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.
