All summer long, the Pointe-à-Callière museum offers the curious a free exhibition devoted to the former Canadian parliament and its historic surroundings. On the evening of April 25, 1849, in a coordinated assault, a crowd of fanatic and uncontrollable Conservatives launched an assault on this public building planted on the site of a former market located a stone’s throw from the Port of Montreal. Even the firefighters were taken to task.
This very modest exhibition is presented in the former fire station which housed the Center d’histoire de Montréal for a long time. There, in a ground floor specially equipped for the summer, it is possible to consider digital reconstructions of the ephemeral Parliament of the Province of Canada (1844-1849).
A series of objects, often reconstituted by the patient work of devoted specialists, makes it possible to retrace part of what life was like in these places. The alcoves where the display cases are housed show elements of the Sainte-Anne public market, which was installed there before the Parliament.
The crowd that destroyed the parliament had smashed the windows, smashed the doors, before entering the premises screaming. The desks of the deputies had been smashed. Everything had been ransacked. The assailants manhandled the unfortunates who were there without much consideration. The library like the rest ended up going there.
Visitors can even get a better idea, thanks to a three-dimensional projection, of the look of this exceptional library. In addition to rare archival documents from New France, this library possessed a few treasures, including copies of the original edition of Audubon’s birds. At the time, an oak cabinet was specially reserved for these books. There were also other rare works there, including volumes devoted to the French explorations of Egypt. All this and so much more went up in smoke.
Visitors are only a stone’s throw away from the very places in question. They just have to go out for a moment to extend the visit outside thanks to explanations offered by guides.
A silence
Both outside and inside, we must all the same regret that there is hardly any question of the rioters who set fire to the House of Representatives, nor so much of the reasons for their fury. This obvious modesty in the face of this violent political history leaves the visitor somewhat pensive as to the ability of a public museum to consider the political dimension of events other than more or less on the sly.
Archaeological excavations conducted on the site between 2010 and 2017 uncovered 350,000 artifacts. To be able to show more than a few, as is the case this year, the Pointe-à-Callière museum would have to be able to count on a new, more substantial and permanent installation. Projects are planned in this direction. For lack of anything better, the old fire station, used this summer, could at least serve this purpose for a few years. But nothing seems to be settled for the moment.
Many crockery found in the rubble bears witness to the importance of fine English porcelain at the time. Plates, cutlery, tea cups, bowls and many other objects were found. It’s often Chinese stuff, as we used to say. They feature exotic pseudo-scenes. Some of these objects date from the previous era, that of a market where, right next to it, everything that constituted waste was thrown into the river.
Life under parliament
What was life like in this parliament? Various portions of the places are given to see in the fullness of their volumes. The exhibition recalls that the family of André Leroux dit Cardinal lived there permanently. Monsieur Cardinal was “a lively little man, cheerful, graying, a little bald”, reports Louis Fréchette in Originals and whacks (1892). It was almost part of the furniture of parliament. The man took care to speak well, in an extremely pompous style, the ridiculousness of which Fréchette clearly shows.
This Mr. Cardinal “was incorporated body and soul into the political organism of the country,” writes Fréchette again. Here is before our eyes what remains of his toothbrush, his crockery, various small objects of his everyday life… In 1849, among his possessions was apparently also a daguerreotype of which nothing remains. The exploitation of this photographic process in Montreal was not yet ten years old. Mr. Cardinal also owned porcelain, which constituted a heavy expense, which illustrates an effort of social positioning. Mr. Cardinal’s family lost practically everything in this fire. The claims he made to the government to cover his losses amounted to twice his annual salary. He was never compensated.
Is it trivial to notice that this faithful servant of His Majesty’s power had a servant in his own service? Her name was Mary. Mary Desjardins. She was an orphan. Her sister lived with her. It was this lower world on which power sat down with all its weight.