"On The Withdrawal Of The Imperial Troops In 1870-71, The Whole Of 'Le
Palais' Property Was Handed Over To The Dominion Government.
"CHARLES WALKEM, "(Late R. E. Civil Service Staff in Canada.)
"Ottawa, 24th July, 1876."
Doubtless to the eyes of the "free and independent electors" of La
Vacherie, in 1759, the Intendant's Palace seemed a species of "eighth
wonder" The eighth wonder lost much of its eclat, however, by the
inauguration of English rule, in 1759, but a total eclipse came over this
imposing and majestic luminary when Guy Carleton's guns from the ramparts
of Quebec began, in 1775, to thunder on its cupola and roof, which offered
a shelter to Arnold's soldiery: the rabble of "shoemakers, hatters,
blacksmiths and innkeepers," (says that savage old Tory, Colonel Henry
Caldwell), bent on providing Canada with the blessings of Republicanism. A
century and more has passed over the gorgeous Palace - now a dreary, moss-
covered ruin, surrounded in rear by coarse grass, fallen stones: Bigot -
his wassailers, - the fair but frail Madame de Pean, like her prototype of
Paris, Madame de Pompadour, have all fleeted to the land of shadows; and
tourists, high and low, still crowd to glance meditatively at those fast
fading traces of a guilty past. It was in October, 1879, the special
privilege of the writer to escort to these ruins one of our Sovereign's
gentle and accomplished daughters, H.R.H. the Princess Louise, accompanied
by H.E. Lord Lorne, as he had done the previous autumn with regard to the
learned Dean of Westminster, Revd. A. P. Stanley: proud he was to think
that though Quebec had no such attractions like antique, like classic
England, - turretted castles, moated granges, or even
"Old pheasant Lords,
"Partridge breeders of a thousand years,"
- its romantic past was not without pleasing or startling or interesting
memories.
We have just mentioned "La Vacherie", this consisted of the extensive
and moist pastures at the foot of Coteau Sainte-Genevieve, extending
towards the General Hospital, where the city cows were grazed; on this
site and gracing the handsome streets "Crown" "Craig" and "Desfosses," can
now be seen elegant dry-goods stores, vying with the largest in the Upper
Town. Had St. Peter street, in 1775, been provided with a regular way of
communication with St. Roch; had St. Paul street then existed, the sun of
progress would have shone there nearly a century earlier.
"For a considerable time past, several plans of amelioration of the City
of Quebec," says the Abbe Ferland, "were proposed to the Ministry by M. de
Meules. The absolute necessity of obtaining a desirable locality for the
residence of the Intendant, and for holding the sessions of the Council;
the Chateau St. Louis being hardly sufficient to afford suitable quarters
for the Governor and the persons who formed his household. M. de Meules
proposed purchasing a large stone building which M. Talon had caused to be
erected for the purpose of a brewery, and which, for several years, had
remained unoccupied. Placed in a very commodious position on the bank of
the river St. Charles, and not many steps from the Upper Town, this
edifice, with suitable repairs and additions, might furnish not alone a
desirable residence for the Intendant, but also halls and offices for the
Supreme Council and the Courts of Justice, as likewise vaults for the
archives and a prison for the criminals. Adjacent to the old brewery, M.
Talon owned an extent of land of about seventeen superficial acres, of
which no use was made in M. de Meules' plan; a certain portion of this
land could be reserved for the gardens and dependencies of the Intendant's
Palace, whilst the remainder might be portioned off into building lots
(emplacements), and thus convert it into a second lower town, and
which might some day be extended to the foot of the Cape. He believed that
if this plan were adopted, the new buildings of Quebec would extend in
that direction, and not on the heights almost exclusively occupied by the
Religious Communities. [129]
We perceive, according to Mr. Panet's Journal, that Saint Roch existed in
1759; that the women and children, residents of that quarter, were not
wholly indifferent to the fate of their distressed country. "The same day
(31st July, 1759)," says Panet, "we heard a great uproar in the St. Roch
quarter - the women and children were shouting, 'Long Live the King!'"
[130] "I ascended the height (on the Coteau Ste. Genevieve) and
there beheld the first frigate all in a blaze, very shortly afterwards a
black smoke issuing from the second, which blew up and afterwards took
fire." On the 4th August several bomb-shells of 80 lbs. fell on St. Roch.
We read, that on the 31st August, two soldiers were hanged at three
o'clock in the afternoon, for having stolen a cask of brandy from the
house of one Charland, in the St. Roch quarter. In those times the General
(or the Recorder) did not do things by halves. Who was, this Charland of
1759? Could he be the same who, sixteen years afterwards, fought so
stoutly with Lieut. Dambourges at the Sault-au-Matelot engagement? Since
the inauguration of the English domination, St. Roch became peopled in a
most rapid manner, we now see there a net-work of streets, embracing in
extent several leagues.
The first steep hill past the Y. M. C. Association Hall - formerly Gallows
Hill, (where the luckless David McLane was disembowelled, in 1797, for
levying war against the King of Great Britain), and leading from St. John
street without to that not over-straight thoroughfare, named after the
second Bishop of Quebec - St. Vallier street - borrows its name from
Barthelemy Coton, who in days of yore closed his career in Quebec at the
advanced age of 92 years. Can anyone tell us the pedigree of Barthelemy
Coton? To the French portion of the inhabitants it is known as Cote a
Coton, whilst the English portion still continue to surround it,
unopportunely we think, with the unhallowed traditions of a lugubrious
past and call it Gallows Hill.
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