THE JESUITS' CONVENT
This "kind of a college" having no funds but maintained at the expense of the Jesuits, never rose beyond the dignity of a Latin school, with the added splendour of teaching a few of His Majesty's pilots. For thirty-three years, the Jesuits allowed the i that they had caressed for a while, a college like that of Quebec, to slumber. Although the view was good, funds were scarce and Father de la Chauchetière went to his dear savages again. In 1727 the inhabitants, desirous of a classical college in their town, to avoid sending their boys to Quebec for the purpose, petitioned the governor, Beauharnois. Their preamble shows that all the population, "military officers, law officers, the bourgeoise, the merchants and the inhabitants, moved very keenly by the ignorance and laziness of their children that had given rise to lamentable disorders, have recourse to you to pray you, humbly and very urgently, to second their good intentions, by procuring them the means of maintaining youths in order, and of inspiring them with those sentiments of submission necessary to render these children, at the same time good servants of the king, as well as of God." The petition then prays for the choice of the Jesuits for the purpose and for government subsidy for the foundation. This request was well received by Beauharnois, who transmitted it to the minister, at the same time announcing that the Intendant Dupuy would join to the common letter, a memorial of the Jesuits on the same subject. This the intendant did not choose to send. Indeed, he wrote discountenancing the expenditure on the ground that it was better to complete the courses at Quebec before establishing another college at Montreal, thus avoiding two imperfect foundations. He had a brilliant alternative. "Unless," he wrote, "you should so arrange that the classes wanting at Quebec should be supplied at Montreal, which would give the youths the opportunity of seeing the whole of the colony and forming connections, by those of Montreal going to Quebec to commence their course or those from Quebec finishing at Montreal, or vice-versa, if the contrary was more expedient." On May 12, 1728, Maurepas wrote to Beauharnois that the enterprise of the college at Montreal would be too burdensome on the king. In 1731 Beauharnois with the Intendant Hocquart again exerted his efforts to obtain a subsidy for a classical course at Montreal under the control of the Jesuits, but in vain. In 1736 Hocquart, seeing that he could not get all he asked, determined to ask for less and advised the appointment by the government of a technical master at Quebec and Montreal to teach geometry, fortification and geography to the cadets who were not able to follow the courses already in vogue at both places. This failed again. Thus the college of the Jesuit residents never rose beyond the dignity of a Latin school, or the high school of the period. [195]
TECHNICAL EDUCATION AT MONTREAL
The beginning of technical education in Montreal must be attributed to Jean François Charon, the founder of the Frères Hospitaliers de St. Joseph de la Croix, who was born at Quebec, where he was baptized on September 9, 1654. He was blessed with a considerable fortune for the time, which he wished to consecrate to the relief of the sick, the weak and orphans. As far back as 1688 it was his desire to found a hospital for this purpose and he gathered around him among other associates Pierre LeBer, brother of the recluse, and Jean Fredin. On October 28, 1688, he had conceded to him by Dollier de Casson, under private seal, a piece of ground on which to found a house of charity. In 1692 the king had by letters patent, given permission for the establishment at Quebec and in other places where they were necessary, a general hospital and houses of charity. Montreal was not slow in availing themselves of this privilege. Champigny, writing to the minister in November, 1693, says: "The establishment of a hospital at Montreal with the king's permission, has started with the building of a very fine house to which Sieur Charon, the principal founder, has joined two good farms which will support eighty to one hundred persons. This will effect all the good that can be desired, in instructing the young and in employing them in manufactures and in teaching them trades. As they have expressed a wish to commence next spring a brickyard near their house, I believe that you will not disapprove of the permission given by me to a soldier, a tiler and brickmaker to work there." The letters patent for M. Charon's hospital, signed by the king in 1694, on the request of Bishop St. Vallier, Frontenac and de Champigny specifically adds to the hospital aims that of teaching trades to the young. Five years later, in 1699, new letters patent were granted, permitting the establishment of art manufactures and handicrafts in the house and inclosure of the hospital brothers of Montreal. Thus it is clearly seen that Charon laid great stress on the technical educational side of his charitable work. He cannot, however, claim to be the pioneer of technical education in Canada. Laval must be ever remembered in this regard. He had solemnly opened the petit séminaire at Quebec on October 9, 1668, with thirteen scholars, seven French and six savages, out of which he desired to find candidates for a native clergy. He quickly found that some were not apt for study or the ecclesiastical state and he bethought himself of establishing a second course where the pupils might learn to earn their livelihood. A school of "arts et métiers" of considerable importance for the time, grew up simultaneously, both at the seminary and at its country branch of St. Joachim at Cap Tourment where the bishop owned two farms and to which boys were sent for their elementary education and to apply themselves to those works to which they showed the greatest aptitude. In 1685 Mgr. de St. Vallier in the absence of Mgr. Laval and with the assistance of Denonville, had great schemes for the aggrandizement of St. Joachim as a classical college also, but after a year's trial it came to naught. On his return in 1688, Laval reverted to his original plan of St. Joachim as mainly a technical school and in 1693 founded six burses for its pupils. By 1705 it appears to have been, properly speaking, an agricultural school or a model farm. By 1715 it became both an elementary and a Latin school and continued as such till the end of the French domination, whether it maintained its purpose as a school of arts et métiers not being so certain. In 1685 at St. Joachim the "arts and métiers" were flourishing with joinery, sculpture, painting, gilding, etc. There were tailors, shoemakers, edged-tool makers, sawyers, tilers, etc., engaged to teach their trades to the young students.
When Charon and his associates were planning their hospital and school, they had St. Joachim in view as an ideal to reproduce in Montreal. They essayed also to make it a normal school to form teachers for the rural parishes and in this they were seconded by the intendant, Raudot, who wrote in 1707, in their favour for government support. In passing, it may be noted that in 1707, at least, the Charon Frères were teaching navigation and fortification. Unfortunately at this time other matters, concerning the frères hospitaliers as a body having pretentions to be recognized as a religious community, began to occupy the attention of France. The minister, de Pontchartrain, ordered Raudot to publish an ordinance as he did on December 14, 1708, enjoining the hospitaliers to quit their religious uniform, the black capot, the silk ceinture and the rabat and to take no vows, those being declared null, already made. They were to be only laymen living in a community. There was great opposition at this time to the multiplication of religious orders of the more severe types. On June 6, 1708, we find that the king expressed, through the minister, his desire that the sisters of the Congregation should not be cloistered, as he thought this would render him less useful. He also hears that the hospitaliers of the general hospital under M. Charon wished to take a religious uniform and that they are wearing the rabat and taking simple vows. He desires that this shall cease. Later, on May 10, 1710, the king still refuses their insistent demand for recognition as a religious fraternity, on the grounds that their letters patent were granted on the condition that they should take no vows. In 1717 the Charon Brothers, assisted by the Sulpicians, opened a school for boys at Pointe aux Trembles, near Montreal. In 1718, however, the marine department came tardily to their assistance and decided to allow a sum of 3,000 livres for the maintenance of the public school of the hospital, and that of six masters for the parishes of the diocese, and on July 5, 1718, announced to Bégon that the funds for this purpose were to be taken from those originally allotted since 1670 for the encouragement of marriages.
In 1718 and 1719 François Charon was in Paris and he then preferred a request to the king to confirm by letters patent a normal school to be taught by a religious community to be settled at Rochelle to train up teachers for Canada. This community, not named, was undoubtedly the Sons of St. John Baptiste de la Salle, or the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Indeed the Abbé Guibert in his "Histoire de St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle" tells us that two days after certain brothers had been designated for this far off mission and their passage money paid, the permission was cancelled, one of the contributing causes being that it was learned from M. Charon, that de la Salle's brothers would be separated throughout the parishes, an idea militating directly against the spirit of community life. The normal school at Rochelle was not realized. In the autumn of 1719, while bringing over six teachers from France, on the Chameau, François Charon died on the vessel. His loss was a great blow to his institute. His name should be ever held in respect. Frère Turc was now nominated superior by Bishop de St. Vallier and the Sulpicians made it possible for schools to be opened in their parishes of Pointe aux Trembles, Boucherville, Longueuil, Batiscan and Three Rivers.
But although Vaudreuil, the governor, and Bégon, the intendant, may have, in 1718, looked propitiously on the needfulness of the scheme, it was left to de Ramezay to vilify the brothers. On October 4, 1721, the governor of Montreal wrote in exaggerated terms to the council of the marine department that the new teachers were mostly inefficient and incapable, neglectful of their duties to the children and to the eleven old men in the hospital, consuming the goods of the poor instead of being at work in the parishes as expected, that three of those brought by M. Charon had left the community and those remaining were as worthless. He concluded by asking that the money granted up to this time to the Frères Charon should be given to the nuns of the Hôtel Dieu. In spite of de Ramezay's protest the grant of 3,000 livres accorded since 1718, was ratified on March 22, 1722, viz., that 375 livres should be paid annually for the support of eight teachers, two in the hospital, six in the parishes. The instruction was free though voluntary contributions were allowable from the inhabitants to supplement the grant. In the spring of 1723 the home government, taking interest in the movement, gave a passage on the king's ship to twelve men for the service of the hospital and the schools. On their arrival they were distributed according to the orders of Brother Chretien Turc, now superior. In spite of this apparent progress, a rumour was prevalent in Canada that the Charon Frères were about to be suppressed by the court. This was due to the imprudence of Brother Chretien, who, having gone to France to renew the question of a normal school at La Rochelle, was accused of escaping [196] his financial embarrassments caused by the loan raised by him in the name of his community by fleeing from his creditors to the Spanish portion of the Isle of St. Domingo. The Charon Brothers began now to lose the confidence of the people, although they were sustained by the bishop and the continuance of the government grant. Even this was withdrawn in 1730 on the alleged grounds of inefficiency in carrying out the duties for which it was given. In 1737 a second futile attempt was made to induce the Brothers of the Christian Schools to come to Canada. Indeed, Brothers Denis and Pacificus came to Montreal to survey the situation. At last, on October 19, 1745, the two remaining brothers of the moribund institute asked to be relieved of the direction of the hospital. This was acceded to in 1747. The last superior, Michel André, died in June and on August 27th following, by a regulation of the bishop, the governor and the intendant, the charge of the hospital was transferred to Madame d'Youville, who became the foundress of the Grey Nuns, who still continue the work to this day. The people received the change as inevitable. The Charon Frères had outlived their usefulness. François Charon deserves well of Montreal. He initiated a system admirably progressive for the time. Had his followers been as self-sacrificing and as competent as their founder, the noble work he planned would not have fallen on evil days. None the less, their work does not meet from some modern French historians the just appreciation it undoubtedly received from competent authors in its early flourishing days.