A busy day, indeed, in this neighborhood,
watched over by the shades of Louis XIII., St. Louis street, is, in each
year, the 1st of September, when the close of the sultry midsummer
vacation brings round "the first day of term," then
"Grave gownsmen, full of thought, to 'chambers hie,
From court to court, perplexed, attorneys fly;
... each! Quick scouring to and thro',
And wishing he could cut himself in two
That he two places at a time might reach,
So he could charge his six and eightpence each."
- (The Bar, a Poem, 1825.)
Matters judicial, legal, financial, etc., have much changed - we are
inclined to say improved - in Canada, especially for the Judges. "I will
not say," writes the satirical La Hontan, "that justice is more chaste and
disinterested here than in France; but, at least, if she is sold, she is
sold cheaper. We do not pass through the clutches of advocates, the talons
of attorneys and the claws of clerks. These vermin do not infest Canada
yet. Everybody pleads his own cause. Our Themis is prompt, and she does
not bristle with fees, costs and charges. The judges have only four
hundred francs a year - a great temptation to look for law in the bottom of
the suitor's purse. Four hundred francs! Not enough to buy a cap and gown,
so these gentry never wear them." [24] Justice is not now sold, either in
Quebec or elsewhere, but judges, on the other hand, viz., in Ottawa,
receive, not "four hundred francs," but thirty-five thousand francs
($7,000) a year, and have "enough to buy a cap and a gown," yea, and a
brilliant red one, to boot. Voila un progres.
On an old plan, in our possession, of the Cape and Mount Carmel, showing
the whereabouts of lots and the names of their proprietors, drawn by Le
Maitre Lamorille, a royal surveyor, bearing date 20th May, 1756, and duly
sanctioned by the French Intendant Bigot on the 23rd January, 1759, can be
seen at Mont Carmel, St. Louis street, a lot marked "No. 16, M. Pean."
[25]
M. Pean, Town Major of Quebec, a trusted confederate of the Intendant
Bigot, the proprietor of this land, was the husband of the beautiful
Angelique de Meloises, the inamorata of the voluptuous and munificent
Intendant. In her youth she had been a pupil of the Ursuline nuns. In his
Reminiscences of Quebec, 2nd edition republished in 1859, Col. Cockburn
thus alludes to this St. Louis street house (now Dominion property and
occupied by Lt.-Col. Forest and Lt.-Col. D'Orsonnes). "It sometimes happened
in those days, when a gentleman possessed a very handsome wife, that the
husband was sent to take charge of a distant post, where he was sure to
make his fortune. Bigot's chere amie was Madame P - - in consequence of
which as a matter of course, Mr. P - - became prodigiously wealthy. Bigot
had a house that stood where the officers barracks in St Louis street, now
(1851) stands.
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