Canada's first Parliament: Artifacts relate high, low point in Montreal's history

Elegant plates and serving dishes, a mound of oyster shells, a rusty razor, and the pièces de résistance: two copper alloy handstamps bearing the official seals of Parliament.
Laid out on a table in the middle of an archeological dig in Old Montreal on Tuesday morning, the artifacts help relate a chapter that was both a high and a low point of Montreal’s history.
The items — from Canada’s first permanent Parliament building, burned down during an April 25, 18