PEOCEEUINGS FOE 1891. XIII 



memorial which our neighbors possess to recall the services of the great men that their country can 

 claim. It is well at times to forget this practical prosaic present, and have our thoughts carried to 

 the various stages of our country's progress, and be forced in this way to remember the services of the 

 men who struggled amid many difiScnilties to give Canada a position among the prosperous countries 

 of the world. The past has its many lessons for us who live in the present, and it would be well to 

 have always before us something to remind us what we owe to its struggles and achievements. 



The historic buildings of Montreal have nearly all disappeared. The last vestige of the old wall 

 was swept away to clear the site of the Dalhousie Square Railway Statioo. The quaintly picturesque 

 architecture of the Bonsecours Church has been marred by what is called restoration. Two towers 

 of the old Fort de la Montagne alone remain to tell of the stormy youth of Montreal. There are a few 

 private houses left which reach back into the old Fi'ench régime, but they are few and are much 

 altered. The western end of the Seminary still remains practically the same as when built more 

 than 200 years ago. One public building alone remains to testify to the vicissitudes of our past his- 

 tory, and the eye of the destroyer is fixed upon it. This is the building opposite the City Hall known 

 as the Chateau de Eamezay, and in spite of the alterations made in it something of the spirit of the 

 old life of Montreal lingers round it. It was built shortly after the year 1704 by Claude de Eamezay, 

 who had been (Toveruor of Three Elvers, and in that year was made Governor of Montreal. He was 

 an ofiBcer of great distinction, who had served the King in many difficult enterprises in Canada. He 

 died in 1724. His heirs sold the building to La Compagnie des Indes, and it was the headquarters of 

 the fur trade until that company became extinct in 1750. Shortly after the conquest the English 

 Government bought it for an official residence of the Governors of the English régime\v\\Qn they came 

 to Montreal. Dui-ing the winter of 1775-C Benjamin Franklin, Carroll and C'hase, the Commissioners 

 of the Continental Congress, who came here to endeavor to shake the allegiance of the French-Cana- 

 dian.s, resided in this building. It was the headquarters of General Wooster and Benedict Arnold in 

 1776. After tlie union of 1840-1 it became the official headquarters of the Governors-General of 

 Canada. The Earl of Elgin was the last to occupy it. A building like this is an historical object 

 lesson. It has been associated with many brilliant soldiers and statesmen, and to destroy it wantonly 

 is to display careless indifference to thehistoricpastof our common country — common alike to French 

 and English. This building was erected twenty-five years before Independence Hall in Philadelphia. 

 That is now turned into a National Historical Museum, and any Philadelphian who should j)ropose to 

 sell it out for building lots would be thought insane. It was built fifteen or twenty years before 

 Fanueil Hall in Boston. AVhat Bostonian would dare to propose jjulling that building down ? If we 

 are to have a national life the iconoclasts who seek to destroy every visible relic of our past historj^ 

 must be resisted. 



The Council of the Royal Society now appeal to the patriotism of the Canadian people and gov- 

 ernments to preserve this monument of the historic past by associating it with the requirements of 

 the present and making it a national repository of those relics, memorials and archives, which will 

 illustrate the history of Montreal and of Quebec generally, and can most conveniently and properlj- 

 be kept in such a place for the information and profit of the Canadian people at large, who should con- 

 sider a proposal of this kind a matter, not of mere local, but of wide national interest. 



The Council, in concluding this report, ask the members of this Societ}- to consider well the closing 

 words of Lord Lome's sympathetic letter and to make it their aim to promote by all the means in 

 their power the intellectual development of this country, and to create tiiat powerful national feeling 

 which can alone enable Canada to preserve her autonomy on this great continent. Then in our 

 founder's eloquent words : " It will be a satisfaction to j-ou all in the future to think that as members 

 of this Society you have had a part in the sentiment which makes Canada one people, able to lift up 

 her head to ask God to bless her progress, and to rely upon herself with the Divine aid." 



