s, Memoirs pour Francois
Bigot, 3'me partie_.]

NOTE: The printed documents of the trial of Bigot and the other
peculators include the defence of Bigot, of which the first part
occupies 303 quarto pages, and the second part 764. Among the other
papers are the arguments for Pean, Varin, Saint-Blin, Boishebert,
Martel, Joncaire-Chabert and several more, along with the elaborate
_Jugement rendue_, the _Requetes du Procureur-General,_ the _Reponse aux
Memoires de M. Bigot et du Sieur Pean,_ etc., forming together five
quarto volumes, all of which I have carefully examined. These are in the
Library of Harvard University. There is another set, also of five
volumes, in the Library of the Historical Society of Quebec, containing
most of the papers just mentioned, and, bound with them, various others
in manuscript, among which are documents in defence of Vaudreuil
(printed in part); Estebe, Corpron, Penisseault, Maurin, and Breard. I
have examined this collection also. The manuscript _Ordres du Roy et
Depeches des Ministres_, 1757-1760, as well as the letters of Vaudreuil,
Bougainville, Daine, Doreil, and Montcalm throw much light on the
maladministration of the time; as do many contemporary documents,
notably those entitled _Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la
Colonie, Etat present du Canada,_ and _Memoire sur le Canada_ (Archives
Nationales). The remarkable anonymous work printed by the Historical
Society of Quebec under the title _Memoires sur le Canada depuis 1749
jusqu'ae 1760, is full of curious matter concerning Bigot and his
associates which squares well with other evidence. This is the source
from which Smith, in his _History of Canada_ (Quebec, 1815), drew most
of his information on the subject. A manuscript which seems to be the
original draft of this valuable document was preserved at the Bastile,
and, with other papers, was thrown into the street when that castle was
destroyed. They were gathered up, and afterwards bought by a Russian
named Dubrowski, who carried them to St. Petersburg. Lord Dufferin, when
minister there, procured a copy of the manuscript in question, which is
now in the keeping of Abbe H. Verreau at Montreal, to whose kindness I
owe the opportunity of examining it. In substance it differs little from
the printed work, though the language and the arrangement often vary
from it. The author, whoever he may have been, was deeply versed in
Canadian affairs of the time, and though often caustic, is