AMERICAN ASSOCIATION

reign invasion had surged round the Indian wigwams which lined the northern declivity of the plateau on which Quebec now stands fhetween Hope Gate and the Côteau Ste-Geneviève). Of course you are aware this was not Cartier's first visit to the land ot the north ; his keel had, in 1584, furrowed the banks cf Newfoundland and its cterual fogs ; in 1541-2, he had wintered a few miles higher than we now are-— at Cap Rouge— west of Quebec. Then, there occurs in our annals of European settlement a gap of more than half a century. No trace, nor des cendants on Canadian soil, of Jacques L'artier's adventurous comrades. ‘The wheel of time revolves ; on a sultry July morning (3rd July, 1698), the venerated founder of Quebec—Samuel de Champlain equally famous as an explorer, a discoverer, a geographer, a dauntless leader, and what to us, IL think, immeasurably superior, a God fearing Christian gentleman with his hardy little band of Norman artificers, soldiers and farmers, amidst the oak and maple groves of the lower town, lud the first stone of the ‘“ habitation ”’ or residence, so pleasantly, so graphically described by your illustrious countrymen, Parkman and Howells.

Ladies and gentlemen, L have promised you the briefest of discourses ; but if, instead of pointing out to you the historical spots, brought under your notice in the course of our excursion, it were my lot 10 address, as a Canadian annalist, such a distinguished audience as I see here, what glowing pictures of ’soldierlike daring, of Christian endurance, of heroic self-sacrifice, could be summoned from the pregnant pages of Champlain’s journal, and from that quaint repository of Cauadian history, the Ae/ations of the desuites ; You would, or E am much mistaken, be deeply moved with the story of the trials, sufferings and devotion to king and country of the denizens of this old “rock : your heart would warm towards that picturesque promontory — sometimes, seemingiy dear, to sunny old France. One occasionally would be tempted to forgive her cruel desertion of her offspring in its hour of trial. Û

From the womb of a distant past would come forth a tale of

deadly though not hopelesss struggles with savage or civilized foes - a tale harrowing, not however devoid of useful lessons. The narrative would become darker, more dreary, when to the cruelty of Indian foemen would be added, as oft was the case, the horrors of a famine or the pitiless severity of a northern winter. À ‘ransient gleam of sunshine would light up the canvass when perchance the genius of a Talon, the wisdom of a Colbert, or the martial spirit of à Frontenac succeeded in awakening a faint, canadian echo on the banks of the Seine. In those winding, narrow, uneven streets, the forest avenues of Montmagny and Tracy, which now resound to nu other sounds but the din of toil andtraffic, you would meet a martial array of

which Quebec e-Genest visit red the he had ouge — iropean or des nturous norning muel de , à geo- Ameasurith his farmers, ad the ntly, s0 arkman

lefest of istorical cursion, a distin- ‘soldiere, could journal, ; Relabe deetion to r heart etimes, would gin its

tale of vilized SSONS.

to the case, rthern p the nofa d in , In es of ounds y of

LÉCN DE ROSNY 123 fearless, gay cavaliers, and plumed warriors, hurrying to the city battlements to repel the marauding savage 6r the foe from Old

or New Englanu, equally objects of dread. From the very deck

of this steamer, with the wand of the historian you could conjure the thrilling spectacle of powerful fleets in 1629, in 1690 and in

759, anchored at the very spot where we now lie, belching forth shot and shell on the sturdy old fortress, or else watch flotillas of birch bark canoes laden with lithe, tattoed, painted warriors, landing on that beach, bearing peace offerings to great Ononthio. Varied, indeed, wouid be th: panorama which history would unroll. Finally, you might cast a glance on that crushing 13th of September, 1759, which closed the pageant of French

rule on our shores,—when Montcalm and ali the patriotism ôf

the yeomanry lead by the Canadian Genti/shommes — the Longueuils Vaudreuil, De Beaujeu, de St Ours, de La Naudière, &c., was powerless against the rapacity and profligacy of Bigot and his feilow plunderers and parasites...

These were the dark days of the colony under French rule ; a glimpse of the doings in those times suffices to explain why French Canada, deserted by France, betrayed by some of her own people, accepted so readily as a Juif accompli the new regime ; why, having once sworn fealty to the new banner implanted on that citadel by the genius of a Chatham, it closed its ears and steeled its heart even against the blandishments of the generous Lafayette—held out in the nane of that grand old patriot and father of your country, Georges \Vashington. ?

Une semblable réunion avec < inces solenuelles à eu lieu à Montréal en août 1884, de la part de l'Association Britannique pour le progrès de la science sous la présidence de Lord Rayleich.

Mille membres de cette célèbre société, fondée à York, en 1831 par Sir Benjamin Brewster et qui à réuni dans son sein les noms les plus illustres (1) de la science dans le Royaume-Uni, traversèrent l'océan pour tenir en Canada, leur congrès annuel et pour discuter avec les savants de Amérique les problèmes qui préoccupent les intelligences modernes,

Une députation de près de 600 membres accepta l'hospitalité de la vieille capitale et vint à Québec. C'était une

Q) Herschell, Humphrey Davy, Herbert Spencer, Hooker, Buckland, Murcheson, Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Lyel, Spottiswoode, Richard Owen ‘A, C0. Ramsay, Siemens, Carpenter; parmi la hante noblesse : le Prince Albert, les Ducs de Northumberland, de Buaccleugh, d'Argyll, les Marquis de Lansdowne, de Breadalbane, de Northampton, les Comtes Fitzwilliam, Burlington, Harrowby, de Rosse, Lords Egerton, Wrottesley, Rayleigh.

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