He Had His
Redeeming Points - Was Open-Handed In His Dealings - Of A Kindly Nature
And Lavish Even To Excess."
The worthy Commissary General, like Pean, was blessed with a charming
wife, whom Panet's Diary styles "La Belle Amazone Aventuriere."
Probably like her worthy spouse, - of low extraction; "elle n'etait pas
sortie de la cuisse de Jupiter," to use a familiar French saw.
She certainly was not, like Caesar's wife "above suspicion." Madame
Cadet, later on, transferred her allegiance from the rich butcher
Cadet, to one "Sieur Joseph Ruffio";... but let us draw the veil of
oblivion over the short comings of another age.
"Capt. Hughes Pean, Chevalier de la Livaudiere, was Town Major
of Quebec, aide-Major des Troupes." He was not long in discovering
that with an Intendant like Bigot, he could dare anything. Had he not
without any trouble netted a gain of 50,000 half crowns? A large
quantity of wheat was required for Government; he was charged with the
purchase. There was a fat job in store for the Town Major. How was his
master the Intendant to manage the matter for him? Bigot was a man of
resource, who never forgot his friends. First, he provided Pean with a
large sum out of the Treasury to buy the wheat as low as possible for
cash; and then his complaisant council passed an order or Ordonnance
fixing the price of grain much higher than that at which Pean had
purchased. The town Major charged it to the Government at the rate
fixed by the Ordonnance; the difference left him a handsome profit. He
thought he would next try his hand at building coasting craft, which
he could manage to keep constantly in commission for Government; this
also was lucrative. Other devices, however, were resorted to; a secret
partnership was entered into between Cadet and a person named Clavery,
who shortly after become store-keeper at Quebec. Cadet was to purchase
wheat in the parishes, have it ground at a mill he had leased, the
flour to be sent abroad, secretly. Pean, too, had large warehouses
built - at Beaumont some say. Cargoes of grain were thus secretly
shipped to foreign ports in defiance of the law. Breard, the
Comptroller-General, for a consideration winked at these mal-
practices, and from a poor man when he landed in Canada, he returned
to France in affluent circumstances.
The crowning piece of knavery was the erection of a vast shop and
warehouses near to the Intendant's Palace. Clavery had charge of this
establishment, where a small retail business was carried on as a
blind. The real object was to monopolize the trade in provisions and
concentrate it here. Clavery was clerk to Estebe, Royal store-keeper
at Quebec. In this warehouse were accumulated all such provisions and
supplies as were wanted annually, and ordered from France for the
King's stores at Quebec.
It was the practice of the Intendant to send each summer the
requisitions to Paris. Bigot took care to order from France less
supplies than were required, so as to have an excuse to order the
remainder in times of want, at Quebec.
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