An extract from “A genuine letter written the 20th of May

from the city two days after the fire” is quoted: “The fire

began in the garret of Mr. Levington (a person of reputation)

occasioned by hot ashes carried thither to make soap. It broke

out at the roof and in an instant the whole was in a flame which

communicated to the neighboring houses on both sides of St.

Francis Street. The confusion and distress of the inhabitants

is not to be exprest. Many of them were in the country and

those who were present had not any time to save any part of

their merchandize or household goods. Others lost all, even to

their books, papers, plate, money. This misfortune has fallen

on the richest and most trading part of the city, where the

buildings were the best and most filled with merchandize. But

the far greater part of the sufferers have now only the cloths

on their backs. Many who had the fortune to save the few goods

out of their houses and lay them on rafts or by the riverside

lost them again, either by the flames or theft. The fire was

stopt by uncovering Mons. Landrieve’s house, one end of the

hospital and two small houses between Mons. St. Germain’s and

the corner opposite Mons. Reaume’s. The wind, which, when the

fire began, was at N.N.W., turned suddenly to N.E. which, with

these precautions and the united efforts of the soldiers and the

inhabitants, saved the rest of the town. For, had it gone up that

street which leads to the parish church or fired the hospital

_des Soeurs_ it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to

have saved any part of the town. There are 110 principal houses

burnt.”

From footnotes we learn that though the houses destroyed were

made of limestone they were either covered with shingles

made of white cedar in the manner of tyle or with boards;

and they had not at this time any fire engines. Last summer

two of these useful machines were sent over to them. It must

also be considered that the houses were inclosed within the

fortifications and some so near that one of the city gates

was burnt as well as the General Hospital without the gates.

A postscript of 11th of February, 1766, adds: “It should be

observed that the rooms of their houses at Montreal are floored

with clay and stones laid on them in order to prevent fire;

but as the French in Europe are much behind us in the mechanic

arts which contribute to the safety and convenience of life

they are still more so in their colonies; to which cause we may

attribute these Canadians having been without fire engines on

this occasion. This misfortune will be remedied hereafter and it

may be hoped every other conveniency will be introduced among

them and especially the conveyance of water to reservoirs which

is much wanted there. This defect, indeed, is the more pardonable

when it is considered that in so vast and opulent a city as

London it is but the other day it was attended by very fatal

consequences.” “It is hoped,” concludes the postscript, “every

expedient that reason and experience can suggest will hereafter

be brought into use now that they have such able instructors as

ourselves.”

Then, various devices for roofing and covering the houses are

suggested. “Iron plate coverings are certainly the best as

practiced in Sweden and in Russia. Two layers of brown paper dipt

in hot tar placed over the wooden roof and under layers of iron

plates will probably answer better. Some of the persons now going

to Canada intend to try if slate will not stand the frost.”

The practical genius of the English was to be devoted to Montreal

and Canada. Thus during the early part of British rule, as

in that of the recent French régime, Montreal being built so

largely of wood, was in constant danger of fire. The English

governors early saw this and some of Gage’s earliest acts were

to fight this peril. Another fire in 1768 destroyed more than

a hundred houses. In 1777 an act was promulgated by Governor

Carleton providing for the appointment of an inspector to prevent

accidents by fire in each of the towns of Quebec, Montreal and

Three Rivers. The inspectors were to see that the chimneys were

swept once a month and each tenant was obliged to take certain

precautions against fire under penalty of a fine. Under the

French régime regulations were issued that buckets of water

should be kept in readiness and should be carried to the scene

of fire when the signal was given. The carpenters were to carry

their axes.

Early after the conquest “Fire Club No. 1” was formed by a body

of fifteen merchants apparently for mutual self protection. Fires

were still constant, some of them threatening the very existence

of the city.

On the 6th of June, 1803, a destructive fire took place in

Montreal. It broke out in the house of a man named Chevalier in

St. Lawrence Main Street on the northeast side towards the upper

end. As the wind was high and variable, the outhouses on both

sides of the street soon took fire. At a quarter to four the roof

of the jail was burning, soon followed by the English church on

the northeast and the Roman Catholic chapel on the southwest

side. These, to use the words of the reports by the magistrate

were “instantaneously consumed.” It was with difficulty the

courthouse was saved. Besides the jail and two church buildings

the old church of the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic College (St.

Raphael) and eleven houses were burnt in the lower part of the

town. About 10 o’clock at night the fire was under control at

the house adjoining that occupied by Mr. Justice Ogden. In the

suburbs, where it originated, the fire was extinguished by

sunset, after destroying thirteen houses besides outhouses,

stables, etc.

Other fires followed during the summer of so alarming a character

that it seemed evident they did not arise from accident, but from

design, and a reward of £500 was offered for the apprehension of

the offenders. With the exception of the first, which took place

in June, these fires broke out during the first week in August

and the magistrates offered a reward of £250, making with that

offered by the governor £750 for the detection of the criminal.

The succession of fires is thus reported. On Monday, August 1st,

a little after 1 o’clock in the morning, fire broke out and

consumed two houses; on Tuesday morning, at 6 o’clock, a stable

was discovered to be on fire but was pulled down and the fire

extinguished; on Wednesday several houses were burnt, one man

killed and a number more or less seriously wounded; on Friday

other fires broke out entirely destroying a number of houses, and

it was with difficulty the lower part of the town was saved from

a serious conflagration. Patrols were established and precautions

taken to guard against the repetition of the fires.[1]

In 1824 a volunteer fire association of 100 was formed under

M. Antoine Lepage, assisted by Doctor Berthelet, with its

station near Notre Dame Church. In 1825 the Property Protection

Fire Company was organized by Captain John Lukin. On the 7th

of September, 1825, a fire broke out in an outhouse belonging

to a cooper of the name of Dumaine, situated in the rear of a

house forming the corner of St. Mary and Campeau streets. Over

eighty dwellings and outhouses were consumed. Had it not been

that there was no wind during the time and that the services of

the Seventieth Regiment were at hand the fire might have been

extremely disastrous to the town.

The new municipal fathers took early steps by a regulation of the

3d of June, 1841, to create a fire department. It was to consist

of an inspector, superintendent, a chief engineer, a captain

and a lieutenant for each company of firemen. When the Oregon

boundary dispute with the slogan of its agitators “Fifty-four

forty or fight,” was creating anti-British feeling in 1846, the

Montreal fire brigade was formed into a battalion of militia

under the command of the mayor, the Honourable James Ferrier,

Mr. John Fletcher, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel Fletcher, being

appointed adjutant. The battalion drilled, but without arms, in

the market hall for several years, even after the excitement

of the Oregon incident had died away. On the breaking out of

the Crimean war, Captain Fletcher offered authoritatively the

services of 100 men of the Montreal fire brigade as volunteers

for the war and received the thanks of the secretary of war for

their patriotism.

The voluntary system of firemen continued to the 30th of April,

1863, when the last companies, then ten, received their last

payment. On the 1st of May, 1863, the system of the telegraph

alarm was introduced as well as No. 1 fire station at the corner

of Chenneville and Craig streets. The new firemen, to the number

of thirty, with salaries varying from the equivalent of two

hundred and forty dollars to three hundred and sixty-five dollars

a year, were supplemented by a certain number of volunteers with

an honorarium of about twenty dollars annually until 1867. Until

1868 the duties included the watering of the streets. Hand pumps

were then in vogue, the steam pump not being used until 1871.

In 1863, therefore, the fire department was more fully organized

and has developed to its present efficiency.

Under a by-law passed May 10, 1865, the fire department was

reorganized in two sections; the “City Fire Police,” consisting

of a chief engineer, an assistant engineer, a hosewasher and

cleaner, eight guardians, eight assistant guardians, and eight

drivers, with eight stations; and the “City Fire Company,”

composed of such members of the former fire department as chose

to offer their services, not to exceed thirty-six in number, with

the right to enroll eighteen supernumerary members to supply

the places of absentees. They were to be under the immediate

command of a captain and two lieutenants. The fire department

had to operate the fire engines, hose, hooks and ladders, axes,

etc., and the city fire company was for the purpose of operating

fire engines, working hose, placing ladders and any other duty

required of them in aid to the fire police. The members enjoyed

all the privileges and immunities of firemen; the thirty-six

men had salaries of $20.00 a year, subject to draw-back for

nonattendance and the Supernumerary members were entitled to pay

only when supplying the place of absentee members. The captain

was paid $50.00 a year and the lieutenants got $40.00 each. The

members of the city fire police got salaries ranging from $800.00

a year for the chief engineer, down to $240.00 a year for the

drivers.

The day’s work for the fire police was divided into four watches

of six hours each and it was provided that “when not on watch

or engaged in street-watering as is hereafter provided, the

guardians and drivers may be absent for meals, and if married,

for the purpose of attending to their families; but with the

exception of the first, leave of absence shall first be obtained.”

In 1910 the fire brigade consisted of 1 chief, 1 deputy chief,

6 district chiefs, 29 captains, 38 lieutenants, 19 engineers,

100 first class firemen at $800 a year, 103 second class firemen

at $725, 26 third class firemen at $675, and 100 fourth class

firemen at $625, and 27 other members with various duties.

The apparatus was composed of 90 pieces, including 29 hose

wagons, 2 Siamese wagons, 6 aerial ladder trucks, 16 hook and

ladder trucks, 3 salvage wagons, 2 water towers, 2 chemical

engines, 1 hose and chemical wagon, 6 coal wagons, 1 automobile

and 9 buggies for officers. The brigade was called out 2,143

times.

[Illustration: MONTREAL’S AUTOMOBILE FIRE-FIGHTING APPARATUS]

During the last two years automobiles for the various officers

have increased in number. In the summer of 1912 an automobile

fire hose apparatus was ordered for No. 20 station and two

automobile tractors, one for the aerial ladder truck and

the other for the 1200 steam fire engine. These proving

successful, on the recommendation of the fire chief the Board of

Commissioners ordered three more of the latter in December, 1913,

and a large order was placed for more at the beginning of 1914,

so that now twelve motor power apparatuses are employed with more

to follow. The day of the horse seems to be doomed for the city

fire stations as too slow.

The fire chiefs of Montreal since 1863 have been:

Alexander Bertram 1863-1873

William Patton 1873-1888

Zephyrin Benoit 1888-1908

J. Tremblay 1909-

FIGHTING DARKNESS

The lighting of Montreal dates from 1815. Up to this no public

provision had been made. Darkness is the friend of vice, and

burglaries were numerous. In November, 1815, through the

exertions of Mr. Samuel Dawson and others, that portion of

St. Paul Street west of the old market (now Place Royale) was

handsomely lighted by twenty-two oil lamps fixed at a distance

of fifty-four feet from each other, each costing when ready

for use $7.00 each. The east side of St. Paul Street raised a

subscription “not to be outshown by their neighbours!” Notre Dame

shortly followed the “bright example set.” This activity led on

the citizens to petition parliament to provide night watches and

street lamps for the town. In April, 1818, an act was passed

providing for this. The number of men appointed was twenty-four,

their duties being to attend to the trimming and lighting of the

lamps and to act as guardians of the city. They used to call out

the hours of the night, such as “Past 12 o’clock and a starlit

night” through the drowsy streets. Within the homes the humble

candle was still used and each household had its implements to

make these simple dips or rush lights. Afterwards ready-made

candles from England were sold. When candles were first

introduced they were thought miraculous, but there are still

some living in Montreal who remember how, in their youth, before

candles, grease or oil would be put in a spoon, and carried

through the house at night to light the way from room to room.

Lucifer matches of the modern type were a wonder. The flint was

used with tinders half a century ago.

The first gas works were built in 1836 at the Cross, then about

one mile from the city, and some shops were lighted on the 23d of

November, 1837. The proprietors were incorporated by an act of

the provincial legislature in April, 1836. Mr. Armstrong was the

proprietor and Mr. E.A. Furness was the principal stockholder and

manager. The city was dilatory in making use of their services.

The New City Gas Company was established in 1847. In 1848 it was

able to announce to its patrons that it had reduced the charge

per 1,000 cubic feet from 25 shillings to 12 shillings, 6 pence.

This is a far cry to the present rate. The New City Gas Company

changed its name in 1879 to the Montreal Gas Company which was

amalgamated in the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company in 1901.

The origin of the lighting of Montreal by electricity may be

briefly told. In 1878 Mr. J.I. Craig, of Montreal, returning from

the Paris exhibition, determined to work out some experiments

in electric lighting following on demonstrations seen in Paris.

Accordingly he built himself Gramme bipolars, four polar machines

and a Gramme alternation to supply current for Gablacoff candles.

In 1879 he was allowed to give a demonstration by fixing up

lamps on Bonaventure Street (now St. James), between Seigneurs

and Guy streets. Another exhibition was given facing the Champ

de Mars, having its generators in the building of the “Le Monde”

newspaper, and his lamps on that now occupied by the “Chambre

de Commerce” on St. Gabriel Street. At the midnight mass on

Christmas eve, 1879, at St. Joseph’s Church, Richmond Street, he

gave an illustration of its services in interior illumination.

In 1882 a company called the “Phoenix” was formed to promote the

commercial utility of Mr. Craig’s inventions, which consisted

of dynamos, arc lamps and storage batteries. In the same year

the harbour commissioners purchased a Brush generator with arc

lights and were thus the first to adopt the new light. In 1884

the firm of Thompson & Houston, which became the Royal Electric

Company, secured the contract to light some of the streets,

commencing with St. James. In 1885 the Phoenix Company going

into liquidation, the estate was purchased by Mr. J.I. Craig,

who put up several plants in the province of Quebec and between

1887 and 1890 secured the contracts for St. Henri, St. Cunégonde

and Coté St. Antoine. The first alternating current in the city

was installed in 1890 by the Royal Electric Company. In 1895

the Royal Electric was merged with the Montreal Gas Company

and the St. Lawrence Electric Company which was exploiting

a hydro-electric plant at Chambly. Later the Lachine Rapids

Hydraulic & Land Company, the Provincial Light, Heat & Power

Company, the Standard Light, Heat & Power Company, the Citizens

Light, Heat & Power Company and the Temple Electric Company were

also added. The whole combination is now known as the Montreal

Light, Heat & Power Company of today, which has its head offices

at the Power Building on Craig Street.

Another body entitled the “Montreal Public Service Company,”

a merger, which obtained its charter about 1912, controls the

Canadian Light, Heat & Power, the Montreal Electric, the Saraguay

and the Dominion Central Electric Company. The offices of this

second corporation are in the Eastern Townships Building. Between

these two companies Montreal is lighted in 1914.

We may add the following notes of the origin of our electric

fire alarm, telephone service and other electric developments in

Montreal:

The first telegraph wire connecting Quebec and Montreal was

installed in 1847. But the first wire strung in the Dominion was

put up in the same year by the Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara and St.

Catherine’s Telegraph Company. The Montreal Telegraph Company

was organized in 1846, and was incorporated by a special act

of the legislature of Canada in 1847, and first opened between

Quebec and Toronto. A message from Toronto to Montreal cost

3s. 9d., in Halifax currency, for ten words. The Montreal fire

alarm telegraph, with which is connected the police telegraph

and the telegraph in connection with the water department,

was built by Messrs. J.F. Kennard & Company, of Boston. The work

was commenced on the 2d of September and completed on the 26th

of December, 1862, at a cost of $20,000. This line went into

operation on the 19th of January, 1863, and “entered on its

duties by striking the hour of 12 noon,” as is announced in a

handbook issued in 1863 by the London & Liverpool Fire & Light

Insurance Company. Electricity was first used as a motive power

in Canada in 1883, when a short piece of track was laid on the

grounds of the Toronto Industrial Exhibition. The first practical

road was laid in 1884. In 1885 the track was lengthened and the

overhead wire and trolley arm used. The possibility of combating

the snow was demonstrated successfully in 1891 by the Ottawa

Electric Railway Company. Montreal followed in 1892, when the

city passenger rails were electrified. Quebec followed in 1897.

[Illustration: THE POWER HOUSE]

FIGHTING FLOODS

Floods in the early days of Maisonneuve had threatened the

old stockade fort and till modern days the lower part of the

city has constantly been inundated. On Thursday, the 14th of

January, 1848, the waters of the St. Lawrence rose for three

days and flooded, to a depth of from two to six feet, the

lower part of the city, Griffintown and the emigrant sheds at

Point St. Charles, where the sick from the fever were lying.

In February, 1857, Griffintown was the scene of another and

similar inundation. The lower part was like a series of canals

and communication between the houses was by small boats. More

important was the inundation of 1861 when the flood extended

over one-fourth of the city. Griffintown was again submerged.

The trains from the west and from Lachine were unable to enter

the city and passengers had to find their way to the city by

Sherbrooke Street. “The extent of the inundation,” says Sandham,

“may be conceived from the fact that the river rose about

twenty-four feet above its average level. The whole of St. Paul

Street and up McGill Street to St. Maurice Street, and from

thence to the limits of the city was entirely submerged and boats

ascended McGill Street as far as St. Paul Street. To add to

the suffering of the people the thermometer sank rapidly and a

violent and bitter snowstorm set in on Tuesday, April 15th, and

continued to rage with great fury all night.” Another flood in

the lower town, second only to that of 1861, occurred in April,

1865. The damage done was not so great owing to the gradual rise

of the waters, the inhabitants being able to remove their effects.

In the flood of April 17th, 18th and 19th, 1886, it inundated

nearly one-half of what then constituted Montreal. The “Witness”

of the above dates contained a long account of the flood.

According to this, the conditions became really serious on Sunday

morning, April 18, while the people were at church. A big ice

shove occurred in the river, and ice was soon piled up twenty or

thirty feet high on St. Helen’s Island. * * * But there was yet

no break in the Longueuil and Hochelaga ice, and the crushing,

grumbling ice in the channel commenced to pack more thickly and

to rear pyramids more profusely than before. At the last the mass

stopped moving altogether.

When the water rushed backward, finding no sufficient outlet in

the channel, Chaboillez Square, St. James Street West, Craig

Street to Chenneville Street, and then to Cote Street, all were

soon covered, and those who had gone from the lower levels to

uptown churches, or who had come down to churches on St. James

Street, and elsewhere, found that they had to make a detour as

far east as St. Urbain and St. Charles Borromee streets, in order

to get past the flood. Higher it slowly came up, and was into

St. Urbain Street. It was also a few inches deep in St. Germain

Street. And the cellars were full almost from one end to the

other of Craig Street.

At Victoria Square, several teamsters with express wagons

commenced a ferry service which was of great value to themselves

and the public, for they charged 5, and in some cases 10 cents,

to carry one across “the raging Victoria Canal.”

The eastern limit of the flood was just beyond Bonsecours Market,

and Vitre Street was the farthest north. At Bonsecours Market the

dealers could not get into their cellars at all.

At Jacques Cartier Square, the water was nearly to the corner

of St. Paul Street, and the lamp posts at the corner of

Jacques Cartier Square stood about half out of the water. The

water washed through the pillar letter box at the corner of

Commissioners Street. St. Paul Street west from Custom House

Square was flooded. It was partly up St. Nicholas and St.

François Xavier, but had not reached St. Sacrament.

Turning down St. Peter, pedestrians were brought to a sudden halt

just north of Lemoine Street. The wrecking in the warehouses

along Lemoine Street was described as “disheartening and the

destruction appalling.”

On McGill Street, the wide space permitted any amount of boating,

and skiffs and rafts were plying in all directions. McGill, above

Lemoine, was entirely under water.

“A walk to Victoria Square opened the vista of St. James Street

West, which street, from St. Michael Lane West, was a sheet of

water as far as the eye could reach, the cars on the sidings at

the Bonaventure station standing in the flood.”

The City Passenger Railway had ceased to be able to get through

to St. Alexander Street, and were almost cut off from proceeding

up Bleury. Later on the Bleury Street route was also impassable,

the water flowing up Craig to the foot of Place d’Armes Hill.

The fires of the Montreal Gas Company’s works on Ottawa Street

were extinguished by water, and consequently the supply was cut

off from the whole of the lower portion of the city. Fortunately

the company had another plant at Hochelaga which was not flooded.

On the south shore fields of ice swept over the country, knocking

down fences, barns, and portions of dwelling houses. Some of the

inhabitants who had spent fifty or sixty years in St. Lambert

said they had never seen the water reach the height it did this

time. At Longueuil the fine old Catholic church had four feet of

water in it and nearly the whole village was more or less under

water.

The following is a record made at the time by the city surveyor

of the highest level reached by the water at the lowest points on

various streets.

Feet. Inches.

Mill Street 10 --

Common Street 2 6

Commissioners Street 6 --

Youville Street 5 --

St. Paul Street 2 --

St. Francois Xavier 3 6

McGill Street 4 6

Wellington Street 5 7

Ottawa Street 6 --

Inspector Street 6 --

Chaboillez Square 5 --

Grand Trunk depot on Albert Street 6 9

St. James Street 6 8

Little St. Antoine 4 --

Wellington Bridge 10 --

Conde 7 --

Manufacturers 4 --

Centre 8 --

St. Patrick 7 --

In 1887, on April 2, the water rose 4 feet 7 inches above the

revetment wall. In 1888 an embankment was made to prevent floods,

since when there has not been much trouble.

[Illustration: THE FLOOD OF 1886]

[Illustration: ICE SHOVES]

[Illustration: THE WATER FAMINE]

FIGHTING DROUGHT

Floods are bad but droughts are an evil, also, which a city has

to forestall. How this has been done may be exemplified by the

story of the city’s waterworks. As this has been recently told

again by Mr. F. Clifford Smith, we shall largely follow his

excellent resumé prepared for the City Council last year.

At the beginning of the present century, when Montreal was a

town of about nine thousand inhabitants, who lived mainly within

the old fortifications, or, in other words, within the area

bounded by the sites of McGill Street, Fortification Lane, Berri

Street and the St. Lawrence, the only means provided by the

municipality for the supply of water consisted of public pumps

at Place d’Armes, the Market Place (now Place Royale), Notre

Dame Street near the Courthouse, St. Jean Baptiste near St. Paul

Street, and a couple of other points. For the rest the citizens

supplied themselves with water from private wells and cisterns,

and by watering carts from the St. Lawrence, and the creeks, the

principal of which was the Petite Rivière which ran where Craig

Street now is. The pedding of water in big puncheons was a common

and quaint custom of these early days. The water cart would be

driven into the river and filled. The poor women washed their

linen on the banks.

In 1800, after considerable talk about forming a waterworks,

an act was passed incorporating Joseph Frobisher (one of the

founders of the Northwest Trading Company and builder of Beaver

Hall) and his associates[2] under the title of the Company of

Proprietors of the Montreal Waterworks. The capital invested was

£6,000 with power to increase to £48,000. An exclusive franchise

was given for fifty years. The system decided upon was that

of gravitation. Water was obtained from a pond in the rear of

the present Cote des Neiges village, and was brought to the

city through wooden pipes laid around the southern slope of the

mountain, via Monklands and Cote St. Antoine Road, to cisterns

which were placed one on the corner of Guy and Dorchester

streets, and the other on Notre Dame Street, just west of

Dalhousie Square.

The company’s trouble soon began. The supply, which was from

a well, was most precarious, while the frequent bursting of

the wooden pipes finally resulted in the enterprise becoming a

failure.

In 1816, the waterworks, and unexpired franchise of thirty-five

years, were offered for sale; and in the year 1819 they were

purchased by a new company under the management of Mr. Thomas

Porteous for £5,000. This company abandoned the gravitation

supply from the spring and instituted a steam pumping plant,

the engines, of course, being very primitive. The supply was

got from the St. Lawrence in the near vicinity of the city.

Instead of wooden pipes, four-inch iron pipes were substituted,

and wooden cisterns were then erected on Notre Dame Street east

of Bonsecours Street. The cisterns were found to be very weak

and were finally replaced with other wooden cisterns, but they

were lined with lead. The capacity of the cisterns was 240,000

gallons. The pumping engine was placed on the west corner of

Water and Friponne streets. The amount expended by Mr. Porteous

was about forty thousand[3] pounds. The four-inch pipes put down

soon proved insufficient; other troubles ensuing, this company

also sold out. The plant was advertised for sale and was bought

in by Mr. J. Haynes for $60,000. Mr. Haynes quickly floated a new

company which replaced the small pipes in the streets by pipes

of ten inches diameter and installed a more powerful engine. In

1843 two engines were at work with a pumping capacity of 93,000

gallons. By this time there were laid in the streets fourteen

miles of pipes.

In 1843 also the first agitation was started for the city to own

the waterworks. It was kept up till 1845, when the municipality

made an offer of £50,000 for the plant, which was accepted.

HISTORY UNDER CIVIC CONTROL

In 1847, two years after the civic authorities of Montreal had

taken over the primitive plant, the water committee made a report

to the city council suggesting that a premium be offered for the

best plan to force water from the St. Lawrence into a reservoir

on the mountain. The idea was to get water power from the Lachine

Canal. The suggestion was deemed impracticable and not acted upon.

In the year 1849 the city constructed a reservoir on what now is

St. Louis Square. Its height was 130 feet above the St. Lawrence

and its cost was £3,000. By the year 1850 the corporation had

laid nineteen miles of iron pipe and six miles of lead pipes. The

reservoir had a capacity of 3,000,000 gallons.

In the year 1852, the year of the great fire when much of the

waterworks system had been destroyed, the services of Mr. Thomas

C. Keefer were procured by the city to draft a plan whereby

the city could get an entirely new water supply. The plan he

proposed was adopted and has practically been in operation up to

the present, when it is being drastically changed. The system

consisted in an open canal having the entrance about a mile and

a half above the Lachine Rapids. The canal, or aqueduct, which

was four and three-quarters miles long, ended at a building

called the Wheel House. This building contained two vertical

hydraulic wheels operating a set of six pumps having a capacity

of 4,000,000 gallons a day. The water was raised through a main

of twenty-four-inch diameter, and ended at a reservoir where the

present McTavish reservoir stands. The construction of these

works lasted until 1856 and cost $280,236.53. The elevation

of the aqueduct was thirty-seven feet above the level of the

harbour. The dimensions of the aqueduct were forty feet wide at

the water surface and eight feet deep. The canal furnished more

than sufficient power to develop 300 horsepower, and to raise

200 feet above the level of the water, in the harbor, 5,000,000

imperial gallons of water, being at the rate of forty imperial

gallons per capita. The hydraulic motive power was utilized by

two breast wheels working six pumps. The old works were, of

course, abandoned, and the pumping engines and reservoir on Notre

Dame Street, with their sites, were sold for the very modest sum

of $23,320. The whole new system had been well devised and the

supply of water, indeed, was sufficient for a population twice as

large as it was then; but troubles soon cropped up. Owing to the

blocking up of the ice in the aqueduct, the formation of frasil

and the annoyance caused by the backing up of water in the Little

St. Pierre River, the supply in winter frequently only averaged

three million gallons. The channel of the Little River St. Pierre

was deepened in 1857 and 1858, but not sufficiently to get rid

of the back water in question. In the winter of 1863 a tailrace

was cut to the river which greatly ameliorated conditions. In

1862 and 1863, owing to increased population and ice blocks at

the entrance of the intake, again the supply of water became

so uncertain that the ancient custom of supplying water in

puncheons had to be resorted to. This state of things naturally

caused a great deal of trouble and annoyance, to say nothing

of the additional expense to the city. In 1866 the consumption

had actually reached 5,000,000 gallons a day, with the result

that the supply was once more quite inadequate. In this year the

superintendent of the water department made a strong plea for

the purchase of steam engines; he held it was the only way that

the water famines, through which the city was passing, could

be prevented. Had there been a sufficient head of water in the

aqueduct to get enough power, the plea for steam would not have

been made, owing to its very heavy cost.

It was in 1868 that the first steam engine was installed, and

some relief was experienced.

Little by little other steam pumps were added, but so steady was

the growth of population that there were constant fears of a

shortage of water.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE RESERVOIRS

The pressure on the pipes having been constantly unsatisfactory,

and owing to the city expanding towards the higher levels, the

construction of the present reservoirs had been decided upon.

The reservoir, called the McTavish reservoir, is of oblong shape

with semi-circular ends, and so placed in the mountain slope that

the surface of the rock is about level with the water surface on

one side, and with its bottom on the other. The natural rock

was used as a wall on the upper side, but on the lower side the

water is maintained by a masonry wall which is solidly banked.

The reservoir was divided transversely into two equal parts by a

masonry wall, and when first completed contained thirteen and a

half million gallons. Later on extensive enlargements were made,

until today its capacity is 37,000,000 gallons. Its elevation

when full is 204 feet above the harbour. The entire cost of the

reservoir is about one million dollars. Under the gatehouse,

which stands on the reservoir wall, is a well or distributing

chamber. Into the bottom of this well the main pipes from the

pumps are led, and opposite to them is a separate passage to

each division of the reservoir. The pipes and passages are all

controlled by gates, and by their means the water is turned

off and on each division or main pipe, as may be desired. The

water from the pumps at the Wheel House does not go first to the

reservoir and thence to the city; the reservoir merely takes the

overflow water from the pumps at the Wheel House and stores it

for further use. In other words, it is a safety supply which the

city can depend upon in the event of sudden breakdown of pumps.

But the big reservoir, even when full, could not supply the city

now for two days.

What is termed the High Level reservoir is considerably farther

up the mountain than the McTavish reservoir. It was found

necessary to construct this in order to supply the district

above Sherbrooke Street; as the McTavish reservoir was at such

an altitude that it could not give the required pressure for the

more elevated districts of the city. The High Level reservoir

draws its supply from the McTavish reservoir. Its pumping station

is at the McTavish, and it is equipped with one 5,000,000 and

one 2,000,000 gallon pump. At the pumping station at the Wheel

House there are six steam pumps. The High Level reservoir is 212

feet higher than the McTavish, or 413 feet above the harbour. Its

capacity is one and three-quarter million of gallons. Like the

McTavish it is built in the solid rock and is a most substantial

structure.

PUMPING PLANT IN 1912

As it is now the city’s intent to do all of the pumping by

hydro-electric power, it will be of interest to note, especially

for the future, what is the steam pumping plant of today.

The plant situated at the low level pumping station, Point St.

Charles, is here seen:

Engine No. 1, erected in 1886, ten million gallons, high duty,

Worthington.

Engine No. 2, erected in 1894, ten million gallons, high duty,

Worthington.

Engine No. 3, erected in 1895, eight million gallons, low duty,

Worthington.

Engine No. 4, erected in 1905, twelve million gallons, high duty,

Worthington.

Engine No. 5, erected in 1909, twelve million gallons, turbine

with Bellis-Marcum engine.

Engine No. 6, erected in 1912, twelve million gallons, turbine

with Bellis-Marcum engine.

The plant at the High Level reservoir is as follows:

McTavish St. engine No. 1, erected in 1889, three million

gallons, Gilbert steam pump.

McTavish St. engine No. 2, erected in 1906, five million gallons,

Electric turbine.

Papineau St. engine No. 1, erected in 1911, six million gallons,

Electric turbine.

[Illustration: ANCIENT AQUEDUCT]

[Illustration: SHOPS OF ANCIENT AQUEDUCT]

The story of the water supply would be inadequate without an

account of the great drought that fell upon the city in the last

weeks of 1913, caused by a break in the concrete conduit which

occurred after dark on Christmas night. For 193 hours the city

was without an adequate water supply. It was in great alarm lest

a typhoid epidemic or fires should start. Luckily fires were

few, but one on St. Louis Square occurred when the want of water

caused a whole block to be burned down. The city authorities had

water carried round in the water carts and distributed to the

people, who besides this scanty service had to melt the snow,

then abundant, for culinary purposes. The danger of typhoid was

averted by careful attention of the people to the directions of

the city health officers and other physicians. The event caused

great excitement and much criticism. As a warning note of the

dangers that may befall a modern city, the following adapted

account, published at the time, is chronicled here.[4]

Montreal’s 193-hour water famine, it is hoped, has passed and

gone, but that a city of its size should be so absolutely thrown

out of gear by the bursting of a single water conduit was such a

shock to the citizens, that they will want the facts of the case

to go down to posterity engraved in tables of stone--or concrete.

Shortly after dark on the evening of December 25th, a break

nearly sixty feet long appeared in the water supply conduit at

a point directly behind the Protestant Hospital for the Insane,

on La Salle road. It was claimed the cause of the breakage was

the digging away of the earth surrounding the conduit on the

one side, adjacent to the old aqueduct, and the piling of it up

on the other side, in connection with the widening of the old

channel.

It is stated that the pipe was thus caused to sag, crack and

eventually under the water pressure to break.

The rush of water carried away most of the earth left between

the conduit and the aqueduct, and it was into the latter,

fortunately, that the water flowed. If there can be a fortunate

side to the accident, it is that it occurred where it did, within

a couple of rods of the shack used by the construction company,

whose men were at work on the aqueduct, and where there was a

telephone, which greatly facilitated the ordering of supplies and

men.

By early morning on the 26th, a steel pipe, of six sections, and

slightly smaller in diameter than the conduit, had been ordered,

and Controller Godfrey had appeared on the scene, from which he

was thereafter never absent for more than a few hours.

But before the pipe could be placed, all the earth on the top of,

and to the north of the pipe had to be removed, and the remaining

and unbroken sides of the conduit demolished. While this work was

in progress, sections of the steel tube began to arrive and were

bolted together, so as to be ready to be swung into position as

soon as the place was cleared.

In the clearing operations, the engineers were also lucky, owing

to the close proximity of one of the Cooke Company’s derrick

steam shovels, which not only did the hard work of clearing the

ground expeditiously, but later supplied hot water for mixing the

cement, and steam to keep it warm while drying.

With Controller Godfrey either at work or bustling up the makers

of the steel tube, and City Engineer George Janin, and Waterworks

Engineer Lesage, continually at the scene of operations, by

Monday, December 29th, the background was cleared and the steel

pipe nearly completed.

By Tuesday, the latter had been swung into place, concrete had

been run in to fill the joints and workmen had been lowered into

the conduit, with buckets of blazing tar, to seal them inside.

On Wednesday, the 31st, at 4.45 A.M., the water was let into the

conduit and the pumps were started. They ran a few minutes when

the engineers were compelled to close them down because there

was not a sufficient depth of water in the conduit for them to

operate successfully. It was then found that the water had blown

out some of the filling of concrete, wood and tar, near the top

of the steel tube, and that a large leak had been formed which

would keep the city waterless over New Year’s Day.

Meanwhile various serious fires had occurred in the city, in

spite of the extra precautions taken by the fire commissioners

and the police, and Chief Tremblay of the fire department is

reported to have demanded at the City Hall that he be given

water, and to have stated that there was but enough water

remaining in the reservoirs for one big fire.

At the same time a number of foolish rumours gained credence,

such as that should the water not be forthcoming from the conduit

at once, the dam which holds the River St. Lawrence out from the

old aqueduct would be dynamited, and an even more destructive

rumor that the said dam was about to burst at any minute. Had

either of these eventualities occurred, as various engineers

pointed out, the whole of Point St. Charles would have been

flooded.

On Wednesday afternoon, about 4 o’clock, hot concrete was run

into the joints at both ends of the steel tube, and it was

announced that after allowing four hours for pouring and fifteen

hours for drying, the water would be let into the conduit and all

would be well.

Thursday, however, still saw the engineers waiting all day for

the concrete to set, while a pipe from the derrick up on the

embankment above discharged steam into a canvas outer covering to

the joint, and through a man-hole in the tube into the interior

of the conduit.

On Friday morning, the eighth day from the break, Controller

Godfrey, City Engineers Janin and Lesage, Engineer Herlihy, of

the Cooke Construction Company, and J.E. Jamieson, of grain

elevator fame, who had also been called in by the city for

consultation, made an inspection of the repairs, and were at

first inclined to the belief that all was well, and, in fact,

issued a statement that water should be in the city by noon or 1

o’clock.

But a close internal examination revealed the fact that the

concrete was yet not dry, so in order to prevent the waste of

more time waiting for it, it was decided to cover it with oakum

and pitch, and then to erect a wooden bulkhead or flange around

the end of the steel tube inside the conduit to prevent the water

from getting at the concrete with any force. It was here that the

advantage of the telephone so near the work was evidenced, for a

very short time only elapsed between the ordering of the oakum

and its delivery.

The process of covering the soft concrete with its protection and

erecting the bulkhead occupied most of Friday, and it was with

some degree of fear and trembling that the engineers in charge

ordered the water turned on at the intake at 6.45 P.M. This was

done very, very gently, and so prepared were those responsible

for another breakdown that it was definitely stated that should

it occur, the pipe would be opened and the water allowed to flow

into the old aqueduct.

However, all went well, and the first water reached the pumping

station at Point St. Charles at a few minutes past 8 P.M. Within

half an hour the first pump was started up, and at 9.50 the

pressure was reported to be seventy pounds. By 11 o’clock the

water was up to the Milton Street level, and three-quarters of an

hour after 6, seven of the pumps were hard at work, and pumping

at the rate of 56,000,000 gallons a day. Before breakfast on

Saturday morning the McTavish reservoir was full, and every house

had its full complement of water.

During the period of stress, there is not a doubt everyone

connected with the repair work, and, for that matter, all those

engaged in supplying the water to householders from sleighs,

worked to their utmost capacity, in spite of considerable

external difficulties.

At present Montreal’s city waterworks are supplied by a

very-much-criticised concrete conduit, with a 60-foot length of

steel tube of a considerably smaller diameter let into it where

the break occurred. But at the time of writing, at least, the

city has got water.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Précis in Doctor Brymner’s Archivist’s report for 1892

has been used above.

[2] These were John Gray, Daniel Sutherland, Thomas Schieffelin

and Stephen Sewell.

[3] Writing in 1839, the author of “Hochelaga Depicta” says,

“Montreal is better supplied with water than any other city on

this continent with the exception of Philadelphia.”

[4] Montreal Daily Star, January 5, 1914.

CHAPTER XXXII

LAW AND ORDER

JAILS--POLICE SERVICES--COURTHOUSE--LAW OFFICERS

EARLY PUNISHMENTS--FIRST CASES OF THE MAGISTRATES--GEORGE THE

“NAGRE”--“EXECUTION FOR MURDER”--OTHER CRIMES PUNISHED BY

DEATH--SOLDIER DESERTIONS--A PUBLIC EXECUTION--THE JAILS--THE

JAIL TAX TROUBLES--OBNOXIOUS TOASTS--THE NEW JAIL OF 1836--ITS

POPULATIONS--THE NEW BORDEAUX PRISON--OTHER SUPPLEMENTARY

PRISONS--THE EARLY POLICING OF MONTREAL--THE LOCAL POLICE

FORCE OF 1815--THE POLICE FORCE AFTER THE REBELLION OF

1837-1838--POLICE CHIEFS--MODERN LAW COURTS AND JUDGES--THE

HISTORY OF THE BAR--THE BAR ASSOCIATIONS OF MONTREAL--THE

RECORDERS--THE ARCHIVES.

SUPPLEMENT--THE JUDGES OF THE HIGHER COURTS FROM 1764 TO

1914--THE SHERIFFS OF MONTREAL--THE PROTHONOTARIES--THE

COURTHOUSE SITES--THE BATONNIERS.

The early execution of the law in Montreal under British rule has

been indicated in the chapters on the military government which

lasted until 1764, when the magistrates or justices of the peace

ruled the city till nearly up to the Union. Their first case was

one of battery and assault.

At the May meeting of 1765 the first felony case was adjudicated.

A man and his wife and a negro had been stealing. The sentence

of “William and Elinor March and George, the Nagre” is thus

recorded: “They are to go back to the place of their confinement,

the said William to be stripped to the waist and Elinor March to

have her back only stripped, and the said George the Nagre and

each tyed to the carttail and beginning at the jail or prison

between the hours of 8 and 9 o’clock in the forenoon on Friday

next, are to proceed along around by the Intendant’s and then go

to Market Place and round by St. Francis Street and through the

Parade to place begun at, during which round they are to receive

twenty-five stripes each on the naked back, besides twenty-five

each on the naked back when at the market place.”

Next month “George, the Nagre,” was up again for stealing two

pieces of silk ribbon, the justices being John Dumas, Daniel

Robertson and Isaac Todd. He was sentenced again to be flogged

with a cat of nine tails on his march around at the carttail six

times with ten stripes each.

At the sitting of the court for August 2, 1765, a French woman

named Margaret Tourangeau was “Set for an hour in the stocks for

stealing a piece of camblet.”

“It is remarkable,” quotes Borthwick (History and Gazetteer,

page 17), “that in the records of courts of sessions for years

after the conquest of the country as natural there are very few

French names before the magistrates for those crimes for which

punishment by whipping, the stocks or the pillory or branding

on the hand was meted out. This shows how thoroughly they

obeyed their curés to respect the laws and be faithful to their

allegiance.”

In the Court of King’s Bench, September, 1781, is recorded the

first murderer to be hanged in the history of this Province since

the cession, William Blunt.

Being placed in the stocks with a paper label on the breast and

“burning in the hand” were common forms of punishment during this

period.

The latter punishment was thus inflicted: The prisoner was

brought from the gaol into the courtroom, and made firm by an

iron hand at the back of the dock, the palm part of his own hand

being opened tightly. The red hot iron, sometimes ending either

in a crown or some other device, was held ready by the common

hangman, and the punishment was inflicted in the center of the

palm. The instrument being ready, the prisoner is informed that

the moment it touches his flesh he can repeat as fast as he can

these words in French, “Vive le Roi” three times, and at the end

of the third repetition, the punishment would cease, or the words

“God Save the King” if he were an English prisoner.

Even in this short time the hot iron has hissed into the flesh,

and made such a mark that all the waters of the St. Lawrence

could not efface it. (Cf. Borthwick’s Gazetteer.)

The Montreal prisons of the past, especially before 1840, saw

many sad men who were condemned to death for crimes not so

punished today, as a glance at some of the principal events

recorded in the Court of King’s and Queen’s Bench from 1812 to

1838 will show.

Cases of executions for (1) stealing, larceny, shop lifting,

burglary, 20; (2) horsestealing, 10; (3) rape, 3; (4) highway

robbery, 1; (5) sacrilege, 1; (6) forgery, 1.

After 1821, although the records give the sentence of hanging for

the above crimes, we find that although it is often executed, yet

there is frequent mention of “pardoned by the king,” “respited,”

“transported (so many) years in prison,” “pillory,” and “lashes.”

One burglar sentenced to be hanged is respited and sent for

five years to Quebec! It is strange to find cases of murder and

manslaughter punished thus: “Murder, to be burned in the hand;”

“drowning a man, six months in jail and to be burned in the hand

in open court.” One of those executed in 1813 for stealing a cow

was B. Clement, a boy of thirteen and a half years of age.

In 1818, March term, L. Bourguignon, convicted of grand larceny

and condemned to be hanged, “prays for the benefit of the

clergy,” which being granted by the court, he is sentenced to

two-years’ House of Correction.

Desertion or attempt at desertion among the soldiers stationed

in the Montreal district was not uncommon in 1838, after the

first curl revolt of 1837. Transportation for a term of fourteen,

twenty-one years, or “for the period of his natural life” was the

sentence meted out to the “felon” who was marked with a D for

deserter. A few records of deserting will suffice:

Fifteenth of May, 1838: Fourteen soldiers, deserters, under

sentence of transportation, sent to Mr. Waud, Jailor, under

charge of officer of Thirty-fourth Regiment.

Eleventh July: Three soldiers sentenced to fourteen, twenty-one,

and twenty-one years’ transportation by G.A. Wetherall,

commanding officer of the Second Battalion, “The Royal.” Three

for a term of “natural life”--the Seventy-first Regiment.

Fifth of August: Five soldiers of the Seventy-first Regiment,

fourteen years.

Third of September: Two of the Fifteenth Regiment, fourteen and

seven years. Three of the Seventy-first Regiment, fourteen years

and all marked D.

In May, 1839, no less than twenty-four soldiers were committed

at one time for desertion, by order of the town major; five were

discharged, the remainder were transported. These belonged to the

Eighty-fifth and Thirty-second Regiments.

It is not our purpose to record the gruesome punishments further.

There are, however, living with us those who have heard from

their fathers the days in the ’20s when hangings were conducted

in public in the yard of the old jail close to the Champ de Mars.

The following description is from a lady eyewitness still living

in 1914:

“You know, Mr. Robert Watson, a flour inspector, and a fine

gentleman, was shot dead in his own house by a man whose name I

cannot recall. That was, I think, in the twenties. The man was

arrested, tried and found guilty on circumstantial evidence,

which was principally the fact that his boots corresponded to the

footmarks found in the snow leading to Mr. Watson’s residence. At

the same time there was a French-Canadian tried and sentenced to

death for forgery, and sheep stealing, which were then capital

offenses. I determined to see the hangings. I know you will think

me queer, but I had a desire to go. Hangings were then conducted

in public. I remember the crowd in the jail yard as well as

if it was yesterday--men and women and girls like myself. The

authorities had allowed as many as the yard would hold, but there

were hundreds outside who could see nearly as well.

“The Irishman asked for three cheers for the Irish, and said,

‘Take off your hats for the Irishman.’ The people did as he

asked. The Frenchman said he had sold his body to the students,

and that he was ready to die like a man. He asked the women to

come up that he might pull their ears off, for when he began to

steal his mother never corrected him, and therefore he was on the

scaffold. Then I fainted, the first and only time in my life. I

was sorry I went.”

JAILS

The jail[1] used in the latter part of French régime and the

early portion of English rule was situated on the site formerly

known as the Crystal Block (now represented by the second

building northwest of St. Lawrence Street), on Notre Dame Street.

On the occupation of the British, the Jesuits’ residence, on

Notre Dame Street, on the site facing what is now Jacques

Cartier Square, was confiscated and in 1773 used as a jail as

well as a courthouse. Not being designed for a jail, it is not

surprising that the grand jury at the Court of King’s Bench

held on the 2d of September, 1782, presented in their statement

that the jail “is very insufficient for the purpose of a civil

prison, is in a ruinous condition and is becoming a nuisance to

the public and dangerous to the health and lives as well of the

persons confined therein as others, his Majesty’s subjects. That

it is insufficient for the purposes of a civil prison will appear

on considering that there are but three small apartments into

which are put prisoners of both sexes, and every denomination,

whether for debt, breaches of the peace or the most flagrant

crimes, and on the representation of the sheriff of the district

to their honours, the judges of the court of common pleas, on

the insufficiency of the prison, they have thought proper to

order that executions should not issue against the persons of

debtors who, by the laws of the Province, may become subject to

imprisonment.”

In 1787 a committee of the legislative council was appointed by

Lord Dorchester to investigate into the past administration of

justice in the Province of Quebec. A committee of merchants of

Montreal in a report to this commission, dated the 23d of June,

1787, stated in Article 8: “The want of a proper jail for the

district has long been complained of, and at divers times has

been represented by different grand juries, as well as at the

courts of oyer and terminer and in the inferior courts of quarter

sessions; but hitherto no remedy has been applied. The house

which at present serves for a jail consists of four very small

rooms in which are frequently confined promiscuously persons of

different sexes and for very different degrees of crime. The

unfortunate debtor cannot have a room to himself, nor can the

malefactor, when preparing for the other world, be accommodated

with a place of retirement to deprecate the wrath of the offended

Deity. The insufficiency of the jail, in point of security,

occasions a guard of soldiers to be kept in the lower part of

it and even with that precaution many atrocious offenders have

escaped, insomuch that the sheriff of the district has refused to

confine debtors, unless the prosecutor offer to take upon himself

the risk of an escape. The situation of this insufficient jail

heightens the sufferings of the persons whom the law dooms to

imprisonment, offends every passerby in the warm season and is a

nuisance to the neighbourhood.”

The fire in 1803, which swept this portion of the city, partially

destroyed the jail, and pending repairs a building was leased for

a temporary jail. Still procrastination prevailed.

In 1804 the grand jury of Montreal made another presentment

stating: “that the present gaol is only the ruins of the former

one, which was burned, repaired and patched up in such a manner

that the prisoners are sheltered from the inclemency of the

weather, but by no means prevented from going out whenever they

feel so inclined.” A report of the sheriff, Gray, shows that

the same building had existed under the French rule, that it

had then, as subsequently, suffered from fire and that although

recently the sum of £615 had been expended on repairs it was

still inadequate for the security of prisoners.

In 1805 an act was passed in the house of assembly by which

commissioners were appointed to have a jail erected in Montreal

and Quebec, the cost to be restricted to £9,000 currency in each

case. It was high time. The act of 1805 was the result of these

representations.

But a discussion arose at once concerning the ways and means of

raising the funds. The bill as prepared embodied a proposal for

the raising of funds through a tax on imports.[2] The merchants

opposed this as directed against commerce and urged a land tax

which the landholders in turn combatted. Petitions were sent by

the merchants against the bill and they asked to plead at the

bar of the house. This was refused and the bill in its original

form passed the upper house unanimously. The bill became law.

The merchants trading from London also intervened in a memorial

protesting against the import tax. Altogether there was a

strenuous fight. The feelings at Montreal rose high.

The Montreal Gazette of the period reported a meeting at Dillon’s

tavern, Mr. Isaac Todd, a principal merchant, took the chair at a

dinner and among others certain toasts were proposed which were

thought by some members of the legislature to reflect on them,

scandalously and libellously, and Mr. Todd and the printer of

the Gazette were declared by the session of 1806 to have been

guilty of a high breach of the privileges of the house. The

sergeant-at-arms on attempting to make an arrest in Montreal

found both of them absent, and the matter dropped. Some of the

obnoxious toasts were as follows:

“Our representatives in the provincial parliament, who proposed

a constitutional and proper mode of taxation for building gaols,

and who opposed a tax on commerce for that purpose as contrary to

the sound practice of the parent state;”

“May our representatives be actuated by a patriotic spirit for

the good of the Province as dependent on the British Empire and

be divested of local prejudices;”

“May the city of Montreal be enabled to support a new paper,

though deprived of its natural and useful advantages, apparently

for the benefit of an _individual_” (sic);

“May the commercial interest of this Province have its

due influence on the administration of its government.”

(Christie--“History of Canada,” p. 239.)

The next jail was finally built in 1808 adjoining the east side

of the courthouse erected in 1800, but becoming too small a more

suitable one was commenced in 1831 at the foot of St. Mary’s

current on ground purchased from the heirs of Sir John Johnson.

It was not taken possession of by the sheriff till 1836. It

was not built on hygienic or practical lines and in 1852 the

northeast wing had to be demolished. It soon became very much

occupied by the rebels and political prisoners of 1837 and

1838.[3]

The former prison was occupied as a house of industry from 1836

to 1838, when it became the government barracks. In the summer

of 1849 the old jail built like the courthouse on the site of

the Jesuits’ estate was pulled down. The cornerstone was found

with two plates, the first recording the laying of the foundation

stone of the Jesuit residence in 1742 by M. Normand, superior

of the seminary, and the other recording that of the prison by

Peter Panet, Isaac Ogden, “_honorabiles judices_,” and Joseph

Frobisher, _armiger_.

In 1870, the prison, opened in 1836, was already being found too

small and its overcrowded state had been frequently protested

against by many grand juries. The theoretic capacity for this

prison was 225 persons. It managed to hold 552 at one time.

In 1876 the women prisoners were removed. It continued to be

used for its original purpose till lately when the new prison

at Bordeaux was opened in 1912, the last contingent being

transferred from the old prison in August, 1913.

The following is a table of the population of the prisoners in

the old prison:

1836 Men and women 162

1846 Men and women 1,275

1856 Men and women 1,792

1866 Men and women 4,410

1876 Men and women 3,969

1886 Men only 2,156

1896 Men only 4,132

1906 Men only 3,130

1908 Men only 4,854

1909 Men only 4,287

1910 Men only 4,702

1911 Men only 5,344

In November, 1912, the transmigration to Bordeaux began and the

congestion was relieved. The site of the new prison comprises a

superficies of twenty arpents, and the buildings are eminently

well fitted for their purpose, hygienic and spacious, with none

of the faults so bitterly deplored in the old jails.

The supplementary prisons, in 1914, are the women’s jail at

Fullum Street, established about 1876, under the “Good Shepherd”

community, which has sections for Catholics and Protestants

(four non-Catholics), the detention house for juvenile delinquents,

in connection with the Juvenile Court, erected by the Juvenile

Delinquent act of 1910, established March 12, 1912, the reformatory

school at De Montigny Street undertaken by Brothers of St. Vincent

de Paul, the boys’ farm reformatory at Shawbridge for Protestants,

that for Catholic girls at the House of the “Good Shepherd” on

Sherbrooke Street, and another for Protestants, commenced at St.

Lambert’s about 1912. There is also for long terms of two years

and over a large penitentiary under the Federal Government at St.

Vincent de Paul.

THE POLICE FORCES

The policing or the control of law and order in general

of Montreal dates back to the 27th of January, 1663, when

Maisonneuve founded a voluntary association under the name of

the “Police de la Sainte Famille de Jésus, Marie and Joseph,”

which was divided into twenty companies of seven men each. In

1667 Maisonneuve organized a more formal police force under the

direction of five important citizens who also acted as justices

of the peace. In the early times it was also customary to

choose two or more citizens in each district of the town to act

as constables.

[Illustration: THE OLD JAIL]

[Illustration: PRISON AT BORDEAUX]

In 1815 the legislature authorized the organization of a local

police force. It was composed of twenty-five to thirty men who

carried a long baton painted blue, a lantern at their girdle, and

a bell to summon assistance. At night the watchmen called out

the hour and other, cheerful news such as “All’s well--past 1

o’clock and a starlit night.” When lamps were introduced it was

their business to light them. They had multifarious duties, such

as looking after the health regulations, the removal of snow,

the quelling of riots, especially at elections, when frequently

the military had to be called out to assist them. Even then a

policeman’s lot was not a happy one, being also very inadequately

remunerated.

After the troubles of 1837-8 the special council of the

legislature of Lower Canada passed an ordinance to authorize the

governor to name an inspector or a superintendent of police for

the city of Montreal. This superintendent was similar in power to

a justice of the peace. He had, in addition, the charge of the

composition and the control of the police force, subject to the

provincial secretary. The force consisted of thirty constables,

paid by the government. They were supplemented by a special force

from the police appointed by the governor and paid by the harbour

commissioners. That the new police was badly needed, a picture

from “Hochelaga Depicta,” written in 1839, makes clear. “The

passions drawn forth by the rebellion have disturbed the repose

of many, and military habits and pursuits have not only diverted

them from their regular course of action, but have introduced

a martial and unsettled spirit which has operated unfavourably

upon a large portion of the community. It is to be regretted that

many of the regular troops are from time to time seen reeling in

the streets, to the interruption of that good order which their

services are so efficient in promoting; and that intemperance

has increased among the volunteers since they received pay.”

(“Hochelaga Depicta,” p. 212.)

The police force was organized in consequence of an ordinance

issued during the administration of the Earl of Durham on the

28th of June, 1838. It consisted of 102 privates, four mounted

patrols, six sergeants and six corporals under the command of

four officers, viz., Capt. Alexander Comeau and Lieutenant Worth

for Division A, and Capt. William Brown and Lieut. William

Suter for Division B. The expenses were borne by the civil home

government and amounted “to at least six thousand pounds per

annum.” (Cf. “Hochelaga Depicta.” 181.)

After the rebellion in the early days of Queen Victoria’s reign

the office of superintendent was abolished and a “Fire Society”

was established by the special council, with power to create a

body of officers of the peace. The name suggests that protection

against fire was more important those days than against other

evils. The force consisted then of 102 men, four mounted patrols,

six sergeants, six corporals under the command of four officers.

The government supported this expense, which amounted annually

to about six thousand pounds. In 1851, after the burning of the

parliament house and the Gavazzi riots, the powers of the Fire

Society passed into operation under the municipal authorities.

The constables were increased to 100. The chief of police was

Mr. Hayes. The central station was in the basement of Bonsecours

Market and another post was the corner of Craig and Bleury

streets. The police had not an enviable reputation. The pay was

only 50 cents a day. Often recruits for the service were obtained

from the prisoners. Drunkenness was charged to them so that a

fine of 5 shillings was imposed on all who sold intoxicating

liquors to any of the force.

In 1861 Guillaume Lamothe became chief of police and after

some years’ agitation he succeeded in obtaining $1.00 a day

pay for his men. Mr. Lamothe, alarmed at the growth of houses

of prostitution at this period, suggested in his annual report

of 1863 the license of a certain number so as to regulate the

evil.[4] The recorder, De Montigny, supported this, but on the

protest of the religious authorities of the town the innovation

was discountenanced.

In 1870 the military were removed from the garrison and the

records show an improvement in the morality of the town.

Since 1850 the chiefs of police have been: H. Jérémie, 1850;

Thomas McGrath, 1851; E.O. Ermatinger, 1854; J.N. Hayes, 1854;

Guillaume Lamothe, 1861; P.W.L. Penton, 1865; H. Paradis, 1879;

G.A. Hughes, 1888; D. Legault, 1901; O. Campeau (November), 1905.

THE COURTS AND COURTHOUSE

The establishment of the higher courts has been treated in the

chapters dealing with the constitutional growth of the city. It

remains to indicate the present system as in vogue. Lawsuits in

purely civil matters involving less than one hundred dollars and

in which no future rights are involved, are settled by one of

the three judges of the circuit court or in a few cases of minor

importance by one of the City Recorders. The city recordership

is an office peculiar to the Province of Quebec. It is attached

to the City Hall and deals with minor offenses enforcing a part

of the criminal law, enforcing payment of city licenses and is

a court of appeal for assessment charges, actions for wages and

civil cases not exceeding one hundred dollars, and minor cases

of non-support and the duties of a domestic relations court. All

cases dealing with children under sixteen years of age have been

relegated to the recently established juvenile court.

Cases of litigation involving $100 or over are decided by one

of the judges of the superior court, from whose decision an

appeal may be made either to the court of review, which is

practically the first court of appeal (composed of three judges

of the superior court, other than the judge rendering the first

decision), or to the court of king’s bench, consisting of five

judges. There are now six judges of king’s bench, sixteen of the

superior court, and four of the circuit court for the district

of Montreal, which comprises the island of Montreal and the

counties of Laval, Soulanges, La Prairie, Chambly and Verchères.

The court of king’s bench is composed of six judges, one of whom

is the chief justice of the Province of Quebec and five of whom

hear appeals in civil and criminal matters for the Province for

two weeks every month in the cities of Montreal and Quebec,

alternately. They also preside over the sittings of the criminal

court for the cities of Montreal and Quebec. Of late years the

salaries of the judges of the king’s bench for Montreal and

Quebec are $8,000 for the chief justice and puisné judges at

$7,000; those of the superior court, $8,000 for the chief justice

and $7,000 each for the puisné judges, with a rider restricting

all judges to the exclusive practice of their profession as

judges. This limitation causes retirements after a number of

years for more remunerative posts. The bench is not a body

corporate, while the bar is. The first legislation was in 1785

(25 George III, C. 4), regarding the appointment of advocates,

attorneys, solicitors and notaries.

The first attempt of the bar of Montreal to acquire corporate

existence goes back to 1828, when on March 27th the members of

the bar, under the auspices of the court of king’s bench, then

composed of Chief Justice Reid and of Justices A.F. Uniacke,

George Pyke and L.C. Foucher, organized themselves into a library

association, the first board of management being composed of

Messrs. Stephen Sewell, Joseph Bedard, Frederick Griffin, and

Alexander Buchanan.

The association had a social circle as a scientific side and

partook of the nature of a club. The admission fee was $200 and

the annual subscription was $5.00. It appears to have flourished.

The next legislative provision enacted regarding the bar was the

enactment of 1836 (6 William IV, C. 10) regulating that those who

had followed a regular higher course of letters and had served

their clerkship in a law firm were fit to be admitted to practice

at the bar. The bar association of Montreal was incorporated

in 1840 and the bar of Lower Canada in 1849. The title of

_batonnier_ was given officially by act of 1849 to the president

of the corporation. It comes from days as far back as 1342, when

the president of the Sodality of Lawyers carried a bâton, the

emblem of St. Nicholas, their patron.

The act to incorporate the bar of Lower Canada was the gradual

dissolution of the Library Association so that about a quarter

of a century ago the library began to be considered by comity

the property of the bar. Since 1898 the Junior Bar Association

has been formed for the purpose of mutual information, interest

and friendly relations with similar bodies abroad. About 1907

the Montreal Bar Association was founded “for the purpose

of promoting the interest of the bar and of facilitating

professional labours and of fostering friendly relations among

its members.”

THE COURTHOUSES

The courthouse used after the conquest was held in the Jesuit

residence confiscated by the government. On the 3d of January,

1799, the sum of £5,000 was appropriated by the parliament for

the erection of a new courthouse and at the same time the ground

was granted by the government without any pecuniary indemnity. It

was built in 1800 at the cost of $25,000 upon part of the site

occupied partially before by the chapel and residence of the

Jesuits. It contained many large halls and six fine vaults in

which the notarial deeds and registers of births, marriages and

deaths were stored. In 1803 at the east end of this courthouse

there was built a prison which was partially demolished in 1849.

In 1844 the old courthouse was burnt. Until the present

courthouse was built the courts were held partially in the prison

adjoining the Château de Ramezay. The present courthouse was

opened for business in 1856 on the site of the old courthouse

and the prison. What was left of the latter was demolished in

1860 and a square was made between the garden of the government

fronting the Château de Ramezay and on this place between the

Champ de Mars and Notre Dame Street there was placed a fountain

with the statue of Neptune, since removed to Park Mance.

In the present courthouse there are kept the judiciary archives

of the district of Montreal, which are certainly the richest of

any district in the Dominion because nothing has been destroyed,

so that all the notarial deeds and official papers from the times

of Maisonneuve to our day are available. These archives occupy

a space on the basement floor of the courthouse of nearly three

hundred by one hundred and twenty-five feet and also nearly half

of the ground floor. Under the French régime the archives were

under the care of the governor and the seigneurs of the island.

Afterwards they were at the old French courthouse at the corner

of St. Francis Xavier and Notre Dame streets and they followed

the subsequent fortunes of the courthouse transmigrations. When

the courthouse was burnt in 1844 the only documents destroyed

were a part of the criminal court record. No systematic indexing

and classification of the documents were undertaken before Doctor

Lemieux was named sheriff in 1910. As this office in Montreal

embraces the administration and supervision of the courthouse

and prison, it was to this sheriff’s zeal that in 1911, after

many demands, he succeeded in having a staff named under Mr. E.Z.

Massicotte as the first archivist to put the archives department

on an efficient modern basis. This was done, comparing favourably

with the best kept contemporary archives in America. This was

attested to by the visitors of the Great American Bar Congress

held in Montreal in 1913. While the archives in the courthouse

represent the collection of all documents relating to the city

anterior to the period of English rule and of all the judiciary

courts of the Montreal district since, including the preservation

of the births, marriages, deaths and notarial deeds, there has

lately been established in the city hall a municipal bureau

of Archives under Mr. Beaudry, which preserves all documents

concerning the government of the city under the system of the

Justices of the Peace and the modern municipal corporation of

Montreal. The historians of the future will bless both these

forward movements of recent years.

[Illustration: THE OLD COURTHOUSE]

[Illustration: COURTHOUSE AT MONTREAL]

SUPPLEMENT

JUDGES OF THE COURT OF KINGS BENCH, LOWER CANADA

Date. Place. Name.

Dec. 11, 1794 Montreal John Fraser

Dec. 15, 1794 Montreal Jean Antoine Panet

Dec. 16, 1794 Montreal James Walker

May 8, 1795 Montreal Pierre Louis Panet

June 22, 1796 Montreal Isaac Ogden

Feb. 1, 1800 Montreal Arthur Davidson

May 7, 1807 Montreal James Reid

Dec. 10, 1812 Montreal Louis Charles Foucher

May 1, 1820 Montreal George Pyke

Feb. 1, 1825 Montreal Norman Fitzgerald Uniacke

Dec. 6, 1828 Montreal George Pyke

Jan. 7, 1830 Montreal Jean Roch Rolland

Dec. 8, 1830 Montreal George Pyke

Dec. 9, 1830 Montreal Norman Fitzgerald Uniacke

Dec. 11, 1830 Montreal Jean Roch Rolland

Aug. 23, 1834 Montreal Samuel Gale

Aug. 30, 1838 Montreal George Pyke

Aug. 30, 1838 Montreal Jean Roch Rolland

Dec. 20, 1838 Montreal George Pyke

Dec. 20, 1838 Montreal Jean Roch Rolland

Dec. 20, 1838 Montreal Samuel Gale

JUDGES OF COURT OF THE COMMON PLEAS, P.Q.

Date. Place. Name.

Dec. 11, 1764 Montreal and Quebec Hon. Adam Mabane

Dec. 11, 1764 Montreal and Quebec Hon. Francis Munier

Dec. 11, 1764 Montreal and Quebec Hon. John Fraser

July 14, 1769 Montreal and Quebec Hon. Hector Theophilus Cramahé

July 14, 1769 Montreal and Quebec Hon. Adam Mabane

July 14, 1769 Montreal and Quebec Hon. John Fraser

July 23, 1776 Montreal Peter Livius

July 23, 1776 Montreal William Owen

Aug. 22, 1776 Montreal Edward Southouse

March 6, 1777 Montreal Peter Livius

March 6, 1777 Montreal William Owen

March 6, 1777 Montreal Gabriel Elzear Taschereau

May 29, 1777 Montreal Edward Southouse

May 29, 1777 Montreal Edward Southouse

Feb. 18, 1779 Montreal Hon. Adam Mabane

Feb. 18, 1779 Montreal Thos. Dunn

Aug. 30, 1779 Montreal Hon. John Fraser

Aug. 30, 1779 Montreal Hon. Hertel de Rouville

Aug. 30, 1779 Montreal Edward Southouse

Dec. 24, 1788 Montreal Adam Mabane

Dec. 24, 1788 Montreal Thomas Dunn

Dec. 24, 1788 Montreal Pierre Panet

Dec. 24, 1788 Montreal William Dummer Powell

Dec. 24, 1788 Montreal Simon Sanguinet

Jan. 7, 1790 Quebec and Montreal Adam Mabane

Jan. 7, 1790 Quebec and Montreal Thomas Dunn

Jan. 7, 1790 Quebec and Montreal Peter Panet

Jan. 7, 1790 Quebec and Montreal John Frazer

Jan. 7, 1790 Quebec and Montreal Hertel de Rouville

JUDGES OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, LOWER CANADA

Date. Place. Name.

Jan. 12, 1792 Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers John Fraser

Jan. 12, 1792 Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers Thomas Dunn

Jan. 12, 1792 Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers Hertel de Rouville

Jan. 12, 1792 Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers Jenkin Williams

Jan. 12, 1793 Montreal Peter Panet

Aug. 30, 1793 Montreal Peter Panet

Jan. 28, 1794 Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers John A. Panet

Feb. 8, 1794 Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers P.A. DeBonne

Feb. 8, 1794 Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers James Walker

JUDGES OF THE CIRCUIT COURT, P.Q.

Date. Place. Name.

June 15, 1770 Montreal John Fraser

June 15, 1770 Montreal John Marteilhe

Feb. 1, 1771 Montreal John Marteilhe

Feb. 1, 1771 Montreal John Fraser

July 1, 1771 Montreal John Fraser

July 1, 1771 Montreal John Marteilhe

Jan. 13, 1772 Montreal John Marteilhe

Jan. 13, 1772 Montreal John Fraser

June 23, 1772 Montreal John Fraser

June 23, 1772 Montreal John Marteilhe

JUDGES OF THE PREROGATIVE COURT, P.Q.

Date. Place. Name.

Nov. 25, 1779 Montreal John Fraser

Nov. 25, 1779 Montreal Hertel de Rouville

Nov. 25, 1779 Montreal Edward Southouse

ASSISTANT JUDGE, LOWER CANADA

Date. Place. Name.

June 1, 1818 District of Montreal George Pyke

JUDGES CIRCUIT

Date. Place. Name.

April 22, 1844 Montreal District Hypolite Guy

April 24, 1844 Montreal District Charles Joseph Elzear Mondelet

April 27, 1844 Montreal District John Samuel McCord

April 29, 1844 Montreal District William Badgley

JUDGES OF THE SUPERIOR COURT

Date. Place. Name.

Jan. 26, 1877 District of Montreal Hon. Vinceslas P. Wilfrid Dorion

June 23, 1883 District of Montreal Hon. Michel Mathieu

April 12, 1886 District of Montreal Hon. Charles Ignace Gill

June 10, 1887 District of Montreal Charles Peers Davidson

April 15, 1889 District of Montreal Charles Chamilly De Lorimier

June 5, 1889 District of Montreal Siméon Pagnuelo

Oct. 19, 1891 District of Montreal Charles Joseph Doherty

Nov. 22, 1893 District of Montreal John Sprott Archibald

Oct. 18, 1895 District of Montreal Hon. John Joseph Curran

Jan. 14, 1898 District of Montreal François Xavier Langelier

June 25, 1901 District of Montreal Norman William Trenholme

Sept. 25, 1901 City of Montreal Thomas Fortin

June 11, 1902 District of Montreal Henri-Césaire Saint Pierre

Mar. 11, 1903 District of Montreal Napoléon Charbonneau

May 5, 1904 District of Montreal John Dunlop

Aug. 31, 1906 District of Montreal Eugène Lafontaine

Aug. 31, 1906 District of Montreal Edmund Guerin

JUDGES OF CIRCUIT COURT

Date. Place. Name.

Nov. 16, 1893 District of Montreal Denis Barry

Nov. 16, 1893 District of Montreal Charles L. Champagne

June 8, 1895 District of Montreal John Daly Purcell

July 7, 1898 District of Montreal Achille Dorion

Jan. 18, 1908 District of Montreal Calixte Le Beuf

Nov. 29, 1913 District of Montreal Jean Baptiste Archambault

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT, P.Q.

Date. Place. Name.

Oct. 27, 1894 District of Montreal Melbourne M. Tait

JUDGES OF THE SUPERIOR COURT FOR QUEBEC

Date. Place. Name.

Jan. 11, 1910 District of Montreal Charles Archer

July 6, 1910 Residing at Montreal Robert Alfred Ernest

Greenshields

July 6, 1910 Residing at Montreal Charles Laurendeau

Jan. 14, 1912 Residing at Montreal Simeon Beaudin

July 16, 1912 Judicial District of Montreal Campbell Lane

Dec. 7, 1912 Judicial District of Montreal Louis Edmond Panneton

COURT OF QUEEN’S BENCH (SUPERIOR COURT), LOWER CANADA

From 1841 to 1849 Inclusive

Judges.[5] From To

Chief Justice.

Sir Jas. Stuart, Bart Feb. 10, 1841 Dec. 31, 1849

J.R. Vallière de St. Réal (M.) June 1, 1842 Feb. 17, 1847

J.R. Rolland, (M.) Apr. 23, 1847 Dec. 31, 1849

Puisné Judges

Edward Bowen (Q.) Feb. 10, 1841 Dec. 31, 1849

Phi. Panet (Q.). Feb. 10, 1841 Dec. 31, 1849

Elz. Bédard (Q.) Feb. 10, 1841 Apr. 25, 1848

T.C. Aylwin (Q.) Apr. 26, 1848 Dec. 31, 1849

Geo. Pyke (M.) Feb. 10, 1841 June 28, 1842

J.R. Rolland (M.) Feb. 10, 1841 Apr. 22, 1847

Saml. Gale (M.) Feb. 10, 1841 Apr. 25, 1848

C.D. Day (M.) June 29, 1842 Dec. 31, 1849

Jas. Smith (M.) Apr. 23, 1847 Dec. 31, 1849

Elz. Bédard (M.) Apr. 26, 1848 Aug. 11, 1849

COURT OF QUEEN’S BENCH (APPEAL AND CRIMINAL), LOWER CANADA

From 1850 to 1865 Inclusive

Judges From To

Chief Justice

Sir Jas. Stuart, Bart (Q.) Jan. 1, 1850 Died July 14, 1853

Sir L.H. LaFontaine, Bart (M.) Aug. 13, 1853 Died Feb. 26, 1864

Hon. J.F.J. Duval (Q.) Mar. 5, 1864 --

Puisné Judges

Hon. J.R. Rolland (M.) Jan. 1, 1850 Jan. 26, 1855

Hon. Phi. Panet (Q.) Jan. 1, 1850 Died Jan. 15, 1855

Hon. T.C. Aylwin (Q.) Jan. 1, 1850 --

Hon. J.F.J. Duval (Q.) Jan. 27, 1855 Mar. 4, 1864

Hon. R.E. Caron (Q.) Jan. 27, 1855 --

Hon. W.C. Meredith (M.) Mar. 12, 1859 --

Hon. W. Badgley, Asst. Judge (M.) Sept. 12, 1863 Dec. 31, 1864

Hon. L.T. Drummond, Puisné Judge (M.) Mar. 5, 1864 --

Hon. C.J.E. Mondelet, Asst. Judge (M.) Jan. 1, 1865 --

SUPERIOR COURT, LOWER CANADA

From 1850 to 1865 Inclusive

Judges. From To

Hon. Edw. Bowen, Chief Justice (Q.) Jan. 1, 1850 Died Apr. 11, 1866

Hon. D. Mondelet, Pusiné Judge (M.) Jan. 1, 1850 Died in 1863

Hon. C.D. Day, Puisné Judge (Q.) Jan. 1, 1850 Sept. 30, 1862

Hon. Jas. Smith, Puisné Judge (?) Jan. 1, 1850 --

Hon. Geo. Vanfelson, Puisné Judge (?) Jan. 1, 1850 Jan. 26, 1856

Hon. R.H. Gairdner, Puisné Judge (Q.) Jan. 1, 1850 Sept. 30, 1852

Hon. E. Bacquet, Puisné Judge (Q.) Jan. 1, 1852 Died in 1853

Hon. C.J.E. Mondelet, Puisné Judge (M.) Jan. 1, 1852 Dec. 31, 1864

Hon. J.F. Duval, Puisné Judge (Q.) Jan. 1, 1852 Jan. 26, 1855

Hon. W. C Meredith, Puisné Judge (M.) Jan. 1, 1852 Mar. 11, 1859

Hon. E. Short, Puisné Judge (?) Nov. 12, 1852 -- -- --

R.E. Caron, Puisné Judge (Q.) Aug. 15, 1853 Jan. 26, 1855

Hon. A.N. Marin, Puisné Judge (M.) Jan. 27, 1855 Died July 27, 1865

Hon. W. Badgley, Puisné Judge (M.) Jan. 27, 1855 Sept. 11, 1863

Hon. J. Chabot, Puisné Judge (Q.) Sept. 20, 1856 Died in 1860

Hon. Hyp. Guy, Puisné Judge (M.) Nov. 25, 1857 Apr. 16, 1860

Hon. J.S. McCord, Puisné Judge (M.) Nov. 25, 1857 Mar. --, 1865

Hon. W.K. McCord, Puisné Judge (M.) Nov. 25, 1857 --, 1858

Hon. W. Power, Puisné Judge (Q.) Nov. 25, 1857 Died in 1860

Hon. J.C. Bruneau, Puisné Judge Nov. 25, 1857 Sept. 4, 1863

Hon. J.T. Taschereau, Puisné Judge (Q.) Nov. 25, 1857 -- -- --

Hon. D. Roy, Puisné Judge Nov. 25, 1857 -- -- --

Hon. P. Winter, Puisné Judge Mar. 29, 1858 -- -- --

Hon. J.T. Taschereau, Asst. Judge (Q.) Nov. 2, 1858 May 2, 1859

Hon. J.T. Taschereau June 6, 1860 Aug. --, 1865

Hon. J.T. Taschereau, Puisné Judge (Q.) Aug. , 1865 -- -- --

Hon. A. Stuart, Asst. Judge (Q.) Feb. 10, 1859 June 6, 1860

Hon. A. Stuart, Puisné Judge June 6, 1860 -- -- --

Hon. J.A. Berthelot, Asst. Judge (M.) Feb. 10, 1859 Dec. 31, 1864

Hon. J.A. Berthelot, Puisné Judge Jan. 1, 1865 -- -- --

Hon. J.G. Thompson, Puisné Judge (G.) May 11, 1859 -- -- --

Hon. A. Lafontaine, Puisné Judge May 11, 1859 -- -- --

Hon. S.C. Monk, Asst. Judge (M.) June 4, 1859 -- -- --

Hon. A. Polette, Puisné Judge (T.-R.) Apr. 21, 1860 -- -- --

Hon. F.O. Gauthier, Puisné Judge (?) Nov. 14, 1860 -- -- --

Hon. T.J.J. Loranger, Puisné Judge (M.) Feb. 28, 1863 -- -- --

Hon. L.V. Sicotte, Puisné Judge (M.?) Sept. 5, 1863 -- -- --

Hon. C.J. Laberge, Puisné Judge (M.) Sept. 18, 1863 July 2, 1864

Hon. F.G. Johnson, Puisné Judge (M.) June 1, 1865 -- -- --

Deputy Judges, Superior Court.

J.B. Parkin (M.?) Dec. 22, 1854 May 11, 1855

Chas. Panet (Q.) May 16, 1855 July 6, 1855

J.J.C. Abbott (M.) May 19, 1855 Aug. 25, 1855

Assistant Judges Under Seigniorial Act.

H. Driscoll (?) Sept. 3, 1855

G.O. Stuart (Q.) Sept. 3, 1855

F.O. Gauthier (?) Sept. 3, 1855

J.T. Taschereau (Q.) Sept. 3, 1855

J.B. Parkin (M.) Sept. 3, 1855

S.C. Monk (M.) Sept. 14, 1855

J.F. Pelletier (Q.) Sept. 14, 1855

J.A. Berthelot (M.) Sept. 14, 1855

COURT OF VICE-ADMIRALTY (QUEBEC)

From 1841 to 1865

Hon. H. Black Feb. 10, 1841

THE COURT OF QUEEN’S BENCH FOR THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC

From 1867 to 1895 Inclusive

Chief Justices of the Queen’s Bench.

Name. From To

Hon. Jean François Joseph Duval (Q.) Mar. 4, 1864 May 31, 1874

(Retired June 1, 1874; died May 6, 1881.)

Hon. Sir Antoine Aimé Dorion, Kt. (M.) June 1, 1874 May 31, 1891

(Knighted, 1877; died May 31, 1891.)

Hon. Sir Alexandre Lacoste, Kt. (M.) Sept. 14, 1891 -- -- --

(Knighted June 15, 1892.)

Puisné Judges of the Queen’s Bench.

Name. From To

Hon. Thomas Cushing Aylwin (Q.) Dec. 24, 1849 Aug. 24, 1868

(Retired Aug. 25, 1868; died Oct. 14, 1871.)

Hon. Réné Edouard Caron (Q.) Jan. 27, 1855 Feb. 16, 1873

Mr. Justice Caron assumed the office of Lieutenant-Governor of

the Province of Quebec, February 17, 1873.

Mr. Justice Mondelet, who was a Puisné Judge of the Superior

Court, acted as Assistant Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench

for and during the time that Mr. Justice Caron continued to be

a Commissioner for the codification of the laws of Lower Canada

relative to civil matters and procedure.

Hon. Charles Joseph Elzéar Mondelet, Asst.

Judge (M.) May 30, 1859 Dec. 31, 1869

Hon. Louis Thomas Drummond (M.) Mar. 4, 1864 Oct. 31, 1873

(Retired Nov. 1, 1873; died Nov. 24, 1882.)

Hon. Wm. Badgley (M.) Aug. 17, 1866 Mar. 1, 1874

(Retired Mar. 2, 1874; died Dec. 24, 1888.)

Hon. Samuel Cornwallis Monk (M.) Aug. 27, 1868 Sept. 19, 1888

(Retired Sept. 20, 1888; died Oct. 29, 1888.)

Hon. Jean Thomas Taschereau (Q.) Feb. 11, 1873 Oct. 7, 1875

Appointed Puisné Judge of the Supreme

Court of Canada. Oct. 8, 1875

Hon. Thomas Kennedy Ramsay (M.) Oct. 30, 1873 Dec. 22, 1886

(Died Dec. 22, 1886.)

Hon. John Sewell Sanborn (?) Mar. 6, 1874 July 17, 1877

(Died July 17, 1877.)

Hon. Ulric Joseph Tessier (Q.?) Oct. 8, 1875 Sept. 11, 1891

(Retired Sept. 12, 1891; died Apr. 7, 1892.)

Hon. Alexander Cross (M.) Aug. 30, 1877 Oct. 3, 1892

(Retired Oct. 4, 1892; died Oct. 17, 1895.)

Hon. Louis François Geo. Baby (M.) Apr. 29, 1881 --

Hon. Levi Ruggles Church (M.) Jan. 25, 1887 Jan. 6, 1892

(Retired Jan. 7, 1892; died Aug. 30, 1892.)

Hon, Joseph Guillaume Bossé (Q.) Sept. 25, 1888 --

Hon. Jean Blanchet (Q.) Sept. 19, 1891 --

Hon. Robert Newton Hall (M.) Jan. 11, 1892 --

Hon. Jonathan S. Campbell Wurtele (M.) Oct. 12, 1 892 --

THE JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF MONTREAL

From 1867 to 1870, four Judges of the Superior Court had to

reside in the city of Montreal (C.S.L.C., Chap. 78, 1860); 1870

to 1872, five Judges (33 Vict. Q., Chap. 10); 1872 to 1882, six

Judges (35 Vict. Q., Chap. 6, and 36 Vict., Chap. 10); 1882 to

1883, seven Judges (43-44 Vict. Q., Chap. 5); 1883 to 1887,

eight Judges (46 Vict. Q., Chap. 13); 1887 to 1895, eleven

Judges, including the Judge to whom the district of Terrebonne is

assigned (49-50 Vict. Q., Chap. 7, 50 Vict. Q., Chap. 11, and 52

Vict. Q., Chap. 27).

Judges. From To

Hon. James Smith Dec. 24, 1849 Aug. 24, 1868

(Retired Aug. 25, 1868; died Nov. 29, 1868.)

Hon. Chas. Jos. Elzéar Mondelet Dec. 24, 1849 Dec. 31, 1876

He was Assistant Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench from May

30, 1859, to December 31, 1869, during the time Mr. Justice R.E.

Caron continued to be a Commissioner for the codification of the

laws of Lower Canada relative to civil matters and procedure; he

died December 31, 1876.

Hon. Joseph Amable Berthelot Nov. 30, 1860 Aug. 31, 1876

(Retired Sept. 1, 1876.)

Hon. Francis Godschall Johnson July 18, 1865 Dec. 9, 1889

He was Recorder of the Province of Manitoba from

September 3, 1870, to June 1, 1872; appointed

Chief Justice December 10, 1889.

Hon. Samuel Cornwallis Monk Aug. 17, 1866 Aug. 26, 1868

Appointed Puisné Judge, Court of

Queens Bench August 27, 1868.

Hon. Robert Mackay Aug. 27, 1868 Oct. 31, 1882

(Retired Nov. 1, 1882; died Feb. 23, 1888.)

Hon. Fred Wm. Torrance Aug. 27, 1868 Jan. 2, 1887

(Died Jan. 2, 1887.)

Hon. Jos. Ubalde Baudry, Asst. Judge

during the absence of Mr. Justice Dec. 5, 1868 June 30, 1869

Mackay (Died Jan. 12, 1876.)

Hon. Jos. Ubalde Baudry, Puisné Judge Dec. 22, 1869 Jan. 12, 1876

Hon. Henri Félix Rainville Feb. 3, 1876 Apr. 11, 1886

(Retired Apr. 12, 1886; died Feb. 7, 1891.)

Hon. Auguste Cyrille Papineau Sept. 1, 1876 May 6, 1889

(Retired May 17, 1889.)

Hon. Vinceslas P. Wilfrid Dorion Jan. 26, 1877 June 2, 1878

(Transferred from the Judicial District of Quebec; died June 2, 1878.)

Hon. Louis Amable Jetté Sept. 2, 1878 -- -- --

Hon. Louis Onésime Loranger Aug. 5, 1882 -- -- --

Hon. Marcus Doherty Nov. 2, 1882 Oct. 14, 1891

(Transferred from Judicial District St. Francis; retired Oct. 15, 1891.)

Hon. Mathieu June 23, 1883 -- -- --

(Transferred from the Judicial District of Joliette.)

Hon. Chas. Ignace Gill Apr. 12, 1886 -- -- --

(Transferred from the Judicial District of Richelieu.)

Hon. Chas. Peer Davidson June 10, 1887 -- -- --

Hon. Henri Thomas Taschereau Dec. 1, 1887 -- -- --

(Transferred from the Judicial District of Joliette and assigned the

Judicial District of Terrebonne.)

Hon. Jonathan Saxton Campbell Wurtele Sept. 20, 1888 Oct. 11, 1892

(Transferred from the Judicial District of Ottawa; appointed Puisné Judge,

Court of Queen’s Bench, Oct. 12, 1892.)

Hon. Siméon Pagneulo June 5, 1889 -- -- --

Hon. Melbourne McTaggart Tait July 5, 1889 -- -- --

(Transferred from the Judicial District of Bedford; appointed to perform

the duties of Chief Justice in the District of Montreal, Oct. 27, 1894.)

Hon. Charles Joseph Doherty Oct. 19, 1891 -- -- --

Hon. John Sprott Archibald Nov. 22, 1893 -- -- --

Hon. John Joseph Curran Oct. 18, 1895 -- -- --

RECORDERS APPOINTED SINCE THE CREATION OF THE RECORDER’S COURT,

IN 1841

Joseph Bourret 1841

John P. Sexton 1859

B.A.T. de Montigny 1881

A.E. Poirier 1899

R.S. Weir 1899

F.X. Dupuis 1907

Amédée Geoffrion 1912

SHERIFFS OF MONTREAL

John Turner, 23rd September, 1762.

Edward Wm. Gray, May, 1776, 1770-1795.

Frederick Wm. Ermatinger, 24th December, 1810, 1813-1820.

Hon. L. Gugy, March 3, 1827.

Hon. Roch de St. Ours, April 3, 1837-1839.

Hon. Foussaint Pothier and Andrew Stuart, September 21, 1839 for

five days.

John Boston and Hugh Edmund Barron, September 26, 1839-1841.

John Boston, March 4, 1841-1842.

John Boston and Wm. Foster Coffin, February 16, 1842-1851.

John Boston, May 17, 1851-1862.

A.M. Delisle, March 12, 1862-1863.

F. Bouthillier, December 19, 1863-1872.

C.A. Leblanc, November 28, 1872-1877.

Hon. P.J. O’Chauveau, September 10, 1877-1890.

Hon. J.R. Thibaudeau, May 9, 1890-June 6, 1909.

Dr. Louis Joseph Lemieux, 1909.

PROTHONOTARIES

1780 John Burke and Charles Lepailleur.

1788-1792 John Burke, John Reid and C. Lepailleur.

1794 John Burke and John Reid.

1795 John Reid, John Burke and Sauveuse de Beaujeu.

1801-1813 Alexander Reid and Sauveuse de Beaujeu.

1814-1815 John Reid and Louis Levesque.

1816-1818 John Reid, L. Levesque and Samuel Wentworth Monk.

1831 S.W. Monk and W.C.H. Coffin, and

Afterwards C.A. Papineau; W.C.H. Coffin, C.A. Papineau and Honey;

Hubert, Papineau and Honey; Hubert, Honey and Gendron; Honey and

Gendron; Honey, Longprés and Cherrier.

1866-1867 A.B. Longprés.

1890 Hon. Arthur Turcotte.

1895 (about) Hon. (now Justice) Monette.

1908 A. Girard.

THE BATONNIERS OF THE MONTREAL BAR

1849-1852 Toussaint Pelletier.

1852-1853 Sir Antoine Aimé Dorion.

1855-1856 C.S. Cherrier, Q.C.

1856-1858 Henry Stuart, Q.C.

1859-1860 Strachan Bethune, K.C.

1861-1862 Sir Antoine Aimé Dorion.

1862-1863 Strachan Bethune, K.C.

1864-1866 Hon. R. Laflamme, Q.C.

1873-1875 Sir Antoine Aimé Dorion.

1875-1879 W.H. Kerr, Q.C.

1879-1881 Sir Alexander Lacoste, Q.C.

1881-1883 W.W. Robertson, Q.C.

1887-1889 Rouey Roy, Q.C.

1890-1892 Hon. F.L. Beique, Q.C.

1894-1896 Hon. J.G. Robidoux, Q.C.

1896-1898 C.B. Carter, Q.C.

1898-1900 Hon. J.A.C. Madore.

1901-1902 W.J. White, K.C.*

1902-1903 S. Beaudin, K.C.

1903-1904 D. McMaster, K.C.

1904-1905 Gustave Lamothe, K.C.

1905-1906 Eugene Lefleur, K.C.

1906-1907 P.S. Mignault, K.C.

1907-1908 F.G. Meredith, K.C.

1908-1909 Honoré Gervais, K.C.

1909-1910 R.C. Smith, K.C.

1910-1911 F.J. Bisaillon, K.C.

1911-1912 A.J. Brown, K.C.

1912-1913 J.L. Archambault.

1913-1914 F. de Sales Bastien, K.C.

* A one-year’s term of office was now resolved upon.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The first jail under the French régime was situated,

according to documents found by Mr. Massicotte either on St. Paul

Street near St. Sulpice, or at Point a Callieres, i. e., either

at Maisonneuve’s château or in the original fort.

[2] An auction duty of 2½% was levied, with a tax on tea, varying

from twopence to sixpence a pound, likewise threepence a gallon

on spirits and twopence on molasses and syrup.

[3] In 1839, the date of the publication of Newton Bosworth’s

“History of Montreal,” the author writes, “There is no chaplain

attached to this gaol nor, we are sorry to learn, is there any

provision made for the moral and religious instruction of the

prisoners. Vice and immorality, we are informed, prevail to an

alarming extent and call loudly for the benevolent services

of all who feel it important to check the prevalence of these

enormous evils and to reclaim the sinner from the error of his

ways.” Vol. II--27

[4] The same suggestion has been made on several occasions since,

but always with the same result.

[5] The provincial appointments from 1841 to 1864, and from 1867

to 1895 are given for Lower Canada. It has been found impossible

to identify them all in time for the press. Those marked “M”

have been identified, as Montreal, “Q” as Quebec and “?” as

questioned.

CHAPTER XXXIII

HOSPITALS

THE HOTEL DIEU: JEANNE MANCE--THE HOSPITALIERES OF LA FLECHE--THE

HOTEL DIEU CHAPEL--ST. PATRICK’S HOSPITAL--THE MIGRATION TO

PINE AVENUE--THE PRESENT MODERN HOSPITAL.

THE GENERAL HOSPITAL: “THE LADIES BENEVOLENT SOCIETY”--THE HOUSE

OF RECOVERY--THE MONTREAL GENERAL HOSPITAL--ITS BENEFACTORS AND

ITS ADDITIONS--THE EARLY TRAINING OF NURSES--THE ANNEX OF 1913.

THE NOTRE DAME HOSPITAL: THE LAVAL MEDICAL FACULTY--THE OLD

DONEGANI HOTEL--THE LADY PATRONESSES--MODERN DEVELOPMENT.

THE WESTERN HOSPITAL: THE BISHOPS COLLEGE MEDICAL FACULTY--THE

WOMEN’S HOSPITAL.

THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL: IN MEMORY OF QUEEN VICTORIA--ITS

DESCRIPTION--ITS INCORPORATION--ITS EQUIPMENT.

THE HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL: FIRST ORGANIZED

WORK--INCORPORATION--THE FIRST HOSPITAL--THE FURTHER

DEVELOPMENTS--THE PHILLIPS TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES.

THE HOSPITALS FOR THE INSANE: EARLY TREATMENT OF INSANE--THE

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOSPITALS ST. JEAN DE DIEU AT

LONGUE POINTE AND THE PROTESTANT ASYLUM AT VERDUN.

CIVIC HOSPITALS: THE SMALLPOX HOSPITAL--“CONTAGIOUS”

HOSPITALS--HOSPITAL ST. PAUL--ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL.

TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARIES: THE ROYAL EDWARD INSTITUTE--PIONEER

TUBERCULOSIS CLINIC IN CANADA--PUBLIC HEALTH EXHIBITIONS--THE

INSTITUTE BRUCHESI: ITS DEVELOPMENT--THE GRACE DART HOME--CIVIC

AID.

CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS: THE CHILDREN’S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL--STE.

JUSTINE.

OTHER HOSPITAL ADJUNCT ASSOCIATIONS.

NOTE: MEDICAL BOARDS: PRIVATE, PROVINCIAL, MUNICIPAL.

Montreal is blessed in its charities and philanthropies. Those

for the sick have an interesting history, which may be told best

in chronological order:

THE HOTEL DIEU

The early history of the first hospital in Montreal has been told

in the first volume. To recapitulate its history to the beginning

of the English régime. It started on the first day of the

foundation of Montreal, May 17, 1642, when Jeanne Mance arrived

with the express purpose of founding a hospital, being helped

thereto by funds provided by Madame de Bullion. Her first home

adjoined to the château, shortly built in the fort inclosure, and

that little home, the Hôtel Dieu, built of logs, in 1644, at what

is the North East corner of St. Paul Street, became the first

of the infirmaries directed by her alone for seventeen years.

The Hôtel Dieu was not, however, completely founded until the

arrival, in October, 1659, of the three Hospitalier Sisters of

St. Joseph from La Flèche in Anjou, sent to her by M. Jerome de

la Dauversière. These were Judith Moreau de Brésoles, Catherine

Macé and Marie Maillet. This body had been established by de

la Dauversière and Mlle. de la Ferré in 1642 for Montreal, and

now when the hour had arrived its representatives were received

in the first Hôtel Dieu, the wooden building twenty-five feet

square, which lasted fifty years on St. Paul Street. In 1666

Louis XIV confirmed the establishment of the Hôtel Dieu by

letters patent. In 1695 the Hôtel Dieu was razed to the ground by

fire and the remains of Jeanne Mance consumed, but the hospital

was rebuilt on the same site. Fires again in 1721 and 1734

attacked it. Still it rose from its ruins. In 1760, owing to the

scarcity of barracks, Amherst’s troops took possession of the

west chapel, which had been commenced in 1656 and had served till

1678 as the only place of worship for citizens and sick alike.

It was dismantled and turned into a stable. Years afterward the

sister procureur of the Hôtel Dieu, came across the account of

the bill for the unpaid damages and sent it to Queen Victoria who

promptly sent a check for the amount due. In 1852 the Hôtel Dieu

established, in the college built originally by the Baptists and

bought for $16,020.00, the branch hospital of St. Patrick’s on

Guy Street, for the principal purpose of providing the Irish and

English Catholic population with English-speaking physicians and

sisters.

The first physicians were Doctor David, Doctor Howard and Dr.

(Sir William) W.H. Hingston. The work was discontinued about

1860, when preparations were being made to open the present Hôtel

Dieu on Pine Avenue, and the building was opened on September 8,

1860, by the Congregation Nuns as a convent school under the name

of the “Pensionnat du Mont St. Marie.”

On account of the disasters from fires the statistics of the

Hôtel Dieu for the first century of its work are incomplete, but

from 1760 to 1860 the exact number of cases of invalids admitted

is 82,121. By 1909, when the 250th anniversary of the arrival of

the three Hospitaliers was celebrated, the number had mounted to

119,352. In 1861 the Hôtel Dieu made its first great change, when

it was transported from the corner of St. Paul and St. Sulpice

Street to its present location, Mont St. Famille on Pine Avenue.

When it is remembered that the nuns are an inclosed order and

never leave their cloister or their grounds, to leave the old

Hôtel Dieu on St. Paul Street was like tearing themselves from

their home to journey to a far-off land. Their consolation was to

take with them the remains of their sisters, buried there during

the preceding 200 years. The stones of the old chapel on St.

Joseph (afterwards St. Sulpice Street) and St. Paul Street, were

taken to erect a little chapel dedicated to St. Joseph in the

new convent grounds. Since 1845 eight independent off-shoots of

the Hôtel Dieu have risen to carry on the work started in 1659,

viz., at Kingston, Tracadie, Chatham, Madawaska, Campbellton,

Arthabaska, Windsor and Winooski. From the house of Kingston the

Hôtel Dieus of Cornwall and Chicago have sprung.

Since the transition from St. Paul Street the Hôtel Dieu has

become more and more of the nature of a public hospital, fully

equipped and of the modern type. From 1857 to 1874 the Hospital

provided a home for old people of both sexes to the number

of thirty-seven to forty a year. This was then left to other

religious bodies established for the purpose.

[Illustration: ANCIENT HOTEL-DIEU UP TO 1821 (ST. PAUL ST.)]

[Illustration: HOTEL-DIEU IN 1861]

The care of young orphans was not relinquished till 1890. Ninety

to one hundred of these have been cared for annually. Outside

their patients the nuns now only continue the maintenance of

seventeen scholars who act as sanctuary boys in the services of

the chapel. Their functions are entirely occupied now with the

care of their sick. The next hospital in chronological order

would be the “Hôpital Général” originally founded by the Charron

Nères and reformed in 1747 by Madame d’Youville. But as this

institution, still existing, is rather an asylum for the aged as

well as an institution for foundlings with the baby hospital work

in connection, it will be treated elsewhere.

THE GENERAL HOSPITAL

The General Hospital, the first general hospital under British

rule, has, for many years, been perhaps the most popular of

Montreal’s numerous charities. It owed its inception to the

inspiration of Montreal ladies.

In the first annual report, it is stated that the increase of

population and the great influx of emigrants from the United

Kingdom, rendered the Hôtel Dieu inadequate for the care of

the indigent sick, and further it was desirable to accommodate

patients suffering from contagious diseases.

Its history is as follows:

About 1815 a band of ladies combined under the name of the

“Ladies Benevolent Society” to meet the cases of destitute

immigrants occurring. By 1818 a fund of £1,200 was raised. A

small house, thenceforth called the “House of Recovery,” was

hired. This with its four rooms was attended by Doctor Blackwood,

a young retired army surgeon, with the assistance of others.

Very soon a large house was secured on Craig Street, fitted

up with three wards and made capable of receiving twenty-four

patients. The movement now became popular. A public meeting was

called. The idea of a “General Hospital” took hold. The medical

department was first under the control of four professional men

in connection with the “Montréal Medical Institution,” which

afterwards became the first medical faculty of McGill University.

On May 1, 1819, the patients were removed from the “House of

Recovery” to the new building, which now assumed the name of

the Montreal General Hospital. About this time a site used as a

nursery, on Dorchester Street, was up for sale. This lot then

“in the suburbs, was chosen for its proximity to the town, and

the salubrity of the situation.” In view of erecting a hospital

thereon it was purchased on the joint credit of the Hon. J.

Richardson, the Honorable Mr. McGillivray and Mr. S. Gerrard. A

contract was signed for the new hospital early in January, 1821.

The Hon. J. Richardson, Rev. J. (Dean) Bethune, Doctor Robertson,

John Molson, D. Ross, John Fry and A. Skakel, Esqs., were

appointed a committee to superintend the work.

The corner-stone of the building was laid with Masonic ceremonies

on the 6th of June, 1821, and the building was opened for the

reception of patients on the 1st of May, 1822, the cost of the

erection being £4,556 currency. This building, which is now

represented by the entrance hall and rooms above, was designed to

accommodate seventy-two patients.

The subsequent history consists chiefly in the addition of block

after block of buildings to the original small stone central

edifice, each addition being named after a generous donor or

honoured citizen.

On the death of the Hon. John Richardson, the first president,

it was resolved to perpetuate his name and connection with

the Hospital by the addition of a wing to be named after him.

A generous response was made by the public, and in 1832 the

building attached to the east end of the original structure was

opened for the reception of patients.

In 1848 the widow of Chief Justice Reid signified her intention

of adding a wing corresponding with the first, to be named after

her deceased husband.

Special provision was made for the treatment of children by the

erection of the Morland wing, in rear of the Reid wing. This

building was added in memory of Mr. Thomas Morland, an active

member of the Committee of Management, and was opened in 1874. It

contained rooms afterwards utilized for outdoor patients, private

wards, and accommodation for servants, which was subsequently

transformed to a female ward.

In accordance with the views of the founders of the Hospital,

accommodation was long provided for patients suffering from

infectious fevers. Cases of smallpox, typhus, scarlatina,

diphtheria and measles, were for years accommodated in the

central building or its wings. During the great epidemic of

typhus or as it was better known, ship fever, brought to the

country chiefly by Irish immigrants, the Hospital capacity was

taxed to its utmost, and temporary sheds had to be erected for

the accommodation of the sufferers. In the years 1831-32, 1832-33

and 1847-48, 5,631 patients were admitted of whom 3,458 suffered

from fever. Doctor Howard, in his report, states that over half

the fever patients were cases of typhus.

Smallpox again, which in former years was very prevalent in

Montreal, was treated in special wards of the Hospital. Owing

to the disease spreading to other patients a brick building

afterwards used as a kitchen and laundry, was constructed in the

rear of the Richardson wing. Half the cost of this structure

was generously donated by Mr. Wm. Molson; the building was

used for infectious cases up to 1894. At that time, after many

applications and much pressure from the governors, the city

undertook to subscribe $6,000 annually to the Hospital to defray

the expense of providing for infectious disease. Two houses were

utilized for a year in the neighbourhood, and the department was

then moved to the Civic Hospital, on Moreau Street. Half this

building is controlled by the General Hospital and is supported

financially by the city.

Two surgical pavilions and a large operating theatre were opened

for use in December, 1892. Mr. George Stephen, afterwards Lord

Mount Stephen, one of the generous donors of the Royal Victoria

Hospital, contributed $50,000 in memory of the late Dr. G.W.

Campbell, formerly dean of McGill Medical Faculty, and a bequest

from Mr. David Greenshields of $40,000 was also utilised in

adding these wings. From that time accommodation for surgical

cases has been excellent. The old part of the Hospital was,

however, in a very unsatisfactory state. The wards were small and

the building antiquated. Lack of funds only had long prevented a

radical change being made in this block. The president, Mr. F.

Wolferstan Thomas, set himself the task of collecting funds to

renovate this part of the building and to render it in keeping

with the surgical side. As the outcome of his untiring work in

aid of the Hospital $100,000 was collected. The interior of the

old building was pulled down and it was skillfully remodelled,

under the direction of Mr. A.T. Taylor, for the accommodation of

medical, gynæcological and ophthalmic patients, the old operating

room being retained as a medical lecture, and gynæcological

operating theatre.

It was evidently the intention of the founders of the Hospital

to provide for proper nursing so far as was possible, before

the advent of Florence Nightingale. We read in the first annual

report, among other rules, that the nurse, on admission of a

patient, “shall immediately wash his or her face and hands, neck

and arms, feet and legs, with tepid water; she shall give him or

her (if he or she have none) an hospital shirt and night-cap.”

Again they are instructed to keep themselves clean and decently

clothed, and to be diligent in complying with the orders of

the medical officers, surgeon and matron. Surely we have here

inculcated two important duties of the modern nurse, cleanliness

and obedience.

In 1890 the present successful school of nurses was established

and in 1897 the Jubilee Nursing Home on the hospital grounds was

being erected, while in 1913 a large annex was added to meet the

growing demands of the population on the charity of the Hospital.

THE NOTRE DAME HOSPITAL

This institution is situated n Notre Dame Street, near the

eastern Canadian Pacific Railway station, in a populous

commercial and manufacturing centre, and in close proximity to

the harbour.

It was founded in 1880. The branch of the Laval Medical Faculty,

established in Montreal in 1877, had no hospital, its professors

and students being excluded from the Hôtel Dieu, on account of

the difficulties that had arisen between the Faculty and the

Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery, the latter holding the

Hôtel Dieu. Knowing that a hospital was greatly needed in the

commercial and manufacturing part of the city, and would afford

abundant clinical material, the professors undertook to found

Notre Dame Hospital.

Dr. E. Persillier-Lachapelle, taking the lead, obtained the

co-operation of the Rev. Victor Rousselot, of the Seminary of St.

Sulpice, who assumed half the financial responsibility of the

enterprise, the professors taking the other half.

The co-operation of the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) was next

obtained to care for the sick and see to the internal economy of

the Hospital.

The old Donegani Hotel was rented, and the contracts for

repairing, renovating and furnishing the building granted; and

on the 1st of July, 1880, the Hospital, with fifty beds, was

inaugurated. In 1881 it was incorporated, the corporation being

under the direction of a Medical Board, a Board of Governors and

a Board of Management. Later on the Hospital became possessor

of the Donegana Hotel and the adjoining estates on each side,

and gradually completed the important repairs and renovations

requisite to adapt those buildings to the needs of the

institution.

Its presidents were successively: Hon. L.J. Forget, Hon. J.R.

Thibaudeau, Mr. C.P. Hébert, and Hon. L.O. Loranger.

The first superntendent and adviser of the Hospital was Dr.

E.P. Lachapelle, who filled the position for many years, being

succeeded by Dr. L. de Lothbinière Harwood.

The citizens of Montreal and the public generally have always

contributed liberally to the maintenance of the institution.

The ladies of Montreal, fully interested in the good work to be

done, founded an association--The Lady Patronesses of Notre Dame

Hospital--to co-operate more effectively with the directors.

The Hospital to-day contains 150 beds, the greater number of

which are devoted to the poor and unfortunate sick of all races

and creeds.

Besides the wards there is an outdoor department, comprising

dispensaries for general medicine, surgery, eye, nose, throat and

ear diseases, diseases of women, diseases of the skin, diseases

of children and nervous diseases.

In the Hospital proper, there are men’s and women’s wards for

surgery, medicine, ophthalmology and gynæcology. There is a

pathological laboratory in the hospital as well as an electrical

and radiological one. An ambulance service does active work,

succouring the sick and injured, and providing the Hospital with

abundant clinical cases. The whole of this varied and practical

clinical material is classified and utilized by the Faculty for

the graded and thorough instruction of its students. The medical

service is directed by a bureau of thirty-two physicians. The

Grey Nuns are in charge of the hospital nursing department. The

hospital has now an annex being constructed on Sherbrooke Street,

facing Park Lafontaine. By its side is the hospital of St. Paul

for contagious diseases.

WESTERN HOSPITAL

This hospital was first projected in 1871, the year in which

the Medical Faculty[1] of Bishops College was established. For

some time previously the want of a hospital in the West End had

been felt and spoken of, but further than this no action was

taken. When Bishops Medical Faculty was in its inception, it was

feared they might not get full facilities for their students in

the existing hospitals. Circumstances which occurred seemed to

indicate that this would be realized. As a result a friend of

Bishops College, Major Mills, offered to give $12,000 to build

a western hospital. This donation was put in writing by Doctor

Wilkins, then in Bishops, and signed by Major Mills, and an

active canvass commenced. In a short time $30,000 was subscribed,

the charter for incorporation was assented to on January 20,

1874, the present site purchased, and on the 29th June, 1876, the

foundation stone of the first building was laid with appropriate

ceremony. It is not required to notice the vicissitudes, which

the building met with, beyond stating that for several years it

remained unfinished. When at last completed, the Western Hospital

Corporation was not in position to commence hospital work. It

was leased, in 1884, by the Women’s Hospital, the charter of

which was owned by the Medical Faculty of Bishops and opened for

hospital work, there being two departments--a Gynæcological and

a Maternity. A most successful work was done by this hospital

when, in 1895, the marked growth of the city westward seemed to

indicate that the time had arrived for putting the building to

its original purpose, that of a general hospital. The lease with

the Women’s Hospital was therefore cancelled by mutual consent,

and in the fall of 1895, the Western Hospital, as a general

hospital, began its active work. The ground owned by the Hospital

Corporation is nearly three acres in extent, and is bounded by

four streets, one being an avenue of over one hundred feet wide.

This avenue leads directly to many of the large manufactories in

the West End, and they furnish the Hospital with a large amount

of its surgical work.

In 1907 the charter was altered and the new building was erected,

the old one becoming the nurse’s home. The late Mr. Peter Lyale

was the president at the time, having been in that office from

1906 to his death in 1912. He was succeeded by Mr. D. Lorne

McGibbon.

THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL

The Royal Victoria Hospital received its name in commemoration of

the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, in memory of which it was

founded in that year.

On the 2d of December, 1893, His Excellency the Governor General

assisted at the inauguration of the new hospital, which was

devoted, by Lord Mount Stephen and Sir Donald Smith, K.C.M.G.,

etc., to the cure of the sick, of whatever race or creed, to

the training of nurses, and to the furtherance of science. The

building is erected within a lot of eighteen acres, purchased

by the founders for $90,000, to which another five acres, held

under long lease from the city, make a convenient addition. It

stands on part of the Mountain Park and faces on Pine Avenue and

University Street.