SUPPLEMENTAL ANNALS AND SIDELIGHTS OF SOCIAL LIFE

UNDER CONFEDERATION

1867-1914

CONFEDERATION—IMPRESSIONS OF—FUNERAL OF D’ARCY M’GEE—PRINCE ARTHUR OF CONNAUGHT—THE SECOND FENIAN RAID—THE “SILVER” NUISANCE—ORGANIZATION OF CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD—RUN ON A SAVINGS BANK—FUNERAL OF SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER—NEW BALLOT ACT—THE “BAD TIMES”—THE NATIONAL POLICY—THE ICE RAILWAY—THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD CONTRACT—THE FORMATION OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA—OTHER CONGRESSES—THE FIRST WINTER CARNIVAL—FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF ST. JEAN BAPTISTE ASSOCIATION—THE GREAT ALLEGORICAL PROCESSION AND CAVALCADE—THE MONUMENT NATIONAL—THE RIEL REBELLION—SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC AND RIOTS—THE FLOODS OF 1886—THE FIRST REVETMENT WALL—THE JESUITS ESTATES BILL AND THE EQUAL RIGHTS PARTY—LA GRIPPE—THE COMTE DE PARIS—ELECTRICAL CONVENTION—HISTORIC TABLETS PLACED—THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF VILLE MARIE—THE BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING BURNT—THE CITY RAILWAY ELECTRIFIED—HOME RULE FOR IRELAND—VILLA MARIA BURNT—THE “SANTA MARIA”—CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOURERS CONVENTION—THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY AS A PUBLIC MUSEUM—MAISONNEUVE MONUMENT—LAVAL UNIVERSITY—QUEEN VICTORIA’S DIAMOND JUBILEE—MONTREAL AND THE BOER WAR—THE VISIT OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CORNWALL—TURBINE STEAMERS—A JAPANESE LOAN COMPANY—FIRST AUTOMOBILE FATALITY—FIRES AT McGILL—ECLIPSE OF SUN—THE WINDSOR STATION ACCIDENT—THE “WITNESS” BUILDING BURNT—THE OPENING OF THE ROYAL EDWARD INSTITUTE—GREAT CIVIC REFORM—THE DEATH OF EDWARD VII—THE “HERALD” BUILDING BURNT—THE EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS—MONTREAL A WORLD CITY—THE DRY DOCK—THE “TITANIC DISASTER”—CHILD WELFARE EXHIBITION—MONTREAL AND THE WAR OF 1914.

The same foreword as that prefacing a preceding chapter is similarly applicable here. The curious reader is warned to pursue the history of the main movements indicated, in the second part of special history.

Confederation was received with mixed feelings. There were many of the parti national who thought that Confederation came too soon, that it had been hurried through without the people thoroughly being instructed in the details and without their being consulted, and that the French Canadians would be politically annihilated, a foreboding never realized. It was indeed the quietus to the parti national, who had opposed it in their newspaper, the Union Nationale, established in 1865 by Médéric Lanctot, which represented the views of the young blood opposed to Cartier, such as Messrs. Joseph Loranger, Doutre, Dorion, Judge Delorimier, Lanctot, Labelle, Laflamme and L.O. David, then a brilliant writer on its staff. But in 1867 on the advent of Confederation agitation ceased and the inevitable was accepted with growing satisfaction. The country, however, was at the time in a bad state, suffering from the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty in 1866.

The year 1868 marks an important event in the French Canadian life of the city, for it saw the Papal Zouaves leave Montreal on February 7th, to fight in Italy against Garibaldi who wished to curtail the temporal sovereignty of the papal throne. On February 15th the roof of St. Patrick’s Hall, the home of St. Patrick’s National Society, at the south end of Craig Street, fell in. In March the first 3-cent letter stamp was issued in Canada, and on April 1st the first postoffice savings banks were opened. This same month saw the assassination of D’Arcy McGee at Ottawa. His funeral took place in Montreal on April 13th and was a great public testimonial to his citizenship and to his devotion to his adopted country.

Eighteen hundred and sixty-nine is remembered as the year the present Governor General, H.R.H., the Duke of Connaught, then the young Prince Arthur, a bright, frolicsome, light-hearted boy, first came to the city, in August, to join his regiment, the First Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. Rosemount, at the head of Simpson Street, a house which was occupied by Sir John Rose, and afterwards owned by the Ogilvie family, was set aside for him, under the tutelage of Lord Elphinstone. His advent added to the military and social gaiety of the small city. Among the brilliant officers then in the city was Col. Garnett Wolseley, then known only as a gallant officer who had served in the Crimea, who had now gone on the Red River expedition to the Northwest to quiet the first Riel rebellion, which occurred about this time, and who lived, at this period, at 172 Havelock Terrace, Mountain Street, above the Canadian Pacific Railway bridge. Another was General Windham, who was buried in this city on February 12, 1870.

One of the acts of the young Prince was to open the Caledonia skating rink on December 15th. A photograph of this represents the Prince surrounded by such men as David Brown, A. McGibbon, F. Gardner, Colonel Lord Russell, Mr. Hugh Allan, Mr. Andrew Allan, Colonel Dyde, H. Hutchinson, the architect, and the Rev. Dr. Robert Campbell. During his stay the Prince also opened the Royal Arthur School on Workman Street, and conferred in the St. Patrick’s Hall the order of St. Michael and St. George on Mr. A.T. Galt,—a striking and unusual ceremony in those days.

The Sixth Art Exhibition was held in Montreal the next year on March 8th and Prince Arthur was present.