An important portion of our Harbour improvements are located on the opposite shore of the St. Lawrence at Levis, and the sums voted by the Parliament of Canada (38 Vic., chap. 56), or granted by the Imperial Government to construct a graving dock in the Harbour of Quebec, were used in this structure, located by Order-in-Council, dated May, 1877, at St. Joseph de Lévis.
"The dimensions of the dock are:
Length……………………….. 500 feet
Extreme width…………………. 100 "
Depth………………………… 25.5 "
Width of entrance……………… 62 "
"The designs and specifications were prepared by Messrs. Kinnipple & Morris, Engineers, Westminster and Greenock.
"The Graving Dock of St. Joseph de Lévis, Parish of Lauzon, Quebec, was commenced by the Quebec Harbour Commissioners, under the Resident Engineer, Woodford Pilkington, M.I., C.E. in November, 1877, and was carried on previous to tenders being invited for the present contract, to the month of March, 1878, during which time the sum of $6,298.20 was expended in excavation on the site of the Dock, which work was afterwards taken over by Messrs. Larkin, Connolly & Co., as an executed part of their contract, signed August 17th, 1878, and the above sum deducted from the contract amount of their tender for the excavations given in the bills of quantities under this head; the Harbour Commissioners being afterwards re-credited with this amount of expenditure under the first certificate.
The work of excavating for and building this Graving Dock was taken in hand under contract with the Quebec Harbour Commissioners, by Messrs. Larkin, Connolly & Co., on the 17th August, 1878, for the lump sum of $330,953.89. The works to be delivered over to the Quebec Harbour Commissioners, finished complete, on the 1st day of June, 1882. [142]
THE GATES OF QUEBEC.
It seems superfluous to furnish a detailed description of the fortifications and citadel of Quebec. After the lengthy account given in "Quebec, Past and Present," pages 348-60, the following sketch, which we borrow, written previous to the erection of the new St. Louis and Kent Gates, [143] corrected to date, throws additional light on this part of the subject.
"Of all the historic monuments connecting modern Quebec with its eventful and heroic past, none have deservedly held a higher place in the estimation of the antiquarian, the scholar and the curious stranger than the former gates of the renowned fortress. These relics of a by-gone age, with their massive proportions and grim, medieval architecture, no longer exist, however, to carry the mind back to the days which invest the oldest city in North America with its peculiar interest and attraction. Nothing now remains to show where they once raised their formidable barriers to the foe or opened their hospitable portals to friends, but graceful substitutes of modern construction or yawning apertures in the line of circumvallation, where until 1871 stood Prescott and Hope Gates which represented the later defences of the place erected under British rule. Of the three gates—St. Louis, St. John and Palace—which originally pierced the fortifications of Quebec under French dominion, the last vestige disappeared many years ago. The structures with which they were replaced, together with the two additional and similarly guarded openings—Hope and Prescott gates—provided for the public convenience or military requirements by the British Government since the Conquest, have experienced the same fate within the last decade to gratify what are known as modern ideas of progress and improvement—vandalism would, perhaps, be the better term. No desecrating hand, however, can rob those hallowed links, in the chain of recollection, of the glorious memories which cluster around them so thickly. Time and obliteration itself have wrought no diminution of regard for their cherished associations.
To each one of them an undying history attaches, and even their vacant sites appeal with mute, but surpassing eloquence to the sympathy, the interest and the veneration of visitors, to whom Quebec will be ever dear, not for what it is, but for what it has been. To the quick comprehension of Lord Dufferin, it remained to note the inestimable value of such heirlooms to the world at large. To his happy tact we owe the revival of even a local concern for their preservation; and to his fertile mind and aesthetic taste, we are indebted for the conception of the noble scheme of restoration, embellishment and addition in harmony with local requirements and modern notions of progress, which is now being realized to keep their memories intact for succeeding generations and retain for the cradle of New France its unique reputation as the famous walled city of the New World. It has more than once been remarked by tourists that, in their peculiar fondness for a religious nomenclature, the early French settlers of Quebec must have exhausted the saintly calendar in adapting names to their public highways, places and institutions. To this pardonable trait in their character, we must unquestionably ascribe the names given to two of the three original gates in their primitive lines of defence—St. Louis and St. John's gates—names which they were allowed to retain when the Gallic lilies drooped before the victorious flag of Britain. The erection of the original St. Louis gate undoubtedly dates back as far as 1694. Authentic records prove this fact beyond question; but it is not quite so clear what part this gate played in subsequent history down to the time of the conquest, thought it may be fairly presumed that it rendered important services in connection especially with the many harassing attacks of the Iroquois tribes in the constant wars which were waged in the early days of the infant colony with those formidable and savage foes of the French. One thing is certain, however, that it was one of the gates by which a portion of Montcalm's army, after its defeat on the Plains of Abraham, passed into the city on its way back, via Palace gate and the bridge of boats over the St. Charles, to the Beauport camp. In 1791, after Quebec had fallen into British hands, St. Louis gate was reported to be in a ruinous condition, and it became necessary to raze it to the ground and rebuild it. Between this date and 1823, it appears to have undergone several changes; but, in the latter year, as part of the plan of defence, including the Citadel, adopted by the Duke of Wellington, and carried out at an enormous cost by England, it was replaced by another structure, retaining the same name. About this time seem to have been also constructed the singularly tortuous outward approaches to this opening in the western wall of the city, which were eventually so inconvenient to traffic in peaceful days, of whatever value they might have been from a military stand-point in trying hours half-a-century ago. These were also removed with the gate itself in 1871. On the vacant site of the latter, in accordance with Lord Dufferin's improvment project, a magnificent memorial gate, which the citizens had unanimously agreed to call "The Dufferin gate," is now (1880) erected.
The intention of naming it "The Dufferin gate," however, was abandoned. H.R.H. the Princess Louise, in deference to its traditions and with a graceful appreciation of the feelings of the French element of the population, having recently expressed the desire that it should be allowed to retain its original appellation.