Section II., 1885. [ ^^ ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



V. — The Annals of an Old Society. 

 By John M. Harper, B.A., Ph.D., F.E.I.S. 



(Read May 28, 1885.) 



No name stands ont more prominently in the pages of Canadian history than that of 

 tlie city of Qnebee. With its records of sieges, battles, and political moA'ements, the old 

 town forms an excellent vantage-gronnd for the student of history. Here he may watch, 

 as through a kaleidoscope, the grouping of events round the nucleus of a new nation. As 

 he saunters through its narrow streets, where the dim religious light of the past still 

 seems to play, or as he breathes the higher air of its citadel and ramparts to find in it still 

 the flavour of war, hi.s interest is awakened and warms into enthusiasm. He has read of 

 the past of Canada, but here he seems to live in it. Here he finds : 



" The glimp.ses of an outer beauty shine, 

 Like hope around the corner of a task. 

 To guide his footsteps lingering near the scenes 

 Of triumph and defeat. In cul-de-sac 

 And thorouglifare tlio very stones reflect 

 Some mosaic of events ; within them flows 

 The tide of peaceful life, and yet the ebb 

 Of other days still ripples in its calm, 

 To sing of clanging arms and military parade. 

 To chant the martial song of valiant men 

 Impatient to possess, or moan the dirge ' 

 Of dire retreat that knocks at every gate." 



And as he passes from battle-field to bastion, from embrasure and glacis to esplanade and 

 terrace, from restored convents and churches, with their relics and tombs, to decayed man- 

 sions and palaces hallowed by the labours of the antic^uary and novelist, he can watch, 

 with increasing pleasure, the light and shade of minor events and social life playing 

 around the events of a higher historic dignity. 



And what Quebec is to Canada from an historical point of view, the Chateau St. Louis, 

 or all that remains of it in Castle Haldimaud, is to the city itself. If the cjuaiut grouping 

 of buildings within the walls seems but a bit of the Old World set clown on the borders 

 of the New, the relics of the old Chateair no less shed a borrowed light from the social 

 traditions of France and England. The historic nook, once its site, lies at the head of the 

 steep thoroughfare that connects the lower with the upper town, and is as celebrated as 



the prospect-point of 



" That beauteous shrine of nature gay festooned 

 Witli woodland grandeur, where the fervent soul 

 May drink a draught from summer's rippling bloom," 



