PLAN OF MONTREAL 1724-1760
Reference: A. Chapelle Ste. Anne. B. Hospital Général. C. Residence de Mr de Callières. D. Monastère des Récollets. E. Tribunaux. F. Séminaire. G. Eglise Paroissiale N-D. H. Hôtel-Dieu. I. Congrégation N-D. J. Prison. K. Jésuites. L. Château Vaudreuil. M. L'Intendance. N. Résidence de M. de Ramezay. O. Ancien site de la Citadelle. P. Eglise Bonsecours.
M. Benjamin Sulte on this remarks: "A few years before the conquest there was a Canadian named Dubois, a carpenter by trade, residing in Montreal. I believe he was the man alluded to by Kalm. Dubois, having been asked on several occasions to repair and regulate timepieces belonging to people who had procured them from France, readily perceived that he could understand their mechanism and he soon went into that business on an extensive scale. His name became famous all around the island and his customers increased considerably. Most of the tools required for the art he had thus adopted were not to be obtained in Canada, but his imaginative power was great and he made them himself without much trouble. It is said that he even invented new models for clocks and introduced many clever improvements, which were looked upon in those days as really marvelous."
Another Canadian, called Champagne, also a carpenter of Montreal, closely followed Dubois' steps. His remarkable skill often attracted the attention of men of high class. He seems to have been gifted with indomitable energy. One day, M. Brassier, a priest of St. Sulpice congregation, described to him some of the beautiful clocks he had seen while living in France (before 1745), especially those ornamented with carillons (chimes), sounding the hours and other fractions of time. Champagne dreamed over this and finally set to work. The result was an elaborate and astonishing mechanism, to which the whole of Montreal paid a tribute of admiration. (See "Le Spectateur," Montreal, 16 September, 1813.) Champagne died about the year 1790.
In an entry on July 27th, Kalm alludes probably to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, proclaimed on October 8, 1748: "The peace, which was concluded between France and England, was proclaimed this day. The soldiers were under arms, the artillery on the walls was fired off, and some salutes were given by the small fire-arms. All night some fireworks were exhibited and the whole town was illuminated. All the streets were crowded with people till late at night. The governor invited me to supper and to partake of the joy of the inhabitants. There were present a number of officers and persons of distinction; and the festival concluded with the greatest joy."
On July 28th Kalm went with the governor, now Charles Le Moyne, 2d Baron de Longueuil, to a little island named Magdalene, "which is his own property." For August 1st he remarks that the governor general, though commonly residing in Quebec, so as to be near the ships arriving in summer, spent the winter in Montreal. "The Governor de la Galissonière [182] is said to like Montreal better than Quebec, and indeed the situation of the former is by far the more agreeable one."
Kalm adds to our knowledge some notes to explain the practice at this period of the card money already recorded as instituted by de Meulles.
"They have in Canada," he recites, "scarce any other but paper money. I hardly ever saw any coin, except French sols, consisting of brass, with a very small mixture of silver; they were quite thin by constant circulation, and were valued at a sol and a half. The bills are not printed, but written. Their origin is as follows: The French king having found it very dangerous to send money for the pay of the troops, and other purposes, over to Canada, on account of privateers, shipwrecks, and other accidents; he ordered that instead of it the intendant, or king's steward, at Quebec, or the commissary at Montreal, is to write bills for the value of the sums which are due to the troops, and which he distributes to each soldier. On these bills is inscribed, that they bear the value of such or such a sum, till next October; and they are signed by the intendant, or the commissary; and in the interval they bear the value of money. In the month of October, at a certain stated time, every one brings the bills in his possession to the intendant at Quebec, or the commissary at Montreal, who exchanges them for bills of exchange upon France, which are paid there in lawful money, at the king's exchequer, as soon as they are presented. If the money is not yet wanted, the bill may be kept till next October, when it may be exchanged by one of those gentlemen, for a bill upon France. The paper money can only be delivered in October, and exchanged for bills upon France. They are of different values, and some do not exceed a livre, and perhaps some are still less. Towards autumn when the merchants' ships come in from France, the merchants endeavor to get as many bills as they can and change them for bills upon the French treasury. These bills are partly printed, spaces being left for the name, sum, etc. But the first bill, or paper currency is all wrote, and is therefore subject to be counterfeited, which has sometimes been done, but the great punishments, which have been inflicted upon the authors of these forged bills, and which generally are capital, have deterred people from attempting it again; so that examples of this kind are very scarce at present. As there is a great want of small coin here, the buyers, or sellers, were frequently obliged to suffer a small loss, and could pay no intermediate prices between one livre and two."
The wages given could not fail to interest this student of affairs. "They commonly give one hundred and fifty livres a year to a faithful and diligent footman, and to a maid-servant of the same character, one hundred livres. A journeyman to an artist gets three or four livres a day, and a common labouring man gets thirty or forty sols a day. The scarcity of labouring people occasions the wages to be so high; for almost everybody finds it so easy to set up as a farmer in this uncultivated country, where he can live well, and at a small expense, that he does not care to serve and work for others."