Читать книгу Canadian Footprints - Melvin Ormond Hammond - Страница 16

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UNDER the arching elms which beautify New Brunswick’s unhurrying capital, a shabby old store building tells by its tablet that here first met in Fredericton the Legislature of the Province in July, 1788. Christ Church Cathedral, most perfect Gothic edifice in Canada, and the handsome new Parliament Building, with its curious pepper-pot tower, are neighbours, proud, but not scornful.

St. John had the Assembly for its first two years, in 1786 and 1787, meeting in the Mallard House, an inn well named in a Province of sportsmen. Governor Sir Thomas Carleton, fearing raids from New England under the bitterness following the War of Independence, chose the more isolated and central location up the St. John River. It was then called St. Anne’s Point, a remnant from the fur-trading days of the French, where Villebon had built a fort. Melicites came down the river with canoes piled high with beaver skins to gratify the vanity of Parisian beauties.

Fredericton as a capital was without roads save the river, and with little population nearby. The first meeting of the Legislature was delayed by non-arrival of members, but once at work they plunged into the question of fees for themselves! Ten Acts were passed in that session, but deadlock between Council and Assembly thereafter hindered business, as in other Provinces.

Twelve years the members met in the old building, and then they passed to something better. The city longed to rival St. John in commerce as in politics. The lumber trade came, new railways penetrated the wilderness on all sides, but the lead of the city by the sea has never been overcome.

First Parliament Building, Fredericton