(4) That this Company injured the interests of others, viz: the Company of the Hundred Associates, the Jesuits, who had been given the charge of the Canadian missions, and finally the poor of France, for charity begins at home.
(5) That the Association of Montreal, not having any other foundation but that of Christian charity, it is bound to be a financial failure, and that the enterprise would fall through, owing to lack of enthusiasm and consequent shortage of funds.
(6) Finally, that the enterprise was ill considered, badly planned and rash; that South America would have been a better place for such a settlement; that Montreal was unfitted for French people to live in on account of the cruel cold and the excessive length of the winter; that they would be more exposed than ever to the butcheries of the Iroquois, who would infallibly cut them into pieces; that a work of such consequence could only be carried on by the King's government on account of the enormous expenses entailed, and it was folly for private persons to dare to tempt God openly.
The answer to these objections is continued in the 127 pages of quarto alluded to. We will leave them to the imagination. Without giving the reply we need only refer the reader to the year 1643 and the practical solution now going on at Montreal in the year of 1914. [54]
On the 2d of February, another scene in the romantic story of Montreal was enacted in Paris in the Church of Notre Dame. There at six o'clock in the morning Olier said mass at the altar of the Holy Virgin, surrounded by the members of the Association of Montreal, who now had reached as many as thirty-five. The lay members, many of distinguished rank, (for Jeanne Mance's letter on her departure to M. Dauversière had helped in this), communicated, while the priests celebrated at neighbouring altars in the vast cathedral.
They consecrated the Island of Montreal to the Holy Family and placed it particularly under the protection of Mary, whose name they gave to the city of "Ville Marie," and from that day the seal of the Associates bore the Virgin's statue with the legend "Notre Dame de Montréal." On this day the Associates gave a sum of 40,000 livres, to be devoted to defray the expenses of a new expedition.
THE HOLY FAMILY