicit "houses" increased so that in 1726 Claude Thomas Dupuy issued an ordonnance, dated November 22d, which affected Montreal as well as other cities in the regulation of the sale of liquors. By this new order, which contained fourteen articles on the subject of innkeepers and liquor sellers of all kinds, from the fashionable hÔtel of the time to the humbler vendor of wine who had his piece of evergreen bush outside his door—a bundle of pine sprigs, maybe, to show that drink was served inside. Even all those who had been given licences previously by local authorities were now to send in their titles and credentials before receiving in return a new licence expressly signed by the intendant himself. It was a necessary measure borne in upon him by many officers of troops, masters and fathers of families, who complained that the numerous cabarets were turning the youth, the soldiers and the servants away from duty, respect and service. Hence the intendant's drastic measure in striking at the root of the evil by putting down illicit vendors and restricting the legitimate licences.

As an instance of the methods of the day we may cite an instruction of the king to MM. de Vaudreuil and BÉgon of June 15, 1712. "M. BÉgon will take in hand the reduction of the number of horses. The habitants have only need of them to till the soil, to haul their timber and to transport their wheat. It is not natural that the inhabitants should make use of them during the winter to communicate with other places instead of going on snowshoes, as they ought to do. Too great attention cannot be paid to make the people take to this usage, now almost a lost art, and the habitants should be prevented as far as possible from leading an easy life by these soft methods, since such diminishes their strength and breaks down their courage."

Those interested in the first mention of immigrants of various nationalities, settling in Montreal, will find that in 1712 two ladies, English Catholics, Marie Silver and Esther O'Wellen, had obtained the favor of naturalization. At the same time, June 24th, the king demands a complete list of all English Catholics settled in Canada.

In 1714 we find mention, by Intendant BÉgon, of an Irishman, "Jean La Haye, un Irlandais" (probably John Lahy, Leahy, or Lahey, who had been settled in the district of Lachine for twenty-two years), who had been arrested with an Englishman, Jean Joublin, Anglais (probably a John Jobling), for counterfeiting card money. These were probably prisoners of war who had remained behind.

On the date of March 7, 1724, at Versailles, a brevet to practice medicine in Montreal under the orders of Sieur Tarrazin, royal physician of Quebec, was granted to one Timothy Silvain (Sullivan), an Irishman by birth. On March 19, 1714, letters of naturalization were granted to an Englishman, Claude Mathias Senif, settled at Montreal.

Engineers and others will note the reply of the king on March 22, 1714, concerning the proposition of M. de Breslay, who had sent the king a specimen of a marble taken from a mountain situated twenty-one leagues from Montreal and at a league and a half from Long Sault, and who recommended the completion of the Lachine Canal. The king replied that the canal was not practicable by reason of the expense and the marble did not appear excellent enough to warrant it either.

In the course of this history we have given indications of the lives of some of the outstanding characters of Montreal whom the genius of the place fostered. It is fitting that we should take notice of the last days of the recluse, Jeanne LeBer, whose extraordinary career was one of the products of the age now being treated. She died on October 3, 1714, in her fifty-third year, after having lived fifteen years as a recluse in her parents' house and twenty more in the retreat made by herself in the Convent of the Congregation. The manner of her life was thus described as early as 1702 by M. Bacqueville de la Potherie in his "Histoire de l'AmÉrique Septentrionale." "I can not pass by in silence," he says, "an extraordinary trait of virtue of a young lady, making her abode in the Community of the Sisters of the Congregation, Miss LeBer, the only daughter of the richest merchant in Canada. She has an apartment in which she is enclosed, having no outside communication than that offered by a window looking out into the chapel. Her food is brought her, through a little opening in the door of her chamber. She sleeps on the hard floor. Her spiritual director is M. Leguenot, an ecclesiastic of St. Sulpice, and she sees her father, M. LeBer, only once or twice a year. In this solitude in which she has been for eight or nine years, she has formed a new temperament so that she could, with difficulty, now embrace any other manner of life. She has, however, a peaceful and docile disposition: the kind of life she lives does not consist in the abstract speculations of mental prayer, though she employs two hours daily in its practice. All the rest of the time she gives herself to good works of which she makes a present to the community."

Her benefactions were very great. By a contract of October 10, 1696, she gave the sum of 3,000 livres for the maintenance of a sister to worship day and night before the Blessed Sacrament in the Community Chapel. On the 25th of October, 1708, she gave another foundation of 8,000 livres for a daily mass, 2,000 of which was to be expended in the upkeep of the lights and sacred vessels. She also was desirous of adding to the convent suitable buildings for the boarding house of the pensionnaires and for the schools and of founding a number of burses for the education of poor girls who could not afford the pension. The foundation stone was placed on May 13, 1713, and on September 9, 1714, she disposed of the sum of 13,000 livres for the burses mentioned. After this act she did not live more than twenty-four days, having contracted an affection of the chest through rising during the night, as was her wont, to worship the Blessed Sacrament. Her death was the signal of an outburst of reverence. In the "History of the HÔtel-Dieu of Quebec," Mother Jucherau chronicles the event thus: "Her body was exposed for two days for the consolation and devotion of the whole of Montreal and the neighbourhood, whence crowds came to look upon and wonder at the holy body of this virgin. Her intercession was invoked with confidence. Her poor tattered garments and even her straw slippers were seized, as well as anything belonging to her, as revered relics. Several persons, afflicted with diverse maladies, approached her coffin and touched her with much reverence and faith, and we are assured that they have been cured. After this great gathering her body was carried to the door of the parish church, where a most solemn burial service was held; the greatest marks of veneration were paid her; and M. de Belmont, superior of the seminary, pronounced a very beautiful funeral oration." The text chosen was from the book of Judith, Chapter XV, v. 10, "Tu honorificentia populi nostri." "It is thou who art the glory of our people," indicated the degree of veneration and sanctity in which the deceased recluse was held by the people, most of whom had only heard of her by repute, never having seen her.

Her body was then taken to the Chapel of the Congregation and buried by the side of her father. The following inscription was placed above her resting place:

CI-GIST VENERABLE SŒUR JEANNE LEBER, BIENFAITRICE DE CETTE MAISON, QUI,
AYANT ETE RECLUSE QUINZE ANS DANS LA MAISON DE SES PIEUX PARENTS,
EN A PASSE VINGT DANS LA RETRAITE QU'ELLE A FAITE ICI. ELLE
EST DECEDEE LE 3 OCTOBRE 1714, AGEE DE 52 ANS.

In 1715 there occurred a charge of murder against Jean d'Ailleboust d'Argenteuil. The major of the town and of the government of Montreal was then Jean Bouillet, Sieur de la Chassaigne. Acting as procureur of the king, he demanded that d'Argenteuil should be declared guilty of the crime and condemned to have his head cut off, and, as he was absent, this should be done in effigy. The court martial came to the same conclusions, the judges being Captains Le Verrier and d'Esgly, the Count de Vaudreuil, de Beaujeu, Du Vivier and de Buisson. As M. de Vaudreuil was a relative of the accused, the place of president was taken by the Baron de Longueuil, who held the trial in his own house.

Bankers and numismatists will learn that in the process of withdrawing the "card" money and putting an end to its circulation, the minister in a letter, dated February 17, 1715, to M. de Norisbel says, that out of 230,000 livres, so withdrawn by M. BÉgon, the intendant, there has thus accrued to the profit of the king a benefit of 160,000 livres, which private persons lose. It was precisely this kind of impoverishment suffered by the people which eventually reconciled them to the English rule later.

In 1717, by a decree of May 11th, the merchants of Montreal were given the same privileges of the merchants in France of meeting in a convenient place to transact business in an exchange or bourse with the instruction to name one of their number to make representations in the name of all for the good of commerce to the governor general and the intendant of New France.

Genealogical students of the origins of Montreal families will learn from an edict of March 9, 1717, that it was decreed to maintain the children and grandchildren of Jacques LeBer, the Montreal merchant. This was in consequence of a request presented by his son, Jacques LeBer de Senneville, and the children of another son, Jacques LeBer de St. Paul. It is alleged in this report that the letters patent of nobility were promised to Jacques LeBer by M. de Frontenac, but that subsequently by an edict of March, 1696, it was settled that letters of nobility should not be forthcoming except for a financial consideration. As Jacques LeBer conformed to this condition he received his letters of nobility in November, 1696. But by another edict of August, 1715, all the titles of nobility accorded since 1689 for a financial consideration, were suppressed and revoked. Hence the present request relies on the representation of the services rendered by Jacques LeBer and his sons during all the wars; that one of them was slain in 1691, when he was commanding a party of eighty men, in a fight against the English, at La Prairie de la Madeleine.

In the same year letters patent of April 20, 1717, were issued giving permission to the Le Moynes to register at the Parliament Court of Paris and the Cour des Aydes, the letters of nobility accorded in the month of March, 1668, to Charles le Moyne de Longueuil and en-registered at the Chambre des Comptes on February 21, 1680. This document cites the service of the founder of the family, Charles le Moyne de Longueuil, and of his sons: Charles (baron de Longueuil), Pierre (d'Iberville), Joseph (de SÉrigny), Jean Baptiste (de Bienville), and Antoine (de Chateauguay). There is also a notice of Francis, son of Pierre d'Iberville. This document states, that the founder, Charles, had eleven sons, six of whom had died in the king's service after distinguished careers. The survivors at this date were Charles, Baron de Longueuil, de SÉrigny, de Bienville and de Chateauguay. Of these, at this period de Bienville and de Chateauguay were in Louisiana. Charles was in Canada and an active member of the Montreal district, holding important appointments. De SÉrigny was probably in France, for he was then the seigneur of the ChÂteau de Loire in Aunis. The bones of the brave d'Iberville were resting in a cemetery of Havana.

Sportsmen may learn that partridge shooting was prohibited between March 15th and July 15th by an ordonnance of MM. de Vaudreuil and BÉgon, dated January 28, 1720. In the same year the lieutenant-general of the jurisdiction of Montreal on May 10th forbids the merchants and private persons to keep more than ten pounds of powder on their premises. On May 21st an ordonnance of the Intendant BÉgon forbade gunshots in the town and in the barns and other buildings in the country places.

A similar injunction was repeated by Intendant Dupuy on March 21, 1727, with the addition of a fine of 100 livres, for catching them by net or snare, or taking their eggs.

The druggists of today will hear with satisfaction of the recommendation by the king in a letter to MM. de Vaudreuil and BÉgon, on June 8, 1721, of a powder, and the details of its composition, that was very much valued in sicknesses. This had just been recently made public. It was an Alkermes or Aurifique de Glaubec, prepared by Bolduc and La Serre, apothecaries to the king: it could cure the fevers, dropsy, vertigo, apoplexy, dysentery, gravel, smallpox, etc. English and American journals of that period contain numerous advertisements of similar "quack" medicines.

There is an act, dated July 1, 1721, of a land sale on the Coteau St. Louis at Montreal by the seigneurs of the seminary to M. Charles de Ramezay de la Gesse. This was to establish a brickyard and tile works.

To 1721 we may date the first beginnings of our Canadian postal service. In this year a posting system for the transportation of letters and travelers was created between Montreal and Quebec and the monopoly was rented for twenty years to M. Lanouiller on the condition of observing a certain tariff, according to distances, imposed by the Intendant BÉgon. We may now give a picture of Montreal in 1721, as described by Charlevoix:

"This town has a very pleasing appearance. It is well situated, well laid out and well built. The charm of its surroundings and its streets inspires a certain gayety, which everybody feels. It is not fortified. A simple palisade with bastions, badly enough maintained, offers the sole defence with a rather wretched redoubt on a little rising ground, which serves as a boulevard and shelves down to a little square. This is the first point which one meets on arriving from Quebec. It is not forty years since the town was quite unprotected and exposed daily to be burned by the savages or by the English. It was the Chevalier de CalliÈres who had it closed in. For some years there has been a project afoot to surround it with walls, but it will not be an easy task to induce the inhabitants to contribute to its expense. They are brave, and they are not rich. There has already been found difficulty in persuading them of the necessity of this expense since they are strongly convinced that their valour is more than sufficient to defend their town against any force that would dare to attack it....

"Montreal is a long square, situated on the bank of the river which, rising insensibly, divides the whole into high and low town, without any appreciable line of demarkation. The HÔtel-Dieu, the King's storehouses and the place d'Armes are in the lower town; this is also the merchants' quarter. In the upper town are the Seminary, the parish church, the Recollects, the Jesuits, the ladies of the Congregation, the Governor and the greater part of the officers. Beyond a little stream which comes from the northwest and bounds the town on this side, there are to be found some houses and the General Hospital and on the right, above the Recollects, whose convent is at the end of the town, or the same side, there is commencing to form a kind of suburb, which in time will be a very beautiful district. The Jesuits have only a small house here, but their church, which they have just finished covering in, is large and well built. The convent of the Recollects is much larger and its community more numerous. The seminary is in the middle of the town. It would seem that the object has been to make it solid and commodious rather than handsome. Its dignity, however, is such that one is not allowed to forget that it is the Seigneurial Manor; it communicates with the parochial church, which has more the air of a cathedral than that at Quebec. The services are conducted with a modesty and a dignity which inspire respect for the majesty of God, adored there. The house of the ladies of the Congregation, although one of the largest in the town, is too small as yet for its numerous community. It is the mother house of the order and the novitiate of an institute which ought to be all the dearer to New France and to this town in particular, since it originated here and the whole colony partakes in the advantages which so worthy an establishment brings to it.... The HÔtel-Dieu is served by nuns, whose first members were drawn from the HÔtel-Dieu of La FlÈche in Anjou. They are poor; yet this is seen neither in their hall, which is large and well furnished and well supplied with beds, nor in their church, which is handsome and well ornamented, nor in their dwelling house, which is well built, becoming and spacious. But they are badly fed, although they are all occupied indefatigably, whether with the instruction of children, or the care of the sick.

"There can still be seen, from time to time, little flotillas of Indians arriving at Montreal, but this is nothing in comparison with the past. It is the Iroquois wars which have interrupted this great gathering of the nations in the colony. To remedy this, storehouses with forts have been established among the greater part of them, where there is always a commandant and soldiers enough to place the stores in safety. The savages always wish to have a gunsmith with them. In many places there are missionaries among them, who would do more good, if they were the only Frenchmen there. It would seem good to put things again on their former basis, seeing that throughout the length and breadth of the colony there is now peace. This would be the means of restraining the coureurs de bois, whose cupidity, without speaking of the other disorders brought about by their looseness of life, brings on daily instances of dishonesty, which make us despicable in the eyes of these barbarian people."