PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS AND CONTRACTS

The design of this vast building, as well as the decorations of the vestibules and Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly Chambers, and of the ornamentation in carving and incrustations of the inside and oütside of the building, are due to Mr. Eugène Taché, architect.

That part of the Government Buildings which, from the year 1880, has been occupied by the public departments (facing Grande Allée and St. Augustin and St. Julia Streets), was built by Messrs. Nicho'as Piton and $S. X. Cimon, contractors, under a contract passed before Mr. Cyrille Tessier, Notary, on the 8th May 1877, under the DeBoucherville Administration and according to plans and specifications signed by

Mr. Eugène Taché and Mr. Pierre Gauvreau.

The latter was then chief engineer of the construction of the buildings.

The work was commenced under the Dejoucherville Government and continued under the Joly and Chapleau Governments.

The Department of Agriculture and Public Works was installed in the new building on the 1st September, 1880; that of the Provincial Secretary was transferred there on the Gth December of the same year.

The other departments soon followed.

The foundation of the main building facing on Dufferin avenue (Legislative Building) was built by Mr. William J.

Piton, under contract of the 18th August, 1881, before Mr. Jean A. Charlebois, Notary, under the Chapleau Administration. The principal contract of this portion of the bui ding, according to plans and specifications drawn up and prepared by Mr. Eugène Taché and Mr. J. B. Derome, was awarded to Mr. Alphonse Charlebois, contractor, by deed passed on the 9th February,

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1883, before Mr. Cyrille Tessier, Notary, under the Mousseau Government.

From the signing of the latter contract dates the motto of the Province of Quebec ‘ Je me souviens.” !

1. The arms of the Province of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were assigned by warrant of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, dated from the Court of St. James on the 26th May, 1868. Here is a description of the arms of the Province of Quebec as set forth in the royal warrant : .

‘ Or, on a fess gules between two fleurs de lis in chief, azure and a sprig of three leaves of maple slipped in vert; in base, a lion, passant, quardant, or.

In 1883, the motto “Je me souviens’ was added to these arms ; it most admirably expresses the raison d'être of the Canada of Champlain and Maisonneuve, as a distinct province in the Confederation.

Mr. Eugène Taché had drafted the plan of the front of the Quebec Legislative Buildings, and had introduced in it the arms of the Province with the motto “Je me souviens ”’ of which he is the author and which was until then unknown. The plans and specifications drawn up by Mr. Taché, architect, Mr. J. B. Derome, engineer, and Messrs. Cousin, Trudelle, Saint Michel and other draughtsmen, served as a basis for and were annexed to the con. tract for the erection of the Legislative Building, passed before Mr. C. Tessier, Notary, on the 9th February, 1883, under the authority of an order-in-council of the 22nd January of the same year, and signed by Mr. Alphonse

The work on the Legislative Building under the contract of the 9th February, 1883, was finished in the autumn of 1886, under the Ross Government.

Charlebois, the contractor, of the one part, and on the part of the Government by Hon. A. Elisée Dionne and Mr. Ernest Gagnon, the former as Commissioner and the latter as Secretary of the Department of Public Works. The parties also signed the plans annexed to the contract on which the arms of the Province were drawn with the motto ‘ Je me souviens,” It may therefore be said that it is from the 9th February, 1883, when the contract for the construction of that portion of the Government Building was signed, that this motto Je me souviens’ assumed an official character.

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