The Legendary Moss Clustering Round These Hoary Piles, Is Not,
However, Always Dark And Gloomy.
Love, war, adventure, occasionally
lend them their exciting or their soft glamour.
Sometimes the annals
of commerce entwine them with a green wreath - a sure talisman against
the rust of oblivion. It is one of the land marks of commerce we
purpose here briefly to describe.
At the foot of Mountain Hill, lies our chief emporium of news,
labelled for more than a quarter of a century, Morning Chronicle
Office. These premises stand on a very conspicuous site, viz., at the
foot of Mountain Hill, the highway from the port to the Upper Town,
direct to the old Chateau and Citadel - a few rods only from the spot
where Champlain, in 1608, laid the foundations of his extensive
warehouses and dwelling, and close to where, in 1615, he had his
famous gardens. This business stand, for many years past, was owned by
the late Hon. Henry Black; at present it belongs to Hon. Geo. Okill
Stuart, Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty. Its beginnings brings us
back to the era of the Bourbon sovereigns of Canada, to the
unregretted time (1758), when Intendant Bigot's shoddy entourage
held high carnival in famine-stricken Quebec.
In those blighting days, in which Madame de Pompadour reigned in
France, and Madame Pean in Quebec, rings and public robbery
flourished in Canada; but among high officials, all were not corrupt.
There were some memorable exceptions. One of these exceptions was the
worthy, witty, and honest warden of the Quebec merchants, Jean Tache,
"homme probe et d'esprit," say old memoirs.
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