14 LeMOINB on the LAST 



rapine, are rapidly taking the place of patriotism, public spirit and probity, among Cana- 

 dian officials. For good or for bad, we may expect to find society in the colony a reflex 

 of what it was in the parent state. The waters of the brook cannot be pure, wJieu the 

 stream that feeds it pours forth the sewage of the city. 



War-loving France, staggering under reverses in G-ermany, in the East and West 

 Indies, with an empty treasury, had not the means, even if she had the heart, to defend 

 her distant offspring against foreign aggression. 



Alas, chivalrous old France of Henry IV, to what depths of infamy art thou 

 descending ! Lower still shalt thoii have to sink. Thy streets, thy squares, thy palaces, 

 thy hamlets, will yet be deluged with blood, ere matters mend ! There is yet, however, 

 on earth, a power who can shield from the guillotine the few devoted sous you may for- 

 get on Canadian soil — your old rival. Great Britain. 



Oppressive taxes were heaped on the people in France, the privileged classes claiming 

 exemption, in order to carry on distant and useless wars, or to pamper court favorites. 

 Vice, luxury, unbridled license were rampant amidst the privileged classes, the nobles and 

 higher clergy ; open profligacy, at court. Quebec received her fashions and her officials 

 from France ; the latter came with their vices ; several of these vices were expensive. 

 The French Sultan, Louis XV, must needs have his harem, his gambling tables, his rouged 

 mistresses, his parc-aux-cerfs. The highway to fortune, for courtiers, lies through the 

 smiles of La Pompadour Quebec, too, possessed its miniature French court, on the green 

 banks of the St. Charles. Gilded vice flaunted at the intendant's palace ; gaunt famine 

 preyed on the vitals of the people. It was so at Versailles. It was so at Quebec. Lust, 

 selfishness, rapine, everywhere, except among the small party of the Honnêtes Gens, such 

 as de Montcalm, de Vaudreuil, de Longueuil, de Bougainville, de la Corne, de Beaujeu, 

 Taché, de Lery, de St. Ours, and a few others ; it was a carnival of pleasure, to be followed 

 by the voice of wailing and by the roll of the muffled drum. 



In 1*748, the evil genius of New France, La Pompadour's protégé, Francois Bigot, 

 thirteenth and last intendant, landed at Quebec. 



Born in Guienne, of a family eminent at the bar. Bigot, prior to coming to Canada, 

 had occupied the high position of intendant in Louisiana and Acadia. In stature he was 

 small but well proportioned, active, full of pluck, fond of display and pleasure, and an 

 inveterate gambler. Had he confined his operations merely to trading, his commercial 

 ventures would have excited but little censure, trading having been resorted to by 

 several high colonial officials. His pay was totally inadequate to the importance of his 

 office, and quite insufficient to meet the expenditure his exalted office led him into. His 

 speculations, his venality, the extortions practiced on the community by his heartless 

 minions — all this is what has surrounded his memory with infamy and made his name a 

 byword for scorn. 



There existed, at Quebec, a ring composed of the intendant's secretary, Deschenaux ; 

 of the commissary-general of Supplies, Cadet ; of the town-major, Hugues Péan ; of the 

 treasurer-general, Imbert. Péan was the chief and Bigot the great chief of this nefarious 

 association. Between Bigot and Péan another link existed. Péan's favor at court lay 

 in the charms of his wife, Madame Péan, née Angélique de Meloises, who was youthful, 

 pretty, witty, attractive, of ready repartee — in fact so captivating that Francois Bigot 

 was entirely ruled by her during all his stay at Quebec. At her house in St. Louis 



