[m'lachlan] FLEURY MESPLET, first printer at MONTREAL 211 



puch attacks. This, capped tlie climax, for Haldimand, who had up to 

 this time considered himself long suffering, took vigorous action and 

 issued a warrant ^ to Majior Nairn, in command at Mbntreal, to an-est 

 both Jautard and Mesplet. He also gave orders to the commander 

 of the armed schooner Mercury to proceed to Montreal,- so that the 

 prisoners could have a safe conveyance to Quebec. They were arrested 

 on the 4th of June and, without being allowed to communicate with 

 each other or with any of their friends, were at once sent down to 

 Quebec. The last number of the Gazette appeared on the 2nd of June, 

 just one year after its commencement. Thus was the first French 

 literary periodical in America snuffed out. 



On their arrival at Quebec they were conducted to the military 

 prison and confined in a large room already occupied by another state 

 prisoner named Laterrière, who afterwards w^rote a memoir describing 

 " Ses traverses." In this memoir he states that Jautard and Mesplet 

 were imprisoned, the one as editor and the other as printer of a libel- 

 lous periodical known as Tant pis, tant mieux, which " attacked the wise 

 politics of the English government and contended against the adminis- 

 tration of the Swiss Haldimand.^ 



jMay we not pause for a moment to find out something about the 

 publication that Laterrière thus describes. Was it a true satirical paper 

 as is claimed by Suite.* Had it a real existence as is ascribed to it by 

 Miss Jane JST. Mcllwraith in her story of " Sir Frederick Haldimand," 

 which states tliat : " Mr. Mesplet and his editor, M. Jotard did not 

 succeed in adhering to thèse admirable resolutions, but sent forth a 

 scurrilous sheet called Tant pis, tant mieux — the first French journal 

 published in America — defaming all the King's officers and trying 

 to thpow the colony into confusion?" ^ Or are we to conclude with 

 Abbé Camille Eoy, that it was simply a broadside struck off and dis- 

 tributed freely ?" ^ ]S['ow the facts of the matter are : Laiterrière is the 

 only contemporary that mentions such a periodical; no copy of it is 

 to be found anywhere, and it is altogether unlikely that two periodicals 

 of a like nature would be issued by the same publisher at the same 

 time, especially as there was barely enough subscribers to sustain one. 



' See appendix C No. 16. 



'Ibid No.19. 



' Pierre de Salle Laterrière et ses traverses, Quebec, 1873, page 217. See 

 also appendix G No. 80. 



* Histoire des Canadiens Français, Vol. VIII., page 136. 



^ The Makers of Canada, Sir Frederick Haldimand, Toronto, 1904, page 

 277. 



" Etude sur l'histoire de la littérature Canadienne, by Abbé Camille Roy, 

 in Bulletin du parler Français au Canada, Québec, 1905, Vol. III., page 239, 

 note 2. 



