218 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the list of subscribers. On the 24th of September the Gazette consisted 

 of a single page containing simply a letter in French from Fleury 

 Mesplet addressed, "A Messieurs les Souscripteurs," which shows that 

 the paper came near ceasing to be published. It states that, " You 

 will be surprised at not receiving your Gazette this week, but I hope 

 you will bear me no ill will, because it is not the result of my negligence. 

 I owe it to myself as well as the pu])lic to l)e on time, and I believe 

 that up till the present not one of you gentlemen can reproach me. 

 A derangement in my affairs (the cause of which, I believe, you all 

 know) has stopped my work and rendered it impossible to supply 

 to-day what I have engaged to do. I flatter myself that next week 

 1 will be in a position to give such full satisfaction as lies within 

 my power and to continue with the same zeal to give you proofs of 

 my assiduity." This derangement, no doubt, arose out of the seizure 

 of Mesplet's effects by Desautels. 



In 1786 no extant publication ajjpeared; but in 1787 there are 

 three : A funeral sermon preached by the Eev. D. C. Delisle on the 

 death of Joseph Frobisher,^ who had acted two years before in settling 

 the award between Berger and Mesplet. There was a medical work 

 on how to combat a plague that had broken out at Baie St. Paul,^ 

 and his first English book — " The jManual Exercise," ^ which was 

 printed on the order or approval of the military authorities. This 

 shows that Mesplet had now secured the good will of the government. 



I'/SS is again another year in which there are no extant imprints; 

 but a lease was signed with J. B. Tabeau for a house on iSTotre Dame 

 Street.* The location oî this house is given in one document as 

 No. 44, and on the " Juge à Paix," as near as the Recollet fathers fix 

 it about the corner o£ St. Helen Street. As there is no evidence that 

 ho moved before this time we conclude that the printing office of Mes- 

 plet continued at the first location in Capital Street from May 18th, 

 1776, until J\Iay 1st, 1788, a space of twelve years. 



The only publication dated 1789 was " Le Juge à Paix,",^ a thick 

 book, issued in parts, the first of which appeared in March. This 

 book, which is comparatively common, is a translation of an English 

 work by Richard Bum, and the parts were known as " Traduction de 

 Burn's Justice." In the Gazette of that year there are advertised " Le 

 Calendrier de Montréal pour l'année 1789," and "Tableau des rues 

 et faubourgs de Montréal." 



^ See appendix A No. 30. 

 ^ See appendix A No. 31. 



^ See appendix A No. 32. 

 * See appendix F No. 62. 

 " See appendix A No. 33. 



