XX. THE MUNICIPALITY OF MONTREAL
EARLY EFFORTS TOWARDS MUNICIPAL HOME RULE--1786--1821--1828--THE FIRST MUNICIPAL CHARTER OF 1831--THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL--JACQUES VIGER FIRST MAYOR--THE RETURN TO THE JUSTICES OF THE PEACE--LORD DURHAM’S REPORT AND THE RESUMPTION OF THE CORPORATION IN 1840--CHARTER AMENDMENT, 1851--FIRST MAYOR ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE--CHARTER AMENDMENT OF 1874--THE CITY OF MONTREAL ANNEXATIONS--CIVIC POLITICS--THE NOBLE “13”--1898 CHARTER RECAST, SANCTIONED IN 1899--CIVIC SCANDALS--THE “23”--JUDGE CANNON’S REPORT--THE REFORM PARTY; THE “CITIZENS’ ASSOCIATION”--REDUCTION OF ALDERMEN AND A BOARD OF CONTROL, THE ISSUE--THE WOMEN’S CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS--THE NEW REGIME AND THE BOARD OF CONTROL--FURTHER AMENDMENTS TO CHARTER--THE ELECTIONS OF 1912--ABOLITION OF THE SMALL WARD SYSTEM ADVOCATED--THE ELECTIONS OF 1914--A FORECAST FOR GREATER MONTREAL--SUPPLEMENT: LIST OF MAYORS--CITY REVENUE.
The citizens of Montreal, as already narrated, had had in view for many years under the British rule, the introduction of a responsible form of Home Rule in municipal affairs. As early as 1786, on the invitation of the Superior Council, they had reported in favour of the incorporation by charter of a municipality, but notwithstanding, the system of government by justices of the peace was continued. At a meeting of October 23, 1821, the citizens again agitated for a charter. In 1828 a great meeting was held on December 6th and resolutions were passed to the effect that in the flourishing state of the growth of population and the progress of trade the government by magistrates was not sufficient to provide for municipal advance in the future; that among the evils due to insufficient powers granted to the magistrates was the inefficiency of police regulations and the want of an efficient system of bookkeeping in the appropriation of the revenues of the town; the deplorable state for many years of the water front and the lands adjoining the “little river,” which by their unhealthy condition, had become dangerous to the well being of the great part of the surrounding population; the lack of means and authority for undertaking and executing a preconceived and general plan of improvement, it being left to the individual to put obstacles to the proper growth of the town which narrowness of view and self-interest might suggest to the delay in growth and the increase of avoidable expenses. The citizens concluded by demanding from the legislature the incorporation of the town. The committee formed to present the petition was as follows: For the town, J.B. Rolland, P. McGill, J. Quesnell and A. Laframbroise; for the districts of St. Antoine, St. Ann and the Recollets, John Fry, Father Desautels, John Torrance, Charles de Lorimier, C. Wagner and H. Corse; for St. Lawrence, C.S. Delorme, A. Tullock (Père), A. Tullock (Fils), John Baptiste Castonguay, B. Hall and Louis de Chantal; for the Quebec and St. Louis districts, John Richelieu, Louis Parthenais, Francis Derome and C.S. Rodier.
In 1830 the harbour commission was appointed as a partial remedy.
In 1831 the first act incorporating the city of Montreal was presented on March 31st for the sanction of His Majesty, which was given on April 12, 1832, its publication being by proclamation of the governor general on June 5th following. On the 18th of July, 1833, the city council unanimously adopted the seal of the arms of the city, the Beaver,[1] the Rose, the Shamrock and the Thistle, and its motto, “Concordia Salus.” By this act under the name of “The Corporation of the City of Montreal” the city was divided into eight wards, East, West, St. Ann, St. Joseph, St. Antoine, St. Lawrence, St. Louis and St. Mary. Each was to elect two councillors with certain financial qualifications, and these sixteen were to elect from their number one to act as mayor to whom a salary not exceeding four hundred dollars should be granted. The right of citizenship was to be accorded to every man attaining the age of twenty-one years and possessing real estate in the limits of the city and having resided therein for twelve months prior to the election. Every elector became a member of the corporation. The corporation acquired powers to borrow, acquire and possess property, to take action at law, to be in turn liable to legal prosecution and to have a seal. The other powers granted them were similar to those exercised hitherto by the justices of the peace for the government and maintenance of the city. The act was not to remain in force after May 1, 1836.
On the first Monday in May, 1833, the justices of the peace met to appoint the first Monday of June as the day of election of the councillors. These, when elected, met on June 5th in the courthouse for the first séance. Jacques Viger, who acted as secretary, was elected the first mayor, the councillors being John Donegani, William Forbes, Joseph Gauvin, Alexander Lusignan, John McDonell, Robert Nelson, C.S. Rodier, Joseph Roy, John Torrance, Augustin Tullock, John Turney, Guillaume J. Vallée, François Dérome, Mahum Hall, Julien Perrault, and Turton Penn. The secretary appointed was Francis Auger. On the first Monday of June, each year, half of the council had to be replaced or re-elected. The charter required that each regulation of the council before taking effect should be submitted for approbation to the court of King’s Bench after having been published in the newspapers and by town criers.
This charter remained in force till May 1, 1836, when for unaccountable reasons its renewal was refused, and the justices of the peace again ruled the city till August, 1840. These, following the official lists, were: Denis B. Viger, Peter McGill, Pierre de Rocheblave, William Robertson, Lawrence Kidd, James Miller, Austin Cuvillier, James Quesnel, Adam L. McNiver, Joseph Shuter, William Hall, Jos. Ant. Gagnon, Daniel Arnoldi, E.M. Leprohon, George S. Holt, Joseph T. Barrett, Jacob DeWitt, Pierre Lukin, Turton Penn, Thomas Cringan, Joseph Masson, Henry Corse, John Molson, Sidney Bellingham, James Browne, Pierre E. Leclere, John Donegani, Guillaume J. Vallée, Charles Lamontagne, Henri Desrivières, Theophile Dufort, Benjamin Hart, James McGill Desrivières, Charles S. Rodier, John Jones, Charles Tate, Hugh E. Barron, Alexis Laframboise, J. Bte. Castonguay, Patrice Lacombe, Olivier Berthelet, Paul Jos. LaCroix, Thomas B. Wragg, M.J. Hayes, Etienne Guy, Logan Fuller, François P. Bruneau, Pierre Louis Panet, Hugh Brodie, Joseph Baby, Alexander Buchanan, John Dyke and William Evans. The clerks of the justices were Delisle and Delisle, then Delisle and Brehaut.
During this period Lord Durham arrived and his report animadverting on the absence of municipal government in Montreal and Quebec, doubtless caused the reintroduction of the municipal council under the name of the mayor, the aldermen and the citizens of the city of Montreal. The governor, Mr. C. Poulett Thomson (afterwards Lord Sydenham) was authorized to name the first council for the first term to end on December 2, 1842. His choice was as follows: Mayor, the Hon. Peter McGill; councillors, Jules Quesnel, Adam Ferrier, C.S. Rodier, J.G. McKenzie, C.S. De Bleury, J.M. Tobin, Olivier Berthelet, F. Bruneau, Hippolyte Guy, John Donegani, Charles Tate, J.W. Dunscomb, Thomas Philipps, Colin Campbell, Stanley Bagg, Archibald Hume, D. Handside and William Molson. On September 12, J.P. Sexton was appointed city clerk and remained in office till 1858.
In 1843 the second council was elected by the people from six wards only, viz., East, Center, West, Queen, St. Lawrence and St. Mary. These councillors, two for each ward, elected the mayor from among themselves, as well as six other citizens under the title of aldermen who all composed the council as follows: Mayor, Joseph Bourret; aldermen, Joseph Masson, Benjamin Holmes, William Molson, Joseph Roy, Joseph Redpath, C.S. De Bleury; councillors, James Ferrier, Pierre Jodoin, Peter Dunn, William Lunn, William Watson, Olivier Frechette, Pierre Beaubien, P.A. Gagnon, François Trudeau, François Perrin, and John Mathewson. The six wards into which the city was divided were: East, Center, West, Queen, St. Lawrence and St. Mary. In 1845 the city was divided into nine wards, the city wards being East, Center and West and having each three representatives in the council, the other six, called the suburban wards, only having two councillors each. Thus the whole council had twenty-one members.
This system obtained till 1852,[2] when by the statute Victoria, 14, 15, chapter 128, passed in 1851, the election of the mayor passed from the council to the people at large. The first thus elected was the Hon. Charles Wilson. The number of the aldermen was raised to nine and each of the suburban wards received the same rights as the city wards to three representatives. This brought the council up to twenty-seven members. The statute of 1851 only imposed four quarterly sessions of the council, but the mayor had the right, however, to call special meetings. As an instance of the parochial measures then engaging the thoughts of our municipal rulers, we may quote the following relating to the breaking of a monopoly:
“Mayor Wolfred Nelson, in his address to the Council in 1854, after alluding to the pestilence which had visited the city and the poverty which followed, said: ‘The misery in which we have been involved would have been immeasurably greater had not the Council adopted energetic measures having the effect of breaking down a cursed monopoly--that of firewood--by purchasing several hundred cords of firewood and selling it in small lots at cost price; as well as of arresting the most extraordinary practice of converting our greatest thoroughfares, the wharves, into wood yards by speculators and monopolists, who prevented the purchase of wood in small quantities from the boats. The adoption of these measures in one week reduced the price of fuel over one quarter, at a period when it had been boasted that it would be worth ten or twelve dollars a cord during the winter. Instead of this exhorbitant rate the best wood can now be obtained for $6 a cord.’”
In 1859 Charles Glackmeyer was appointed city clerk and remained in office till 1892, when he was succeeded by L.O. David till today.
In 1874 (Victoria 37, Chapter 41) the charter was amended and the name of the corporation was changed to that of “The City of Montreal.” The distinction between aldermen and councillors was abolished, the title for all being that of aldermen, who were all elected by the people.
The history of Greater Montreal now begins in the annexation of the rural municipalities. In 1883 the new Hochelaga ward added three aldermen; in 1886 that of St. Jean Baptiste three others; in 1887 St. Gabriel ward also added three.
Commenting on the state of civic politics under this charter a contemporary has the following chatty appreciation:[3]
“For many years the English-speaking element had dominated in civic affairs by virtue of a very small majority in the City Council, and there was just a little tendency among the city fathers forming that majority, not only to dominate but to domineer. They were not disposed to be unjust to the citizens who formed the majority of the electorate, but they showed a lack of tact amounting at times to a want of delicacy in dealing with and speaking of the diverse elements of the population. The French-Canadians had the good sense to elect their ablest men. To be quite frank there was a long period during which the English-speaking people seemed to think that almost anybody was good enough to make an alderman. The result was inevitable. Each ward was represented by three aldermen, one retiring each year and the English-speaking majority in the Center Ward was in 1880 only a little one. It took just three years of good electioneering work to replace three English-speaking aldermen by three French-Canadians. The latter element now dominated the Council and to prevent accident Hochelaga was annexed in 1883. This not only brought in three more French-Canadian aldermen on December 1, 1883, but it brought in Raymond Préfontaine, who was a host in himself, and who almost immediately became the ruling spirit in civic affairs. Of course, most of the English-speaking aldermen did not take kindly to the new régime and Raymond Préfontaine got his full share of their hot shot and it hurt him as much as water hurts a duck’s back. The attitude of most of the English journalists (including the writer) must have been consoling to the Council minority, on account of the sweet sympathy expressed. ‘The Honest Minority,’ the ‘Noble Thirteen,’ the ‘Faithful Anti-Monopolists’ were among the compliments lavished by a discriminating press; and were taken not only seriously but appreciatively by the recipients, some of whom were in the habit of discussing on the floor of the Council their own sterling qualities with a frankness which left nothing to be desired. One of the noblest Romans of them all could seldom speak of his own honesty (and he had no false delicacy about introducing the subject), without shedding tears and sobbing. Strangers might have imagined he was crying over his lost opportunities, but he wasn’t; it was just his way.
“Time is apt to and ought to modify our judgments of our fellowmen. Let it be said for Raymond Préfontaine by one who generally disagreed with his plans and disapproved of his public actions that among his qualities were some decidedly good ones. He was a man of his word and a man of ideas and infinite resource. He was the first public man to set about systematic modernizing and development of Montreal. When he talked about electric cars and electric lighting, he was laughed to scorn by the ‘Noble Minority’ in the Council and the rest of the nobility outside the Council. He went in for street widening and permanent paving (no doubt at an expensive rate) and he added to the size of the debt as well as to the size of the city. He was, in fact, Montreal’s Baron Haussmann. The Baron was ‘fired’ by the Olivier government for his financial extravagance; he only borrowed a hundred million dollars, from 1865 to 1869; but he made the modern Paris.
“The Noble Thirteen and their admirers, like the coloured troops in the American Civil war fought nobly against Mr. Préfontaine’s schemes and predicted unmerciful disaster if the City Passenger Railway were electrified. To the plea that electric railways were a success elsewhere the opposition replied triumphantly and without fear of contradiction ‘but New York isn’t Montreal’--and neither Alderman Préfontaine nor any of his followers ever dared to take up the challenge and prove that New York was Montreal.
“Then the Noble Thirteen had its own troubles. One, at least, lost his patent of nobility by voting wrong on the gas question; another was laid out on the City Passenger Railway Monopoly; a third was promoted to the retired list because his popularity threatened to make him a dangerous rival to another nobleman in a parliamentary election. Strenuous opponents of ‘monopoly’ in street railways became first lukewarm, then indifferent, then apologetic, and finally strenuous supporters of Monopoly with the biggest ‘M’ in the printer’s upper case. Most of the Noble Thirteen have gone to a better world, which is a good thing for them, because if they were still in the Council, they would miss the old admiration dreadfully.”
The city charter was recast in 1898 and the work was confided to the mayor, Raymond Préfontaine, Aldermen Rainville, Beausoleil, Martineau, Laporte, McBride, Ames and Archambault, aided by the city law officers and the heads of departments. This commission revised and examined clause by clause the preliminary draft prepared by Messrs. Choquette and Weir, appointed revising advocates in conjunction with the city clerk and the city attorneys. The new charter, a progressive document, was sanctioned on the 10th of March, 1899. By it Montreal was divided into seventeen wards called respectively East, Center, West, St. Ann, St. Antoine South, St. Antoine West, St. Antoine East, St. Lawrence, St. Louis, St. James South, St. James North, St. Mary West, St. Mary East, Hochelaga, St. Jean Baptiste, St. Gabriel and St. Denis. In 1903 Duvernay Ward was formed with a part of St. Jean Baptiste Ward. Among the clauses of this charter was one giving power to the council to extend the limits of the city and to annex municipalities. The elections now began to take place every two years instead of annually. The mayor’s qualifications required that he should possess real estate in the city under his own name to the value of $10,000. His yearly salary was not to exceed four thousand dollars. The property qualification for an alderman was fixed at $2,000 and his yearly indemnity at $600, with an additional sum of $200 for every chairman of a permanent committee. These permanent committees were appointed at the first monthly meeting in February for the year and apportioned the general superintendents and administration of the various city departments among themselves. These were supplemented by an occasional special committee. The council assembled once a month, on the second Monday, but the mayor could convoke a special meeting on notice given to each alderman. Five members of the council could also call a special meeting. The mayor could only cast his vote when there was an equality of votes.
The fault of the civic administration under this charter was in the ever-growing abuses arising from the system of standing committees of aldermen conflicting with one another, delaying the course of business. Towards its close corruption and inefficiency were rampant under the monopoly of a few who became stigmatized in the mouths of the citizens as the “23.” In 1909 a royal commission was appointed to examine into the malversations under the late administration. On December 12, 1909, Mr. Justice Cannon presented his report, in which he named twenty-three of the aldermen as guilty of malpractices. Twenty-two of these were not returned in the subsequent elections. The following general conclusion may be taken as a summary of his recommendations and findings:
1. The administration of the affairs of the city of Montreal by its Council has, since 1892, been saturated with corruption arising especially from the patronage plague.
2. The majority of the aldermen have administered the committees and the council in such a manner as to favor the private interests of their relatives and friends, to whom contracts and positions were distributed to the detriment of the general interests of the city and of the taxpayers.
3. As a result of this administration, the annual revenue of $5,000,000 has been spent as follows: 25 per cent in bribes and malversation of all kinds; as for the balance, the greater part has been employed in works of which the permanence has very often been ephemeral.
6. As for the division and the representation of the city by wards, all agree in condemning this system, which gave rise to patronage and to its abuses. I recommend to the citizens of Montreal, after a serious study of this question, to adopt another system creating a council composed of aldermen representing the entire city and working in unity for its growth and prosperity.
7. The council of today is composed of groups and coteries struggling one with another with such bitterness that they necessarily lose sight of the high interests of the community.
Meanwhile many of the prominent citizens, about 1908, began to prepare for a charter reform. In 1909 the “Citizens’ Association” was formed for governmental reform. Its president was an ex-mayor, Mr. Hormisdas Laporte, and the honorary treasurer was Mr. James Morgan, a prominent merchant and a good citizen, who personally contributed to the funds of the campaign, begun then and carried on for some years, very substantial sums of money and its other adherents, men of solid and approved citizenship. The object of the charter reformers was to remedy the prevalent abuses by a reduction of the number of aldermen to one representative to each ward, making thirty-one in the council, and by a curtailment of their powers, reducing them to a purely legislative body, with no executive power in financial matters. This latter function was to be held by a body of four commissioners or “controllers” and the mayor elected from the city at large. It was hoped that by this adaptation of the “commission” form of government, then obtaining great prominence in muncipal literature in the United States, where the method was being practiced, that the waste of civic energy, time and money would be best secured by a small executive board elected by the people at large and uninfluenced by ward politics. The charter for the Board of Control, (9 Edw. Chap. 82) of 1909, at the request of Farquhar Robertson, Charles Chaput, Victor Morin, S.D. Vallières and others, was accordingly secured from the provincial government after a plebiscite had been previously taken in favour of this great radical change of government, the most important since the original municipal charter in 1831. The new form had already been foreseen by Mayor Wilson Smith in his valedictory address in 1896. He said:
“The question has been frequently discussed, both in the Council and outside of it, as to whether the aldermen should be paid for their services. I have to acknowledge that one result of my experience has been to change my mind on this subject. I am now decidedly of the opinion that not only should the aldermen be remunerated for their services, but that they should be relieved, as far as possible, of attending to purely administrative duties. And it is worthy of serious consideration whether it would not be in the best interests of the city to appoint paid Commissioners to superintend all details, in connection with the civic administration. These Commissioners might have associated with them the heads of the departments, with the Mayor as chairman, who might form an Advisory Board, and submit all matters to the City Council, which would act as a legislative body, but their recommendations should be subject to a veto of a two-thirds vote of the Council. The Commissioners might be three in number, one of whom could be elected by the rate-payers generally, one by the real estate owners, and one by a two-thirds vote of the City Council; said Commissioners to be under the control of the City Council, and subject to dismissal for cause, by a two-thirds vote of the Council.”
In virtue of the recent change in the charter, the new Board of Control was invested with the following powers:
1. To prepare the annual budget and to submit it to the council;
2. To recommend every expense, no expense or matter referring to city finances being able to be adopted unless recommended by the controllers;
3. The council on the report of the controllers to be charged with the granting of franchises and privileges by regulation, resolutions, contracts, by the issue of debentures and contraction of loans;
4. The controllers were further to prepare contracts and plans, to ask for tenders, to decide all formalities relating to the latter, to receive and to open such;
5. To inspect or oversee public works;
6. To employ the money voted by the council for the purpose designed;
7. To nominate and suspend all employees, except those nominated by the council whose nomination, suspension and dismissal should be made by the council on the recommendation of the controllers;
8. No report or recommendation made by the controllers to be executed without the acceptation of the majority of the council;
9. No amendment to a report or recommendation of the controllers to be made without the approbation of two-thirds of the members of the council present at the meeting.
The work now to be given to the Board of Control was that hitherto done by eleven committees of the aldermen of seven members in each.
The Citizens’ Association undertaking the campaign for good government and the conduct of the forthcoming elections formed up in the middle of 1909, and was hailed by all good citizens, receiving the support of all public and volunteer associations having a civic tendency. About this time an important association was formally inaugurated on April 12, 1909, by His Excellency Earl Grey entitled the “City Improvement League,” and lent its aid in the campaign of education on good government and civic progress. Other societies also cooperated. The women associations under the local Council of Women on the English-speaking side, and La Fédération Nationale St. Jean Baptiste on the French, entered more largely than ever before into the movement for civic progress and influenced the women voters for clean government. The choice of the people for the new officers was made on February 1, 1910, when the “whole slate for the board” prepared by the Citizens’ Association was unanimously adopted at the polls as follows: Mayor, J.J. Guerin, M.D.; controllers, E.P. Lachapelle, M.D., president of the Provincial Board of Health; L.N. Dupuis, merchant; Joseph Ainey, labour candidate; and F.L. Wanklyn, a civil engineer and former manager of the Montreal Street Railway. (The latter resigned in the fall of 1911 and was succeeded by the election in the spring of 1912 of Mr. C.H. Godfrey.) The thirty-one wards were represented as follows:
East L.A. Lapointe Centre J.Z. Resther West S.J. Carter * St. Ann T. O’Connell * St. Joseph U.H. Dandurand St. Andrew Joseph Ward * St. George Leslie H. Boyd, K.C. * St. Louis Jean B. Lamoureaux St. Laurent James Robinson * Papineau J.A.E. Gauvin St. Mary J.P. Roux, M.D. St. Jacques A.N. Brodeur Lafontaine Eudore Dubeau Hochelaga J.H. Garceau, M.D. St. Jean Baptiste Noé Leclaire St. Gabriel Patrick Monahan * St. Denis Ernest D. Tétreau Duvernay Ludger Clément St. Henry O. Letourneau, M.D. St. Cunegonde N. Lapointe Mount Royal A.E. Prud’homme, N.P. De Lorimier George Mayrand, N.P. Laurier N. Turcot Notre Dame de Graces George Marcil St. Paul M. Judge Ahuntsic T. Bastien Emard J.U. Emard, K.C. Longue Pointe E. Larivière Bordeaux E. Lussier Cote des Neiges A.S. Deguire Rosemount J.N. Drummond *
* English-Speaking.
The consequent dispatch in city business, the improvement in public works, the strengthening of heads of departments in the city hall, hitherto hampered by aldermanic interference, and the abolition of patronage secured universal approbation of the new form of civic government. After awhile the spirit of opposition among a certain number of the aldermen began to jeopardize the early universal acceptance of the board of control system. Again the Citizens’ Association, with its backing, had to seek to strengthen the hands of the Board of Control. The following extracts from the Secretary of the Board of Trade’s annual report (Mr. George Hadrill) will indicate the new phase:
“In 1908, it being evident that the City Council, while comprising some good and capable men, was sadly misgoverning this city, your Council, with representatives of other organizations, endeavoured to secure such amendment of the City Charter as would provide for a reduction in the number of Aldermen and for the election of a Board of Commissioners. This effort resulted successfully in 1909, but unfortunately the amendments to the Charter submitted by the Citizens Committee were so changed in their passage through the Legislature that the Board of Commissioners did not possess the full powers it was intended to give them, and the result has been that, while the Commissioners have done much for the City, many of their plans for its advantage have been frustrated by the City Council and hence the hope for improvement in the condition of the City has been only partially realized. Your Council, therefore, in October last, joined with the following other organizations in an endeavour to secure such further amendments to the City Charter as would give the Board of Commissioners all executive powers, leaving with the City Council the general legislative powers and the making of by-laws: Montreal Trades and Labour Council, Canadian Manufacturers’ Association, La Chambre de Commerce, Montreal Citizens’ Association, Association Immobilière Montréal, Montreal Business Men’s League.
The substance of these amendments was as follows:
“That the Commissioners shall prepare the annual budget and the supplementary budget, and submit each to the City Council, which shall have the power to amend them by a two-thirds majority, or to reject them by a majority.
“That in the event of the budget not being adopted, amended or rejected within a certain period, it would be considered adopted.
“That once the budget is adopted, with or without amendment, the entire control of the expenditure, within the limits prescribed by the budget, would be left to the Board of Commissioners.
“That the Board of Commissioners shall have the appointment, suspension, dismissal and full control in all respects of all employees, including the heads of departments.
“That the initiative as to loans and franchises shall be with the Board of Commissioners, subject to approval by the City Council, who could amend or reject by a two-thirds majority.
“That the general legislative power and the making of by-laws shall be with the City Council, but the Board of Commissioners shall have all executive powers.
“That if any change in the composition of the City Council is decided upon, it would best be obtained by dividing the city into five wards (each to elect three aldermen), such division to be made equitably in proportion to population, assessed value and possible growth.
“Amendments to the City Charter Bill, based upon the foregoing, were presented to the Private Bills Committee at Quebec by the Citizens Association, the Board of Trade and other leading associations resulted in their adoption, with a slight change and thus the Board of Commissioners is now in possession of the powers necessary for the proper discharge of its duties.”
It is to be noted that, by a strange oversight of the framers of the amended charter, the following important clause in the original charter for the Board of Control was omitted: “To make all recommendations involving the expenditure of money. No recommendation involving the expenditure of money, and affecting in any manner whatever the finances of the city shall be adopted by the Council without it having been previously submitted to the Board of Commissioners and approved by them.” There was, however, added the power to conclude without tender, urgent purchase of materials not exceeding the value of $2,500.
The elections of 1912, in which the four controllers, who had completed their term of four years, did not compete, resulted in the election of Mr. L.A. Lavallée, K.C., as the next mayor. Among the new aldermen elected were several of those who had been scored in Judge Cannon’s report, so short-lived is a city’s remembrance. During the next two years the position of the Board of Control was further jeopardized by organized opposition from the part of the council, but the evident value of the system still retained the favour of the people.
In preparation for the campaign of 1914 the chief civic bodies of the city called together by the Citizens Association sought to diminish the number of the aldermen further by a redistribution of the city into five districts with three aldermen to each, with the object of the abolition of the small ward system as such. An amendment to the charter was prepared for five districts with three aldermen to each, and presented to the legislative committee of the Provincial Government at Quebec. Its delegation obtained a lukewarm reception as its opponents, within the Council, fearing to be reduced in number in the city hall, had forestalled the deputation by previous action. In addition it was thought that the redistribution demanded was premature. The “status quo” therefore remained, and at the municipal elections of 1914 the organized reaction against the Citizens Association leading the reform party was very clearly marked in the results of the poll. An attempt was made to vilify the Citizens Association for its efforts to provide a harmonious “slate” representative of the different elements in the city; disorganization and want of cohesion reigned among those otherwise interested in good government, and the unwritten law which should have offered the mayoralty this year to an English-speaking citizen was broken.
This election was the most important of recent years, the positions of mayor, four controllers and thirty-two aldermen being vacant. The mayor elected was the Mr. Médéric Martin, the controllers being Mr. Joseph Ainey, E. Napoléon Hébert, Thomas Coté and Duncan McDonald. The personnel of the Council was likewise overwhelmingly French Canadian.
This Government is now under trial. Let us repeat the city’s motto “Concordia Salus.”
There are not wanting signs in forecast that the reduction of the number of wards will take place on the lines above indicated. Montreal civic students of this period, seeing the growth of the Greater Montreal, are groping towards some coherent system, which will eventually embrace the whole island while securing the local government of its various subdistricts or municipality. Another movement of the future connected with the foregoing will be a larger measure of Civic Home Rule, than is at present allowed by the Province of Quebec.
The system of the financial government of the city by the Board of Control is not, however, universally approved of, especially by the aldermen. The fault lies in the manner of election of the mayor, aldermen and the controllers, all being elected by the people on a Democratic basis of public favour; hence there is likelihood of temporary popularity rather than special professional ability being the criterion in the selection of controllers and the mayor, who is, by his office, chairman of their board.
There are, therefore, at present several theories under discussion which will influence a further change of the latest charter amendments.
Among these are the following:
(1) The appointment by the Provincial Legislature of a Board of Control. This militates against the upholders of Civic Home Rule and is a partial recurrence to the old system of Justices of the Peace, appointed by Government before the erection of the municipality.
(2) The removal of the Board of Control and the restitution of the standing committees as hitherto. This has not proved successful in the past.
(3) The aldermen to be elected by the city at large through five or six great divisions.
(4) The election of the councillors by the city at large with the establishment of a permanent “Board of Works” with at least a fair proportion of professional men, such as engineers, who shall be appointed by the people for a long term of usefulness so as to encourage the best men to devote a life service in the city’s employ.
(5) The mayor to be elected by the people but not to sit as chairman of the Board of Control. This Board to be elected only by the votes of the electors entered as “proprietors” on the voters list. Thus, with property qualifications for controllers added perhaps, a more judicious choice could be made. The election of alderman to be as before or by larger divisions.
Of these modifications the last compromise has more weight.
NOTE 1
MAYORS OF MONTREAL
Term. Name. Elected by.
1833-36 Jacques Viger The Council (The interval was filled again by the Justices of the Peace.) 1840 Hon. Peter McGill Governor General 1841-42 Hon. Peter McGill (2 terms) The Council 1843-44 Joseph Bourret (2 terms) The Council 1845-46 Hon. James Ferrier The Council 1847 John E. Mills (died in November, was replaced by Joseph Bourret) The Council 1848 Joseph Bourret The Council 1849-50 E.R. Fabre The Council 1851-52-53 Hon. Charles Wilson (3 terms) The People 1854-55 Wolfred Nelson The People 1856-57 Hon. Henry Starnes (2 terms) The People 1858-59-60-61 Hon. Charles S. Rodier (4 terms) The People 1862-63-64-65 Hon. J.L. Beaudry (4 terms) The People 1866-67 Hon. Henry Starnes (2 terms) The People 1867-68-69 William Workman (3 terms) The People 1871-72 Charles J. Coursol (2 terms) The People 1873 Francis Cassidy (died in June, 1873, being replaced by Aldis Bernard) The People 1874 Aldis Bernard The People 1875-76 Sir William Hingston (2 terms) The People 1877-78 Hon. J.L. Beaudry (2 terms) The People 1879-80 Hon. Severe Rivard (2 terms) The People 1881-82-83-84 Hon. J.L. Beaudry (4 terms) The People 1885-86 H. Beaugrand (2 terms) The People 1887-88 Sir J.J.C. Abbott (2 terms) The People 1889-90 Jacques Grenier (2 terms) The People 1891-92 Hon. James McShane (2 terms) The People 1893 Alphonse Desjardins The People 1894-95 Hon. J.O. Villeneuve (2 terms) The People 1896-97 R. Wilson Smith (2 terms) The People 1898-99-1900-01[A] Hon. Raymond Préfontaine (3 terms) The People 1902-03 James Cochrane The People 1904-05 H. Laporte The People 1906-07 H.A. Ekers The People 1908-09 L. Payette The People 1910-11 Hon. J.J. Guerin The People 1912-13 L.A. Lavallée The People 1913-14 Médéric Martin The People
[A] By the new charter to begin with 1900 the term of mayor was now increased to two years.
NOTE II
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF GENERAL REVENUE OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL, FROM 1880 TO 1912
Assessment on real Business and personal estate. Water rate. tax.
Current Current Current Year year Arrears year Arrears year Arrears
1880 $ 582,100.31 $ 190,866.89 $ 327,104.61 $ 37,846.38 $146,148.23 $14,726.00 1881 612,255.49 239,469.45 364,797.47 33,640.71 145,957.06 13,690.77 1882 643,687.06 190,534.03 384,936.51 25,820.51 147,949.57 14,409.82 1883 676,613.03 187,408.78 395,768.74 27,301.43 150,578.69 15,941.73 1884 708,134.15 155,180.45 424,014.38 34,126.87 156,552.32 23,523.55 1885 748,507.00 142,092.33 412,660.04 27,739.88 164,872.65 27,181.73 1886 798,041.29 192,874.42 468,398.72 49,712.67 167,052.18 19,132.84 1887 842,852.25 109,218.52 502,408.72 35,657.91 175,320.72 26,255.86 1888 895,298.75 137,475.38 533,614.60 48,638.03 183,394.44 29,968.13 1889 936,528.54 139,897.14 578,312.19 56,617.51 188,181.97 31,547.90 1890 991,620.11 154,769.43 539,917.37 48,489.27 187,383.57 43,583.58 1891 1,027,719.09 174,498.63 610,401.75 115,879.28 188,398.82 44,661.04 1892 1,129,198.38 208,519.69 532,699.00 76,086.76 190,375.42 49,987.64 1893 1,238,494.32 218,969.31 559,666.06 80,509.28 204,052.81 51,332.26 1894 1,257,092.01 312,836.50 544,739.91 76,061.81 200,414.69 48,692.44 1895 1,270,846.41 307,656.66 524,930.94 81,914.08 194,972.07 55,850.02 1896 1,271,628.00 384,043.97 539,740.82 98,472.93 190,191.66 63,607.71 1897 1,290,911.32 386,608.08 546,515.51 101,250.89 202,234.84 66,407.16 1898 1,313,352.17 394,688.51 589,188.08 183,163.07 204,464.48 56,453.88 1899 1,277,513.19 388,715.13 596,851.18 119,868.04 205,471.49 63,398.28 1900 1,250,163.18 524,900.81 565,239.23 139,196.59 199.447.86 64,879.10 1901 1,304,407.26 580,162.53 663,767.73 140,590.76 233,329.61 71,463.20 1902 1,319,782.89 536,518.81 662,467.11 82,253.19 240,932.44 49,114.44 1903 1,386,212.56 564,227.48 706,285.49 93,339.97 275,618.26 57,703.28 1904 1,486,917.48 531,599.76 737,518.15 92,634.46 272,081.82 42,599.27 1905 1,672,867.93 613,298.99 792,649.33 110,868.30 310,909.06 46,218.33 1906 1,933,357.09 539,999.99 849,222.70 114,373.15 347,924.80 42,512.48 1907 1,979,426.63 721,218.19 885,686.24 131,719.63 364,117.27 48,306.12 1908 2,160,037.12 864,946.19 786,825.16 148,894.53 413,888.74 59,813.81 1909 2,542,513.68 962,555.19 860,925.60 113,733.26 473,248.26 64,269.42 1910 2,915,396.10 1,026,172.07 934,362.14 104,250.34 538,678.14 51,383.66 1911 3,344,172.04 1,328,208.87 1,037,436.56 114,608.06 619,855.08 58,105.94 1912 4,176,083.47 1,547,827.75 1,174,773.84 132,365.69 739,384.95 66,028.93
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF GENERAL REVENUE OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL, FROM 1880 TO 1912 CONTINUED
Year Markets Licenses Recorder’s Miscellaneous Interest Yearly Court totals
1880 $ 30,366.85 $ 43,635.35 $ 7,770.57 $ 40,008.23 $ 24,956.94 $1,495,616.39 1881 77,709.42 45,001.32 12,665.03 35,824.04 35,706.65 1,617,117.41 1882 80,364.50 48,275.30 14,380.72 35,982.90 26,940.95 1,618,221.87 1883 81,777.71 50,968.15 11,130.62 42,307.44 30,474.54 1,670,270.91 1884 86,853.04 54,077.70 12,019.15 47,597.39 39,541.19 1,732,620.69 1885 85,242.01 60,006.80 11,547.08 41,179.60 24,991.31 1,746,020.43 1886 89,086.77 65,579.00 18,003.98 57,259.56 33,717.82 1,908,859.25 1887 89,279.69 70,264.82 25,053.06 39,491.95 32,589.57 1,948,393.07 1888 88,336.37 74,269.48 26,097.64 33,404.47 45,913.48 2,095,411.27 1889 83,308.64 76,475.15 22,883.41 41,081.31 67,263.63 2,222,097.39 1890 82,705.63 81,365.85 26,269.59 42,269.33 42,557.56 2,240,931.29 1891 85,533.93 81,370.00 23,445.91 53,196.77 34,971.51 2,440,076.73 1892 80,470.91 66,627.00 22,412.25 57,650.17 44,925.52 2,458,952.74 1893 80,686.81 66,654.25 16,314.49 94,004.66 40,471.31 2,651,155.56 1894 76,970.59 66,823.91 17,356.02 92,052.64 56,295.23 2,743,335.75 1895 78,697.98 72,755.23 14,506.19 98,740.43 56,790.92 2,757,660.93 1896 77,362.82 70,767.50 14,372.98 91,194.69 64,678.40 2,866,061.48 1897 77,599.25 79,555.25 17,341.68 99,197.85 54,303.55 2,921,925.38 1898 76,190.41 78,546.00 13,961.57 115,985.25 52,845.73 3,078,839.15 1899 74,419.99 101,009.80 20,569.05 105,263.48 51,649.09 3,004,728.72 1900 75,363.96 121,348.00 31,578.77 121,854.76 63,642.07 3,157,614.33 1901 86,190.48 132,064.77 26,957.69 124,309.24 69,992.61 3,433,235.88 1902 84,790.51 140,955.75 26,032.01 144,287.28 92,085.47 3,379,219.90 1903 90,384.42 151,957.00 25,827.64 144,721.60 58,150.26 3,554,428.96 1904 97,451.78 179,706.50 33,431.38 178,180.65 43,135.00 3,695,256.25 1905 100,761.59 204,688.75 43,186.37 208,713.78 45,399.61 4,149,562.04 1906 102,305.08 223,008.15 38,851.88 293,499.54 56,001.63 4,541,056.49 1907 108,801.41 244,618.07 38,927.38 306,511.29 68,943.86 4,898,276.09 1908 111,260.20 243,418.25 47,944.03 353,515.93 67,700.39 5,258,244.35 1909 112,555.26 261,789.00 37,352.83 361,658.19 107,393.45 5,897,994.14 1910 106,690.76 315,447.50 57,278.12 435,478.08 130,564.67 6,615,701.58 1911 109,407.42 371,252.50 68,100.61 445,024.90 160,661.26 7,656,833.24 1912 112,167.43 422,013.57 80,150.35 566,092.70 173,767.81 9,190,656.49
The annexation of the suburban municipalities, begun in 1883, has added partially to the revenue.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Before 1815 Commander Jacques Viger had introduced the beaver into a fancy coat of arms.
[2] In 1844 the council which hitherto sat in a house belonging to Madame de Beaujeiu, situated between St. Francois Xavier and St. John streets on Notre Dame Street, and demolished in 1858 on the enlargement of the latter street, was moved to the Hayes Acqueduct House and sat below the reservoir. In 1852 it held its first sessions in the Bonsecours Market.
[3] Mr. Henry Dalby, Herald Centennary number, 1913.
Chapter XXI
SUPPLEMENTAL ANNALS AND SIDELIGHTS OF SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE UNION
FOREWORD--MARKED PROGRESS GENERAL--THE EMBRYONIC COSMOPOLIS--THE DEEPENING OF LAKE ST. PETER--FOUNDATION OF PHILANTHROPIES--LIVING CHEAP--THE MONTREAL DISPENSARY--RASCO’S HOTEL AND CHARLES DICKENS--PRIVATE THEATRICALS--MONTREAL AS SEEN BY “BOZ”--DOLLY’S AND THE GOSSIPS--THE MUNICIPAL ACT--ELECTION RIOTS--LITERARY AND UPLIFT MOVEMENTS--THE RAILWAY ERA COMMENCES--THE SHIP FEVER--A RUN ON THE SAVINGS’ BANK--THE REBELLION LOSSES BILL AND THE BURNING OF PARLIAMENT HOUSE--RELIGIOUS FANATICISM--GENERAL D’URBAN’S FUNERAL--A CHARITY BALL--THE GRAND TRUNK INCORPORATORS--EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENTS--THE “BLOOMERS” APPEAR--M’GILL UNIVERSITY REVIVAL--THE GREAT FIRE OF 1852--THE GAVAZZI RIOTS--PROGRESS IN 1853--THE CRIMEAN WAR OF 1854--THE PATRIOTIC FUND--THE ASIATIC CHOLERA--THE ATLANTIC SERVICE FROM MONTREAL--ADMIRAL BELVEZE’S VISIT--PARIS EXHIBITION PREPARATIONS--“S.S. MONTREAL” DISASTER--THE INDIAN MUTINY--THE FIRST OVERSEAS CONTINGENT--THE ATLANTIC CABLE CELEBRATED--A MAYOR OF THE PERIOD--THE RECEPTION OF ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES--FORMAL OPENING OF THE VICTORIA BRIDGE--THE GREAT BALL--“EDWARD THE PEACEMAKER”--THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR--MONTREAL FOR THE SOUTH--FEAR OF WAR--CITIZEN RECRUITING--THE MILITARY--OFFICERS OF THE PERIOD--PEACE--THE SOUTHERNERS--THE WAR SCARE THE BIRTH OF MODERN MILITIA SYSTEM--THE MILITARY FETED--CIVIC PROGRESS--FENIAN THREATS--D’ARCY McGEE--SHAKESPEARE CENTENARY--GERMAN IMMIGRANTS’ DISASTER--ST. ALBAN’S RAIDERS--RECIPROCITY WITH THE UNITED STATES TO END--ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE CITY COUNCIL--THE FIRST FENIAN RAID--MONTREAL ACTION--MILITARY ENTHUSIASM--THE DRILL HALL--A RETROSPECT AND AN APPRECIATION OF THE LATTER DAYS OF THE UNION.
“Annals and sidelights” best suits the title of this chapter, and as such are necessarily disjointed, the events recorded reflect a corresponding note. Therefore, origins and seeds are only indicated, of many movements which have since grown to great proportions. These latter, such as primary, secondary, technical, and university education, the public services of fire, water, lighting, health, law and order; the commencements of commercial and financial bodies; the growth of the municipal life, as such; the development and modernization of the harbour and of our public places; the progress of general city improvement; the development of our transportation system by canal, river and roads by rail and by carriage; the charitable, the religious, the national, the literary, the intellectual and the artistic institutions of the city, etc., are left for special historical treatment in the second part of this volume.
In this place the general social aspect of the life of the city is chronologically treated, with partial reference at times to the above as they make their first bow to the public under the Union. A similar foreword might preface a subsequent chapter of annals of social life under the Confederation.
The picture presented by Montreal at the beginning of the Union was one of hopeful promise. The bill, when understood, was acceptable to most, and it soon became seen, that with responsible government,--though a daring experiment,--in working order, peace and prosperity would be assured. The re-birth of municipal life insured by the new charter was also gratifying. The mayor and corporation and the institution of the recorder’s court gave a dignity soothing to civic “amour propre.” City development in municipal functions, in the public services and physical embellishments, began to be marked. Trade began to raise its head, for Montreal was becoming recognized as the commercial metropolis of Canada. The meeting of April 6, 1841, to organize the new board of trade, was a significant fact of the period of progress now anticipated. The improvement in the harbour facilities, of the water transportation system, and the advent of the railway era soon to be celebrated, also marked the beginning of a new period of progress.
The city, too, was coming to be recognized as an embryonic cosmopolis. It was already beginning to have a mixed population. Sir Richard Bonnycastle, who visited Montreal in the year before the Union, has described this in “The Canadas in 1841” (Volume I, pp. 76-77). “In this city, one is amused by seeing the never changing lineaments of the long queue, the bonnet rouge and the incessant garrulity of Jean Baptiste, mingling with the sober demeanour, the equally unchanging feature and the national plaid of the Highlander, while the untutored sons of labour, from the green isle of the ocean, are here as thoughtless, as ragged and as numerous as at Quebec. Amongst all these the shrewd and calculating citizen from the neighbouring republic drives his hard bargain with all his wonted zeal and industry, amid the fumes of Jamaica and gin sling. These remarks apply to the streets only. In the counting houses, although the races remain the same, the advantages of situation and of education make the same differences as in other countries. I cannot, however, help thinking that the descendant of the Gaul has not gained by being transplanted; and the vastly absurd notions which a few turbulent spirits have of late engendered and endeavoured to instil into the unsophisticated and naturally good mind of the Canadian, tilling the soil, have tended to restrict the exercise of that inborn urbanity and suavity which are the Frenchman’s proudest boast after those of ‘l’amour et la gloire.’”
At the beginning of this period great ideas are reflected in the newspapers, such as the Herald and the Times.
The deepening of Lake St. Peter was a burning theme at the time; and there is abundant editorial comment in the connection.
“The governor-general has sanctioned the immediate deepening of Lake St. Peter,” says the editor; “but it appears that there was great difficulty in getting the proper dredging machines manufactured.”
“We have other resources at our command,” exclaimed the editor; “and the manufacturers of New York or Great Britain would gladly accept orders to any extent. The aid of steam, all powerful steam, must be invoked. We have no hesitation in saying that the expenditure of £100,000, if that sum would suffice to deepen Lake St. Peter, would be submitted to with perfect prudence.
“Few will be dogmatical enough to deny that when the navigation is free, ships descending the river may avoid the use of steam tugs; and if we calculate the saving thus effected upon 200 vessels annually at £30 each, the amount thus realized would suffice to pay the interest on a loan at 6 per cent.
“A brisk, fair, and continuous breeze would ensure the speedy, safe and cheap progress of ships up the St. Lawrence, and augment the extent of our commercial marine.”
Referring, in another part of the paper, to the actual commencement of the work of deepening Lake St. Peter, which only gave eleven feet of water, the Times says:
“Improvements thus disseminating the germs of future wealth and prosperity command the applause of every colonist. The spirit of patriotism must be dormant, indeed, in the breasts of those who would thwart the efforts of a governor, who has thus identified himself with the system of internal navigation.
“The repose of the colony has been too long disturbed by those theoretical revolutions which sprang from the fluctuating councils of the late Viceroy. A healthier tone of feeling has been produced; and the practical labours of Sir Charles Bagot bid fair to soothe the asperities of political warfare. Under his auspices the deepening of Lake St. Peter has been commenced and ere his departure, we trust the undertaking will be brought to maturity.”
Since then something in the neighborhood of $20,000,000 have been spent between the work of deepening and lighting and buoying the channel, and the extension and improvement of the port of Montreal.
The editors of these days had to burn the midnight oil or tallow candle, for then gas was not general. As for matches, the old tinder chips dipped in sulphur ind ignited by use of the flint still prevailed. The rich used wax candles or lamps, but the poor made their own “dips,” or for the nonce, even small improvised lamps out of spoons filled with oil. Tallow candle moulds were the prized possession of many poor houses before the manufactured candles became cheap on the market. When coal oil came, it was looked on as a miracle.
The town was inadequately provided with water works, as it was not till 1845 that the municipality took over the old-fashioned plant in Montreal, and the old puncheons, driven by horses still went from door to door distributing the water taken from the river.
Place d’Armes was still a poor straggling square, though it was faced by the handsome new Notre Dame Church, opened in 1829. At this time there still stood the bell tower of the old Parish Church, standing solitary like a lighthouse till 1843. Crossing the square the genteel folk, the wives of doctors, lawyers, and merchants, would come from their residences on St. James and Craig streets to the Bonsecours Market, not ashamed to carry their baskets. There the “habitants” from the country could be seen dressed in blue or gray homespun cloth suits, with their picturesque, heavy knitted sashes and wearing the tuque and moccasins in winter.
For as yet, the city was in truth of small size. A four-paged, demi-zinc copy of the Times and Commercial Advertiser, the first daily to be printed in Montreal, of the issue of March 3, 1842, gives a glimpse of this. An advertisement announces that a three-storey stone house at the head of Coté Street, “enjoys a commanding situation in a most quiet and healthy part of Montreal and which nevertheless is within five minutes walk of the business part of the city.” Splendid dwelling houses are for rent on Great St. James Street suitable for genteel families.
Yet life was intense and earnest and the bases of many of the present educational, philanthropic and artistic associations were being laid. This same number of the Times mentions that the
“The Montreal Provident and Savings Bank, which has just been projected, under the patronage of the governor-general, and which is to receive deposits of from one shilling and upwards, is a patriotic institution, as the directors and all concerned have only the advantage of the entire community at heart, receiving nothing for their services, and desiring, chiefly, to extend, by this means, the basis of social order and morality, and religion. For these reasons the directors respectfully entreat the ministers of religion, masters employing numerous bodies of workmen, and all having influence, to exert the same; and by the sanction of their names, and the moral weight of their advice, to induce the numerous classes, for whose use it is chiefly intended, to avail themselves of the benefits which the institution holds out for their acceptance.”
Living was cheap and quite a good deal could be bought with but a little money. Money, however, was scarce and wages were small. Twenty-five cents would buy a pair of chickens, 15 cents a pound of butter, 10 cents a dozen eggs and 5 cents a pound of beef. A man would work for 50 cents a day and walk many miles to his job. A mechanic who got $1, earned good wages. Clothing was expensive, and consequently simplicity ruled. Yet furs were cheap in comparison with the present date. Ladies would wear very large muffs, capable of holding in their mysterious interiors a week’s supply of groceries. Long boas were worn twice wound around the neck, and reaching to the toes. The dresses of the middle class of women and girls were for the most part print, with thick homespun for winter wear. Boys would go to the few schools in the town in “moleskins” as woolen was expensive. They would often come home on a rainy afternoon with their moleskin trousers shrunk up to their knees.
The houses of the ordinary working class were built for the most part of wood and consisted of one storey and a garret. Rents ran from about two dollars to four dollars a month.
In 1843 a dispensary which is still flourishing today was started and came as a great supplementary aid to the hospitals of the city. This was the Montreal Dispensary with which so many of our best citizens have been connected.
The memory of Rasco’s suggests that of the famous “Dolly,” J.H. Isaacson, who came out from England as a waiter here in 1838, but afterwards started for himself in a restaurant on St. François Xavier Street overlooking the Garden of the Seminary. He later moved to St. James Street, close to St. Lawrence Hall, a famous hostelry of this period, built in 1851, on the site where the Royal Bank now stands. His chop house became famous as “Dolly’s” from the original “Dolly’s” in London. Dolly, a little typical old John Bull of a Boniface, with shining face beaming benevolence, with a ready fund of repartee and trenchant criticism, and resplendent in velvet coat, knee breeches and irreproachable calves, white silk stockings and silver buckles on his shoes, was in great favour with the military.
The social life of the period found one of its highest points of reflex in Rasco’s Hotel, on Bonsecours Street, which still stands, though with diminished glory. But when it was opened on May 1, 1836, it was, during the Union, the resort of the fine people of the time. It had the politicians gathered together during the rebellion of 1837 and it was for long the home for banquets. It expressed the social life of the time. The garrison officers knew it well. Distinguished strangers put up there as did Charles Dickens, who arrived from Niagara Falls in the spring of 1842. As private theatricals were then the rage, and were greatly promoted by the officers to while away the time, the histrionic ability of the great novelist was called into requisition at the first Theatre Royal, standing nearly opposite until it was pulled down to make room for the Bonsecours Market.
In one of the author’s letters from Montreal quoted in Forster’s “Life of Charles Dickens,” he says: “The theatricals, I think I told you I had been invited to play with the officers of the Coldstream Guards here, are ‘A Roland for an Oliver,’ ‘Two O’Clock in the Morning,’ and either ‘The Young Widow,’ or ‘Deaf as a Post,’ Ladies (unprofessional) are going to play for the first time.”
His last letter, dated from Rasco’s Hotel, Montreal, Canada, 26th of May, 1842, described the private theatricals and inclosed a bill of the play:
“The play came off last night, the audience, between five and six hundred strong, were invited as to a party, a regular table with refreshments being spread in the lobby and saloon. We had the band of the 23d (one of the finest in the service) in the orchestra; the theatre was lighted with gas, the scenery was excellent and the properties were all brought from the private houses. Sir Charles Bagot, Sir Richard Jackson and their staffs were present, and as the military portion of the audience were all in uniform it was really a splendid scene.
“I really believe I was really funny; at least, I know that I laughed heartily myself and made the part a character such as you and I know very well--a mixture of F. Harley Yates, Keeley and ‘Jerry Sneak.’ It went with a vim all the way through; and as I am closing, they have told me that I was so well made up that Sir Charles Bagot, who sat in the stage box, had no idea who played ‘Mr. Snobbington’ until the piece was over. * * *
“All the ladies were capital and we had no wait or hitch for an instant. You may suppose this when I tell you that we began at eight and had the curtain down at eleven. * * * It is their custom here to prevent heart-burnings, in a very heart-burning town, whenever they have played in private, to repeat the performance in public, so on Saturday (substituting, of course, real actresses for the ladies) we repeat the two first pieces to a paying audience, for the manager’s benefit. * * * I send you a bill to which I have appended a key.”
* * * * *
The programme was as follows:
PRIVATE THEATRICALS.
Committee
Mrs. Torrens W.E. Ermatinger, Esq. Mrs. Berry Capt. Torrens The Earl of Mulgrave. Stage Manager Charles Dickens
Queen’s Theatre, Montreal, Wednesday Evening, May 25, 1842. Will Be Performed
A ROLAND FOR AN OLIVER.
Mrs. Selborne Mrs. Torrens Maria Darlington Miss Griffin Mrs. Fixture Miss Ermatinger Mr. Selborne Lord Mulgrave Alfred Highflyer Mr. Charles Dickens Sir Mark Chase Hon. Mr. Methuen Fixture Captain Willoughby Gamekeeper Captain Granville
After the Interlude, in one scene, (from the French) called
PAST TWO O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING
The Stranger Captain Granville Mr. Snobbington Mr. Charles Dickens
To conclude with the farce, in one act, entitled
DEAF AS A POST.
Mrs. Plumpley Mrs. Torrens Amy Templeton Mrs. Charles Dickens Sophy Walton Mrs. Perry Sally Maggs Miss Griffin Captain Templeton Captain Torrens Mr. Walton Captain Willoughby Tristram Sappy Doctor Griffin Crupper Lord Mulgrave Gallop Mr. Charles Dickens
Montreal, May 24, 1842. Gazette Office.
Dickens visited the Bonsecours Church hard by, and met the leading citizens in the News Room on St. Sulpice Street, and cantered with the officers over the mountain or rode out to Lachine and the Back River. “All the rides in the vicinity,” he says in his American Notes, “were made doubly interesting by the bursting out of spring which is here so rapid that it is but a day’s leap from barren winter to the blooming youth of summer.” In the same recollections he refers to the quiet manners of the Canadian people, their self-respect, their hospitality in Montreal and the unassuming manners of their life. He notes the modernizing spirit even of that day. “There is a very large cathedral here, recently erected with two small spires, of which one is as yet unfinished. In the open space in front of this edifice stands a solitary, grim-looking square brick tower which has a quaint and remarkable appearance and which the wiseacres of this place have consequently determined to pull down immediately.” This the vandals did in 1843.
Walking along the quays he admired “the granite quays” which are remarkable for their beauty, solidity and extent. Referring to his walk here and his interest in the immigrants, he says: “In the spring time of the year vast numbers of emigrants who have newly arrived from England or from Ireland pass between Quebec and Montreal on their way to the back woods and new settlements of Canada. If it be an entertaining lounge, as I have found it, to take a morning stroll upon the quays of Montreal and see the groups in hundreds on the public wharfs about their chests and boxes, it is matter of deep interest to be their fellow passenger on one of these steamboats and, mingling with the concourse, see and hear them unobserved.”
Then follows a characteristic digression of the Master’s sympathetic pleading for the poor.
At the above meeting places the events of the day would have been discussed by the gossips, such as the marriage of Queen Victoria on February 10, 1840, the shooting at of the young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on June 10, 1841, Her Majesty’s coronation of June 28th, the birth of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, on November 9th, and the progress of preparations for the union proclaimed on February 10th in Montreal by Lord Sydenham. Municipal politics would have become an absorbing topic of conversation on January 1, 1842, when the municipal act went into force. On March 11th when the Montreal Board of Trade was incorporated, and on July 9th when the Shamrock was lost in the St. Lawrence, with its many immigrants there was plenty to discuss. Montreal, in 1843, talked of the birth of Princess Alice on April 25th, the visit to Montreal of the new governor general, Lord Metcalfe, on June 12th, while the “Nolle Sequi” against Wolfred Nelson, Dr. E.B. O’Callaghan and T.S. Brown renewed the painful memories of the revolt of 1837. This year the scientists and educationalists rejoiced at the Museum of Geological Survey then opened in the city. And again when, in 1844, the Mercantile Library Association purchased the Montreal Library and the Institut Canadien was formed.
Great interest prevailed in political circles when the seat of government was removed to Montreal on March 5th of this year, and the House met on July 1st.
On November 12th, such an election was held that many of the oldest inhabitants remember it still. It was the days of open voting and sometimes lasted for weeks. Axe handles were used, heads were broken, the “claret” flowed, and the opposing parties used to keep men drunk in the taverns so that the other side could not get their men to the polls. Such scenes were long repeated, notably in the “Barney” Devlin and D’Arcy McGee election contests. The fight on this occasion was between Drummond and Molson. Drummond was Irish and it was recalled that he had been the defending lawyer for the rebels in 1837. The French-Canadians, therefore, rallied to his support and Molson was beaten. Parliament met on November 28th.
On March 27, 1845, Parliament was prorogued and on July 1st the new governor, Lord Cathcart, arrived. This year various educational movements were furthered. Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, was opened and the Mechanics’ Institute, so long in existence as an educational force, was incorporated. In December, John Dougall issued his specimen Witness and the first weekly Witness was published on January 5, 1846. Meanwhile the commission appointed in 1845 to investigate the rebellion losses indemnities was sitting and on April 18, 1846, it presented its report that the sum of £100,000 would be sufficient to pay all real losses. Already bitter feeling was being aroused among the English on this point. But the railway era, then commencing, diverted some attention from their grievances. In June, James Ferrier and others sought a charter for a railway from Kingston to Prescott and John A. Macdonald, then beginning his parliamentary career, and others, sought one from Montreal to Kingston, John Molson and others demanding one from St. Johns to the international boundary. On August 10th, on the Champ de Mars, a gathering of 2,000 Montrealers resolved to have a railway to the sea. Men were seeing visions and the Hon. John Young wrote this year to the Economist, advocating a bridge across the St. Lawrence. His dream was to come true.
The year 1847 saw the line from Montreal to Lachine opened. Otherwise the year was one of disaster--that of the ship fever. In this year 100,000 emigrants, mostly from Ireland, escaping the scourge of typhus fever and famine, came to Canada, but being exposed to ship fever nearly 10,000 became its victims; hundreds and hundreds died. The quarantine station of Grosse Isle was the most pestilential spot in the country. Every ship that could be chartered, good, bad and indifferent, was engaged in transporting emigrants. They were all slow-going vessels. Through want of sufficient room, neglect of ventilation, need of eatable food and cleanliness, the worst form of typhus soon appeared. “On the 8th day of May,” says Maguire’s “Irish in America,” “on the arrival of the ‘Urania’ from Cork, with several hundred immigrants on board, a large proportion of them sick and dying of the ship fever, it was put into quarantine at Grosse Isle, thirty miles below Quebec. This was the first of the plague-smitten ships from Ireland which that year sailed up the St. Lawrence. But before the first week of June as many as eighty-four ships of various tonnage were driven in by easterly gales. Of all the vessels there was not one free from the taint of malignant typhus, the offspring of famine and of the foul ship-hold.”
Montreal suffered terribly, also. There the Government caused to be erected three sheds of provisory hospitals from 100 to 150 feet in length and from 40 to 50 feet in width on the river banks at Point St. Charles. Soon eleven sheds had to be erected to receive the sick. In June, the city was in consternation and many fled to the country. But there were many who did noble service. The governor general, Lord Elgin, who had made his first coming to Montreal on January 29th, visited the sheds; the mayor, John E. Mills, also made frequent visits and in November his assiduous devotion brought him low in death, a martyr to civic duty. The clergy, the doctors and the women of the city, Catholic and Protestants, were heroic in their services. The priests hurried down to the sick who were mostly Catholics, but only a few, two Sulpicians and a Jesuit, du Ranquet, could speak English adequately. In this extremity the rector of the Jesuits, who had returned to the city since 1842, sent to Fordham University, and two priests, Fathers du Merle and Michael Driscoll, were sent to assist Father du Ranquet, who was the first of the Montreal priests on the ground. This devoted man found the sick or dead lying in rows stretched on the bare ground, and there he ministered till 3 o’clock in the morning.
Conditions were soon improved by the municipal authorities. Wooden bunks were built to hold two patients; there were no mattresses but only straw strewn under them. Oftentimes the living lay side by side with the dead. To add to the horror, the letters of this period tell us that “after a few weeks’ service these wooden structures contained colonies of bugs in every cranny; the wool, the cotton, the wood were black with them. Double the number of nurses and servants would not have sufficed to keep this monstrous hospital clean.”
Things were better when the tents to be given to those who, unable to find shelter in the sheds, were placed on the banks of the St. Lawrence with a blanket over them, under the trees. Fortunately it was summertime.
Bishop Bourget called upon the nuns to act as nurses. The Providence Sisters were the first approached, on June 24th. Each one answered simply, “I am ready.” Next morning twelve of these brave women were driven in carriages to the sheds. There they found hundreds of the sick crouched upon straw, wrestling in the agony of death; little children weeping in the arms of their dead mothers; women, themselves stricken, seeking for a beloved husband, amid a doleful chaos of suffering and evil odours. Other nuns were called out; even the enclosed Sisters of the Hôtel Dieu were allowed to leave their cloisters for the sad work of tending the dying and burying the dead in their hastily constructed, rude coffins of planks. Fifty or sixty died each day and their bodies, awaiting burial, were placed in an immense charnel house erected on the river banks. In this were some that were buried alive. Many of the orphans were adopted in the city or cared for by the nuns. For this the Irish population of Montreal love the city with a personal love.
Not only did the mayor die, but numerous others, physicians, clergy and nurses, and the police officers of the city.
The events of 1848 include the flooding, on January 15th, of Wellington and Commissioners streets, and the run on the Savings Bank of the city on July 15th, which was shortly followed by a re-deposit. Educationalists will note the opening of the Jesuits’ College on September 20th in the improvised school at the corner of Alexander and Dorchester streets.
The year 1849 was one of political turmoil already recorded, centering around the rebellion losses bill and resulting in the burning of the Parliament house and the removal of the seat of government from the city, a loss to its social life.
An aspect of the burning of the Parliament house was that, with the political rancour there was mixed, in certain misguided quarters, a fanatical religious frenzy. It was planned to burn the “Grey Nuns,” near at hand, as well as the Jesuits’ residence and St. Patrick’s Church. The menaces came to nothing, owing to the guards of Irish watchers. Yet at the time, according to a letter written from Montreal in August, 1849, by the Jesuit Father Havequez to a friend in France, the Grey Nuns hard by were likely to become a prey to the fire “had not the brave Irish run to the rescue and succeeded, after extraordinary efforts, in mastering the flames.”
The imposing public ceremony this year was the funeral, in the military cemetery on Papineau Road, of Sir Benjamin D’Urban, from whom Durban, in South Africa, bears its name, the charger of the deceased soldier being led through the streets in the procession by the groom, carrying the reversed boots of this companion of Wellington. It was long a remembered incident.
The next year, 1850, saw the first meeting of the Mount Royal Cemetery Company for the burial of non-Catholics and the consecration of the Rev. Francis Fulford in Westminster Abbey as the first Bishop of Montreal, both signs of the growth of the English-speaking population.
This year there was a great charity ball and it is interesting to note that among the subscribers to this ball were the Earl and Countess of Errol; Sir George and Lady Simpson (who lived at Lachine in a big stone mansion, standing on the present site of the Lachine Convent); the Chief Justice and Madame Rolland, Sir James and Lady Alexander, Colonel and Mrs. Dyley, Honorable Mr. and Mrs. Moffatt, Honorable Mr. Justice and Madame Mondelet, Honorable Mr. and Mrs. Drummond, Madame Rochblave, Mr. and Mrs. John Molson, the Commissary General and Mrs. Filder, Honorable Mr. and Madame Rolland, Mr. and Madame de Beaujeau, Honorable Mr. Justice and Mrs. Smith, Mr. Sheriff and Mrs. Coffin, Mr. and Mrs. Ogilvy Moffatt, Captain and Mrs. Claremont, Major and Mrs. MacDougall, Lieut.-Col. Sir Howard Dalrymple, Honorable McCall, Major Chester, Major Colley, Mr. and Mrs. Collingwood, Mr. Arthur Mondelet, Mr. Arthur Lamothe and many others.
The band of the Nineteenth Regiment also attended by kind permission of Lieutenant-Colonel Hay.
The Grand Trunk was formed in 1851. The name of the incorporators which follow are also those of familiar families in the city of today: Thomas Allan Stayber, William Collins Meredith, Sir George Simpson, William Macdonald, David Davidson, J.G. McTavish, N. Finlayson, John Rawand, Edward B. Wilgress, John Boston, Theodore Hart, T. McCullough, John Matthewson, John M. Tobin, E.H. Mount, Wilkinson John Torrance, Isaac Gibb, Donald P. Ross, Robert Morris, James Henderson, Aaron H. David, John Ostell, J.H. Birss, William Lunn, Dougall Stewart, C. Wilgress, William Molson, W.S. McFarlane, A. Dow, John Lavanston, Peter McKenzie, D. McKenzie, John McKenzie, Hector McKenzie, William Foster Coffin, Hon. James Ferrier, William Molson, George Crawford, Duncan Finlayson, John Silveright, John Ballenden, Allen Macdonnell, Samuel Gall, Benjamin Hart, John Carter, Andrew Cowan, Walter Benny, John H. Evans, James H. Lamb, W. Watson, Charles H. Castle, J.B. McKenzie, James Crawford, W. Murray, M. McCullough, M.E. David, J.F. Dickson, John Leeming, Jesse Joseph, D.L. Macpherson, James Cormac, Archibald Hall, Hugh Taylor, Colin Campbell, John Simpson, Thomas Taylor, E.M. Hopkins, John Miles, Charles Geddes, John Macdonald, E.T. Renaud, J.D. Watson, and William Cunningham.
Educational movement also began to gain strength in 1851. The College Ste. Marie on Bleury Street the Young Men’s Christian Association and the new Theatre Royal were opened, while this year the first external signs of the modern movement for woman’s emancipation was strikingly illustrated in July in the streets of Montreal by the appearance for the first time of the “bloomer costume,” made famous at the time by the cartoons of Punch.
Times of commercial prosperity seemed now promised.
The next year, 1852, McGill received its new lease of life, obtaining its new charter, and from this date its success was assured.
The great fire of 1852 started on July 8th; it is said to have burnt 11,000 houses, while thousands were rendered homeless. Money, however, was not scarce, for this year in December £5,000 was raised by merchants for a Merchants’ Exchange. Another financial sidelight is that in October of this year the Bank of Montreal issued its first notes like those of the Bank of England, the denominations being water-marked.
The Gavazzi riot, already described, with the investigations into its cause, was the social excitement for the year 1853, as well as the preparations for the Atlantic service between Montreal and England, secured by the first charter of May 23d.
On July 22d Pier No. 1 of the Victoria Bridge was begun, and on August 24th Lake St. Peter was deepened four feet, two inches. On July 20th of the next year, 1854, the first stone of the Victoria Bridge was laid and on August 2d the first cofferdam was ready for masonry. On October 11th the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway was opened from Longueuil to Richmond. These facts illustrate the early movement of the era of progress by land and water, then beginning.
Among other events of this year it was announced that accounts could be kept from September 1st to the end of the year, either in pounds, shillings, or pence, or in dollars and cents, the decimal currency being expected to be generally in use by January 1st following. Money order offices were first opened on December 1st; reciprocity was established between Canada and the United States; the seigneurial tenure was abolished and the secularization of clergy reserves was brought about.
The year 1854 was memorable as that of the Crimean War, when the English and French were allied against the Russians. In 1914 all three are allied against a common foe. The social life was invaded by the spirit of patriotism. An appropriation of £20,000 sterling was made by the Canadian Government “in favour of the widows and orphans of England and France.” It was the gift of the people of both French and English descent and the Emperor of the French, in acknowledging the gift, commented on the union of races it implied. A patriotic fund was organized in Montreal by concerts and other forms of charity as in 1914.
The year 1854 is also sadly memorable by the Asiatic cholera which carried off 1,186 persons.
After the commercial depression of 1854, due to the Crimean War, the spring of 1855 saw brighter prosperity.
The annals of this year record as signs of general progress the first issue, in February, of money orders in Canada, the coming into force of the reciprocity act with the United States, the establishment by the H. & A. Allan Company of the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company with four steamers fortnightly, the completion of the general postoffice, the new building of the Mechanics’ Institute, the incorporation of Molson’s bank, and the opening of a new industry through the completion of Redpath’s sugar refinery.
In March the Industrial Exhibition, promoted to select articles to be sent to the coming Paris Exhibition was formally opened by the governor general, Sir Edmund Head, who made his first visit to Montreal on this occasion.
On July 27th the first French ship to sail the St. Lawrence since the conquest reached Montreal under Commander de Belvèze. The object was to obtain information to extend the commercial relations between Canada and France. The occasion, coming so soon after the fall of Sebastopol, was one of great public demonstration, illuminations and torchlight processions, the like of which the city had never yet beheld. The arrival of Admiral Belvèze’s warship, with dinners and receptions, especially among the French citizens, also made 1855 a memorable social year.
In 1856 Montreal was filled with preparations for the great Paris Exhibition and Alfred Perry was voted £500 to represent Montreal. It is remembered that at this exhibition he had a fire fighting invention on show which was lucky enough to be in readiness to stop a conflagration in the exhibition, a fact largely noticed in the continental papers and illustrated journals. A balloon ascension on September 16th in Griffintown, in the “Canada,” is seriously chronicled by the annalists as a striking novelty of the year.
On June 11, 1856, thirty-five lives were lost in the Grand Trunk ferry boat to Longueuil by the explosion of the boiler, through the carelessness of the engineer. The burning of the steamer Montreal off Quebec on June 27, 1857, which was carrying to Montreal about five hundred emigrants who had just arrived from the John McKenzie, caused great excitement in the city and was the occasion of much hospitality. As the immigrants it carried were mostly Scotch, the activities of St. Andrew’s National Society were largely engaged.
On June 18, 1856, the Thirty-ninth Regiment which had fought in the Crimea reached Montreal transported by the John Munn and Quebec. A civic dinner closed the day in the City Concert Hall with covers laid for 1,200 guests.
The 12th and 13th of November saw the city again en fète to celebrate the opening of the Grand Trunk between Toronto and Montreal, which terminated on the 12th in a banquet at Point St. Charles with 4,000 present. The evening of the 13th closed with a promenade through the brilliantly illuminated city with the roar of cannon at intervals and a great ball.
On November 5th a violent hurricane swept over Montreal and on December 10th Christ Church Cathedral was burnt down.
This year the additions and new works of Montreal waterworks were being made ready for use.
The cause of science received a great impetus in the city by the convention which started on Wednesday, August 12, 1857, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was continued for a week, during which the University of McGill, the Natural History Society and other learned organizations entertained their distinguished guests. In September of the same year the Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition was successfully held.
On September 7th 500 of the Thirty-ninth Regiment left Montreal for active service, for this was the year of the Indian mutiny.
Educational circles remember the year of the meeting in Montreal of the American Association for the Advancement of Learning and as the opening of the Jacques Cartier and the McGill Normal schools for teachers. This was practically the earliest converging point of the two boards of school commissioners in the building up of their educational system.
January 1, 1858, marks the supplanting of the L.S.D. system by the decimal coinage; January 5th, the purchase of the Montreal and Bytown (Ottawa) Railway for £5,300 by Mr. (afterward Sir John) J.J.C. Abbott.
On February 26th, Griffintown was flooded and beds stood three feet in water, being one of the annual spring floods.
The martial enthusiasm of the citizens was evoked in the city in the early part of 1858 by the Indian mutiny, when the Imperial Government accepted the offer of a regiment to be raised in Canada for service abroad under the title of the “One Hundredth Prince of Wales Royal Canadian Regiment.” The recruiting sergeant, with his flying ribbons, fife and drum band and his cry of “Come, boys, and join the war,” was a novelty then. Montreal contributed for the first overseas contingent 110 young men, who drilled with the detachment of 500 men on St. Helen’s Island previous to being embarked for England in July following. This was the first contingent raised for the front, but it did not get as far as India, doing duty at Malta and Gibraltar. None the less, as the old ballad says, “Their will was good to do the deed, that is if they’d have let ’em, with a ‘Re fol de roy, etc.’”
On September 1st the laying of the first Atlantic telegraph cable was celebrated in the city by trades, military and torchlight processions, the latter being two miles long on the average of six abreast. A bonfire on the mountain signalized this occasion.
Next year, 1859, the Prince of Wales presented the One Hundredth Regiment with its colours at Shorncliffe.
On December 12th, the Victoria Bridge was at last opened and on the 17th the first passenger train went through. It was called the “Victoria” after the revered Queen of that name and it was hoped to have had Her Majesty formally open it.
Before leaving the construction works the men engaged placed the great boulder over the resting place of the many victims of the ship fever of 1847. The words of a Montreal lady, Mrs. Leprohon, commemorate the event thus:
“Long since forgotten, here they rest, Sons of a distant shore The epoch of their short career These footprints on life’s sand, But this stone will tell through many a year They died on our shores and slumber here.”
This year Mr. Charles S. Rodier was mayor. A picture worth preserving has lately been given of the city hall life of that time. The city was then very small and the questions were comparatively parochial and the revenue was negligible in comparison with today’s, yet the meetings were very important and very dignified and probably more eloquence flowed than now. The English were then predominant and Mr. Rodden was the leader of the council. The mayor, Mr. Rodier, was, as a contemporary has recently described him, “a man of much eccentricity, but a man also of education and ability. He was what you might call an aesthete--well groomed, neat, and polished, to the finger nails; always with his frock coat and silk hat; always ready to make a sweeping bow; always on the watch to assist a lady from her carriage--a lady who might be shopping on Notre Dame Street, which was the great retail street of the city in my young days. It didn’t matter that His Worship was not always acquainted with the ladies; he was naturally a gallant and, anyway, there was less formality in those days than now.”
As he was the first mayor to receive royalty this description will serve as an introduction. Mr. Rodier’s home was at the corner of Guy and St. Antoine streets and was afterward purchased by the Dominion Immigration Agency for its offices.
The next great social event was the reception of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward VII, the Peacemaker, and the preparation of the exhibition which was to be opened by him, both in connection with the formal opening of the great Victoria Bridge, marking the era of railways now prevailing.
In preparation for this event the Board of Arts and Manufactures, in March, 1860, decided upon and took immediate steps for the erection of a Crystal Palace for a permanent exhibition on land purchased by them on Peel Street, above St. Catherine Street. On Tuesday, May 22d, a public meeting was held to form the “reception committee fund.” A programme of festivities and functions was drawn up in June. Triumphal arches and illuminations were prepared, the house of the Hon. John Rose, afterward owned by the Ogilvie family, was decorated for the stay of the young prince therein and on Friday, August 24th, the royal visitor, described as a Prince of Romance, under the escort of the austere Duke of Newcastle, arrived by river from Quebec in a perfect deluge of rain. But he did not land till next day and all went well. The mayor, Mr. Rodier, the council, magistrates, the clergy, the heads of national and other societies with regalia, received him under a superb pavilion. Then followed the great procession, headed by the Caughnawaga Indians in full native costume. The scene was wild, with church bells ringing and the shouting of enthusiasm and loyalty. All the society of Canada had come to the city to be present. The royal party visited the Crystal Palace, where an address was presented by the governor general, Sir E.W. Head, and the Prince declared the Palace open.
In the afternoon took place the ceremony of the laying of the last stone by the Prince of the Victoria Bridge. The royal party entered the car of state and proceeded to the centre of the bridge and the Prince drove in the last--a silver--rivet. The party then proceeded to the other side of the river, where Mr. Blackwell, in the name of the Grand Trunk, presented the Prince with a gold medal, executed by Wyon, commemorative of the occasion, the suite receiving similar ones, but in silver. The royal car then returned to the city. A great lunch took place and the city and the harbour were given over that evening to wonderful illuminations, when the Prince rode through the streets. On Sunday the Prince and royal party attended divine service at the recently rebuilt Christ Church Cathedral on St. Catherine Street and were received at the door by Sir Fenwick Williams and Sir A. Milne. Bishop Fulford officiated and Reverend Mr. Wood read the sermon. In commemoration of this visit His Royal Highness presented to the Cathedral a magnificent Bible with an autograph inscription.
In the evening the Montreal Oratorio Society of 400 voices performed a grand cantata especially written by a Mr. Semper and composed by M. Sabatier, in commemoration of the royal visit. On this occasion Marie Louise Lajeunesse, afterward Madame Albani, sang. She was then unknown, although she had made her debut as a piano player at the Mechanics’ Institute about 1854, when but seven years of age.
The great ball, at which the young Prince danced with the ladies of the charmed circle chosen by the committee of reception, took place later in the completed Crystal Palace, a building of colossal dimensions for the time, being nearly three hundred feet in diameter. It was then thought to be in the fields.
A recent reminiscence of the time describes the scene:
“But the grand ball in Montreal was the climax of the Prince’s visit. A special pavilion had been built for the occasion, and here the élite of the city, the province, the whole country it might be said, had assembled. The Prince with his suite appeared about ten o’clock and opened the ball. The Duke of Newcastle presented the Hon. Mrs. Young, and the ball was opened by the Prince dancing with that lady. He had on his right the Hon. Mr. Cartier with Mrs. Dumas, on his left Major Teesdale and Miss Rodgers. On the Prince’s right were Governor Bruce and Mrs. Denny, Captain Connolly, and Miss Penn; and on his left the Earl of Mulgrave, and Miss de Lisle, and Captain De Winton and Miss Tyre. His Royal Highness danced incessantly from half-past four in the morning, with a large number of ladies, most of whom are dead and gone.
“Among the ladies who had the honour of dancing with the Prince were Miss de Lisle, Miss Tyre, Mrs. F. Brown, Miss Leach, Miss Fisher, of Halifax, Mrs. Sicotte, Miss de Rocheblave, Mrs. C. Freer, Miss Laura Johnson, Miss Belson, Miss Napier, Miss King, Mrs. Forsythe, Miss Sophia Stewart, the Hon. Mrs. J.S. Macdonald, Miss Servorte, Lady Milne, Mrs. King, Miss E. Smith.
Although all the ladies, or most of them, are dead, they have relatives who might be interested in recalling the brilliant scene, which was witnessed at the famous ball, which was described with great particularity, even by the United States press, which sent over many representatives.”
On Wednesday morning there was a review at Logan’s Farm, now Lafontaine Park, the property of Sir William Logan, the geologist, who was knighted about 1856, and the Prince appeared in his uniform as colonel of the One Hundred Prince of Wales Royal Canadian Regiment. In the evening the firemen had a torchlight procession, each fire fighter carrying a torch or Roman candle. On Thursday night the “peoples’ ball” took place in the new ballroom, with the Prince present. That night the foot of the mountain was illuminated with fireworks. Next day the royal party proceeded to Ottawa. The visit to Montreal was a great success. Its cost to the citizens’ reception committee was $43,031, not including the decorations of public buildings which cannot have been less than ten to twenty thousand dollars more. One of the permanent mementos of the visit is the name of Victoria Square, which a by-law of the city changed from its former title of Haymarket and Commissioners Square.
One of the acts of the young Edward, the Peacemaker, was on this occasion of his visit, to establish uniformity and harmony in the various companies comprising the Prince of Wales Regiment, which had heretofore turned out on parade in different facings and different racial emblems according to the company. This had always been provocative of rivalry, but henceforth uniformity ruled.
Two events of artistic and literary interest marked this period. On the 23d of April the Art Association of Montreal was formed and on August 13th the first number of the Daily Witness appeared.
The year 1861 stands out preeminently in the military history of the city, for it was that of the Civil War between the northern and the southern states of the adjoining republic, and Montreal reflected the general turmoil. The Civil War began on January 9th, when the Southern Confederacy fired into the Federal steamer Star of the West. It was early feared that there might be war between Great Britain and the United States and the North British troops were ordered to Canada in January. Meanwhile, in January, the city was excited over the case of a fugitive slave named Anderson charged with murder, whose extradition was demanded. A meeting was held and addressed by Messrs. Dorion, Drummond, Holton, Benjamin Holmes and John Dougall, Dr. W.H. Hingston and the Rev. Messrs. W. Bond and Cordner, opposing surrender. In February it was decided that Anderson was not to be delivered without instructions from England. Finally he reached England in June.
Montreal sympathies were with the Southerners, but as yet according to instructions from Queen Victoria on May 13th, strict neutrality was to be observed. The position became, however, acute after November 8th, when Captain Wilkes, of the United States warship San Jacinto, took from the British mailship Trent the Confederates John Slidell and John G. Mason, Confederate commissioners to the Imperial Government. On the refusal of the American Government to hand them over, war was anticipated and there was extreme tension. Six steamers were chartered to bring troops to Canada. Reinforcements of regulars were sent from England and in Montreal, space being inadequate to receive them, the Molson College on St. Mary Street, the Collège de Montreal on College Street and the stores at the northeast corner of St. Sulpice and Notre Dame streets, then recently erected on the site of the property of Hôtel Dieu, which had been also recently transferred to Pine Avenue, were leased and known as Victoria Barracks. Canada was prepared to share the troubles of the Empire should war break out, and in consequence Montreal saw a hurrying to and fro of citizen soldiers. Recruiting in every arm of the service and drilling went on everywhere. “Stand to your arms,” “Defense not defiance” and such mottoes are to be found in newspapers of the period, in the exercise of their duty of making public opinion.
For two weeks the tension was great in the city. One of the soldiers has recently given his reminiscences of this time as follows:
“We marched to Molson’s College in the east end. Yes, it was called a college then, and had originally been built for some educational purpose. It was at the back of St. Thomas’ Church, or rather, this church, at the time, formed part of the building. Back of this again, and close to the river, was Molson’s Terrace, which is a pretty tawdry place today but which, when I was stationed in the city with my regiment, was most select. Why, the Molson’s themselves lived in the Terrace--that is, the founders of the brewery and of the college. The houses were then considered elegant, and that part of the city had a reputation which it does not now possess.
“At the time I am speaking of, the total military strength of Montreal was considerable. There was the First Battalion of the Sixteenth Bedfordshire Regiment, to which I belonged. The Forty-seventh Lancashire; the Fourth Battalion; Sixtieth Rifles, which latter was quartered in the College Street Barracks; the Second Battalion of the Guards; the Second Battalion of the Scotch Fusiliers; three field batteries of Artillery, which later were stationed at the Quebec Gate Barracks where the Dalhousie Square depot is now, and the Forty-seventh Regiment.
“This Quebec Gate Barracks had two entrances--one on Water Street for the men, and one on Notre Dame Street for the officers. In that same barracks were two companies of the Royal Engineers. The commissariat and two troops of the Military Train were stationed at Hochelaga.
“The city was full of troops at the time. There was every belief that we would speedily be at war with the North, but the ill feeling passed over. Nothing happened. We remained, and lived the lives of soldiers. We had good times; we had no care; we had our beer; we had a brisk time in Montreal.”
His recollection of the officers is as follows:
“At that time the sons of noblemen thought it an honour to belong to the army, and the officers in Montreal were, for the most part, highly connected. Now the commission is obtained by competitive examination; but the old soldiers like to be under gentlemen born. Some of the officers stayed at the Donegana Hotel, and many of them messed in the building opposite Dalhousie Square, where the band played in the evening; but the bulk of the higher officers put up at the St. Lawrence Hall. The officer of the day, and the subaltern of the day, always lived in Molson’s Terrace, to be near the scene of their duties.
“Several of the officers, I remember, put up at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which stood on the present site of the New York Life Building. Opposite Molson’s brewery was the regimental hospital, while the Garrison Hospital was on Water Street. Each regiment had its own hospital.”[1]
At the time the hero of Kars, Lieut.-Gen. Sir William Fenwick Williams, Bart., K.C.B.; commander of the forces in British North America; Lord Paulet, in charge of the Guards; Sir William Muir, chief medical officer of the forces; Major Penn, of Crimean fame, in command of the gallant Grey Battery; Colonel Peacock, of the Sixteenth Bedfordshire; and others, were among the officers then in Montreal.
In its midst news came of the death of Queen Victoria’s husband, the Prince Consort. A loyal city sent its message of condolence to their beloved Queen. But on the release of Slidell and Mason the war alarms were over. This good news came on December 28th, and on Sunday the continuance of peace between the Empire and the United States was devoutly and thankfully blessed. The outburst of militarism served to keep the companies as already organized on a permanent basis. On January 1st, Slidell and Mason were released by the United States, but on January 4th Victoria Bridge had still to be guarded for fear of destruction by marauders from across the boundary.
“The alarm, which soon subsided, was really the birth of modern militia movement in Canada. I remember well,” says Lieut.-Col. Robert Gardner, in a reminiscence, “the excitement that ruled everywhere. I can recollect the time when the business men and merchants of Montreal were all imbued with the necessity of defending their country. So enthusiastic were they that drilling was going on practically all the time. Everyone expected war, and patriotic feelings ran high. Business men would slip out in the morning and put in an hour at drill, another drill would be held after lunch, and more in the evening. It was that war scare of 1861-2 which really showed the necessity of a defensive force, and proved the forerunner of our militia system of today.”
During the war there were, however, merry times at the hotels and at Dolly’s restaurant. A reminiscence relates:
“That was a merry time in Montreal. The Americans had plenty of money, and were not afraid to spend it. The officers, too, were well supplied, and they, too, were prodigal with it. St. James Street was always busy, what with the soldiers and officers, the Southerners, the local military, the excitement attending the events of the war, and which were reflected in the city in the matter of sentiment, as well as the matter of money. I recollect very well that the feeling of our people was in favour of the South in the struggle. As time went on, the conviction gained ground that the South would be defeated; but the general feeling was in its favour. This made life for the Southerners very pleasant. They fraternized with the people; they spent their money; they made life merry in and about the old St. Lawrence Hall.”
Greenbacks, however, were looked askance at till the fortunes of war were with the North, so that silver was in demand. The Civil War meant good times for Canada for the farmers’ produce and stock were readily bought by the United States.
The military troops in town came in for a great recognition on the 6th, 7th and 8th of May, 1862, when they were feasted in sections on these days. It is recorded that among the items for the festivities there were ordered 3,200 pounds of sandwiches, 5,000 tarts, 3,700 pounds of cake, 50 barrels of fruit, besides an abundant supply of tea and coffee, the entertainments being on strictly temperance principles.
Montreal’s generosity was also that year shown to the destitute operatives in the manufacturing districts of England, when in consequence of a meeting in the Merchants’ Exchange $30,000 was subscribed for their relief.
The Civil War over, the arts of peace were resumed. The Montreal Street Railway, started in the year previous, was making its humble beginnings with its few horse-drawn cars. On April 2d there was a municipal by-law to establish the fire brigade. On May 20th, the Montreal waterworks were enlarged and improved as a result of the dearth of water at this time which had caused the ancient custom of providing water in puncheons again to be resorted to.
This year the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society was founded and the Corn Exchange organized, being incorporated the next year, when eight floating elevators were proudly said to be discharging hourly 24,000 bushels.
1863 saw the fire alarm established on January 19th, indicating the progress of our fire service.
On July 15th, the Corvette Oernen, the first Norwegian vessel to visit the St. Lawrence, sailed up to Montreal and civic hospitality was again displayed as previously to the French vessel.
The Provincial Exhibition, held on the 9th of September of this year, was superior to any other. A grand rifle tournament was opened by Sir William Fenwick Williams and lasted over ten days.
On April 21, 1864, there appeared a published letter of D’Arcy McGee, the Irish poet, litterateur and politician, in which he said: “Even the threat of assassination covertly conveyed and so eminently in keeping with the entire humbug has no terrors for me. I trust I shall outlive these threats,” indicates that there was a ring of organized Fenianism in the city in sympathy with the movement now looming large in the United States. About this time he exposed the dangers and sophisms of those seducing the young Irish of the city and moreover told some of his young, hotheaded auditors at several meetings, then and subsequently, that he held in his pocket evidence enough to hang some of them. “I ask you,” he said, “to frown upon this thing. I ask you to have nothing to do with it. I tell you that I know many of the men who are associated with Fenianism. And I say this, that if they do not separate themselves from the organization, I will denounce them to the Government. Come out from among them. The organization will bring you to ruin. There are some who think they are secure; that they can go on and that they cannot be found out. I tell you I know such, and will denounce them if they do not mend their ways.”
At this time McGee was told that his days were numbered. Thus coming events cast their shadows before. But Confederation was in the air and its discussion was uppermost.
The Shakespeare centenary of 1864 was brilliantly celebrated at Montreal in April at the Crystal Palace. But sad news fell upon the city when, on June 29th, a train of eleven cars, having aboard 354 German emigrants leaving St. Hilaire for Montreal, was precipitated through an open drawbridge into the river at Beloeil. Ninety were killed and a very large number were drowned. The hospitable city opened its hospitals and public institutions for the sufferers and the bodies of the dead were brought to the city and buried in the Protestant cemeteries.
In September, 1864, the city saw the departure of six companies of the Scotch Fusileers and other military.
In November there was excitement in the city over the St. Alban’s raiders who had been captured and brought to the city for examination. On the 19th of October some southern raiders from Canada had made a descent on the St. Alban’s bank, compelling Mr. Sowles, the cashier, to surrender the bank’s money, and after intimidating the citizens, saying that “we represent the Confederate States of America and we come here to retaliate outrages committed by General Sherman,” they had returned to Canada on captured horses.
On March 30th of the next year, the St. Alban raiders were discharged. On this occasion Mr. Bernard Devlin had an opportunity of airing his forensic eloquence, being employed to defend certain of the prisoners. It is said that the motive behind the raid was to make a diversion in favour of the South by means of the raid which was to bring Federal troops from southern points to defend the invaded territory of the North.
The year 1865, which opened with the usual spring floods in April, was otherwise an interesting and exciting time to the merchants of the town, for Mr. Adams, the American minister in London, gave the requisite notice to terminate reciprocity between the United States and Canada on March 17, 1866. In July there was a convention at Detroit, from the 11th to the 14th, which promoted the forming of a new reciprocity treaty. At this several Montrealers attended, but only to give desired information. In September there was a delegation to Montreal to form an International Board of Trade. This year the Board of Trade Building, erected in 1855, was burnt down.
The following resolution, passed unanimously on April 19th by the city council, on the motion of Alderman Grenier, seconded by Alderman Rodden, on the occasion of the assassination of the President of the United States, shows the gloom and commiseration of the city which went into mourning on the day of the funeral:
“Resolved, That in respect to the memory of the late President of the United States and sympathy with the people in the great calamity which has befallen them, and also as an expression of the regret and horror felt at the crime perpetrated upon the person of President Lincoln, this council do now adjourn.”
This allows us to cast a glance at our peaceful municipal life. One[2] who knew it well has recently recorded his reminiscences:
“Citizens criticized the council then as they do today and on one particular occasion they manifested their disapprobation on some burning question by gathering in front of the council room, and, after due oratory from their leader, sent a volley of stones through the windows, to show the depth of their feelings. This stirred up the members most effectively, and if the celerity with which they jumped from one place to another, to avoid the ‘arguments’ was any indication of the attention they would give to the cause in question, it would not have remained long unattended to.
“One member, however, more courageous than the others, kept his seat with contemptuous indifference until he saw a missile coming direct for his desk, when he cleverly caught it in his hands, and called on the mayor to maintain order. His Worship looked unutterable things, and told Darcy to do it. The latter, however, disappeared, and was not seen more that night. It was suspected he went over to the enemy, and when he told me next morning that it was ‘the best bit of fun he had seen for many a day,’ I thought there was ground for the suspicion.
“But criticisms of the council were not confined to demonstrations of this kind. The press was not backward in saying what it thought, although in a more refined and cultured way. One editor, for instance, gave a free notice of a meeting of council in the following words, in large type:
“‘The Municipal Banditti meet in their den at the City Hall at 8 o’clock this evening.’
“We were more deliberate in those days than at the present. We were deliberate in all things. We did not hurry away the snow as we do now. We thought it cheaper to let the sun do that. Now in this advanced age we think nothing of spending $10,000 to beat the sun by twenty-four hours; but speed is everything today. At the time of speaking our whole revenue was not one-fourth of the interest on our debt today.
“I have enumerated the personnel to show the speed of time, for at the present time not one of those mentioned, except myself, remain. They have all passed to the ‘majority.’
“Prominently among the aldermen of that period were Ferdinand David, and William Rodden; the former as chairman of the roads committee, may be regarded as having been the father of our expropriation system, and the latter, as chairman of finance, was regarded as the father of our 7 per cent consolidation. Were both these men alive today they would be appalled at the outcome of their pet schemes. In those days we spoke with bated breath of $100,000, now we play with the millions as a very little thing. Then our 6 per cent securities sold at a heavy discount, since then our 3 per cent securities have sold over par.
“An orator about this time, haranguing the taxpayers from the steps of the Nelson Monument, assured them that if they should elect him as their representative, he would reduce their taxes 150 per cent. Poor fellow, he meant well, but he was allowed to sink, with his invaluable arithmetical genius, into oblivion, while the other one, who was able to rouse another mob, occupies a seat on the king’s bench. This shows that it is better to break people’s windows than to abolish their taxes and give them a 50 per cent bonus beside. O, tempora, O, mores.”
This year (1865) Sir John Michel was sworn in as administrator of the governor general, then absent in England. As he took up his residence in the city and during his administration the executive council met here twice in each month, this event may be chronicled in the series of social events.
The peaceful progress of the inhabitants was again thrown into confusion and the military spirit reincarnated when news came the latter part of this year, 1865, that the threatened invasion of Canada by the Irish Fenian Brotherhood, led by “General” O’Neil, were at last becoming actual. They made use of the ill-feeling aroused between the United States and Britain by an element discontented through hard times, to strike a long premeditated blow. The first Fenian invasion eventually came to nothing at all of importance, but it was a great scare. Montreal was on the qui vive for a while, fearing the invasion, for the supineness of the American Government in allowing the invasion to be planned and provided for by filibusters, gave an unpleasant impression, suggesting that there might, possibly, be serious consequence if a strong front were not presented to the audacious attempt. The feeling, too, at the time, was not too friendly to Canada, which, with Great Britain, was supposed to sympathize with the South during the Civil War.
On Monday, March 13, 1866, a company of the Prince of Wales regiment and a battery of artillery were reviewed at 5 P.M. and by 9 P.M. were sent to the threatened frontier. A patriotic “relief” fund was started on March 26th. On June 2d, on account of news arriving on June 1st, the Fenians being already at Fort Erie, a further detachment of four more companies were sent to the west, viz., Nos. 3 and 8 batteries of the Brigade of the Montreal Garrison Artillery, under Captains Brown and Hobbes; a company of Prince of Wales Rifles, under Captain Bond; Victoria Rifles, under Captain Bacon; Royal Light Infantry, under Capt. K. Campbell; and the Chasseurs Canadiens, under Captain Labelle, who all left by special train for Point St. Charles for St. Johns and Isle aux Noix. The same evening a strong reinforcement of regulars left for the same stations, and on the 4th, several additional companies of volunteers were dispatched to Hemingford and other places along the frontier. Among those going to the front were the famous “Barney” Devlin, the great criminal lawyer and the political opponent of D’Arcy McGee, and the Rev. Father James Hogan of St. Patrick’s, who acted as chaplain.
The chief fight in Lower Canada was at Pigeon Hill, in the Township of St. Armand, adjoining the State of Vermont, which was attacked by the Fenians on June 17th, but from which, after a brief skirmish, they retired, not without several of their party being secured as prisoners by the “Montreal Guides,” and being brought, a sorry and ragged crowd, to the city gaol.
On June 18th, the volunteer companies returned, being welcomed enthusiastically by their fellow citizens, and June 23d was observed as a day of general rejoicing and inspection. The mayor, on behalf of the civic authorities, tendered an address to the troops, offering sincere expressions of gratitude and thanks for their devotion, loyalty and courage in the late emergency, and bidding them a hearty welcome back to the city and to their happy homes and beloved and expectant families. This was responded to by Major-General Lindsay.
The loyalty of all sections of the community had again been proved against a common enemy. Every section had answered the call to arms, for Fenianism, after all, had few weighty supporters in Montreal.
The military enthusiasm, however, evoked by the late events had an immediate effect in determining the city council and other authorities already considering the point, to open a drill hall capable of meeting the increased demands, and in May, 1867, the contract for the armory on Craig Street, opposite the Champ de Mars, was given to Foster & Roy.
The confederation of the provinces was now in the air. It was not universally understood at the time and it was feared, and somewhat actively combatted, especially by the group of young French-Canadians opposed to Cartier in their new journal the Union Nationale, as likely to absorb them so that they might lose their political identity.
Confederation was, however, to mark a great period of progress and to see Montreal emerge from provincial citydom to the great metropolis of today. Before passing to the story of its achievement, a glance back will show that Montreal was a very quiet place under the Union. Yet it produced strong-minded and able men, even if the racial, religious and political rancours of a “heart burning town” showed themselves in no equivocal colours. The foundations of our present artistic, literary, religious, charitable and financial associations were also already being well laid. The life was simple; there was not much society but great heartiness. There were no millionaires, but the people spent freely. Public amusements were fewer, but private hospitality greater. The city hall was decorous, there were no emoluments for service, and the best men of the time thought it an honour to represent their wards.
Into the simplicity of the life there entered the society centering around the military. At the close of the Union there were about a hundred officers generally stationed here, many of them distinguished men of high rank and fame. There were often four or five regiments in the town, and the soldiery fraternized with the citizens. Pranks there were, the ringing of bells, the wrenching off of knockers and signs, and more serious peccadillos, but the indulgent public was not censorious. The officers gave many parties, balls, receptions, dances and hunts, all of which the prominent citizens participated in and returned. There were not highly organized kennel or hunt clubs, but they ranged the country far and wide. The officers were good judges of horse flesh as were the humbler citizens and Tattersalls, on St. James Street, opposite the present Star offices, was a busy place for such. It was no infrequent sight to see the horses being trotted up and down past Dolly’s, St. Lawrence Hall and Banque du Peuple for inspection along the street which is today’s busy financial thoroughfare, lined with banks and insurance buildings.
The ordinary people participated indirectly in the gaiety of the military régime through the brisk, lively trade with the officers and soldiery, who spent freely.
The life, colour, and zest they gave were also a free entertainment. Not only were the streets bright with the uniforms of the soldiers and gay with the sound of fife, drum and brass, but the people would make their way to the Champ de Mars during the day to see the evolutions of the military, where the firing of the cannon frightened the timid boys and girls, or in the early evening the young folk would stroll sweethearting to Dalhousie Square (now the Viger Station tracks) to hear the regimental bands in Barrack Square, and the boys and girls, now no way shy, would peep in at the mysteries of the officers’ mess, which was in plain view. The music would last for hours and the square would resound with laughter till the sun-down gun from St. Helen’s Island proclaimed the time for early bed.
Art, literature and music were cultivated by associations at the time and to these the military officers contributed no little initiative. The scholastic system of the two boards of school commissioners was being solidified and Montreal at the end of the Union was progressing substantially, but not so dramatically or so visibly as after the next few decades when bustle began to rule. Life was then more leisurely, more reposeful and at least quite as happy and more contented.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Reminiscences of Private Fitzgerald, who came out with the Sixteenth Bedfordshire Regiment in 1861. Cf. “I Remember” series of the Star, 1913.
[2] Mr. William Robb, recently city treasurer. Cf. I Remember Series, The Star, 1913.
XXII. CONSTITUTIONAL LIFE UNDER CONFEDERATION
FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL INFLUENCE
MONTREAL AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS--CONFEDERATION TESTED--CARTIER AND THE PARTI ROUGE AT MONTREAL--ASSASSINATION OF THOMAS D’ARCY M’GEE--THE HUDSON’S BAY TRANSFER--THE METIS AND THE RIEL REBELLION--LORD STRATHCONA--THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY BILL--RESIGNATION OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD--SECOND FENIAN RAID--THE “NATIONAL POLICY”--VOTING REFORM--TEMPERANCE BILL--ORANGE RIOTS--SECOND NORTH WEST REBELLION--THE “SIXTY-FIFTH REGIMENT”--THE MANITOBA SCHOOL QUESTION--PROMINENT CITIZENS--BRITISH PREFERENTIAL TARIFF--BOER WAR--“STRATHCONA HORSE”--THE NATIONALIST LEAGUE--RECIPROCITY AND FEAR OF ANNEXATION--THE ELECTIONS OF 1911--NAVAL BILL--PROVINCIAL POLITICS--MONTREAL MEMBERS--PROVINCIAL OVERSIGHT OVER MONTREAL--HOME RULE--THE INTERNATIONAL WAR OF 1914--THE FIRST CONTINGENT--MONTREAL’S ACTION.
Constitutionally Montreal has always been an influence in the moulding of the Dominion. This has been brought about by its geographical situation and its public men. From the first the city has been favored in its sons--men who have controlled the destinies of the growing country, and who in turn have been influenced by their closer environments. This is seen in the constitutional acts of both the Province and the Dominion, for practically most public events, particularly since Confederation, have been shaped to meet the requirements of the commercial metropolis.
Confederation had its opponents, particularly amongst the younger members of the “parti rouge” or democratic party, who in Lower Canada, but now the Province of Quebec, had been waiting for an opportunity to break the power of Sir George Etienne Cartier, the great French Canadian leader in the confederation movement, so that in the elections called for to ratify the British North America Act, they determined, in spite of the advice to the contrary, of their brilliant leader (Dorion), to give Cartier the fight of his life. The new Federal government realized that the permanency of the constitution depended largely on the attitude of Quebec and much anxiety was felt as to the results of the elections which were to be held in the autumn of 1867--the British North America Act having come into force on July 1st.
Cartier particularly realized the crisis, and put his whole energy into the fight. He personally contested Montreal East, now St. James Division, having as opponent Médéric Lanctot, a popular labour leader. Every division in the Province was contested, but thanks to the strong stand made by the Roman Catholic[1] church in approving Confederation, the party headed by Cartier, who beat his opponent, won and the new constitution was confirmed in the Province of Quebec forty-three out of sixty-five seats. In Ontario the government won sixty-eight out of eighty-five seats and in New Brunswick twelve out of fifteen seats, but in Nova Scotia, owing to the opposition of Joseph Howe, only one government supporter, Charles Tupper, was returned. On the whole, Confederation was confirmed by the people.
Practically this most momentous election--upon which depended the future of Canada’s national life--was decided in Montreal, for had Cartier failed in winning his own seat, the impetus given to the “parti rouge” would have been strong enough to have wrecked the government and consequently the British North America Act. The Provincial legislature returns showed a similar result, the first provincial premier being that brilliant Montreal writer and orator, the Hon. P.J.O. Chauveau, who held office until 1873, his two immediate successors in the premiership being Montrealers also, the Hon. G. Ouimet and Sir Charles E.B. de Boucherville. The last named is still living, in the best of health, though in his ninety-fourth year, and enjoying the dual offices of Senator for Canada, and member of the Legislative Council of Quebec. Sir Charles is the last of the dual office men.
During the adjourned session of the first Dominion parliament which had met in Ottawa in March, 1868, the Hon. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, who represented Montreal West, was assassinated just outside his Ottawa lodging. There is no doubt that this dastardly outrage was the consequence of Mr. McGee’s condemnation of the Fenian movement against Canada, and though one man, Whelan, an ex-soldier and tailor, suffered the extreme penalty for being the instrument, the real miscreants got away. The murder of D’Arcy McGee robbed this country of one of her best sons. Brilliant and large minded he had risen to cabinet rank before he was thirty-eight years of age and in the last government under the Union he held the port-folio of Agriculture. Always a believer in the closest union between the component parts of British North America, he was an eloquent advocate for Confederation and on the formation by Sir J.A. Macdonald of the first Dominion government (1868) McGee’s eminent services gave him every right to be included, but his sense of loyalty made him stand aside so as to allow Sir John to form his cabinet on territorial lines. This great man, whose remains rest in Cote de Neiges Cemetery, is still--forty-six years after his death--the outstanding figure of Irish Canadianism--an example in broad mindedness and patriotism.
Another Father of Confederation was the Hon. A.T. Galt, whose representation of Sherbrooke, P.Q., and his years of residence here, made him a local figure. Mr. Galt’s great financial ability was very helpful in making equitable arrangements in the consolidation of the Dominion. To commemorate the consummation of confederation the Hon. J.A. Macdonald received the honour of Knight Commander of the Bath, while his co-workers, including Cartier and Galt, received companionships of the Bath. The title was refused by both Cartier and Galt for the reason that being representatives of Lower Canada they could not accept a lesser title than Sir John Macdonald. The difficulty was overcome by a baronetcy conferred on Cartier and a K.C.M.G. on Galt.
In 1868 Cartier and William McDougall went to England on behalf of the Canadian government to negotiate the transfer of the Western territories from the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Dominion. The Hudson’s Bay Company asked the sum of $5,000,000 for the cession of its rights but had to be satisfied with $1,500,000 and a reservation of one-twentieth of the fertile belt. But a new difficulty had arisen in the transfer--in the territory itself--for in 1870 the half-breed settlers, who had the distinctive title of the “Metis,” feeling that they and their holdings had not been affected--stopped the new lieutenant-governor, the Hon. William McDougall at the border, and under Louis Riel the first North West rebellion was started, soon, however, to be broken. It was in this rebellion that the late Lord Strathcona, as chief officer of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was first brought into the public limelight. Mr. Donald Smith, as he was then known, and whose headquarters were at Montreal, was asked to go to Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) with Col. de Salaberry and Abbé Thibault with the object of pacifying the settlers, but the mission failed. On the breakdown of the rebellion Donald Smith administered the affairs of the territory until the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Archibald.
Around this time (1870) the home government withdrew the Imperial troops from Canada--with the exception of a garrison left at Halifax--which was a blow to the social life of the commercial metropolis. The officers of the local garrison with their bright uniforms and gentlemanly manners and their cultivated entourage had been an acquisition to Montreal society, literary, social and artistic.
The material building up of Canada, and particularly Montreal, has been made possible by the splendid transportation facilities, both by stream, canal and rail, engineered by the big men of the time. During the ’70s and ’80s Montreal was well represented by names like Cartier, Dorion, and Sir John Rose, who though in separate political camps fought hard together for the Grand Trunk in parliament, and won.
Cartier in introducing the Victoria Bridge Bill met much opposition; the principal objection being that it would take the trade out of the country. His reply, which proved correct, was that the bridge would bring trade into the country. In the agitation for the Intercolonial Railway with its terminus at Montreal, Cartier was the leader. He was also the introducer into the parliament of 1872 of the first Canadian Pacific Bill. Both of these undertakings were urged as the best and most practical means of consolidating the new Dominion.
One cannot leave railway legislation without referring to what is known as the Canadian Pacific scandals, though Sir Charles Tupper in his “Reminiscences of Sixty Years” writes of it as the “Canadian Pacific Slanders,” because two of the principal actors were Montrealers and the place, Montreal. The bare facts are: Two companies, one of which was under the control of Sir Hugh Allan of Montreal, had competed for the construction of the railroad, the bill for which the Government, through Cartier, had passed in parliament. Owing to disputes an effort was made to amalgamate the companies but without avail, so that Sir Hugh formed a new company under the title of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. This Company obtained a charter on February 19, 1873, to build the railway, and it was in connection with the granting of this charter that in the following April a Mr. L.A. Huntingdon charged the government with making a corrupt bargain with Sir Hugh Allan; in other words, that the Montreal promoter and his company had advanced large sums of money to the Conservative fund to secure the returns of candidates favourable to their obtaining the charter. The receiving of the money was neither contradicted by the government nor the contractors, and on behalf of the government it was offered as an extenuating circumstance that it was only in accordance with the “invariable custom,” and before a Royal Commission the ministers denied any corrupt bargain having been made. But the whole country was up in arms, and Sir John Macdonald, seeing inevitable defeat for his government, placed his resignation in the hands of the Governor-General. In the elections which followed, the new government, under the leadership of the new premier, the Hon. Alexander McKenzie, was sustained by a large majority.
When in 1870 the Fenians for the second time under “General” O’Neill made a raid into Canada, crossing the border at Trout Lake in the Eastern Townships, a flutter was caused at Montreal, but the “general” was soon routed by a small contingent made up largely by volunteers from Montreal.
Owing to a depression in trade, which set in about the fall of 1873 and which gradually grew worse in centres like Montreal as the years rolled by, Sir John A. Macdonald’s appeal to the country that it should protect its own industries by placing heavy duties against goods imported from other countries, met with success and he was returned at the elections of 1878 by a large majority. This became known as the “National Policy” and though immediate prosperity was the outcome, there is no doubt that the same policy has made possible the formation of trusts, which in this country go under the name of mergers.
The next constitutional act of importance that affected Montreal was the passing of an act which relieved the elections from the old time voting. On May 26, 1876, a Federal bill was passed introducing the vote by ballot, simultaneous elections, the abolition of property qualifications for members of the House of Commons and making stringent enactments against corrupt practices at elections.
The Canada Temperance Bill of 1878 (usually called the Scott Act) was the result of a great temperance movement that spread over the whole of Canada and has been the foundation in Montreal of scores of temperance societies. Practically all the churches have joined in lessening the drink evil and on the same platforms will be found the Roman Catholic and Anglican bishops of Montreal, as well as the ministers of other denominations. Montreal is a much more temperate city today than it was thirty years ago, in spite of a rapidly growing cosmopolitan population.
About this time (1878) there occurred in Montreal the Orange riots, which resulted in the death of one of the citizens named Hackett by shooting, an event of no importance, though magnified by certain writers.
In 1885 occurred the second North West rebellion. This was felt very deeply in Montreal for the reason that, the insurgents being French half-breeds, charges of disloyalty were made against the whole French speaking people. To show its sense of loyalty Montreal despatched a large contingent to the scene of the disturbance, including the French-Canadian regiment--The Mount Royal Rifles, now known as the Sixty-fifth Regiment. This regiment did some remarkable work, marching as many as forty-five miles a day through brush and muskeg and arriving in time to take part in the routing out at Frog Lake of Big Bear, the Cree Chief who was supporting Riel, the rebel leader. The spirit of loyalty underlying this splendid achievement was sufficient evidence of the patriotism of French Canadianism, even to satisfy the most rabid of partisans.
The execution of Riel, which took place in Regina in the latter part of the year, again raised the racial cry and many demonstrations were held in Montreal by both French and English partisans. To exaggerate the feeling of bitterness, about this time small-pox had broken out and the heads of the local industries having insisted on vaccination and the bulk of the employees being French Canadian, the cry was raised that the employers were interfering with the work of Providence.
Montreal has not been directly affected by what is commonly known as the “school question,” that has at different times raised so much bitterness in other parts of Canada, particularly in New Brunswick and Manitoba, but because the majority of its citizens are Roman Catholics, and the fact of its own separate school system working satisfactorily, the local political parties have always taken a keen interest in the school problem in the other provinces, and every government when dealing with it has to take Montreal sentiment into account. This Cartier found to his cost in the 1872 elections, when, because his government sided, though only on legal grounds, with the New Brunswick Provincial government in its determination not to have separate schools, he lost his seat to Mr. L.A. Jetté, who afterwards became Lieutenant-Governor of the Province. Again because in Manitoba in 1890 the provincial legislature, by adopting nonsectarian schools, had in the minds of Roman Catholics broken the clause of the Manitoba Act of 1870, which secured to the religious minority the right in respect to denominational schools, much bitterness was caused in Montreal. To this vexed question a settlement was brought about in 1896 by the Laurier government, by which the Manitoba Government while adhering to the principle of a national school system under provincial control, agreed to make provision for religious teaching during certain school hours.
In the year 1888 two Montrealers of cabinet rank died, Sir John Rose, a former cabinet member, and Hon. Thomas White, M.P., Minister of the Interior.
Montreal in 1891 was particularly honoured in one of its citizens in the person of Hon. J.J.C. Abbott, who had twice been mayor, becoming Premier of Canada on the death of Sir John A. Macdonald, though he only held office for little more than a year, resigning November, 1892, on account of ill-health. In this year also died Sir A.A. Dorion, Chief Justice of Queen’s Bench, Montreal, who had been a big factor in the public life of Canada. As leader of the Liberals, or “patri rouge,” he was Sir G.E. Cartier’s chief opponent, and on the formation of the Liberal Government of 1873, he was appointed Minister of Justice, which office he resigned on June 1, 1874, to become Chief Justice of Montreal.
On August 15, 1893, the Behring Sea Tribunal of Arbitration, of which Canada’s Prime Minister was a member, gave the decision that the Behring Sea was to be kept open and that seals be protected. At a banquet given in his honour by the citizens of Montreal, the Premier in a great speech explained Canada’s advantage by the arbitration.
In 1895 a treaty was made between this country and France which largely affected the trade of Montreal, because of the impetus given by the agreement to the importation of wines.
When the Liberals came into power in 1896, very largely on a Free Trade policy, it was found inexpedient by the government to change the general tariff of the country, but it made a compromise in 1899 by giving a preferential tariff of 25% to British made goods, which in 1901 was increased to 33⅓%. This was a popular move and no doubt, together with the wave of prosperity which spread itself over the country and in which Montreal largely participated, did much to keep the Liberals in power for fifteen years.
In 1898 the Boer war broke out, when the country as a whole demanded that the Federal government on behalf of Canada should take its share of the burden, although there was a certain contra agitation amongst a section of French Canadians, led by the eloquent and versatile grandson of Louis Joseph Papineau M. Henri Bourassa, who afterwards became the Chief of the young Nationalist Party.
In October of 1899, Mr. Bourassa gave up his seat for St. Hyacinthe in the Federal House in order to vindicate his position on the constitutional aspect of the participation of Canada in the South African war, contending that such participation, as contemplated and organized by the British Government and its representative in Canada, meant a deep change in our relations with Great Britain upon which the people of Canada should be thoroughly enlightened and directly consulted. In January of the following year he was returned by acclamation.
Though the attitude taken by Mr. Bourassa was mostly academic yet, like his renewal in 1914 of a similar obstructional and dialectical position, not always understood by the general public especially in time of war, it helped to encourage demonstrations of loyalty and patriotism throughout the Dominion, which forced the government to raise an expeditionary force. The first contingent embarked for the Transvaal October 30, 1899. At the beginning of the following year, Lord Strathcona equipped a mounted infantry regiment of 500, which became famous as “Strathcona’s Horse.” This body was despatched to South Africa with the second contingent. The Canadian regiments throughout the war did splendid service, particularly at Paardeburg, when the Boer general Cronje was completely surrounded and defeated. Montreal itself contributed largely to the contingent which represented Canada.
In 1902 the Nationalist League was organized by Mr. J.T. Olivar Asselin, who became president of the Montreal branch and Mr. Henri Bourassa became recognized as the outstanding leader. The Nationaliste was founded as the party organ in 1904 by its editor Mr. Asselin who, on its lapse, became a writer on the Devoir founded by Mr. Henri Bourassa.
A political event of far reaching importance took place in 1910 when the Hon. William Fielding and the late Hon. William Patterson on behalf of the Canadian Government signed an agreement with the government of the United States by which certain goods, principally food-stuffs, were to pass from one country to the other free of duty. Since 1866 the United States had steadily refused all offers to negotiate for reciprocal relations, but in the spring of 1910 they veered around and sent plenipotentiaries to Ottawa. The Dominion Government received them courteously and sent Messrs. Fielding and Patterson to Washington to carry on the negotiations, which resulted in what became known as the “Reciprocity Pact.” But in submitting the agreement to the country for ratification in the election of 1911 the government was badly defeated. It should be stated though that the main issue itself throughout the country, and especially in Montreal, had become involved, from a question originally of purely commercial reciprocity, into one also of fear of danger of annexation to the United States. This was sufficient to bring out the latent patriotism of the electors, who gave a very decided answer to those across the line who had any belief in the American slogan that reciprocity was to be but the first step to annexation. The Montreal election returns showed this very strongly, not in the change of representatives, for there was none, but in the comparison of the votes. In the country parts of the Province the Navy Bill of 1910, which was unpopular with the French Canadians, gave an opportunity to the Nationalists, who by joining forces with the opposition were enabled to reduce the Federal Government’s majority sufficiently to cause its downfall.
The defeat of the Federal Government ended the lengthy premiership of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, one of the Empire’s great statesmen. Sir Wilfrid has many associations with Montreal and many of his triumphs, national as well as political, have taken place in the city. The new government in 1911 introduced a bill into Parliament giving a contribution of $35,000,000 to the British admiralty to represent Canada’s naval contribution to the Empire. The bill passed the Commons but failed in the Senate. It was in connection with this naval contribution that the late Hon. F.D. Monk, the member for the Jacques Cartier division of the city, and one of Montreal’s brightest and most upright minds, resigned from the government, his reason being that a plebiscite of the people should have been made on the naval question. His death following hard upon his departure from politics made the latter the more deplored.
Of importance to the Port of Montreal is the West Indian commercial agreement made in 1913 between Canada and the British West Indies. By this reciprocal pact Canada secured a new market on advantageous terms, and the principal factor in bringing it about was the Canadian West Indian League with its headquarters in Montreal.
As in Federal politics, so also in the life of the Provincial parliament, Montreal has also been a large factor, the principal reason being that it supplies the biggest share of the income of the Province, and also because the city’s representatives have usually been leaders of thought and probity. Practically all the premiers, from confederation to the present holder of the office, have been either citizens of Montreal or largely connected with the city. In the first legislative assembly of 1867 Montreal had four members; they being Sir George E. Cartier, Edward Cartier, his brother, and law partner, and who Sir George always said was the legal brains of the firm; A.W. Ogilvie, a prominent member of one of Montreal’s best known families; and the Hon. Louis Beaubien, who became Commissioner of Agriculture in the de Boucherville and Flinn administrations. Since that time Montreal has been represented at Quebec by such men as the Hon. L.O. Taillon (1875-1887) who became Premier in 1887, and afterwards joined the Federal government as Postmaster General; to-day he is Postmaster of Montreal; Hon. James McShane (1878-1891), who became in turn Provincial Minister of Public Works, Mayor of Montreal and Harbour Master of the Port; Hon. L.O. David (1886-1890), now Senator of Canada and City Clerk of Montreal; Dr. G. A. Lacombe (1897-1908), the author of the famous Lacombe Law of 1906, by which a debtor upon being too hard pressed by his creditors could come under the protection of the courts without any extra cost to himself; Sir Lomer Gouin, the present Premier, who first entered the legislature as member for St. James in 1897; Henri Bourassa (1908-1909); D.J. Decarie (1897-1904), and his son, the Hon. Jérémie Decarie, Provincial Secretary, who succeeded his father in the latter year; Hon. Dr. J.J.E. Guerin (1895-1904), Cabinet minister and Mayor of Montreal; Robert Bickerdike (1897-1900), the present federal member for St. Lawrence division of the city; the Hon. H.B. Rainville and the two George Washington Stephens--father and son--the one representing Montreal Centre from 1881 to 1886 and the other the St. Lawrence division, 1904 to 1908, being afterwards Chairman of the Harbour Commission.
The work of the Provincial legislature being largely of a constructive nature, such as the raising of taxes for the building of roads and the conserving of its vast resources, its principal effect on the city of Montreal itself is the oversight of the legislative work of the city council, and if acceptable to make it legal by passing it in the form of amendments to the city charter. In this respect a very important amendment to the charter was made in 1910 as a result of the report of the Cannon inquiry, which condemned the city administration of the period. Under the amendment the Council is cut in half by each ward having one instead of two representatives, and its work is of a legislative nature only, leaving the administration subject to the ratification of the council, in the hands of a board of control composed of four members, who with the mayor is elected by the city as a whole.
For a long time there has been a strong feeling that Montreal should have more freedom and a large measure of Home Rule in its local affairs, some even going so far as to urge that the island of Montreal should be a separate Province. At present, there is certainly a groping toward some such autonomy.
MONTREAL REPRESENTATIVES IN THE SENATE OF CANADA FROM CONFEDERATION
The Honourable: Jacques Bureau Louis Renaud John Hamilton James Ferrier Thomas Ryan F.X.A. Trudel E.G. Penny Hector Fabre J.R. Thibaudeau A.W. Ogilvie A. Lacoste L.A. Senecal Sir J.J.C. Abbott J.B. Rolland Sir George A. Drummond C.S. Rodier E. Murphy A. Desjardins James O’Brien J.C. Villeneuve William Owens Sir W.H. Hingston L.J. Forget A.A. Thibaudeau Raoul Dandurand J.P.B. Casgrain Robert McKay Frédéric L. Beique Laurent O. David Henry J. Cloran Arthur Boyer Joseph Marcellin Wilson
MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL PARLIAMENT FOR MONTREAL SINCE CONFEDERATION
Date of Election. District. Member.
1867 Montreal City West Hon. T. D’Arcy McGee Centre T. Workman East Hon. G.E. Cartier
1868, April 30th West M.P. Ryan, vice Hon. T.D. McGee, deceased. 1872 Montreal City West Hon. J. Young Centre M.P. Ryan East L.A. Jetté
1874 Montreal City West F. McKenzie Centre M.P. Ryan East L.A. Jetté
1874, December Montreal City F. McKenzie (re-elected, former election being voided)
1875 Montreal City West T. Workman, vice McKenzie (election voided)
1875, January 12th Montreal City Centre B. Devlin (elected vice Ryan, election voided) November 26th B. Devlin (re-elected, former election declared void)
1878, November 21st Montreal City West M.H. Gault Centre M.P. Ryan East C.J. Coursol
1882 Montreal City West M.H. Gault Centre J.J. Curran East C.J. Coursol
1887 Montreal City West Sir Donald A. Smith Centre J.J. Curran East C.J. Coursol
1888 Montreal City East A.T. Lepine, vice Coursol (deceased)
1891 Montreal City West Sir Donald A. Smith, K.C.M.G. Centre J.J. Curran East A.T. Lepine
1892 Montreal City Centre J.J. Curran (re-elected on accepting office)
1895 Montreal City Centre James McShane J.J. Curran (appt. Judge)
1896 Montreal (St. Anne) M.J.F. Quinn (St. Antoine) T.G. Roddick (St. James) William Demarais (St. Lawrence) E.G. Penny (St. Mary) Hercule Dupré
1900 Montreal (St. Anne) Daniel Gallery (St. Antoine) T.G. Roddick (St. James) William Demarais (St. Lawrence) Robert Bickerdike (St. Mary) Hon. J.J. Tarte
1902, June Montreal (St. James) Joseph Brunet (vice Demarais) (St. James) Brunet (unseated Dec., 1902)
1904 Montreal (St. James) H. Gervais
1904 Montreal (St. Anne) D. Gallery (St. Antoine) H.B. Ames (St. James) H. Gervais (St. Lawrence) R. Bickerdike (St. Mary) C. Piché 1906 Montreal (St. Anne) C.J. Walsh (St. Mary) Médéric Martin 1908 Montreal (St. Anne) C.J. Doherty (St. Antoine) H.B. Ames (St. James) H. Gervais (St. Lawrence) R. Bickerdike (St. Mary) M. Martin 1911 Montreal (St. Anne) Hon. C.J. Doherty (St. Antoine) H.B. Ames (St. James) L.A. Lapointe (St. Lawrence) R. Bickerdike (St. Mary) M. Martin
MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR MONTREAL FROM THE CONFEDERATION, 1867, TO THE PRESENT
(From 1867 to 1890)
Date. District. Name.
1867-1871 Montreal Centre Edward Cartier 1871-1874 Montreal Centre The Hon. Luther H. Holton 1874-1875 Montreal Centre Charles Alexander 1875-1878 Montreal Centre Alexander Walker Ogilvie 1878-1881 Montreal Centre Horatio Admiral Nelson 1881-1886 Montreal Centre George Washington Stephens 1886-1890 Montreal Centre James McShane 1867-1871 Montreal East Sir George Etienne Cartier 1871-1875 Montreal East Ferdinand David 1875-1886 Montreal East Louis Olivier Taillon 1886-1890 Montreal East Laurent Olivier David 1867-1871 Montreal West Alexander Walker Ogilvie 1871-1873 Montreal West Francis Cassidy 1873-1878 Montreal West John Wait McGauvran 1878-1886 Montreal West James McShane 1886-1890 Montreal West John Smythe Hall 1867-1886 Hochelaga Louis Beaubien 1886-1887 Hochelaga Joseph Octave Villeneuve 1888-1890 Hochelaga Chas. Laplante dit Champagne
(From 1890 to 1912)
1890-1891 Montreal Division No. 1 Joseph Béland 1892-1897 Montreal Division No. 1 Francois Martineau 1897-1908 Montreal Division No. 1 George Albini Lacombe 1908-1912 Montreal Division No. 1 Napoleon Séguin 1890-1891 Montreal Division No. 2 Joseph Brunet 1892-1897 Montreal Division No. 2 Olivier Maurice Augé 1897-1908 Montreal Division No. 2 Lomer Gouin 1908-1909 Montreal Division No. 2 Henri Bourassa 1909-1912 Montreal Division No. 2 Clément Robillard 1890-1891 Montreal Division No. 3 Henri Benjamin Rainville 1892-1897 Montreal Division No. 3 Damase Parizeau 1897-1904 Montreal Division No. 3 Henri Benjamin Rainville 1904-1912 Montreal Division No. 3 Godfroi Langlois 1890-1891 Montreal Division No. 4 William Clendenning 1892-1896 Montreal Division No. 4 Alexander Webb Morris 1896-1900 Montreal Division No. 4 Albert William Atwater 1900-1904 Montreal Division No. 4 James Cochrane 1904-1908 Montreal Division No. 4 G.W. Stephens 1908-1912 Montreal Division No. 4 John T. Finnie 1890-1897 Montreal Division No. 5 John Smythe Hall 1897-1900 Montreal Division No. 5 Robert Bickerdike 1900-1904 Montreal Division No. 5 Matthew Hutchison 1904-1906 Montreal Division No. 5 Christopher B. Carter 1907-1912 Montreal Division No. 5 Ernest C. Gault 1890-1891 Montreal Division No. 6 The Hon. James McShane 1892-1895 Montreal Division No. 6 Patrick Kennedy 1895-1904 Montreal Division No. 6 James John Edmund Guerin 1904-1908 Montreal Division No. 6 Michael James Walsh 1908-(election set aside) Montreal Division No. 6 Denis Tansey 1908-1912 Montreal Division No. 6 Michael James Walsh 1890-1896 Hochelaga Joseph Octave Villeneuve 1897-1904 Hochelaga Daniel Jerome Décarie 1904-1912 Hochelaga Jérémie Décarie
(from 1912)
1908 Jacques Cartier Philémon Cousineau 1908 Laval Joseph Wenceslas Lévesque 1912 Maisonneuve The Hon. Jérémie Décarie 1912 Montreal Dorion Georges Mayrand 1912 Montreal Hochelaga Séverin Létourneau 1912 Montreal Laurier Napoléon Turcot 1912 Montreal Ste. Anne Denis Tansey 1912 Montreal St. George C. Ernest Gault 1912 Montreal St. James Clément Robillard 1912 Montreal St. Lawrence John T. Finnie 1912 Montreal St. Louis J.E. Godfroi Langlois 1912 Montreal St. Mary Napoléon Séguin 1912 Westmount Charles Allan Smart
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Practically every bishop in the Province of Quebec issued an amendment which tended to create Union and promote the acceptance of Confederation. Cf. “The History of the Life and Times of Sir George Etienne Cartier” by John Boyd (McMillan, Toronto, 1914), pp. 288 et seq. The reader will find further interesting details on the political life of Montreal of this period, in the above work.
XXIII. SUPPLEMENTAL ANNALS AND SIDELIGHTS OF SOCIAL LIFE
UNDER CONFEDERATION
1867-1914
CONFEDERATION--IMPRESSIONS OF--FUNERAL OF D’ARCY M’GEE--PRINCE ARTHUR OF CONNAUGHT--THE SECOND FENIAN RAID--THE “SILVER” NUISANCE--ORGANIZATION OF CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD--RUN ON A SAVINGS BANK--FUNERAL OF SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER--NEW BALLOT ACT--THE “BAD TIMES”--THE NATIONAL POLICY--THE ICE RAILWAY--THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD CONTRACT--THE FORMATION OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA--OTHER CONGRESSES--THE FIRST WINTER CARNIVAL--FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF ST. JEAN BAPTISTE ASSOCIATION--THE GREAT ALLEGORICAL PROCESSION AND CAVALCADE--THE MONUMENT NATIONAL--THE RIEL REBELLION--SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC AND RIOTS--THE FLOODS OF 1886--THE FIRST REVETMENT WALL--THE JESUITS ESTATES BILL AND THE EQUAL RIGHTS PARTY--LA GRIPPE--THE COMTE DE PARIS--ELECTRICAL CONVENTION--HISTORIC TABLETS PLACED--THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF VILLE MARIE--THE BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING BURNT--THE CITY RAILWAY ELECTRIFIED--HOME RULE FOR IRELAND--VILLA MARIA BURNT--THE “SANTA MARIA”--CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOURERS CONVENTION--THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY AS A PUBLIC MUSEUM--MAISONNEUVE MONUMENT--LAVAL UNIVERSITY--QUEEN VICTORIA’S DIAMOND JUBILEE--MONTREAL AND THE BOER WAR--THE VISIT OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CORNWALL--TURBINE STEAMERS--A JAPANESE LOAN COMPANY--FIRST AUTOMOBILE FATALITY--FIRES AT McGILL--ECLIPSE OF SUN--THE WINDSOR STATION ACCIDENT--THE “WITNESS” BUILDING BURNT--THE OPENING OF THE ROYAL EDWARD INSTITUTE--GREAT CIVIC REFORM--THE DEATH OF EDWARD VII--THE “HERALD” BUILDING BURNT--THE EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS--MONTREAL A WORLD CITY--THE DRY DOCK--THE “TITANIC DISASTER”--CHILD WELFARE EXHIBITION--MONTREAL AND THE WAR OF 1914.
The same foreword as that prefacing a preceding chapter is similarly applicable here. The curious reader is warned to pursue the history of the main movements indicated, in the second part of special history.
Confederation was received with mixed feelings. There were many of the parti national who thought that Confederation came too soon, that it had been hurried through without the people thoroughly being instructed in the details and without their being consulted, and that the French Canadians would be politically annihilated, a foreboding never realized. It was indeed the quietus to the parti national, who had opposed it in their newspaper, the Union Nationale, established in 1865 by Médéric Lanctot, which represented the views of the young blood opposed to Cartier, such as Messrs. Joseph Loranger, Doutre, Dorion, Judge Delorimier, Lanctot, Labelle, Laflamme and L.O. David, then a brilliant writer on its staff. But in 1867 on the advent of Confederation agitation ceased and the inevitable was accepted with growing satisfaction. The country, however, was at the time in a bad state, suffering from the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty in 1866.
The year 1868 marks an important event in the French Canadian life of the city, for it saw the Papal Zouaves leave Montreal on February 7th, to fight in Italy against Garibaldi who wished to curtail the temporal sovereignty of the papal throne. On February 15th the roof of St. Patrick’s Hall, the home of St. Patrick’s National Society, at the south end of Craig Street, fell in. In March the first 3-cent letter stamp was issued in Canada, and on April 1st the first postoffice savings banks were opened. This same month saw the assassination of D’Arcy McGee at Ottawa. His funeral took place in Montreal on April 13th and was a great public testimonial to his citizenship and to his devotion to his adopted country.
Eighteen hundred and sixty-nine is remembered as the year the present Governor General, H.R.H., the Duke of Connaught, then the young Prince Arthur, a bright, frolicsome, light-hearted boy, first came to the city, in August, to join his regiment, the First Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. Rosemount, at the head of Simpson Street, a house which was occupied by Sir John Rose, and afterwards owned by the Ogilvie family, was set aside for him, under the tutelage of Lord Elphinstone. His advent added to the military and social gaiety of the small city. Among the brilliant officers then in the city was Col. Garnett Wolseley, then known only as a gallant officer who had served in the Crimea, who had now gone on the Red River expedition to the Northwest to quiet the first Riel rebellion, which occurred about this time, and who lived, at this period, at 172 Havelock Terrace, Mountain Street, above the Canadian Pacific Railway bridge. Another was General Windham, who was buried in this city on February 12, 1870.
One of the acts of the young Prince was to open the Caledonia skating rink on December 15th. A photograph of this represents the Prince surrounded by such men as David Brown, A. McGibbon, F. Gardner, Colonel Lord Russell, Mr. Hugh Allan, Mr. Andrew Allan, Colonel Dyde, H. Hutchinson, the architect, and the Rev. Dr. Robert Campbell. During his stay the Prince also opened the Royal Arthur School on Workman Street, and conferred in the St. Patrick’s Hall the order of St. Michael and St. George on Mr. A.T. Galt,--a striking and unusual ceremony in those days.
The Sixth Art Exhibition was held in Montreal the next year on March 8th and Prince Arthur was present.
The young Prince had more functions for he was soon to accompany his regiment in repelling the second Fenian raid.
Meanwhile, about April 10, 1870, an intimation having been received by the Dominion Government, from the British Minister at Washington, of an intended Fenian raid into Canada, several frontier corps were ordered to hold themselves in readiness for immediate action. There was great military enthusiasm in the city and by the end of the week all the battalions so ordered were under arms. From Montreal, on the Monday following the receipt of this information, Muir’s troop of cavalry was ordered out and they arrived at Huntingdon on Tuesday afternoon, whither also went Prince Arthur. Colonel Chamberlain had already gone to Missisquoi to bring out the force under his command, whilst a large force of the volunteers in Montreal was collected under Lieutenant-Colonel Fletcher, the entire force being under Colonel Lowry.
The volunteer movement received an impetus and recruiting was lively. During the following week the streets of Montreal appeared gay with marching troops and sounds of martial music from the many bands which were moving to and from the execution of their military duties, now vividly recalled by the citizens of that time who have lived to see the great call to arms of 1914.
The day after the Queen’s Birthday, May 25th, the band of 200 of these, misguided Fenians, under command of “General” O’Neil, crossed the frontier and entered Canada, trying to effect a lodgment at Pigeon Hill. A finely equipped little army of itself in the shape of the Prince Consort’s Own Rifles (Regulars), 700 strong under command of Lord A. Russell and accompanied by our present Governor-General, then Prince Arthur, went by special train to St. Johns, where the volunteers had preceded them.
General Lindsay assumed command of the whole. The only fighting that occurred was at Cook’s Corners, where the whole of the Canadian troops did not exceed seventy men, though ample reserves were in waiting at points near at hand. The actual fighting was of no importance; it was a flash in the pan that made a great scare.
On May 26th President Grant issued a proclamation against Fenian raids into Canada and on May 30th in Montreal the mayor thanked the volunteers for their services. Little had had to be done but it was serious work mobilizing and there was much activity over the city in preparation.
Several other events are to be recorded for this year, the appearance of the Tyne Crew and the meeting to form the Dominion Board of Trade. The Frazer Institute was incorporated in 1870 and opened to the public in 1885 after a long delay from litigious actions. This year the “silver” nuisance was lessened by the export of $4,000,000 at a cost of $140,000, through the adoption of the plan of Sir Francis Hincks and Mr. William Weir, afterward president of the Ville Marie Bank.
In 1871 the first post cards issued by the Dominion postoffice were welcomed in the city. In this year the fuller organization of the Canadian Pacific Railway, organized by Montreal men, took place and the preliminary surveys were made for which Parliament had in 1870 appropriated $250,000.
On February 27, 1872, loyal Montreal observed the day as one of thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales. On April 27th the intense interest of Montrealers in the new railway culminated in the voting on the million dollar railway subsidy. October 2d of this year saw St. Patrick’s Hall burned down; a run on the City and District Bank on the 7th, which was stopped by a citizen’s large deposit and by the timely advice of the Rev. Father Dowd, the pastor of St. Patrick’s parish; and on the 17th the city cars, then horse drawn, were stopped, owing to the animals suffering from the epizooty. This year was marked by the establishment of the first cotton mill at Hochelaga.
The memorable events of 1873 include the obtaining of the charter of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the public funeral in Montreal, on June 13th, of Sir George Etienne Cartier, who died in London on May 20th at the age of fifty-nine years, the unveiling of the statue of Queen Victoria by Lord Dufferin and the opening of the Wesleyan Theological College and the new Y.M.C.A. building.
In 1874 the manifesto of the Canada First party was issued on January 6th, preceding the general elections of January 29th.
In March the Queen’s Hall, the home of concerts and theatrical entertainments, was burnt down.
In September, 1875, the reinterment of Guibord in the Catholic cemetery took place under military escort.
On May 26th an act was passed that introduced vote by ballot, simultaneous elections, the abolition of property qualifications for members of the House of Commons and stringent enactments against corrupt practices at elections. On June 6, 1876, the Emperor and Empress of Brazil were entertained in this city.
This year was chiefly noticeable for trade depression and the number of business failures. This was in consequence of the bad times begun in 1874. On August 14th a great mass meeting was called to consider the Montreal taxes. The country was in a poor state after the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty with the United States and was suffering from the reaction after the Civil war.
In 1875 the Mechanics Bank and the Banque Jacques Cartier suspended payment. The industries were very few and could not compete with those of the States, and agriculture was feeble. There were heavy duties to pay for the many goods coming from the States. There was little population and many crossed the border line. Work was scarce; there was great distress. People were starving and free public soup kitchens were established for poor relief by the charitable agencies. Funds were too low for more liberal treatment. Politicians placed the blame on the free trade policy of Mr. McKenzie’s party then in power. This was opposed to the genius and the needs of a young country feeling its industrial way. While the Americans had a duty at that time of twenty to seventy per cent the Canadians for purely revenue purposes had only something like fifteen per cent, and nothing for protection. The occasion was one that demanded practical relief and not finely strung political theories, built on the experience of the custom prevailing in England. But nothing was done so that the people became hopeless and gloomy and there was a project about this time, as already recorded, for annexation, encouraged by the American party in Montreal for business reasons.
Meanwhile the city saw, in June and July, of 1878, the Orange troubles and the shooting of Hackett, a state of excitement no doubt caused by the general unsettled state of affairs. The great hope of this time was the national policy which Sir John A. Macdonald began to make public. The effect was magical at the start. In March, 1878, he expressed his opinion that to be prosperous Canada must adopt a “national policy” for the protection of home industries. It had to be fought out at the polls. There was now hope in every breast. Financial men began to look out for sites upon which to build mills and factories, the sugar refineries were reopened, the people took heart and when the policy carried at the polls in September by a tremendous majority and was ratified by a formal vote in the house, and when the national policy was introduced March 14, 1879, going into effect next day, it was felt that Montreal and Canada were saved. It was the remembrance of this that caused the older men to vote against reciprocity when before the public in 1911.
A social event of this year was the investiture by the Marquis of Lorne, Governor-General of Canada, authorized by Her Majesty, of the six knights of the most distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. Gregory.
On January 1, 1880, the South Eastern Railway began the construction of a railway across the ice from the north side of the river to the station between Bellerive Park and Longueuil Ferry, across to Longueuil. The contractors were Auguste Laberge & Son, who had built the city hall, its promoters being Mr. Sénecal, A.B. Foster, Judge Mousseau, J.B. Renaud and others. On the 29th of January loaded cars were drawn across to Montreal. Next day an engine of 50,000 pounds avoirdupois crossed from Montreal. On March 15th horses replaced the engines; on March 31st twenty cars were on the ice railway, when it began to be found insecure so that the rails were removed from the ice on April 1st.
In September the Governor General visited the exhibition at Montreal, when 50,000 persons were present.
On October 1st the contract was signed for the Canadian Pacific Railway, but at midnight on December 10th it was placed before the House. On February 16th of the next year the company received its letters patent and on May 2d broke the first ground for the great transcontinental railway.
On December 23d of this year Sarah Bernhardt made her first appearance here.
On January 5th, 1881, the South Eastern Railway laid a railway again across the ice but it was shortly abandoned on the loss of an engine by the freight train breaking through, without the loss of life.
The next year, 1882, was one of intellectual progress in the city for this year, on May 25th, the Royal Society of Montreal was formed with Sir William Dawson, principal of McGill, as president.
On August 21st there were the meetings of the Forestry and Agricultural congresses and on August 23d the American Association for the Advancement of Learning again chose the city for its convention after twenty-four years’ absence.
The first Montreal Winter Carnival was held in January, 1883, and was the outgrowth of a suggestion by Mr. R.D. McGibbon, an advocate of the city. One of the great features was the ice palace, which was erected in Dominion Square, a mediaeval castle of transparent crystal. The attack of 2,000 snowshoers, and the defence by the volunteers, was a great scene amid the detonation of bombshells and the interchange of pyrotechnic missles till at last the castle capitulated. After this an immense line of showshoers, each bearing aloft a blazing torch, scaled the mountain in a seemingly endless trail of fire. This has been repeated at more or less regular intervals but the fear that the ice palace would harm prospective immigrants through unnecessary fear of our bright, brisk and invigorating winter has caused the carnival pageant to fall into desuetude. Yet the carnival is but a development of the old frost fairs on the Thames, that most known being on the occasion of the visit of Charles II and the Royal Family to the Frost Fair of 1684, when the printers made a souvenir as follows:
Charles, King Mary, Duchess James, Duke Anne, Princess Katherine, Queen George, Prince Hans in Kilder London, printed by J. Croome on the ice on the River Thames, Jan. 31st, 1684.
The month of June, 1884, was the scene of great festivity among the French-Canadian population on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the parent society of St. Jean Baptiste Association of Montreal, being taken to hold a national congress of French-Canadians from June 24th to the 28th, to inaugurate the placing of the first stone of the Edifice Nationale, which afterwards became the “Monument National.” Outside of the literary, artistic and other intellectual sessions of the congress there were public sports, balloon ascensions and amusements, and a great procession of all the societies of St. Jean Baptiste in Canada and the United States, when a magnificent array of allegorical cars representing the chief features of Canadian history passed through the principal streets of the city.
In addition there was a grand historical cavalcade representing St. Louis, King of France, receiving the oriflamme of St. Denis and departing for the Seventh Crusade. The dresses for this dignified cavalcade cost about ten thousand dollars and the whole spectacle was one that far surpassed any similar dramatic pageant that had preceded it or has followed since in Canada.
On January 1, 1884, the River St. Lawrence again notably flooded the lower part of Montreal as was usual in the spring.
On July 4, 1884, Louis Riel arrived at Duck Lake and began to inflame the discontent in the half-breeds and Indians, who feared dispossession of their lands by the incoming settlers and the encroachment of the iron road of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. This, together with the Soudan war then in progress, produced a revival of the military spirit so that in the following year, 1885, Montreal sent the Sixty-fifth Regiment to suppress the rebellion.
The Montreal contingent returned home at a critical juncture and was employed to quell the anti-vaccination riots of 1885. At this time a virulent epidemic of smallpox had broken out in the city and a compulsory vaccination act had been passed which was resented by a great portion of the people, many complaining that the vaccine used had poisoned them, while others complained on sentimental and medical grounds. It was a time of terror. Mobs attacked the houses and even the persons of Larocque, Drs. E. Persillier-Lachapelle, J.W. Mount, Hingston, and others, who were before the public as the chief promoters of the vaccination movement. Meanwhile the doctors appointed for each district had their stations and went from door to door to vaccinate, while the houses could be seen with their isolation papers posted on them and with guards around and the yellow ambulances plying through the streets, taking away the affected sick or the dead.
The friends of many of the victims refused to allow the patients to be removed to the Exhibition grounds where a temporary hospital had been arranged. All the local troops were called out. The cavalry was there, too. A tremendous mob assembled at Mount Royal and attacked it with stones. Many of the men received cuts in the face. When the mob was at its worst, it was discovered that there was no magistrate to read the riot act, and no ammunition for the rifles, in case the rifles had to be used. However, the cavalry rode through the crowds. A better feeling finally prevailed, so that the patients were peaceably allowed to be taken to the public hospital.
The epidemic had important results in the effect it had on the modernizing and reconstruction of the medical bureau of the city hall.
The Montreal annals of 1886 for January 2d recall the meetings of the famous evangelist, D.L. Moody. In the same month Sir John A. MacDonald, while in England, defended French-Canadian loyalty and affirmed at the same time that 40,000 of the best soldiers in Canada were ready to leave to defend Imperial interests in Burmah or Turkestan.
This year was signalized by Montreal’s worst inundation, so that on April 17th from the foot of Beaver Hall Hill there was a 5 cent ferry by boat and carts to St. James Street. The flood abated on April 20th, after having been five feet, ten inches above the revetment wall. A similar flood occurred next year and a delegation went to Ottawa to arrange with the Government for adequate protection. In consequence the following year a wooden embankment, filled with cement, was built and pumping stations were erected to protect Montreal from further inundations. This revetment wall, however, gave place to the present one of stone.
On the 28th of June the first passenger train to the Pacific left the city, reaching Vancouver on July 4th, a distance of 2,906 miles having been covered in 140 hours.
On May 12, 1888, the Quebec Parliament passed the Jesuits’ estates bill.
On September 3d the first labour day was celebrated in the city, 5,000 taking part in the procession.
During the next year, 1889, the Jesuits’ bill was contested by the Equal Rights party; finally the Quebec Legislature paid the Jesuits $400,000 which was further divided among Catholic educational bodies and an additional sum of $60,000 was turned over to the Protestant Board of Education.
The year 1890 opened with la grippe which was then prevalent in the United States, Canada and Europe.
On May 6th the lunatic asylum at Longue Pointe was burnt down with the loss of seventy lives, owing to the incendiarism of a patient.
This year saw the reception of the Comte de Paris and his son. The reception tendered them was a brilliant affair. Not only the French population but the English also received them most royally, although a counter demonstration was started by a few revolutionary spirits, but they had no following and their efforts came to nothing.
The annals of 1891 recall the arrival in the city, on August 21st, of the Continental Guards from New Orleans.
On September 8th there was the first electrical convention and this was followed on September 18th by the Montreal Exhibition, which took place on the former Guilbeault’s zoological and pleasure grounds above Mount Royal Avenue, these having been moved from the first location on Sherbrooke Street, the attendance at the exhibition being 50,000, surpassing those of 1880, 1881, 1883 and 1884.
Lovers of the antiquities of the city will note the date of October 21st, as that of the historic tablets being unveiled under the auspices of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, the movement having been promoted by Messrs. W.D. Lighthall with the aid of A.U. Beaudry, Gerald Hart and others of a subsequent committee.
The fifth jubilee of the founding of Montreal occurred in 1892. As early as April 17, 1888, a resolution was passed by the above association to celebrate it by an international exhibition in 1892. In October of 1888, Mr. Roswell Corse Lyman, one of its members, wrote a pamphlet “Shall we have a World’s Fair in Montreal in 1892 to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Ville Marie?” It never eventuated in this city, but Montreal can rightly claim that through this pamphlet and the Montreal initiation the wonderful Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 had its origin.
In April many Jewish families left Montreal to colonize the Northwest.
April of 1893 opened with three incendiary fires and on April 3d Bonsecours Market was partially burnt with a loss of $20,000, without insurance. On May 18th the cornerstone of the new Board of Trade Building was laid by Sir Donald Smith, who humorously remarked that he had come down from Ottawa as a common labourer, but that his brother member of Parliament, Mr. J.J. Curran, afterward the Hon. Mr. Justice Curran, had come to make a speech. On May 28th the will of Mr. J.W. Tempest was published, bequeathing the Art Association of Montreal about $80,000. One of the first benefactors to this had been Mr. Benajah Gibb, a former citizen.
At the second congress of the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, held in London from June 28th to July 1st, the Montreal Board of Trade was represented by Mr. Donald A. Smith and Mr. Peter Redpath.
On July 5th, Sir William Dawson welcomed the Teachers’ Association to the city.
This year the street railway of Montreal was electrified and city planners saw the beginning of the present leap in the growth of Montreal through its suburbs following on the annexations which began in 1883.
On July 19th the city granted a thirty years’ franchise to the Street Railway Company.
In 1893 the progress of McGill University since 1852 was made manifest. University life was enlivened in this city on January 20th, when the students of the universities of Vermont and McGill held a joint concert in the city. At this time McGill had sixty-six professors. In April the chairs of pathology and hygiene were founded by the chancellor, Sir Donald A. Smith. McGill was benefited this year by the addition of the engineering and physics building, the gift of (Sir) William C. Macdonald, by the workshops, the gift of Thomas Workman, the library, by Peter Redpath, and the new Aberdeen medal, given by the new Governor General, Lord Aberdeen. But in the midst of the triumphs of this year, McGill regretfully received the resignation of Sir William Dawson, whom it had received as its principal in 1852, the year of its second lease of life.
On February 23d the International Mining Association met in Montreal.
On April 24, 1893, the interest of Montrealers in Imperial politics was manifested by the telegram of St. Patrick’s Society to the Canadian statesman, the Hon. E.S. Blake, a member of Parliament for an English constituency, to congratulate Mr. Gladstone and himself on the second reading of the Home Rule bill.
On May 1st there was held the first meeting of the Corn Exchange in its newly erected building. On the 23d Montreal was visited by the tornado which passed over the province, but without much injury or death.
On June 8th, Villa Maria, belonging to the “Congregation” Sisters, one of the largest educational structures on the American continent, was destroyed by fire.
On June 19th the three caravels, intended as the facsimiles of the ships of Columbus, were at Montreal on their way to the World’s Fair at Chicago. In the summer of 1914 one of them, the Santa Maria, reappeared at Montreal on a long tour in preparation for the Panama Exhibition at San Francisco in 1915.
The harbour also saw in July the arrival of the warship Etna. July witnessed a great convention of many thousands of an unsectarian body named the Christian Endeavourers. This year the railways of Montreal were flourishing and the fact that 132 trains were daily entering by the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk railways show the steady growth of the population and commerce. The earnings of the Canadian Pacific Railway had increased by almost five million dollars since 1887.
On October 30th the city mourned the loss by death of a great Montrealer, the late Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, K. C, M.G., a former mayor of the city and a prime minister of Canada. His burial took place on November 2d and his remains were followed by his successor, Sir John Thompson, and by many hundreds of the leaders of Canada.
The most important event closing the year of 1893 was the inauguration of the Royal Victoria Hospital in honour of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria.
On November 27th, Montreal experienced a shock of earthquake which was felt over Canada with no loss of life and little of property.
In 1894, Sir William Van Horne, the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and one of its pioneers, was knighted.
This year closed on December 31st with one of the greatest windstorms ever recorded in the history of Montreal, the velocity of the wind reaching eighty miles per hour, so that much damage was done.
In 1894, the first attempt towards a public portrait gallery, a museum of antiquities and the securing of the Château de Ramezay as its permanent home originated with the members of the Antiquarian Society of Montreal, the idea of the picture gallery arising with Mr. de Léry MacDonald, that of saving the Château from passing into private hands, with Mr. Roswell Lyman, and the employment of it as a public historical museum by Mr. W.D. Lighthall, which was promoted by a petition to the mayor and aldermen organized by Mr. R.W. McLachlan and others and signed by about three thousand principal citizens. The agitation was successful and the first reception was given in the Château de Ramezay on November 11, 1897.
The next year, 1895, was marked with the inauguration of other public movements. On June 6th the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald was unveiled in Dominion Square by Sir Donald A. Smith and the Maisonneuve monument by Phillipe Hébert was unveiled on the Place d’Armes on Monday, July 1st, by the Hon. J.A. Chapleau, lieutenant governor of the Province of Quebec, the president of the committee being M.S. Pagnuelo and the secretary being the Vicomte H. de la Barthe. This was followed on October 8th by the inauguration of the new edifice of the Montreal branch of Laval University, but recently established in the city.
In 1896, Sir Donald A. Smith, later Lord Strathcona, was appointed High Commissioner for Canada. Another prominent Montreal citizen, Mr. Charles M. Hays, was appointed general manager of the Grand Trunk Railway.
Among the notable city events of 1897 were the meeting, in Montreal, of the Behring Sea Commissioners on June 16th, the celebration of the first day of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the consecration on June 30th of His Grace, Archbishop Bruchesi, by the Apostolic delegate, Mgr. Merry del Val, and the great meeting of the British Medical Society on August 31st.
In 1898 the public benefactions of a notable citizen, Sir William C. MacDonald, were rewarded by a knighthood.
January 1, 1899, is memorable as the day when the reduction of the 3 cent postage stamp to 2 cents came into force.
This year also marked the progress of the movement for the higher education of women by the opening of the Royal Victoria College for Women, being endowed with a gift of $1,000,000 by the chancellor of the University of McGill, Lord Strathcona.
This year being that of the beginning of the Boer war, Montreal again shared in the Imperial burden by providing a considerable part of the Canadian contingents for service in South Africa, it being represented in the first contingent by Company E, which sailed on October 30, 1899, and more largely in the second contingent which departed on January 4, 1900. The famous Strathcona Horse of three squadrons with 597 of all ranks sailed on March 1, 1900. During the progress of the war the citizens were actively engaged in promoting the patriotic fund and in works of providing comforts for the soldiers and those left behind by them.
During the course of 1900 the statue of Queen Victoria by Princess Louise was unveiled by the Governor General, Lord Minto.
The year 1901 was ushered in by the disastrous fire which destroyed the Board of Trade and many other commercial buildings on St. Paul Street to the extent of $2,500,000 loss. The new building was raised on the same site and was taken possession of on May 1, 1903.
On September 18, 1902, Montreal was honoured by the royal visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, who are now happily reigning as King George V and Queen Mary. The loyalty of the city was manifested as on previous royal visits, the city being magnificently decorated and illuminated.
The growing importance of Montreal as a factor in Imperial commerce was demonstrated in the following year, 1903, when the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire met in the city.
The destruction by fire of the Mount Royal Club, frequented by the wealthiest and most important citizens, taking place this year is another sidelight calling attention to the growth of club life since the old Beaver Club days. Other clubs had, in the meantime, been established in great numbers to cope with the growth of its needs.
In 1905 the first turbine steamers to cross the Atlantic, the Virginian and Victorian, of the Allan Line, were placed on the St. Lawrence route, a fact showing that navigation methods at Montreal have always kept abreast with the times. This same year the value of new buildings erected was $5,590,698.
The year 1904 opened with a terrible conflagration at St. Cunégonde on January 18th.
On June 4th, Lord Dundonald, on military service in Canada, made his famous arraignment at the Windsor Hotel of his government, for which he was recalled on June 14th. The harbour this year showed the prevalent great commercial development when an elevator capable of holding 1,000,000 bushels was erected. On the 22d of August the Manufacturers’ Association held a great banquet at the Windsor Hotel. In November, Patti made her last appearance in the city to be followed on January 5, 1905, by Rejanne, both of these latter appearances chronicling the position of Montreal as a musical and dramatic centre. Since then great singers, such as Calvé, Albani, Caruso and others have each triumphed here, as have the leading instrumental artists.
The Russo-Japanese war was the occasion of a subscription for a Japanese loan being started on March 31st. On August 22d Royalty again visited Montreal in the person of Prince Louis of Battenberg.
In 1906 the Labour party in Montreal elected a labour representative, M. Alphonse Verville, for Maisonneuve. This year St. Helen’s Island was secured for the people of Montreal by a purchase by the city from the Federal Government for $200,000.
In this year the advent of the automobile era is recorded at Montreal by the first fatality occurring, on August 11th, in the death of one named Toutant.
In 1907 the early months saw the burning of the Protestant school at Hochelaga and the civil engineering and medical buildings of McGill University. On April 1st the old Theatre Royal, which had fallen from the high palmy days into flagrant spectacles of a low class of vaudeville, was interdicted by the Archbishop Bruchesi and its final doom occurred a few years later.
The Bremen, one of the first German cruisers to visit this port, arrived on August 25, 1907. A significant sidelight of a phase of the continued growth of Montreal is the signing, on November 7th, of the contract for the building of the new city prison at Bordeaux. This year the temperance movement was greatly forwarded by the foundation of the Anti-Alcoolique League on December 29th.
International trade expansion was demonstrated in Montreal on February 5th, when the Marconi commercial telegraph service was installed.
The eclipse of the sun of 1908 was visible at Montreal on July 22d.
In 1909 a great accident took place in the Windsor Station by a train running off the tracks causing damage to the extent of $200,000, but with the loss, however, of only four lives.
The shipping in the port this year was increased by the advent of the White Star Liners, S.S. Laurentic on May 7th, and S.S. Megantic on June 27th. On the 27th of August the steamship Prescott was burnt in the harbour. The “Back to Montreal” movement recalled citizens to their homes for the week beginning September 13th, while the following day saw the closing of the civic investigation into aldermanic scandals at the city hall to be followed by the “Cannon Report.”
On September 23d the Witness Building was gutted by fire. In October the Royal Edward Tuberculosis Institute, the first of its kind in Canada, was opened by telegraph from England by His Majesty, King Edward, who gave the name to the building. The last day of the year ended with a gas explosion at Viger Station with the loss of thirty-eight lives.
The year 1910 is memorable for the triumph of civic reform and the establishment of the Board of Control, owing to a change in the city charter, as the outcome of the referendum to the people in 1909, to stop which an aldermanic delegation to the Provincial Legislature had been fruitless.
In the year in question the electors were asked to vote on these two vital questions:
Do you approve of the creation of a Board of Control?
Do you approve of one alderman a ward instead of two?
The answer given to both of the queries was overwhelmingly in the affirmative. The following figures prove this beyond the question of a doubt:
SUMMARY OF THE VOTE
Votes.
For reduction of aldermen 19,585 Against reduction 1,640 ------ Majority in favor 17,945
For Board of Control 18,528 Against Board of Control 2,413 ------ Majority in favor 16,115
There was not a single ward, throughout the city, which did not favour the proposed changes and no less than 34 per cent of the entire vote was polled on this memorable occasion.
On May 6th, His Majesty, King Edward, died and loyal Montreal grieved as a city with majestic and magnificent emblems of sorrow over all the public buildings. On the occasion of the royal funeral in Westminster Abbey the city was represented by His Worship the mayor, Dr. J.J. Guerin. In preparation for this event the high commissioner of Canada, Lord Strathcona, in London, protested against the inferior position given to the representatives of autonomous colonies of the Empire and his timely intervention was generously acted upon.
The Montreal trade fleet again was reinforced in 1910 by the advent on May 11th of the Royal Edward from Bristol, the first of the Canadian Northern Railway steamers. On the 28th, of the same month, transportation was effected by the inauguration of the electric tramway between Longueuil and McGill streets via the Victoria Bridge.
In June the Herald Building, facing Victoria Square was destroyed by fire with the loss of thirty-three lives. During this month M. de Lesseps, of aviation fame, was received in the city hall, while on November 27th the city was visited by the Marquis de Montcalm, a name honoured in the city from the general who made Montreal his headquarters under the French régime.
In October a flight, however, has to be recorded--that of the plausible financial gambler, Sheldon, who had ruined many widows among his dupes. He was, however, captured in the following year and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
But the Eucharistic Congress of 1910, held in Montreal, at the choice of the Catholic world, was an event before which all others of a social character have paled during recent years. It was prepared for long in advance as a great civic occasion, irrespective of its denominational character. The railway and steamship companies, the civic authorities and public bodies fitly put forth all their strength to make Montreal realize its now acknowledged position as a world city, which its choice connoted.
All was in readiness when Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, at the end of August, came to Quebec on the Empress of Britain, to represent His Holiness, Pius X. There in the old City of Champlain the eminent visitor was honourably and worthily entertained. After this the Government tugboat, the Lady Grey, and the Government steamboat Montmagny, with prominent members of the legislature and leading citizens, accompanied by other vessels, eighty yachts, motor boats, etc., went down to meet the delegate on the way up the river. Meanwhile great crowds were gathered to receive the party on the wharf, but the flotilla entered the port on Saturday afternoon, September 3d, in a downpour of torrential rain. At the foot of McGill Street, on the wharf, a splendid kiosk, topped with a handsome cupola, was crowded with the civic functionaries, who shortly left on receiving the Cardinal and the whole party were forced to adjourn to the city hall, where the ceremony of further reception by the mayor, Dr. James J. Guerin, was more worthily and comfortably performed. The rain, however, had not prevented the ringing of church bells and the shrill whistling of half a hundred steamships and numerous factories and the crowds of the expectant citizens from voicing a welcome. From the city hall, the Papal representative proceeded to the residence of Archbishop Bruchesi, who had organized the congress, to be held in Montreal, the first place in the new world to be so honoured by this national event, a sign of the growing recognition of the place of Montreal in the cities of the world. The Archbishop’s house was to be the home of the Minister for the week.
On Tuesday evening the formal opening of the congress took place in St. James’ Church on Dominion Square, amid picturesque religious ceremonies and brilliant ecclesiastical functions that surpassed anything previous on this continent. The delegate opened his remarks by a recognition of the enthusiastic reception given him by the provincial and municipal authorities, as well as by all classes. Archbishop Bruchesi, in his address of welcome, recognized the kindly feelings which other creeds had manifested towards the congress, how many prominent non-Catholic citizens, such as Lord Strathcona, had given their help in various practical ways in demonstrations of a high spiritual belief in the Unseen which the congress portended for all. Various telegrams were sent to Pius X at Rome and to George V in London expressing gratitude for the recent modification made by him in the form of the royal declaration which had continued till then to contain obsolete and obnoxious discriminations against a loyal part of his subjects.
It may also be noted here that at the luncheon given that day at the Windsor Hotel by Sir Lomer Gouin, prime minister of the Province of Quebec, the Cardinal, proposing the health of the King, congratulated the Canadians on the liberty that had been assured them under the British King who had shown how he could respect the legitimate susceptibilities of his Roman Catholic subjects throughout the Empire.
In the evening of this day, September 7th, the representative of the Federal Government, the Hon. Charles Murphy, Secretary of State of Canada, gave his official reception, which was attended by the largest throng of citizens that ever had entered this hotel. That night, midnight high mass was celebrated at the Notre Dame Church, which commenced when the great bell in the west tower, weighing 24,600 pounds, pealed out the hour of midnight, and the files of thousands of the representatives of the secular clergy and of the religious orders, and the laity, with prelates of a dozen different nations, assisted at a memorable occasion.
The practical work of the congress began on Thursday, September 8th. There were thirteen sessions held in the various large halls of the city, and in addition there were three general meetings held, two at Notre Dame Church and one in the Arena, at which three the Cardinal Legate presided. On two successive evenings, September 8th and 9th, 15,000 people crowded into the great entrance of Notre Dame to hear the most distinguished French and English speakers of the congress. Among those who spoke were His Eminence, Cardinal Logue, Primate of Armagh, Ireland; Archbishop Bourne, of Westminster, England; Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, Minnesota; Monsignor Heylen, of Namur; Monsignor Touchet, of Orleans; Monsignor Rumeau, of Angers; Hon. Judge O’Sullivan, of New York; Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Sir Lomer Gouin, the Hon. Thomas Chapais, and the Hon. C.J. Doherty, Henri Bourassa and J.M. Tellier, members of the federal and provincial governments of Canada. The sacred edifice, capable of seating 15,000, was crammed to the utmost, hundreds upon hundreds standing for two or three hours.
The enthusiasm was intense and the sacred edifice rang with unwonted applause. The sanctuary and the stalls were filled with brilliant ecclesiastical costumes and gay uniforms and the church was a mass of colour. Perhaps the most electrical moment of the evening was after the plea of the Archbishop of Westminster advocating, before this vast audience which was for the most part composed of French-Canadians of the Province of Quebec, a more general adoption of the English language to meet the changing conditions of Greater Canada, when Henri Bourassa, who had already been appointed to speak at this point, took the psychological opportunity of the occasion so temptingly offered him, to voice the aroused thoughts of his compatriots to whom their language, religion and racial traditions seemed inseparably bound. His words were punctuated with thundering applause and the waving of hats and hands amid a scence of vibrant national and religious feeling, the while the people hung upon the word of the speaker, who for the nonce was but the mouth-piece of their individual thoughts made a scene which the writer will never forget as an instance of a clever orator speaking under the best and most popular surroundings.
The third meeting, at the Arena, was composed of about eight thousand young men who were addressed by the Cardinal, Archbishhop Langevin, of Manitoba, and by Mr. Henri Bourassa on “Noble Ideals and Inspirations.” Both speakers urged them to hold to their traditions and national rights. There was plenty of room for English and French in Canada. Both could work out a noble destiny in this young and growing country.
Another, but one of the most appealing spectacles of the congress, was the procession of 30,000 school children who, wearing picturesque dresses and bearing emblems and banners, passed constantly before the Legate who was seated on the steps of St. James’ Cathedral and received their individual courtesy, the while he bestowed his blessing amid the thousands of spectators assembled around Dominion Square, the whole making a magnificent and unusual sight lasting for three hours, during which time all traffic in the neighbourhood was absolutely blocked.
The historic Mount Royal has witnessed many picturesque scenes but none more so than the great open air mass celebrated on Saturday, September 10th, at the foot of the mountain on the great open space below Mount Royal Avenue, where a superb and ornate altar, open to the winds of heaven, had been placed. Around it were 100 bishops, 2,000 priests in their picturesque costumes, and 200,000 of the faithful. A choir of 1,000 voices responded to the chaunts of the celebrant, Monsignor Farley, Archbishop of New York. Monsignor O’Connell, of Boston, and a Dominican priest, Father Hage, preached to all who could hear their voices. During the solemn celebration the Cardinal Legate arrived at St. Patrick’s Church, where another function was being held, and on his way to the altar he had to walk over a path carpeted with flowers, and there pausing, he bestowed his blessing on the kneeling multitude.
The supreme moment of the congress was to come in the great procession the following day. For weeks the long route from the Church of Notre Dame to the foot of Mount Royal, where stood the altar already described, had been given over to architects and workmen; tall handsome arches, things of beauty, had been raised here and there along the route, one of them being made of wheaten sheaves sent from the Western Canadian prairies. Thousands of Venetian columns, obelisks, pedestals and flag poles lined the streets; flags of all nations and innumerable electrical signs adorned the housefronts.
The forenoon of Sunday was spent in completing the details of the procession and precisely at 1 o’clock files of men, six abreast, began to move past the doors of Notre Dame and, like the corps of an immense army, then swung into the route of the procession. Long before the route had been densely thronged, and the mountain slopes thickly covered with expectant onlookers, for the various railways centering in Montreal had reduced their passenger rates in every direction within a radius of hundreds of miles and trains laden with humanity had followed each other at close intervals and unloaded their thousands all day Saturday and during the early hours of Sunday. It is estimated by the railway authorities that 200,000 strangers entered Montreal in twenty-four hours to witness the procession. For hours before it began the whole route was lined with people patiently waiting, while at the foot of the mountain near the altar of repose at least 75,000 had gathered, 20,000 of whom had been there from early morning. It was an extraordinary spectacle to look from the top of the mountain and see the mass of human beings moving in every direction over the immense sward, all eventually turning towards the handsome repository with its overtopping dome, the whole a design of great architectural beauty. Downtown at 1 o’clock began the greatest demonstration of any kind, civic or religious, that Canada ever witnessed. During four hours and a half, between fifty and sixty thousand men marched silently and prayerfully between at least half a million spectators lining the route. The demonstration was international in its widest extent. Citizens of the United States and Canada, together with Lithuanians, Chinese, Syrians, Iroquois Indians in their tribal costumes and feathers, Italians, Poles and a dozen other nationalities besides, carrying their distinctive banners and religious emblems, marched in one solid phalanx and in perfect order.
But the most imposing spectacle of all was that following the lay sections at 4 o’clock, when 1,000 choir boys, clothed in red cassocks and surplices, followed by the Christian Brotherhoods, hundreds of seminarians and the various religious orders of the city took their place in the great procession; then came 2,000 priests in sacerdotal vestments, followed in order of precedence by 100 bishops and archbishops, in cope and mitre. In the rear of the papal officers and chamberlains came the huge golden baldachino under which walked the tall majestic figure of Cardinal Vannutelli, carrying the Sacred Host and accompanied on both sides by ecclesiastical guards of honour and soldiers, with children busily swinging censers and strewing flowers in his path, the while the dense multitude, irrespective of creed, bowed in the reverential awe of the moment. Behind the baldachino walked Cardinals Logue and Gibbons, the prime minister of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the speaker of the House of Commons, members of the federal and provincial governments, members of the legislative council, the mayor of Montreal, the chief justice and judges of the Superior Court of Canada, all in their robes of office, members of the city council and a long line of men belonging to the liberal professions. When these last bands accompanying the Legate arrived it was already growing dusk and the electric lights on the waiting altar glowed in the gloom. A thousand voices entoned the Tantum Ergo, the Cardinal ascended the steps, took the remonstrance containing the Sacred Host and, raising it aloft over the 200,000 men, women and children kneeling on the grass, gave the benediction of the congress.
The congress was over. Lights went out and the bishops and their attendant clergy retired to the neighbouring convent of the Hôtel Dieu to doff their robes, marching down Pine Avenue chanting the Gregorian “Te Deum,” which sounded like the war song of the priests, and gradually the vast multitude dispersed to their homes.
The events of the succeeding year of 1911 recall the general federal elections on July 11th on the question of a renewal of reciprocity with the United States when, as has been said, it was rejected by an overwhelming majority of the electorate, notably in Montreal.
Harbour development was signalized this year by the signing of the contract with the Canadian Vickers Company for the new dry docks at the east end, and on October 4th in fitting recognition to a great harbour builder, the monument of the Hon. John Young was unveiled on the water front by Earl Grey. Meanwhile the general city development and expansion had been steadily increasing since the annexations of 1883. Its population and religions were becoming increasingly cosmopolitan and domestic troubles among the Mohammedans of the city on July 10th sufficiently indicate this.
The year 1912 is memorable at Montreal through the sorrow caused in the city by the loss of the White liner S.S. Titanic, a huge vessel with a displacement of 60,000 tons, which struck a submerged iceberg off Cape Race on April 14th with the loss of 1,600 souls on board. While the whole world thrilled with horror at the new revelation of the dangers of the sea to modern leviathans, Montreal had its particular grief in the loss of some of its respected citizens, Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway system, Markland Molson, Thornton Davidson, Vivian Payne, Q. Baxter, R.J. Levy, Mr. and Mrs. H. Allison and daughter, and Albert Malette.
The churches of the city universally mourned this world-wide disaster at the services of April 21st.
The month of October is memorable as the occasion of the great educational Child Welfare Exhibition held for a fortnight under the auspices of the humanitarian societies of the city in the Craig Street Drill Hall, and drawing immense crowds.
The year 1913 was remarkable for the extraordinary activity in building operations. As elsewhere related in the special chapter on City Improvement, Montreal gave more evidences of being a modern New York rather than the Ville Marie of old. It may be called the year of the great real estate boom.
But the last weeks of this year will stand out in civic history as a serious warning of the possibility of a city being deprived of its water supply for a long period with the additional terror of fire and disease. For 193 hours, beginning with Christmas night, the greater part of Montreal was deprived of water by the breaking of the concrete conduit at Lachine. Its story is told elsewhere.
The year 1914 has been one of the greatest gloom. Shortly before 3 o’clock early in the morning of May 29th the disquieting news was flashed from Quebec to Commander J.T. Walsh, superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, that about 2:30 o’clock its greatest steamer, the Empress of Ireland, had been struck about thirty miles east of Farther Point, but without further information. Shortly another report told that it had been struck by the Storstad, a Norwegian collier bound for Montreal, and was sinking rapidly in sight of Rimouski. At first the news was not credited as possible, but it was too true. The ship sank almost immediately, being struck in the bowels and filling straightway with water. Montrealers felt the disaster most keenly, as its sister ships have their headquarters here and its officers were men personally known on the St. Lawrence and the Montreal route. Of the total 1,367 souls on board, 959 lives were lost and less than four hundred saved. The disaster was faced with courage and sympathetic humanitarianism by the many officers of the company who journeyed down to Quebec and spared no effort by night or day to make the tragedy less painful to the relatives of the survivors. The sailor institutions of Montreal on this occasion were glad to cooperate with those of Quebec and supervised the sad task of identifying the drowned and burying the bodies of the sailors as they were rescued from the waters or the shores of Rimouski and taken to the mournful morgues at Quebec.
Towards the end of July, 1914, war was declared between Austria and Servia. This involved Germany on the side of Austria, and Russia and France on the side of Servia, and on August 30th Great Britain because of Germany breaking the neutrality of Belgium, entered what was to be the most devastating war in the history of nations. Canada at once declared her loyalty to the Motherland in a very practical way. The Federal government presented 3,000,000 bags of flour and raised a contingent of 33,000 of her best men. The Provinces vied with each other in contributing huge quantities of wheat, flour, apples, and in the case of the Province of Quebec, 2,000,000 pounds of cheese. A National Patriotic Fund was started with branches in every municipality throughout the Dominion--Montreal’s contribution totalling $2,000,000, in addition to which a Montreal citizen, A. Hamilton Gault, gave $500,000 to raise a regiment to be composed of veterans. This regiment of 1,000 picked men was named after the daughter of the Governor-General, the Duke of Connaught, the “Princess Patricia Light Infantry” and joined the first contingent, which left Canada on October 2nd, in thirty-one transports, principally vessels trading to Montreal, and under eleven convoys. This armada, which was the largest that ever sailed the Atlantic seas, reached Plymouth, October 16th, and the contingent was immediately entrained to Salisbury Plain to complete its training. Montreal contributed 3,200 men towards this first contingent. Their arrival in England was the occasion of much popular satisfaction at this great spectacle of Imperial union.
Whatever doubts there might have been in the minds of some people as to the responsibility of Canada in the Boer war there was absolutely none in this crisis. The spontaneity of the Canadian people in rising to their privileges as British citizens has never been so pronounced. Every man and every woman in the Dominion, irrespective of national origin, wanted to do something to aid the Motherland. And Montreal was in the van.
Immediately the first contingent embarked the government decided on raising a second and recruiting started afresh. While the French-Canadians of the country had contributed 2,146 to the first contingent, being the more notable contribution of Canadian born subjects, the majority of the volunteers were those who were British born. But now the French-Canadians of the city determined to raise a regiment composed entirely of their compatriots to be called “Le Régiment Royal Canadien” and over three thousand men applied for admission. The Irish-Canadians, too, raised a regiment for home defense named the “Fifty-fifth Irish Canadian Rangers” with the Minister of Justice, the Hon. Charles J. Doherty, as Honorary Lieutenant Colonel. The neighbouring city of Westmount, under the direction of the mayor and council, raised the “Westmount Rifles” and even the suburban town of Outremont raised an artillery battery of 105 men. A number of prominent citizens of Montreal, on the initiative of Mr. J.N. Greenshields, K.C., equipped and are sustaining a “Home Guard” of 3,000 at their own expense. Towards the Patriotic Fund the local councils contributed as follows: Montreal, $150,000; Westmount, $5,000; Outremont, $5,000; Maisonneuve, $2,000; Verdun, $3,000; and the smaller municipalities lesser but proportionate amounts. These funds are being augumented daily.
The war affected Montreal in another way, industrially and financially. On the declaration of war the banks called in their loans and though the government came to their aid in the negotiation of their collateral the fact of the stoppage of capital from Great Britain disorganized the industrial machinery of the country and thousands were thrown out of employment. In addition to this the forcible internment of the Germans and Austrians, of which 3,400 were in Montreal alone, caused much anxiety to the authorities, for none would employ them. A delegation from Montreal waited upon the acting premier, Sir George Foster, November 2d, asking for the cooperation of the Government in alleviating the general distress. This Sir George promised as far as the interned enemies were concerned, but thought each municipality should take the responsibility of looking after its own unemployed.
Montreal at this period was like a huge garrison town. Recruits, with and without uniforms, university professors and students, rich and poor alike, were being drilled in every open space and many public and private halls. For barracks the dismantled Protestant High School on Peel Street and other buildings were used for the young men of the second contingent.
Not only were the canals, bridges, wharves and public buildings patrolled by soldiers in uniform, since the first news of the outbreak of the war, but the streets of Montreal and the suburbs have been the constant scenes of much militarism. A lasting memory will survive in numerous streets and avenues, either being opened or bearing names already employed elsewhere, being appointed henceforth to bear the names of generals and towns connected with the war, such as Joffre, Pau, Liège, Namur and Aisne.
About the city committees of devoted women of all national origins and of all the numerous charitable associations, were patriotically visiting the wives and dependents of volunteers for the front and administering the allowances granted by the Patriotic Fund, the headquarters of which were in the new Drummond Building at the corner of St. Catherine and Peel streets. And in this central room a busy committee was engaged all day on the careful systematic organization of the relief fund. Over the city in church, school, club and private rooms, groups were busily knitting and sewing and fashioning all sorts of comforts and necessities for those who had heard the call to fight for the maintenance of the Empire. The city has become a busy loom of patriotic charity.
All honour to the loyal women of Montreal in this moment of the world’s greatest war.
UNDER ENGLISH RULE
II. SPECIAL PROGRESS
CHAPTER
XXIV THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. XXV OTHER RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. XXVI SCHOOL SYSTEM OF MONTREAL BEFORE THE CESSION. XXVII SCHOOL SYSTEM OF MONTREAL AFTER THE UNION. XXVIII UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT. XXIX LITERATURE--DRAMA--MUSIC--ART. XXX NATIONAL SOCIETIES AND POPULATION. XXXI FIRE, LIGHTING, WATER. XXXII LAW AND ORDER. XXXIII HOSPITALS. XXXIV SOCIOLOGICAL MOVEMENTS. XXXV BEFORE THE UNION. XXXVI SINCE THE UNION. XXXVII BANKING AND INSURANCE. XXXVIII SHIPPING: EARLY AND MODERN. XXXIX THE PORT AND HARBOUR. XL RAILROADS. XLI POST ROADS AND STREET RAILWAY. XLII FROM THE CESSION. XLIII UNDER THE UNION. XLIV SINCE CONFEDERATION.