[From the Star Jubilee Number.] 



QUEEN VICTORIA'S JUBILEE— 1837, 1887. 



LOOKING BACK. 



Dark days were on us in June, 1837, still darker 

 days close at hand ; civic dissension, fierce, political 

 agitation were rampant ; a seer might have discovered 

 at the end of the gloomy vista — hideous scaffolds. The 

 month had opened with increasing alarm ; an indistinct 

 dread of coming calamities pervaded the minds of the 

 British population; an unreasoning frenzy seemed to 

 have taken possession of the erst loyal and peace-loving 

 French peasant. Eestless village politicians, stump 

 orators from the cities, each Sunday after service, 

 wrought him to wild transports. Eabid journals fanned 

 the flame ; one voice alone above the din was heard, 

 nay, eagerly listened to : the siren voice of the great 

 tribune Louis Joseph Papineau. Alas ! that its stirring 

 and patriotic appeals, thundered forth for years, on the 

 floor of parliament, should ultimately have lured to an 

 early grave many brave spirits ! 



Strife stalked through the land ; uprisings were 

 imminent in the Montreal district; the Quebec section 

 more distant from the focus of trouble, though less 

 deeply agitated, was far from remaining passive. 



A mass meeting had been announced to take place, 

 on the 24th June — the day of the national festival, 

 St. Jean Baptiste's day — at St. Thomas (Montmagny), 

 in the green arbor of Captain Faucher's beautiful maple 

 grove, known as Le Bois de Boulogne. The orator of 

 the day, Mr. Papineau, came there armed with all his 



