"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 space 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.
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