Читать книгу Sir George Étienne Cartier, Bart.--His Life and Times - John Boyd - Страница 5

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Thirty-six miles from the city of Montreal, picturesquely situated on the historic Richelieu River, lies the ancient village of St. Antoine. It is a typical French-Canadian hamlet. Skirting the shore of the peaceful river which flows slowly northward to join the more turbulent waters of the mighty St. Lawrence, extends the main thoroughfare with its clusters of trim wooden cottages, embellished here and there by a more pretentious edifice of brick or stone. In summer neat flower beds add a touch of beauty to the comfortable dwellings. Dominating its surroundings stands in the centre of the village the parish church, a massive stone structure with each of its twin spires surmounted by the emblem of the Catholic faith. From the village smithy may be heard the music of the blacksmith’s anvil, often the only sound upon the restful stillness. Peacefulness and repose seem to cast their benison over the whole region. Adjoining the village and extending over many goodly acres, are well-tilled farms, which in numerous cases have been in possession of the same families generation after generation, the descendants of many of the original settlers still living in the neighbourhood.

The entire district is replete with historic memories. Almost directly opposite St. Antoine, on the south bank of the Richelieu, is St. Denis, the scene of the patriots’ victory over the British troops in the initial engagement of the rising of 1837. Seven miles to the west of St. Denis lies St. Charles, where a few days after the St. Denis engagement the patriots were crushed by the British soldiery. Nine miles from St. Charles, or sixteen miles to the west of St. Denis, is St. Hilaire, with Richelieu village twelve miles further west, and twenty-eight miles distant from St. Denis. To the east of St. Denis, at a distance of seven miles, is St. Ours, while twelve miles from the latter place, or nineteen miles to the east of St. Denis, lies the thriving town of Sorel, the former Fort William Henry. Opposite St. Ours on the north bank of the river is St. Roch, seven miles east of St. Antoine. At a distance of seven miles west of St. Antoine is St. Marc, facing St. Charles. Nine miles to the west of St. Marc is Beloeil, opposite St. Hilaire, while at a distance of twelve miles from Beloeil, or twenty-eight miles from St. Antoine, lies Chambly, an historic military fortress of olden days. A chain of villages thus extends on either side of the river, divided only by the width of the stream. Communication from one village to another is furnished by small ferry boats propelled by pulley cables extending under the water from shore to shore.[2]

The Richelieu River meanders through one of the most beautiful and fertile districts of the whole Province of Quebec. Though the country is generally flat, many picturesque scenes greet the eye, and on a clear day may be discerned in the distance the outlines of Rougemont and Beloeil, two of the highest peaks of the province. Extending back from the river and for miles along its banks are the fertile farms of the habitants who reap an easy and profitable living from abundant crops of hay, now the staple product of the district.

In such secluded spots the devastating influence of so-called modern progress makes scant headway, and St. Antoine is but little changed from what it was a century ago. There is one exception which must ever be a cause of regret. Situated about a mile from the centre of the village and a short distance from the shore, there stood until a few years ago a large building known to all the countryside as La Maison aux Sept Cheminées (the House of the Seven Chimneys). Erected in 1782 by Jacques Cartier, a rich merchant of St. Antoine, and intended by him as a permanent homestead for his descendants, it was a veritable landmark for the whole district. A massive stone structure nearly one hundred feet in length and resembling a fortress in its proportions, it comprised a basement, a ground floor, and an upper or attic storey. Some idea of the extent of the house may be gathered from the fact that, apart from the basement or cellars, the two storeys contained no less than seventeen rooms, many of them of an unusual size.

It was in a small room on the ground floor of this house that there was born on September 6th, 1814, to Jacques Cartier and his wife, Marguerite Paradis, a son, who was destined to make the name of Cartier forever illustrious in Canadian history as that of one of the founders of the great Dominion. On the day of his birth, in accordance with the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, he was baptized by the curé of St. Antoine, Messire Bonaventure Alinotte, receiving the baptismal names of Georges Étienne. The second name was from his godfather, Étienne Gauvreau, while the first name, Georges, which had not been borne by any of the family, is presumed to have been given to the child from the name of the reigning sovereign.

The Cartier family, as the name implies, is of distinctively French origin. The direct ancestors of George-Étienne Cartier hailed from Prulier, a small place in the diocese of Anger, France, where in the seventeenth century lived one Pierre Cartier. According to a family tradition this Pierre Cartier was a brother of Jacques Cartier, the celebrated navigator of St. Malo and the discoverer of Canada. But there are no positive proofs to substantiate this tradition, which, however, was firmly believed by him whose career was to add greater lustre to the name. Towards the middle of the 17th century, Jacques Cartier, a son of Pierre Cartier, by his wife Marie Beaumier, emigrated to Canada and settled at Quebec, where he was known as Cartier L’Angevin. He engaged extensively in trade, dealing principally in salt and fish, the field of his operations covering not only Canada but several European countries. On July 6th, 1744, this Jacques Cartier married at Beauport, Quebec, Delle Marguerite Mongeon, and from this marriage there were born, in addition to four daughters, two sons, Jacques and Joseph, who were the progenitors of the two Cartier families of St. Antoine. Towards 1768 the two brothers were sent by their father up the Richelieu River as far as Chambly to dispose of his merchandise and to open trade with the settlers. Impressed by the fertility of the district and the opportunities that it afforded for commerce, the two brothers decided to settle on the banks of the Richelieu as merchants. Jacques took up his residence at St. Antoine, while Joseph settled at St. Denis on the opposite side of the river.

Jacques Cartier, from whom George-Étienne Cartier was directly descended, was born at Quebec on April 11th, 1750, and married at St. Antoine on September 27th, 1772, Delle Cecile Gervaise, daughter of Sieur Charles Gervaise by his wife, Dame Celeste Plessis-Belair, and niece of the first curé of St. Antoine, Messire Gervaise. Jacques Cartier was a man of substance and high standing in the community. He engaged extensively in commerce and in addition to a general business exported large quantities of wheat to Europe, the Richelieu district being then noted for its production of that cereal. In 1782, or ten years after his marriage, the enterprising merchant, who had made considerable money, constructed the massive stone dwelling which was to be the home of the family for many generations. Noted for his public spirit as well as for his enterprise, he took a lively interest in public affairs, and from 1805 to 1810 he represented the electoral division of Surrey, subsequently known as Verchères, in the old Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. He was also active in the militia, holding a commission for many years as a lieutenant-colonel, and was generally recognised as a man of the greatest public spirit. He was the father of numerous children, all of whom died young, with the exception of a son also named Jacques, who was destined to be the father of one of the most illustrious men that the French-Canadian race has produced. Born at St. Antoine on August 29th, 1774, Jacques Cartier the younger married at St. Antoine on September 4th, 1798, Delle Marguerite Paradis, daughter of Joseph Paradis by his wife, Dame Josèphe Lavoie. Of this marriage there were born five sons and three daughters, of whom George-Étienne was the youngest son and the seventh child.

I have traced Cartier’s ancestry thus minutely because heredity certainly played its part in the formation of his character, which, as in the case of many others who have attained distinction, may be said to have been the result both of his heredity and of his environment. Therefore to fully understand Cartier’s career and the salient features of his character and policy, it is important that the reader should have a clear and comprehensive idea of his environment, of the lives, modes and customs of the people of whom he was one and amongst whom his early life was spent. Though Cartier’s father and his immediate ancestors were engaged in commercial pursuits, they were also landowners and belonged to the habitant class in the broad meaning of that term, being essentially inhabitants of the country. What manner of people were those old time habitants amongst whom Cartier’s lot as a youth was cast? Though the habitants of the present retain many of the characteristics of their ancestors, their mode of life has to a considerable extent been affected by the changing times, and many features of the patriarchal life which prevailed in Lower Canada during Cartier’s youth and for some years afterwards have disappeared. Fortunately, from the vivid description of De Gaspé and other native writers and of travellers, such as Lambert and Heriot, who visited Lower Canada at this period, we are able to reproduce a picture of the times. De Gaspé in his “Mémoires” and his “Anciens Canadiens,” one of the most charming books in all literature, portrays for us habitant life as it existed under the old régime, but his descriptions are largely applicable to an even later period. Lambert and Heriot have left us accounts of the habitant as he appeared at the very time when Cartier was born. The old-time habitant emerges from these recitals as a unique, interesting and wholly admirable character.

House of the Seven Chimneys at St. Antoine, Cartier’s Birthplace

At the time of Cartier’s birth but fifty-four years, a comparatively short period in the life of a people, had passed since that memorable day of 1760 which witnessed one of the most striking scenes in all history, the day when de Vaudreuil, the Governor-General of the colony, and Chevalier de Lévis, the Commandant of the French troops, accompanied by the officers, both civil and military, and the men who had so gallantly upheld the honour of France, embarked for home, leaving the colonists who remained behind to work out their own salvation under what was to them a strange and alien rule. “With these beautiful and vast countries,” said de Vaudreuil, in a letter addressed to the French Minister, “France loses seventy thousand inhabitants of a rare quality, a race of people unequalled for their docility, bravery and loyalty. The vexations they have suffered for many years, more especially during the five years preceding the reduction of Quebec, all without a murmur or importuning their King for relief, sufficiently manifest their perfect submissiveness.” De Vaudreuil’s tribute was well deserved, and the French-Canadians were still to display those characteristics to which he referred under conditions equally, if not more, exacting. With their country, won at the cost of so much effort and sacrifice, ceded to the British Crown, and they themselves abandoned by many of the most notable colonists, the outlook for the French-Canadians seemed dark indeed. That a mere handful of settlers, so situated, should have developed into a people of nearly three million souls, preserving their racial characteristics, their language, their laws and their customs, in short, their homogeneity as a people, is one of the marvels of history. All the more marvellous will it appear when we shall see against what odds the French-Canadians had to contend.

If the colonising work of Colbert and Talon and their attempts to establish upon the banks of the St. Lawrence a powerful state to act as a counterpoise to English influence in America had ended in apparent failure, the French colonists as a result of their efforts had at least become, at the time of the Cession, firmly rooted to the soil. Outside the large centres of population, such as Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers, the colonists were scattered mainly along the waters of the St. Lawrence and Richelieu. There lived the descendants of those hardy and valiant Frenchmen who many years before had come from Normandy, Brittany, Provence, La Perche, Maine, La Savoie, Anjou, Gascogny, and other portions of the fair land of France, and who had hewn out homes amidst the primeval forests and in the face of hostile savages. Behind their descendants was the background of a glorious past of over two centuries of combat and of struggle, rendered forever memorable by the mighty deeds of pioneer, priest, warrior and heroine. When the French colonists passed from French to British rule, they did not forget the glory of their past and they waged an heroic and ultimately successful struggle to retain the legacy left to them by their forefathers.

For nearly a century following the Cession the patriarchal life which existed under the seigneurial tenure system, a survival of the old feudal system of land tenancy, was in evidence in Lower Canada. Though the beginning of this system in Canada has been traced back to the founding of the Company of the Hundred Associates by the great Richelieu in the year 1627, a charter issued to the Marquis de la Roche, more than a quarter of a century before Richelieu became Minister of State, gave specific authority for the granting of seigneuries in the New World. As a matter of fact, several seigneurial grants were made prior to the establishment of the Company of the Hundred Associates, and the charter of that organisation, in giving the directors power to make feudal grants, merely followed what was an established practice. As the highest authority on this subject truly remarks, seigneurialism was transplanted to Canada simply because it existed almost everywhere at home and it was as logical for Frenchmen to bring this institution to the valley of the St. Lawrence as it was for Englishmen to bring to the English Colonies a system of tenure in free and common socage.[3] Through the efforts of the Company of the Hundred Associates, which had been granted the whole of New France by Louis XIII with full ownership, seigneury and justice, enterprising Frenchmen were induced to take over seigneuries, while at the same time they agreed to bring families from France to settle on the land. Robert Giffard, a physician of La Perche, to whom was granted in 1634 the Seigneury of Notre-Dame de Beauport near Quebec, was one of the earliest of these seigneurs, and furnishes perhaps the most notable example of the colonising lord of the soil of that early period. The same methods were followed in other cases, with the result that in course of time many seigneuries were granted on similar conditions. After the collapse of the Company of the Hundred Associates in 1663, other means were adopted to dispose of seigneurial domains, many of them being granted to officers who had seen service in the French army. It was in this manner that the seigneuries of the Richelieu district came into being.

Each seigneur of Lower Canada, it may here be explained, originally received his land under a tenure of foi et hommage. He had to pay fealty and homage to the Crown as the tenant had similarly to pay him homage. When he received the grant of his seigneury he accepted the obligation of clearing the land within a certain period under pain of forfeiture, but to obviate this the seigneur sublet portions of his domain for a nominal rent, the tenants accepting the obligation of clearing their holdings. Under this system the owner of the domain was known as the seigneur or lord, and those to whom grants were made by him as censitaires, or tenants. The seigneur guaranteed to the tenant a perpetual right of occupancy on condition that he should perform certain services, and pay periodically a specified rent. The tenancy descended to the heir of the occupant, who was bound by similar conditions. At first only a nominal rental, known as the cens et ventes, was exacted from the tenant, the amount being generally restricted to a sou and a sou and a half per arpent, but in course of time much larger amounts were demanded by many of the seigneurs. The tenant had the right of disposing of his holdings, but the seigneur was entitled to a fine on all lands so sold, this fine, known as the droit de lods et ventes, amounting to the excessive sum of one twelfth part of the purchase money. Under another provision, known as the banalité, the seigneur possessed the exclusive right of erecting mills, the whole of the running streams being his property. As a result the tenant was obliged to bring his grain to the seigneur’s mill, and to have it ground there. Other obligations of a more or less galling character were imposed on the tenant, the seigneur, for instance, having a right to whatever quantity of wood he might demand from the tenant’s lands, as well as being the owner of all the stone within the bounds of the seigneury. The most objectionable feature of the system and the one which subsequently created the greatest dissatisfaction amongst the tenants was the droit de lods et ventes, which naturally became a great interference with land transfers.

The fact that the seigneurial system was a survival of the old feudal method of land tenancy has led to some misconception as to the real status of the censitaire or habitant of this period, who, it must be remembered, occupied in no sense a servile position. The very name habitant, by which he was generally known, and which has since become the characteristic name of the French-Canadian farmer among English-speaking people, is indicative of his status. As a matter of fact so free and independent were the early tillers of the soil in Lower Canada that, though holding their land practically under feudal tenure, they would accept no such designation as censitaires, which carried with it some sense of the servile status of the feudal vassal in Old France, but they called themselves habitants or inhabitants of the country.[4] They were free men, not vassals or slaves, nor did they always show ready acceptance of the seigneur’s exactions, or display that deference to which he considered he was entitled. It is true that there was the obligation of the corvée, under which, in addition to the payment he made for his land, the tenant was obliged to render a certain amount of personal service; but that this obligation was not onerous may be judged from the fact that rarely did the seigneurial demand amount to more than six days in the year, and the obligation could be commuted on payment of a small sum.

The religious and secular authorities generally acted in concert under the seigneurial system, the operation of which was attended by various quaint customs. The relations between the curés and the seigneurs, as a leading authority has remarked, were in the main close and friendly, the curé in the early days often making his home at the seigneurial manor house, which thus became the centre of the religious as well as of the civil activities of the seigneury. The bounds of the parish and the seigneury were usually the same, and it was at the close of mass that all important secular announcements affecting the habitant were made. At the church door, for instance, the seigneur was accustomed each autumn to call formally upon his dependents to remember the approaching festival of St. Martin, when their annual rents would be due and payable, and it was also at the church door that copies of ordinances and edicts were posted up for the information of the people. Ancient custom, confirmed by ordinance in 1709, prescribed that for the use of the seigneur there should be built in the seigneurial church on the right of the main entrance, and four feet from the altar railing, a fixed pew of the same length as the other pews and not more than double the depth. In all religious processions the seigneur had precedence immediately after the curé and his rank also received due recognition at all special services.

St. Martin’s Day was made the occasion of a great local fête at each seigneurial residence or manor house. It was on this date that the annual cens et ventes or rental, restricted generally to a few sous, supplemented by some capons or fowls and a quantity of grain for every arpent of frontage, became due. All the inhabitants of the seigneury, women as well as men, would come to the manor house in caleches or carrioles, and the day was a red letter one in the annals of the parish.

The old-time seigneur, too, possessed certain honorary privileges, such as the right to receive the fealty and homage of each of his tenants upon the occasion of the latter’s first entering upon his holdings and at every subsequent mutation of ownership, the ceremony taking place at the manor house. Another quaint custom attended the obligation which the tenants were under, to appear before the manor house on the first day of May, to plant a May pole near the door. This ceremony was made the occasion of a merry gathering, the young folks especially turning out in large numbers and engaging in dances and games of various kinds, while they were the recipients of the seigneur’s hospitality.[5]

Whatever may have been the later disadvantage of the seigneurial system, it cannot be denied that it was of immense advantage in the early colonisation of the country, and later in the preservation of French-Canadian nationality. The seigneurial and parochial systems, the fruit of Colbert’s genius, and essentially democratic in character, constituted in fact the basis of the French colonial organisation. Under the seigneurial system the seigneur became the apostle of colonisation and the natural ally of the people. By means of this organisation, the French-Canadians became firmly attached to the land, and so strong was their position at the time of the Cession that all attempts of the new rulers to denationalise or Anglicise them proved abortive. The Roman Catholic bishops and clergy at the same time played a great rôle in preserving the unity and strength of the religious life of the people, which, maintained under the parochial system, proved another bulwark of French-Canadian nationality. That the French-Canadians were able to maintain their national entity and their distinctive character, and that from the seventy thousand colonists at the time of the Cession have sprung nearly three million people, preserving their distinctive characteristics, their religion, their laws, and their institutions, must therefore be directly ascribed to the devotion of the Roman Catholic bishops and clergy and to the system of land tenure which resulted in the people becoming firmly rooted to the soil.

In no portion of Lower Canada was the seigneurial tenure system better exemplified than in the historic Richelieu region, which may truly be said to have been for many years the stronghold of the seigneurs. The history of the district recalls the romance of the old régime. From the mouth of the Richelieu at Sorel to a point above Chambly, the land, which was amongst the most fertile in the province, was divided in 1666 and the following years into large seigneurial grants and apportioned to officers of the famous regiment of Carignan-Salières, which took its double name from the Prince de Carignan, who recruited it, and the gallant colonel under whose command it came out to Canada. The regiment had had an enviable history, marked by hard fighting and by deeds of distinction. It had participated in the historic wars of the Fronde, it had battled against the Turks, and its record throughout was one of daring and of heroism. In 1665 it was sent to Canada to fight against the Iroquois and here displayed the same courage and bravery in the campaign against the ferocious red man as it had shown on European fields. When later it was decided to disband the regiment, inducements were offered to many of the officers and men to become settlers, the officers as seigneurs and the men as their tenants. No fitter or finer body of men could have been found to settle along the fertile banks of the Richelieu than these hardy fighters, as at this period not only had the settler to clear and cultivate the land, but at the same time he had to keep an ever-watchful eye for the incursions of the ruthless Iroquois, who made the Richelieu River the highway for their marauding operations.

With these grants began the virtual settlement of the Richelieu valley, and, as has been truly said, the officers of the Carignan regiment formed the nucleus of the aristocracy of New France.[6] The now familiar names of Chambly, Sorel, St. Ours, Contrecoeur, Varennes, and Verchères, all of which figure prominently in the narrative of Cartier’s career, recall valiant officers of the Carignan regiment who were not only renowned fighting men in the French colony, but who were the first lords of the soil in the Richelieu district and on the adjacent shores of the mighty St. Lawrence into which the Richelieu flows. From Philippe de Chambly, who was at that time the chief proprietor on the Richelieu, the fort and village of Chambly took their names, and Sorel owes its designation to Pierre de Saurel, a captain of the Carignan regiment who constructed the military works at that point in 1665. St. Antoine, the birthplace of George-Étienne Cartier, forms part of the ancient seigneury of Contrecoeur, which was granted as far back as 1672 by Talon the Intendant, to Sieur Antoine Pécaudy, a captain of the Carignan regiment. Ennobled by Louis XIV in 1661, Pécaudy had assumed the title of Sieur de Contrecoeur. Arriving in Canada in 1665, he took an active part in the campaign against the Iroquois. It was in recognition of his services in this connection that he received a grant of the seigneury to which he gave his name, and the parish and village of St. Antoine take their designation from the first two seigneurs of Contrecoeur, Antoine and François Antoine Pécaudy. From the labours of these and other early seigneurs sprang the thriving and picturesque villages which dot the shores of the beautiful Richelieu.

The settlement of the Richelieu district was typical of the settlement of many other portions of Lower Canada. At the outset military forts, such as those at Sorel and Chambly, were erected to protect the settlers from the attacks of the fierce Iroquois tribes. Out of his domain, which varied from half a league to six leagues in front on the river, and from half a league to two leagues in depth, the early seigneur made allotments to his soldiers, and directed his personal attention to the improvement of his own property. His first tasks were to build the seigneurial mansion, which at the outset was generally nothing more than a log hut, to construct a fort, erect a chapel and provide a mill. The clearing and cultivation of the land followed. In the early days, when Indian raids were common, the houses of the seigneurs and tenants were frequently built together and surrounded by palisades, forming a sort of fortified village. Gradually as fear of the red man lessened, the settlements extended, adjacent lands were cleared and cultivated, and settled by families who came from France or from other portions of Lower Canada. In time these fields of military and colonizing operations became the centres of thriving settlements. In this manner St. Antoine, St. Denis, St. Charles, and other historic villages rose into being. In the train of the seigneur and the settler came the missionary curé to tend to the spiritual needs of the people. What do the French-Canadians not owe to these devoted priests and to their successors in the work of the church, who literally bore in their hands the ark of French-Canadian nationality, which they carried in safety through the wilderness of danger and despair that followed the Cession! It is a true as well as a striking observation of a great historian that, while the splendid self devotion of the early Jesuit missions has its record, the patient toils of the missionary curés rest in the obscurity where the best of human virtues are buried from age to age.[7] The missionary curé of this period was the prototype of his heroic predecessor who figures so prominently in the annals of the old régime. His charge comprised what has been well designated as a string of incipient parishes, extending in many cases over a vast region. Covering the waters of the St. Lawrence and the Richelieu in his birch canoe, under the direction of a trusty guide, carrying with him the sacred vessels of his holy office, he bore spiritual consolation to the people of the most remote settlements, solemnising the sacrament of marriage, baptising the newly born, saying mass, hearing confessions, imposing penances, granting absolutions, and giving the last rites of the church to the dying. To these devoted men did the first inhabitants of St. Antoine and the neighbouring villages on the Richelieu owe the benefits of religion; their spiritual welfare being looked after by the missionary priests of Contrecoeur, which was established as a parish as far back as the year 1680. To this heroic body of men also belonged Messire Michel Gervaise, the first curé of St. Antoine, who in 1741 became missionary cure of St. Charles, having charge of the inhabitants of St. Denis and St. Antoine. It was under his direction that the first presbytery and church at St. Antoine were erected between the years 1750 and 1752. Gradually parishes were established and the presbytery became the fixed abode of the curé. The settlement of the Parish of St. Antoine may be traced back to a very early period, the oldest concession having been granted in 1714 by the second seigneur of Contrecoeur, François Antoine de Pécaudy, to Dame Veuve Picard de Noray. A portion of this concession later passed into possession of Messire Gervaise, the first curé of St. Antoine, and subsequently became the property through marriage of the Cartier family. Towards 1725 many farms of the district were taken up by families from the Rivière des Prairies in the vicinity of Montreal, who, descending the St. Lawrence with their household effects in canoes, ascended the Richelieu as far as St. Antoine. In this way these families—Archambault, Geurtin, Courtemanche, Bonin, Gadbois, Allard, Circe, St. Michel, Menard, and Phaneuf—became the virtual founders of the parish, and many of their descendants are still to be found in the district.

The inhabitants of Lower Canada, at the period of Cartier’s birth, numbering some two hundred thousand souls, may be said to have been divided into four classes—those belonging to the church and the religious orders, the noblesse or seigneurs, the mercantile body and the habitants or landowners. Another class of the community may be described as the habitant merchant, men who, like Jacques Cartier, the grandfather of George-Étienne Cartier, not only owned and cultivated land, but also engaged in trade on an extensive scale. The merchants of Lower Canada of the period comprised importers and retailers. From the former the latter received the merchandise on credit, and generally gave produce in return for their goods. It was to the importing or wholesale class that Jacques Cartier belonged, and he was not only an importer but also an exporter, sending large quantities of wheat to Europe annually. Quebec was at this epoch the great commercial entrepôt from which the merchants brought their goods to the country districts, while the wheat from the Richelieu district was sent down the river in small boats to be loaded at Sorel on vessels for Europe. Large quantities of wheat were for many years shipped in this manner. Railways were then unknown and transportation was by sail boats and by land conveyance.

In each community the leading figures were those of the curé, the seigneur, and the doctor. The curé not only attended to the spiritual wants of the faithful, but also played a leading part in their temporal welfare, being looked to for guidance and advice in many of the important affairs of life. The seigneur was the lord of the soil, to whom the tenant or habitant owed certain obligations, and who in turn was expected to be the protector of the habitant’s interests. The doctor, who attended to their physical welfare from the cradle to the grave, from the nature of his calling naturally obtained a large influence in the community. Though to-day the seigneur, except in a few isolated cases, has practically disappeared, the curé and the doctor, to whom may now be added the notary, are still the leading figures in all French-Canadian communities.

At the time of George-Étienne Cartier’s birth, the seigneurial system, though gradually tending to decay, retained much of its pristine character and many of the old customs still survived. The cens et ventes were still brought to the manor house on St. Martin’s Day to the interesting accompaniments of talkative tenants and noisy capons, the seigneur still had his raised and cushioned pew facing the altar in the parish church, and other of his privileges, such as the banal mill, the corvée, the droit de chasse et de pêche, were still in evidence. From the manor house the seigneur continued to exercise a paternal supervision over his tenants. As a class the seigneurs of Lower Canada could not be said to be well-off, in fact an official report made to the home government in 1800 declared that “very few of them on their own territory have the means of living in a more affluent and imposing style than the simple habitant.”[8] The seigneurs of the Richelieu district, however, if they could not be called rich in the modern acceptation of that term, lived in considerable comfort. Not many of their establishments, of course, were of the proportions of the home of the LeMoynes, the famous Seigneury of Longueuil, which was built of stone and modelled on an old French château, the whole covering a space of over one hundred and seventy by two hundred and seventy feet. But if the generality of the manor houses bore little resemblance to the sumptuous châteaux of the Loire and the Garonne, they were at least substantial and comfortable, being in many cases constructed of brick or stone. They were tastefully, and in some cases elegantly furnished. The Debartzch Manor House at St. Charles on the Richelieu, which may be taken as typical of others, is described by one who visited it at this period as a large brick dwelling with a raised verandah. The interior was neat and commodious and handsomely furnished with every comfort. An expensive piano stood in the drawing-room, and fine paintings ornamented the walls. The barn and outbuildings were well stocked and in the coach house were carriages, sleighs, and a number of fine horses. Adjoining the house was a large garden containing the choicest plants. The cellars of most of the manor houses were generally well stored with wine and spirits to provide for the lavish entertainment of the seigneur’s guests. The income of each seigneur was derived principally from the yearly rental of his lands from lods et ventes, the fine on the disposal of property held under him, and from his grist mills, to the profits of which he had an exclusive right. These old mills, many of which may still be seen in the Richelieu region, constituted a picturesque feature of the seigneurial domain. They were generally built of stone and in the old days contained loopholes, as they served as a blockhouse in case of attack from marauding savages. As the country became more settled and fear of the red man lessened, the mills were constructed without the customary loopholes. Such was the old mill at St. Antoine which, built in 1790, is still standing. The rent paid by each tenant to the seigneur was inconsiderable, but those who had a large number of tenants enjoyed a tolerably handsome income, each tenant paying annually in money, grain or other produce from five to twelve livres.

After the Cession, as well as under the old régime, the seigneurs sometimes played an important rôle. True to the allegiance which they had accepted at the time of the Cession, they repelled the overtures of the Americans in 1775, and when Canada was invaded they hastened to the defence of their altars and their homes. As an evidence of the general attitude of the seigneurs at this period it is on record that in the severest season of the year, in March, 1776, three seigneurs, DeBeaujeu of Crane Island, De Gaspé of St.-Jean-Port-Joli, and Couillard of St. Thomas, headed their retainers and attempted to succour Quebec, then blockaded by the Americans but defended by the gallant Guy Carlton. In the war of 1812 both seigneurs and habitants rendered signal service on behalf of the British Crown. Many of the seigneurs, such as St. Ours and Debartzch of the Richelieu region, occupied prominent positions in the official life of the province, and the seigneurial families were regarded as the social leaders of the period. The children of the household were carefully reared, the daughters receiving a training under the direction of the good Sisters that made them capable housewives as well as accomplished members of society, while the sons were reared for the learned professions. The ambition of every well-to-do family was to have a son educated for the priesthood, and other members of the family made a doctor, a lawyer, or a notary. Nor was this ambition confined to the seigneur’s household. Even the poorest habitant found means to send at least one of his sons to college to be trained for the priesthood or for one of the learned professions, and from many a humble habitant home went youths who subsequently won distinction in the Church and in the State.

Along the banks of the Richelieu were situated not only the manor houses of the seigneurs, but also the humbler dwellings of the habitants, whose farms have been well described as ribbons of land with one end on the river and the other on the uplands behind, combining the advantages of meadows for cultivation and of woods for lumber and firewood. In the early days of the Richelieu district the country, which is now nearly a level plain, was well wooded and timber was abundant. The habitant generally occupied a farm of from one to two hundred arpents, for which in the early days he paid annually not more than two sous an arpent, and frequently less, a portion of the rental being payable in money, but the greater part of it in grain, eggs, and capons or other fowl. Upon his farm the habitant lived an industrious and contented life. His habitation, if not spacious and ornate, was at least clean and comfortable. Usually built near the shore and whitewashed on the outside, the rows of trim cottages that might be seen from the river presented a picturesque appearance. Constructed of wood or logs, the house, as it has been described, generally consisted of only one storey, or ground floor, usually divided into four rooms. Over the single storey was a garret or loft formed by the sloping roof. The chimney was generally in the centre of the house with the fireplace in the kitchen. The furniture was plain and simple and mostly of domestic workmanship. A few wooden chairs with twig or rush bottoms and two or three deal tables were placed in each room, a press and two or three large chests held the wearing apparel and other effects of the household. A buffet in one corner of the dining-room contained a display of cups, saucers, glasses and teapots, while some choice pieces of chinaware might grace the mantelpiece. In the best room a large clock would generally be found, and the walls would be ornamented with pictures of the Blessed Virgin, the Infant Jesus, a crucifix and representations of saints and martyrs, indicating the exemplary piety and devotion of the people. In the largest apartment was usually placed an iron stove with a pipe passing through the other rooms into the chimney. In the kitchen, which was perhaps more used than any other room, were a dresser, a few chairs, and a display of kettles, trenchers, tureens and other culinary utensils. In the fireplace itself, one of the main features of the house, large logs of wood placed on old-fashioned iron dogs furnished on cold winter days a comforting blaze. Over the fire, supported by a wooden crane, was usually a large kettle which often as not contained a plentiful supply of tasteful and nourishing pea soup. The sleeping apartments, like the other rooms in the house, were simply but comfortably furnished in old-fashioned style. In a corner of each of the bedrooms was a kind of four-posted bedstead without pillars and raised a certain height above the ground. At the head there was generally a canopy fixed against the wall. Upon the bedstead would be a feather or straw mattress with the usual clothes and covered with a patch-work counterpane or green stuff quilt. One of the most interesting features of habitant life was the dress of this period, which was of a distinctive character. The farmer’s attire consisted generally of a long-skirted cloth coat or frock, made of homespun of a dark grey colour, with a capuchon or hood attached, the latter being used in winter or in wet weather as a head gear. The coat was tied around the waist by a sash of various colours, sometimes ornamented with beads. The waistcoat and trousers were generally of the same cloth as the coat and a pair of moccasins or heavy boots completed the lower part of the attire. Upon the head was worn the famous tuque bleue, at once unique and comfortable. In summer the long coat was usually exchanged for a short jacket and the tuque bleue for a straw hat. The attire of the women, which was neat and simple, was generally made of cloth of their own manufacture, the same as was worn by the men. A petticoat and short jacket was the most customary dress of the period, though occasionally the women would deck themselves in printed cotton gowns, muslin aprons, and shawls. The elderly women adhered to long waists, full coifs and large clubs of hair behind.

The thrift and industry of the old-time habitants is shown by the fact that they had almost every resource within their own families. From flax which they cultivated they made linen, and their sheep supplied them with the wool of which their garments were formed. From the tanned hides of their cattle were made their moccasins and boots, from woollen yarn they knitted their stockings and tuques, and from straw they made their summer hats and bonnets. Nor was this the case only with their wearing apparel. From the produce of their farms they made their own bread, butter and cheese, their soap, candles and sugar. They built their own houses, barns and stables, and made their own carts, wheels, ploughs, harrows, and canoes.[9]

Occupied with his farming operations, the habitant for a good portion of the year had little time to spare. The spring was spent in ploughing and sowing, in summer he was kept busy with the numerous demands of the farm, and in the fall harvesting took up nearly the whole of his attention. The soil of Lower Canada at this period retained so much of its virgin fertility that it required little cultivation to yield abundant crops. Wheat was the principal crop, but hay, peas, oats, rye and barley were also more or less raised by every farmer. Maize or Indian corn was then cultivated more as an article of luxury than of necessity, and tobacco was grown in small quantities for domestic consumption. Vegetables were grown in sufficient quantities. At the beginning of winter the habitant would kill his hogs, cattle and poultry for his own consumption and for sale on the market. The provisions were kept in the garret of the dwelling houses, where they became frozen and were thus preserved until required for use, and the vegetables were deposited in the cellars or excavation of the earth made for the purpose beyond the influence of the cold.

The personal characteristics of the habitant were not only distinctive but admirable. The men were sturdy and intelligent, of a gay and vivacious disposition; the women were comely, virtuous and devoted to their families. Early marriages, encouraged by the priests, resulted in a high standard of morality and a numerous progeny. Families of a dozen and more children were common then, as they still are, and fifteen, twenty and even thirty children in the same family were not unusual. If his attire was quaint and his tastes simple, the manners of the habitant indicated the innate nobleness of his character. From his French ancestry he inherited that natural politeness which seems to be inherent in the French blood. What in fact most impressed visitors to Lower Canada at this period was the easy deportment of the habitant, free as it was from all rusticity, and his gracious and unaffected hospitality. Lambert, the English traveller, who visited Canada at this time and made personal observations of the habits and customs of the people, describes the habitants’ manners as easy and polite. Their behaviour to strangers, he says, was never influenced by the cut of the coat, or a fine periwig. It was civil and respectful to all, without distinction of persons. They treated their superiors, Lambert adds, with that polite deference which neither debases the one nor exalts the other, and they were never rude to their inferiors. Their carriage and deportment were easy and they had the air of men who had lived all their lives in a town rather than in the country. They lived on the best of terms with each other, parents and children to the third generation frequently residing in one house. The farms were divided as long as there was an acre to divide, and their desire of living together, Lambert quaintly observes, was a proof that they lived happily, otherwise they would have been anxious to part. Heriot, whose “Travels through the Canadas” was published in London only a few years before Cartier’s birth, pays the French-Canadian habitants the high tribute of remarking that their address to strangers was more polite and unembarrassed than that of any other peasantry in the world. Though time has wrought many changes in Lower Canada as elsewhere, the habitant still retains his gracious manners, and it would be difficult to find a more polite, unaffected and hospitable people than the residents of the country parishes of the Province of Quebec.

Not only in his manners, but also in his disposition, did the habitant display his French blood, being possessed of that gay and vivacious temperament which is one of the chief charms of the French character. Even though he might not be rich in the world’s goods, he was blessed with an abundant store of good spirits and rejoiced in sociability. He was passionately fond of visiting, given to harmless gossip, and delighted in a good story, a rollicking song, and a lively dance. Lambert tells how the habitant at that time rejoiced in dances and entertainments at particular seasons and festivals, on which occasions there would be a constant succession of merry-making. The long fast in Lent was followed by days of feasting. Then every product of the farm was presented for the satisfaction of the appetite. Immense turkey pies, huge joints of beef, pork and mutton, spacious tureens of soup, or thick milk, and a plentiful supply of fruit pies decorated the board. On some of these occasions fifty or one hundred people would sit down to dinner; the tables groaned with their load, and the room resounded with jollity and merriment. No sooner was the meal over than the fiddle would strike up a lively air and the dancing would begin. Old-fashioned reels, jigs and minuets would conclude the joyous gathering. Many of the quaint customs of the period have since disappeared, but these dances survive to this day in the country parts of Quebec. What joy in the hospitable habitant home when in the midst of a gay gathering of young and old the fiddle strikes up an air and all join in the accompanying dance!

Attached to the faith of his fathers, his language and his institutions, the habitant led a happy and contented life. The piety of the people was shown by numerous wayside crosses which were scattered throughout the country parishes and which still stand to this day, receiving as the emblem of the divine, from every passer-by, a reverent salutation. Zealous in the observance of all the rites and observances of the Church, its great feast days, Les Fêtes or Christmas holidays, Mardi Gras, or the day preceding Lent, Pâques or Easter, La Toussaint or All Saints, were the dates from which a habitant re-reckoned the great events of his life and of the parish. He would join piously in the Fête Dieu or Corpus Christi, one of the most solemn and imposing ceremonies of the Catholic faith, and would reverently kneel as the Host was borne in procession through the village streets. On Sundays and other special feast days he would reverently partake of Le Pain Bénit or Blessed Bread. At that time it was the custom for each family to send a choice loaf, generally of unusual size, to the church, and the bread having been blessed by the priest and cut into small pieces was placed in large baskets and distributed amongst the faithful. Christmas and New Year’s were notable seasons. At Christmas time there would be that quaint custom, the Quête de L’Enfant Jésus, the collection for the Infant Jesus, when candles would be collected for the illumination of the church at the Christmas midnight mass, while the women would bring bits of lace, ribbons and artificial flowers for the decoration of the Holy manger, where a scene representing the birth of the infant Saviour would be exposed for veneration. Following the midnight mass would come the réveillon, when all would join in feasting and gossip. New Year’s day, which was a great day for visiting and merry-making, was ushered in by that touching custom known as La Bénédiction Paternelle, the Father’s blessing on his children. “At early morning,” says Abbé Casgrain in describing this beautiful custom, “our mother woke us up, attired us in our Sunday best and gathered us all together with the house servants following, in the parlour. She then thrust open the bedroom door of our father, who from his couch invoked a blessing upon all of us, ranged kneeling around him, whilst emotion used to bring tears to the eyes of our dear mother. Our father, in an impressive manner, accompanied his blessing with a few words to us, raising his hands heavenwards. Of course the crowning part of the ceremony was the distribution of the New Year’s gifts which he kept concealed behind him.”

On New Year’s day too the habitant would pay his respects to the seigneur and visits would be exchanged from house to house. Often the seigneur, who was the godfather of most of the first-born of his tenants, would receive visits from his numerous godchildren, and it is on record that in some cases more than a hundred children would gather at the manor house. Following New Year’s would come the Epiphany, or Little Christmas, when there would be renewed festivities, and later in the year St. Catherine’s day, always a great day in the French-Canadian parishes, would furnish another occasion for merry-making. Weddings, too, were attended in the country parishes at this period, as they are to-day, with much festivity. Domestic attachment was one of the strongest traits of the habitant character, and he was generally devoted to his family. Were there no visitors to entertain in the long winter evenings, whilst the farmer smoked in front of the fireplace, and the good wife busied herself with her household duties, with the numerous children playing around, some quaint story of olden days might be told. The habitants were as a rule great raconteurs and the abundant fund of Canadian folklore furnished them with a plentiful supply of stories. Wherever there was a habitant gathering it was sure to be made interesting by some such tale. It might be a version of the chasse gallerie, that old superstition dating back to the days of those hardy woodsmen, the coureurs des bois, under the French régime, and telling of bark canoes travelling in mid air, full of men paddling and singing, under the direction of the evil spirit. Or it might be a grim tale of the terrible loups-garous or werewolves, those frightful monsters, half wolf and half man, with heads like wolves and arms, legs and body like men, devilish creatures, who lived on human flesh and who would entrap unwary travellers to their cannibal repasts. The inexhaustible store of Canadian folklore furnished many another such tale to pass the leisure hour when other entertainment was not to be had. Equally as fond of a song as of a good story, the habitant would rejoice when a rollicking chorus was raised in some festive gathering. The chansons populaires recalled the sunny land of France and the days of the old régime, and the airs of “À la Claire Fontaine” and of many another old French song were familiar throughout the whole countryside, and found an echo in many a joyous group.

Frugal, industrious, God-fearing, the habitant was attached to Canada, because it was his home and endeared to him by innumerable associations. In the simple village churchyard reposed the remains of his ancestors who had worked the farm before him, and beside whom he would one day also rest; from the tower of the village church rang the bell which summoned him to worship, and from the pulpit the good curé would admonish him to holy thoughts and moral living. In the manor house nearby lived the seigneur, to whom he was wont to look for guidance in his temporal affairs. His own farm furnished all that his simple tastes required. Blessed by nature with a natural shrewdness and a sound common sense, he was able to hold his own in the struggle for existence. Contented and happy, with his own particular parish the centre of his activities, he passed his days in peace, knowing little and caring less of the bustling world beyond.

Such were the general characteristics of the people from whom George-Étienne Cartier sprang, and the modes of life which I have described constituted his environment during those early years when his character was in process of formation. He possessed many of the habitant virtues, honour, probity, patriotism, unaffectedness, attachment to family ties, and love for his native land. The House of the Seven Chimneys, in which he was born, was the centre of the activities of the whole district. There the merchant owner lived and there he directed his extensive commercial operations. The portion of the dwelling devoted to a warehouse was stored with goods intended for the farmers throughout the district, and from the farmers in turn were purchased large quantities of wheat for export to Europe. With such an ancestry, and amid such surroundings, it was not surprising that George-Étienne Cartier possessed in an eminent degree those practical and businesslike instincts which distinguished him in his public career. His grandfather, who passed away only a few months before the future nation-builder was born, was one of the most successful merchants of the period, and his uncle, Joseph Cartier, was also a leader in the commercial life of the district.

Grandmother of Sir George Cartier

Lieut.-Col. Jacques Cartier, Grandfather of Sir George Cartier

Lieut.-Col. Jacques Cartier, Father of Sir George Cartier

Mme. Jacques Cartier, Mother of Sir George Cartier

Both the parents of George-Étienne Cartier possessed striking personalities, and to each of them the son was indebted for distinctive traits of his character. His father was in some respects of a unique type. Of a gay and careless disposition, he was disposed to be a bon viveur, and, though destined by his father to follow a commercial career, he showed little inclination for such a calling. Possessed of an abundant fund of good spirits and endowed by nature with a fine voice, which he was fond of displaying, he was never so happy as when engaged in the festivities of the countryside or entertaining his friends around his hospitable board. His hospitality in fact was so prodigal that he dissipated much of his fortune, but he maintained his jovial spirits to the close of his days. If George-Étienne Cartier owed to his father his genial spirits and that pronounced optimism which never deserted him, it was to his mother that he was indebted for the more serious side of his character. Madame Cartier has been described by those who knew her as a veritable saint. A woman of superior intelligence and understanding, she was possessed of a most devoted and charitable disposition. Her hospitality to all and her kindness to the poor were proverbial, and in her spacious and comfortable home many unfortunates found relief. Of a deeply religious character, fervent in her devotion, she was zealous in attending to the spiritual as well as to the temporal needs of her poorer neighbours. For a portion of every year her home was the abode of the good Brothers who taught Catechism throughout the country, and who never forgot the kindness of their pious benefactress. Under the training of such a mother young Cartier imbibed those religious and patriotic principles which guided him throughout the whole of his career.

It was in the company of his vivacious father and his young brothers and sisters, and under the watchful eye of his pious mother, that the first ten years of Cartier’s life were spent. At the village school of St. Antoine he received the rudimentary elements of instruction. Traditions of his youth describe him as a lad of gay spirits, of a rather combative nature, fond of fun and jollity, and always ready to take his own part. He was the centre of many a merry group of young people, for in the festivities of the countryside at that period both young and old had their part. The Richelieu district at that time may be said to have been at the zenith of its glory. It was the garden of Lower Canada, a land of peace and of plenty, of lavish hospitality and endless festivity. Though the descendants of some of the original seigneurs, such as the St. Ours family, still lived in the district, many of the seigneuries had passed into other hands, but the owners were no less hospitable than those of the old régime. The Seigneur of St. Antoine and Contrecoeur was the Honourable Xavier Amable Malhiot, a man of wealth and substance. At St. Denis lived the seigneur of that place, Louis Joseph Deschambault, at St. Charles was the comfortable manor house of Honourable P. B. Debartzch, at St. Mare lived Seigneur Drolet, at St. Ours, Honourable Roche de St. Ours occupied the manor house, and, at St. Hilaire, Seigneur de Rouville had his comfortable and hospitable home. At the different villages many well-known French-Canadian families had an ever ready welcome for all their friends. At St. Antoine, the home of the Cartiers was the centre of attraction, and there would assemble, from time to time, many of the notables of the district. In the upper storey of the commodious dwelling were situated the guest rooms, designated, in order to distinguish them, as the green room, the red room, the yellow room, the grey room, and the rose room, and Cartier’s father was never so happy as when these rooms were all occupied. In the early morning the genial host would knock at each door, and awake his guests with a merry song, presenting to each with his good morning salutation a little glass of fine Jamaica as an early cordial. Similar hospitality was to be found in all the other homes of the Richelieu region. At St. Denis, in addition to the Deschambaults, were the Cherrier, Nelson, Laparre, Bruneau, Bourdages, and Hubert families. At St. Charles were the homes of the Debartzches and Duverts, at St. Mare the Drolet and Franchère families, and at Beloeil the De Rouvilles, the Brosseaus and the Allards. The dwellings of these families were popular meeting places for the whole district, and the scenes of constant gaiety. The winter especially was the season of enjoyment. Then festivity and good cheer reigned supreme, and dinners, parties and dances were the order of the day. The dinners, or, as they were known, the “fricots,” were marvellous for the variety of the eatables and for the good cheer that accompanied them. Songs and music followed the sumptuous repast, and then would be heard many a gay old French song. Often as not it would be that beautiful air, “À la Claire Fontaine,” “without which one was not a Canadian,” and which was ever a favourite with Cartier:

“À la claire fontaine M’en allant promener J’ai trouvé l’eau si belle Que je m’y suis baigné Lui ya longtemps que je t’aime Jamais je ne t’oublierai.“J’ai trouvé l’eau si belle Que je m’y suis baigné Sous les feuilles d’un chêne Je me suis fait sécher Lui ya longtemps que je t’aime Jamais je ne t’oublierai. “Sous les feuilles d’un chêne Je me suis fait sécher Sur la plus haute branche Le rossignol chantant Lui ya longtemps que je t’aime Jamais je ne t’oublierai. “Sur la plus haute branche Le rossignol chantant; Chante, rossignol, chante Toi qui as le cœur gai Lui ya longtemps que je t’aime Jamais je ne t’oublierai. “Chante, rossignol, chante Toi qui a le cœur gai Tu as le cœur à rire Moi je l’ai-t-à pleurer Lui ya longtemps que je t’aime Jamais je ne t’oublierai.”[10]

These merry gatherings were witnessed not only in the manor houses, but in the humbler, though none the less hospitable, homes of the simple habitant. The people of one village exchanged visits with those of another, and the icebound Richelieu would be gay in winter with the tinkling of numerous sleigh bells as the comfortable carrioles would carry parties from one house to another. From the military quarters at Fort William Henry (Sorel) and Chambly would often come the gay cavaliers, giving a touch of colour to the scene and always sure of a warm welcome, especially from the charming belles of the district. So lavish were many of the families in their hospitality that they became impoverished, and their last days were in striking contrast to the splendour of their former lot. But while the bon vieux temps or the good old times, as they were known, lasted the lot of all was cast in pleasant places.

It was amid such scenes that George-Étienne Cartier passed the days of his boyhood, and they left a permanent impress upon his character. Throughout his subsequent career he was noted for his gay and jovial spirits and he never forgot the delightful days of his youth in the Richelieu district. But more serious work was in store for him. Having acquired all that the village school could teach, it was decided by his parents that he should receive the benefits of a collegiate course, and in his tenth year he was sent to Montreal to enter the Montreal College, which was then, as it still is to-day, under the direction of the Sulpicians, or as they are officially known, “Les Messieurs de St. Sulpice.” It was at the session of 1824-25 that Cartier began his course at this historic seat of learning, from which have been graduated many of the foremost men of Canada. The College of Montreal has indeed had a unique history. The Seminary of St. Sulpice, ever mindful of its duty towards youth, as early as 1737 established a college, and in 1754 a great impetus was given to the cause of education by the arrival from France of a remarkable man, Curateau de la Blaiserie, who in 1757 was ordained and became curé of Longue Pointe near Montreal. He possessed rare qualities, and surrounded himself with devoted scholars and sympathetic friends. In his presbytery he established a flourishing teaching school, under the patronage of St. Raphael. St. Sulpice gladly availed itself of its services, and in 1773, an opportunity presenting itself, the fabrique of Notre-Dame purchased the fine mansion and garden of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, covering the ground between St. Paul and Notre-Dame Streets in the city of Montreal, the site of the present Bonsecours Market and Nelson’s Monument. There Curateau de la Blaiserie was installed as director of the College of Montreal, and continued his services until death terminated his career in 1790. The first college establishment was destroyed by fire in 1803, and in the following year the Seminary, out of its funds, erected on the site on St. Paul Street, a short distance west of McGill Street, a spacious building, in which two years later the work of education was continued. This edifice was long known as the College of Montreal, and its name, after the building had passed into secular uses, was perpetuated in College Street. The college was subsequently removed to the present premises on Sherbrooke Street, which were erected on the site of the famous Fort de la Montagne, where, as an inscription records, the Gospel was preached to the Indians. It was in the old building on College Street that young Cartier was a student, and when he entered the college Messire Joseph Vincent Quiblier was Superior of St. Sulpice, and Messire Jacques Guillaume Roque was director of the college. Both were learned and distinguished ecclesiastics, and had much to do with the formation of the character of one whose career was to reflect the highest honour on the institution.

The college records show that young Cartier was not only an earnest student, but that he distinguished himself in the various classes up to the close of his collegiate career. He followed the whole classical course of six years, in 1824-25 taking elementary Latin, in 1825-26 syntax, in 1826-27 méthode, in 1827-28 versification, in 1828-29 belles-lettres, in 1829-30 rhetoric, and in 1830-31 philosophy. In the various years young Cartier carried off some of the principal prizes. In his sixth class (1824-25) he obtained the first prize in grammar, in his fifth class (1825-26) he was awarded the first prize in sacred history, in the fourth class (1826-27) he took the first prize in profane history and was also given the accessit or honourable mention for Latin verse. In the third year (1827-28) he was awarded the first prize for modern history, the second prize for Latin verse, and the accessit for a Latin theme. In the second class (1828-29) he secured the second prize for Latin verse, the second prize for Latin composition, and the accessit for French composition. In his final class (1830-31) he was awarded the accessit for Latin verse and achieved the high distinction of being chosen as the ripest scholar of the whole college to publicly defend a Latin thesis in logic, metaphysics and ethics, propounded by the professorial staff. It was a proud day for the young student, then only in his seventeenth year, when on August 10th, 1831, he appeared at the closing exercises and defended the thesis with ability and distinction. That he should have been chosen from amongst hundreds of students for such a task shows that his ability was recognised even at this early period.

To the careful training of the devoted Sulpicians Cartier owed much of his future success and from them he imbibed his deep love of classics and of letters. Nor did he ever forget his Alma Mater or the debt he owed to the good priests of St. Sulpice. On more than one occasion in future years did he bear public testimony to their worth. Nearly thirty years after his graduation, when he had attained the exalted position of Prime Minister of United Canada, Cartier attended the scene of his early triumphs on the occasion of the closing exercises of the college, held on June 10th, 1860. Then and there he saw another generation of students graduated, and listened with emotion as the young Canadians at the outset of their careers lustily sang the national song, “O Canada, Mon Pays, Mes Amours,” of which he was the author. “This is the first time,” said Cartier, “that I have had the pleasure of finding myself in this place since my college course. Then, like all my fellow students, I was full of hope. I cannot help expressing the emotion which I feel in again seeing the place where I received instruction in morals and religion. It may be permitted me to profit by the occasion to recall the presence of several whom I see in the audience, and to pay a just tribute of praise to the venerable ecclesiastic who is present at this interesting gathering and under whose direction I learned the best of what I know. In the course of my career I have kept a good remembrance of his teaching, and I may say that, after leaving this institution and being under the influence of what is sometimes called youthful folly, I never forgot the religious principles received from the venerable M. Bayle. All my fellow students of that time will render the same testimony.

“As for you young students, do not forget that you in your turn are the hope of the national family. Depositaries of the precious sciences in which you are instructed, you will later have to use them for the profit of your country when each one of you will enter the sphere of action which Divine Providence intends for you. It will be then that you will have to put into practice the Christian lessons which you have received in this blessed institution, remembering that it is by our firm attachment to the religion of our fathers and to their eminent virtues that we will preserve our French-Canadian nationality. Who knows perhaps one of you is destined to fill in this country the position which I at present occupy? He will, I have no doubt, fill it better than I. I beg him to have always present in his thoughts the teaching which assures the conservation of our race.”

Once again the occasion presented itself for Cartier to sound the praises of his Alma Mater under historic circumstances. On September 16th, 1866, when, at the zenith of his career as a great statesman and nation builder, he was one of a party of eminent men who accompanied Lord Monck, the then Governor-General of Canada, on an official visit to the Grand Séminaire, where they were received by the distinguished Superior Abbé Bayle, who had been one of Cartier’s professors. “Forty years after my departure from this institution,” said Cartier in an address on that occasion, “I experience great joy in being able to again meet my old professor, the present Superior, and also to meet you whom I will call my fellow students, though I preceded you many years. Perhaps you have sometimes in your imagination regarded as very high the position which I occupy to-day. Well, I wish to confess to you that I do not owe this position to my own merits, or to my natural capacities, but it is due to the reverend gentleman, to Abbé Bayle. When I was as young and as unruly as you are, it was he in fact who instructed, disciplined, and enlightened me, who indicated the road to follow, and, as I am infinitely pleased to see him to-day Superior of St. Sulpice, he perhaps on his part rejoices to see me as an adviser and representative of Her Majesty.”

For the priests of St. Sulpice Cartier always entertained the warmest feeling, and it was a noble tribute he paid to these devoted men when in delivering a funeral eulogy on Abbé Granet, Superior of the Sulpicians in Canada, on February 14th, 1866, he said: “The Sulpicians have had a great part in the progress of the French-Canadians, and their modesty, their simplicity, and their tact have always been admirable, whilst their zeal has always been so disinterested that never have they excited the least jealousy amongst our fellow citizens who are not of our race or of our communion.”

Graduating from the College of Montreal in 1831, young Cartier at once took up the study of the law, which was his chosen profession. He was articled to Édouard Rodier, a prominent Montreal lawyer of the period, in whose office he spent some time, and after the necessary examinations he was admitted to the Bar in 1835. While pursuing his legal studies he was active in various directions. Of an ardent and impetuous temperament, the young student sought other fields for his abundant energies. He became active in the organisation of the St. Jean Baptiste Association, the national society of the French-Canadians, which was founded in 1834 by Ludger Duvernay, of Montreal. Cartier was the first secretary of the Association and subsequently became its president. During the period following his graduation the young student paid frequent visits to the family home at St. Antoine, where he was always the recipient of a warm welcome from his parents, his brothers and sisters, and his old friends, who were all looking forward to a distinguished career for the bright and sprightly youth. In the Richelieu district, though political discussion was already running high, all was yet peaceful. The seigneurs continued to entertain lavishly and the habitants made merry in their comfortable homes. The beautiful Richelieu valley slumbered securely, all unconscious of the coming storm which was to devastate its fair domain.