64 JOHN M. HARPER ON THE 



studious habits, and possessing a reputation for integrity and official ability. It was 

 during his visit to England on public affairs in 1839, that he took time from his pressing 

 official duties to make some valuable collections for the Literary and Historical Society of 

 Quebec. 



To Abbé Holmes is also due much credit for the industry which he showed in the 

 Society's affairs, both at home and abroad. As a distinguished teacher in the Laval Semin- 

 ary, he took great delight in the study of botany and geography, and his career in that 

 institution shows how well he understood the true principles of ediication, as well as the 

 natural methods of imparting instruction. In 1836, he was sent on a mission to Europe 

 by the Government, to examine the systems of normal training then in use in the various 

 countries. During his visit he made several collections of books and documents, and 

 completed arrangements with societies in Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy, for an 

 exchange of publications with the Quebec Society, of which he was a prominent member, 

 being at one time engaged on the Committee on Historical Documents, and president of the 

 arts class. 



In 1840, a selection was made from the documents procured in this way and printed 

 for distribution as exchanges. Three years later, the journals of Jacc^ues Cartier, which 

 had long been out of print, were republished ttuder the atispices of the Society. Of this 

 reprint, it is said, that it was taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library of Paris, sup- 

 posed to be a transcript of the original writing of the navigator himself. Subsequently 

 the committee also published a pamphlet including the voyages of Cartier and Roberval. 



Owing to lack of funds, and the disinclination of Parliament to make a sufficient 

 grant to meet the expenses of pursuing investigations in Europe, the Society made arran- 

 gements, in 1846, to procure copies of some of the transcripts in the Broadhead collec- 

 tion at Albany. Mr. Cochrane went in person to Albany to mark the portions to be 

 selected from the thirty-eight volumes in the collection, and after six months' labour the 

 copyist had placed in the keeping of the Society over twelve hundred pages of manuscript. 

 In this way the association began fully to realize, through its operations, the main pur- 

 pose of its organization. Its permanent usefulness was now assured, and before long the 

 success which had attended the activity of the Committee on Historical Documents, excited 

 in others a desire to take part in the undertaking of collecting, from every country, what- 

 ever historical information they could find bearing upon Canada. Mention has only to 

 be made of the valitable collection of manttscripts made in France by Mr. Faribault, and 

 finally placed in Laval University ; the collection prepared in London, and arranged in 

 six volumes for the Society ; and that known as the Papineau collection deposited partly 

 with the Society and partly in the library of the ProAancial Parliament, — to show how far 

 the work began to assume a phase of the greatest importance to the writers of history. I 

 might go on to show hoAV the Society, guided towards the spirit of enthttsiasm by Dr. 

 Anderson, J. M. LeMoine, and Dr. Miles, used its infltience in behalf of an Archives 

 De^jartment, to be organized by the Federal Government. In concluding this brief paper 

 on the early annals of our Society, I can only use the words of Lotiis Turcotte, whose 

 early death was such a loss to Canadian literature. " Sitch," says he, " are the services 

 which our predecessors rendered at that time to the history of Canada, by the publication 

 of so many valuable memoirs, and by the collection of so many manuscripts. Previously 

 they had been otherwise engaged. Yet now, in face of statements which pointed to some 



