returned to France impoverished by his efforts to promote the welfare of the colonies under his rule. The error of judgment that made him the dupe or accomplice of Bigot and the rival of Montcalm probably caused France the loss of Canada.

It is said that when Claude de Ramezay died (no date given) his heirs found themselves unable to bear the expense of keeping up so large a residence, and sold it to "La Compagnie des Indes."* From 1745 to 1760 it was thus the headquarters of a great French trading company, the resort of Indian voyageurs and coureurs de bois, coming in from the north and west with their loads of furs, and selling or bartering them to the agents of the company, by whom they were shipped to France. This company also held by charter a monopoly in the purchase and sale of all imports and exports in the colony. When Canada passed into the possession of Great Britain, in 1760, the Château de Ramezay became General Amherst's headquarters, and subsequently for a short time those of General Gage. We find from Withrow's History that it was a De Ramsay (as Withrow spells it) who surrendered Quebec to General Townshend after Wolfe's victory on the Heights of Abraham. There was no absolute necessity for surrendering Quebec. De Bougainville was at Cap Rouge, and De Vaudreuil at Beauport, each with a force of from 1,500 to 2,000 men. De Lévis, who was a General of energy and ability, had been at once summoned from Montreal by the Governor of Canada (De Vaudreuil) to take up the command of the French forces vice Montcalm, who had died of the wounds received on the Plains of Abraham during the night that followed Wolfe's victory. De Lévis wrote to De Ramsay to hold out to the last, promising him prompt support and relief. Meanwhile, De Bougainville and De Vaudreuil, the one in rear and the other in front of General Townshend's besieging force on the Heights of Abraham, appear to have done absolutely nothing, although they had it in their power, if not to attack, at any rate to harry the British camp and position. On the 18th of September, five days after Wolfe's victory, De Ramsay surrendered. He cannot have been a man of much strength of character, for in Montcalm's last moments he must needs appeal to him for counsel regarding the defence of Quebec. Montcalm begged him to leave him alone and in peace. "I have given my whole life to my country, and would give my last moments to God," he said. keeping I leave the honour of France." De Lévis, had he been there, might have saved both that honour and Quebec; but in the hands of the triumvirate, De Vaudreuil, De Bougainville, and De Ramsay, there was small hope for either.

"To your

When Canada was ceded to the British, the Château de Ramezay was not at first annexed as the residence of the Governor of Montreal. It was purchased from the "Companie des Indes" by William Grant, Baron de * Familiarly known as "La Grande Compagnie," and popularly termed "La Friponne." Its headquarters were at Quebec, in the hands of Messieurs Bigot, Varin, Cadet, De Péarn, and others. To those who are indisposed to study books of a purely historical character, it may be interesting to know that in the well-written romances, entitled "The Golden Dog," by W. Kirby, and "The Seats of the Mighty," by Gilbert Parker, they will find accurate pictures of men, manners, and life in Canada from 1745 to 1760. The characters introduced are historical, and the events are based on fact.

Longueil.* It is doubtful if the Grants ever occupied the château, for it continued to be known for some ten years after the cession by the name of the "Indian House." The Government of Canada then, finding it necessary to provide the Lieutenant-Governor with a suitable residence, leased it. The first Lieutenant-Governor who tenanted it was Mr. Cramahé. He had scarcely settled there when the approach of General Montgomery, in November, 1775, with a force of New England Revolutionists compelled him to vacate it and retire to Quebec. There, pending the arrival of General Sir Guy Carleton, he made energetic preparations for the defence of Quebec, and declined to give any answer to Benedict Arnold's summons to surrender, which was made on the 14th of October. On the 19th Sir Guy Carleton arrived, and assumed command of the defence. It was on the 12th of November, 1775, that General Montgomery entered Montreal, and on the 4th of December his forces, and those of Arnold, about 1,200 men in all, appeared before Quebec. Montgomery was slain in a vain attempt to capture the town on the night of the 31st December, 1775. Quebec was not then fortified as it is now. (The existing fortifications were constructed at a very heavy cost under the orders of the Great Duke about sixty-five years ago.) The defences that separated the Upper from the Lower Town were but weak. They were approached by a street now known as Mountain Hill, and by a steep flight of steps, which has since disappeared. The foot of Mountain Hill was approached from the east and west by narrow streets through the Lower Town under the cliff. These streets were barricaded and held by a small number of British troops. In the barricade facing west, against which Montgomery with 500 or 600 men advanced, were two guns charged with grape. When the defenders saw the attacking column advancing over the snow, they discharged the two guns and swept away the head of the column, including General Montgomery and some of his staff. His force, left without a leader, then retreated. Meanwhile, Arnold with his column was pressing hard on the defenders of the barricaded street on the other side, and slowly forcing them back to the foot of Mountain Hill. Montgomery's death saved Quebec. Had his column succeeded, Arnold and Montgomery combined would in all probability have forced the defences of the Upper Town, and the only city then left in the hand of the British in Canada would have fallen. Had this happened, possibly the Dominion of Canada would never have come into existence. Both England and the Dominion owe much to this determined defence of Quebec.

On the cliff above the spot where Montgomery fell, bravely leading his men on through a snowstorm, a tablet has been placed; and inserted in the walls of the city, near the Gate of St. Louis, is an inscription put up to his memory by "a few American children." French, English, and Americans have all alike contributed to make the history of Quebec, and that fact is to-day recognised in the monuments that honour and commemorate side by side the names of brave men of all three nations, Montcalm and Wolfe, De Lévis and Murray, Champlain and Montgomery.

The Grants, Barons de Longeuil, hold the only Colonial peerage in the British Empire. Their barony, though created by the Bourbons, is held in right of their domain in Canada, and as such is now recognised by the Herald's office.

On the 31st of December, 1875, under the auspices of Colonel T. B. Strange, R.A., then commanding the Canadian artillery, a ball was given in the citadel of Quebec to commemorate the centenary of the repulse of Arnold and Montgomery's attack. Colonel Strange and all the officers appeared in the uniform of 1775. At the stroke of midnight a cupboard-door in the ball-room flew open and a boy-bugler jumped out and blew the call to arms. At the same time the heavy tramp of soldiers was heard coming down the long corridor. In marched a sergeant's guard in the uniform of 1775Colonel Strange and his officers advanced to meet them, while all the guests crowded in from every side. Verses suitable to, and commemorative of, the occasion were then recited by the officer of the guard, and replied to (also in verse) by Colonel Strange, the author of the verses. The guard then withdrew. It was a romantic and impressive coup de théâtre. Discharges of blank from the guns on the ramparts added to the effect. The memory of Colonel (now Major-General) T. B. Strange is still respected and cherished in Quebec for the humanity and courage with which, at the risk of his life, he quieted several serious riots which took place in the town during the period of his command.

Arnold, after his repulse and Montgomery's death, remained inactive in camp before Quebec. A M. de Beaujeu (a descendant of the De Beaujeu who defeated Braddock's force at Monongahela in 1755*), with 350 loyal French Canadians, made a sortie and attacked Arnold's camp. The attack was repulsed with loss. Finally, early in May, 1776, the Americans were driven from before Quebec, leaving guns, stores, provisions, and even their sick behind. Meanwhile, three American Commissioners, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, came to Montreal to urge the Canadians to join the revolted colonies against Great Britain. The Marquis de La Fayette was the foremost of the foreign European officers who gave his services in aid of the North American Revolutionists. He did his best to draw the French Canadians from their allegiance to Great Britain. They, however, showed no inclination to fight side by side in revolt with the men whose sworn enemies they and their ancestors had been for a full century. Moreover, the Quebec Act of 1774 had won for the British Government their gratitude and goodwill. They declined to accede to the overtures of de La Fayette. His exasperation found vent in the parting words, "Vous êtes un troupeau de moutons." Benjamin Franklin certainly, if not the other two Commissioners, resided when in Montreal in the Château de Ramezay, and heref a certain M. Mesplet,

* It is a curious coincidence that at Monongahela De Beaujeu was killed and Braddock died of his wounds; while at Quebec in 1759 Wolfe was killed and Montcalm died of his wounds. Of the two last one monument, erected on the site of the old Château de St. Louis, at Quebec, now commemorates the death and the fame.

+ I possess (among other photographs of this château) one that shows the vault in which this printing press was worked. The vehicle in the picture is locally known as a calèche, and is said to be 150 years old. It is in excellent condition, the leather straps on which the body is hung looking as sound as the day they were made. The spokes of the wheels trend or curve outwards from the hub to the tire, so that the wheel is in shape slightly concave. A similar vehicle still bearing the name of calèche (vulgo "calash ") is in use to this day in Quebec.

under the orders of Benjamin Franklin, set up the first printing press in Montreal. The first printing press in Canada was set up in Quebec in 1764, and on the 21st of June of that year the first number of the "Quebec Gazette," a journal which till recently was still published, made its appearance. Benedict Arnold, after his failure at Quebec, went to Montreal and took command of the revolutionary troops there. He resided in the Château de Ramezay. By June, 1776, General Burgoyne had arrived at Quebec with 10,000 men, and Brigadier-General Frazer had routed the Americans at Three Rivers. Arnold then found it necessary to withdraw with his troops from Montreal to Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. Thus ended the invasion of Canada by the revolutionary forces. Among those who joined and reinforced Sir Guy Carleton in the spring of 1776 was Colonel Barry St. Leger, in command of the 34th Foot. He took part in Sir Guy's operations in 1776, and in the spring of 1777 started to co-operate with General Burgoyne in his invasion of New York State. As is known, the enterprise ended in the surrender of General Burgoyne and 6,000 men at Saratoga. On 21st October, 1782, Colonel Barry St. Leger was appointed to a brigade in the Army in Canada, "his command consisting of the troops on the Island of Montreal, Isle of Jesus, Miller Island as far as Côteau du Lac upon the north, and from thence to La Prairie exclusive on the south side of the River St. Lawrence." He was Commandant of the King's Forces in Canada in 1784, his headquarters being at Montreal, in the Château de Ramezay. It is of an old Irish private of St. Leger's regiment (the 34th), named Darby Monaghan, that the story is told on which is founded Charles Lever's humorous scene in "Jack Hinton" of the knighthood of Sir Corney Delaney.

After the withdrawal of the Americans the Château de Ramezay remained untenanted until the Government bought it from the Grants, and made it the official residence of the Governors of Lower Canada tem

porarily resident in Montreal. Their permanent residence was at Quebec, and for years the Governors, when they visited Montreal, had to bring their own furniture with them. At last, however, a grant of money was voted to them for the purchase of permanent furniture for their Montreal residence. For half a century it was occupied by successive Governors, who made many alterations and additions. Lord Metcalfe (1843-44) was the last resident Governor, the seat of government between the years 1841 to 1858 being fixed successively at Quebec, Kingston, Montreal, then at Toronto and Quebec alternately, and finally, by Her Majesty's decision, at Ottawa, where it has since remained.

The union of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada was formally proclaimed on the 10th of February, 1841. After the establishment of the Governor-General in a new Government House, and again, when the headquarters of the provincial government of the Lower Province was transferred to Quebec, the Château de Ramezay was used for various governmental purposes. Among others, the Law Courts sat there, and afterwards certain rooms were used for classes of the Normal School and of the Medical

* Vide "Historical Reminiscences of the Château de Ramezay," Quebec Daily Telegraph of November 27, 1897.

Faculty of Laval. The extensive vaults and cellars below the house had in the 18th century been used by the French as store-houses for the large quantities of supplies which, owing to the hostility of the Indians, it was necessary to maintain there. So incessant were at times the raids of the Iroquois, whether instigated by the New England Government or not, that cultivation was almost an impossibility, and all food supplies had to be imported from France and stored in Montreal. Some of the vaults also were used as dungeons, and at times refractory Indian chiefs were probably incarcerated there to give them time to see reason; while in some cases they were detained as hostages for the good faith of their tribe. There was also a deep well in one vault, now boarded over. Under the English Governors, these vaults were used as wine-cellars, servants' offices, and quarters for the Governor's guard, for the preservation of the old French and English official and other records, and for the storage of fuel and supplies. In one vault we still find the kitchen. The huge fireplace was fitted up above with an arrangement for smoking ham and bacon, while on one side opened a large oven, about 5 feet in diameter, for baking bread. In a recess close by was hung a drum, in which worked, like a squirrel in a cage, the turnspit-dog that roasted the joints. In the corner of another vault still lies a portion of the first system of water-pipes used in Montreal. It is the trunk of a tree, 10 or 12 feet long, by 9 or 10 inches in diameter, hollowed out. The walls of the vaults are in some places of great thickness, ranging from 5 to 8 feet. In the early part of the 18th century, when a good house was built, it was solidly built. It is stated that some fifty years ago, soon after the château ceased to be the residence of the Governors, the City Council authorized the demolition of a portion of it, in order to open up a thoroughfare. The building was thus cut in two. The portion which is now used as the museum was retained by the civic authorities. The remainder was turned into a hotel, in which Jenny Lind and Charles Dickens, amongst others, are said to have stayed. Between 1880 and 1890 the City Magistrates of Montreal meted out justice for petty misdemeanours in this building. Rooms which had

been tenanted by a Governor-General, and which for 140 years had been the centre of the French and British rule in Montreal thus gradually sank to the level of a police magistrate's court. About this time, however, public attention was drawn to this building (largely owing to the exertions of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal) and to its antiquarian and historical interest. When, in 1893, the Provincial Government offered it for sale by public auction, it was bought by the Corporation of the City of Montreal with the view of preserving the building and estab lishing in it a free public archæological, scientific, and historical museum. In 1895 the custody of the château, on behalf of the people of the city, was vested in the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society. The château is, as before stated, very solidly built, and, preserved as it will be for the future, and protected as it has been from the risks of fire by the introduction of fire-proof flooring, cught to have before it a long life as a memorial of the past history of Montreal and Lower Canada, and as a museum of their records and antiquities. Here also at the present day the descendants