She Desires That Her Name,
Graven On This Wall, Shall Serve To Remind Your Citizens, As Well As
All Who
Profit by the excellence of the accommodation here given to
vessels of great burden, of her interest in your fortunes,
And of her
association with you in the speeding of an undertaking designed to
benefit at once a great port of the new world and many of the
communities of Europe.
Access to Quebec is easy now to the largest ocean-going vessels. Tour
city has the railways far advanced, which will pierce to the heart of
the granary of the world - the great wheat centres of the Canadian
North-West. The very might and grandeur of the stream on which Quebec
is built is in her favour as compared with other centres of commerce,
for her visitors have but little tax to pay when a favouring wind
fails them, while steam must be employed against the strong currents
of the upper river.
The gigantic quays and the feeding lines of rail stretching inwards
unbroken to the prairies must, in all human probability, in the
future, ensure to the ancient capital a place among the most
flourishing cities of the continent. Even without the aid which
science is now bringing to her support look at the strides which have
been made in her prosperity within the last century. Old pictures will
show you the hillside above us bare of all but the houses necessary
for the garrison of a fortress, whose hard fate it had been to be the
place of contention of rival armies, while beneath the ramparts or
within their walls were to be seen only a few of the buildings now
devoted in far greater numbers to the purposes of religion and of
charity. The banks of the St. Charles possessed then only a few store-
houses such as would not now be thought sufficient for one of our
fifth-rate towns. Now the whole of the slope is covered by the homes
of a thriving, increasing and industrious population, while, over the
extending limits under the rule of the municipality, learning looks
down from the stately walls of Laval, and the members elected by your
free and noble province will pass the laws, whose validity is
guaranteed by our federal constitution, in a palace reminding one of
the stately fabric which holds the art treasures of France. None can
observe the contrast without seeing that your progress, although it
has partaken of no magic or mushroom-like growth, has been most marked
and promising.
If commerce seeks for her abode the head of navigation, there are many
instances to show that she loves also to keep her ships to their
native tides. An instance well known to us may be cited in the case of
Glasgow and of Greenock, cities which have risen to their present
prosperity so quickly that they rival in that respect many in America
and in Canada. Greenock has not been killed by the enormous rise in
the importance of the commercial capital of Scotland. Assuredly we may
believe that Quebec, with a far greater country at its back, may be
enabled, with the aid of proper communications, to pour forth every
summer from her lap much of our wealth, of which Europe is so eager to
partake.
These are the aspirations we share with you, and we wish to give
effect to them by drawing the attention of those beyond the seas to
the practical invitation you extend to them by the facilities afforded
by your docks and wharves, and we now join with you in the trust that
ample repayment will be yours for the energy and engineering skill you
have lavished on the public works, which are comparable to any
designed for a similar purpose.
LORNE.
The drapery by which it had been concealed having been removed, the
tablet stone was discovered suspended over the place it was intended
to occupy in the wall. The attendant masons having performed their
part, a silver trowel was handed to the Princess. This was a handsome
piece of workmanship, beautifully chased and set in a rosewood handle,
and bore the following inscription: - "To H.R.H. Princess Louise, this
trowel was presented by the contractors of the Quebec Harbour Works,
on the occasion of her laying the tablet stone of the Princess Louise
Embankment and Docks, River St. Charles, Quebec July 29, 1880." Her
Royal Highness, with this splendid implement, dug right lustily into
the cement, and having prepared the bed, drew back to allow the
ponderous stone to be lowered thereinto. This done, a beautiful mallet
of polished oak having been presented, the mass received two or three
blows, and was then declared to be well and truly laid. The Vice-Regal
party almost immediately afterwards regained the Druid, which
swiftly conveyed the members thereof to terra firma, the police
yacht Dolphin being in attendance. Of the other steamers, the
Clyde and North, after a short sail round the harbour, landed
their passengers at the Grand Trunk Railway wharf; the Brothers went
down to St. Joseph, and gave to those on board an opportunity of
noticing the progress made upon the new Graving Dock there. The troops
and privileged guests having been conveyed to and from the scene by
the Montreal Harbour Commissioners' boat John Young.
HARBOUR AND DOCK WORKS.
Before describing these vast and important structures, calculated to
afford such boundless facilities to ocean shipping frequenting our port,
it may not be without interest to note the efforts made at various times
for their construction. In his excellent work, "British Dominions in
North America," Vol. 1., p. 263-264, Col. Bouchette thus deals with
the subject in 1832 - the far-seeing but misunderstood Mr. James George,
however, as early as 1822, had conceived in his teeming brain the whole
scheme.
"The construction of a pier across the estuary of the St. Charles is a
measure of the greatest practicability, and of pronounced importance in
every aspect, and a subject that was brought under the notice of the
Legislature in 1829, when it received the most serious consideration of
the committee, and was very favourably reported upon; but no bill has yet
(1832) been introduced tending to encourage so momentous an undertaking.
The most judicious position contemplated for the erection of such a pier
is decidedly between the New Exchange and the Beauport Distillery and
Mills, [141] a direct distance of 4,300 yards, which, with the exception
merely of the channels of the St. Charles (that are neither very broad nor
deep nor numerous), is dry at low water, and affords every advantage
calculated to facilitate the construction of a work of that nature.
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