I. THE LIBRARY MOVEMENT
In 1773 the Sulpicians of Montréal opened the Collège de St. Raphael to teach the youth of the city, and its curriculum made a feature of Belles Lettres. From those graduating from this school sprang the societies and the great library associated with the name of the Seminary of St. Sulpice. There had been small libraries here and there but this first great French library was formed in July, 1844, by the two congregations or sodalities of men and women attached to Notre Dame parish, offering their libraries, one of 600 and the other of 700 volumes, to form the nucleus of a larger library. This was supplemented by 800 books from the Séminaire St. Sulpice and some good books from other sources, making a total of 2,200. The new library was called “L’Oeuvre des bons livres de Ville-Marie” and was conducted along the same lines as, and affiliated with, the famous library at Bordeaux, France, which had been started about twenty years before. This library was formally opened in September, 1845, by M. Bourget, bishop of Montreal, when 200 more volumes were added. The books were first housed in a building on Place d’Armes belonging to the seminary, then afterwards in a building on St. Sulpice Street loaned by the Hôtel Dieu Nuns and thence, in 1860, it was moved to a house at 197 Notre Dame Street, the building being that of the Cabinet de Lecture paroissial, then completed and finally to its present home recently erected as the Bibliotheque St. Sulpice at 340 Denis Street.
Early after the housing of the Cabinet de Lecture in 1860 a lecture bureau was incorporated in connection with the library and under the direction of the superior of the seminary. This bureau published the principal papers in a monthly journal.
The first mention of an English library was in 1796 when the “Montreal Library” was incorporated as a joint stock association of 120 shares at $50 per share. The library had no permanent home until 1821 when the upper part of the old Wesleyan Chapel on St. Sulpice Street was taken, where for the next sixteen years it served the English speaking population. In 1837 new quarters were found in the Natural History Society, then on Little St. James Street. In 1844 the Montreal Library was purchased by the Mercantile Library Association which had been established three years earlier by a number of merchants, the number of books of the amalgamated library at this date being about 4,000. For many years the Mercantile Association, at its headquarters at the corner of Bonaventure and St. Joseph streets, was the meeting place of the élite of the city. With new associations and clubs coming into existence the popularity of the Mercantile waned until the library was handed over to the Fraser Institute, incorporated in 1870 by the Hon. J.J.C. Abbott, F.W. Torrance, T. Workman, A. Molson and P. Redpath, which is the only public library, besides the small Civic Library, in Montreal, with its valuable Gagnon collection of Canadiana. Both libraries are very popular and considering their limitations are doing useful work. In addition might be mentioned the other valuable libraries frequented by scholars and students, such as the Redpath Library, built and given by Mr. Peter Redpath in 1893 to McGill University, the library belonging to Laval University, the Ecole Normale, the Bibliotheque St. Sulpice, under the auspices of the Sulpicians, and the semi-public collections attached to the many churches, colleges, schools and institutions, literary and social, scattered throughout the city and suburban municipalities such as the model one at Westmount.
There are some public libraries in the adjoining municipalities, that at Westmount being a model one.
Thus Montreal is not so badly off in regard to the number of its books, even in comparison to its large population. But what is certainly wanted in some centralizing system by which they can be utilized through the cataloguing, interchange and circulation of the volumes. The city council is contemplating building a large central building to house many of the smaller libraries, which will again popularize the reading of good literature by the masses, which for some time has fallen into disuse. But the first step to be taken should be the harmonizing, if possible, of the existing library systems in the city through an intellectual central library organization bureau being formed. Such is more immediately needed then a central library building to house books.
The early history of the Fraser Library is one of litigation. Mr. Hugh Fraser, an unmarried man, but with several brothers and sisters, about six months before his death, in 1870, conceived the idea of an institute in the interests of literature, science and art,—“of a free public library, museum and gallery to be open to all honest and respectable persons whomsoever, of every rank in life without distinction and without fee or reward of any kind.”
His will, dated April 23, 1870, after making bequests to the amount of $20,000 to his relatives and settling an annuity of £5,000 on a brother for the life of himself and his wife, bequeathed the bulk of his property to establish in Montreal the “Fraser Institute.” He named as his trustees the Hon. J.J.C. Abbott and Judge Torrance and authorized these to procure an act of incorporation to carry out his ideas. On May 15, 1870, he died. The executors immediately took possession of the estate and commenced the administration.
But on June 15th the heirs commenced an action to set aside the bequest as contrary to the laws of mortmain—which finally was carried to the privy council in England, who rendered their decision on the validity of the bequest on November 26, 1874. Arrangements were then made to carry out the intentions of the donor, but in 1875 an attempt was made by a bill in the Quebec Legislature to be allowed to bring the action up again, on the ground that the privy council had erred in the interpretation of the law. This failing, a second attempt was made on January 5, 1876, on the ground that the testator of the will was non compos mentis at the time of execution. This also failed. Until 1883 further litigations embarrassing to the governors were carried on, when at last they were able to take some steps.
Meanwhile, in 1882, the property lately used as the high school was offered for sale by the school commissioners. This was a desirable opportunity for establishing the Fraser Institute by way of a free library and the Hon. J.J.C. Abbott bought the property for $30,000. Arrangements for taking over and shelving two libraries of about 15,000 volumes, the Mercantile Library Association and the Institut Canadien, were made through Messrs. Frederick Mathews, Theodore Lyman and Joseph Doutre and there were added valuable engravings from France, the gift of Prince Jerome Bonaparte. It was hoped to include as part of the institute the museum of the Natural History Society. The Free Library, then a novelty in Canada, was opened to the public on October 5, 1885, when the Honorable Mr. Abbott, as trustee, explained the long delay, owing to the above mentioned litigations. Among the other speakers hailing the new movement were: the Honorable Mr. Justice Torrance, Mr. Thomas Workman, Sir William Dawson, Mr. Justice Jetté, Mr. Justice Mathieu, Mr. Hugh McLennan, Mr. Justice Mackay, Principal McVicar, Reverend Mr. Larose, a former director of the Institut Canadien, Professor Coussirat, Mr. Henry Lyman and Lieutenant-Colonel Lyman, as a member of the Mercantile Library. The mayor, M. Henri Beaugrand, himself a littérateur, fitly declared the library open to the public.