60 JOHN M. HARPEE ON TSB 



with serious loss both to the library and museum. A picture of the old Chateau is still 

 extaut, exhibiting the main building rising on its eyr)' near the rocks over which 

 Durham Terrace was subsec[uently built. As the light streams from its windows on this 

 memorable night and floods court-yard and outlook, one is fain to peer through the glass at 

 the old citizens of Quebec in assembly, whom our antiquary, Mr. J. M. LeMoine, has laboured 

 so diligently to identify. But the list of membership is all that we have to guide us, and 

 the lines of identification are too indistinct to be of much service. Yet it is not difficult 

 to recognize the man who sits to the right of Lord Dalhousie. Small in stature, yet digni- 

 fied in his bearing, his face has in it the lineaments of one who has succeeded in the world 

 by the force of intellect. Of an old Loyalist stock, he had found his way to New Bruns- 

 wick in lïSô, where, living among those of his own kindred and political principles, he 

 studied law in the office of "Ward Chipman, one of the founders of the city of St. John. 

 After comi^leting liis course of study as the first law student in New Brunswick, he 

 selected Quebec as a place of residence ; and there, passing from one stage of promotion to 

 another in the law courts of his adopted province, he finally attained to the exalted posi- 

 tion of Chief- Justice and President of the Executive Council. At the time of which we 

 write, he was a man of about sixty years of age, with sixteen years of his life still to run, 

 as anxiol^s as ever to promote the interests of the city which had witnessed his marvellous 

 success as a lawyer. He was the first President elect of the Literary and Historical Society 

 of Quebec, — a fitting recognition of the active part he took in its organization. 



To understand fully the origin of the Society we have for a moment to go behind the 

 scenes. Lord Dalhousie was the founder of the Society, but it was Dr. John Charlton 

 Fisher that was really its originator. That gentleman had been invited from New York 

 to undertake the editorship of the Q/)ï««/ Grtce/te, published at Quebec in the interest of 

 Lord Dalhousie's administration. As affairs were conducted before the days of responsible 

 government, the personality of the Grovernor-General was more intimately mixed up with 

 political issues than it is now-a-days ; and it is said that, becoming dissatisfied with the 

 political tone of the Official Gazelle, which was conducted by John Neilson, Lord Dalhousie 

 had encouraged Dr. Fisher to try his fortune in the ancient capital, promising to procure 

 for him as an initial support the printing and advertising in the gift of the Government. 

 In New York he had made for himself a literary reputation, and having taken an active 

 part in the work of the Literary and Historical Society of that city, he naturally sought to 

 organize a similar society in Canada when he took up his abode iu Quebec. Coming in 

 contact with the Chief-Justice in connection with the affairs of the administration, he 

 doubtless laid his plans before him and His Excellency, and through their co-operation 

 finally secured the permanence of the new Society. 



Chief-Justice Sewell, in his inaugural address, refers to the meritorious purpose of 

 the Society and the results to be expected from its proposed work. " Appointed to address 

 a Societ}'^," he is reported as saying, "distinguished in its origin by the rank and character 

 of its noble founder, and in the first stage of its progress by the respectability and talents 

 of its numerous members, whose high and meritorious purpose is to extend more amply 

 the advantages of science and literature to a remote but rising portion of the great empire 

 to which we belong aud the beneficial effects of its disinterested labours to future times, 

 I am anxious to devote the time, during which I hope to be honoured with your attention, 

 to a subject which, corresponding with tlie views of our institution and involving matter 



