The Origin and Services of the 3rd (Montreal)

Guibord was himself a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church and aregular attendant at its services. His wife, who had predeceased him had beenburied in his family lot in the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery, and, before hisdeath, he had asked that his body be laid beside that of his wife.The Cemetery then, as now, was under the control of the Fabrique of Notre-Dame, and the latter body, through its representative, the Reverend Cure Rousselot,refused permission for the interment to take place. The power of the lawwas invoked by the officers of the Institut Canadien to compel the ecclesiasticalauthorities to permit of the interment as desired, and in the meantime, the casketcontaining Guibord sbody was deposited in the receiving vault of the MountRoyal Protestant Cemetery.A series of long and complicated lawsuits followed, the Church authoritiesbasing their right to refuse interment in consecrated ground on the terms of theCapitulation of Canada, which guaranteed to the Roman Catholic Church the fullexercise of its accustomed usages. The learned counsel for the Institut pleadedthat, in spite of any special arrangement with the Roman Catholic Church, that theecclesiastical authorities could not interfere with the proprietary or any othervested rights of a British subject, and this argument carried the da}-.After Mr. Joseph Doutre, Q.C., the leading counsel for the Institut, had foughtout the case through the Canadian Courts, it was taken to the very foot of theThrone, the Imperial Privy Council, who, on appeal, finally ordered the Fabriqueto permit the interment to take place as desired by the friends of the deceased.While the case was being argued before the courts much ill-feeling wasaroused in Montreal and vicinity. Mr. Doutre and the Institut Canadien had thesympathy of the Protestant portion of the community, while the great bulk of theRoman Catholic population, quite naturally, sympathised with the stand taken bytheir clergy. The case was much discussed in the public press, in the pulpit, andon the streets, and, by the time the finaljudgment of the highest tribunal in therealm was obtained, the situation wore an ugly look.When the judgment was given, some of the more violent of the church part}publicly advised the ecclesiastical authorities to refuse to obey the order of thecourt, but when the order arrived in the country and a date was fixed for theinterment of all that remained of the body of poor Guibord, the authorities of theFabrique allowed the grave to be opened in the Guibord lot.On the afternoon fixed for the interment, Mr. Doutre and a few of the officersof the Institut Canadien proceeded to Mount Royal Cemetery, and the casket wastaken from its long resting place and placed in a hearse for removal to Cote desNeiges Cemetery.All went well until the little cortege approached the gatesof the RomanwasCatholic Cemetery on the Cote des Neiges Road, when the modest processiongreeted with hooting from a crowd of disorderly persons who had assembled on theroad. On arriving at the Cemetery entrance it was found that a mob of consider-57