Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present

by Sir J. M. Le Moine

It is singular to note how many low-born [122] parasites and flatterers surrounded Bigot.

In 1755, the wheat harvest having failed, and the produce of former years having been carried out of Canada or else stored in the magazine of Bigot's ring, the people of Canada were reduced to starvation: in many instances they had to subsist on horse flesh and decayed codfish. Instead of having recourse to the wheat stored here, the Intendant's minions led him to believe that wheat was not so scarce as the peasantry pretended—that the peasants refused to sell it, merely in anticipation of obtaining still higher rates; that the Intendant, they argued, ought to issue orders, for domiciliary visits in the rural districts; and levy a tax on each inhabitant of the country, for the maintenance of the residents in the city, and of the troops.

Statements were made out, shewing the rations required to prevent the people from dying of hunger. Cadet was charged with the raising of this vexatious impost. In a very short time, he and his clerks had overrun the country, appropriating more wheat than was necessary. Some of the unfortunate peasants, who saw in the loss of their seed wheat starvation and death, loudly complained. A few called at the Intendant's Palace, but the heartless Deschenaux, the Intendant's Secretary, was ever on the watch and had them questioned by his employés, and when the object of their visit, was discovered, they were ushered into the presence of Deschenaux, who insulted them and threatened to have them imprisoned for thus presuming to complain to the Intendant. Bigot was afterwards advised of their visit, and when they appeared before him they were so maltreated and bullied that they left, happy in the fact that they had not been thrown into prison; soon, none dared to complain. Bread was getting scarcer every day. The Intendant had named persons to distribute the bread at the baker's shops, the flour being furnished by Government. The people crowded the bakeries on the days fixed; the loaves were taken by violence, mothers of families used to complain that they could not get any; they used occasionally to besiege the Intendant at his Palace with their lamentations and complaints, but it was of no avail, the Intendant was surrounded by a crowd of flatterers, who on retiring, gorged from his luxurious board, could not understand how the poor could die of hunger.

Land of my fathers reclaimed from barbarism at the cost of so much blood—so much treasure, bountifully provided with nobles—priests— soldiers—fortifications by the great Louis; sedulously—paternally watched over by Colbert and Talon: to what depth of despair, shall we say, degradation are thou sunk!

Proud old city, have you then no more defenders to put forth, in your supreme hour of woe and desertion! Has then that dauntless race of Gentilshommes Canadiens, d'Iberville—Ste. Hélène—de Bouville —de Bécancourt—de Repentigny, disappeared without leaving any successors!

And you stern old de Frontenac, you who replied so effectually to the invader through the mouth of your cannon, is your martial spirit quenched forever, in that loved fortress in which rest your venerated remains, you who at one time (1689) were ready, at the head of your Regulars and fighting Canadians, [123] to carry out the rash scheme, hatched by deCallières: the conquest of New York and destruction of the chief settlements in New England, a scheme which involved the dispersion of more than eighteen thousand people, as sixty-six years later (in 1755), a British Commander tore from their homes the peaceable Acadians of Grand-Pré. [124]

I could enlarge to any extent the gloomy picture which the history of this shameful period discloses. Two skilful novelists, the one in the English language, Wm. Kirby, [125] Esq., of Niagara, the other in the French, Joseph Marmette, [126] of Quebec, have woven two graphic and stirring historical romances, out of the materials which the career of the Intendant Bigot and the desertion of the colony in its hour of trial, by France—so abundantly supply. One redeeming trait, one flash of sunshine lights up the last hour of French domination: the devotion of the Canadian militia towards their oblivious mother- country, their dauntless courage at the Beauport engagement—after the battle of the Plains, 13th Sept., 1759—and at the battle of Ste. Foye, on the 28th April 1760, a day glorious to French arms, but at best a useless victory.

RUINS OF THE INTENDANT'S PALACE.

"It is the voice of years that are gone! they roll before me with all their deeds."—OSSIAN.

"'The descriptions, or perspective sketches,' says Mr. Walkem, 'according to the fancy or whim of the artist or the photographer, of what is left of the ruins, convey no adequate idea of its real capacity and magnitude in length, breadth or height. My present object, therefore, with your permission, is to supply this deficiency from plans and elevations drawn to a scale of feet about the year 1770—when some repairs were effected by the Military Engineers,—five years before its destruction in 1775. And more especially do I feel it my duty to submit this plan, &c., for publication since it has become part of the military history, not of Quebec only, but of Canada.