"He was a learned scholar And indefatigable student of philosophy and letters, An able and successful instructor of youth, Of genuine uprightness and guileless simplicity A devout, benevolent and public spirited man." The Abbé Vignal resided at the corner of St. Louis and Parloir street, previous to joining the _Sulpiciens_. In October, 1661, he was roasted alive and partly eaten by the Mohawks at Isle à la Pierre, _la Prairie de la Magdeleine_, near Montreal. In our day, the judicial and parliamentary heads, and the Bar have monopolized the street. In it have resided at various times, Sir N. F. Belleau, Chief Justice Duval, the Judges Taschereau, Tessier, Bossé, Caron, Routhier; Hon. H. L. Langevin, P. Pelletier, M.P.; Messrs. Bossé, Baby, Alleyn, Languedoc, Tessier, Chouinard, Hamel, Gauthier, Bradley, Dunbar, _cum multis aliis_, some of whose rustic clients are as early birds as those in the days of Horace, and scruple not to wake up their trusted advisers, "_sub galli cantum_." [23] St. Louis street legal luminaries are careful not to endanger their hard- earned reputations by delivering their consultations with the oracular, Solon-like gravity of the barristers who flourished in the palmy days of Hortensius or Justinian. 'Twould be an anachronism. The traditional fee, however, is rarely omitted. A busy day, indeed, in this neighborhood, watched over by the shades of Louis XIII., St. Louis street, is, in each year, the 1st of September, when the close of the sultry midsummer vacation brings round "the first day of term," then "Grave gownsmen, full of thought, to 'chambers hie, From court to court, perplexed, attorneys fly; ... each! Quick scouring to and thro', And wishing he could cut himself in two That he two places at a time might reach, So he could charge his six and eightpence each." --(_The Bar, a Poem_, 1825.) Matters judicial, legal, financial, etc., have much changed--we are inclined to say improved--in Canada, especially for the Judges. "I will not say," writes the satirical La Hontan, "that justice is more chaste and disinterested here than in France; but, at least, if she is sold, she is sold cheaper. We do not pass through the clutches of advocates, the talons of attorneys and the claws of clerks. These vermin do not infest Canada yet. Everybody pleads his own cause. Our Themis is prompt, and she does not bristle with fees, costs and charges. The judges have only four hundred francs a year--a great temptation to look for law in the bottom of the suitor's purse. Four hundred francs! Not enough to buy a cap and gown, so these gentry never wear them." [24] Justice is not now sold, either in Quebec or elsewhere, but judges, on the other hand, viz., in Ottawa, receive, not "four hundred francs," but thirty-five thousand francs ($7,000) a year, and have "enough to buy a cap and a gown," yea, and a brilliant red one, to boot. _Voilà un progrès._