Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 1. Under the French Régime, 1535-1760

by William H. Atherton

"Again in 1733, the same engineer made a complete survey of the route and prepared fresh plans and estimates. The old line had evidently been abandoned, as the probable cost of the work is put down at 255,000 livres, or about $300,000. The new scheme contemplated a canal with locks. Unfortunately, no copy of the report of Mr. Chaussegros is on record in the documents referred to.

"From that date nothing can be found in the Seminary papers relating to the canal, which would seem to indicate that the work was never completed. It is quite likely, however, that the imperfect channel could be used by canoes during the periods of high water. Be that as it may, traces of it in the shape of a half-filled ditch, are still to be seen in a field near the Canadian Pacific Railway embankment at Rockfield."

In the year 1703, on May 26th, de Callières died, and M. de Vaudreuil succeeded him on August 1st as governor general, while M. Claude de Ramezay replaced the latter as governor of Montreal, being appointed by the king as such in August. The minister, this same month recommended de Vaudreuil, Beauharnois and the Marquis d'Alogny to make use of his advice in regard to the police and the management of the troops.

In 1704 we hear of an ordinance of the Governor General de Vaudreuil, dated December 12th, being sent to Montreal to forbid seditious assemblies. It had been brought to his notice that there had been a large gathering of the inhabitants near Montreal for the purpose of obliging the merchants to furnish them salt and other merchandise at a lower price. But on the explanation of the Governor de Ramezay and the superior of the seminary, M. de Belmont, that there had been nothing seditious in the meeting which had been called simply to protest and to draw attention to their complaints, things went no further than the issue of the ordinance, although the "meeting" was still the subject of letters to France in 1705. In that year de Ramezay had been having his troubles with the authorities of Quebec. In a letter from the minister (Pontchartrain) the latter strongly disapproves of his conduct in heading a cabal against de Vaudreuil and Beauharnois, and of the impropriety of raising himself up as a reformer of the higher powers of the colony.

An insight into the hardships experienced at Montreal as a result of the wars with the English colonies, may now be presented. The vessel, La Seine, which was carrying to Canada provisions and merchandise of all kinds and the cargo of which was estimated at a million livres (tournois), left Rochelle in the summer of 1705 and was captured by a Virginian fleet in spite of the heroic resistance of the Chevalier de Maupeon. The vessel was seized and its passengers, among whom was Mgr. de St. Vallier, were taken as prisoners to England. Such and similar disasters made living conditions dear at Montreal and famine was frequent. A missionary of this period says that wearing apparel and houses were of an extraordinary price at Montreal. The innkeepers made their fortune in diluting the drink, especially that which they sold to the Indians, who drank all that they could get, in exchange for their peltry. "You have served me out of the savages' barrel," grumbled one of the workmen to the servant who had just given him some liquor.

The scarcity of clothing material, caused by the loss of La Seine, brought with it, however, an advantage to the colony. On the suggestion of the Intendant Raudot, the king's council permitted the inhabitants to make linen and druggets with the homemade yarn and worsted of the country. For hitherto France had insisted on the right of supplying Canada with its manufactured articles. It forbade home industries. Even the wool gathered on the St. Lawrence banks was shipped to France and returned in the form of a coarse cloth. All clothing therefore had been very expensive in the colony. Necessity became, therefore, the mother of invention and we thus find Madame de Repentigny, who had greatly contributed to the progress of this industry, writing in 1708: "There is at present a considerable quantity of handicrafts which work at making linen in Canada. Women and men work at them. The men have a taste for deerskin clothing, which costs them much less than the cloths from France; they nearly all wear it with homemade drugget surtouts over it." On his side M. Bigot wrote in 1714: "There are in Montreal as many as twenty-five looms for making linen and worsted goods. The Sisters of the Congregation have shown me the collender which they have made for their clothing, which latter is as fine as that made in France; there are also made here, materials of black for the clothes of the priests, and of blue for those of the 'pensionnaires.'"

How the ladies of Montreal were participating in the industrial progress of the city may be seen in the letters of the minister, the intendant and to Madame de Repentigny. In 1706 he writes to Intendant Raudot, asking for samples of the cloth which Madame had made from nettles and bark and which she says is better than that made from linen and hemp. On June 30, 1707, he writes to Madame de Repentigny that he has received the samples of cloth and the little tablets of cotton syrup; that he has noticed with pleasure what she has told him of the number of cloth workers in the Island of Montreal, but he finds the price of her cloth too high. [171] He is pleased to be informed of the sugar that is made in Montreal and of the blue earth that has been found by the Indians thirty leagues from Montreal. Another year, he records his pleasure at her discoveries of dye woods near Montreal and on July 7, 1711, he writes of his satisfaction at her zeal for the progress of the colony. On June 29th he writes that he will recommend her son for the post of ensign and encourages her to redouble her efforts for the increase of her manufactures.

A survey of the various ordonnances issued by the intendants of this period supplies much insight into the life of the city. During the months of June and July, 1706, Jacques Raudot was in Montreal. The ordonnances issued by him there are of valuable historical usefulness in providing an insight into conditions then prevailing. That dated June 22d concerns the streets, primarily. "Having learnt," it begins, "on arriving in this town the state of disorder in which the streets are, being almost impracticable at all seasons not only for foot passengers, but for carriage and cart traffic, and this on account of the mire which is found in the said streets, and which comes not so much from the bad nature and inequality of the land as from the filth which the inhabitants throw there daily, and being persuaded that this comes from not giving the streets the slope necessary for the flow of the drainage, not being able to do anything of more utility for the town than to remedy these disorders, and having conferred with Sieur de Bellemont (sic), superior of the seminary, Fleury Deschambault, lieutenant general, Raimbault, King's procurator of the department of Justice Royale of this town, we order that, hereafter, there shall be given the following slopes." Then follow the list of streets to be altered, directions for the remaking of the roads and footpaths, and the sharing of the expenses, the order for the observance of the new alignments, penalties for throwing rubbish into the streets, etc.

Then also follow penalties and confiscations for keeping pigs in the houses, and for allowing cattle to stray in the streets. The renewal of the prohibitions against unlicenced liquor houses is also made. It concludes with instructions for the establishment of a market on the place d'Armes to meet the needs of the growing town. The market days are to be on Tuesdays and Fridays, weekly. This is for the convenience of the country vendors, who are not to sell their produce elsewhere, in private stores, as formerly. In order to enable the inhabitants to purchase in the market and to prevent the hotel keepers and cabaretiers from buying up everything before the citizens were astir, Raudot enjoins, that the former shall not buy in the market before 8 o'clock in the morning under a penalty of 3 livres.