“‘The Municipal Banditti meet in their den at the City Hall at 8 o’clock this evening.’
“We were more deliberate in those days than at the present. We were deliberate in all things. We did not hurry away the snow as we do now. We thought it cheaper to let the sun do that. Now in this advanced age we think nothing of spending $10,000 to beat the sun by twenty-four hours; but speed is everything today. At the time of speaking our whole revenue was not one-fourth of the interest on our debt today.
“I have enumerated the personnel to show the speed of time, for at the present time not one of those mentioned, except myself, remain. They have all passed to the ‘majority.’
“Prominently among the aldermen of that period were Ferdinand David, and William Rodden; the former as chairman of the roads committee, may be regarded as having been the father of our expropriation system, and the latter, as chairman of finance, was regarded as the father of our 7 per cent consolidation. Were both these men alive today they would be appalled at the outcome of their pet schemes. In those days we spoke with bated breath of $100,000, now we play with the millions as a very little thing. Then our 6 per cent securities sold at a heavy discount, since then our 3 per cent securities have sold over par.
“An orator about this time, haranguing the taxpayers from the steps of the Nelson Monument, assured them that if they should elect him as their representative, he would reduce their taxes 150 per cent. Poor fellow, he meant well, but he was allowed to sink, with his invaluable arithmetical genius, into oblivion, while the other one, who was able to rouse another mob, occupies a seat on the king’s bench. This shows that it is better to break people’s windows than to abolish their taxes and give them a 50 per cent bonus beside. O, tempora, O, mores.”
This year (1865) Sir John Michel was sworn in as administrator of the governor general, then absent in England. As he took up his residence in the city and during his administration the executive council met here twice in each month, this event may be chronicled in the series of social events.
The peaceful progress of the inhabitants was again thrown into confusion and the military spirit reincarnated when news came the latter part of this year, 1865, that the threatened invasion of Canada by the Irish Fenian Brotherhood, led by “General” O’Neil, were at last becoming actual. They made use of the ill-feeling aroused between the United States and Britain by an element discontented through hard times, to strike a long premeditated blow. The first Fenian invasion eventually came to nothing at all of importance, but it was a great scare. Montreal was on the qui vive for a while, fearing the invasion, for the supineness of the American Government in allowing the invasion to be planned and provided for by filibusters, gave an unpleasant impression, suggesting that there might, possibly, be serious consequence if a strong front were not presented to the audacious attempt. The feeling, too, at the time, was not too friendly to Canada, which, with Great Britain, was supposed to sympathize with the South during the Civil War.
On Monday, March 13, 1866, a company of the Prince of Wales regiment and a battery of artillery were reviewed at 5 P.M. and by 9 P.M. were sent to the threatened frontier. A patriotic “relief” fund was started on March 26th. On June 2d, on account of news arriving on June 1st, the Fenians being already at Fort Erie, a further detachment of four more companies were sent to the west, viz., Nos. 3 and 8 batteries of the Brigade of the Montreal Garrison Artillery, under Captains Brown and Hobbes; a company of Prince of Wales Rifles, under Captain Bond; Victoria Rifles, under Captain Bacon; Royal Light Infantry, under Capt. K. Campbell; and the Chasseurs Canadiens, under Captain Labelle, who all left by special train for Point St. Charles for St. Johns and Isle aux Noix. The same evening a strong reinforcement of regulars left for the same stations, and on the 4th, several additional companies of volunteers were dispatched to Hemingford and other places along the frontier. Among those going to the front were the famous “Barney” Devlin, the great criminal lawyer and the political opponent of D’Arcy McGee, and the Rev. Father James Hogan of St. Patrick’s, who acted as chaplain.
The chief fight in Lower Canada was at Pigeon Hill, in the Township of St. Armand, adjoining the State of Vermont, which was attacked by the Fenians on June 17th, but from which, after a brief skirmish, they retired, not without several of their party being secured as prisoners by the “Montreal Guides,” and being brought, a sorry and ragged crowd, to the city gaol.