Up or cells beneath the
rooms of the Literary and Historical Society, one of which, provided with
a solid new iron door, is set apart for the reception of the priceless
M.S.S. of the society. The oak flooring of the passages to the cells
exhibit many initials, telling a tale of more than one guilty life - of
remorse - let us hope, of repentance.
The narrow door in the wall and the iron balcony, over the chief entrance
leading formerly to the fatal drop which cut short the earthly career of
the assassin or burglar [51] was speedily removed when the directors of
the Morrin College in 1870 purchased the building from Government to
locate permanently the seat of learning due to the munificence of the late
Joseph Morrin, M.D.
The once familiar inscription above the prison door, the rendering of
which in English was a favourite amusement to many of the juniors of the
High School, or Seminary, on their way to class, that also has
disappeared:
"Carcer iste bonos a pravis vindicare possit!"
May this prison teach the wicked for the edification of the good."
The damp, vaulted cells in the basement, where the condemned felon in
silence awaited his doom, or the airy wards above, where the impecunious
debtor or the runaway sailor meditatively or riotously defied their
traditional enemies the constable and policeman, now echo the Hebrew,
Greek and Latin utterances of the Morrin College professors, and on
meeting nights the disquisitions before the Literary and Historical
Society, of lecturers on Canadian history, literature or art.
It is the glory and privilege of the latter institution in accordance with
the object of its Royal Charter, to offer to citizens of all creeds and
nationalities, a neutral ground, sacred to intellectual pursuits. It dates
back to 1823, when His Excellency, George Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie,
assisted by the late Dr. John Charlton Fisher, LL.D., and ex-editor of the
New York Albion, successfully matured a long meditated plan to promote
the study of history and of literature. The Literary and Historical
Society held its first meeting in the Chateau St. Louis. It is curious
to glance over the list of names in its charter. [52] It contained the
leading men on the Bench, in the professions, and in the city. In 1832 the
library and museum occupied a large room in the Union building facing the
Ring. From thence they were transferred to the upper story of the
Parliament Buildings, on Mountain Hill, where a portion of both was
destroyed by the conflagration which burnt down the stately cut-stone
edifice in 1854, with the stone of which in 1860, the Champlain Market
Hall was built. What was saved of the library and museum was transferred
to apartments in St Louis street, then owned by the late George Henderson,
J.P. [53] The next removal, about 1860, brought the institution to Masonic
Hall, corner of Garden and St. Louis streets.
